Board of Education Meeting | February 26, 2025

001good afternoon early evening everyone welcome to the February we need to get the translation figured out that okay I think we're ready to go now good evening to everyone welcome to the February 26 2025 regularly scheduled meeting of the West contracosta Unified School District School Board the meeting is called to order at 5:116 p.m. to access translation in Zoom please click on the globe icon at the bottom of the screen if you are here Deon you may pick up a headset in back of the room the board is about to go into close session but before we do we are here to listen to public comment on closed session items IND wishing to speak on the closed s item we good okay if you're here in the auditorium and you haven't done so yet please

002submit a wccusd public comment card which you can find on the entryway table or if you are participating via Zoom indiv individuals need to raise their hand in the Zoom app if you are accessing the meeting by phone press star n the time allotted to each speaker is 2 minutes the total time allotted is 1 hour speaking time shall not be transferred from one person to another there is also no substitution of speakers we alternate between a zoom comment and an inperson comment the public comment period is a safe space where diverse viewpoints may be expressed Express civy without interruption or intimidation please listen attentively to each speaker's comment and respect their time as if it were your own please be open to a different point of view if one is offered due to the

003brown 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 Clos session agenda tonight are conference with legal council anticipated litigation conference with labor negotiators Public Employee discipline dismissal release complaint Public Employee appointment is there any public comment on these items we have no public comment thank you to all okay thank you we are now adjourning to close session and we will return at 6:30 thank you okay we are good good evening to everyone welcome to the Open session of the regularly scheduled February 26 2025 meeting of the West contracosta Unified School District School Board the board is returning from closed session and I calling Open Session to order at 6:47 p.m. to access translation in Zoom

004please click on the globe icon at the bottom of the screen if you are here in the auditorium and need translation you may pick a headset in the back of the corner of the auditorium in a few minutes we're going to begin with 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 contracosta Unified School District please prepare now for public comment and if you are 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 hand in Zoom app prior

005to the beginning of this item on the agenda if you're participating by phone press star n after your comment card has been turned in the cards are placed in order received and we call on speakers one at a time alternating between a public comment here in desan and one on Zoom public comment generally lasts for one hour the time allotted to each speaker is two minutes in the meantime we are going to move on with the rest of our opening procedures we are now on B2 Pledge of Allegiance if you are willing or able please rise I pledge agents to flag the United States of America and to the rep which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all B3 land labor and body acknowledgement we recognize that we are

006presently on the lands of the chuchin MMA parin aloney peoples and acknowledge them as the first inhabitants of the land we currently occupy land labor and body recognition and 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 the labor of survivors over the centuries to today of all immigrant labor including voluntary involuntary trafficked forest and undocumented peoples in the building of what we refer to as the United States author Dr Michelle Rogers Ard B4 West contracosta Unified School District board anti-racism statement the West Contra costage School District Board

007of Education is committed to the work of anti-racism the conscious and active effort to identify Challenge and correct racial inequities in the systems and institutions within our schools and Community racism explicit or in implicit stands in direct conflict of the fundamental principles of wccusd education to carry WCC 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 of anti-racism as individuals and as board members we challenge ourselves to proce assist through the discomfort necessary for growth and learning to deepen our listening and our examination of racism and oppression and to develop a strong

008understanding 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 nurturing an anti-racist learning environment where each student staff 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 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 contracosta Unified School District staff students and Community to living these standards of anti-racism to living these

009standards of anti-racism in our schools board approved March 20th B5 roll call Dr Moses would you please take rooll thank you trustee Jam Smith folds is absent trusty Gonzalez Hoy good evening present trusty Cynthia Hernandez good evening present president Leslie reckler good evening I'm present clerk Guadalupe inyana good evening pres student trustee Jorge Espinosa Jr good evening pres and student trustee Nikki Baron good evening president that completes the roll call thank you B7 student performance tonight I believe we are going to be listening to oh I'm sorry ratification of Clos session Dr Moses is there a report out from close session yes thank you during close session agenda item a. 2.3 resolution 24 25-55 in close session the board took action to issue notices of release and non- reelection to five certificated administrators and eight

010teachers pursuant to Education Code section 449 92921 effective at the end of the 2425 school year and directed the superintendent or design to send out appropriate legal notices the roll call vote was as followed moved by Gonzalez Hoy seconded by trusty Hernandez uh Anana yes Gonzalez Hoy yes Hernandez yes reckler yes Smith folds absent also uh for resolution 2425 d59 in close session the governing board took action to issue a notice releasing and reassigning the following certificated staff in the following positions coordinator of positive behavior interventions and support director of research and Reporting K12 executive director Elementary K12 instructional specialist Senior High vice principal Elementary assistant principal transition and vice principal K12 instructional specialist Elementary pursuant to Education Code section 4495 one effective at the end of the 2425 school year and directed the superintendent

011or designate to send out appropriate legal notices moved by trusty Gonzalez Hoy second in by Clerk inana and anyana yes Gonzalez Hoy yes trusty Hernandez yes president reckler yes trusty Smith folds absent that concludes the report out great thank you so much and now we're on to student performances and I believe we have some of Betty's Bears here tonight yes good evening president reckler uh clerk andana members of the board and members of the community today we're incredibly excited to have Betty Reed sasin Middle School here and I'm going to welcome principal Jay Irvin to introduce the students got it there we go good evening president reckler board trustees superintendent Dr Moses and cabinet thank you so much for having us here tonight to perform for you my name is Jay Irvin and I am

012the proud principal of Betty Reed sasin middle school before I introduce our amazing music teacher to you I'd like to give a shout out to our community school director Miss kenitra Mitchell she organized wonderful events this month for our Black History Month activities and we still have two more left if you'd like to come over to saskan this week tomorrow night we have a black family game night at 5:00 pm and on Friday we're having our first annual sasin family cookout at lunchtime 11:00 a.m. so please feel free to come over now the stars of the show I'd like to introduce our fabulous music teacher Miss Claire helberger okay try it again there we go okay um hi everybody uh my name is Claire helberger um I am the music teacher at FY re sasin

013middle school and this is our Advanced band um thank you so much to the school board for for having us we are honored to be here uh performing lift every voice and sing also known as the black national anthem in celebration of Black History Month um we hope yay um we hope that you enjoy our performance um and we also hope that as you listen you reflect on the importance of music and the arts for our students and for society as a whole we hope to remind you that if you want Performing Arts programs you need to invest in them the proposed cuts for next year will gut our music and arts programs districtwide if these Cuts go forward this program and others like it the per programs whose performances you take so much pride

014in will vanish and every student in the district will be the worse for it our school's FTE allowance for next year allows for very minimal electives if these Cuts go forward this program will not exist next year that is what you are voting for tonight I hope that you keep that in mind please enjoy lift every voice and sing e e e okay we're going to start public comments in just a minute but I need a zoom check an audio Zoom check we're hearing that there is not sound on Zoom can someone in the tech World help me with that can we hear on can we hear on Zoom okay I'm getting the thumbs up that we can hear on Zoom okay thank you very much everyone okay B8 we're going to move on to

015public comment now okay B8 public comment 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 contracosta Unified School District public comment will last approximately 1 hour so that would be at 8:05 ending the time allotted to each speaker is 2 minutes should additional [Music] speakers uh remain beyond the first hour generally uh public comment may be extended the time allotted after the first hour is generally one minute individuals wishing to speak please submit a wccusd public comment card or participating via Zoom individuals will need to raise their hand in the Zoom app prior to the beginning of the item on the agenda if you are calling in by phone press star n speaking

016time shall not be transferred from one person to another there is no substitution of speakers speakers can also make public comment again for each discussion and action item on the agenda and after staff presentations 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 viewpoints may be expressively without interruption or intimidation please listen attentively to each speaker's comment and respect their time at the podium as if that it was your own be open to a different point of view if one is presented due to the brown act board members cannot discuss items that are not on the agenda and do not usually respond to the items presented in public comment is there any public comment our first

017public communist Michelle Jackson thank you and to our Board of Trustees and to our interim superintendent Dr Moss and this array of Administrators sitting to my right and the community of the West contracosta Unified School District it is indeed a pleasure to come before you tonight to Simply say thank you I want to thank the administrators and the board for unanimously voting to rebuild stge Elementary School it brings joy to our hearts that we are able to work in as partners with the school district to make our vision a reality again my name is Michelle Jackson for the record I am the chair of the education committee for the eleral branch of the NAACP and a member of St Peter Christian Methodist Episcopal Church that worked so hard to get this done uh the only

018African-American church in the city of elero we stand ready with the staff with uh Melissa and all of the staff to work as partners to make sure that the community's voice is heard we are pleased with the progress and when we pass by stge now we know that it's boarded it's got a little graffiti on it but that's temporary so we are so happy to be able to build a new school in this day and age when there's so much much that we've learned so much that we can do to make sure that the students the teachers and staff at steg elementary school will experience the best learning environment ever so thank you so much again and I'm just so pleased on behalf of our entire eshore Community thanks our next public comment is Christina

019wer please unmute yourself hello can you hear me yes we can thank you uh my name is Christina wera and I teach Spanish at Kennedy High School um and I honestly cannot believe that after the cuts that the board approved a few weeks ago we're here again how can wccusd leaders leadership not see that proposing to cut over 70 certificated positions and over 80 classified positions is going to hurt students maybe we all need a little reminder that we are in education because we want to work with students and we want to help them achieve their goals they cannot do that if their schools are not fully staffed and they don't have access to the services that they need at Kennedy we do what we can with the staff that we have but from the

020time that I started at Kennedy 12 years ago we lost an art position a French position a Spanish position a science position an English position last year we lost our Scout position and losing staff year after year hurts our families it hurts our students it hurts our community what is it going to take for wccusd to understand that we need fully staffed schools in order to provide our students the best learning experience because they deserve the best and we are failing them as a district time and time again the Board needs to do the right thing tonight and vote to reject these cuts and I invite the board to come to Kennedy and check out the amazing programs that we need to keep intact for our students to be successful come by and check out

021our welding our art our music programs find out about the greaty that we offer for our very diverse student population and their interest I invite all board members to come but especially wal Lupe and Yana who serves area 2 Kennedy and all other wccusd sites cannot afford any more Cuts I urge the board to do the right thing vote no on the cuts and push for fiscal transparency wccusd needs to justify every dollar before they continue attacking schools and trying to cut positions thank you our next public comment is Don gney good evening I had the opportunity last last night to be at the Richmond city council meeting where a couple of the council members invited their political Partners to make a presentation to the council to seek assistance with their contract negotiations with this

022school district this was a novel idea most elected bodies refrain from stepping into the arena controlled by another elected body it's often seen as bad form never nonetheless our friends and allies with utr at all and a had a 1 hour and 14-minute presentation complete with public comments uh followed by questions and comments from the council members while this technique is usually round upon the one thing it did was allow one party to to these negotiations to actually speak without staring into a countdown clock they were allowed the time to actually make presentations without being rushed and then there was an opportunity for an actual discussion this is one area where this board might want to rethink how they conduct business everything is so stiff and structured and nobody can have an actual discussion we

023see this with the joint meetings between the board and the CBO see where even though we're sitting at the same table we're not allowed to actually speak with each other few years back when I was CB chair I was actually silenced by the board president for follow failing to follow his rules it didn't sit well then and it doesn't sit well now I've sat on the gazillion contract negotiations and found when there's an open lines of communication we were always able to find Common Ground what we have as a three-legged stool with the district the employees and their clients and the 268,000 people in West count Costa County they each represent one leg of that stool what we have is a symbiotic relationship with each other and when even when one leg of that stool

024gets a little wobbly and the stool doesn't work well and usually collapses with all three legs crumbling is that your goal total collapse how about you quit these games and learn how to talk with each other to find a solution to our problem and quit these political games it makes you look bad as in my own Union we're fond of the slogan united we stand divided we fall later tonight I have will have last night's YouTube link and the transcript made available for dist distribution it makes for some interesting but exasperating viewing but it's worth the watch by the way to our next public comment is Maisha Harris gash please unmute yourself good evening um so I'm gonna piggy I'm Maisha Harris gash I work at Kennedy High School I'm gonna like piggyback on my

025coworker uh miss wtha about um our area trustee coming to Kennedy my kids are used to their trustee coming and speaking with them um because they are the constituents how do you know how a school Works function is dysfunction if you don't you know come to where the children are so I also welcome um our area I think area 2 trustee um to come to Kennedy High School and speak with our students Miss gash is in portable number 27 um also this is just a exhausting you know I've been in the district for almost 20 years we paid off the debt early um but it's just like it's exhausting to go through this again so I just want to say it's just exhausting I also want to give a shout out um to my kids

026we're back after the break we're in quarter three for my babies who were freshmen when they came when we came out of Co they're seniors now and so I'm just taking in every moment that I have with them because they were these babyfaced kids and now you know hair on their face voices deep young ladies are just looking more mature and so I mean y'all know I'm 10 toes down for my kids um and so with all that being said I know there are tough times please keep the students first and please validate us Educators who are boots on the ground in the trenches each and every day with our kids so everybody have a wonderfully blessed night and until next time our next public common is Sky Nelson press little face that's good yes

027okay thank you my name is Sky Nelson for the record I agree with the previous speaker that communication could be better back and forth and that's really your job as the as as a district office um I was at many of the meetings for the superintendent listening sessions and a lot of feedback from parents and Community was like we hear from you but you don't really hear from us and when we do give you feedback we don't see the results so back and forth is important I'm a teacher and a parent in the district for the last two years at ELO High School I came because my family got an exchange student from Germany a junior and she enrolled in Elso high school and we had a great experience she loved it so my daughter

028was at eighth grade at the time and enrolled in elero the next year and we've been very very happy uh there was no physics teacher and that's my my job professionally so I stepped in and I stepped in for a teacher that was a long-term sub doing worksheets every day they didn't have the expertise they would did a great job very qualified to teach kids but not physics I got to come in I took over doing lab every other day twice three times a week we do Labs Hands-On stuff for basically no budget because the Exploratorium just down the street has resources for us we can build machines out of paper to paper towel rolls and uh you know tin foil and batteries so we can do a lot with very little I think the

029students love the class I can't do that with a the half half block we need the the long blocks and not everyone agrees with the long blocks at my school but we need self-determination to make that happen we need need to decide for ourselves how we operate Jack H Huey by the way is my my uh student came into my classroom and said I want to do the science fair I said okay he won first place uh Nation countywide so thanks Jack Huey and John iaki for doing that we need we need the schedules to be self-determined by us and thank you very much our next public comment arelio choa please unmute yourself please unmute yourself next public comment is David Bilo please unmute yourself I wanted to uh say thank you to the board

030members who uh have taken and will take difficult votes uh to maintain local control by voting for the unfortunate reductions uh required to meet the fiscal solvency plan the only way we can protect uh all of our kids and especially our most vulnerable ones is to maintain local control if the state takes over they will take an absolute Hatchet and slash jobs and close schools and they will do a definite lasting damage to our district we cannot let this happen I also wanted to address the two board members who have been on the budget committee for the last year and who were involved in a deep dive into the budget and also had a hand in deciding which programs and Personnel are going to be cut in these recent votes this was important work and

031for the sake of transparency the community deserves to hear directly from you both a clear confirmation of the fiscal reality of the district and a clear explanation for how it was determined where Cuts were going to be directed it is an abdication of your responsibility to be deeply involved in this work but to then abstain or not be present when it comes time to vote and to not stand behind the work that you did publicly having listened to virtually every budget committee meeting and poured over a lot of the materials myself it is highly disappointing to hear highly inaccurate numbers regarding the budget being put into the public sphere after they have been repeatedly debunked in committee meetings the sad reality is that we do not get enough money from the state to maintain the

0326% increase in Staffing over the last 5 years since over that same time span we've had a 10% drop in enrollment and a significant drop in attendance it's important that we direct our passion and anger at the right source which is The Chronic underfunding from the state of California and also the outsize impact of the public charters on districts like ours I hope the board can pursue plans directed towards increasing Revenue via either intendance or enrollment increases in the future to limit future Cuts as much as possible thanks next public common is promise Rose hello this is promise Rose from Betty Reed San Middle School I want to First say thank you to miss Mosley for coming to the district science fair award ceremony that really did show a presence of people paying attention to

033our students next I'd like to ask you to think about the budget As you move forward this year we lost our very important and only scow who was our translator from many of the students and teachers to make better Communications and con connections without her much of the heart of our school that connects us to our latinx community is G we have a sad separation of that and now looking at what has been sent out with 93 positions or 93 FTE being taken possibly taken what I am seeing with extrapolation is the fact that you are going to be gutting either several k8s or all the electives you have just seen a phenomenal performance of electives and I would like you to really think think about at this age they need their art they need

034their science they need I mean Spanish their mandrin their uh all of these music to be expressive because we are pushing them into a position of being strict Learners they need their Outlets I also would like you to think about if you do take these away we have positions such that are being subbed for the entire year and those students beg me to tutor them because they have no clue what's going on that is unfair to them as your constituents thank you our next public comment is Clara Akerman please unmute yourself hi can you hear me yes we can all right thank you um I want to agree with everyone who has spoken out against the cuts um from ethical points of view but also want to pose the question how could it possibly be

035the case that just two weeks after drastic Cuts were proposed we suddenly need to cut around 50 more positions plus a number of classified positions what is the explanation for that and why is no one heard any explanation before it was suddenly dumped on us yesterday um I also want to know um what exact who exactly is being cut Kim Moses has spent sent multiple emails to all parents in the district telling us that you know that no one is going to lose their job does that mean vacant positions will be cut that doesn't make sense because the district doesn't need to approve cuts to get rid of vacant positions is it that contractors will be cut that means that those kids for example I am a speech therapist for the district those kids will

036be distributed among other speech therapists workloads will increase not necessarily with any pay that is not something that you know kids are already not getting their speech services appropriately either they're being given in a manner that's not appropriate because there are too many kids in a group or they're literally on a wait list and not getting served or me services are being missed in order to hold IEP meetings or complete paperwork due to the high case loads similar things I'm sure are happening for teachers and psychologists with over uh burdened workload and inappropriate or non-existent services this is not acceptable and it's not even legal idea is a federally mandated law that requires students to get these Services um so what is you know what is your plan to make sure that students get their

037services also to the point about we don't want to have a a state takeover yes we do need to urge the state for more Revenue absolutely absolutely it's not an either or we can both use funds that exist such as fund 17 to pay for services also restricted funding can uh not fund everything but it can fund a number of things in special education and we can also demand more money from the state and demand a stable funding source instead of ADA being the basis of our funding source that not only is unstable it also results in them begging kids to come to school sick even with Co and many other dangerous respiratory viruses running around thank you our next public comment is Jesse Bonia good evening they working I'm here to uh what's this

038on behalf of the residents of Burke Avenue across the street from John F Kennedy High School where there are 13 portable buildings each with their own h Pac units that face the residence we're requesting that this equip this equipment be off during nons school days especially weekends and holidays right now as I speak there is one unit in the middle that has malfunction and has been on 24 hours continuously for the last seven days and at nights can be heard within our homes thank you next public common is Christina counts please unmute yourself good evening my name is Christina C I am a proud graduate of elero high school and I'm currently a teacher at Betty Reed sasian Middle School where I teach College and Career and Fabrication and engineering and I'm also a parent

039and I have a child enrolled in our schools I've dedicated my adult life to enriching this community working in various roles across the district and partnering with nonprofits to continue being able to afford to serve in this community and recently I've invested my own time and money to become a credential teacher for more permanence to be able to support my community today I learned my position along with a lot of other elective positions are at risk at being cut I have been asked time and time again why I keep working in this district and truthfully it's because this is my community however I am now questioning whether or not to even keep my daughter in this District this District had showed me that it does not value it did not value me as a student

040when I attended here I continue it for I continue to fight for it to Value me as a teacher and now as a parent I'm fighting for you not to cut these teaching positions because it will show us that you do not value our children and their future either we are here to invest in the future of our community in the future of our children and the future of the areas that we serve I urge you all to vote no on these Cuts I and families who are listening teachers who are listening I urge you to demand what is best for us our community and our children because we as a community deserve so much more it is unfair that this has been happening for the last 15 years and it is time that we

041think of new Solutions instead of trying to repair the problems with Band-Aids thank you our next public communist Kelly Cari good evening board trustees superintendent Moses and cabinet members my name is Kelly KY and I am proud kindergarten teacher at per K school I am here tonight because the proposed Staffing reductions don't add up not in numbers and certainly not in Impact we are being told that 43.25 full time positions must be cut to meet the fiscal solvency plan we also hear that there are 189 vacancies in our district if we have so many unfilled positions why are we cutting even more where is the logic in removing a essal staff when we are already stretched too thin these Cuts won't just be in numbers on a spreadsheet they will be real people Educators support

042staff Specialists who make our schools whole they will be students losing the stability and support they need to thrive they will be kindergarteners like mine whose first experience in education should be full of wonder and opportunity not uncertainty and loss we are told told that funding shifts might allow some positions to be restored but how many times have we heard that before how many talented dedicated Educators have we lost to the cycle of instability our children do not have the luxury of waiting for us to figure this out they need us to make the right decisions now I urge you do not move forward with these devastating Cuts find another way when we cut Educators we rip away opportunities from our students weaken our schools and undermine our future this is a cost too great

043a risk too high and a mistake that cannot be made our students deserve better do the right thing thank you our next public comment is Maria rendes please unmute yourself good evening board I urge you tonight to go back to the drawing board and reconsider the teacher cuts it is irresponsible to cut teachers the message that we're sending contradicts our goal of retaining staff and valuing experience which is what we say when we're trying to go out and recruit staff we continue to create this we continue this visous cycle of creating programs that have no consistency and continue to get dismantle one they are created how can administrators plan for the sites with confidence and vision to attract families with no electives for example I want to remind you that it is Middle School where

044we lose most of our student population please say no to teacher Gods thank you our next public comment is Mark Mitchell good evening uh president reckler and uh superintendent Moses um the teachers hearts are broken um and the students that they served particularly in the secondary school level their hearts are broken as well we ask you to reconsider um what the what's before you tonight because it's not necessary and it's not based on accurate numbers we know that every year the projections issued by the district are wrong and they're not off by a little they're off by a lot they're off by millions and millions of dollars the average error in projecting of revenue for the last four years of this district has been 14% so if 14% has been underprojected as far as Revenue

045every year this year we are to receive an additional 67 million in income which solves the the alleged crisis there's no need to make these Cuts because we're not basing the projections on accurate levels of Revenue and we're not basing it on accurate levels of expenditures we're counting hundreds and hundreds of ghost employees as though they exist it's act it's like we're living in Mexico under the political party the pre where they had ghost employees pulling full salaries for years that's what's happening in West Contra Costa but there are no employees in those ghost positions we need to quit faking it and acting like those positions are filled or that they're going to be filled because our district is unstaffed currently um the bargaining unit salaries in the first interim are inflated by $7 million

046over what you budgeted for there's no way that can be accurate because the teachers have not received a raise and we have fewer teachers teaching in this District than ever before to say that the projection of $7 million over budget is accurate is crazy so the other thing is we were told at 26 positions going to be cut then the resolution said 75 and then Dr Moses sent out a a communication today saying 43 and then the Communications Department sent on a parent Square saying no Cuts what's going on nobody knows our next public commment is arel kinbom please unmute yourself good evening board president reckler cler andana board trustee and esteemed members of The District staff my name is Ariel kersen bom and I'm the proud coordinator of Career Technical education programs or CTE

047I'm here tonight because seven CTE positions are to be voted on to be cut and in the honor of the CTE teachers that I support I want to take a moment to share some of the incredible work that our CTE teachers do every day in our schools teaching students about jobs and careers giving them a real answer to the age-old question of when will I ever use this just yesterday I visited a school health Academy where one of the teachers shared that a couple weeks ago she had her braces removed by a student who graduated from the program last year like last year student was in her mouth taking her braces out and she had gotten that job because of the industry certifications and experiences that she had had in the academy in our Middle

048School College and Career lab classes our CTE teachers lead 100% Hands-On Labs where every day middle school students rotate through stations in over 18 career Industries practicing how to take blood pressure learning how an engine works taking fingerprints and more just this year CTE teachers have scheduled over 40 field trips to locations where they get to see themselves in potential Futures like at Tesla Chevron Kaiser violia water video game developer conference trades apprentic tours and more I know we need to make Cuts I was a high school math teacher I know the math isn't mathing and cuts need to be made I understand that but I'm very concerned that as a district we might be shying away from some of the more difficult decisions that no school board ever wants to make in exchange for

049keeping every school open but running them so extremely lean that they all end up starving and can't keep programs like the amazing student performance we heard earlier or the career preparation programs that expose students to careers they might not otherwise have known about or seen themselves in we know daily attendance is what brings in funding for schools but which courses get kids up out of B in the morning to show up to school thank you so much next public comment is Kim Chamberlain T people up here good evening I'm Kimberly Chamberlain ifpte Local 21 SSA chapter president um I agree with a lot of my my colleagues have said tonight one of the biggest was looking at the board cuts the the nice little list today and going through it actually I looked at it

050on Monday and I'm going through everything and I said wow didn't know about that one wow that's a change shocking um one of the key purposes of our district and I've heard it here a couple of times this evening and I don't think think I can um say it enough is communication is important why is it important because it helps people connect share ideas and solve problems it can help build relationships avoid misund understandings improve productivity isn't that what we tell students if you communicate with us we will help you and assist you with your future isn't that what we tell our fellow employees are comrades and arms that we are basically working with every day to support students and staff that if you communicate we will work in a more productive manner this district

051is not communicating I'm sick and tired of it I cannot support my team I cannot support my students in this district and I cannot support you if we don't have some better communication it is lacking and it's dis it's disrespectful thank you the next public comment is Donna please unmute yourself please unmute yourself next public comment is J kinster please unmute yourself good morning oh good morning good evening um board my name is Shen kener I teach at birdie Elementary um according to the union teacher costs are overestimated Revenue received is underestimated and this is confirmed by the ebo to be accurate we have a lot of vacant positions that cost you nothing there's no one in them Subs are cheaper than teachers how are our costs going up I'm also wondering Mr Phillips I

052don't know a year or so ago maybe two asked about Cola what percentage of their budget goes to certificated staff expenses does the same percentage of the cola budget actually go to certificated C staff expenses your employees deserve better yourent par s deserve better the communities deserve better the students deserve better you need to do the right thing and be transparent and talk to us show us real numbers please delay the vote until you can research and verify this pattern of inconsistency in the numbers if you vote vote no if you vote Yes then keep your eyes open to see when the teacher cart suddenly reduced and the district funding is suddenly increased but of course that will happen after the layoffs have happened and are like oh we can't stop them now another question

053I have is about the restricted and unrestricted money yes unrestricted money somehow gets moved onto the restricted side but then we're told oh no no it's restricted it's for special things and it is but doesn't that only mean for the money that originated on the restricted side is for special things and when you kind of take from the unrestricted side and move of it over that can kind of go back can it but that doesn't ever really seem to be what's going on I don't know it's a little crazy maybe there's some new math going on or something but please communicate with us please be transparent and please tell the community the staff the te tell every next public comment is Gabrielle Micheletti good evening president reckler Clerk inana and trustees I'm here tonight with

054a simple request please slow things down and look into the districts numbers yourself the UN audited actuals are available on the district website the information being put out into the community is inconsistent and I fear that this decision to make Cuts is being made hastily based upon fear tactics chaos and confusion for example as I look at the county letters sent out to the community today I see a chart labeled unrestricted general fund Plus fund 17 reserves it does not in fact actually include the fund 17 reserves because fund 17 had $35 million and $37 million in 2223 and 23 24 respectively yet they are claiming reserves of less than 30 million in both years I see claims of the need to cut positions because funded by uncertain grants yet I see in that same

055county letter that these grants do not expire until 2026 and 2028 I'm appalled to think that we will pull support for literacy because the funds are uncertain past 2028 Please be aware that investors in the private prison industry make decisions for the future based upon the literacy rates of third graders I see emails from the district saying that they are not cutting any people only vacancies yet when we asked for verification of this we're told that this cannot yet be guaranteed I see a plan to cut 12.2 project and program assistance when there are only seven vacancies and cut seven CTE Educators when there's only slightly over one vacancy we've gone from being told cuts of .6 are necessary to our bargaining unit and a few weeks later it's 75 then the email that went

056out to the public today listed 43 How can any decision be made on constantly changing information let alone a div decision that impacts tens of thousands of students the escalating chaos of this district is only furthering the crisis and recruiting and retaining Educators and it's unrealistic to expect students to increase their attendance in such a tumultuous atmosphere asking you to be the ones to stand up and put a pause in this Mayhem use your Authority and power as a board to slow SL things down provide direction to be given solid consistent information and our next public comment is Joy di Nora please unmute yourself hi everyone my name is mix Joy I am a Richmond High School alumni and currently a DLI teacher at Downer Elementary I'm here to oppose the proposed cuts to teaching

057positions in student support services this is not a budget crisis it is a of priorities the district has the money to prevent these Cuts yet it's choosing austerity over investment in our students wccd is sitting on millions in reserves while cutting critical positions increasing class sizes and destabilizing our schools instead of addressing the vacant educator positions the district is making unnecessary reductions that will worsen our school experiences and students ability to learn in school this plan contradicts WCC usd's own Equity policies and creates long-term damage larger class sizes fewer Educators and reduced student services will drive more families away and create more harm in our community the district must stop using manipulated budget projections to justify cuts and instead invest in stability retention and Student Success I urge you to reject these cuts and use

058the district's available funds to fully staff our schools support Educators and protect students thank you our next public comment is Sam clear good evening this is my eighth year in the district and it is heartbreaking to witness how leadership's decisions disadvantage our students students are experiencing unspeakable damage towards their education every day on a typical day at stge I would often receive over 10 extra student students due to the vacancy crisis without the proper space students would be crowded at desks or have to find spots on carpets imagine coming to school each day and not knowing where you will go or who will take care of you imagine not having a teacher for your first year of school ever and then continuing to go each year wondering if you'll have a teacher waiting for you

059at the door each year it was common to work with students that went without a teacher the year before or even for multiple years I can't describe how this lack of stability influenc these students and families I never went through a full year where we started and ended with a fully staffed School unfortunately the vacancy crisis continues to impact these students as they go to middle school and then high school they may be put in a library or gym with nowhere to go or Miss core classes how would you feel if instead of focusing on your studies in college you had to to figure out where to go or even if you'll have a place to sit how would you feel if you had to wonder if you could take the classes you need to

060graduate the message to these students is clear their educational experience and rights are currently not respected or protected in our in our school district we need to fight against future cuts and focus on today's students students may come and go from this District but their experiences will impact them forever even if you resend these cuts you are breaking your relationships with these Educators students will continue to suffer from the vacancy crisis if we disrespect our school communities thank you our next public comment is Zach Porter please unmute yourself hi can you hear me yes okay um my name is Zach Porter I'm an English teacher and a theater teacher at uh johnf Kennedy High School um I want to Echo the comments of all the teachers that spoke both at Kennedy and otherwise and just

061urge you to stop hiding behind uh this flawed but budget uh the news of the cuts has really been devastating to our staff um it's incredibly demoralizing um and it's just quite frankly an insult to our profession um and everything that Kennedy that we've been working towards um and what's worse is it's just going to have a Ral effect for years to come on our students so many opportunities are going to be stolen from students please reconsider these cruel austerity measures um thank you our next public communist Francis gorti good evening board members intern superintendent Moses and community members tonight I urge you to vote no on the resolutions because the district is fa in its fundamental duty to provide clear consistent and truthful information how can you and good conscious cast a vote that

062will impact hundreds of Educators staff and ultimately thousands of students when the numbers you've been given keep changing the reductions you approved were 26 last Thursday the community were told there would be no teacher layoffs the district stood before the community and made that promise in writing but now we're looking at 75 utr positions being reduced and 83 classified positions being eliminated and then just today a new communication went out stating that only 43 reductions would occur which is it what are you really voting on this level of mismanagement and confusion is unacceptable it is dangerous our students and our schools and our Educators deserve better than the chaos that is ensuing right right now this district is already struggling with massive vacancies High turnover and low morale instead of solving these problems district is

063making it worse issuing contradictory statements blindsiding Educators and destabilizing schools even further let's be clear a yes vote tonight is a vote for more instability more chaos and more harm to our students how can you vote with confidence when the district itself cannot provide clear and accurate members how can we trust leadership of a district that cannot even communic a basic budget decision without shifting stories enough is enough our students deserve better thank you our next public communist Crystal benan please unmute yourself can you hear me yes wonderful thank you good evening everyone I wanted to uh speak tonight to remind everyone that there is a um there a public comment period right now for our next superintendent there is a survey on the district's website I urge everyone who hasn't already to go to

064the district website and let your voice be heard in the survey about what we want in our next superintendent there's also a town hall meeting um that is virtual that's happening tomorrow um tomorrow evening at um 6 it's from 6:00 to 7: you can find that information on the district website as well please please let them know that we want a superintendent that does not copy and Pac budgets we want a superintendent who does not run and hide when things get hot and heavy right we want a superintendent that will talk to us and who can answer emails and doesn't hide behind the school board since we're talking about the school board board members I want to remind you that these are the people who voted you into your positions that you're talking to student

065trustees I urge you to talk to the students who are underrepresented talk to the students who don't come to school because they don't have any reason to be joyous at school talk to the real kids that are being damaged by what's going on in this District um board members again we voted you on to make a difference okay the shift in power on the board should have been a good thing so even if you're gonna vote Yes or whatever respond to emails respond to phone calls talk to the people who voted you in thank you our next public comment is Victor Ward good evening board and superintendent uh I wanted to start off with a thank you I know it's a difficult job that you have so thank you for giving us the opportunity to

066speak and thank you for listening um I wanted to mention that my company has something called real time which is a digital video yearbook which allows students and teachers and parents and administrators to upload their own memories their own music their own photos their own videos and then they can download so it transforms their traditional yearbook from a oniz fits all to something that's really personal and memorable um I want to tell you a quick story about 30 years ago I was a long-term sub in Oakland Unified and his graduation I had a fifth grade classroom and all the students are singing I Believe I Can Fly and it was a great time you know people are crying I'm crying but the funny thing about that is graduation is the happiest time of the year

067and it's missed by every single yearbook uh we had a great Orchestra presentation um they get a page in the yearbook that doesn't do justice to to that class to that teacher uh the traditional yearbook I'm not suggesting that we get rid of the traditional yearbook but I'm saying to do justice to the to the Arts programs to do to do justice to music programs to sports programs to any type of mock trial or speaking you need to do something that is 2025 not using 1825 material uh and the last thing that I would say is um the your book traditionally is a fundraiser and if you use the video yearbook properly you know it's not going to save all of the job Cuts but it will save some thank you very much our next

068public comment is Eric and Lindsay jebson please unmute yourself thank you um I just want to repeat a couple things that have already been said um I think there many examples of this with the numbers that we've received from people at the district offices but one of the most striking ones is the number of um cuts to staff that are coming is it 26 is it 0er is it 75 is it 43 we've heard all those numbers within the last month I just want to remind the board that you're the boss like because you were chosen by the people and if you can't get straight information from the district a as has been pointed out the information is available it's online the one time a year that the district has to tell the truth those

069numbers are available online and there are other reasonable sources to reach out to to get analysis if if you feel um lost and unable to do it yourself but we are counting on you as your constituents we are your constituents we hired you and you're the boss so please please behave like the boss thank you very much our next public comment is Mitsy Paris Carl board members and superintendent most of you know who I am but in case you don't my name is MIT pesado I'm a lifelong Richmond resident a WCC Alum and an 8-year CTE teacher at Kennedy High I love Richmond I love being a teacher and I love being an eagle I am absolutely heart broken that I and other CTE teachers are potentially on The Chopping Block in my eight years

070I start each class by surrounding students with their heroes in their classroom students are surrounded by 200 of their most inspirational chosen people they set the guidelines for their class I have 14 student made playlists saved to allow students to feel ownership of the class environment students learn how to make videos animation Graphics video games code Capstone projects over my eight years teaching about 500 students have received college credit for Community College and State schools about 90% of students in the information Technology Academy graduate I have poured my heart and soul into my teaching career and I cannot believe it might be it might come to an end because of your lack of priorities students need programs like ITA I am beyond disappointed this is such a disservice to them your work is meant to

071be student centered show the proof of that in negotiations vote no on cuts our next public commment is Theon Harrison please unmute yourself can you guys hear me yes uh good evening board happy Black History Month um I just want to share I visited Mount Talis black history event and it was awesome SAU it was really well attended a lot of good people were there Good Vibes were there and I just wanted to give a shout out to the parents over there at Mount talvin and the principal and all the staff that really supported the parents in making that happen and also I seen and um our newsletter our superintended uh talked about making sure that our ssc's are going well I think the principles need a little bit more support around that and I'm

072hoping that someone is supporting with the checks and balances and what's going on with the sites uh School site councils because quite a few of them are not operating as they should and they're not um bringing budgets they're not giving information that parents need to be advising on what services and resources are happening at our school sites so I'm urging our intended to make sure that um the staff supports our principles in staying in compliance with state that they're supposed to do at our school site councils so that we can have effective resources and programs and services for our children and I also would like the board to look in the process of our vendors that come to service our children and why is that taking so long why is that process so discombobulated and

073it's been that way for several years and it doesn't have to be we can set up a smooth transition in our programs where our vendors can service our kids starting the be beginning of school the school year and not have to wait till January I'm complete thank you and our last public comment is Shae vanau good evening board um superintendent Moses um lesie rexler president um I don't even know why I brought this phone up here because I never follow what I write but so I'm just going to make this short um to the new elected board members build your own relationships come familiar with your state coders it's okay to say wait a minute I don't understand this it's okay to say let's get a second opinion it's okay to put students first I

074come to you today to ask you to vote no on layoffs I just want to say that I miss the transparency that Teamsters used to have with cabinet I have yet to meet the new CBO I have not had one conversation with the superintendent and it's very unfortunate because I thought that we were in a space to where we can be transparent and that relationship is dwindled away so I just wanted to just say that just put the students first we need the staff we need people to clean we need people to take care of special ed we need teachers these children future depends on a no vote thank you next public comment is Sam Senate the bong please unmute yourself I'm here to speak for the caller that got muted this is not Sam

075I'm sorry are you Mr Nelson I am yes I believe you already made public comments the caller that got muted was cut off I'm sorry I can't hear you there was a caller that got muted that was cut off that was my wife what's the name Dana you said Donna Nelson Isaac's she got cut off can you check she's gone she she she lost a family member member today and I worked hard to get her here thank you we've got it thank you she was cut off we we understand that I believe we have her she dropped I like to speak to that she's not going to be able to speak she had to leave so if there's no substitution of speakers hold on we're working on it folks you are removed from from the

076people I'm not able to hear if you're talking so if it's okay if you take a moment and just let me solve the issue thank you I'm just GNA wait for my turn go ahead hello hello my name is uh Sam santone I have a a special needs son that's been in home school with the district for about three years now and this is the first time I'm hearing that potentially our speech therapists our OT our PT is also could possibly be cut as well and I was very very uh unhappy to hear these things it's a struggle enough for my son to want to go to school when he can't but it's also another struggle when there's resources here that the school has funding and reserves for special programs and they are unwilling to

077utilize it the way that it's been allocated so from my understanding here there is money for these special programs specifically for special education that should not be tampered with and be used for something different outside from that and I wish I can my son can go to school like every other kid but we are bounded by in home and for my son to be short changed already because of a disability is now further disability to be even to compete with other children when you you guys are figuring out trying to cut resources what we already are limited and I'm not a happy parent being in this District you drive to make this this District better but you're going to drive families like us away that's all I have we're trying to get the other speaker

078the speaker is gone okay so if the speaker is able to come back for the item then we will give the speaker two minutes okay thank you everyone who gave public comment we are moving now to B9 which is aenda review and adoption do any board members have anything on this so I do right after opening procedures I would like to pull up eaction items and I would like to reorder the action items number three would become number one number four would become number two number one would become number three and number two would become number four and then I would like to move up discussion items after that so that we can hear from leadership and then proceed on with the superintendent report and leaving business uh I was at the end is that

079okay are there any objections to that seeing none that was what we will do as soon as we're done with opening procedures moving now to B10 approval of minutes January 8 2025 does anybody have any corrections to the minutes of January 8th 2025 seeing none the minutes will be adopted as presented moving now to B 11 resolution number 2425 d57 disability awareness month March 2025 Mr Guthrie I believe this is your item or Miss Forest both of you uh I'll be reading this thank you now therefore be it resolved that the West kraasa Unified School District Board of Education proclaims the month of March 2025 as disability awareness month and encourag encourages all of its schools and to commemorate this occasion with appropriate instructional activities and be it further resolved that the Board of Education

080directs that suitable prepared copies of this resolution be distributed to all schools and offices in west contracosta Unified School District thank you does do any board members have any comments seeing none may I have a motion president Rec I'm move res solution number 2425 d57 Proclamation disability awareness month March 2025 great moved by Gonzalez Hoy is there a second I second Tristy Hernandez was second any additional comments on the item I for one I'm very glad to see this so thank you thank you for this acknowledgement and we'll go to the vote student truste Hasa Jr yes trusty Baron yes TR Hernandez yes cler yes trusty G yes and I yes resolution passes unanimously okay B12 superintendent search update that's my item this is for information only and as one of our callers uh already

081called in there is an online survey for the superintendent search it is now open and ready for your feedback uh we are conducting a search for per superintendent and the online survey is open for you to share your feedback on the characteristics and qualities you want to see in the next permanent superintendent as well as the strengths and challenges of our school district and Community your input will help to shape the position description leadership profile and interview questions survey results will be shared with the Board of Education and the survey is anonymous and it's open from February 10th and actually it was extended so the closing date is is now March 10th not March 3rd it is March 10th the survey is available in English Spanish and in Arabic and the survey can be found

082on the district website wccusd.net if you go there it's on the landing page and it'll come right up as soon as you get to the website or you can go to the superintendent search page um put superintendent search either in Google wccusd superintendent search in Google or in the search box on the website and you can go to the superintendent search page for additional information that is my report on that item okay moving now to our action items in so we will pull up first E1 or or E3 which is now the first item which is resolution number 2425 6 certificated reduction of particular kinds of services I believe Dr Moses or Dr Johnson which one of you Dr Johnson go ahead I apologize um thank you president regler members of the school board resolution

0832425 D60 addresses the need to reduce or discontent continue particular kinds of service of certificated um employees as necessary for the 2025 2026 school year in accordance with Education Code sections 44955 4 44957 and 44846 the certificated reduction list consists of two categories one fiscal solvency reductions related to the fiscal solvency plan PRI previously approved and two restricted funded positions that are currently identified as uncertain Grant renewals questions board are there any questions on this item trusty Gonzalez Hoy go right ahead thank you president reckler um my first question I believe is either for Dr har or Dr Moses um can you please explain why the soft money or grandf funded positions were added to this resolution and the discrepancy that people have share tonight Dr Hart would you like to start with an answer

084forgive me I thought he said Dr Moses please forgive me can you can you repeat the question I was thinking about my next statement no it's okay I did say either Dr har or Dr Moses so I understand I would have done the same thing that's what I thought um so my question is uh why are we seeing the discrepancy on this resolution compared to the cuts that came forward two weeks ago um on the soft money and grandf funded positions could you explain why those are here and um the impact the orig the original fiscal solvy plan only included those who are related to our goal of fiscal solvency after that plan was adopted by the board later came the soft money or Grant funded positions and these are preliminary um precautionary procedures that

085we take in case we do not have the grant funding in place if we do have the grant funding these positions will return they are they are temporary positions year-to year really based on funding although you may have a grant fund that goes to 2028 differences in the budget changes throughout the school year so the amount that had may have originally been budgeted for five years may have been um spent during within the first year okay thank you yeah that does answer my question um my second question uh I'm not gonna pick who because I don't want to confuse every um can you explain the secondary cuts and the impact behind them the 7.5 FTE where are those coming from can I explain where the cuts are coming from in terms of the particular areas

086specifically the secondary Cuts thank you for the question truste Gonzalez Hoy I think I can support with starting an answer I your question specifically is related to reductions in the secondary programs those 7.5 FTE are related to the m that we've entered into that allow for natural class size reductions at the secondary level due to seven period versus six period days um I am uncertain as if the entitle entire 7.5 is coming from there but I believe that it is the entire amount uh thinking back from memory uh and that these reductions uh allow us to staff our schools at the contractual agreed upon staff to student ratio so the 7.5 reduction is allowing us to get back to the contractually agreed upon student to staff ratio okay thank you uh president reckler would you

087like us to do three questions at a time okay my third question is um the CTE cuts that we're seeing on the resolution um can you discuss the impact of those and do they impact people in the positions now thank you and I just want to explain that in my in my transition from associate superintendent Chief business officer to interim role of superintendent I had a heavy involvement in creating um the both the fiscal solvency plan and input in the reduction list so I want to defer to staff but I also want want to be helpful in answering the questions with Clarity uh as it relates to the CTE Grant uh currently there is an expiring Grant and the grant that is expiring or there are two scenarios it could be completely expiring or it

088could be coming in under budget as to what we um uh intended for positions that is the CTE incentive Grant there are three FTE that are paid with that Grant those funds are uncertain I know the College and Career department is uh working to identify other restricted funding resources but this is unfortunately what happens with the money that come from the restricted side of the budget it is uncertain it is not guaranteed and it is for specific purposes um so this is an example of reductions that we intend to seek and search for other funding sources but they have to be written into that grant that Grant budget has to be approved by the grantor and once those two things happen then those positions can be moved to other funding sources if if the the

089needs of the Grant and the requirements of the Grant have been satisfied this is in essence the the case of all of the reductions that you're seeing tonight outside of the 43 that are related to the fiscal solvency plan I also want to highlight that 72.2 FTE that are on this reduction list are actually positions that are funded at the site level and sites cannot so principles cannot solely bring back positions they have to be brought back to the school site Council the School site Council has to approve a budget they have to approve the position and once the School site councils approve uh the plan for sites and the positions for sites we expect that many if if not all of these positions could potentially come back if the school sites and the School

090site councils choose to do so so 78.2 FTE fall in that realm thank you president reckler um if we do a second round I have further questions thank you so much first let's go over here to the side trusty Hernandez go ahead um I have three questions so I'm going to go ahead and ask the first question um what was the process of determining which positions will be reduced and then my second question that goes along with that one uh were the labor union consulted in the decision making within those process and with the uh determining those positions thank you for the question I need to pull up my document to relate to referred to positions specifically but the way in which the reductions for the fiscal solvency plan what those decisions were made uh

091is by evaluating primarily central office positions uh and trying to adjust organizational chart sorry Dr Moses I don't want to cut you off but I'm specifically talking about the additional positions that were added into the resolution I I understand the physical solvency plan on reduction ones but just the additional ones added into the resolution I I that's my specific question on those sorry I didn't clarify that's okay thank you for the clarification um we have 136.6 total FTE and that's classified and certificated combined those positions were identified not by individuals but by budget we those are all on the restricted side of the house or um in the case of site funds they're restricted positions because we need the permission of the school site Council to continue them um the only positions that were placed

092on this reduction list fall in those two categories and the reason why the budget drove that decision is because if those 1 36.9 Grant funded and restricted funded positions are not approved with new money then the obligation to pay those 137 position then falls on the general unrestricted general fund due to our current structural deficit uh we know as a district and we know because we're familiar with our budget we cannot take on additional debt from restricted grant-funded positions and that is how these positions were identified and placed on this list in order not to add to the structural deficit I'm sorry I don't know if you did answer my second question uh were the labor unions consulted in the decision making in this process no the labor unions were not consulted this is strictly

093a budgetary decision these are temporary positions funded by Soft what we call soft money soft money is the restricted accounts that do not live in the unrestricted general fund and the money is uncertain uh we were not in a position to consult the union because we do not have money to pay for these positions if it cannot be identified with new restricted resources so a negotiations in terms of what stays and what goes was not possible in this scenario because it's strictly driven by monies that are expiring or monies that we aren't responsible for assigning but they're assigned through a different procedure or process such as the School site Council okay so I guess my third question is so what efforts are being made to secure additional grant funding um or renew existing grants to

094sustain these positions not only just from the Department itself like the CTE department but from cabinet and yourself to make sure that we bring in more money into the district instead of taking money out thank you for the question um there are several ways in which we get restricted funds in some cases we have to apply for competitive grants and if our application is is accepted and the grant is awarded then we get to use the new money and so our um cabinet and their teams work really hard to identify grants that are available and to create application packets that are competitive that could secure future funding there are also some grants such as federal grants that are allocated due to need such uh for example uh Title One title two title three uh but

095those federal grants are also in an uncertain position um as we know grant money that is allocated to the district can be taken away um by the GRS and that is what makes this funding source uncertain and in some cases risky however we are dedicated to finding competitive grants we are also ensuring that we're keeping a breast of what might be available out there to go after in terms of uh bringing new money into the district I will say that we do I mean as evidence in our consent items we have Grant award notices that come before the board that are approved for for new money and for New Uses and as long as we're in line with what the restricted um intent is of the grant then we'll be free to spend that that

096those monies that we receive and that we accept into our budget um for new Services it is a process but we are actively involved in ensuring that we're doing our part to bring new money in and to assign money to POS positions for for students thank you if we get another round I have other questions you have questions go right ahead so my question is is this a standard practice of bringing forward reductions thank you for the question this is an annual action that needs to be undertaken by all school districts in order to ensure that expire in Grants or funding that's uncertain do not add to their struct to their um unrestricted operating budget so it is a standard practice it is a practice that we engage in in our district annually as well

097okay my second question is how are we supporting School sites around their SS to ensure that they meet deadlines that's a great question and now I think I can Shi that question over to uh our associate superintendent summer Sigler thank thank you SSC has been a huge Focus this school year um and so while I think there's lots of areas where we can continue to grow we have grown about 92% so far this year in compliance um there are a few schools who are still not making it um and they have had joint meetings with their executive directors and the family and Community engagement team to make a plan to get on track okay and my last question for this round is what is the financial impact that this may cause if these reductions are

098not approved tonight thank you for the question um I can speak in general to um our position as a district with trying to obtain fiscal solvency and that um immediate immediately what we what we shared this morning is our first interim certification letter from the county that letter outlines our position as a district of trying to re um Reign so that we do achieve fiscal solvency and as a part of as a requirement of our fiscal solvency plan these reductions must move forward in order for us to um be compliant with what we've agreed to do in order to address our fiscal solvency um if these reductions are not made then these positions cannot be know noticed and then the district would be responsible for paying the all of the positions that are on this

099soft money which could come at a great cost to the district I don't have a ballpark figure for you but I can say for um approximately every seven full-time equivalent teachers the cost is a million dollars uh and we have generalizations for our other unions as well but it would be mult multiple millions of dollars in to the general fund if we don't take action and the response to the county if that is the case would be to um I think we would be sending a strong message that we are not addressing our our our uh fiscal stability and that would not be um advisable as they are our oversight agency thank you okay I have a couple so tonight in public comment there were a couple of uh comments about uh gutting electives or

100getting rid of electives would you be able to please address that thank you for the question um there is no plan to eliminate electives um we have provided our School site Leaders with uh projected full-time equivalent Staffing positions based upon their current projected enrollment it is then up to the site administrators to create their course offerings in their master plan in their Master plans um every School site understands that electives are a part of the experience of being in school there is no plan to eliminate electives I will say that each School site and how they plan for their master schedule and their course offerings that's a collaborative decision at the site with the administration um but I think that there might be fear associated with looking at the cut list and believing that electives

101might be eliminated but that is not the case uh you may see some of the positions that um are on our our list are proposition 28 positions but that falls under the requirement of staff to renew their plans and bring back their staff it's not that we're eliminating it's that they have to follow the process to ensure that those positions are put back into their scheduling um there's lots of moving pieces here but I can tell you that as a system we are not impacting electives we expect that our schools are going to be able to offer electives in the way in which we always have to the students that are enrolled in our sites thank you and then one more is in general why would you make reductions to the teaching Force if there

102are vacancies and if you're running ads to recruit teachers so if you could briefly address you know what probably does not make a lot of sense to a lot of people absolutely um and I'll ask Dr Johnson if she has something to add once I finish speaking to the budgetary part of this however we are committed to Staffing our schools based upon our enrollment we are not cutting positions that are required of our base program at our schools in the case that you may see a teacher position listed and nine times out of 10 for example I I just looked at the um uh one of the list and saw that there were some intervention teachers on there but they're only on there because they're paid for with site funds and those site funds have

103to be approved by the school site Council so I'd have to go through line by line and check and see exactly why uh positions are be are on this particular list what I can say with certainty is that what the reductions that you're seeing are not reductions to our basic program and generally they fall under the category of either being in added position or a position that's funded with soft money and I'd have to literally look line by line to see exactly what the case is but these are not our base operating teachers we're committed to our staffing Matrix and ensuring that uh we have every teacher needed to cover every course in every school uh for our students in our programs thank you okay are there additional questions there's one thing I want to

104say which is that I forgot to call for public comment so when we're done with questions we'll go to public comment which is actually the way we're supposed to be doing it but we have a different procedure here if you don't mind can I go to um student may I go to trusty espinos Jr please go right ahead I just have one more question or actually to my first question was um was there any other like plans that were to be like as a substitute to this or like this Wen to work or wasn't feasible like what was the what was the substitute to this plan thank you for the question unfortunately because this plan is driven by the needs and the limitations of our budget there is no substitute to this plan however I

105want to point out that this plan is preliminary we are taking precautions we fully expect that many of the positions listed uh on these resolutions tonight are not going to end up on the final list uh however we do have to go through this process to ensure that we've secured funding and to ensure that our processes of of seeking approval to return positions to sites has been followed okay thank you and my last question would be was there any like consideration for the future because there is going to be impact regardless of any consolidation of elementary schools because in the document it shows over 24 um ft impacted thank you for the question District leadership is working really hard to try and identify Solutions so that we can both address the needs of our budget

106and continue to provide high levels of service to our students with that said that is very difficult to accomplish because the cost of go of doing business is going up we absolutely realize that uh uh competitive compensation salaries and packages are important for our Recruitment and Retention of Staff we value our staff we value everything that they bring to our district and the the care and dedication that they commit to our students however um without having more Revenue Solutions are difficult to come by but we are committed to having the conversations to doing the work to being transparent and sharing what can be done so that we can arrive at a decision together on how we progress through these issues and maintain the high levels of certain services for our students so I wish there

107were an easier answer to give you but the work is hard the funds are limited but we're still committed to doing what we need to do to well to serve our students in community well thank you trusy Gonzalez I go ahead thank you um I wanted to follow up a little bit on the secondary cuts and the changes to the schedule so for many years I've been sold on the idea of moving being away from six period schedule to 7 at 8 by many of our high schools in part because the argument by administrators teachers and staff was it increases graduation rates it increases the ability for students to obtain more a3g requirements so us cutting the secondary allocations and moving all sites to six period the way that it is supposed to happen right

108now could impact that so is that is that the case have we talked to secondary sites about the negative effect it could have by moving our secondary sites from seven or eight periods to six periods thank you for the question um I first want to address the um the differences and the variances across all of our high schools um we have two high schools currently that have a seven period day we have one high school that has an eight period day we have one high school that has a 4x4 period day and then we have three high schools that run traditional schedules so it is inaccurate to say that all secondary schools run special schedules they do not however I do want to acknowledge that being able to offer more courses to our students is

109added value um it is able to support us with our graduation rates because students earn extra credits by taking extra courses um I when 100% agree with you that the traditional model it it it is a model but it it is only one model of many that we could run the issue is one of what have we budgeted for our district in our contracts name a six period day they name a class size associated with a six period day when we build our budgets we build our budgets based upon our contract which says a six period day with 35 students per class when schools enter into special schedules which I acknowledge are beneficial they come at a cost if we could get our secondary schools to work with us to mitigate the additional cost then

110I think we all win but as long as the special schedules are costing additional funding that we do not have available in our budget um we are at a disadvantage in addressing our fiscal solvency and being able to meet our financial obligations because we're taking on additional funding I'm sorry additional expenditures that we did not budget for um Theseus that are required in order to go against what we've contractually agreed to with the Union um have not come without fiscal impact it is the fiscal impact that we want to address with our secondary schools and if together we can mitigate fiscal impact we can con we can certainly continue with offering Choice schedules but it's going to have to be a discussion where we're together ensuring that the impact is not adding to the structural

111deficit thank you let me dig a little bit deeper on that piece and you're welcome to answer this Dr Moses of course but I'd also welcome from the academic side to answer if they choose to uh not saying you're not the academic side you know what I mean um the schools that have 7A period schedules in my opinion are some of our highest need schools DEA Richmond High Kennedy Els serito they have the eight periods right um part of the argument is that they have the largest population of English language Learners English language Learners have to take L classes and remedial classes specifically if they haven't reclassified and on a six period schedule what I've heard from administrators is that they're not able to get the credits to get a through a through G requirements

112and attend a college or sometimes even graduate so if we do if we're not able to collaborate with the sites and cut these FTE and and reduce their schedules to six periods how are we going to help specifically with that issue which is very important to me and I think it's very important to obviously the rest of the board which is one of the reasons why I think we have prioritize those schedules and I think staff yourself right and other staff have put additional resources to those schools that are in the most need thank you for the question I'm going to go ahead and take the the answer for that one um and how I'd like to start is it depends upon how you look at what we're offering to our students a six period

113traditional day is an adequate schedule to support students to graduate in fact they have extra credits at the end of the four years of six periods so this isn't an issue of a six period day does not allow you opportunity to gain enough credits to graduate even with a little bit of room if you need it for recovery um however when we look at choice for I'm going to give you an example of um Hercules high school has a six period day okay deanza high school has a seven period day if I'm a freshman at Hercules high school taking biology I'm getting from my six period schedule 275 instructional minutes for biology each week if I attend deanza because my day is cut into seven classes instead of six six I'm receiving 209 minutes of

114in instructional minutes for biology so it depends upon what you value you could Value Extra credits or extra opportunities which certainly have value I'm not saying that they do not but the flip side of that is the sixth period Day offers more instructional time which because many of us are Educators we understand the more time you have to teach the more our students learn so when you talk about marginalized students and students that might come from um they may need more intervention I would argue that the six period day gives them more instructional minutes per course while the seven pinate period day gives them more courses and less instructional minutes per course so that's also a conversation we need to have because I'd like to see The Best of Both Worlds more opportunities and robust

115instructional minutes that's just an example of one of the areas in which we can dissect and analyze the seven period day versus the eight period day versus the six period day there are pros and cons to all schedules and we just have to figure out what's best for our students and what we can best afford during our current budget reality thank you this is my last question and follows up on this on this question that I just had you made some really excellent points Dr Moses but my my question specifically for the E eels that need to get those extra courses right because you are taking ELD or remedial classes so therefore you're not able to take that English class or that biology class that you would really benefit from if you have you know

116more time but in cases like myself when I went to high school because I had a seven period day I was actually able to access more courses and therefore graduated with more credits which allowed me to go to college right where in a six period schedule I might have not been able to do that because I had to take ELD so the question is more of how are we going to prevent E eel students from falling through the cracks by reducing the schedule I'm not arguing about whether or not one is better than the other instructional minutes it's more about the opportunity that we're providing you bring up a great point because we do want to ensure that we have lots of opportunity especially for our English learners but I think that that is one

117of those areas in which we'd have to think um both inside the box and outside the box because number one we'd have to evaluate our system as a whole our district has high percentages of lils which means that our students are in ELD for um ex extended time in their uh over the courses of their years with us if we provide uh more robust intervention in our elementary and our Middle School models perhaps by the time our English Learners get to high school so many of them won't need that e L course and that could free up some time we could also offer additional courses if it school chooses a sixth period day after school uh the the state does not allow us to have a periods but they do allow us to have periods

118after school collect Ada and provide additional services to students I also think there is a way the seven period day can continue to work it just has to work within the budget so I think our op we have lots of options we just need to work with all of our partners all of our school sites really take a student centered approach and find a way to address that issue because it's an important issue and one that we can't ignore our students need choice they need additional instruction they need so much and thankfully the restricted funds that we receive can pay for those added supplemental courses the base uh the the unrestricted general fund has a more difficult time fitting those in so if we were to add an after school period that could be funded

119differently and not in the instructional budget I mean sorry in the unrestricted budget uh so I think my sorry for the long answer but the short answer is we need to sit down and figure out what's going to be best for that population of students and how we can achieve it together thank you I'm done president regler thank you anything else over here if you don't mind I'm gonna uh allow trusty Baron to go ahead um thank you so I have two questions my first first question is um going back to the teacher cuts and everything so after these cuts are made they're made because of budget to save money and everything so what is like the plan to come back after that because the people that were cutting their essential people that we need

120and they help students so after what is your plan to help the budget and help come back from this and get these teachers thank you for the question um a as we touched on before we are hopeful that we'll be able to find new restricted funding sources to continue services so our first priority would be just that examining um our new monies examining the budget for our current current monies and there are there are scenarios where current grants can be Rewritten and we can apply to the grant tour to revise a budget in order to add a new service if if we need to shift a service from one funding source to another so I think our priority as a cabinet and I'm sure as all of District leadership is to find those ways to

121ensure that we can have those opportunities and those Services continue for our students our um dilemma is just that we have to identify the restricted funding sources that can do that and some of them um are many of them already set requirements for what they can be spent on so it's like putting a puzzle together but we are committed to ensuring that we examine every piece of the P puzzle and make sure that it fits and that we can continue so it's a process okay uh thank you and then my SE second question will go to the SE the sixth period day thing um if we go to Six periods you're saying it will give us more time for classes to learn more and have more time but I feel wouldn't a six day takeaway

122classes so students and like internationaly students who take elective like music they don't have the opportunities to take more classes because they would have they will have to take classes that fit in their a through G requirement so yeah so currently there are lots of secondary students in our district that do have a six period day I think your question is related to the students who currently have a seven period day and I'd say our first priority is to find a pathway to continue that we don't have a desire to shut that down however we do have a real issue in that we can't afford it in the way in which it's been happening in Pre in Prior years so we need to actually create a plan for how we can continue that and how

123we can do it in a manner in which it is funded um that we have a planned fund for it and that we've identified funds for it and that it's not in anou outside of um what we contractually budgeted for so again it's a process it's a discussion it has to be um some agreements made with lots of different uh people across the district but I think if we all I know we all value this program if we're committed to continuing it I'm convinced that we can come up with a solution to do it without a fiscal impact okay thank you trusty Hernandez did you have something else I was like sorry I didn't know if I pressed the button or not so I want to go back to you know what uh Gonzalez trusty

124Gonzalez ho said in regards to like the sixth period schedule he mentioned the English language learners but I want specifically want to talk about the students in special education those students who are taking an intervention support class instead of taking a either a core class so how is this going to affect them when meeting the a through G requirements or graduation requirements because I believe in a pathway to for special education students to meet the a 3G requirements as well as being provided that opportunity to go to postsecondary all right as I see our s a director coming back from the restroom I'm really going to need his help with this one um director Flashman we have a question regarding the impact of uh six period day on the graduation rates for special education students

125in their their services uh trusty Hernandez would you mind recapping for him sorry yes so my question was um how will how is it sticking to a six period schedule impact our special education students uh when they're taking an intervention support class instead of a math class or instead of an English class how is that going to hold them back from meeting that a through G requirement and making sure that they are on a graduation pathway um so this actually should not have any imp impact on graduation rates for students with disabilities um at the high school level in a six period day a student would take um which you're referring to as a tutorial class typically they'll take one period of a tutorial or an intervention class um as their elective and they will

126get elective credits for taking that class um if they do take it each year um they typically very rarely does a student miss their um core academic classes in order to take uh a tutorial class period so um as uh superintendent Moses has pointed out um there are merits to the uh discussion and the arguments on on both sides of this conversation um however as it specifically relates to graduation rates um it shouldn't have uh an impact at all so just to clarify you're telling me that that intervention support class is counting as an elective for that particular student is this the case for all students or is a case by case basis no it is it it tutorial does count towards elective credits towards a high school graduation um each year they take it

127they get the the 10 credits it goes towards electives anything that's not your core academic classes that you take um go towards those uh elective credits um and I I can't recall the exact number that's required for graduation um but they do get elective credits thank you and I guess my second question and last question is what are the immediate repercussions if these resolutions are not passed tonight I'll I'll in Alx du um Mr David hard if he wants to add anything our our new CBO interim CBO I'd say we've been working really hard in order to ensure that we have a positive certification for our budget um currently we've self-certified for first interim through creative well through the necessary um action of using our reserves in order to maintain a positive certific ification but

128along with that we've committed to making these reductions and to ensuring that our budgetary decisions will not impact our structural deficit further if these resolutions are not passed this evening then we have not fulfilled what we've committed to do and so our oversight agency will likely take another look at our certification um and have to reassess because what we've built into our budget as a part of our fiscal solvency plan is contingent upon your vote tonight if we don't start the process of beginning uh the reduction in of particular kinds of services then that is going to Signal um an oversight review because we will not be able to satisfy uh the action set forth to put us on a road to solvency and I'll ask Mr Hart if he has anything to add to

129that that is our local response I don't know if there is something more Mr Hart I think maybe there is no more to add in this moment thank you for the question okay we're going to move to public comment 10 minutes for this item one minute per speaker is there any public comment hello board I'm I'm quickly gaining examples of the inaccessibility and non-transparency that I've heard talk about sorry sir you were not called president um to call order leave a list here go ahead call the first speaker okay our first per comment is Maria renes please unmute yourself yes good evening board um I just want to go back to the idea of going back to the drawing board I think our families and students would rather have fully staff estellar programs um even

130if he met uh consolidating sites it is impossible for us to continue with this idea that we can continue to afford small schools um and I would hate to say that in some cases we have to close schools but it is important for us to get better at our Administration um I can believe the comment that M Dr Johnson said that sometimes we get grants that are expected to last five years and they get depleted on the first year how does that speak to our Administration practices thank you our next public comment is gabrieli meletti please unmute yourself I think the uh sound quality will be better for all if I just do it here instead of muting myself so couple things an 8 period day is already an article 10 section four of our

131contract when you give out these slips people do not wait around you already have 57 resignations and I've done an exit survey where in 25% of respondents have cited instability in their positions as the primary reason they are leaving this District I also want to go back to the fearmonger en County letter that was sent out today I already mentioned the inaccuracies on the graph on page two however the first page has a graph showing the changes to the restricted and unrestricted ending fund balances I can look at the UN audited actuals and precisely calculate the numbers cited for 23 24 I cannot figure out where the numbers on 22 23 come from I'm waiting to hear back from the county because it makes no sense so please do not trust this letter please slow

132down delay this vote until you have more information until Dr Moses has gone through line by line to tell you what you are cutting because you will not get these teachers back they are tired they can go somewhere else and they are devastated okay I'm calling for a point of privilege we have trustees up here that cannot hear uh truste Hernandez and cler andana are not able to hear so can I get a sound check down it's at the microphone that you're having issues with it's muffled from the microphone am I muffled okay so it's when people are speaking on Zoom it's muffled can we get a an idea of what to do about that this is the first time I am not having trouble hearing I can't believe it e but it's muffled on

133Zoom for them correct yeah on the zoom is where are having the issue when people call in e okay we're going to try again so we'll put uh we heard two public comments so I'll put eight minutes on for right now uh ending at 909 go ahead begin public comment we'll try our next public comment is shaune please unmute yourself hi um I just wanted to just make a a statement here I often wonder just after listening to um Dr Moses answer the questions I'm wondering if the since the budget committee has been eliminated without notice to the stakeholders I was wondering were there had has the district added additional contracts that the board may not be preview to that may could potentially be cut I'm wondering has that been reviewed before going straight to

134um staff cutting staff um is there room to cut any additional budgets I'm Excuse me any additional contracts um so I just wanted to just let the board know again take your time and just really assess what's what's being presented to you thank you our next public speaker is fr goti hello again board um we've just heard lots of questions that were very pertinent to the resolutions that's presented for you tonight and we've heard a lot of explanations that are inconsistent with the realities on the ground we urge you today to please push for an independent analysis of these budget projections the cuts and what actually needs to occur for us to serve our students in our communities best just today I have notification from one of our high schools that does this the sixth

135period high school that they're wanting to move towards an eighth period high school and most of the other high schools that know that this model works for their students and works for their programs are currently looking to um submit those as well so I don't trust that our um sites have been consulted with how these programs are going to be impacting our students so please do your due diligence and request for an independent analysis thank you president reckler point of privilege the sound for me got worse in the room now I can't understand the speakers there's like an go or something now I can hear myself talking as well yes it got much worse for me they are good though um one two three oh that's that's much better is it better for you guys

136is it better yeah that's better thank you can you just stand there the whole night holding the speaker like that okay our next public speaker is Eric jebson please unmute yourself here are six things I heard Dr Moses and her colleagues say that seem to demand clarification number one Dr Moses said she won't cut any electives she'll just cut staff if schools with less faculty then choose to cut electives that's something they're doing to themselves number two Dr Moses said that the district intentionally ignores all Theus when they plan as if Theseus do not exist and have not existed in some cases for decades this sounds like intentionally poor planning number three Dr Moses says her priority as to scheduling his fiscal impact regardless of what's best for students which raises the question why not

137prioritize students what else is the money for number four Dr Moses claims that because the six period day provides more instructional minutes per class this is better for students than an opportunity to take more courses yet she admits this will stop El students from attending college unless she is correct in saying that El students only arrive during Elementary School and never during High School number five this may sound familiar Dr Moses said she won't cut any electives she'll just cut the number of periods students are allowed to take students with fewer periods then take fewer electives that's something they're doing themselves and lastly tutorial does not count through a through G that's not that's an equity issue our next public comment it's Sky Nelson thank you um yeah I'm quickly gting examples of the lack

138of transparency and inaccessibility of this body my question that I have based on what was talked about is my at my site I hear lots of people calculating the numbers themselves about Theus and the schedules they wouldn't have to calculate the numbers if you showed them to them showed it to them you need to be more more transparent with what you're doing and you'll get byy in the the reason this is all happening tonight is because you don't have Buy in does understaffing overages and lack of substitutes actually help does that save money that's what's happening you cut more people you have the demands and the needs you're going to have more of that so transparency is important to me I think we should wait until we have the real numbers shared uh so we

139can all be on the same page and have Buy in thank you our next public comment is Misha Harris gash please unmute yourself good evening again um today I showed my students a motivational video by Dr Eric Thomas and it was called overcoming obstacles and so we talked about how there are tough decisions that'll have to be made and I talked to my kids all about one day you're going to be in the real world and the real world has a lot of obstacles and so I'm just saying like I get it you guys have some tough decisions to make that affect a whole lot of people um there's a caller who um I think he thought or he thinks that tutorial I'm a 20 plus year special ed teacher mainly all secondary and tutorial

140is elective credit and I think it's either 55 or 60 credits that students need to graduate from high school so it's elective credit it's not a through G credit um and finally um I don't know this is just a lot so all I can say is I know you guys have a tough decision and just think about the kids our next public comment is Clara acran please unmute yourself as far as I can tell there's a couple of questions that have not been answered from the original presentation the first is where does this 43 number come from I understand the number previous to the reductions related to Grants and then there's the new number which was 76 where the heck do the 43 number we got emailed today come from and why has no one

141asked about that or addressed that um the second question is who exactly are you cutting people who work for the dist directly deployed by the district contractors or vacancies you still haven't clarified that and what exactly do you mean by we're not cutting Baseline services but apparently ELD classes and reading Specialists are Baseline Services because it sounds like a whopping 7 four of them are going to be cut um sorry 24 of them are going to be cut so you know if that's not a basic service and what is a basic service and what exactly do you mean by a basic service you know I think that no one on the board should vote Yes if those questions are not clarified thank you our next public comment is Ian Bader please unmute yourself hello um

142that's CL U I just want to point out two things Mr Jetson kind of covered most of what I wanted to say but I'll only do two one is um at Kennedy the El ones and twos the students who take two sections of English uh language development um are all newcomers so they they weren't here as elementary students and then if special ed students are getting elective credit for their tutorials then that's all their elective credit they don't they don't get to take any other electives so it's that's the equity issue that Mr jebson was talking about um so those are two things to think about when deciding whether or not to support alternate schedules and I just want to lift up my colleague Mitsy who came and poured her heart out because she's not

143just a CTE teacher she is an active member the students love her she's involved with the classes she's doing our Journal thing and we would hate to lose her it would be devastating so just think about the people our last public comment is Demetria please unmute yourself hello can you hear me yes okay it wouldn't let me unmute myself so I was trying to unmute myself but it wouldn't let me unmute myself um I just wanted some clarification on which are the actual positions because I think that maybe some of what is said are the positions are not the accurate um names or if they are because I want to know exactly which ones are being cut my concern is if there the cuts are coming to um the children that need the extra help

144the children with the IEPs the children are that are in a special education form so um but I would like clarification if it's those AIDS or if it's those teachers or assistants thank you I'm sorry because if it is I don't want that to happen I'm sorry let me make sure that I'm saying that part I apologize to the speaker I thought you were done how many more public comments are there that concludes public comment there we go okay I'm sorry to the speaker the speaker was done right okay thank you sorry about that to the speaker okay we're up to a motion may I have a motion on this [Music] item okay I'll move resolution number 2425 D60 certificated reduction of particular kinds of services may I have a second if there is no

145second the motion will die president rler I have an alternative motion whenever you're ready go ahead thank you it's a little long so I'll read it my motion is that we approve the cuts in the resolution with the exception of the speech pathologists counselors School psychologists the 7.5t for the middle high school and the CTE cuts for Kennedy in the an of High Schools staff should bring back additional cuts on contracts and services to meet our fiscal solvency plan to fill what we are removing from the resolution on this motion is there a second sorry yeah I can rep can you use your microphone please sorry can you please repeat your motion sorry that was just a mouthful president okay if I repeat it yeah please uh my motion is that we approve the cuts

146in the resolution with the exception of the speech pathologists counselors School psychologists the 7.5 FTE for middle high schools and the CT cuts for Kennedy Richmond and Thea High Schools staff should also bring back additional cuts on contracts and services so that we can meet our fiscal solvency plan to fill what we are removing from the resolution in this motion is there a second on that motion motion I second I'm putting a motion on the floor which is the original motion resolution number 252 425- 60 certificated reduction of particular kinds of services is there a second on that motion seeing no section that motion dies we go to the motion by trusty Gonzalez ha any comments on that go ahead thank you yes my comments is that I don't disagree with the finances what I

147do disagree is with our priorities I was one of the people who signed the M us for the secondary schedules back in the day when I was part of utr at first when I I was an elementary teacher I didn't know what was going on with the high school level I was sold by administrators over and over as of the importance and why having seven and eight period schedules in secondary was important especially for areas most at need some people in this cabinet are the ones that sold me on that before and the reason why is because people like myself who are newcomers to this country benefit from having additional courses that available to them because when we first come as we heard from many speakers and we were talking with the I was talking

148to the superintendent we have to take remedial classes in order to graduate um which does not allow us to then get get enough credits to go to college so having seven eight periods actually allows us to do that so I actually think that voting again voting for the reduction of FTS in secondary and asking all sides to go down to six periods would actually really hurt our students and hurt our system so I think that we have to find the cut somewhere else again I'm not against the cutting to find where we need to fill but that is not one of the cuts I supp report I also do think that we cannot cut counselors and speech pathologists because when we go to the sites I hear that services are not being provided um so

149I even though I'm saying no to some of the cuts in this resolution I believe there's still space in contracts and services but I want to be clear with the public that cutting contracts and services is still going to be painful that's contracts and services going that are not going to go to the sites so that we can fill the you know our fiscal bucket but I don't agree with the removal of the secondary schedules um thank you so much and I do want to apologize to you all the staff and the public for not being here two weeks ago some people have sent me some very iner emails the reason why I wasn't here for that vote is because I had a baby if that's not okay with you oh well but it is

150okay with me and that's why I'm here tonight thank you I have a comment again I agree with what uh trusty Gonzalez Hoy said I just feel in my position I was bombarded and thrown with additional numbers that I Solly did didn't agree in the first place and I believe that we need to have everybody at the table and have a steady session of where are these Physicians coming for just from I don't know if it's for anybody else's Clarity but that's how I'm feeling right now and that's how I'm standing with it and then I just want to make that clear that it it was the the sole fact of the additional positions being added that I were to me were last minute and I didn't have any clarity thank you anybody else so

151um I wrote something because I didn't want to we're doing the job that we were hold on we are doing the job that we were elected to do we find ourselves in a state of uncertainty and imperative that we make immediate actions to ensure the district remains in control for far too long we have delayed making the tough decisions and we can no longer afford to Kick the Can down the road now is the time to act and we must do with the best intent of our students and family at the Forefront of every decision as a parent in this District I take every decision seriously I see my child and every student that we are here to serve we have a shared responsibility to ensure every child receives the education they deserve collaboration is

152crucial and we must work together to prioritize the well-being of and future of our students this is not a problem that is unique to us but many other districts as well with reductions and cut and I truly believe that the only way that we're going to get through this is working in collaboration and that means that at this point stopping because in analyzing and bringing people to the table to understand the reductions the cuts and the numbers thank you Dr Moses where in tonight's plan is a reduction of schedules the reduction of schedules is not uh specifically named in this plan um I'm checking with legal to see if it is possible to break up a resolution and approve it but I'm fairly certain that if you don't approve it in the manner in which

153it's written tonight we have to bring it back this is not about special schedules it's about what we must do in order to fulfill our obligations for March 15th notices if we do not fulfill Our obligation for March 15th notices we are going to see a fiscal impact and have to answer to our oversight agent regarding our inability to fulfill our budget reduction plan this is strict about making sure that our decisions are responsible and and in this case it's the certificated positions that were discussing and it's the funding that's secured for them so I I just wanted to add that but this is not about schedules that isn't what we're discussing tonight in in fact the 7.5 FTE are a very small portion of what's Happening Here the speech and language pathologist reduction we

154have uh more vacancies than we're suggesting reductions so this is not impacting staff it has to do with alignment it also has to do with the fact so there will not be an individual impacted with the speech and language pathologist reductions we actually have contractors in position and we have some speech and language Pathologists with small case loads so I don't want the narrative to be mixed up here we are not doing things to our staff we are not doing things to our students we are trying to make difficult decisions for our stability as a district if this resolution doesn't move forward we aren't in a position to do that um so I understand the S sentiments here I understand that we need to make decisions collaboratively this is a preliminary decision um in order

155to give us the right to do what we need to do and if we don't do that this evening then we are doing a disadvantage to our ability to continue to have local control of this District sorry for the long answer but I feel compelled to speak do we need to take a recess to hear from uh legal council yes it's after 9ine I haven't gotten a call a text back so I can give a call but we should consult legal I'm fairly certain that this resolution has to be all or nothing okay I'd like to put a motion on the floor to recess until 926 that'll give us five minutes to check in with legal is there are any objections to that seeing none we're in recess until 9:26 okay we're back from recess

156and uh Dr Moses do you wanna you want to talk absolutely I'd like to report out uh what we learned from legal council are we ready to receed president okay yes we're ready go ahead I'm sorry about that okay uh so we did confirm with legal council that we can strike through specific positions and amend the resolution however the reality is if you strike through positions and amend the resolution we're going to need to very quickly identify for the county within the next couple days how we will make up the $3 million that you took out uh they have to come from the general fund 80 8 5% of the general fund approximately 85% of the general fund is positions we will not be able to cut any positions which means that those that 2

157and a half million approximately will have to come from student services the 15% of the budget uh that we can cut without uh March 15th notices so I caution the board that if you choose to strike these line items during this preliminary action preventing us from following through with March 15th notices there will be Huts to the unrestricted general fund student services because that is our only course of action in order to solve this fiscal solvency plan without approving these reductions imp positions with that said I'll turn it back to you president reckler thank you Dr Moses would you please describe what a student services and what might be involved $2 and a half million dollars of student services materials and supplies um uh I I think this jeopardizes our uh $4 million that we

158need to set aside for a math adoption so that would put that into question uh we would need to identify areas in which we can't afford to cut we can't cut electricity water uh we can't cut Our Garbage Contract so the only things that we would be able to look for reductions are student services materials and supplies I also want to add because I heard the question about examining contracts the majority of our contracts are on the restricted funding sources very few contracts on the unrestricted uh budget due to the great work of the contracts Committee in the past year and a half the contracts committee went line by line for every contract that we carry in this district and if you were on that committee then you witnessed the fact that there was very

159little that we could cut to impact the budget this money will not come from contracts the special education contribution is growing and so aside from that contribution services and materials and supplies are the only budget are the only budget items that we'll be able to look at to make the necessary reductions thank you I'd like to move and ask one of the people who seconded would you withdraw your motion I I will not but I do have a question because Dr Moses said three million it doesn't add up on the FTE that I'm pulling off the resolution um it's 7.5 from secondary a05 FTE psychology a point one counselor and five speech pathologist so how do we how do we get that's like a million. 1.2 how are we getting to 3 million actually for

160every seven FTE of teachers it's approximately a million dollars and that's an approximation and that's with a A Modest estimate of what each teacher salary is I would need to go back and check these in order to give you an uh an exact number but it absolutely is in the $2 million ballpark if I said 3 million I apologize I didn't have the exact number but if you're calculating that this is going to be 14 FTE that's going to be about $2.3 million okay thank you president reckler I'm willing to amend my resolution if trusty hernandes agrees since she seconded it to remove the speech pathologist FTE from my resolution but I'm still keeping the other fds that I mentioned the psychologist counselor and the fds for the secondary sites which should be about which

161should be nine n and a half FTS you agree with that can I get a clarification I'm not sure so are the psychologists and counselors direct hire or contracted sorry um so I believe that we have some point to e extra Duty positions and in the case of both psychologists and counselors I believe these are extra Duty positions um I could double check but just uh knowing what I know about our budget and about our staffing these are likely not people but partial positions for partial need based upon enrollment and if they are on this list it means that based upon current projected enrollment we anticipate a a reduction in that position due to a reduction in our enrollment as a declining enrollment position I'm sorry as a declining enrollment District we have to factor

162that into our calculations and that is partially the reason why these minut these minor or I won't say minor these um small FTE positions are there it's for alignment it's not because we don't value the service it's because we anticipate needing less of the service because our enrollment is reducing each we're experiencing decline each year in enrollment I further like to add if the enrollment did present itself we would then increase those uh allocated FTE we do assign Staffing based upon our enrollment so if we did see an increase enrollment we would also increase Staffing well if you're if you're okay with it through the president I'm willing to remove those one and a half ftes from this to keep it and then just do the 7.5 5 FTE for the high schools and the

163CTE ftes that we mentioned for the three schools that's if you're okay with that I'm fine with that okay and I'm happy to reread the motion without those president if you would like yes please reread your motion thank you that we approve the cuts in the resolution with the exception of the 7.5 ft is for Middle High School and C for H Kennedy Richmond and deanza High Schools staff should also bring back additional cuts on contracts and services to meet our fiscal solvency plan to fill while we are removing the resolution through this Motion in the next few months hold on there's clarification go ahead the CTE reductions are separate from the 7.5 so if you're including the CTE reductions that I believe is an additional three teachers that wasn't in your original calculation your

164should be 10.5 FTE so that brings us to about 1.75 million that we'll need to cut from Services if we make this change do Tristy Hernandez do you accept that yes do you want to comment am I allowed to sorry sure can you repeat that number of how much is going to be cut from quote unquote Services I'm trying to clar uh clarify the number of CTE teachers is that 3.0 FTE is that what you see um so um it would be approximately 1.6 and these are real rough numbers but I I think it would be safe to say at least 1.3 depending upon how we calculate exactly um the cost of these once we look at the people in the positions and their pay so it's still a rough estimate but it is definitely

165in that ballpark it can be anywhere between 1.3 and 1.75 okay therefore it is our job to go out there and look for that money in order to make sure that we keep those services and I know there's money out there that was wanting to be given to our district for a certain curriculum and it was not accepted so we need to find other ways and go out there and look for that reduction of services it doesn't it's what what's your comment I see it in your face so this this is a very difficult position because we all have a responsibility to our district and not just to um certain positions it is not that simple we can't just go find money and I understand what you're alluding to that there is a private um

166entity that would like to have a um I understand what you're saying but it's just not that simple um the decision is yours to make it is not mine to make I serve it the pleasure of the board I will do whatever you direct me to do and I will do it to the best of my ability because it's my responsibility to ensure that um the decisions that you make we Implement in order to improve our schools and our services to students I just have a real reservation that this action is going to support with that um you are taking the FTE from two schools out of our 55 schools and this is something that's going to impact our entire District not just the secondary students and teachers at two schools and I just implore

167you to consider the fact that I've agreed with you that we Val value special schedules but we're not talking about special schedules here I would ask that you implore our our partners to work with us to find a way in which to accomplish what we all want to happen without it costing us $1.75 million so the responsibility is everybody's to bear it's not just the diet it's not just the teachers it's not just the administrators or or other staff that support our students we have a responsibility to all of our students to all of our families and we are thinking about the preferences for two schools and killing the fiscal solvency plan for 55 schools I do believe that we need to go back and do some work and I've reiterated to everyone that we're

168willing to do that work but it sounds like you're you you likely don't believe that we could accomplish that work with our depart with our partners so you're going to make the decision and force our hand and I cannot guarantee you that we're going to be able to reduce this amount of money from the budget regardless of what private benefactors want to you know have a hand in our decisions as a district I just don't believe that this would be responsible of us to do because it impacts so many people um so I think there's another way and that's just my thought thank you all right this going to be the last comment we got a wrap things up thank you president and first of all I want to thank all of you because this

169is a very difficult conversation very difficult decision especially because staff is bringing us recommendation I just want to clarify we are with this motion we're still approving 80 out of the 93.5 FTE to be cut this is a very small portion of what was brought forward whether we like it or not cutting those FTS from secondary will have a negative effect on the schedules for those schools in the future and that's what I'm hearing directly from the site administrators from the teachers from the parents now I'm hearing something IND different tonight and I don't want to disagree with our amazing superintendent because I think very highly of her but I'm hearing something very different and it is going to have a negative impact on four or of our highest need schools two specifically who have

170a seventh period schedule who are Richmond High and Kennedy I mean excuse me Richmond High and Thea who have some of highest need students so we're not looking at it in an with an equity lens in my opinion now I just want to be clear my position staff brings to me recommendations we make the decision and we say yes or no and staff goes back and and does more work I don't like to be told either you do this or not if tomorrow the county wants to tell us you are now have a a qualified SK uh uh budget even though I've been fighting with president reckler for the last few years together to have a a positive certification because I know the impact that has had on our district which has been really important

171to me to finish my ter with a positive certification at one point this is not the way to do it I'm not just going to vote on something just because it's it is what it is we have time if tomorrow the county tells us something different we have the next few months until uh June to change that and to find the cuts and service and contracts we are talking about 1.7 million we can find that we can find that we found it every year president reckler and I have cut millions of dollars every year tens of millions of dollars since we got on the board now I'm not saying that's easy and I understand the consternation for our superintendant but this not a cut I'm willing to accept now staff you have the hard decision

172now to go back and figure out how to make it work or I'm voting no on the budget because I'm not willing to make those cuts for those schools thank you and now to the vote we'll start down there with student trustees trustee esosa Jr Clarity are we voting on the initial suy plan or trust that motion died your the only motion on the floor is the motion that trusty Gonzales ho put on the floor no student trusty Baron no trusty Hernandez yes clerk Ando no trusty Gonzalez Hoy yes and I'm a no so we have Hernandez was a no oh yes okay so we have two yeses two knows motion fails I'll put in an alternative motion then I mean I don't know how much lower we can go but then I move that

173we approve the solution with without the 7.5 FTS for secondary without the CTE or anything else is there a second is there a second on that motion can you repeat it please yeah it's just a simplified simplified version of our resolution it's just without the CTE piece it's now only 7.5 FTE so approving the resolution um without the 7.5 ft for second secondary I second I'm going to put another motion on the floor which is the original motion to approve resolution number 2425 D60 certificated reduction of particular kinds of services is there a second sorry president rler I believe that you you're not allowed to make the same if it's failed already you have to change it somehow uh okay I'll put resolution number 2 42560 certificate reduction of particular kinds of services in Dr

174Moses comes back with options uh around um grant funding that is my motion is there a second seeing none the motion fails so we go to the original motion which is uh the resolution minus the 7.5 teachers at secondary okay we'll start down at the end student trusty Espinosa Jr no try Baron no trusty Hernandez yes cler andana no trusty Gonzalez ho yes and am a no motion fails that means that this resolution fails correct president that's not passed president I'll make another motion you know if I may trusty Yana do you have a motion that you want to put on the floor the the motion that the motion that I made was to approve the resolution but to have Dr Moses come back with options on what kind of grant funding is available that

175failed correct that failed sure does Dr Moses want to clarify what I'm trying to do is you if you keep voting no I'm trying to give you the option of what you want to hear that would make you happy think about that and we'll go president reckler can I ask you a question yes can we vote on a resolution in a special session so if I was to make a motion to table this and for you to call a special session so we have the five of us or we have a little bit more time could we have a special session in the next few days so Dr Moses would you like to for that yes um ourr department needs time to prepare notices uh regarding the suggested reductions if they are going to pass

176a vote and um we're already beyond our timeline for that so if you tabled it we need a meeting tomorrow or Friday and that would be pushing it um so I I think those are your options however I don't know what's going to be different in two days um I would also the 7.5 positions that you're fighting to keep on are a part of our reduction plan um if you were addressing some of the soft money positions there's a better chance that we could identify restricted funds to bring back a soft money position uh there is no other fund that can pay for the 7.5 General Ed FTE related to M us that have not been agreed P yet uh in order for these 7.5 teachers to be employed we would have to sign anou

177which has not happened so you're fighting to keep positions in that we currently do not have an mou to fulfill um again that's related to the work that has to happen later about how we're going to address the schedules that are the concern here tonight so there's so many moveing pieces it's not very simple but time is of the essence and these notices must be gone out by March 15th um and we have to abide by the contract in order to submit them in an appropriate way which takes time research and um lots of effort from HR okay so what's next is there another motion on the floor president I can make a motion that we approve the resolution but that the superintendent brings us a plan with funding for a seven period schedule and

178an 8 period schedule for the schools affected we would be approving the cuts tonight but then she has she would have to bring have time to find funding to AFF four the 7even a period schedule by the end of the school year she can bring that back what we care about sounds like is keeping those schedules so this would allow her that time and we would still be able to vote on this tonight yeah go ahead because I have a question as well I think we might have the same question do you wanna do you wantan you're you're fighting to keep positions forus that expire June 30th you are making an assumption that the uh district is going to assign newus and we haven't established that we have to negotiate those so what you're fighting

179to keep in cannot cannot go forward until we do the work of deciding how M us are going to be structured to make this happen currently the contract although there is a period language it is not in the class size reduction it is not in the class siiz article it is not in the duties um uh the article that establish es the uh work for for the unit so regardless of what you're trying to do this evening it's premature but we know those schools want those schedules we know that I mean no single administrator or teacher has come and said we're fine with the cuts we're willing to go to sixth period not a single school they all want it so it's unfair to also say that that won't happen but we also know that

180it's an action that we have to negotiate and have approved and that also requires three votes yeah so if I may this was opened under contract negotiations and I'm getting really nervous right now about we're having this conversation I mean this is like you know this is a conversation since it's been sunshin between the district and the labor union I believe this is a conversation that they need to be having and we're like starting to have this thing it's very concerning to me about where we are we can say we want seven period schedules at our schools or eight period schedules we're not saying I'm directing you to go negotiate an mou now that's the the consequence of us saying we wanton sary period schedule right of course but that's not the case so anyways

181we're starting to argue I take it back if that's not willing to be taken for what I'm trying to do then it is what it is but I feel like we're also now all of us boxing ourselves in well okay there's disagreement between the superintendent I I'm going to be quiet because I think I'm going to say something I don't mean so uh president I'll pass back to you thank you so what I'd like to do right now is we need to extend the meeting because we're almost at 10 o'clock and we're not done and we were finishing everything on this agenda tonight I'd like to extend the meeting until 11:30 may I have a second please any of you can second it I'll second great thank you we go to a vote please Espinosa

182yes Baron yes Hernandez yes inana yes Christy Gonzalez Hoy yes um yes meeting's extended until 11:30 okay so let's come back what have you thought about it is there a resolution that you'd like to make okay I I wanted to approve the original resolution with the addition of establishing the budget commit like right now so that any decision moving forward can be as open and transparent you know with all Partners at the table so that we can move forward I think this is uh die hard situation that like I said we keep kicking the can forward and it needs to get done we need to do it now we need to do it for our students and we cannot keep just kicking that count down the road so that's my amendment to it great I'll

183second it starting District sorry president that's not an appropriate motion we already have a budget committee right but it has not been stapped and it's not moving well the the chair is uh trustee and Jana and the the other trustee is no it's me I'm sorry it's me I'm sorry it's me I thought it was the new two new trustees that we appointed to the bu no to the budget committee I believe it's me okay I apologize either way the budget committee already exists so well to staff it and get it go going how's order I'm sorry can we take a break I think it there's going back and forth and I think we need to take two minutes for a breather all right we'll recess for two minutes back at 957 we're going to

184get started can we uh stop the conversation over here and get started please trustees we're back in session please all conversations on the mic please thank you okay so we're back to a motion the motion was to approve the original resolution 2 425- 60 certificated reduction of particular kinds of services and to get the budget The District budget engagement committee started again as soon as possible uh there was a there was a motion I was a second do you have something on that no okay all right so that's the motion on the floor and are all right discussion all right we're going to the vote trusty espanosa Jr I'm so sorry can I I just got back here can I get a re clarification on the motion sure so we're back to the original motion

185sort of which is 24256 certificated deduction of particular kinds of services with the addition to restart the District budget engagement committee as soon as possible it is a committee that is on our uh in our policies and it has definitely Fallen to the wayside it has not restarted again and the the motion is to get that committee staffed and operating as soon as possible this is to pass the resolution correct okay no trusty Hernandez no trusty yes clerk Gonzalez o no and I am a yes motion fails okay any other motions president the only thing I can do is amend my original motion if you like me to otherwise we can just move forward okay go ahead I move that we approved the resolution without the 7.5 ft for secondary and the 0. five um

186psychologist just because I have to I have to make a different motion than what I've done before I just added the psychologist the 0 five and so what's left everything else so we be cutting 803 FTE is there a second second okay gonal moved it hernandz seconded it ask a question yes question what what would be the budget impacts on that it would I would be the same amount other than adding the0 five of the counselors uh would likely add about um 880,000 or I'm sorry I'm tired about 62,000 so it would it would still be in the ballpark of what we mentioned before and because these are fiscal reduction positions we would still need to immediately identify the reductions for the county from the general fund okay did you get your answer and it's

187your turn to vote oh I'm sorry ESP it was a oh no I'm sorry your vote right yeah CL with oh I'm sorry sorry student trusty yes but a junr you're a no sorry I shouldn't have said that no it's okay um I mean in the end it is an advisory vote but no try Maron I abstain trusty Hernandez yes [Music] cler trusty gonal soy yes clana yes and I'm a no motion passes uh trusty Galo with 7.5 and 0.5 counselor okay did you guys get all that or do you need a clarification oh okay okay we're up to [Music] now e E4 resolution number 2425 d61 classified reduction of particular kinds of services Dr Camille Johnson up on this one thank you president Rec resolution 2425 d61 addresses the need to reduce or continue

188particular kinds of classified Services due to a lack of work or lack of funds for the 2025 26 school year pursuant to educ Education Code sections 45308 and 45298 which stipulates that any employee laid off shall be eligible for re-employment the classified reduction list consists of two categories one fiscal solvency reductions related to the fiscal solvency plan previously approved and two restricted funding positions that are currently identified as uncertain Grant renewals and as a remembrance these are preliminary and precautionary final decisions will be made in May thank you we'll go to public comment 10 minutes one minute per speaker is there any public comment on this item yes we have public comment Gabrielle meletti please unmute yourself remember you as the board are in charge the county comes in based off the projections and Analysis

189that submitted to them by this District have you looked at the patterns and the differences between the budget and the first interim I encourage you to do so and look back several years I'm also happy to share spreadsheets where I've done this work each year between the budget and the first interim there is a large increase in the estimates for the certificated salaries this year it was a $7 million bump last year it was I believe a a 9 million well It ultimately ended up being a 17 million doll Bump by the second interim and by the UN audited actuals it did not come true these documents that are being submitted to the county are artificially inflated in a way that is hurting our students please look at the numbers that are being presented and

190do not simply take staff at their word thank you our next public comment is shaune please um unmute yourself hi this is sha from Teamsters I just kind of want to reiterate on some things that were comments that were made by Dr Moses during during the um certificated Cuts so um March 15th is the actual due date however last year last school year the district mailed out their layoff notices actually on the 15th as long as they're post stamped by that date so there's no rush to to approve these to approve these layoffs there's still work to do and I encourage the board to to to to do the work to go in check out those um I'm sorry guys I'm I'm driving home check out check out what else can be cut um also

191I want to add the union never we we didn't know that these Cuts were coming out of Grants if there was transparency and partnership we would have known that so I would like to partner I I would like to V vot the board to vote no on these votes and have a partnership our next public comment is Jean kinner please unmute yourself good evening board I teach at birdie Elementary and I kind kind of take offense to being or hearing it told that cutting a speech pathologist won't hurt our kids we don't have a live speech pathologist in the flesh in human form at our school we have zoom and two years ago I had asked for four kids to be assessed for speech services it never happened this year two are still waiting and

192the reason oh well they're online she doesn't have time can't be done we really need to cut Zoom speech if anything and not our in-person people it does hurt our kids it might be good for the district if we don't qualify them and don't have to service them but one of the kids I can't even understand they will qualify if they ever get assessed thank you next public comment is Francisco Ortiz we saw today the dysfunction the disarray that has been communicated to me by cabinet members the intimidation tactics that Force Rush decisions we need collaboration every single Cabinet member has my direct phone number every board member has my phone number we have been excluded from all the decision-making process or in the collaboration since the new Administration take over this situation has been

193imposed on us but we're ready to fight good night that concludes public comment thank you okay are there any questions from board members on this resolution I have a question go ahead sorry I turned off my mic long night um just the same questions I had for the prior resolutions were the labor union consulted in the decision making process as well as these I'm specifically speaking in regards to the restrictive fund positions um when it comes to my question especially um if these staff are union members why aren't we collaborating with the unions to talk to them about this the answer is going to be the same as with certificated reductions these decisions are driven by budget and unless we can sit down with labor and discuss how they're going to support with some additional

194ways in which to reduce the current expenditures that we are committed to there isn't any discussion that we can have with labor that is going to alleviate the need to have these reductions my second question is what specific funding sources are currently supporting these soft positions do we know of yes thank you for that question current positions are coming from um site lcap site Title One comprehensive schools Improvement uh federal funds idea uh California Community Schools partnership Grant CTE incentive Grant lcff multiplier the Ed fund the Scully Foundation Title 4 title three and idea and prop 28 site funding there are a handful of other miscellaneous donations uh in smaller grants but those are the largest ones my last question are these contracted or directly hired with the district positions District staff are directly hired

195with the district thank you are there any other questions on this item okay I'll take a motion resolution number 2425 d61 classified reduction of particular kinds of services I'll go ahead and move it is there a second I'll second okay it's been moved and seconded is there any comments seeing none we'll go to the vote trustee Espinosa Jr no trusty Veron no Jesse Hernandez can you come back to me claro yes trusty gonzilla no CL I'm sorry trusty Hernandez for all right I'm gonna go ahead I'm a yes trusty andana I mean sorry looking at you trusty andz are you ready to vote sorry I know I'm taking for no motion fails is there another motion that people would like to put on the floor I'll move that we approve the resolution cutting the grant

196funded positions only is there a second I second there's a discussion go to vote student truste now I mean I'm sorry I'm sorry I keep looking at you I'm gonna trusty trusty espa can I just get clarification what what positions are exactly Grant positions Dr Moses do you want to answer that sure um let me pull up the resolution on this resolution there are 72.9 one uh full-time equivalent positions that are Grant funded there are 11 50 FTE that are related to fiscal solvency reductions can you clarify how we will be breaking that list up in terms of funding source or in terms of position type funding source yes uh there are uh 44.4 positions funded under idea those are vacancies that we're reducing in the special education department there are 11.6 prop 28 positions

197that are dependent upon sites renewing those positions with their site allocations for prop 28 there are 4.5 positions that are site lcap and those have to be renewed by the school site Council there are 4.4 positions that are site Title One positions that need to be renewed by the school site Council there are an additional 3.23 special education um positions but with a federal allocation there are um 1.5 positions that are site funded Community Schools partnership uh site allocations there is one position that is related to the lcff multiplier which is dependent upon the lcat plan for the next year and there are 2 three positions that come from miscellaneous donations um that we need to find out if that funding is going to be renewed okay so the motion that's on the table is

198to can you future motion yeah through the president it was um just that we approve the cuts for the grant funded positions only the 11 that's the um the 11 FTE and the fiscal solvency plan would not be cut under this position under this motion just the 72. 91 okay so if our schools decide because a lot some of these reductions our school approved red reductions that that are on the table right now so if our school sites decide not to allocate the funding um back into back into these positions what is the repercussion of that well the reason for the reduction is if site cannot or does not choose to bring it back it has to be eliminated because we don't have a funding source for it so if sites choose not to bring

199the positions back they will be um they will end up appearing in our finalized list of May 15th final reductions um however we would there's a process driven by the teamsters driven by the several classified contracts that we have where um our staff members uh we don't know who would be impacted or how because it's driven by seniority and other rules of the contract so I can't tell you exactly what the impact would be but if sites choose not to bring it back there will be some it's a movement and a reduction you have additional questions do you have an additional one additional question it's not a well it's a question for trist see okay you have to direct you should actually direct it to me and then I can okay sorry so you like

200to ask him a question all that way yeah sorry um I guess are we able to modify the motion and approve the solvy plan positions to be I don't reduced and then the Grant I don't know if that's making sense I'm sorry so I believe that's what he's asked for is to approve the positions in thecal solvy to oh to switch other way we approved the 72 FTE to cut for the grant funded we retain the 11 in the fiscal solvency plan um are you asking to switch that switch it yes I don't know if it's allow the only thing I mean we can I mean we can edit the motion but the only thing that probably staff would say is that then we are committing to having those 72 positions um where potentially it

201could be that a site decides not to continue that position right um and 72 versus 11 is a big difference right funding wise uh yeah so in this particular case I would actually put a different motion on the floor because it's exactly the opposite it's not a little thing that you're asking your so he can have his motion and then you can make your own motion is the way that I would advise that should you wish to proceed I have a question though if I may ask Dr Moses so is there guarantee that schools are going to get the same Fundy to continue the same positions for S councils there are no guarantees when it comes to restricted funding right now our biggest concern is the threat of the removal of federal funding which we

202don't know if they'll follow through on that threat but if for example there was a decrease in Title One or an elimination of Title One schools would not have that money uh we can't predict what's going to happen with next year's funding we haven't received those allocations but in terms of what we contribute to schools uh from elcap and um the prop 28 money is pretty uh stable so there are some stable funding sources but other funding sources we don't have control of we don't know it's uncertain thank you okay so do you want to put another motion on floor yes so I motion to approve the FTE uh positions uh being reduced due to the physical solvency plan and to bring back the restriced fund the 72.9 one restriced fund prisions and when you

203say bring back what does that mean so that I may be clear well directing staff to try to make sure that these grants come back or look for new grants so are you suggesting that those positions are you is it the original motion but with the kicker to come back with funding sources correct okay so sorry president regler I think that there's confusion on the original motion my motion is not for the 72 FTE Grand funded it's only for the 11 to retain right trusty Hernandez is requesting we retain this 72 ft Grant funded but not the 11 in the fiscal solvency plan if I if I if I hear that correctly is the opposite of the original motion corre yes I worded it incorrectly sorry great okay so we're clear on that is there

204a second on that motion seeing none that motion dies are there other motions on the flo for the floor seeing none we're back to the original motion comments none okay we'll start with the vote student trustee Espinosa no student trusty bon no trusty Hernandez no clear can you repeat the original motion sure so we're keeping the the 11 classified that's in the fiscal solvy plan and we are releasing all of the grant funded positions no truste geles way yes and I'm a no so a motion fails does anybody else want to put another motion on floor president reckler I'll make a motion that we approve the resolution with the caveat that the budget committee is restarted and that the budget committee's goal is to find savings to bring some of these positions back I will

205second that okay any comments okay we'll go to the vote trusty espanosa Jr it's a long night can you repeat the motion again we're going back to the original motion but we're adding that the District budget indeed committee starts immediately and they are task with bringing back funding opportunities as soon as possible to to bring sorry the goal to bring to find Savings in other areas in order to bring back some of these positions oh sorry sorry okay finding savings to bring back some of these positions how long will that take abstain trusty Baron no trusty Hernandez yes cler can now yes Tristy Gonzalez Hoy yes and I'm a yes the motion passes okay now we are up to E1 adoption of resolution number 2425 58 authorizing adoption of the new state statutory level one

206school facility developer fees on residential commercial industrial and senior housing construction I Believe Miss Payne this is you yes good evening board um tonight for this item we ask that the board hold a public hearing and adopt the resolution adopting this resolution would allow us to increase the P per square footage cost um and increase the revenue received also attached to the agenda is the school facility needs assessment justifying The increased cost we have here with us tonight a representative from school facility consultants and we do have a presentation but in the interest of time I just ask the board if you'd like to hear the presentation or hold the public hearing and move forward what is the board's pleasure do you want to hear the presentation or just go straight to the public hearing

207or well actually when we we'll open the public hearing make a few words and then we'll Okay we okay so I am opening public hearing for the adoption of resolution number 2425 d58 authorizing adoption of the new state statutory level on school fa facility developer fees on residential commercial industrial and sees senior housing construction we I've opened the public hearing we will have a brief presentation should the board request it we will take uh public comment ask questions and then close public hearing so with that we're open does anybody on the board want to hear the presentation okay no nothing is there are there questions on this item is there public comment on this item no public comment okay any anything else all right I'm closing the public hearing all right uh I will accept

208a motion for adoption of resolution number 2425 d58 authorizing adoption of a new state statutory level one school facility developer fees on residential commercial industrial and senior housing construction so moved Gonzalez ho has moved it is there a second I'll second okay and seconds comments none go to the vote student trusty Baron I abstain trusty Hernandez yes cler andana yes chy Gonzales Hoy yes and I'm a yes motion Carri okay E2 2025 csba delegate Assembly Election okay so the California school boards Association csba has issued its ballot for candidates for the California delegate assembly sub region 7A contracosta County to serve a two-year term beginning April 1 2025 to March 31st 2027 the ballot provides for the board to vote for two candidates and in your packet there was lots of information about these candidates

209um okay and so excuse me just for a second okay so we need to vote for two and the delegates will serve twoyear terms beginning April 1 2025 to March 31st 2027 and um the ballot has the names of five candidates for contracosta County um the little asterisk denotes the incumbent so I believe it's uh Tweed Dio Jensen from brenwood Katie Forman from Lafayette Tamela Holly from Liberty Union um High School District Susanna orway San rone Valley who's uh also an incumbent so that would be T twe and um Susanna who are incumbents and then Stephanie Tavis from John swiat you know High School District uh we are looking for two candidates with anybody like to nominate any any candidates for this President I don't know if any of you but I don't know any

210of these people so I would just make a motion that we um put forward the uh in incumbents okay I'll second that any questions or comments on that all right we'll go to the vote so that'll be Tweed Dow Jensen and Susanna orway and we'll go to the vote trusty student trusty Baron yes trusty Hernandez yes clerk andana yes trusty Gonzalez ho yes and Ami yes okay so we've got that done terrific everybody good job okay now we're up to leadership so we are now up [Music] to f public hearing for leadership Public High School Richmond renewal do you have anything you want to say on this yes see itana go ahead so I will be recusing myself from this item my child is currently enrolled at LPS and I wish to avoid any appearance

211of impr property therefore I will not participate or vote on this item perfect okay you uh cler andana is going to leave the dis and sit in a back room back here behind the stage and we will call you after we are done with this you're leaving no she's just going to the back room because she recused herself so she's just leaving the oh my gosh we'll call you when we're done okay so leadership yes okay so tonight we are doing a public hearing on the renewal of Charter for leadership public high school the way it is going to work is I will open the public hearing uh staff will make presentation leadership will make a presentation we will take public comment board members will ask questions and then we will close the public hearing

212um so I'm going to go ahead and do that right now I'm opening the public hearing and uh does anybody from the West contracosta Unified School District have presentation on this item Mr Hart do we have an introduction sorry about then um not certain if we are still joined by our consultant um I'm guessing he is not here any longer no I I am present I this is Douglas Pelton he's online I am yes thank you if you would go ahead and make any opening comments you would like to do please very good um we have uh the presentation for leadership Public School Richmond on the screen right now there is a district presentation that's that's separate that's not on the screen but I'm I'm happy to uh introduce leadership uh quickly that's the intent

213here uh we are uh uh having the public hearing tonight um for leadership Public Schools Richmond to present their Charter renewal petition is required under Education Code 47 607b and I'll very quickly introduce uh the M the uh subject here um the CH the leadership Public School initial petition was approved by the West Contra uh Board of Trustees in August of 2003 for opening uh leadership was renewed three times uh in 2007 2012 and 2017 uh assembly Bill 1130 extended all of the charter expirations in 2022 by two years and Senate Bill 114 extended by another year that's why we're hearing uh the first uh renewal petition uh since 2020 by the district uh we are in the process uh according to assembly Bill 1505 where we hold the public hearing within 60 days of

214the receipt of the renewal petition and the charter school presents that petition in this public hearing uh we will then hold a decision hearing uh according to ab5 5 within 90 days and we've uh agreed with leadership public school to be able to extend that by 30 days should the district or the charter school need the additional time uh renewals are going to be considered under a three- tiered system utilizing the performance indicators in the California school dashboard leadership Public Schools Richmond is a middle performing charter school and uh and there therefore um being considered for a five-year uh renewal term uh the current status of the work is that the uh preliminary analysis of the petition has begun largely by staff at West Contra uh the uh petition review team uh and the charter

215oversight staff did a site visit to leadership Public School Richmond on January 22nd of 2025 and we are presenting the renewal petition here tonight and Leadership Public Schools will do that very shortly and uh we will be finalizing staff findings in a report uh to produce to be produced 15 days in advance of the decision hearing or at least 15 days in advance of the decision hearing and we are currently um appending the decision on what date that will be it will probably be in the late March or early April time frame and that concludes my introduction to the subject and I'd like to turn it over uh for the next section which would be uh the presentation of the petition by leadership Public Schools Richmond I might let me also before they jump into

216the presentation [Music] sorry recognize Mr Pelton with Ed metrics he works with think you need to turn off sound on your computer thank you I just wanted to acknowledge uh the good work that uh Mr Pelton has done he is a consultant with us from ad metrics uh he ensures that we uh are in compliance with the annual Charter oversight requirements uh works with Margarita Rosa out of the Department of U Business Services um sorry was technology challenged and missed that opportunity at the outset so um hoping better late than never and turn it over to the folks from leadership great thank you would would uh people from leadership like to come forward and press the little person with the testing there you go good all right thank you very much uh well good evening

217board members interim superintendent Dr Kim Moses and community members I'm Dr Brent Daniels I'm the superintendent CEO of leadership Public Schools uh thank you for the opportunity to present LPS Richmond's 5year child renewal request uh next slide please um tonight I will demonstrate how LPS Richmond meets all renewal criteria delivers strong academic outcomes and prepare students for post-secondary success we respectfully ask for our your support in improving our renewal for 5 years as a middle tier school next slide meeting the fiveyear renewal standards LPS V qualifies for Renewal under California law as a middle performing Charter School our students are achieving at levels that surpass both state and similar schools approving Richmond's renewal is in the best interest of students uh next slide a little bit about our school now we're located we serve approximately

218546 students and we're grades 9 through 12 we're located in central Richmond with a student population of 96% Hispanic Latino 2% African-American over a quarter of our students are English Learners 65% qualify for pre reduced lunch and 8% receive special education services at LPS we are committed to inclusive college preparatory education that drives long-term success for students next slide one of our highlights is around our graduation rate it's around 97% which exceeds State and County averages on the dashboard for 2024 every significant student group received a blue rating the highest possible on the California dashboard graduation rates these results demonstrate sustained academic progress and reinforce why renewal is in the best interest of students our subgroups include English Learners Hispanic long-term English Learners and sociate economically disadvantage students next slide please for our overall academic

219growth LPS chisan students are achieving significant academic growth our latest Ela math scores showed major gains more than 40 distance from standard points Engish Learners a party group are making faster progress than the state average at 54.2% for English learner progress we're very proud of our staff and students for their hard work and parents next slide we're also working on closing the achievement gap on the 2024 dashboard LPS Richmond outperform State averages in four three areas English language arts English English learning progress and College and Career Readiness uh next slide in looking at the ELA performance and looking at our subgroups compared to the state leadership Public Schools exceed the state for ELA averages for English Learners Hispanic students and socio economic disadvantage students next slide in math we witnessed an increase from our dis

220from standard from 31 to 46 points if you can look and see on the uh presentation you'll see the orange and the yellow um what we found was that for Hispanic and social economic hispan students we're very close to meeting exceeding the state for math these results show that our instructional strategies including elative math and academic support are working in preparing students for long-term success next slide LPS Richmond uses the national student Clearing House to track our students progress after graduation and measure their college enrollment persistence and completion rates LPS Richmond demonstrates strong postsecondary outcomes as defined by college enrollment persistence and completion rates equal to similar peers next slide for key data since 20145 our college enrollment rates have exceeded local high schools within a Four mile radius and the state as shown next

221slide since 2016 our 2-year post High School enrollment rates have also remained High compared to national averages compared to lowincome high schools our percentages range between 85 to 63% over the term of our Charters next slide and looking at strong persistence looking at from freshman of sophomore College persistence rates they align with lowincome high schools nationally since 2016 LPS persistence rates have ranged from 85 to 72% for students showing our dedication and preparation for our students to succeed in college next slide in looking at our six-year College completion rate compared to schools nationally LPS has a rates that reach as high as 34 and 35% compared to schools Across the Nation they're at 29% demonstrating that our students are completing degrees within six years and prepared for college with a final slide um just wanted

222to summarize some key points um LPS Richmond is meeting exceeding renewal standards our students are achieving academic growth graduating at high rates and succeeding in college relative to their peers our staff parents and students are committed to ensuring every student regardless of their background has opportunity for a high quality education approving this renewal ensures contined success for the students that we serve in the appendix of the presentation uh there's more information for the community and the board around what schools are used for comparison data our historical black College University tours or college tours parent and educational Partnerships and other highlights uh we thank you and appreciate your partnership and hearing us this evening thank you very much is there any public comments on this item okay we'll put 10 minutes on the clock one minute

223per person okay our first public comment is Ruben orona good evening board members student trustees and Community stakeholders my name is Ruben orona and I have the privilege of serving as the acting principal at LPS Richmond a school located in the heart of the Iron Triangle I joined the admin team four years ago as we returned from distance learning and have witnessed the resilience challenges and successes we have made tremendous strides in student engagement and achievement our EO Learners have shown 133% Improvement elevating us to a green indicator on the California dashboard through our partnership with UC Berkeley and UC cla's reach Network we have taken a datadriven approach to reflect and analyze suspension rates ensuring that our practices promote meaningful conversation not just consequences LPS Richmond is committed to academic rigor diverse career Pathways

224and a holistic approach to support services tonight I urge you to grant our school a positive renewal thank you our next po of comment is Jean kinner please unmute yourself hello just a quick I could not find any button to comment on the other open forum and for this one those numbers sound amazing I'm wondering for us to duplicate or even compete against the charter school what is the class size in student to teacher ratio are they committed and mandated to follow the same curriculum that the rest of the district is or are they free to go get good rigorous curriculum to help Drive these improvements just some things to think about thank you our next public comment is mar um good good evening everyone my name is Marisol Cruz and I am a senior

225at LPS today I want to speak about something that means a lot to me and to all of us as students we're invested in our success of our school which has shaped who we are and will continue to shape our future I have fir handedly experienced how this school is dedicated to both my academic success and personal growth I've been involved in sports clubs and Student Government I see um my teachers dedicated to my success spending a couple of hours after school to support me whenever I need a teacher's help the teacher is always there to support me often just by checking in and asking how my day is going um as we look ahead let's continue investing in the Next Generation ensuring that they have the same great teachers programs and Community we have

226had thank you to everyone who has supported this school I'm excited for the future and how our school will continue to grow with the renewal of our Charter thank you our next public comment is Cheryl sudo please unmute yourself Cheryl said um am I understand that there are only two board members left in the room um I'm asking that question but I wasn't going to speak but I'm in DC this week and I'm here in in the midst of all of the chaos and listening to this I think the school is great the numbers sound really good but if we're going to talk about inclusiveness versus exclusivity as a Latina I still have an issue with um a school that is 96% Latino Or Hispanic in your wordss does not sound inclusive sounds exclusive so

227I'd like to know I'd like for you to go ahead and approve it but also put some parameters that there's some Outreach to every to other people in the community so that it doesn't appear to be an exclusive opportunity um and and as the last speaker said it would be great to learn what they're doing so you can duplicate it in the district with that have a good night our next public comment is Chan Fernandez our next public comment is Alisa Casey good evening can you hear me okay hi my name is Alissa Casey I'm proud to say this is my 7th year as a visual arts teacher at LPS Richmond and I'm also the president of East Bay Educators United um the data that Dr Daniels presented speaks for itself our students have consistently

228demonstrated growth in academic achievement and our Innovative programs from our CT program and our discipline specific coaching support for teachers to spread the best teaching practices to all students to our freshman Retreat and robust Wellness counseling prepares students not only for success in higher education but also Beyond at LPS Richmond we Foster a strong sense of community equity and inclusion creating a nurturing space where students feel safe valued and empowered renewing our Charter will allow us to continue this vital work and expand our impact in the community thank you for your time this evening our next public comment is Sophia Thomas hello good night board members uh my name is sfia Thomas I am a ninth grade math teacher at LPS Richmond and this is my 18th year at the school as as a dedicated

229member of the community I strongly support the renewal of our Charter in my 18 years as a member of Staff have witnessed firsthand the profound impact or school has had on students families and the broader community that we serve LPS Richmond provides a rigorous student centered learning safe environment that Fosters academic Excellence social emotional growth and a commitment to a lifelong learning to lifelong learning sorry we ensure that our classrooms demonstrate a high level of student centered engagement while providing a rigorous Equitable education what's more or educ ators are deeply invested in each child's success aimed truly at supporting the whole child please help and public comment is Anna gutieres I'm a mom of four children my students have been in the school schol for four years 15 years sorry for 15 years all the

230teachers have been like a family they've been all um they care about the students and they have been all working together um in the community I'm sorry I forgot to say that they all have been graduated and she's here to advocate for the school so that they continue um giving this opportunity to other families and support all the families in this school thank you for listening and for giving us the opportunity to be um here tonight with you our next public comment it's ala Rees oh there you go good evening board members and Community stakeholders I'm Alandra re aalos and it's a privilege to be a teacher at LPS Richmond I served as a Cho um and Spanish teacher and lead the latinx club on campus named Rises two years ago I returned to LPS

231as an alumni teacher and since then I've been honored to be a part of this great school Community while the support of our current adamantine sorry with the support of our current adma team we've dedicated ourselves to creating an environment that is inclusive safe and empowering for our students through programs like Cho studies we offer students the chance to explore their own identities and learn more about their Community this class has also inspired our Juniors and seniors to commit to social justice encouraging them to take pride in themselves and utilizing their resources and platform to raise awareness about global issues happening today LPS Richmond isn't just a school to me it's where I grew up where I I learned and where I now have the opportunity to give back to the community that shaped me

232tonight I ask that you grant our school of positive renewal thank you our next public comment is Joseline merer I School board members and decision makers as a parent of a student who has attended charter schools for the past 5 years I am strongly supporting the renewal of leadership Public School Richmond the decision to have my son attend a charter school was one of the best I have made for his educational journey and I firmly believe that this school has been instrumental in his success what stands out the most about LPS Richman is the exceptional care and dedication that the teachers provide they genuinely invest in each student's academic and personal goal growth offering support whenever it's needed the individual attention for my son allows him to thrive and I feel confident that his unique

233needs and learning style are being met in ways that traditional schools may not always have the resources to provide having the choice to send my son to a school that nurtures his abilities and supports his progress is invaluable the flexibility and personalized environment Foster his success in a way that is simply unmatched it is my hope that our families can continue to to benefit from the same opportunities that have allowed my son to grow and Exel our last public comment is MacBook Pro please unmute yourself can you hear me yes hi my name is Ardo renila I'm calling uh to ask that you deny the renewal for this Charter School simply because charter schools are robbing uh the District of uh uh Ada money and the reason that we're in the predicament we are today

234is because of charter schools mostly because of charter schools and so I'm asking you to vote no on this renewal thank you and I believe that ends public comment yes okay so just to be clear this is just a hearing there's no vote tonight just so that everybody knows okay we're going to move to questions does anybody have any questions chy Hernandez you do yeah I just wanted to get um some clarification on their application and admission process and if it's on on a lottery basis or first come first serve I don't know if if you guys are able to enter that yes we're going to have a staff member answer that question for you so LPS is a part of the West Contra Costa enrolls and so it is if the number of applicants

235exceeds the spaces available within the class then a lottery is run so um what are your specific Outreach strategies to ensure sure that um families are informed you know spe specifically English language Learners students with disabilities and Foster use good evening board um my name is yasine Franco I'm the school manager at LPS I figured I should introduce myself um so we participate in um go public schools education fairs we Outreach to our local um middle schools to partner to give information um we do one-on-one um enrollment consultation if you would say um for the registration process with our families providing um Chromebooks to them uh as it is an online application and registration process I hope that answers part of your question yes thank thank you and my last question is what is your

236student retention rate yeah we can provide that information to the board we don't have that um on the rid this evening we can send that out to you okay thank you you're welcome okay I have a couple of questions too any other questions over there okay um so I'm wondering if you can address your demographics which Do Not Mirror our demographics you are 3% African-American where we're probably somewhere between 10 and 12 9% disabled and we're probably like 12 to 14 you're 94.5% Hispanic Latino where we are like I don't know like around the 60 Mark 57 something like that um and then for sped you're there wasn't a lot of data on on the type of sped student that you're serving but about 80% of your sped students spend the full day in a

237regular class whereas we are points and points below that number so can you talk about recruiting a diverse uh group of students that looks like our district well yeah what I can share is that what we're doing is providing professional development for our staff uh in ways of like Dr Charles art for example Dr Ard was presented Rogers AR presented for us and working with our staff on ensuring that we're inclusive for for all students in all cultures uh in addition to that we're very mindful about hiring highly qualified staff and having a diverse staff so we do have staff that reflect um St the population of the community to make sure that all students know they're welcome we also have a historical black college tour that we third year that we've had and we

238have that tour in place to uh be a resource for the students that we do serve uh to make sure that we're meeting their needs um so those are part of our recruitment efforts is to have a staff that when students come to the school they can see someone that looks like them as well as providing professional and training and development for our staff to ensure we have an inclusive environment welcoming of all students regardless of their background including if they have a learning disability uh when it comes to our special ed program our our director is here but we really promote inclusion for our students uh for our staff and provide professional development for our teachers around udl to support students in the classroom Universal Design for instruction and have pushin services for our

239special education students we do have some SP students that do have a period where they may not be in uh the regular ed class and receive uh Support Services um so that's the program that we that we offer uh for our for the community specifically how do you recruit African-American students uh well we essentially offer programs that when African-American students attend they can feel supported um if a student were to apply and they're African-American uh they would be uh admitted into our school we do have staff that are African-American uh as a a superintendent we try to reach out to families and have committees where we meet with parents to determine how can we make the school uh welcoming and those are our efforts that we use okay thank you uh I want to talk

240about suspensions uh suspensions of African-American students um of which there are not a lot but um we'll start back in 2018 there was a 99.5% suspension rate for African-American students which was a increase of 3.5% it is in line with the state so um you know you're there was an increase but you're still at the state level uh at 20 in 2019 26.3% were suspended at least once that was an increase of 16.8% the state was at 88.8% once again we're talking about very few students but still um you know it it outpaces your other groups at school and it outpaces the state average um there's really no data up until 2024 there's something wrong with 2023 is data in the California dashboard uh so I threw that out and then in 2024 uh 21.1%

241were suspended at least one and that was a a multiple Point increase I can't read my handwriting I can't tell if it's 16.3 or 11.3 I let's give you 11 and the state is at 8.4 so I'm just wondering what what have you got going on there um and how are you trying to mitigate this yeah as I shared earlier we are engaging in professional development with our our staff and implementing restorative justice practices um for our community to better serve our students um one thing I can share is a lot of times when you have small numbers uh in number that's going to really impact like your percentages and make the percentages look look higher um compared to uh other numbers so if you can send me the question I think I'd be able

242to respond uh more fully but what I can say what is going on is that we have a reduction um in those suspensions for African-American students that's the trend line and I attribute that to the fact that we are engaging in professional development and training we do have a BSU um at our school as I shared earlier we have our HBC utour that we have as well as a uh committee that we started two years ago for parent last last year for parents of African-American students to hear and learn from the parents how it can make the school uh more supportive for African-American students in our school okay thank you and then I want to touch on something which is positive um which is and I also see a decline here I want to say

243but it's still you're over this you're a lot over the state average okay I want to come back to something which is positive which is in College and Career obviously during the pandemic things really slipped off but what I do see is really steady line of more students being prepared for College and Career after the pandemic so can you talk about how what you're doing which is causing that trend line to go up well um essentially during the pandemic we were impacted by Staffing we had a staffing shortage during that time and as a result we had some students in Virtual learning we actually had them on uh virtual learning plat platforms for instruction so post uh pandemic we've been able to have in uh retain our teachers uh through negotiations and offer a stronger

244program and so as a result of that U our students having an in-person teacher they'll have higher scores on AP exams as well as on the cast which is a through line to our increased college and uh career Readiness so essentially it's a bounce back from the pandemic and you'll see that we have an increase in all of our scores um since that time okay thank you anything else up here okay I will close the public hearing thank you leadership right thank you okay let's go back now to oh let's get trusty Clin yeah other okay well then we'll hold just a minute e okay we'll give trusty and Yana just a second to get her laptop up and okay so we're going to go item C which is business items consent is there anything

245from consent that board members would like to pull seeing none is it okay if we just approve consent yes okay so all consent items are approved D superintendent communication do you want to give one do you have anything in there that's urgent or that you want to okay well we'll have uh an abbreviated superintendent report thank you we'll just wait for the report to come up as we wait for the presentation to display I am going to go through slides rather quickly in the interest of time we're adjourning in 14 minutes but I would like to share information uh from the presentation so thank you for the opportunity um we'd like to begin the superintendent's report uh for tonight with a recognition of uh slide uh in memorium we'd like to recognize the contributions of

246members of our school Community who have passed away Reggie Alexander would regret to inform you um a retired warehouse worker recently passed away Reggie worked for the school district for 27 years before retiring in 2005 he was the brother of Sandra Fischer retired typus clerk at nrom elementary and the uncle of Adrian Ellis par professional at urst elementary we thank him for his contribution and dedication to student staff in the was contracosta Community our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Reggie Alexander please join me in a moment of silence thank you next slide we'd also like to recognize the lores Lita C casanares I'm sorry to inform you that Lita a former employee who served as an after school program director at King Elementary School has passed away she began

247her career with the district as a substitute Clerk and later in 1996 became the typus clerk at King Elementary she retired from our school district in 2009 our thoughts and prayers are with Natasha her daughter Phillip her son and her family and friends please join me in a moment of silence thank you um I'd like to recognize our wccusd scholarship winners the Chevron black employee network um awarded four of our seniors with scholarships to begin their college Journey um nesa Fletcher from Hercules high Gabriella Jaa from Middle College jazaria jungsten from Dian deanah high and Latina FAA from middle college uh it was my honor to join them on this occasion and as a former scholar ship winner in 1989 I am also a Chevron scholarship recipient and it was great to have a full

248circle moment to watch our students be awarded the scholarship that benefited me greatly in my college um years as well so congratulations to those students congratulations to Greenwood Academy they've been officially named give it up they've been officially named a California continuation model School uh Greenwood is being recognized as an outstanding program um that provides comprehensive services to atrisk youth through exemplary instruction flexible scheduling guidance and counseling services the Greenwood team will be traveling to San Diego in late April to receive their award um we are very proud of our leader principal Phil Johnson and his entire team at Greenwood Academy thank you for this achievement for our district next slide congrat congratulations to our chief safety consultant Michael Booker uh Michael Booker was honored last night at the city council uh meeting he is

249our chief safety and emergency preparedness consultant and he was honored for his exceptional service and dedication to our community he's a former president of the Guardians of Justice Booker served as Richmond's police Lieutenant Commander and retired after 29 years of service leaving a lasting impact on public safety and Community relation ations we are so proud of Mr buer next slide we are also proud of our heroes Miss Fay Miss Carmen and Miss um umoto uh for their service to our students in a special way we want to acknowledge that not not all heroes wear capes uh Miss Fay is a teacher at Peno middle and she W she saved the life of a student who was choking during the lunch period She Drew on her training and recognized and assess the situation she performed the

250heck maneuver saving the student we applaud Miss Fay and her courage and her selflessness thank you Miss faay we'd also like to recognize OBC Miss Carmen and Mrs yumoto from RI a Riverside student uh suffered a seizure on campus and the pair of professional and teacher assigned to support that student quickly enacted the care plan and and ensured that our student was safe and well cared for during this emergency we want to thank them both for their quick thinking and selflessness in supporting and caring for our young students next slide uh very quickly and I think we can acknowledge this next uh board meeting on March 7th we will honor several staff members for the make a difference award these awards are hosted by our community advisory committee and the special education department and we

251will continue uh in our next meeting we'll acknowledge these names individually so congratulations to you and the event is March 7th right here at desan from 7: to 9: next slide just want to reiterate that uh the budget is uh we we remain focused on ensuring the fiscal health of our district and we're working really hard to navigate our current budget realities uh we are committed to transparency throughout the process and will continue to provide regular updates to our board Staffing Community next slide uh we just wanted to uplift the immigration policy and principle and operations trainings that we've held in order to ensure that our community is ready and steadfast in our commitment to support our all of our students and ensure that our schools continue to be a safe welcoming and supportive space

252during these difficult times next slide uh we will host a actually Richmond High is hosting a know your rights training on March 5th at 6 PM via Zoom uh so please uh if you're able to join and learn about how to exercise your rights uh regarding it's a free immigration Community Workshop next slide this slide highlights our graduation dates graduation season starts March 17th uh with our reclassification ceremony and extends through June 14th with an Extended Learning graduation in July as well we will continue to publicize these dates over the coming months next slide uh this is information for the community that there's a global ambassador program there's a trip to China happening in the summer we're publicizing this for any of our community members that might want to take advantage and this slide will

253come back in a future presentation next slide our richond promise scholarship is open we encourage our youth to apply uh for this scholarship um and receive $1,500 each year and get support for college the applications are due by March 14th so please apply next slide we want to high uplift our new family enrollment and remind families and community members that enrollment for the 2526 school year is open next slide this is our flyer in Spanish and again we' like to end our uh superintendent Report with a reminder of our parent advisory committees and encouragement to our community to please uh consider attending these meetings and have your voice heard in our um engagement formats here are more um committees that you can be interest that you can enjoy and join in thank you so much

254for your attention and that concludes the superintendent report thank you very much are there any questions for the superintendent no okay we have six minutes remaining do we want to make one minute final comments from the board or do we want to call it does anybody have anything to say no okay then we will skip or nobody has anything to say that's item G moving to item H the next scheduled Board of Education meeting is March 12 2025 right here at laan Deon middle school and I am journeying the February 26 2025 meeting at 11:24 good night everyone