Board of Education Meeting | June 25, 2025

001Good evening. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the June 25th, 2025 regularly scheduled meeting of the West Contraosta Unified School District School Board. I'm calling the meeting to order at 5:10 p.m. To access translation in Zoom, please click on the Globe icon at the bottom of the screen. And if you're here in Dejon, you can pick up a headset in the back corner of the auditorium. The board is about to go into close session, but before we do, we're here to listen to public comment on closed session items. Individuals wishing to speak on closed session items listed. If you're here in the auditorium and you haven't already done so, please submit a WCCUSD public comment card and you can find those on the entryway table. And if you're participating via Zoom, individuals will need to raise

002their hand in the Zoom app. If you are accessing the meeting by phone, press star 9. The time allotted to each speaker is 2 minutes and the time allotted is 1 hour. Speaking time shall not be transferred from one person to another. There's also no substitution of speakers. We alternate between a Zoom comment and an in-person comment. The public comment period is a safe space where diverse view points may be expressed civily without interruption or intimidation. Please listen attentively to each speaker's comment and respect their time as if it were your own. be open to another 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 usually respond to items presented in public comment. The items listed on the

003close session agenda tonight are student discipline readmission case number 242503 conference with legal council anticipated leg litigation public employee appointment K8 principal secondary principal director interim associate superintendent of maintenance and operations conference with labor for negotiators. Is there any public comment on any close session item? There's no public comment. Thank you. Okay, we are adjourning now to close session at 5:12 and we'll be back at 6:30 for open session. Thank you everyone. Do we need west meeting of the West Contraost Unified School District School Board? The board is returning from close session. I am clo I am calling open session to order at 6:37 p.m. To access translation in Zoom, please click on the globe icon at the bottom of the screen. And if you're here in the auditorium and need translation, you may pick

004up a headset in the back corner of the auditorium. In a few minutes, we will begin the public comment agenda item. Members of the public are invited to speak to the board on any matter that is not otherwise on the agenda, but is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the West Contraosta Unified School District. Please prepare now for public comment. And if you're here in the auditorium and you'd like to make public comment, please fill out and submit a WCCUSD public comment card. You can find them on the table in the entryway. And if you're participating via Zoom, please raise your Zoom hand in the Zoom app prior to the beginning of the item on the agenda. If participating by phone, press star 9. After your comment card has been turned in, the cards are

005placed in the order received and we call on speakers one at a time, alternating between a public comment here in Don and one on Zoom. Public comment generally lasts about 1 hour. The time allotted to each speaker is 2 minutes and in the meantime we will move on to the rest of our opening procedures. B2 pledge of allegiance. If you are willing or able, please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. B3 land, labor, and body acknowledgement. Land acknowledgement. We recognize that we are presently on the lands of the Chuchchenyo, Moikma, Carin, Aloneyi peoples and acknowledge them as the first inhabitants of the land we currently occupy. Labor and body

006recognition. Acknowledgement. I acknowledge that the burden of environmental exploitation and systemic injustice falls upon the labor of black and brown bodies in the building of this country and its institutions. I remember that black and brown people were born and died working this land against their will for generations. I also acknowledge the continued contribution of labor of survivors over the centuries to today of all immigrant labor including voluntary, involuntary, trafficked, forced and undocumented peoples in the building of what we refer to as the United States. Author Dr. Relle Rogers Art B4 West Contraosta Unified School District Board anti-racism statement. The West Contraosta School District Board of Education is submitted is committed to the work of anti-racism. The conscious and active efforts to identify, challenge, and correct racial inequities in the systems and institutions within our schools

007and community. racism, explicit or implicit, stance in direct conflict to the fundamental principles of WCCUSD education. To carry WCCU education into the future, we recognize that we must continually renew and reflect on the roots of racism and develop new ideas to meet the times. Unjust ideas and policies and the racial inequity they produce have shaped us, our schools, and our society. We strive to uncover unconscious biases and practice anti-racism as individuals and as board members. We challenge ourselves to persist through the discomfort necessary for growth and learning to deepen our listening and our examination of race and racism and oppression and to develop a strong understanding of how our personal experiences and feelings fit into a larger picture of continual oppression. Each member of our school board individually and collectively is responsible for creating and

008nurturing an anti-racist learning environment where each student, staff member, and community partner is a respected and valued member of the WCCUSD community. We are uniquely positioned and it is our responsibility to identify and dismantle racist ideas and inequitable policies in ourselves and across the district. Therefore, we commit to supporting anti-racist policies, programs. You is okay. No, there's still a little buzz. Okay. Therefore, we commit to supporting anti-racist policies, programs, and practices for our children's education and well-being while building strong and inclusive school communities. We commit to holding each board member accountable towards these goals and moving the work of anti-racism forward. We also commit to holding West Contraosta Unified School District staff and students and community to living these standards of anti-racism in our schools. Board approved March 20th, 2024. B5 roll call. Dr. Moses,

009would you please take call roll? Good evening. Trusty Gonzalez Hoy. Good evening. President Trustee Smith Folds. Good evening everyone. Present. President Reckler. Good evening. Present. Clerk Inana. Good evening everyone present. Trustee Hernandez. Good evening. Present. Student trustee Baron. Good evening. Present. and student trustee Espinosa Jr. Good evening, president. That concludes the roll call. Thank you. B6, report ratification of close session. Dr. Moses, is there anything to report out of close session? Yes. Regarding agenda item A.2.3, the board voted to approve the appointment of Rosalyn Brown as director of special education. The vote was unanimous with all trustees present. Also item A23, the board voted to approve the appointment of Christopher Pierce as the principal of Betty Reed Saskin Middle School. The vote was unanimous with all trustees present. Also in close session, the board voted

010to approve the appointment of Deshan Given as the principal of Verie K8 School. The vote was unanimous with all trustees present. And that concludes the report out. Thank you very much. I'm going to call a point of privilege. Can everybody appear here? Not really. Right. Can Can everybody hear? Yeah, everybody's Okay. Okay. Okay. Moving on to B8, dismissal of a classified management employee. Dr. Johnson or Dr. Moses. Thank you. This evening we had a request from Michael Lithold to address the board publicly. Is M is Mr. Lithal present? He is not present. Okay. Is he online? He is not online. Okay. So, we're proceeding to the next item. Okay. We are up to BA public comment. Members of the public are invited to speak to the board on any matter that is not otherwise on

011the agenda but is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the West Contraosta Unified School District. Public comment will last approximately 1 hour. The time allotted to each speaker is 2 minutes. Should additional speakers remain at the conclusion of one hour, public comment may be extended. The time allotted per speaker beyond the first hour is generally one minute. Individuals wishing to speak, please submit a WCCUSD public comment card or if participating via Zoom, individuals will need to raise their hand in the Zoom app prior to the beginning of this item on the agenda. If you're calling in by phone, press star 9. Speaking time shall not be transferred from one person to another. There are no substitution of speakers. Speakers can also make public comment again for each discussion and action item on the agenda after

012staff presentation. The public will have 10 minutes per item and one minute per speaker. The same protocols recited above apply. The public comment period is a safe space where diverse viewpoints may be expressed civily without interruption or intimidation. Please listen attentively to each speaker's comment 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 usually respond to items presented in public comment. Is there any public comment tonight? Yes, there is public comment. Don Gosney and good evening. Here ye, here ye, hear ye. Today is a momentous day. After well over 15 years, the district has taken its first step this day

013towards a new stage elementary school. A work crew from Alton Construction along with their massive excavator showed up at STEG this morning. And before they left for the day, six of the 16 portables lay in ruins. What used to be classrooms now sits in separated piles of differing materials with some piles headed for the landfill while others for the recycling companies. The demolition of these portables will continue till early next week. The demolition of the main buildings is still being scheduled. Considering the asbesus, the leadbased paint, and a whole lot of cooties, extra care must be taken with these buildings are raised. As the chair of the CBOC, have I expressed my very strong desire to be kept in the loop to ensure that the citizens bond oversight committee is on top of our current

014bond projects. I visited the site five times on Monday and Tuesday to see if the demo is started, but I came way empty-handed. This morning, I was sent a text from former board member Charles Ramsey with a video showing that the project had begun. I brushed my teeth, jumped in the car, and raced to see the show before it had progressed too far. I went back twice more throughout the day, snapping nearly 300 photos and several short videos that will be posted online. Although I didn't get the notice I was hoping for, I'm sure that the district alerted the STE community so they could saunter over for a look see. I'm very appreciative that Alton has been as so accommodating as as well as the security guard. It's always a good day when people seem

015glad to see you, isn't it? On another note, I was pleased to see Trustee Onana marching on the Junth parade on Saturday morning. I'm disappointed that the parade organizers didn't extend an invitation to the board as a whole or our brand new superintendent to march along with the Richmond High marching band, the Elsto spirit squad, both of which look mighty sharp, as well as students, parents, and staff from the Mandarin School. Lastly, keeping in mind that this is my 56th7th year affiliated with the district in one way or another, I want to extend my welcome and hearty support for our new superintendent. I have every confidence in her success and offer my her my assistance wherever she might feel it of value. Thank you, Francisco Ortiz. Good evening board and community. As president of United

016Teachers of Richmond, I want to publicly acknowledge, appreciate, and thank the 1500 certificated employees represented by UTR who show up every single day to provide nurturing learning environments for our students despite enduring one of the difficult most difficult years in recent history. Despite being underpaid, undervalued, and underappreciated by a system that treats them as a cogs in a wheel, your union sees you, values your herculean efforts, and stands in unwavering solidarity as we fight for a just contract which expires in 5 days. As a union of professionals who make a difference in the lives of our students and families every day, we are prepared to fight to end the reign of false austerity imposed by a leadership that values reserves, consultants, and contracts over our students and schools to Italy. We are prepared and optimistically

017hopeful to clean up the mess that past leadership has created. I'd like to acknowledge and thank Superintendent Cotton who has been on the job for less than a week and has already made more contact with the union than previous leadership had in seven months on the job. The union is always willing and ready to put students first despite what you might have heard falsely led to believe behind closed doors. As you know, we stay ready so we don't have to get ready. We engaged and coordinated in wellexecuted pickets across 53 school sites last month. That's 98 participation across five cities in West County. And now we're prepared to escalate our actions in the fall since the district's bargaining team failed to meaningfully engage over the five months of negotiations. Under new leadership, we urge the

018board to reject the false austerity regime from business services to put students first, fully staff our schools, stabilize our district, and lead towards the aspirational goals outlined in the LCAP. The budget on tonight's agenda is a betrayal of the LCAP and a betrayal of West County students and families. It's time to align our values with our budget. Thank you, Sky Nelson. Good evening board, district staff. My name is Sky Nelson, teacher and parent at Elserto High School. I want to talk about measure T is expiring in 2027 and we need to have uh people on board with renewing that measure for say eight years or whatever we decide. It's been renewed for the past 20 or so years. A few facts about the the measure T. It funds about $9.8 $8 million a year in

019uh various uh teacher retaining and attracting core core academics, supporting science labs and materials, providing lower class sizes, preparing students for college, and it's very important that we work on this together and come together as a team to to pass this in 2027. Now, the deadline for next June's primary election is January 22nd. So, we need to start writing drafts for this plan immediately, I think. And and I have a a plan here written by my team of volunteers, teachers, parents, community members that I will pass out to you if it's helpful. A timeline from now until next June. Uh, I want to say that in addition, I'm still confused as to how community members like myself can help organize and popularize a parcel tax when the district has not entered into serious negotiations with

020the union. We need to all be on the same page uh together in the community and have a good reputation for working together. And I encourage the board to resolve this impass as soon as possible. Public perception of this impass is I believe not positive for the district and it's going to make all of our work easier if we can uh look like we've worked together and work these things out. Thank you very much. Kim Chamberlain. Hi, I'm Kimberly Chamberlain, if local 21 SSA chapter president. Well, we finished the year. We have moved into our extended learning, expanded learning, summer school programs, other programs, and we're off to a roaring head start. We are excited about all the changes that we have coming. Our nutrition center, we are excited about all the challenges of the

021closed high schools this summer. One of those challenges is also working with transcripts uh that are not electronic. I have heard from multiple uh school sites that that is something we didn't possibly think about and we need to I'm asking that we start thinking about how we're going to digitalize all of those records so that it makes it easier for our staff to accommodate our community and public so that they can continue to achieve their goals in education and jobs particularly if they ever had to get a job as a teacher in our district, right? or a classified person in our district would be helpful. So that is something I am asking that I've been tasked to ask. The other one is I want to thank all of the members in SSA this year. Thank

022you for your hard work. Thank you for coming and continuing to come. Congratulations to many of us that have retired. One said person is Valerie Dixon from Kennedy High School. She was a long longstanding person, a soul of that school for many years and I appreciate all her dedication and work. There are several others out there but Valerie holds somebody dear to my heart with training me at one point in my life on how to really work and give a good work ethic. I would also like to from SSA congratulate Miss Cotton on coming to our district and thank you for coming home. Have a great summer everyone. Mark Mitchell. Good evening, President Reckler and interim superintendent Moses board. And uh I'm Mark Mitchell. I'm the executive director, United Teachers of Richmond. I want to

023extend a extremely warm welcome to our incoming superintendent, Cheryl Cotton. We're very excited about your arrival and all the possibilities that we have to work together for the betterment of West County students. The teachers stand ready to work with you to make you an extremely successful educational leader for our community. So, I just wanted to say that. Um, couple other things I want to say that aren't as as uh uh wonderful. Um, and this is unfortunately the only opportunity that we as a union have to address the staff leadership of the district. And so, um, I I just want to say that's why sometimes we bring a laundry list of issues to present here because this is our only opportunity and we only have two minutes to do it. So, we've got to be quick.

024On the stage demolition, um, our members have observed that there's folks over there and working on the demolition. They're wearing only hard hats. There's no uh masks. There's no uh you know breathing equipment for this allegedly uh such a dangerous situation that our members can't have their things back. Um so that's very disheartening. And of the four educators that have filed torque claims with the district, one of them has now resigned and is moving on. She's so disheartened at the disrespectful treatment that she's received um trying to retrieve her belongings and the instructional materials for her students. Um, President Reckler, please direct the staff to provide a tort claim response in writing as is required by the policy of the board. Um, so that we can proceed to court with these uh, educators for their

025belongings. Um, they filed those torque claims on April 28th. It's now the end of June. I think it's time. Um, I wanted to say also the Richmond Charter Academy was renewed at the county board. The district sent no one from staff um to the meeting and uh the contractor that was sent uh was only spoke at public comment and did not provide a compelling presentation and was cut off by the clock. We lost that vote and 300 students are lost to our district. Cra layer. Good evening everyone. My name is Chris McClean. I teach sixth grade DLI at Dover Elementary. And I wanted to congratulate Superintendent Cotton. Um, you know, I spoke with my colleagues at my school, some other UTI, UTR people in the district about the new appointment and I heard some positivity.

026They had some good experiences with Dr. Superintendent Coten through the HR department when they were getting hired, stuff like that. When I got hired 10 years ago as a teacher, I remember uh signing a paper in the office down uh in the district with you. And um I wanted to say we're hopeful that but there are some things that we think should be like basic necessities that should be covered. For example, we're one of the few school districts in Contracasta County in which the teachers don't have 100% paid uh medical insurance. We're one of the lowest paid um school districts in the county even though like some places are way cheaper to live than where we live. And we're one of the school districts with the highest need. And in order for attendance to rise,

027in order for students to get the support that they need, the teachers should be getting not just the bare minimum, but their fair share in terms of pay. Um the students should not be having programs cut. So I think once if you're thinking about the the budgets, any important decisions, don't don't think about the bare minimum that we deserve, which we're not getting currently. Think about what would enable us to thrive as educators. what would enable the students and families to thrive as community members as recipients of the services that we provide. So again, I wanted to congratulate you, but also I wanted to to show our optimism and our hopes for the forward for the direction of the school district moving forward. We hope that these things get addressed and then we get not

028just the bare minimum, but what we really deserve. Thank you. Gabby Mitchelli, please unmute yourself. Hello. Um this is Gabby Mleti of uh vice president of United Teachers of Richmond and um one of the things I wanted to bring to anyone who's listening attention tonight is that um this board as the waiver for not meaning 55% of spending being spent on classrooms. So that's teachers, that's aids, that's direct services to our students. This has happened many years in a row now despite the fact that this district takes in more money than a lot of districts nearby per student. Um, and it has shown that this lack of investment in educators, it is not working out for our students. It is not keeping teachers here. And I hope that in the next year we will actually

029spend the minimum legal amount of spending on our educators and that we will really make that investment and come together. I'm looking forward to um Dr. Cotton's leadership and hoping that we will see um more support there for our educators. Um I also wanted to bring up because I am working summer school this year that it is utter chaos. Um it has been really really hard. Um the students are lovely. The students are completely wonderful, but we are weren't given our curriculum or any of our materials until about 30 minutes before our students showed up on the first day despite having a setup day on Wednesday. I know at my site there's a teacher who usually teaches kindergarten who is been placed in fourth grade and a teacher who usually teaches fourth grade who was

030placed in kindergarten and neither of them wanted that assignment. They wanted the other one. Um there was a lack of clarity at our first day together about whether this was 20 days or 19 days of summer school. So I would encourage that if you want to bring services to the public, you make sure that we are giving good services with clarity to support the students of this district. Thank you. Salon Harrison. Good evening, board. I know it's been a while since I've been here. And hey, cabinet, and thank you, Cheryl, for taking a job to be our superintendent. We really appreciate you, and I know this is going to be an awesome journey with you here. I just want to um bring up some things that um we've been dealing with um this past school

031year and hope that we can go forward and not have the same issues. I would um as the ASAT chair, we haven't been able to get a clear understanding on where the expendit the expending expenditures went with the rollover um in the budget. So we seen the budget and that was given to us but we didn't all the numbers were even and it didn't we didn't understand what the rollover was. So when it comes to the past budget when we seen that um we wanted to know what what happened to the rollover if it got all spent and where did it get spent because I had asked before I had asked the board if we could keep the money allocated for the students it was allocated for if it did not get spent in the

032previous year. um a lot of the activities for our black and African-American children did not get done last year and we wanted to ensure that they got done in the upcoming years. So we would like to meet with whoever would support us with getting that information so that we can um be a good advisory to the district on what we would like to see for our children in the district. And also we would like to work more closely with our lison to get a better relationship with Oasa and um transparency around where services and programs are being provided for our children and how much uh money and resources are going to provide those services and some clear data on um if those services are being effective and we should if we should keep going on

033with them. that's been kind of a miss this past year and we don't want to have to go into next year with not having that information so we can clearly advise. Thank you. I'm complete Samantha Torres. Good evening board and welcome superintendent Cotton. My name is Samantha Torres and I serve as a volunteer commissioner of the city of Richmond's recreation and parks commission. I also serve on several local recreational committees, all unpaid, because I believe access to youth recreation is a public good worth protecting. Today's governance meeting gave me hope for the first time in years. I saw honest conversations about how mislications of current facilities policies have excluded resident youth. I saw leadership and acknowledgement. But what we still need is accountability. For example, it's been 146 days since I submitted a public records

034request, and it hasn't been fulfilled. So, let me be clear. WCCUSD residents pay many taxes, including bonds and the maintenance and recreation assessment district fee for access to school facilities for recreational use. Our local clubs and leagues are not asking for favors. They are entitled to access as taxpayers. And yet Kennedy High School, first funded with Measure R dollars, was then allotted exclusively to non-resident Berkeley organization. Will this continue in the fall? Without transparency or systemic change, how can we trust that WCCUSD will be good stewards of future public dollars like measure T? Finally, in a low green space city like Richmond, school sites are vital recreational spaces. Where are the joint use agreements? I've had leader, city leaders ask me directly about gym and court access at our school facilities. Collaborations matter, especially to

035keep youth sports affordable and equitable. As public servants, we must protect our kids from the exploitation of the payto-play model that is pricing families out, especially girls, children with disabilities, and low-income communities. Let's work together. Thank you. Christine Hatcher, please unmute yourself. Good evening. Um, I would like to begin by acknowledging the president of the board, Trusty Reckler, and other members of the board and our new superintendent, Cheryl Cotton. On behalf of WCCCA, which is the administrators union here in West Contraosta Unified School District, I would like to officially welcome you back to the district. We recognize the magnitude of the work and the critical role you now hold in leading our schools and supporting our students, staff, and families. As an association, we are committed to working with you in partnership. We look forward

036to building a professional collaborative relationship grounded in mutual respect and a shared commitment to student success. We know that there will be challenges ahead, but we are ready to engage in open and solutionfocused dialogue as we move the district forward together. Again, welcome and we look forward to the work. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Great. Thank you so much and thank you to everybody who gave public comment this evening. We're moving on to B9, agenda review and adoption. Does anybody on the board have anything on the agenda want to move or Okay, we got a note here. Table F1. F1 is the charter annual update. Okay, you'd like to table you'd like to table that? Okay, so is it okay we take F1 off the agenda? Great. We'll do so. Okay. And we'll proceed

037with the agenda with F1 tabled. Okay. Moving now to B10, recognition of interim superintendent Dr. Kim Moses. And with that, uh, the board and the West Contraosta Unified School District School Board would like to honor and recognize Dr. Kim Moses, interim superintendent, for your service over this time, seven months as interim superintendent. The district thanks the district and the board. Thank you for your leadership and the service you provided to students, families, and the staff of the West Contraosta Unified School District community. Does anybody on the board have comments? Go right ahead. Oh. Oh, do we have something else? Okay. Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. Who are you recognizing? I keep looking at superintendent on. Yeah, that's fine. Whoever wants to go is fine. [Laughter] Um, I just uh I know I said a couple

038things to you at the last meeting, but I wanted to just add that I think that you and I have I was really reflecting I think laughed, cried, um, hard to believe, but debated um, and sometimes agreed and disagreed. And I think that's a very healthy thing. Um and I just appreciate that um you always no matter what gave me your position with stu with your in your with students in the middle of your thinking. Um and I always appreciated that even if we disagreed at times. Um so thank you for stepping up because I know that we asked you at a time that there's a lot that's been going on. This last spring has been challenging for a lot of us. Um, with the current administration, it has changed how people feel, how people

039act, um, how we behave with each other. Um, and I know that your role, no one ever will understand unless you're in that role. Um, and you have to sometimes prioritize, say no, and sometimes say yes depending on the situation. So, um I just want to appreciate the time that you gave us in this position. It's weird because I know you're continuing in another important position, right? So, you're not going anywhere, but um I just want to for specifically the challenges come with being a superintendent. So, uh, really thank you for that because, um, I know that I would get emails from you at, you know, I don't even want to say the times, but, uh, because you were working always. Um, and, um, I know that you had your own personal, you know, uh,

040uh, things going on that you had to do. Um, so, so anyways, all that to say, thank you for the last six months. I really did appreciate and continue to appreciate your leadership. Super superintendent Cotton, did you want to go? Okay. So, what she said because she wasn't miked. If board members would like to finish making comments and then we'll turn it over to the to the floor. Anybody else? Trusty Smith faults. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for accepting the charge when asked. You did not have to. And you have done this job with grace and dignity and transparency and honesty. And you do not and have not gotten the amount of thank you and kudos that you deserve. You not only kept us afloat, but you kept us moving. And

041to that, we all need to stop and be appreciative. And I have seen you handle the comments, the emails, the looks, the dismissiveness, and you have done it all with style. And you have done it all with grace. And you have done it all modeling what it's like to be a black woman in leadership. And it is not easy. So to all the other little girls who are watching you, thank you. To those who are sitting here trying to be the best version of themselves, thank you. and to the district as a whole. You did more than was ever asked of you to do and I'm so happy that you're going back to see CBO and I'm happy that because you did so well, it opened the doors for others to do well. So, it

042I would be remissed if I didn't say thank you for showing up and showing out and I really really appreciate and value you. So, I am complete. Thank you. Anybody else? Well, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for the You were here before I was, but I think you've been so supportive and so helpful. I think guiding us and helping us navigate, you know, our new role. So, I want to appreciate that. I want to appreciate the accessibility that you have given us to like reach out and be able to ask questions and be us authentically. Um, having those conversations that are not just conversations that we hold in a professional level, but you know, conversations that give us a little bit more background on like the why and and being able

043to see beyond. I think sometimes we miss that. you know, we miss seeing the human part of it. So, I want to appreciate for coming out, for standing here, for trucking along regardless of whatever was happening, you know, behind the scenes. I I really appreciate that and I you know just want to thank you so much for that because I I don't know if I would have been able to. Um but you know really appreciate I think the work that you've done and you know being on here I don't think I could have done it with anyone else but you. I think coming on here seeing you first as my son's principal many many moons ago and now in this role I really do appreciate the work that you're doing and you know I want

044to be able to work with you I think in your different capacity and I know that that's what you know you hold true to your heart so I this is not a goodbye this is a see you in the CVO role and you know I I look forward to you know building out an even stronger forward and a stronger cabinet that we can all move forward with. So, I appreciate that, Dr. Moses. I want to echo what Clerk Jana said. Thank you for taking the time to welcome us as a new uh trustees and walking us through the different budgets, taking my calls after 5:00 when I'm off work cuz I have questions and just the guidance and you know um and being opened and your dedication to the students, the staff and you know

045our community. Um I want to thank you for it. student trustees. Yeah. Um I just want to say thank you. Um my time here has been short but very much fulfilled. I want to say thank you to Dr. Moses. Um you've been very welcoming and kind of a role model and thank you for um being here and providing a space for me to give a voice and thank you for hosting agenda review meetings and everything and they were very helpful. So, thank you. Yes. Um, just echoing what student trustee Bon um just said, thank you, especially stepping in a time of critical need. um especially with all that's happening within our district for stepping up taking leadership and while still doing all this being a guidance and mentor to all of us and not only

046the board but as well to the student trustees um me and informant trustee Wilson and then student trustee bottom right beside me. Thank you so much for everything. We'll go down to the floor. I want to say to Dr. Moses whom I have uh known for quite a long time. Uh we were teachers together. I don't know if you remember our our uh our our makeshift teacher new teacher uh support group that we initiated way back in the day. Yes. Um, I just want to say that it takes a true leader to step up when called and you did that and you've done that repeatedly in your career. I see you, Dr. Moses. I see your strength. I see your knowledge. I see your patience. Um, and I'm just I am proud to call you

047a colleague. so glad that we will be working together to move this district forward in amazing ways that you know it is so needed right now. So, I just want to say thank you on behalf of myself, on behalf of our cabinet, on behalf of the students and staff and families of West Contraosta, and behalf of our amazing board who is working to ensure that our students have the very best the very best education that they can possibly have. So, thank you for all of this. Thank you for stepping into this role and for continuing to lead. Um we have a small token I'll bring up to you and then um board president I will pass it to you. Thank you. So I again would like to say thank you very much and for everybody

048at home and in the audience we do have a plaque that everybody could see thanking Dr. Moses for her work and I very much enjoyed working with you. Learned a lot from you. I think we had a lot of good conversations and uh it was a very enjoyable experience and thank you very much for for your service. We can go down and take a picture. You want to do that? Okay. And oh yeah, show show the camera the beautiful flowers. Those are very those are lovely. All right. We're we'll be back in a second and we're just going to step down and take a picture. Hey, how are you? Hi, how are you? Yeah, which are very different. How you doing? We're going to take we're going to take the picture for you guys. Dr.

049Moses, do you want to do that or I can I can read it. Okay. So, two students from the all student congress have has served as student trustees to the board of education for the second semester of the 2024 to the 2025 school year. The board would like to recognize and commend Jorge Espinosa Jr. from Middle College High and Nik Baron from Richmond High School for their participation. They have contributed to the student pers their student perspective on behalf of the all student congress, their peers in an articulate and engaging manner. And now board members, do you have anything to say? Any comments for anyone? Go right ahead. Thank you, President U. Um, Trusty Baron and Trustee SP J engine J engine J engine J engine J engine J engine J engine J engine J

050engine J engineer I want to thank you for the time that you've given to this district by being in this role I think that more importantly than the work that you guys do up here I've been so amazed by your advocacy outside of the board meetings you're both incredible leaders um I wish I would have been able to be such an incredible advocate as you guys are at this age when I was your age um I can I can only imagine where you guys will be at my age, which I know you think is very old, just the Espinosa Jr., but it's only 35. Um um inside joke for everyone else out there. I'm sorry. Um but really, I mean, I've just been so amazed by your questions, what you advocate for. I mean, trust,

051you and I have had many conversations about the state of the nation, about the work that our students are going through. Um, and Trusty Vona, I just was so excited to see you across the stage. Um, and I'm just so excited to see what you do next. I hope that you both come back to this role and run for one of our seats when you're ready in many years. I think that you would be great to be in our positions or higher because I think one day you could be even, you know, doing something larger. So, um, I wish Tristie Baron, I know you're graduating, so I wish you the best in your next journey. Trusty Spa Jr., you still have one more year, correct? Yes. No, you're also graduating. You're gradu I didn't see

052him on the Yeah, we we shook his hand. Oh, that's right. Yes. Yes. As well. Look at that. I'm already messing up. Um, so I wish you as well, Journey. Uh, I would love if later we hear what you plan to do next. I would love to hear your plans possible. But thank you. Um, thank you both for doing this. You didn't have it easy. There were a lot of late nights. There were a lot of contentious uh comments and board times and all that, but you did it and you did it well. And I hope that you learned something about governance. And I hope that you learned something about advocacy. And I hope that this was just a planted seed in the harvest that is to come in your future and in your life.

053I hope this was a good marker for you, a time marker to say, you know, this is what it meant to use your voice. I hope that we were good role models for you. I hope that we were um I hope that we showed you more positive than negative. And I hope that you take this on your next journey and your next step whether you go college, career or wherever you go, always know that your voice is important and it counts and it matters. And I think that the thing that you two did very well is you didn't say silent and that's the most important thing. Whether you whispered it or you screamed it, you advocated and that is really really important. So to that I say thank you and congratulations and you did it

054twice. Like who does that? So thank you very much and I really appreciate you both. I am complete. Well, I want to thank you both again for your courage, your leadership, um, and for sitting at this table for many nights. Um, and I can't wait to see what the future brings for you guys. I'm It's you. At your age, I was not doing this. So, I thank you. Well, thank you first of all. Um, I'm overly impressed not just with you, I think with everyone who has sat on the seat before you and expect to be as impressed with everyone who continues because I think you guys are setting the tone and the standard for what we have to offer here in West Contraosta. You guys are the the role models and hopefully being here

055lets you see that you can be part of those conversations, part of the decision making and that you guys are seen by others to say I can do that. I think that's one thing that we want. We want more people who are willing to sit up here. And I look to you guys also because I think we some of us were here before others. So our transition on this board, you know, has been quite a transition. So I just want to appreciate the work and dedication you guys have put into this and the late nights and the laughs at some point, but you know, really see you that you guys can achieve and be anything you guys choose to do. but you know really bringing others into the space where we can also hear your

056voice and know that it is important whether we agree or disagree but we are hearing you so thank you very much Dr. Mr. Moses, go ahead. I just want to share that it's been a pleasure to work with both of you. Um, you always have the right questions to further your learning throughout this process. Uh, you've been amazing in lifting up the voices of other students in our district. As you consider what you hear on this DAS, I just want to share that I'm impressed with your interest in in how this board um has operated over the last 6 months and it's a testament to your intelligence and your pursuit of your future endeavors. So, I just want to say that I am extremely impressed um with both of you and I know that your

057futures um are bright as evidenced to um in your time on this board. So, thank you. Thank you for showing up to agenda settings and thank you for allowing me to have that time with you um to learn about this process and and our um our district. So, thank you so much and I wish nothing but the best of luck to both of you in the future, but I think you've got this. You don't need luck. So, congratulations on a successful term on the board and thank you for your service. And I would like to thank you for your participation. The West Contracasta Unified School District was one of the first school districts to have student board members way before us, but way back when uh when it was not in style to have students

058on the board. Um, previous board members said that this was important and they made space for for students to to observe and be a part of the uh democratic process. So, um, we were were little trailblazers here, and I'm very proud of you for taking advantage of this opportunity. You got to see democracy up close and in person, um, in all of its beautiful glory, whether it be long nights or whether it be pointed public comment or whether it be divisive issues or watching people um, come to agreement on on issues. And I'm very glad that you were here to experience that. here. You guys did a great job and I know this is an experience that you will definitely take forward into the future and I know you will never forget it and I

059can already hear hear the conversations way back when when I got to do this and this is what happened and so I think it's a really great experience and thank you for sharing yourselves with us. Um we do have plaques for you. So for the home audience, um this is what we have to commemorate the service. And if it's okay, can we go down and take a picture pictures with you? Okay. So for the audience, we'll be back in just a second. We're going to go down and take some pictures. And thank you. Okay. President Regler, sorry interrupt. Would it be okay if we gave them a minute to if they would like to say anything? Oh, yeah. Yes, of course. Sorry about that. Thank you. Um uh I just want to say thank you

060for providing this opportunity and this space for me uh to share my thoughts and be able to represent my friends, my students from all around from different high schools and everything and also in collaboration with all student congress. Um like you guys said, I'll for sure remember this. Remember all the very different meetings that we had one time when we had to go back there and everything. So, um then it's been very fun and it's been Yeah, it's been very fun to be here and provide my opinion and my vote and hear from public comments and be able to represent and advocate for everyone um in their best interest. So, thank you. Yes. just everything what um Trusty Von has said. Um it's been an honor and a great with just great gratitude just serving

061in this position years um freshman even just sophomore I would have never seen myself being part of these kinds of spaces and taking on these kinds of roles and it's just been not only a learning but just a very humbling and growing experience and serving with you all and just seeing the amount of changes um especially the good ones the prosperous ones and I just want to thank you all for making the space much more safer much more friendly and much more comfortable for students like me and for the future students that are going to take on succeed in these positions and along with the opportunities that me and Trusty Bon have had to um in collaboration with all student congress and outside. So thank you so much for all this. Great. Thank you so

062much. Okay, moving on to B12 approval of minutes. Uh, does anybody have anything on the minutes? Any corrections? Okay, seeing none, we'll we'll approve those as presented. See, we're up to consent. Does anybody have anything from the consent calendar? Go ahead, Trusty Folult. Trusty Smith. I need to pull three and 15, please. Three and 15. Okay, got those. Anything else? Seeing none, the rest of consent except for three and 15 is approved. We'll come back to those at the end. And now we are up to D. Superintendent communication. Okay. And there's there's public comment on C10. Okay. We'll go ahead and take that. Francisco Ortiz. Hello again, board members. Tonight, I'm urging you to reject the district request for a CE waiver. For the fourth year in a row, our district is asking for permission

063to short change our students by failing to meet the minimum legal investment in classroom compensation. This is not a financial decision. It's a moral failure. 38 million over the last four years when business services went over the board adopted budget by 42 million this year alone on contractors and consultants. According to the second interim, waving over 11 million this year alone required classroom spending while classrooms go unfilled while educators leave due to burnout and low pay is a direct attack on school stability. This is not a hardship. It's a choice. And that choice has consequences. larger class sizes, unstaffed positions, and a message that educators are not a priority. Reject this waiver. Make a different choice. One that centers justice, stability, and an investment in our people who make our schools work. Mark Mitchell, trustees,

064um, want to echo President Ortiz's, uh, uh, presentation. The classroom expense allocation waiver before you is improper. The law requires that you invest a minimum of 55% of total outgo and classroom compensation which is compensation to educators and paraprofessional and aids directly working with our students in the classrooms. For the fourth time in a row, staff leadership is asking you to request a waiver of this requirement. Um, the law requires that if you don't meet this minimum, that that amount that's not met up to the 55% be dedicated to educator compensation in the next fiscal year. By allowing this waiver uh to be approved, you are shortch changing educators $7,500 each in money that should be going to them and to the aids that work directly with our students. Stop shortch changing West County students.

065Follow the law. reject this waiver. That concludes public comment. Thank you. Okay, we're up to D. Superintendent communication. Thank you, President Reckler. Can we bring up the presentation? I'd like to also share that following the presentation, I'll try and shorten the slides. Um, we have a presentation um by our student trustees to share some of their experience as well. So, we'll have this presentation um from the superintendent's message and then we'll pass it over to the student trustees. Thank you. Next slide. We'd like to start the presentation and take some time to recognize the contributions of members of our school community that have passed away. Paty Sunston, we regret to inform you of the passing of retired teacher and secretary, Mrs. Paty Sunden. Mrs. Sunston was a preschool teacher and secretary at Maritime Academy and

066a secretary at Harding Elementary School. She also worked as an accountant in the special education office until her retirement. She is survived by her husband and former district employee Obert Sunston. Her daughter and current WCCUSD employee Melissa Holton, her son Andrew Holanstein, and her two grandsons. Memorial services will be private. In lie of flowers, please consider donating to Shriner's Children's or St. Jude's. Please join me in a moment of silence for Paty Sunston. Thank you. Next slide. Congratulations to the class of 2025. Um we just completed our graduation season and it was amazing. Um participating in the commencement exercises for all of our graduates uh was an honor and we want to extend a congratulations to all of the hard work that has been put into educating the students by our staff and all the

067hard work of our students who are now graduated. Congratulations again. I also want to share our student trustees al all graduated this year. Uh congratulations to student trustee Espinosa Jr. to student trustee Baron and also uh to student trustee Wilson. Thank you. Next slide. Uh appreciations. So, I'd like to extend um my gratitude and share that it has been a great honor to serve our district as the interim superintendent of schools. I was asked to share some reflections. Um and so I'm going to attempt that in this slide. Um I appreciate the opportunity to serve and if you could click one more time, Rosa. There we go. Um I just want to say that um being asked to step into this role and having the opportunity to lead our district and sustain district operations during

068this interim period um has been an experience. Um it has been a wonderful experience. First um just really honored to have been selected um to support in this manner. Um and I want to say that in taking this role I in initially focused on stay in the course that had been set by Dr. Hurst as we search for a permanent superintendent. So I'd like to share on this slide some of the um core values and guiding principles um that we focused on in the last seven months. I also prior to sharing those um core values I want to thank all of our trustees. I want to thank the cabinet, the staff and the community. um you have been immensely supportive uh throughout these last seven months and I've learned a lot from each of you.

069I want to thank you President Reckler for your leadership and your partnership um working closely with you over these last seven months um has been delightful. Um also to trustee Smith Folds I want to thank you for your genuine genuine interest in me and my success. um your guidance and your care made all the difference. To trustee Gonzalez Hoy, I want to um you first approached me with this opportunity and I want to just appreciate you for um seeing the potential and my leadership and giving me this opportunity and always given sound advice and being willing to partner with me at any time. So, thank you um to trustees Hernandez and Nana. um getting to know you in this capacity, learning with you as we were all new to this board um was really special

070to me. I appreciate um Trustee Hernandez, your passion and dedication, not only to our district, but to the all of the youth of Richmond and clerk and um your encouragement and your support has really um gotten me through some tough days. So, I want to thank you all for your support um on this learning adventure. So I just want to share that um in this interim period it was really important not just for um studying our district but continuing the course of an improvement for our district that um we restated our commitment to student centered decisions. Uh the management team was amazing. I have to say that um I was met with so much support in trying to uh lead this ship. Um we worked on um creating culture of engagement and inclusivity, establishing common

071goals, um shared responsibility, alignment, and accountability are all goals that we're going to strive to continue um to um refine under the leadership of Superintendent Cotton. Um most importantly, I think um as a leader, I really pride myself on leading by example. Um leading with a why and modeling the way. Um so integrity is at the forefront of why I do this work and who I do this work for. Um some of my learnings and takeaways um you don't th this seat is um probably the most difficult job. Um and I don't think I realized the immense um magnitude of this job until I actually stepped in for that first day that Dr. Hurst was gone. Um, but what I'd like to say is this job can be made easier with collaboration, collaboration and cooperation

072and just everybody being invested in the success. Um, because there are important factors to consider when addressing the needs of our students and the needs of our schools. Those needs are vast and those needs are unique in all of our different spaces. But I want to shift over to um brave minds, bold leaders, and big dreams. Those are the core values of our district as we move forward into um the strategic plan. And I just wanted to lift a few things and um what I've learned in this role as it pertains to our direction as a district um when it pertains to being brave and having um brain brave minds. I was reminded in this position that um we learn something every day. It doesn't matter what position we hold. It doesn't matter um what

073our job is in this district. Um, everyone holds um the ability to learn from others and learning actually happens even when you don't recognize it. And I just want to remind us that alone we can do so little and together we can do so much. I think that as the superintendent, the cabinet, the board of trustees, the management team, and all of our staff in West Contraosta, if we're focused and uh working together, um we win. um we are invested in Winnie as we hear a lot. Uh but when we when we work together, everybody wins. I also want to share that um being a bold leader regardless of whether you're in management or you're not in management, it still requires leadership, courageous leadership. Um but that leadership requires a clear vision and embracing change

074with a plan is required for successive leadership. So I think I've also learned in this role that being a leader does not just mean um making decisions. Being a leader means working with others to ensure that everybody's following the same vision and that there's a plan in place and that we hold each other accountable for success. I think the last thing I've learned is it's important to dream big. Um when we make student centered decisions, we win. When we pursue goals together, we win. The future is in our hands, but the future is now. Our children cannot wait for us to figure it out. Um, we have to work together collaboratively. We are a unified school district. And I think most of all, what I leave this experience with is understanding in a different light

075um what that word unified means as we as we uh really look at our district. We are the West Contraosta Unified School District. And when we collaborate together, um, we can do a lot of great things for our students, for our community. And I just want to again appreciate the opportunity to learn from this view, the opportunity to um, make student centered decisions along with this board and with our teams. And um I leave this position going back to the associate superintendent position of business services with that same thing in mind. We make student centered decisions. Um I do this job for children and um I think that we all do this job for children. And so I just want to reflect that it's been my pleasure um working with everyone from this lens, from

076this view um in trying to make the decisions that are going to not only sustain our district but also move us ahead and move us toward progress. So I look forward to working with Superintendent Cotton. Um as she stated, we've worked together in many capacities before. As I finish my 30th year in education and my 18th year in this district, I am very humbled to be had to have been asked to take this seat after just 16 months on cabinet. Um there was a lot to learn. Um but I I want to just say that this has opened my eyes. I think it's made me a better um it's given me better vision for the future leadership that I want to see. So thank you all. I appreciate the opportunity to share the um reflections

077and I hope I didn't speak too long. Next slide. Uh we want to honor our we had a celebration uh last week honoring our retirees and we wanted to also memorialize the list of retirees in this presentation. Um so here is a list of all of the dedicated staff that have retired their service from our district this year. I extend a heartfelt thanks to each of these people on this list uh for everything they've contributed to our schools, to our students, and to our community. Next slide. We also want to recognize that we have some employees that come and stay. They stay for the students. They stay for progress. They stay for the community. This is a list of employees who have served in our district for 20 or more years. Very extensive list and

078we are grateful for each and every staff member on this list. Next slide. Here is an additional list of current employees who have been with us for more than 25 years of service. So, we want to recognize them for their longevity in our district and their dedication. Next slide. Here's a second page of 25 year plus uh employees who have provided us service. And then next slide. Moving on up. 30 years in our district. Um I've been 30 years in education. So I know that is a long time. So congratulations and thank you to all of the staff members on this 30 plus years of service list. Next slide. 35 years. We even move and 40 years. So thank you to all of our dedicated employees for everything that you do for our students every

079day. Next slide. Um and this is a management team meeting where we actually um concluded our year culminated um shared another successful academic year. Uh we had awards issued to staff, we honored our retiring management leaders and I was very grateful to have um a special thank you presentation at that meeting as well. So thank you and thank you to our management team. Next slide. Junth celebration. This happened this past weekend in our city. It was a great celebration with lots of representation from West Contracasta Unified. We had Richmond High School, West County Mandarin, and Washington Elementary School um providing performances for this occasion. It was a great um festival for families and we were proud to be represented by our new superintendent Cotton, Trustee Hernandez, and Clerk Inana and join in this historic event.

080Next slide. Oh, and Trustee Smith Folds was there as well. Next slide. We'd like to lift up our college and career team for some of the accomplishments that they have um made this year with our high school students in particular. Um we're proud that uh there's been a roll out of a new um platform called School Links which supports our students for their graduation plan and their future planning for their future endeavors. And uh 64% of our students um in middle school and secondary participated in creating such a plan for their graduation and 85% of all eighth graders completed this plan. Next slide. Also from the college and career team um we are proud of our dual enrollment program and our articulation courses uh with a Contraosta Community College. It's a valuable opportunity for our

081second grade secondary students and uh we are proud of the success and the volume of students that are participating in these courses. Next slide. Summer school. We um have summer school underway and we wanted to also highlight some of the special programs under our summer school umbrella this year. their summer CTE classes where students at Kennedy High are participating in a construction trade initiative. Um we also have a health pathway summer course uh with dual enrollment. Richmond High students and Contraosta students are um learning about public health over this summer. Next slide. Uh just a list of our summer school classes uh that we'd like to share with you. Uh we're busy this summer ensuring that um we have lots to offer our students who are enriching their academics over the summer. Next slide. We'd

082like to announce that uh West Contracasta Unified School District is participating in the summer meal program. Um our food services department makes meals available at different sites throughout the school year. Um you can uh log on to our website wccusd.net/ et/foodservices for a list of these locations. Next slide. We are launching our new website this summer and we are very excited about it. There will be messaging going out to community members to announce the features and improve navigation um within our new site. And so uh we will be updating you at each board meeting over this summer of the progress made with a rollout. And we want to make note of if there are issues or you need help finding something on the new website, you can contact our communications department for support. Next slide.

083We do have committees continuing during the summer. CBOC, catch a CBOC meeting in July to learn a little bit more about that committee. Um we encourage you to check this out and if you're interested in joining the committee, uh please see their website for more information. Next slide. I want to announce that while summer has just begun, we do want to keep our eyes on the next school year. School's going to resume on August 19th. Uh we would like for all of our families and students to have a wonderful summer break, but we are really excited to welcome you back on August 19th. And that concludes the superintendent report. and I would like to pass it over to our student trustees who are going to share their experience um for this board period. So, we'll

084bring up the presentation and um again while we bring that up, I just want to again uh welcome Superintendent Cotton and thank you for this amazing experience. Um yeah, looking forward to I'm sorry. Can I ask you to pause just for a second? Sorry. wondering if we could uh if we would we wanted to ask questions on the report now or after the student trustees. Got it. What would people like to do? I have a question. Okay. Okay. Go go go ahead. Um um Superintendent Moses, could you give our community a couple of pointers as a former teacher, a parent, and a um principal? What are some of the things that parents and students could do to keep their you know, their skills fresh like especially around would you advise them to continue to read

085for 30 minutes a day? What? Just a couple of pointers would if you could. I'm complete. Great. Thank you for the question. Yes. Um, we encourage reading every day. You don't get a summer off from reading. Um, by reading each day, you're increasing your vocabulary. You're sharpening your comprehension skills. And reading is a great way to take an adventure. Regardless of what book you select, you will learn something new or have some enjoyment from um the storyline of the book. So, please do read over the summer. I'd also like to encourage parents to limit screen time over the summer and allow your students, I'm sorry, allow your children to experience the outdoors. Give them um take day trips so that they can learn not only from books, but also from the environment and from our

086social structures and different experiences. So, we encourage you to get out and explore this summer and not only explore, but also have conversations with your children about what they see, what they learn, any questions they may have if they're entering into um if if they have opportunities to experience new things this summer. And finally, I would say we have a ton of online resources. We do want screen time limited, but I do want to point out that on our Clever portal, there are lots of academic um programming um apps available for free where students can um continue to practice their math skills. There's opportunities to write. There's even opportunities to have books read aloud to you online. Um, we also encourage you to go back to those old school traditional methods of practicing um, your

087computation and writing. Keeping a journal over the summer can really home in your help you to sharpen your writing skills and ensure that we don't slip into that summer slide um, in which we have not practice the skills that we learned in the school year. um not doing uh not practicing your academics for the two months of summer could result in students um losing some of what they've learned. So, please continue to sharpen those skills and um engage in opportunities to do that as often as possible. And thank you for the question. Thank you, President. Uh Dr. Moses, this might be a difficult question. So, if you prefer to email us, that's fine, too. But I want to give you an opportunity to also if you had one piece of advice or recommendation to the

088board, what for for this coming school year, what would it be? I see some last because you probably have like 10, but if not more, but if you're tough, if you had one for us to really think about. Way to put me on the spot. Um I see the commitment from the board to lead our lead our district um towards improvements right I think it's know we have a lot of work to do not only within our schools but within our system and I think my advice to the board um would be to continue to have the necessary conversations in order to align um board values and district values and move forward a plan of change. We don't get better without having a plan and without recognizing with input from other um community spaces, school

089spaces, staff input. Um but learning what's needed and creating a plan to ensure that um we're working towards what we all agree we need. Um and I think that would just be my my recommendation. Everybody here leads with passion. you lead with purpose. Um, but we also need to lead with a plan. So, thank you for that, President. That was my only question. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Now, I guess we can move to the student report. Um, okay. So, I'll start it off. We're going to be talking about the DLCAP and ASC and then me and Trusty Espinosa and I's experience. So can you make one? And so the all student congress 2024 to 2025. So all student congress which was which is a youth government group with the intent and goal to advocate

090for the student body of WCCUSD and provide input and feedback from voices of the student body. This year all student congress was split into three subcommittees. Number one which was student engagement. Number two safety and belonging. and three collaborative leadership and decision. Um February 5th, 2025, newly appointed students participated in their first ASC meeting of the year with the addition of the DLCAP. And so our goals for this year were to focus on student voice in discussing support for at risk or disadvantaged youth, ensure that the student voice ASSE be considered with DLCAP recommendations and that recommendations go to board and district administration where feedback and information is received and given. and the why. Um, centering real student voice in real conversations, consultation to collaboration, and a reliable feedback loop between the board and students.

091And so what did it look like? Inside the meetings, students, which ranged from grades 7 to 12, represented all of the WCCSD's middle and high schools in discussing not only agenda discussion and action items, but about their everyday lives in the classroom and how these experiences shape their lives outside of school as academic achievers. ASC student representatives learned and developed leadership skills and project management through discussionbased elimination and merging along with deep critical thinking and discussion. Student trustees trustee Espinosa Jr. Wilson and I acted as guides for each committee ensuring not only the ASC student representatives have the freedom to practice their skills and talents as student leaders but to mentor in barriers that may have been encountered. Students collectively will report on their discussions and next steps to ensure all action items and desired

092outcomes are met and exceeding expectations and standards. Thank you. So what was great about um this experience for all student congress in collaboration with the LCAP and with the DLCAP, excuse me, is that these recommendations were presented to the board and um at the very front of the superintendent as well. And what makes these recommendations even more unique was that these are all from the exact words of all the student represent representatives from each of the subcommittees. So none of these were changed or edited or even written by anyone in charge or super supervision. This was all the students work. So we wanted to really bring that authentic student voice at the very front of the board in these recommendations. And below you can see which um highlight represents for example the green represents if

093um the recommendation was implemented. Purple represents implemented with modifications and yellow represents if the implementation's already in place. Next slide. And then in this slide of course is the final recommendations that were made on the last subcommittee recommendations. Next slide. And then we'll be heading over to our experience. I'll pass it back to Trusty Gone. Um, so for my experience in ASC and as a student trustee member, um, represent representation and advocacy. Being able to represent my school, Richmond High School personally in all student congress and here at board meetings um, was amazing and I felt proud to represent. Um, I got to represent my school site and values as a student trustee during the votings and discussions and being able to hear public comment and also during my subcommittee meetings outside of ASC. we

094were able to schedule our own meetings where we just talked and I remember talking sorry talking with um my fellow two ASC members who were still middle schoolers and it was great to see advocacy in their age and level and yeah and so then the knowledge of local and school government before being a student trustee I was a regular high school student so being able to be here and see how decisions in our school were made was really amazing to see and it did spark more interest in me uh with agenda review meetings. So on Tuesdays before our Wednesday board meetings, um I had me and Trusty Espinosa Jr. we had agenda review meetings with Dr. Moses and they were really helpful to be able to understand the materials that we were going to discuss

095in board meetings and then board meetings. Going into meetings, I did feel a little unprepared coming in, but then I having Trusty Espinosa Jr. was amazing. It was very reassuring and meeting all all of you guys as trustees was really amazing to see you guys you guys were really role models for me and it was great to see your initiative and leadership in your community and how much you take pride and want to better it. So for me personally, this was a tremendous learning experience. Um, not only just as a student trustee, but just even as a student and just a community member within this district that I so hold dearly in my heart. Um, once again, I was just much of a regular student as well myself. So um, I had little to almost

096completely no understanding of how governance works, especially in our local level and in our education system. But learning these things not only from a local but even broadening these um understandings and learning from to a state level and collaborating with much more other student leaders and other admin of course the administrators in our cabinet and along with the rest of the trustees on this board has been not only a great experience but also just a flourishing one. And just serving about a year has not only once again just brought in my experience and understanding of all this the functions of governance in this district but it's just thrown me into so many environments that not only I would not not see myself in but even see myself getting out of or even having a comprehensive

097and resulting thought of um what I can build on from these experiences and exposures and it has just been nothing but humility and growth within not only my experience um as a student student trustee but it has also just deepened my greater passion into law and to our policy and governance and all across the state to hopefully a national level. So yes, with that being said um that is the conclusion of our presentation. Um the next slide askked for questions. So I'm opening the board if there are any other questions you have. Thank you. Great. Does anybody have questions for the trustees? Trustee Smith FS. What's one or two things What's one or two things that we could do as a board to make it easier, better, do different for the next group of trustees

098that come in? I would say in given my experience and just seeing how things can change in such an instant and everything um along with the variety the divi diverse variety um audience of the students that we serve I would say um be more engaging. It's not that I say it in a very blunt way as in like a very blunt manner, but the engagement that you have provided for me and the rest of the student trustees that I have served along with has really made this a very comfortable experience and one that we can sit back and not only relax but with confidence in not only stating our um opinions and our advocacy for our students but even learning as we advocate for these students. So definitely in definitely broaden the engagement within the

099next incoming student trustees and that's all I have to say. Um it kind of goes into what trustee Espinosa said but guidance a little bit. Um definitely when I came in here I didn't really know how my first board meeting was going to look and I didn't know what the procedures were going to be like. So I would say definitely guidance. I don't know how that would be, whether it be like a meeting before to explain to trustees how this is going to go step by step or whether to just say it during a board meeting. But I would definitely say more guidance. I think it'll bring out more um advoc advocacy in students and make it more engaging. Could I ask you a followup for a guidance? for example, running through the Rosenberg's rules

100like running through for is that an example of that or an example of saying that you guys can make a motion and you can second and you can little things like that parliamentary things as guidance as well. Definitely. um parliamentary things too because this is like this is kind of first my first experience with school government and how parliamentary procedures go and also the materials that are being covered in the meetings as a student. I am a student first and so my daily life before was you know just learning history and math and so coming in here and learning about decisions about the financial policy and stuff I think more guidance on what is actually being discussed. My final question to both of you, would you find it a benefit for us to make space

101for you guys to do site visits that we do? We do site visits. Like there's some things that we as board members do like you can't go to close session, right? But what can you do that we do as board members like events, site visits, having conversations when we do these uh when we go to pack meetings, right? We go to parent engagement meetings like that. Would you find that beneficial if we opened up the engagement and the inclusion to be things like that? Would that be something that you're talking about too? I'm complete. Absolutely. Um, one of the things um when I have talked not only um with just students that and friends that I go to school with um but also student leaders across this whole state, that is one of the things

102that they so are eager to is that they are ambitious. they are eager to take on these spaces where a lot of the leaders within their district or even the state they take on to engage with more of the community. A lot of them suggest even such as like studentto student symposiums or summits. So that way you can really get that understanding from a student because the language of an adult may not be as clear as to a student and again these are people your age so there's that understanding culturally and even critically as well. I do also would like to recommend on the earlier um question is that one thing that was suggested um not only to me but um it came as a thought as well was that um a lot of the

103language that is used within the board meetings such as the acronyms, abbreviations and everything. There should um there should be recommendation or consideration for a cheat sheet which basically like has these list of names um and what they stand for and like bulletin points of what they consist of and what it references to and how it um interferes or intervenes in certain meetings like in this scenario. This is what happens this and that. like a guide, something that they could read um in advance or even just throughout the meeting so that way if they have anything they need to go to um they can just look through it real quick. Um but yeah, yeah, just ditto like um I didn't know what a full-time equivalent was and when I saw the acronym my first meeting

104I was like okay I don't know I had to Google it. So definitely more guidance and a cheat sheet would be great. Anybody else? Okay. Well, thank you. That was an excellent report and I appreciate the um the feedback and we will look into that. Do student trustees do they attend an agenda setting before they before they on board the first time or do they come to the first meeting and then do they um start agenda setting and is there is there any training manuals or welcome type of process? So traditionally I believe there's an onboarding. Um this particular session there was not an onboarding because of the um delayed vote and it was very they were appointed very close to the first meeting. Um but I think moving forward yes the onboarding will continue.

105Okay. Thank you for that. Okay good. That was great advice. Thank you again. Thank you for your participation. It was great and great report. Okay. Moving on now we are up to our action items. E1 student discipline is the first one and so they have the wording. Give me just a second to find it. Okay. So for this student discipline, this is the motion will be if someone would like to make it or I can make it is to clear the ex the clear the expulsion for case number 242503 and readmit the student to the West Contraosta Unified School District. Are you making the motion, President? And is there a second? I'll second. All right. So I made it. You're the second. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. Um, there's no discussion on this item, so

106we'll just go straight to the vote. Uh, student trustee Espinosa Jr., yes. Student trustee [ __ ] yes. Trusty Hernandez, yes. Clerkana, yes. Trustee Gonzalez, yes. Trusty Smith folds. Smith Falls, yes. And a yes. So, the motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Okay, we are now up to E2, adoption of the 2025 2026 local control accountability plan. Thank you, President Reckler. Um we have associate superintendent of teaching and learning Katherine Aostto process online to provide and introduce this item. Great. Thank you so much. Good evening president reckler clerk andana trustees superintendent Moses superintendent Cotton and members of our community. My apologies for not being able to be there in person. Um, on June 4th, I shared the 2025 2026 local control accountability plan or LCAP as part of our annual public hearing. Next slide. For those of um

107the public who are listening and missed the hearing, uh, the LCAP is a three-year roadmap that aligns our goals with our budget and is developed through ongoing engagement with our educational partners. The full LCAP and annual update is attached and includes all of our actions, budget, and program metrics. Um, this is again publicly available both attached to the agenda and on our website. We've also provided a bilingual executive summary that's a bit more accessible and shorter to read. We've included our feedback from the DLCAPS and pack committees um along with today's uh documents. Next slide. So on June 4th, we provided a very high-level overview and we've really focused on the implementation effectiveness and the proposed changes for the LCAP. And tonight, we are seeking approval for the plan. And I'm going to be reviewing

108our required local dashboard indicators as well as I'm going to be providing an update um on the changes to our LCAP since the June 4th presentation. Next slide. So tonight we are presenting our um California dashboard local indicators. These local indicators are based on priorities for the local control funding formula and that the state doesn't actually collect data for. So our local agencies are responsible for self assessing and reporting out our performance based on the indicators districtwide. Next slide. And so you can see that what we self-report out on are basic services for condition implementation of state standards, parent and family engagement, school climate, and our access to a broad course of study. And we can receive a met, a not met, or a not met in two-year designation. And if you might recall last

109year, while we did meet our local indicators, um it read as not met because we didn't meet that July 1st uh deadline for approval of the board of education LCAP. Next slide. And so for this year for priority one, basic teacher instructional materials facilities, we did meet standard with 100% of our basic needs being met. For priority two, implementation of state academic standards, we also met standard with an average score of initial implementation. For priority three, parent and family engagement, we met the standard with four items in the exploration and research phase, two items in the beginning development phase, um and then six items in the initial implementation phase. And then for priority six and seven, um this is a reflection that's provided by our district. We did meet the standard. Priority six focuses on

110school climate and really provides an analysis of our suspension efforts as well as how we're doing on the California Healthy Kids Survey. And then for priority seven, access to a broad course of study, we have a reflection of highlights of how our district is ensuring equitable and rigorous access across all student groups. Next slide. And so since our last presentation for the LCAP, we did have an opportunity to engage with our Contraostc County Office of Ed and made all of the required um changes and feedback that they provided us. This included um some support in just correcting some clarity and quality of our metrics as well as just overall effectiveness uh prompts. We also addressed the requirement to align our learning recovery emergency block grant um specific metrics that needed to be part of um

111the strategy to make sure that everything was connected and clearly reported. We also heard really loud and clear that um we're all aligned that um expanding our newcomer program is is a top priority um for our district. And so we're identifying how we might be able to um really leverage our Title 3 funds and how we might be able to use our existing staff to be able to expand newcomer program supports at King Elementary School and potentially others. And then we've also been able to update both in goal one and three and five our most uh local indicator data. Now that we've um we've got those uh final numbers for middle school dropout rates as well as our most up-to-date I Ready ELA and math data across the district. And so I'd like to review

112that next. Next slide. Okay. So this year for I Ready Math um you might recall that our big goal has been to increase the percentage of students scoring early on grade level or above by 9%. And we're really excited to show that we've made real progress with all student groups being able to exceed this goal. Across grades K through 8 in mathematics, we showed a 23.3% growth um in annual progress. In grades 9 to 11, the growth was even stronger with 34.3 signaling really accelerated academic gains in high school for math. Um, notable, we saw Filipino high school students led the way with 38.8 and white students in K8 also showed strong growth. Students that identify as two or more races also demonstrated really consistent high performance across the great spans. And um our socioeconomically

113disadvantaged students in grade 9 through 11 really had a powerful growth with 24.3 and our foster youth hit a 20% um goal which is really exciting because these um were our focus groups. And so this level of growth really puts us on a strong path to reaching our goal and our vision in mathematics. And we're excited to be able to um align highquality instruction and data results with that. Next slide. So for reading, we have the same goal of wanting to increase by 9% by end of year. Um, our I Ready reading data also shows meaningful progress here, particularly in our lower grades K through 8 with all student groups exceeding our goal. Um and it also does highlight clear opportunities for continued growth particularly at the high school level where you can see that

114four student groups didn't uh meet the goal with one actually going in the opposite direction. So in grades K through 8 we were able to reach 17.2% growth um for students. The growth particularly for Asian students um and students that identify of two or more races and Filipino students again was really um exciting. We saw promising gains with our socioeconomically disadvantaged students, which is one of the largest populations for our district with 16% again indicating that targeted supports are really helping to move um student groups forward. At the high school level, we saw um 9 to 11 12.7% growth with Asian students um and Filipino students particularly showing the most gain. Hispanic and Latino students grew by 13.4% and foster youth showed a 12% increase. Um, again, evidence that interventions are working. Uh, that said,

115there are some important areas that we need to dig into some more. We saw that growth among our African-American students and 9 to 11 was modest. While they met the goal um at 9.5%, we're seeing other groups grow um at a faster rate. And so we're going to dig into that a bit more. We also saw that students identifying two or more races only grew by 6.3. Um and we saw white students actually in high school decline. So we're going to be doing some more digging to be better um prepared to support those students. And then we also see that English learners and students with disabilities in high school uh posted lower gains which is again a signal for us that we need to tailor strategies and literacy to supports and secondary to better align

116to our student needs. Next slide. So this data for us really confirms that our strategies particularly around goal three are driving us in the right direction. Um, we know that goal one and two really um are in service of goal three because as a district our goal is student achievement. Um, and so we're excited to be able to be headed in the right direction. And we know that um these strong gains are focused um and are highlighted because of the goals that we've created through these L through the um goals written in this LCAP. So, um, we would be very excited if we could, um, receive, um, an approval, next slide, of the LCAP goals and strategies and actions, um, as described on the June 4th, um, hearing date. We believe that this reinforces our

117um clear direction and commitment to coherence uh equity and instructional excellence represented by these goals. And that concludes my presentation for tonight. We did attach all of the slides that were presented at the last hearing um including the um added uh slides at the end that do have our um acronyms guide because I agree uh that that there is a lot of acronyms in our presentations um as well as additional data to support the growth of other goals. Happy to answer any questions you might have. Great. Thank you so much for the presentation. Are there any questions? Go ahead and thank you. Uh thank you uh uh Miss Costa for Prescus. Um when I saw 97 slides, I was like, "Oh gosh." Um so that was that was really well done. Um I did want

118to ask you if you could maybe share with us a little bit about that 10% decrease in ELA for white students specifically. Um it's really great to see the positive change on you know the rest of our students. Um but I was just curious from in with your you know your opinion why do we see a 10% decrease on white students specifically this year? It's like the first time I think I've ever seen our white students decrease um you know compared to other groups. Yeah, thank you for that question. And it's definitely something that um you know made us pause as a team and are we're doing a lot more digging around it to discover what's going on. Um, one of the things that really came up as we had conversations um with school leaders

119and um with teachers and you've heard it in public comment is that um this last administration of I Ready comes at a really hard time especially for our secondary students as they take AP testing as they finish state testing especially for those 11th graders. Um and there's some serious uh fatigue that happens. Um we don't want to discount the data. We do believe that there's more digging that needs to happen. But for that level of analysis, we really need to dig in and study where that 10% uh decrease is coming from. Is it a particular school? Is it a particular grade level? So that we can really uncover how we might be able to do those um supports. Uh so we that is our summer work. Um, our team is really excited to be able

120to use this data to do instructional walkthroughs as a team where there are classrooms that are really outperforming. We want to go learn where there are classrooms and schools that need more support, we want to give that support. And so, as soon as I find out, I will let you know. And then my second question, it's a question also a request to you and the president and uh, Superintendent Con. Um would it be possible for us to also get a presentation on exactly what you just mentioned the schools and classrooms that um have seen such a large growth for African-American and English language learner students specifically and call those out because those two groups are the what's historically have actually usually gone backwards. Um, so would it be possible to bring some of those schools

121and hear the highlights of the work that they're doing so that we can all learn from their success? Absolutely. In the past, what we've done is we've brought schools who have um demonstrated overall growth. So, you might recall we brought Shannon and Nestrom and I think it's a great idea to do a really focused look on our focal student groups. Um, so bringing both schools that are doing um, you know, a great job in supporting our English learners and our African-American students with local data because that will be able to drive um, the actions that we take as a district to support these students. Thank you so much. That's it, President. Thank you. So, anybody else have questions? I have one question. um with all the financial challenges we're facing um and declining enrollment and

122just the cost of things going up um what's our plan to make sure that the LCAP stays sustainable and it doesn't collapse within you know the next year or two I can take a first stab at it and then um I'll speak to program I I don't know if anybody wants to speak to budget um which will likely be next but um when I really think about the heart of our LCAP um it's really centered and focused around um ensuring that we're delivering highquality instruction that we're using data to drive that instruction and that we're providing all of our students with the social emotional support that they need to be able to thrive. Most of those things don't have to cost money, right? And so, um, yes, it's really helpful to have a lot of

123additional dollars to be able to make that happen. But, um, I stand confident in knowing that if we really focus on those practices and those adult changes that need to, um, be implemented for us to grow, that even through these fiscal challenges, we'll continue to be able to make growth. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Okay, seeing none, I will entertain a motion to adopt the LCAP or the I think we have totally forgot. I'm like spacing out here. Okay, public comment. Yes, let's go ahead. Sky Nelson. Thank you. Sky Nelson, teacher and parent, Elserto High School. Uh, Miss Aosta Verroscus, thank you for that presentation. And I was part of the a few of the meetings, so I I feel a little invested in and appreciated knowing what was going on in the

124LCAP meetings. Um, I want to advocate for one of my teachers at my school, uh, Mr. Decker in the theater department. We have my question is what for Mr. Aosta are do we know that the the administrators at our schools are are communicating with with your team about the funding that's available there I know VAPA visual and performing arts was important part of the emphasis for next year and I know that all Mr. Decker is struggling to get his uh desired set of classes for theater. We have a great theater program. We we put on Arsenic and Old Lace. We have a tech program that actually built the set, a two-story set. Quite impressive. And two, we'd like to have two theater one programs and a theater advance program. So, in order to do that,

125it requires u investment and uh Elcap seems like a great source for that. So, please make sure that the the schools know about this resource. Thank you. Okay, son Harrison, please unmute yourself. Um, thank you for the presentation and I just want to say thank you for how you've been running the meetings um this school year. You have been very informative. you has been different and I don't still feel confident in what we're getting the information we're receiving but I do like the process that you have set up and that you have been implementing to make intentional effort to engage parents and community in the process and students. So thank you for that. It's very refreshing not to feel like we have to fight to be a part of it, but I would like a

126lot more transparency um around the information we are receiving. I'm complete. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you. Okay, with that, seeing no further questions, I'll entertain a motion for adoption of the 2526 LCAP plan. President, I'll move the approval for the 2025 2026 LCAP. Is there a second? Trusty Smith second. Trusty Smith fol. Uh any comments? So I have a comment. I just want to thank you all and the team for a much improved year, much improved process, much much better engagement, better metrics, better plan. I mean, it's really I really thank you very much for hearing me last year and making just unbelievable improvement in the document. So, I I really appreciate it and I look forward to continued success. And with that, we'll go to the vote. Student Trustee Espinosa

127Jr. Yes. Student Trustee Baron, yes. Trustee Hernandez, yes. Clerk Inana, yes. Trusty Gonzalez, yes. Trusty Smith Volts. Smith Falls, yes. And I'm a yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Moving on now to D3, adoption of the 2025 2026 annual budget. Thank you, President Reckler. Mr. your heart. This is your item. Good evening uh to the members of the board and interm superintendent. Uh thank you for the opportunity to address this uh tonight. The budget that was presented on June 4th is before you for adoption. Uh the only change in the submittal of materials is that the um I just lost the name of it. The thank you the criteria and standards is now included. You'll find that on page 132 of the budget document. It runs for additional 30 pages through 162. There are additional

128documents that are attached to this um submitt. They are the documents that uh essentially complete the submission of staff to the board for adoption uh of a proposed budget. that would then become upon adoption uh the operating budget for the school year beginning July 1st, 2025 running through uh June 30 of 2026. Uh should you have any questions, we stand before you uh to address those. Also uh want to thank uh members of staff for their contributions to this point in time. And uh we'll bring the formality of this to a close at least at this side of the podium uh unless there are questions. Great. Thank you very much. Are there any questions? Go ahead. Thank you. Um, I did want to ask if you could address the issue that UTR mentioned tonight a

129few times about the 50% rule for teachers. Um if you could talk about why did we not meet the threshold and um um the reasons uh why and or or if we would have depending on what would have been taken consideration in the budget. So uh thank you for the question and just a point of clarification. I just want to make sure we're talking about item C10 the CA waiver. Yes. Um, yeah, I brought it up now because I think it has context with the overall budget, but if you feel like I it should have been another ite and uh respectfully would just say the threshold for uh unified school district is 55%. And so just uh for the purpose of the record if you will uh in in short waiverss are provided by the

130California Department of Education across any number of activities. uh this um practice the the idea that uh the state board of education operating uh through county offices of education uh would have a process for vetting waiverss is to ensure that there is not an undue hardship on an individual school district in complying with the spirit of the law. This is one of those instances. uh the school district uh many school districts, West Contra being among them, have difficulty uh meeting uh this requirement when a school district receives a significant amount of one-time funding. Uh we have a unique circumstance and just to acknowledge uh some of the points that were made uh I want to just cite a couple of numbers. First off, I want to acknowledge that the percent is below the 55. Uh

131indeed, it is uh for the school year 2324. And I want to be really clear about this. That is the year we're talking about. We're not talking about the current school year that will end in June 30th. This is for the school year that began July 1st of 23 running through June 30th of 24. Just a quick aside, I imagine that we will be back before you for a waiver for the school year that is ending now at some point in the next 6 months. And the reason being is that the COVID relief dollars that flowed into the state through the state and became available to school districts change the denominator to how it is this uh this is uh this calculation is performed in 2020 hyphen 21. So, the 21 fiscal year, the expenses

132of the district that were uh qualified for education costs in the classroom total $322.4 million. It's a sizable amount. Today, uh for the year ending June 30th of 24, that amount is $431 million, an increase of almost $111 million. That is the amount that is the denominator uh of of how much we spent on total expenses. The amount that went into the classroom, this is the numerator. In that same uh baseline school year, the fiscal year, school year 21, uh there was 172.7 million. In that year, the percent of the district was 53.56. That was the first year a waiver was sought uh in in this period. This year the number is 52.36 a difference of 2/10 of a percent but the amount that we are uh spending in the classroom as determined by this

133form is $225.9 million. It's an increase of $53.2 million that has occurred in a 4-year period. It's not to say uh to make light of the difference. the delta, what would it take for us to get to 55% would be an additional 11.2 million if our waiver was either not approved by you or upon uh if I may presume passage by the board of education, not approved by the county in the subsequent year, the school district would be expected to expend those dollars in classroom related expenses. To be clear, that bucket of what is classroom related expenses is not always going to go into salaries of teachers. It is a large composition. Uh it is also the case that I would expect that in the next uh handful of years, perhaps not as soon as

13425 26, but it wouldn't surprise me, we will no longer need the waiver. uh the use of the COVID relief dollars, as you may recall, those dollars had to be expended by June 30th of uh 24. The district did comply with that. So, as the balances, the onetime balances have been fully expended. Most of those were of a uh restricted nature and the unrestricted dollars then are um uh that perhaps we if you could use this terminology were spared as we were able to shift uh those costs into restricted funds as we have shown the budget for 2627 and 2728 has a combined deficit approaching $60 million. I highly doubt that we will be seeking a waiver at that time. This is just a unique circumstance and yes it has been for a series of

135years but the ESSER relief funds that we received the COVID relief dollars ers 1 2 and three uh caused for a very unique circumstance. So, so to summarize what I heard you say was that because we got one-time monies through ESRE and through CO funds that increase our overall budget and that money was spent in various ways which decrease our percentage on the budget for this for salaries because the overall budget grew um and those that money needed to be used for other things. Is that correct? with one caveat. The the money is so as you might imagine, the California Department of Ed has um some pretty strict guidelines on what how you account for this. My only footnote to your comment is the dollars that were spent in the classroom as opposed to dollars

136that were spent out of the classroom. So, in the context of the pandemic, we spent a lot of money in trying to keep uh our community safe. uh that's probably the easiest way to put it. The PP&E and other related expenses changed the nature of how we did uh not how we did the computation but the relative weight of those expenses classroom as opposed to non-classroom. So as you mentioned due to our budget deficit but also because the other funds are going away completely by the time we're approving the 26 27 budget at that point we shouldn't be applying for waiverss because we would be back to what is just our general fund unless the state gives us additional onetime monies in that budget but technically not I think the simplest way to answer that

137is correct. Okay. Okay. Thank you. That was my last question. Does anybody else have questions? Go right ahead. Thank you. Um I just wanted a quick um rundown on the consulting. Can you explain um the system of the evaluation of how consulting contracts are handled and evaluated? Um sure. the let me um do you have it with you? I don't the form for you're talking about in the consent agenda items where there is the valuation of the contracts and I don't have that in front of me so um let me try to do it off the top uh on an annual basis uh the departments the actu programs uh for which there are contracted services uh are required to go through a process to rate the vendor uh and essentially assign a grade as to

138whether or not the services for which or the products for which uh someone was engaged are in fact satisfactory meeting expectations if you will superior to what we would have expected or otherwise deficient. Uh the intent is to ensure that we are getting value for the dollars that are being appropriated and the contracts are being executed. Um my next question added on to this is um are there any more are there any detail as to the exact amount expenditures that are um used on certain contractors on the vendors or any sort of consulting? Not that I'm aware of. And I'm going to restate your question to make sure we're on the same page. I I'm not aware of any board policy or or requirement in the ED code that would um limit uh the amount

139to which a individual contractor is awarded. Uh I think there is a certainly a measure of prudence that uh district leadership would apply. Uh but the comfort we draw if you will uh comes through the process by which we make those selections. Uh it it could be that you see a vendor receive a prepoundonderance of uh work, but I would argue that in that instance, it's because that vendor won a competition uh visa via request for proposals and we would consider their proposal to be highest value, which is to say we get the best for the lowest cost. Okay. And just my last question, um thank you. Um, for my last question, um, I did a little like messing around, um, with the budget and everything. Um, comparing them to our district, our district neighbors,

140um, all across the Bay Area, there is an average spending of the 5% of their budgets being spent on consulting. Um, doing a little bit of the math, we have about 13 roughly 13 14% of our budget being spent into um, consulting or professional. um in this case like the expenditures on that I don't know the exact name on top of my head but it is on that realm um is I guess my question would be um where does the based on um the other issues where does the extra little 7 to 8% come from in that realm that's all I've heard some of the uh trustees speak to you about your future uh let me invite you to join my staff Um it's a wonderful question. Uh what I would suggest to you is

141um it it and I'm not trying to be evasive. It depends. So let me give you an example. Uh I think most folks know that I worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Uh they had a very sizable legal office. At the same time, we hired numerous attorneys outside of the school district to provide legal services for the type of coverage, the expertise that an individual attorney might bring uh that for which we did not want to staff. Let's compare that to West Contraosta. We do not have an attorney on staff. I don't know when you're comparing to those other school districts whether or not and I'm just making an example up of whether or not they have an internal general counsel or not. That would be an example of why you might see

142a disparity between what is a percent call it 10% as opposed to five. There are many expertises, that's an odd phrase, I grant you uh that range in a school district, uh legal, accounting, and and I'm pointing at those that are away from the classroom for which school districts uniformly have to contract. You'll see that in risk management. We uh have uh multiple vendors that we work with for insurance, for other related uh expertise, um auditors, what have you. Without doing a side by side, I'm only going to be able to offer conjecture. What I can say is that the prices we pay for those services, I believe to be competitive. I believe that we can always improve, but I'm not seeing a disproportionate amount just based on that. I also know that in some

143of our positions, we have had difficulty filling those. And so, in the instance where we have critical need, it is uh not an uncommon approach. It is not unique to West Contra that a school district or an entity that is suffering for a chronic shortage will look to hire outside. We do that within special education as relates to um uh I don't know if pair of professionals thank you forgetting words tonight. So again you know you would I would suggest that what we would do we being you and I now that you're working for us we would create a matrix. We would try to identify uh by program by department. Uh we would try to create a means by which we are looking at what is the numerator and what is the denominator. In the

144example of legal it's going to be zero internal 100% external. That's going to skew our numbers. It's that kind of analytic that we need to do to be able to more completely answer your question and determine whether uh there's something that requires greater exploration. Thank you. Um that I it was just an interesting take. I'm just messing around but completely understand. Thank you so much. No, thank you. Are there other questions? Can I go first before you go? Okay. Um if I may. So I'd like to talk about special ed and your assumptions for the special ed increase. So for 22 to 23 and to 24 25 sped expenses increased about 29%. Uh while the total spend enrollment increased only 1.2%. So we're obviously spending more per student versus expanding the program. So in so

145if in 25 26 and 26 27 your projections are off that would obviously be uh not ideal. Um so I'm just curious about how you ended up with the numbers that you did in the multi-year projection and your confidence behind them. Um I I don't know that we have any more positions to offer President Reckler, but I appreciate the question and uh if we have any vacancies, we'll bring you in. Um not to make light of this, it's an the the point you make is an astute one and it's a complicated answer. Uh you have seen in the first and second interim uh comments from staff about the escalating costs related to sped. Uh the amount uh off the top of my head not that long ago was uh I'll say $60 billion circuit 2020

1462018 somewhere in that neighborhood. Uh we are now cresting $und00 million out of the general fund. And this is the general fund contribution to the district's total uh sped budget. That is to say, what is um uh what it is costing the district beyond those dedicated resources that come from the state and federal government. Uh it is the case uh those percentages you cite are are accurate. Uh they have been dramatic. They are uh of concern. It is also the case that uh to the questions that trustee Gonzalez Hoy hoised some of the rationale for why those increased during the period of 202021 to now also had to do with the utilization of one-time funding to try to impact positively those students with greatest need. With those dollars um essentially uh tapering off, we have

147an obligation then to also uh if you will plateau the expense uh the growth that is occurring there. Uh it is a place you ask what is a confidence interval if you will. Uh I would say reasoned. Um your conclusion is correct. In the absence of additional revenues or other expenses coming in lower than they are budgeted, should the trajectory of the sped budget uh in total which would require more general fund contribution increase as it has historically we will have a problem. uh it is incumbent upon us to look at the uh costs embedded within uh special education. Uh transportation is a primary area. The uh ratios by which we staff is an area uh that requires further examination. Uh the utilization of uh the many of these questions are playing off of each

148other. uh the uh contracted services that are instrumental to our service delivery uh particularly in the face of the vacancies we have faced is uh a significant driver of those expenses. It is an expectation that those will be uh further examined and uh paired down. I can uh commend uh um Mr. Fleshman for his efforts to on a year-over-year basis uh look at the transportation expenses and help in lowering the costs we were paying. Uh but it is the case that we are uh still seeing increased uh costs related to transportation albeit they're at a lower level. That kind of initiative, that kind of reduction uh has to be uh part and parcel of the initial uh months in our next fiscal year, our next school year in order for those projections now embedded in

149the budget for 2526 to become uh real. Okay. Thank you. So, in the multi-year projection that was presented on June 4th, I think we were looking at like a $40 million deficit over the my which is the multi-year projection. I can't exactly remember. There was supposed to be like 5 million additional from the state based on their budget back and forth with legislature, governor, all of that junk. Um, so first, did that happen? And then second, um, you know, it's not awesome to have a minus $35 million budget. What steps will happen now for the district to look at that deficit and figure out how to close it up? A number of uh points I want to make. uh your first your recollection of June 4th is accurate. Uh in the uh last year of

150the multi-year plan and to refresh the audience uh the requirement is we present to you a budget for the preceding fiscal year. That's what you have before you the 202526 budget. We also have to do a forecast for the two subsequent years. So in fiscal year 2027 hyphen 28 uh there is a projected deficit of $40 million rounding. Uh that is um that is of concern. There's no other way to to characterize that. Uh just today uh there was a material released by school services of California noting that the um Senate and the Assembly have reached an accord with uh Governor Nuome. Uh the challenge for us is that is so fresh and we have uh do not have an answer uh to your question which goes back to statements that I had made June

1514th as to the um impact upon uh West Contraosta. Uh that will be I'm sure one of the items that will be at the forefront of uh any communication from the fiscal group uh perhaps as soon as July. But what is needed is the what is referred to as the trailer bill. And as yet I don't I it may have been released. I'm not aware that it has been. And even if it has, we haven't had a chance to work through those numbers uh to be able to assess the impact on the district. We have no reason to step back from our hope that we will receive additional funding. Uh but I will qualify the expectation is that funding is not uh expected to be um base building uh but will instead be uh targeted

152and of a um a one-time nature. Still positive. We'll figure out how to uh be able to utilize it to the benefit of our fund balance, but it shouldn't be thought to um absolve the deficit you spoke of in the context of where are we in a process? Uh should the board of education approve the budget? Uh next step in the process is for the budget to be submitted to the county office of education. Uh we do not at this point in time certify as we do with the first or second interims. Uh what we would expect is that the county would accept our budget uh but would uh deem it uh to be essentially a conditional acceptance and would uh respond to the district that uh in the timing of the first interim in

153December of 2025 as it relates to the 2526 budget and the 2-year forecast, a renewed fiscal solveny plan would be expected to be presented such that the budgets beginning in 2627 uh would be positive. Uh in the event that there are additional revenues then makes that bottom line easier uh to the extent there are additional expenses uh things get challenging. I I want to also be very clear on another point. The numbers in the budget are the best available numbers we have today. They will be different, but they're not going to be different on the order of, you know, all or none. Uh there will be puts and takes, gives and goes. Uh clawbacks. Uh I'm confident that the budget practices of the district are prudent. Uh we tend to be shy about our revenue

154forecasts. if our as a for instance if the um average daily attendance moves up from the 92% to a higher percent I'm going to grossly round numbers but every percent we generate depending upon and this gets hard because it varies by where the students are by grade level but let's just say it's $3 million. It goes both ways. If it goes down, we lose $3 million. All other things being equal. That kind of variability and the sensitivity our budget has given where we are uh so close to uh exhausting our reserve funds will be felt. Uh but it is that kind of movement that you all as a board should expect will occur on a month-over-month basis. And so I know in concert uh in conversation with Mr. Carter, Dr. proposes the effort to fine-tune

155budget to actual variance analysis is going to be an ongoing effort and at this point in time I'd be premature to comment uh particularly uh you know just cat out of the you know address the elephant in the room um negotiations are ongoing with bargaining units uh those negotiations are not reflected in the forecast and we will need to see how that all plays out before we know for for uh the gravity of the moment. Okay. Thank you. And then finally, I think you said this out loud at the June 4th meeting, but I just want to make sure that it's said again, parcel tax for 2728, the final year, those dollars and what it supports are not in the multi-year projection at this time. Is that correct? it. The simple answer is it's correct,

156but I need to make sure we're saying the same thing, please. And that is that it is in the multi-year forecast as it relates to the year 2627, but the parcel tax sunsets absent a vote to reauthorize it June 30th of 27. So for the school year, the fiscal year beginning July 1st of 27 through June 30 of 28, we removed the revenues in concert uh or subsequent to a conversation with the county and we correspondently res uh removed the expenses that the parcel tax revenue offsets. Okay. Thank you. Did you have something else? Thank you. You actually asked uh my majority of my questions. had one in addition. Um the and this one might be for Mr. Flashman potentially. Um we you're correct, Mr. Hart. 2020 we're spending $38 million in special education contribution

157and then by 2027 we're projecting about 101 million. So I was wondering if you or Dr. Moses or Mr. Fleshman could talk about one like what has led to this very large increase in a short amount of time and then two are we also potentially creating a plan to decrease it over time. I'll take a stab at it and then I'm sure um my comments will be generously amended. Uh a number of factors. Uh one uh just same song, different verse. The additional COVID relief dollars gave districts latitude to expend additional dollars for students who had greatest need. It is appropriate. uh it is not unique to West Contra that additional dollars were spent within the special education program. Uh secondly, the standards uh expected in terms of what that service delivery looks like on

158a per student basis has changed in a relatively short period of time. There is a heightened level of service. So you're not seeing in that same period a constant per dollar student expenditure. The per student expenditure has grown much faster than the number of students enrolled in sped or otherwise deemed sped. It is our cost per student that is driving that within that unpacking the costs. It is the um my drug blank on PA. um the folks at staff uh um so within uh ProAre uh which is the contract uh for the um uh if you will augmenting the teaching uh staff uh that we have seen an increase uh transportation counselors uh mental health behavioral uh the gauntlet is a long one uh the list it's probably the wrong word to use um is

159is fairly comprehensive at that. There are folks Jeff uh Guthrie, Dr. Moses, who will speak, I'm sure, with greater um knowledge than I possess, but that's what I have seen in my time here. I I think I can chime in and then I'll pass it over to Guthri. I just want to give the overarching areas in which we see growth in in expenditures. Um over the last um six years of salary increases those impact special ed as well. As we increase salaries, it also increases our contribution to um fund the special ed staffing. Um also we've had class size decreases in special ed with which results in the need for more teachers. Um so those are two areas that have impacted uh the staffing expenditures. We also want to lift up that as needs increase

160services increase and we know that a lot of our students during the COVID pandemic experience significant slide which recovering from that pandemic requires us to um increase the services to those students in order to address their needs um and the intense needs that um we continue to see. And then lastly, I'll say that as we increase the services, we also must increase staffing and we are um experiencing a staffing shortage. So as we experience a staffing shortage, we still must provide those services to our special education students. And so we must find another solution to bringing in the adults to uh serve the needs of our students, which has resulted in more work being outsourced um which is also an additional expense. Um and then in addition to that, the cost of doing business and

161education is just going up. um a around across all arenas and and we see those areas of hitting um special ed um as these expenses have increased the revenue has not and so therefore our contribution is um how we must sustain these programs. Uh so I hope that helps and I'll pass to Guthrie to see if he has anything to add. Thank you Dr. Moses. Um uh Mr. heart. Uh you both were very very thorough and very eloquent and so you said about 92 or so% of the things that I was going to discuss. Um the only thing that I would add to what you all just described um is just kind of a change in the um uh in the landscape of special education um across the state um there are lot of shortages

162um as the need has grown for more and more of services there hasn't necessarily been a growth in the workforce um and so as as Dr. Moses pointed out that leads to some vacancies which have a ripple effect. Um one of the things that um uh that I have seen from my vantage point is one one part of that ripple effect is um things like uh compensatory education. Um the claims for for comped have certainly grown when we don't have people to provide a particular service. Um and oftentimes providing compensatory education after the fact is more more expensive than if we had a person hired to do the work um on the front end. Um also across the state we're seeing a rise in um uh claims uh being made um uh more uh calls

163for mediation. Um ADR has been supportive. However, often that does still end in a mediated agreement, often with comped services and things like that. We've seen a growth in the number of students um requiring non-public school uh placements. Um and so I think again, like I said, there are just some ripple effects to all of the things that Dr. Moses and Mr. Hart mentioned um that drive up these costs uh as well. Thank you very much for that. My last question, I promise this will be the last one. Um, so it sounds that was a very thorough response first of all. Thank you. U, it sounds like to me from this and previous conversations I've had with all of you, a reliance on proare uh, which has gone up because we have increased need and

164decreased staffing unfortunately. Um, it's one of the reasons why the contribution has gone up. One of the many, but one of the it's a it's a big one. that contract to Proare. So, do we have a plan, a long-term plan to um rely less on that contract and create an in-house workforce? Um, I mean, I can imagine the answer is yes, but I was wondering if you could maybe go into detail um as of what that plan would look like because I think this one thing one of the concerns that we've talked about for a couple years now. Uh but I think that we can't just, you know, continue to rely on just this one contract that is so expensive, right, for us. I can take that. Uh and I'll pass it to Director Fleshman

165if he has anything to add. Um, first I'd like to lift up that um, last year's ProAre contract was a lot more expensive than this current fiscal year's thanks to the hard work of Director Fleman who negotiated a a lower rate in order for us to retain services and not um continue to be um continue to pay exorbitant amounts. uh the rate that he was able to negotiate is pretty close to what we would pay our um um in-house staff. Um however, to your point, we do not want to continue this habit of outsourcing work. We would like to recruit staff who stay in our district and um who are continuing to pro provide services for our students under our direction. And so there does need to be a plan. Um I can um pass

166it to Director Fleshman. can talk to you about um a lot of the um contractors that work in our district when they get here they realize that um we do have a lot to offer and we are a desired employee and some of them do come over and become our staff and when that happens we're absolutely ecstatic because it means we're growing our own internal workforce. In terms of a plan to um eliminate or reduce the need for contracts, um we've been looking at the numbers. We've been evaluating the budget. Um looking at the needs and ways in which we can um um provide high service, a high level of service to students, but at the same time um have a more stable um expectation of the staffing model. And we continue to work on

167that with our teams, with our families in order to e efficiently meet the needs of students and get that number down. In the case that we cannot um we are evaluating the potential of offering um different structures to our staffing package. But um where we hesitate in this moment is it's going to actually increase our expenditures to implement a plan um that um focuses on uh increased compensation because that would have to be increased compensation across the board which initially would be um a lot more than the procure contract. So um trying to evaluate how to create that plan so that it is financially um efficient and something that we can sustain over time uh it's going to require more data collection and um you know what we're seeing in terms of the trends are

168we're we're actually needing less uh staffing from proare which is um encouraging um and trying to figure out how we can continue to decrease that need um without restructuring um our our um compensation plan uh in this moment, but knowing that in the future we may need to do something different. Okay. Um I I think Dr. Moses pretty much summed it up pretty well. I just want to lift up that the rate that we are currently paying is competitive market rate. Um so it's not as much an issue of who we are contracting with as it is the number of vacant positions that exist within our district. Um and so recruitment efforts um as Dr. Moses said there there have been some folks in fact yesterday I saw one of my former students who was

169formerly contracted and has joined the district. So that was that was a joy. Um but yeah, it's it's really about reducing the number of um uh positions that are vacant uh that need to be contracted out as opposed to who it is that we contract with that's driving the budget. Thank you both. Uh that's it, President. Thank you. Okay. Anything else for anyone? Are we do public comment? I got so lost. New public comment. Thank you, Mr. Hart and Mr. Garter. Thank you. You You can unmute yourself, please. Mark Mitchell. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Mark Mitchell, United Teachers of Richmond. Yet again, this budget presented to the board is wildly inaccurate. it uh counts hundreds of ghost employees that don't exist as being uh employed by the district and pulling full salaries

170and benefits when we know there's well over 300 classified vacancies and over 100 certificated vacancies. Um they should not be counted as existing. It creates a false physical calamity in the outer years of this budget which is not true. The budget betrays the LCAP. It's a complete contradiction of the of the the uh uh values stated therein. The 55% threshold was not meant not met by our district before, during or after COVID. Using COVID as an excuse is not uh well founded. The year that we're talking about 2324 where teachers were cheated out of 11.4 million, the district ended up with 65 million in unrestricted reserves and 100 million in restricted reserves. that had plenty of money. Sky Nelson. Thank you, board. Uh, I don't enjoy public speaking, but my head kind of explodes and

171my belly turns when I hear comments that aren't replied to. I really appreciated the question from student board member about the um money for the consultants and I've been aware as a teacher for a number of months that that was a question because it was put forward by the union a number of times and it's the first time I've really heard a response to that from Mr. Hart. Thank you for that sir. Um but it wasn't detailed like it didn't actually answer the question. So as a parent and a teacher I'm thinking about the other teachers I have to parents I have to talk to and like I have no answer. I still don't know the answer. Who are we spending money on? Is it lawyers? Why is it uh unfilled staffing special ed? I

172think that's a different conversation. Um is it uh other special specialists? Why is it different from the other counties? We didn't understand that like that wasn't answered. There was a lot of answer in Mr. Dr. Moses's response. I appreciated the details there. That was helpful. More of that would be very helpful for me as a parent and a teacher and an advocate. Thank Francisco Ortiz, you can unmute yourself. I don't know if anyone on God's green earth understood what was just said during this presentation. If the overall goal of the office of business services is to privatize public education in West Contraasa and to follow the billionaire and Trump's agenda, then say it with your chest. Do not dance around the issue. We heard that this is a peculiar case in West Contraosta. That's absolutely

173right because no other district in in Contraosta County has sought waiverss four years in a row. Sit with that. There is no other district who is mistreating its employees, mistreating its students, and is furthering looking to disenfranchise black and brown students in our communities as our district is doing. So if that's the goal of the office of business services so that they can pat their resume for the next job interview then say with your chest. Joanda Vera Allen please unmute yourself. Jolanda Vieira Allen and good evening trustees and WCC community of May in the reporting from the LCAP as we looked at the budget you know 90% of our budget was earmarked and encumbered um for salaries but we know as we've heard from UTR earlier this evening that we have over 300 vacancies and

174yet there which would leave a significant amount ount of money to be rolled over, but we were told that there was no money left to be rolled over, but without being given an explanation as to where those monies went to. So, it looks like there's a lot of money missing. Um, and that feels good to know one. So, we need more transparency, more specificity about where those line items of where those monies are going and how they're being spent because at in this moment, it it doesn't look right. Something smells bad. So, please uh make this clear for us. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Thank you for that. Um, we're now up to a motion. Um, go ahead, President. Could we take a fivem minute recess before voting? Mhm. Uh, we can I just

175we have we have a lot of other stuff to do. So, please back in five. Okay, we're back on. Okay, so we're back. We're back. Um I I'll accept a motion to approve the adoption of the 2025 2026 annual budget. Okay, I'll move the item. I move adoption of the 2025 2026 annual budget. Is there a second? Second. Trusty Gonzalez seconds. Are there comments? No comments. We'll go to Oh, go ahead. Um, I do have one comment. Um I will be voting yes but I do think that there is some also one thing that really caught my attention going circling back to the consulting the professional expenditures on the budget. Um I vote yes because there's this budget um focuses on a lot of critical issues within our revenue income but at the same time

176I think we do as a as the district need to really see more in terms of like consulting of one-on-one with the people. Um I have heard from a lot of people from parents even staff members um express how much they want to be engaged with their um community in terms of overseeing what the needs are the people what the people have to say. So I think for our targeted um for the expenditures on the professional consulting um there if there's not an oversight um committee it I I would like to see it be public um where all community members from all kinds of backgrounds with that work within our district certified or classified um be part of this committee so that way they can review it quarterly and actually oneon-one get the um results

177that they hope for and see what needs to be um change from that point on. And then also just maybe even more consider more specific targeted cuts um with the help of the oversight committee more get more service from our community community involvement because a lot of these people want to get engaged especially in situations like this. Um with that I yield back. Are there are there further comments? Thank you. Um, trust trustee Spinosa Jr. made me want to say a couple things as well. I appreciate his comments. Um, I I appreciate what staff mentioned tonight. Dr. Mos, what you what you and Mr. Flashman talked about. Um, the sped contribution has been a huge concern of mine. Not because I don't think we should provide the services. I actually think we should we should

178increase them, but it's because we have seen such a large growth in such a small amount of time. uh but I understand what's what's the reasoning behind it especially postco um but I completely agree we need to reduce our reliance on contracts we need to have a plan um and this is also for superintendent cotton I do think that we have to start thinking what is our long-term plan to move from you know contracts like our professional contracts to really thinking critically and hard about how can we be creative ative even if it's kind of an initial courageous investment at first to try to increase an in-house uh staffing because I also think that you know we can probably talk about this later as well but one of the reasons why we're seeing increased cost

179is because we sometimes can't control some of the consultants uh to the same extent that we can control our own staffing and train them and support them. Um, and we're also spending money on recruitment and retention and people are leaving us fairly quickly. Um, so we have to continue to keep them, right? I also know that everybody's overwhelmed, right? I think that every single one of us down on cabinet to here understands every time we go to a site, one of the first things that people ask us is for more things, right? No one's asking for less. Uh so knowing that needs have increased but our budget is we have to make cuts we have to think really critically actually to your advice Dr. Moses of what is it that we care about the most

180and how are we going to continue to support what's working. Um anyways we have to look at things different. We can continue to do things like we've always done. We're gonna we're gonna eventually disappear or become a sped district. Um, so I just have the challenge that I would like to see a long-term plan. Uh, not just a long-term plan of cuts, right? Because that's I feel like since I got on the board, it's always our plan for cutting that has been for 5 years. Um, and I want to see the other side. What is our plan to increase enrollment? What's our plan to uh stop relying on contracts? What's our plan to um increase funding? Right. Um, but I also say all that with I know you're all overwhelmed. I really appreciate the work

181that's happening. So, thank you. That's it. Any other comments? I have a comment. Um, I just want to say thank you for this budget. I know that there's a lot of uncertainty within the community, within a lot of people because I feel that sometimes information is not filtered in the way that it's understandable to some like you have to know to know and I think that's one of our biggest mistakes that we need to make sure that everybody understands the why behind our decisions because if not then we are just conspiring to like assume and I think right Now everyone on here and I feel really good saying that that I feel that this board is working towards a positive change within the district. We want to see our students thrive. We want to be

182able to support our teachers, our staff, and really start moving the needle in a positive direction. It just all comes down to how we communicate that. And I want to make sure that we are working in partnership. I want to be as transparent as we can as a board working with our new superintendent to see how we can achieve that because I think it's going to take community buyin is going to take those hard conversations and even figuring out how we do things different like changing the narrative of like where do we need to cut to like where do we need to now invest to ensure that we are having finances come in. You know, we had we need a robust attendance. You know, we need to make sure that people understand how much money

183we're losing and how we can really that, you know, invest in that and ensure that our students are showing up every day to ensure that we we are not continuing on these cuts. But that's going to come from having the community buy in to support some of these decisions. And so I hope that we can, you know, start shaping our conversations, making them understandable for the rest of the community and know that we are here with best intent. You know, we are here doing our part and I can say that for every board member as long as I've been on this board. I think we started off kind of shaky and rough, but I think we're getting to a point where we are moving in the same direction and we are all here for the

184same purpose and we just have to continue to work together and know that we are here doing it for our students. Thank you. Anything else? Okay. And with that, we'll go to the vote. We'll start with the student trustees. Student Espinosa Jr. Yes. Student Trusty Baron, yes. Trusty Hernandez, yes. Clerkana, yes. Trusty Gonzalez, yes. Trusty Smith fols. Smith FS. Yes. And I'm a yes. Motion passes unanimously. Okay, we are up to E4 public hearing and adoption of special education annual service plan and special education annual budget plan. So I have opened up a public hearing for the uh special education annual service plan and special education annual budget plan. Assembly Bill AB602 requires special education local plan areas sas to submit a local plan including an annual service plan and annual budget plan. These plans

185must be adopted at public hearings as required in education code section 56205. These plans must identify expected expenditures and include a description of services and the physical location of these services. The local budget and service plans must demonstrate that an all individuals with exceptional needs have access to services and instruction appropriate to meet their needs as specified in their IEPs. So the public hearing will be as follows. I've opened it. We'll receive a presentation from staff. Board will ask questions. We will receive public comment. And then I will close the public hearing. And so with that, Mr. Fleshman, would you like to present your presentation? Yes, ma'am. Uh, thank you, board president, uh, trustees, um, the Durham Superintendent Dr. Moses and cabinet, um, and community. Um, I I always want to start with some fundamental

186truths and just some reminders I want to lift up um, when we talk about um, the children in our district. Um, I want to remind us to always use people first language. Um, in accordance with board resolution uh 231516. Um, students reminder that students with IEPs are general education students first. And um, special education is a service. It is not a place. Um, not necessarily a part of the presentation, but it's an important reminder that we always uh, keep in the back of our mind when we have these conversations. Um so to the service plan um as you mentioned uh what we're here for. I'll give you some background. Um as you just mentioned um we are required to submit a local plan. Uh the purpose of this plan is to ensure that all students

187have access uh to the services necessary in IEPs um and to asssure uh compliance with uh state and federal codes and statutes. Um, next slide please. Um, so we'll talk about a little bit about the development and process of uh the local plan. Next slide please. Um, so we have there's a local plan committee which is included in the attachments here. Um, it is updated coop uh cooperatively with a committee uh each year and every 3 years. We'll I'll talk about part B which is which is the larger part that comes every 3 years. Um it is when we have the full local plan every 3 years it does need to go through CAC approval before coming to the board. Um this particular portion of the plan that is not required. Um important to note

188that it can be amended at any time. Um when we get into the service plan uh part E that you'll see um it lists the number number of services that we have uh in place in our district based on the needs of our students. You'll see some services there that are not mentioned. um that's because we have no students in our district currently requiring that particular service. If a student should arrive or we should identify a need for that particular service, it would be added to the plan and there would be an amendment. Um uh and you see there also if there are any findings of non-compliance uh again or change of our uh membership governance or any other element of the plan, we are of course a single district SULPA so membership doesn't really

189change. Next slide please. Um so the process for approval is uh we seek approval from um the board of education uh here WCCUSD school board is our governing board for our SULPA because we are a single district SULPA. Um we need a signature from the county superintendent and then we submit it to uh the CDE by June 30th. Next slide please. Um so I'll go over the required elements. Uh next slide please. Uh so you see there section A uh is the contacts and certifications. This is just um information uh about who and how uh and and the um the makeup of our committee and and those type of uh demographic information. Again section B uh was brought to the board in 2023. So it will come back again uh in 2026. So I do

190not have section B here today. Um, same thing with uh section C is not uh this year. It will come back in 2627. And what we're looking at today are sections uh D and E, the budget plan, and the uh services plan. Next slide, please. So section uh A, as I mentioned, it's it's the administrative unit. Uh it is the dates of review. It is the uh public hearing date uh right here tonight. um the certifications uh by myself and um uh board president and superintendent um and uh for the larger plan the CAC chairperson would be signing uh when we bring section B but again not tonight. Next slide please. So parts D and E again are the the uh excuse me the two portions that we're going to look at tonight. Um as

191I mentioned it is the the budget plan and uh the service plan. Um both must be adopted at a public hearing. Here we are tonight. Uh next slide please. Um the budget plan includes um the revenue uh by service um the total budget uh by object codes uh federal and state revenue summary um as well as basic premise of self allocation uh our operating expenditures um and our projected expenditures. Next slide please. Um the service plan again talk talks about the services that are being provided within our district. Um this is a moment in time. This can change um based on the specific needs of students in our district. So if you look in the service plan and you see services that are not being provided, it's because there's no students in our district currently

192needing that service. Um and then of course the uh physical location of the service uh provision. Um and then uh we must demonstrate that all the students who are eligible have access to the services that they need. Next slide. Um other required elements it must be kept locally. Um we can next slide please. Um we also mentioned the inter a uh inter inter agency agreements um such as uh the medical therapy unit uh that we have here CCS um uh head start and regional center which are other agencies that we partner with uh annually. Um next slide please. U in addition to federal asurances uh each entity providing special education must adopt policies and procedures. Next slide please. Um all Selpas in the state are using the same template uh which you see here as

193the attachment um on the board agenda. Um the asurances are required. Um and again those are the signatures from myself, board president and superintendent. Um uh location of the policies and procedures are required to be listed. Uh the regionalized operation and services are now required. This is new. Um and the annual services plan and budget plan again are uh required each year. Uh purpose of the local plan committee is to review the sections of the local plan, provide input and um make any uh necessary changes uh on an annual basis. Next slide please. Um and that concludes uh the presentation on the local plan. If there are any questions, I'm happy to feel them. Thank you board members. Are there any questions? Go right ahead. Trusty Hernandez. Thank you so much for your presentation. I

194had my question and I lost it. So, um how are we leveraging uh early intervention services and preschool support um as referred in the plan uh to prevent more costly and intensive intervention down the line? Um well, we have a a very strong um preschool program. Our Cameron preschool does an excellent job. Um we also provide response to intervention um at the school age level. um through speech therapy um as well as other services. Um uh we have a uh student success team SST process um and we make many attempts uh to put interventions in place uh prior to moving to um a full assessment and potential qualification for special education. Um so this is a collaboration with um our general education partners um classroom teachers uh site principles um site vice principles as well

195uh um school psychologists counselors etc. Okay, thank you. And then I have another question. Uh in your presentation you mentioned the different partnerships especially with the regional center. um what are we doing as a district to make sure that our families um especially our immigrant families, low-income and those families who English is not their primary language be able to navigate the system and not get lost in the transition from being supported not only by the district by but but also the regional center do what are we doing? It's an excellent question. Um this is a very difficult system to navigate. Um even for u many of us who are uh professional uh educators and special educators who have children with disabilities. Um it it's a difficult system to navigate. So actually um recently had a

196conversation with our parent liaison um and a couple of other uh special education staff that support students at our adult transition program um and discussing the needs that we have to uh support parents um in navigating those systems. Um and and really one of the key factors is starting that process very early. Um uh students with disabilities can receive student uh services up until their 22nd birthday. Um many parents often start seeking out those next uh set of services uh after their child turns 22. They don't start seeking that out until, you know, the child that the young adult is 21 years old. Um thinking that a year or so is plenty of time. And what we're finding is that it's really something that needs to be started much sooner. So, we're working on um

197putting a collaboration together uh with some of our staff um and start to uh put some some workshops and things together and and and support parents um uh as their children are turning 18, as they're moving from high school to the adult transition program, and really helping them to start that process much earlier. uh so that when their their young adult uh ch children do turn 22 years old, they've already got the u they understand the system. They they know what resources and what rights they have. Um and they are able to access those right away and not end up uh waiting much longer after the 22nd birthday. Thank you. I have one more question and I promise it's the last one. um what specific strategies uh are in place to reduce the disproportionality in

198special education identification particularly in our African-American community and Latino students uh in the categories of emotional disturbance or other health impairment. Um excellent question. Um and I I appreciate you asking. It does give me an opportunity to lift up some great work that's happening in our district. Um, one point of clarification, um, this is actually a big win legislatively, I think, for our state. Um, the term, um, emotional disturbance, uh, recently has been replaced by emotional disability because of the, um, uh, the connotations that it had for for young for young people. Um, so this is this is very recent. And so, um, we do still have that disproportionality, um, right now for African-American students in our district. Um, we have a CESACE plan, uh, which we have brought to the board, um, each year

199that, uh, focuses directly on that. We've been having, um, some parent focus groups, um, as well as some some, uh, collaborative, uh, meetings with, uh, site leaders as well as teachers and building that CESA's group to address this issue. Um, one thing I really want to lift up that's that's fantastic is that we are no longer disproportionate um for uh African-American students in in emotional disability um based on a lot of really good work by the uh school psychologists in our in our department and and teachers as well. Um so that's been a a success of our district this year. we do remain disproportionate for other health impairment um as well as discipline and so that's the the work of the CESACE plan um to bring that disproportionality down thank you before we continue I

200would like to extend the meeting to 10:30 to cover the SPS's the public hearing on the engineers report and the last uh deletion of district policy and the consent items May I have a second on that? I'll second. I'm sorry that was very quiet. Yes, I'll second. Can you until what time? Sorry. 10:30. That means no talking, no breaks, just get through the business. Okay. with that. Uh, student trustee Espinosa Jr., yes. Trusty Baron, yes. Trusty Hernandez, yes. Clerk, yes. Trusty Smith, uh, Trusty Gonzalez, sorry. Yes. Trusty Smith Falls. Smith Falls. Yes. And I'm Yes. Okay. Go ahead. Does anybody else have questions on on the presentation? Okay, we'll go to public comment. There's no public comment on the item. Okay, perfect. So, in that case, if we've heard public comment, then I can close

201the public hearing. So, I also want to mention that I started the public hearing at 9:42 and we're ending it at 9:56. Okay. So, with that, I'll accept a motion to uh approve special education annual service plan and special education annual budget plan. I'll move it. I'll second. Okay. So Reckler is the motion and the second is Inana comments. Go right ahead. Thank you so much for your presentation. I think one of the things that I just want to say out loud again is your quote that special education is a service not a place. So, I just want to reiterate that because I think it's so very important and it helps to keep repeating it and keep explaining what it means because it it helps shift the culture. Um, I know as a special education

202parent, just hearing you say that that one time, I was like, "All right, that's it. It it makes a difference in the way that I think about um that I think about special education." So, special education is a service, not a place. Thank you. I'm complete. Okay, we'll go to the vote. Student trustee Espanos Jr. Yes. Trusty Baron, yes. Trusty Hernandez, yes. Clerkyana, yes. Trusty Smith, uh, Trustee Gonzalzoy, yes. Trusty Smiths, Smithfields, yes. And Ammy, yes. As well. Motion passes unanimously. Um, I have just been told that the public hearing on the engineering report is time-sensitive. So, if it's okay if we could just go ahead and do that one first so that we don't run out of time on it. Um, so is it okay with everyone? Okay. So, with that, I am going

203to open a public hearing. I'm opening public hearing on resolution number 2425-97. approving the engineer report, confirming diagram, and ordering the continuation of the levy of assessment for the fiscal year 25 to 26. Uh the board is holding a public hearing to hear any comments from the public regarding the maintenance and recreation assessment district known as EMRAD for 2526. Staff and the engineer will be available to answer questions on the EMRAD. Um after the public hearing board can adopt a resolution approving engineers report confirming diagram and assessment and ordering levy of the assessment for the fiscal year of 2526. So I've opened the public hearing. We'll have a presentation from staff. The board will ask questions. We'll take public comment and then I will close the public hearing. So Miss Payne, go ahead. Thank you.

204Good evening everyone. In the interest of time, I'll just share with you quickly that um the district established the maintenance and recreation assessment district known as EMRAD in 1994. Staff is recommending approval of the engineers report and continuation of the assessment at $72 per single family. um which is the same rate as 1994 going back almost 30 years. Um we're recommending continuing that assessment for next fiscal year 202526 which will provide about $5.6 6 million in revenue that we will use for maintaining essential funding for our community recreational facilities through capital improvements and the maintenance of those facilities. And so tonight we're recommending approval. Thank you. Does anybody have questions? Go ahead and tell us. Thank you. A quick one. Uh thank you Miss Payne. Um, why haven't we seen an increase on the fees

205for EMRAND? It's a great question. Um, part of what we've looked at is there is a calculation of general benefit and special benefit and based on the amount that the district contributes for um maintenance and operations of our grounds throughout our district. were still within compliance for the original um approval uh that dates back to 1994 and then was renewed by voters um almost 20 years ago. And so at this time maintaining that same rate still keeps us within compliance um for this district and really helps us to um maintain the facilities and grounds that we have. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Is there public comment on the item? Yes, we have public comment. Jen Kishner, please unmute yourself. Good morning board on this late evening. I just wanted to say I hope

206that this is the money that they are going to use to help fix the Verie Preschool Head Start TK kindergarten playground. We were without it for over 7 months and right now it's thank goodness because it was unsafe. It's been leveled and our kids need a place to play that isn't rated out of their age group. The other playgrounds got redone last year, but somehow ours was left off because I don't know why, but it became so unsafe they taped it off. They told us we couldn't be on it, and now it's in progress of getting replaced. So, I really, really, really hope we get that soon cuz our babies need it. Thank you. Kai Nielson, please unmute yourself. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, I'll be brief. I'm back. Thank you. Um I just

207I I heard from another I want to advocate for this question of whether other schools and other u geographies are using our our facilities that are being paid for by these funds and are our local kids and community members able to access like the field field at Kennedy uh enough with the funds that they've paid from their their taxes. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who gave public comment. That concludes public hearing at 10:03 p.m. Okay. So, now on to approving the engineering report. I'll accept a motion to approve resolution 2425-97, approving the engineering report. President regular I move resolution number 2425-97. Is there a second? I second. Okay. Hernandez will second. Is there any public comment? I mean a board board comment. Okay. Seeing none, we'll go to

208the vote. Student trustee Espanosa Jr. Yes. Student trustee Baron. Yes. Trusty Hernandez. Yes. Clerk Inana. Yes. Trusty Gonzalez. Yes. Trusty Smith Folds. Smith votes. Yes. And I'm a yes. Motion carries unanimously. Okay. We'll flip back now to uh E5, which is the single plan for student achievement, SPSAS. Good evening again. So tonight we are bringing forward our single plan for student achievement which we more commonly refer to as SPSAS. Next slide. The SPSA is each school's annual roadmap for improving student outcomes and all of our West Contracasta Unified School District schools are required to submit an SPSA to ensure thoughtful planning that aligns to the district priorities and that meets the specific needs of their students. Tonight, we are bringing forward every school's SPSA for approval as a single batch. The full plans are available

209on our district website for public review. And this year, we've also provided a shortened overview for each school's SPSA that highlights their key priorities in a more accessible format. Next slide. So at its core, the SPSA is how each school turns continuous improvement into a focused strategic plan for raising student achievement and how that aligns to our LCAP um to our strategic plan and how it's created in collaboration with educational partners from the school and then approved by those local parent advisory committees. Next slide. This effort is led by school principles and their site teams. And it begins with reviewing the data and analyzing that school level data to determine what the needs are of the students, the effectiveness of past strategies. It leads them to create meaningful goals with aligned metrics and then they

210align activities, strategies and resources to make sure that these goals are met. Next slide. So, as you review the SPSAs for our school sites, you're going to see that all of them follow the same format. They all have narratives that describe the purpose. They have a description of the annual review. They have a description of the achievement strategies, a budget summary, and then they describe their educational partner involvement. Next slide. This year, we paid a lot of attention in really simplifying the process. So their template was more accessible and really focused on what was important. And so this is the format that each of the three goals follows. They identify the need. They create a goal. They align the expected annual measurable outcomes. And then they have the aligned strategies right below it. And some

211of the most common uh strategies that were highlighted among our 52 SPSAs show a commitment to having family night opportunities to build capacity and to celebrate achievement. We saw lots of investments around additional staffing, so funding vice principles, instructional specialists. We also saw a lot of investments around increasing time for classified staff, so secretary and office manager, additional overtime hours, more time for clerks, our school community outreach workers, and more staffing around safety. And so increasing um for example, yard duty hours to ensure that students are safe during unstructured times. We saw extra hours also being invested for certificated staff to be able to provide uh tailored tutoring after school for students. We saw commitment around data analysis and providing allocations for release days and hours for collaboration and conferences. We saw a lot of

212schools uh set aside funding for experiential learning through study trips, materials and supplies and online licenses that align to meeting those goals. And then finally, u many of our school sites did make investments um through the use of contracted services to provide additional mental health support, to provide additional culture climate supports, and to be able to support an enriching um education around the arts. Next slide. All of our strategies and investments are created with input and collaboration from our school site councils. And these are also um returned then with a more final draft and approved um by uh the school site council. And that is a separate vote through the budget as well. Next slide. For our schools that have more than 21 English learners, this exact same process for input is followed um by

213school sites. Next slide. And then finally for West Contraosta, we also have our sites engaged with the African-American parent advisory council um in the SPSA development just like we do for ELAC. Next slide. So all of these engagements um are captured in the notes and agendas of each school site's pack meetings and approvals are also captured on the actual SPSA through signatures from each school site. So you can see that there's a signature for ELAC. Um we also um have the opportunity to be able to add an ILT member, the African advisory committee, and then the SSC um and principal approval is at the bottom of this page to affirm and attest that the process was followed and um that there was a approval from each one of those delegates that the process was um

214done with integrity. I do want to name that all of our school sites being brought forward. So, every single one of them followed the outline process that I just described. However, four schools do have some corrections to make in the fall to be aligned with meeting our federal program monitoring expectations and one school is missing a signature. However, this school did meet all of the requirements for the engagement and approvals. Next slide. And that completes my presentation. Thank you. And I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Great. Thank you so much. Are there any questions on the SPSAS from anyone? I have one. Do you know dollars wise, did schools receive more or less dollars uh than last year? Um the allocation that Oh, and I'm also I'm only talking LCFF. I'm not

215talking all the title one, you know, thingies. Thank you. Um, yes. So, it's $3.8 million. Um, it's the same allocation that we provided schools last year. I'm sorry. Did you say it was the same? 3.8 million. Yes. And, um, Mr. Hart can correct me if I'm incorrect there. Okay. Thank you. No, no other questions on that. Okay. Is there public comment on the SPS? No approval of comment. Okay, I'll accept a motion to approve. President, I move approval of all the SPSAS presented. Great. Is there a second? I'll second it. Uh, are there any com comments on the on it? Go ahead, Trusty Smith Wols. Um, thank you so much for bringing the SPSAS to us in a timely manner. I think that that's a huge leap forward. I also think that um having them

216come together is good, but having a conversation about them separately is also good, right? Because high school SPSAs and elementary school SPS and then our K8 SPSAs, they all kind of offer something a little bit different, right? Also think that it is incredibly important that we build the SPSA from the bottom up. You have to have a strong SSC, which means you have to have a strong parent engagement at your school site to build the pack, right? So, you have to have a strong parent engagement to be to build your AP pack, to build your ELAC that then funnels into your SSC. You have to have a strong SSC to help build a strong SPS. So, I think that um the district is doing very well focusing in on up, down, and down up right

217at every level. and and the result would be a very strong site plan. So, I think we're headed in the right direction. I think we need to give our site principles um more strategies for engagement when it comes to their their parents, especially when you're on the way out like it like our elementary to middle school transition and our middle school to high school transition. How do we tap one principal to say, "Hey, this is a cool parent that I had on the SSC. you may want to reach out to them cuz they're coming to middle school now and they would be willing to help you with your AP pack or your ELAC or to be on your SSC and then to help with your SPSA and then bring teach one reach one right you

218don't want to have the same people doing the same work but having more people uh having a roster I think so um I'm complete thank you thank you any other comments none will go to the vote student trustee Espinosa Jr. Yes. Trusty Baron. Yes. Trusty Hernandez. Yes. Clerk. Yes. Trusty Gonzalez. Soy. Yes. Trusty Smith. Smith Falls. Yes. And I'm a yes as well. Motion carries unanimously. Um I would like to uh table the uh E7 the district specific policy to the July meeting. It's very inconsequential. Spend the time on the consent items if that's okay. Okay. So we'll go back and then just in the okay going back to let's start with um C15 the student travel to China which I feel is the more important item in case the discussion is long. Trusty Smith

219WS would you like to address that? I would like to address C3 because it's really quick. So I could be able to get both of them done. C3 first if I could because it's very quick. Okay. Sure. Um, I pulled C3 and the reason I pulled C3 is I would like to move these reports to the budget subcommittee so it can give the community opportunity to engage with the numbers through comment and by asking questions. Having these reports in consent without a narrative that accompanies them could lead to a misunderstanding and an erosion of trust. Again, it would be my suggestion that we move these particular reports to the budget subcommittee so there's an opportunity for the public to have comment and for there to actually be actually to be a discourse back and forth.

220I'm complete. Okay, great. That's a great suggestion. Would you like to move the item? I would. I'll move item C3. Miss Larry, a second on C3. A second. Okay. So, it's a so cler clerk and any other comments? None. Go to the vote. Student trustee Espinosa Jr. Yes. Student trustee Baron. Yes. Trustee Hernandez. Yes. Clerky, yes. Trusty Gonzalez, yes. Trusty Smiths, Smith Falls is a yes. And I'm a yes as well. Okay, we're up to see 15. So, I pulled this uh item about the student uh study trip to China for a couple of reasons. One, I would like to ask a question of our I would like to ask two questions. So, I pulled it to ask two questions have discussion in a roll call vote. The first question I would like to ask

221is what did our risk manager or managers say about this trip? if I could have an answer to that. Thank you for the question. Um, when evaluating the study trip for approval, we did reach out to our representative from Keenan and Associates, which is our risk management company. Um the recommendations were that um we um if we were to approve this trip that we have families to sign a waiver and release um for out ofstate travel um acknowledging that students will be living with host families that we do not get to screen. Um the second recommendation was that we ensure that everyone has a permission slip and the third is that they have travel insurance. um because of the uh travel overseas. Um there's also a concern raised that there is a um level two

222um advisory regarding this travel um to China. Um but our risk manager advised that if we did these things, we would be able to mitigate some of the risk and the rest is up to the board to decide um what what they're comfortable with. Okay. So what I heard you say was the risk management said risk managers said that here's a list of things that need to be done. If you do those things some of the risk can be mitigated but not all of the risk can be mitigated. And do we know you said that there was a travel advisory of level two? Is there a uh soft warning or a hard warning about traveling to places for example China right now in our current climate? I don't have the advisory pulled up. I will

223look to do that shortly. But if I remember correctly from memory um the travel advisory says to travel um with caution. um so that you should um you know be aware of uh potential um situations that could arise. But it did not say travel is not recommended. It just said that um travel is um h did I just say travel with caution. Travel with caution. Yes. Okay. So those are the questions that I had. I I brought it to a board vote because I don't feel comfortable in the time and stage that we're in with what's going on in the world. What we just the bombs that are just happening, the things that are just happening, the risk management saying that there's still a risk and then the travel saying that it travel with caution.

224It makes me feel very ler to send children under our umbrella of this of a district trip. This is a district trip. If this was an independent trip, fine. And I know that we've had many trips that go outside without under the district umbrella. Grad nights, trips to Washington DC for 8th grade. All of those things are outside the district's control and district liability. This falls under our control and our liability. So that is why I will be voting no. I'm complete. Go ahead. I think my question is just kind of bouncing off of what Trustee Smith folds. What conversations do we have with the parents? Because I know you're saying that we are letting them know that they have to sign certain papers that have to do with the liability, but are we explaining

225to them in full detail what that means? And are because I think there's processes. So if I know there's been China trips before. So are we following the same process or is this a different process with this specific trip that has been planned um versus the previous trips? Thank you for the question. I see that Katherine is back on the line. Katherine worked directly with the administrator to get the approvals for the trip. So I'd like her to address that question as to how community is um how the communications are being um shared with uh parents. Go ahead, Katherine. Yes, thank you so much. Um so I definitely worked with Dr. Peterson who's been um championing this effort for many years, close to a decade now. Um we are following the same protocols but now

226have enhanced them um to be able to make sure that both the district's liability is covered and that our students and staff are um safe because uh 14 of our staff members are going to be attending during their time off. Um there was a mandatory parent orientation um that describes this entire process of how housing um and safety is covered. And then we added per the um advice of our risk manager this affirmative test signature um describing or really um confirming for the district that parents understand the liability and the um risks involved with going on an international trip. And as well we did add that additional um travel insurance that really um you know adds an extra layer of support should something um happen. Okay. I have a follow-up question to that. Are we

227doing this initial um presentation to parents in English or is there other languages that are being included for their understanding? Um I don't have the details of that but like we do any of our parent meetings we we try to provide um families with all of the information. We do have um 60 students that are attending from all over the district um with the highest number attending from Penol Valley. Um but I don't have the information about the specifics of translative or translation services that were provided. My question goes back to the worldwide caution. Um what are we doing to make sure that like what is our plan if there was a disruption like flights can people stuck in a foreign country like how are we going to make sure that our students and staff

228are safe? I I just don't feel comfortable cuz it's what are have we followed up since I'm asking like too many questions at once. Sorry. Have we followed up with our families after this security warning has gone out? That's the first question. Um, thank you for the question and definitely when Dr. Moses um and I checked in with our risk manager, you know, was a a couple weeks ago now and the world looks a little bit different now. And so I think that um there's a lot of questions for sure and they're all um important questions. I do not believe that there's been any additional um conversations with families about the changes of the risk that have happened given um the last changes in the last week. Um so if I can make a comment

229from the US Department travel of the state travel department, China is a level two but it's been a level two since November of 2024. So it hasn't changed recently. It's been that way. Greenland, the UK, Spain, France, Scandinavia, all of those are level two. So, um I'm just saying that. Yeah, but we haven't dropped bombs. We just we haven't dropped bombs in 5 years. the United States of America dropped bombs and I don't know what that would do to travel because I don't know what the response would be if someone retaliates back and you're stuck in if you're in China and someone retaliates back and all flights are grounded or something happens you can go from a two to a three to a four to a yellow to a red like that and what is

230our response what is our backup plan to get kids 60 kids and 14 staff members back here if something happens we are in times that we have never been in in our recent lifetime. So what I'm saying is, is the risk worth it? And for me, it's not worth the risk. So that's just where that's my rebuttal comment. I'm complete and and I understand your concern and I I I I feel your concern. My response was just to when the travel advisory kicked in and it wasn't yesterday, it was in November and many other countries that we would consider allies are also level two including Greenland that you know like who's there like five people. So, thank you. Um I mean I think we're kind of in the discussion section so if it's okay I

231have a comment. Um I I I mean I agree with what the president said actually looked back they they had a advis level two advisory in 203 uh 2023 as well. Um but I also agree with you. I think that we're in a very interesting time in history and I think that right now things are scary not just because of what's happening uh with our involvement in the Middle East but also with heighten certainty with the current uh Trump administration right um and you know travel that is happening as well and whether or people can come back. Um, so I definitely understand your perspective. Uh, understand all your perspective. I'm not really sure where to land on this and we have like three minutes to vote. Um, so um, I would just appreciate if like

232last two minutes if every could give their perspective because I think that would help me on how how to vote. real quick my perspective on this. I want to make sure that our parents understand how and what state we are in right now. I think sometimes, you know, we don't want to induce fear into our communities, but I also believe that people have to have an understanding of what this means, what this looks like, and they have to be really aware that there there there is something happening, right? And I think as a board, we are here to ensure that our students and our teachers and staff are safe. So I just want to throw that out there. I know that, you know, families feel different ways. It hits my families different than it might

233hit someone else's. and that liability issue. But I really want to ensure that we are doing everything we we can possibly do to communicate every risk to our parents and our families and let them be the ones that at the end of the day make that decision for their students. With all that being said, is it okay if we go to a vote and then you can vote last if you want to do that? We could show our preference with our vote. Okay. Student trustee Espinosa Jr. real quick is what's the motion again? Um to Oh, to approve a chip a trip to China. No, sorry, President. Just to clarify, we haven't actually done the motion. Oh, well, on actually on the consent Oh, we actually don't ever really That's right. Sorry. We just like

234move the Right. Right. Okay. So, student trusty Espinosa Jr. I think I got a no. Trusty Baron, no. Trusty Hernandez, no. Clerkana. Come back to me. Trusty Gonzalez. No. Trusty Smith WS. Smith Wells. No. Do you know? No. And Army. Yes. Motion fails. Okay, so that concludes everything but our pulled item. Our next meeting is in July, see here that is July 16th, 2025 right here at Leavana Dejon Middle School and we wish you a very pleasant evening and hope that you enjoy the summer. Congratulations to all our graduates. Congratulations to all our retirees. Congratulations to everybody who was on that page of serving 20 plus years. That's just amazing. And um that's it for the evening. Meeting is called uh to close at 10:29. Thank you.