001Welcome everyone to the Wiser Unified School District board meeting. Thank you for joining us today. I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. Thank you everyone for joining us. And Wendy, would you please take Dr. Goldman? Present. Miss Cassie present. Miss Legatsby present. Mr. Martinez here. Mr. Ben present. Thank you. Next, we're going to go to the twice salute and I'm going to ask our vice president, Mr. Neil Goldman, if you can lead us in the pledge and over your heart. Ready to begin to flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay. We have nothing to report out of closed session. The board did not take any actions and closed. Next, we'll go to
002the adoption of our agenda for tonight. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as posted? Second. Any questions? None. All those in favor? I Motion carries five. Thank you. Comments from the public. These are items that are not on the agenda item. We do we do have one comment today. Just as a reminder based on the brown egg, we do not the board cannot respond to comments or any questions that may be tendered to the board. And we do have three minutes to address the board. We have Mary and Stanley Aika. Aila. Aila. Thank you so much. appreciate that. Uh comments and concerns about bullying and physical assault within Wis Unified School District, please come to the podium. Hi. So as a resident of Delair since 1960 and also a special education teacher for
003over 40 years at to Los Angeles school district retired and went back to school currently work in special education at a charter school and I teach one class at the University of Southern California. My granddaughter attends Delair systematically. She's been bullied since first grade. She's now in the fourth grade. First grade, there was a physical assault, a sexual assault. Second grade, she was punched in the stomach. Fourth grade, she's been bullied consistently. When we became aware of it, we approached the teacher and the child who was doing the bully was removed from her table. Last Thursday, um, an incident occurred where she again was being bullied and a young student told her to get out of line and to be a good girl and get out of line and a p pushing match in, you
004know, ensued and she doesn't allow anybody to touch her. She pushed back. Friday during lunch, she was sitting in the cafeteria. Her friend asked her to save a seat. When another boy approach approached her and asked if he could sit there, she said, "No, I'm saving the seat." He then told another friend of his to move her. Exact words. The young man pulled her by her sweater to move her. She said, "No one is allowed to touch my body." He then pulled her by her hair to the ground, straddled her, and began to hit her in the head with his lunch pill, which had a thermos in it. Where was the supervision? As an educator, I know about supervision during the playground, in the cafeteria. And I also know as an educator when students act
005out in this manner, they might have um an IEP or a 504. So my question is, if these students have an IEP or a 504 and this is happening that they're bullying or whatever, where are the interventions for those students with special needs? Of course, I'm furious about my granddaughter, but I'm also furious that if this child has a history of being a bully, where's his behavior plan? Was it implemented? Where does he have a one-on-one? Has the parents asked for a one-on-one? Was it denied because of funding? And I am not the only parent. My Thank you. Wendy, do we have anything more? Any other public comments? Thank you. Uh, next we'll go to section six. Start with item 6.1 is board member comments. I'm start on the opposite end of the table with
006Nelson here. Nelson. Thank you, Rogers. Just one quick comment. I was actually out of the country and um missed it. But um it was exciting to see the video on the groundbreaking at 135th and in aviation there. I'm glad to see the activity. Uh all the the big equipment is underway and and moving. So just excited to see that. And um I don't have anything else except I I did want to wish everybody a nice spring break as spring break is approaching here. That's it. Thank you, Nelson. Michelle. Um, I just want to and I'm glad Steve just walked in. Um, I just wanted to say thank you to Da Vinci for the exped exhibition nights that happened this past week. Um, I was able to attend the Da Vinci science one and it was
007amazing. Nothing short of amazing. I love watching how engaged all the students were. And again, as a teacher, you just really love to see kids find their confidence and be able to um you can tell that they were very involved in their learning. And it was really fun for me to kind of go around and see all that learning and all that enthusiasm for their learning. So, thank you for the opportunity for that. All I have. Thank you, Michelle. Neil, um no report. uh just to thank you for the comment and ask that uh offline not at this meeting of course because we can't do this to get more information here please. Thank you Rebecca. Thanks Roger. Um so in the spirit of recognition that uh that Michelle was talking about the aviation had their
008variety show tonight this afternoon. I know there were about at least two dozen kids to you know performances. Um, and so just kudos to all of the kids that uh put themselves out there to um to show off their talents, whether it was Irish dancing or solving a Rubik's cube or playing the piano or everything uh in between. And um and thank you to the the PTA uh at aviation for uh for all of the work that it took to coordinate all of uh those acts. Um and all the families that that supported the kids. um just a really special thing to watch those third through fifth graders uh do that. So um kudos to all of them. Um I also I know we have a whole slate of uh of uh resolutions that we're
009that we're doing tonight and I'm excited to um to recognize all of those, but I also know that we can't recognize everything. So, um, I just wanted to shout out our library clerks, um, for National Library Week, um, at Holly Glenn, Renee Hubler, at aviation, Liz Lagarda, at Delair, Kathy Pitlug, and at the middle school, Crystal Mosler. Um, I just think it's it, you know, having access to a library that is fully stocked and uh has a variety of books um to meet all of our kids' interests and learning needs and um and just give them that love of of reading. Um, thank you to all of the clerks who put in all of the time to um to get all of the students there. I'm so glad that the middle school has a has
010a library open again. I know it's been a while a period of time since we haven't had one and um so super happy that um Crystal is getting that um off the ground and going. Uh it's been it's it's so good as an avid reader myself. Library card is your passport to other worlds. Uh even if you can't leave your home. So um so really excited about that. And the last thing I wanted to say was that um Rock Around the Block is coming uh at the end of the month. So make sure you get those tickets. Uh the Ed Foundation volunteer and volunteer. We need We need volunteers. Always need volunteers. Who's getting in the dunk tank? Volunteer Nelson to do with the dunk tank. Okay, cool. I retired a long time ago. You're
011here. Um but yeah, so it should be a wonderful day where we get to celebrate more of the um arts and education and um and all of the wonderful things that are that our kids are doing throughout the district. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca. Just one followup as well, Dr. Silvers, if you could provide an updated look into the public comments that we received today. Thank you, Mrs. Aila, for your comments. Um, I don't have an update for today, so we're going to move right into the mathematics update. And Maggie, thank you. Well, we had our last how-to meeting, which is our district instructional leadership team. And from that meeting in March, we were really looking um at ourselves through our network at CAPS and the training we've done with the CAPS
012network. And we decided we needed to reook and redevelop our essential standards throughout our um in all of our subject areas. And I just would really like to commend the middle school who have done this process before, but really took a hit at redeveloping them by looking at their current data, the needs of their students, and and making that adjustment. And so bravo to Brandy Garcia who really did help lead that amongst her math team. And so thank you for that effort. But I don't want to stop just at the middle school because one all the other three subject areas did that same work over at the middle school and our elementary uh launched their essential standards day. And so thank you to Morgan Roy and to Marissa Larson who really led that conversation amongst
013the entire third grade team as a district. And you know, these essentials are so important as we are, you know, we're not just using them with our within our classes and talking about the redesign of our lessons and our units of instruction. We are using this with our design team and like making an assessment vision for the district as well as the feedback that we provide our students, the feedback we provide to our parents like through a report card. And so that that component is key to those next steps. um our design teams meeting in May on May 20th and so all of the grade levels and teams except for one will be done by then and so that's that's an exciting thing to bring forward and and that that day is going to be
014wonderful. We're having our second student panel as well. Our first day ended with a student panel of our educators asking students questions about the feedback that they receive and it went with just such overwhelming response from the teachers learning so much from those voices that we're going to be be bringing back a second set of students to have that conversation. So that's really great. Um I mean we've as always we're busy in ed services. I mean Summer Graves and Kim Jones and myself attended a weekend conference in San Diego called the AI show. It was a free conference for educators and boy walking into that that was a room of buzz over at the convention center on just all the tools that are coming out with education. It's like you just don't know what to
015to pick and what you know sessions to go to. But we've both kind of we all just tackled like three new tools and one I was already talking to the math team about called Tutarero and we're going to look into that as like a supplemental material for mathematics that really does help us align our assessments and our curriculum. And so that's a a very exciting time for us as a district and as as team levels. So that's all for Ed services. I think we're all just hanging on for dear life to spring break tomorrow. Excuse me. I have one more too about um about CASP assessments. We're getting ready as soon as we get back. We're going to begin about a week out after spring break. We're going to begin our CASP assessments at the
016middle school first. They they go the first or last week in April, excuse me. But the first week in May, traditionally, our our elementary schools started and we're going to continue to start on that day. This year, we're going to do it a little bit differently. We're going to start with mathematics as our first assessment to go to see what data that provides us. You know, we we know about you know, testing fatigue fatigue for our littles. So, we really want to hit it off with all the work we've done with math if that will help um you know, with our student score. So, that was what bravo to the elementary teams for that work. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, Maggie. Blake, we'll turn over turn it over to you for district leadership reports. Sure.
017Monique. Sure. I have a couple updates. Um enrollment. We are excited to be working on our first day packet. So, as we've talked about before, we're switching over from school mint to power school enrollment, which we think will be so much easier for our families. And with that comes revision of our enrollment packets for the first day of school. So, the legal information families need to know, the handbooks, the drop off times, all that information will be included in these first aid packets that parents will receive over the summer. Um, and we'll have this new hopefully much easier and um user friendly method of ensuring that our families are informed and that we get the initials on those agreements and signatures that we need. Um, the enrollment office has been busy accepting and sorting applications.
018Um we have about 2,300 students um anticipated for enrollment so far. That number continues to rise. We're still processing permanent applications and so um and and actually both continuing students who haven't filled out their paperwork yet. So um we do expect that number to continue showing up. Um we also still have a lot of families showing interest in learning more about our schools. The middle school had another tour last night again with about 175 people who attended um which has been like what we've seen at almost every um tour at the school. So um lots of interest there which is great and excitement. As Rebecca mentioned, there are a lot of resolutions um on the agenda tonight related to um inclusion and just celebrating our community. Um there are a lot of um recognizing our
019teachers, our speech pathologists, our principles and all of our staff and all the wonderful work that that um they do with our students and supporting our community and also observances highlighting um and celebrating cultures including AAPI and our Jewish community as well. So, um, we're excited about that and our counselors are prepared to talk with our teachers about that and our teachers will then talk to our students about that. We'll have to connect to again um for our students. And finally, the learning recovery opportunity program is also up and running. We have over 700, actually almost 800 signed agreements, which means that we have almost 800 students who are eligible to um receive instructional materials when they're absent. And if they complete that, then they'll also receive credit for their attendance. And so um I
020think a huge highlight here is just how well our different departments are working together. So, the business office, um, student services and our school sites are really working hard to make sure that our families are supported, that students know how to access the information, and that also that our records are accurate. And Dr. Ingred, the um the credit recovery, how many days can students make up? Is it up to 15? Up to 15. So, that's significant. Yes. So, previously there was a minimum of five days, but now it can be anywhere from one to 15 days. A couple questions on the credit recovery. I'm assuming that's going to be part of the packet next year. 800 is great, but it's only a third of our students roughly. Exactly. So, this year parents will receive that
021agreement request over the summer. So, we'll start the year off hopefully with all the agreements signed or at least most of them. Great. And then there was one other question. You mentioned 2,300 as to our enrollment. That's our number as of this moment for next year. Yes. How does that compare to last year if you know? Um obviously we're looking for probably a couple hundred more. Did you say 2,300? 2,300. Compared to last year we were around 2400. Okay. So a little bit lower. Um I think we are um we have a lot more applications to process and we've refined what that process looks like. So it's taking a little bit longer. Um but again making sure families feel welcomed and um we're able to really reach more of the community. So I think more
022of those requests are coming in to join our district. Please keep us posted. Typically a little over 2500, right? Our LCAP goal is around 2500. 2500. Okay. So we're a little behind right now. Right. Rebecca, do you have a couple questions? just a a comment which was um I know all the schools are celebrating these different months in different ways and I just wanted to um thank all of the school sites for all the work that they've put in to doing that because it has opened doors to conversations at home. You know, I had my my fourth grader came home and was like talking about neurodiversity and you know how to recognize differences and you know and it just opened conversations. So, thank you to all of the work that the schools are doing and
023all of the activities that they had. You know, there was a lot of enthusiasm, I think, for for those. Last week was like a spirit week at aviation um with different things. So, it was it's been lovely. Um so, thank you for all of the work that's gone into that. Back to you, Blake. Right. I am gonna just um reintroduce Greg Magnus. Um, I know he doesn't have a report. Um, actually, I hope you don't have a report, Greg. Um, no, Greg is uh in Sean's absence, uh, for a short period, Greg has, uh, stepped in again. Um, this is, uh, this is part two. Um, and you know, some of the things that we're looking at and that we're working on are some of our systems in the business office. Um, just kind of
024continuing some of the work that that we did um, a few years ago. There's still some areas that we could certainly improve some of our systems. so excited to to get into that work. I'm excited for his leadership to help us uh continue to do that. So, um Greg Magnuson, everybody, happy to be here. Welcome, Greg. Welcome back. Good be. Um few few updates. Um I I was going to actually say there were 185 people last night at the tour. I counted Mon'nique. No, I'm just kidding. I was going to exaggerate a little bit. She's probably right. Um, but you know, I just want to say I want to thank Kiana and and Sarah Hackett, you know, the administrative team over there for uh for their presentation to the families. Um, a lot of excitement
025in the room. Um, you know, a lot of people to tour, you know, the campuses, but um, want to thank the maintenance facilities crew, custodians, um, Archie, you know, for his leadership in that area because, you know, when you walk around the campus, it really does look nice. It really looks nice and a lot of the families um are commenting on that the niceness I guess that's the word um of the campuses the cleanliness and so forth and you know it's hard to sometimes you have to this a middle school and and and there's you know if you walk around and you see you know there's not a lot of trash I mean things are just very wellkept and um you know obviously a testament to the kids testament to the leadership testament to the
026custodial grounds crew um all those folks that put in that work so I just wanted to to to highlight that. Um, also want to plug and we're going to continue to plug uh from a a messaging communication standpoint, summer camp. Christina's here in the back. I know uh it's been quite a push this year. I know we're under sort of underenrolled right now under what we would like to be um in terms of enrollment. Maybe in May we can come and give you more of an update like actuals, but um for now we're going to do a fullcourt press on trying to get some of this messaging out um and and really try and boost uh bolster that enrollment in partnership with the Ed Foundation, Wisburn Ed Foundation as well as the Da Vinci Schools
027Fund. Um so uh here we go trying to trying to increase that that enrollment. Also looking at um dashboard planning. I know I brought to the team. I want to thank Maggie for for bringing in Joel Rab Raven. Raven, am I okay? Am I pronouncing that right? Sorry. I call him Joel. Um but but nonetheless, um Joel has uh has had an awesome uh you know has has an awesome presentation to share with the board on May 8th. His plan is to be here. Um this is the ever elusive scorecard that Neil has been talking about and and uh we're actually uh pretty excited to to bring to you. It's it's a pretty comprehensive process that we've gone through with metrics and trying to at least get those baseline metrics. Um it's going to include
028a dashboard, but also a scorecard. So, there's going to be some of the key metrics on the front that'll be red, yellow, green, or or some set of colors. Um but but beyond that, also a little bit more in depth as it relates to some of the metrics that we're looking at and achievement um and so forth. part of that process. Maggie's also worked with him on uh creating kind of a district snapshot at a glance, something that either could be it looks awesome, by the way. You know, the draft of it looks really awesome. Capturing some of the major metrics in the district. Um it's a I'm going to say it's a brag sheet. I'm not going to say it's a marketing tool, but it is that too. Um something that we can hand
029out at tours, something that we can have in the office. Um you know, we can print them or else also use them and and distribute them electronically. it looks good in both versions, you know, whether it be in print or or or electronically. So, happy to share that over the over the coming, you know, weeks or or board meetings. Um, so we just wanted to share um and that and I think that ties in, you know, we had mentioned last board meeting about strengths training and our strengths uh yeah, I guess it is strengths training and and identifying strengths. Um we we shared that we had used the Gallup uh the Clipton strengths uh tool um and you know really looking forward to having these conversations about strengths uh whatever tool we use with our
030staff um as we move into this year we're looking at our leadership team through our how-to process um really wanting to get people talking about that because ultimately getting that down to students is important. Um so just uh more to come on that as as we move through this process, but it's really front and center. Had an opportunity to meet with Nisha um and uh Fablettics across the street there on on aviation uh because there's some interest in um some kind of sponsorship. We're not quite sure what that's going to look like for the Weisman Sports Complex. Um kind of their mission and vision matches a lot of kind of what we're looking at. And obviously they're an athletics athleisure company. So them them them being able to um to have that facility across the
031street means means something to them and and certainly could mean something to us as well. Uh so we are looking at some opportunities here uh that could come back around. Nothing specific yet, but just wanted to share some of the um early conversations as it relates um to that. I mean obviously we'll have to take a look at at options, but um a lot of buzz and interest in that um in that sports complex. And so I just uh this is just one of those examples. Um also wanted to sort of highlight I know um there's a couple construction um you know items on the agenda today and I was just kind of doing a list. I was looking at our solar program. I was looking at two TK renovations. I wrote down a soccer
032field, Wise Sports Complex, a network overhaul. Um we're doing a pilot furniture uh a furniture pilot coming up here in a week. Um, we had our phase one of the refresh on our campuses. We we had our access control and this is all I mean 2022 we passed a bond in November of 2022, you know, so end of 2022. So just in a year and a half or you know really two years. I mean the the amount of work that's happened and that's visible across our campuses is really really really um you know it's just it's evident and it's it's just a lot. And so I just want to thank the team, you know, I know Tony on the infrastructure side, obviously Sheree and Noi who are here who are really quarterbacking that and I
033know the whole team. I know I'll can't make that mistake again. Um but the team at NAZ for for their diligence on this. Um but what that leads to is um we are going to have a a bit of a hiccup at the middle school coming up. We're going to have part the one of the sidewalks is going to be demolished um during spring break. You know, unfortunately we can't wait till summer. So, we are going to have a bit of a path of travel issue um that we're going to be working through. So, I know the team is working with Kiana and um and Sarah um Archie to just make sure that we have the cones and separation, all those things that you need uh to make sure that we can that we can
034have safe ingress and egress for our students through this uh through this process. That sidewalk obviously won't be back until um you know the the site opens probably. Yeah, this is it. You know, this will be it for a while. Uh, so we're going to have to set up some some uh plans and and so forth for that. So, uh, anyway, all good. But I I just wanted to share that that's kind of uh that's that's down the pike and we'll we'll um monitor and and adjust and it won't be perfect the first day um or the second day. Uh, but we'll get there. We'll get close. That's all I have today. Thank you. Thank you, Blake. Neil, a couple comments on a couple things that are going on. Scorecard exciting as as always. um
035summer program. Parents, if you saw those kids last summer, you wanted them in this program. It was such a success and now they figured it all out. It's gonna be even better. So, sign up. And then, uh AI, thank you for the comments. And I, you know, it's a particular passion of mine. I think a leveraging opportunity for us all. Um I'm not sure if this is for you, Maggie, or Dr. Silvers. Um to give us an update, maybe a plan for a presentation on there's so much out there. How can I don't know what how you do this but how do you keep us a breast of everything that's opportunity for us and keep us up to up to speed on this and then relative to that is the conversation about the portrait of
036a learner. I don't know where we are on that. So kind of just keep us going. I was going to add to that because the portrait of learner was kind of that combination we're working with Da Vinci on and it's all related to AI. So which which for the public is what are the expectations and requirements of preparing students for the future uh given AI uh capabilities noted. Noted I don't have any clarification on those yet but we will I appreciate that and appreciate the the questions and thank you m thank you Neil. We're going to move on to section seven uh which is uh comments from the public on agenda items. Wendy, do you have any comments on agenda items? I do not. Okay. We're moving on to section eight, which are consent items.
037Is there a motion to approve items 8.1 approve 1 through 13? Second second with just a quick comment. Okay. Nelson. So, uh, with regards to, um, the items here, we have a a myriad of resolutions as we spoke about earlier, all resolutions that, um, obviously I support. Um, I would ask my colleagues for some consideration maybe down the road or in the future. Um, with regards to revisiting, uh, the list, uh, one of the concerns that I have is to make sure that we're we're not excluding anyone and it's hard to capture um, all the groups. So, um, a possible consideration might be to to categorize in a more general fashion, but, uh, that sticks with our core values where we're inclusive of of everyone when it comes to student learning. So, um, I would
038just ask that we maybe, uh, consider that in the in the future. That's all. Any other comments? Thank you. Thank you for that, Nelson. And all those in favor? I motion carries. 50 action items. First item is 9.1 change order number one to contract for campus modernization items and services from Arban Union School District piggyback. Wow, this one's a mouthful. This is a long one. Number 2022-23-001 uh for work at Aviation Elementary School and Weisber Middle School for flooring and ceiling towel refresh project. Um the amendment would be to Kyle services to be paid for for measure E. Is there a motion? You have a motion. Second with a question. Just go ahead. I'm just going to allow uh no to come up here and give us the update. Oh, what was the change the
039carpet to the flooring? What's the Just help read between the lines here, please. So, as you recall, we brought this item at the last board meeting for approval. Unfortunately, because we were pushing and rushing to get the uh proposals in time for the board meeting so that we can start the process of procurement. Uh when it went through their cost estimating department, one of the iterations, we went through several iterations as we were uh adding sites, removing sites, we ended uh up with we ended with only two sites as you know, aviation and Weisber Middle School. In doing so, when it went through KA's cost estimating department, one of the line items, which was for the interlocking carpet tiles, was accidentally removed from the proposal, and it was the entire line item for the amount
040of $131,000. And then the second item, which is really optional, but I highly recommend it. It's $45,000 to replace the NPR flooring at Aviation Elementary School. Right now the way the the board approved the cost is for uh just uh maintenance essentially leaving the existing BCT they would just w strip it wax it and seal it but then it doesn't resolve the ongoing maintenance issue with VCT flooring by incurring the $45,000 which I think are well worth it will go with a much more durable LBT a logo and removes and eliminates all future maintenance for that site. I think you just quickly answered my question which was with the new with this change for aviation then you'll get the logo correct into the floor and it'll match the rest of the site the LBT versus
041leaving just the NPR with the VCT because it's newer but it's it's already over 10 years old anyway you have the old bulldog on the wall so exactly the new bulldog on the floor some of the stage right does that answer that was perfect thank you any I stay You probably want to stay up here for a little bit. I have a motion from Nelson, a second from Neil. All those in favor? I. Motion carries 501 9.2 Two, award of bid number 20 2025-04 for the baseball field improvement project uh Delair at Da Vinci connect at the air and Da Vinci connect with Corner Keystone Construction Corporation also to be paid for measure EE funds. Is there a motion? A motion with a comment. I have a comment too. Nelson back. We'll start with Nelson.
042First comment. I'm glad to see this project moving forward. So I want to thank uh obviously I know Roger Neil been involved working with Joe and Ray and Da Vinci on this. So thank you. I'm glad to see it moving forward. And second of all u no really good bid results. Nice to see all these bid results and seems like pretty tight. So glad to be approving this. Rebecca I have just a quick uh quick comment. I just want to say I mean I know you know we're we're talking about a baseball field. I think this is bigger than a baseball field. Um this is an improvement to some play space for connect as well. Um obviously the baseball field is um you know something that's needed and I'm really really excited for the baseball
043community in Wisburn for this. Um also excited for the connect community that they're going to have um a nicer grass area. Um I think it's hard to see what that actual impact of this new space is going to be when you're looking at renderings. Um, and you know, I just think once the once it's unveiled, I guess for lack of a better word, um, it's going to be quite quite a difference and quite an upgrade. And, um, you know, nothing's perfect, but but this is pretty darn close. Yeah, I think it's a I think it's a win-win. There'll definitely be an inconvenience when it comes to construction, obviously, because we are looking to potentially start as early as May 1st. Um but we have already confirmed with the contractor that he is in fact available
044because initially their the construction schedule didn't have him start till after school um um ended for the summer. Uh and talking to both Weisburn staff and Da Vinci staff, we're looking at potentially starting it earlier so that we can turn over the site much faster because there is a 90-day maintenance period. Yeah. And and and just to add to that too, I mean, we all know and we we've we're seeing it at the middle school right now when you're doing construction during a school year and and you know, I know Roger Nelson, you know, very well. Um there is some impact and um we're seeing impact on I guess it would be the westernmost gate of the middle school that was the permanent gate that separated the old middle school, the the the lot in
045the school has now moved closer. It's a temporary fence. You know, you're going to have dust and you're going to have I mean, as much as you control for those things, you have that you have noise. you know, we're trying to um to work within that. So, there's impact there. There's going to be impact to the connect site certainly. And I think it's trying to mitigate and minimize that that time that um that impact. The May conversation really revolved around um wanting to start the school year fresh. That was the question. Is this going to be completed by the end of by the beginning of school? It'll be completed, but we'll be still in the establishment period. They call it the maintenance period, but it has, remember, it's natural turf, natural grass. It requires 90
046days for it to establish and we certainly want to stay off of it to ensure that the investment is takes exactly. That's why we want to start sooner. Um, I am I have been in communication with Kayn, the principal at Da Vinci Connect. In fact, I have a meeting uh personally. I'll be meeting with her on Monday just to once again go over the project, go over some of the her concerns, how hopefully we can address them. U and just I'll continue to be her point of contact um going forward directly on that project. And that was your question. No, one more comment just I think you mentioned Nelson this is a a win-win. I just want to say it's not in the documentation, but a but a shout out and thank you to the
047Da Vinci team, Da Vinci board, Da Vinci organization, um that this is a shared uh partnership. We're both paying for it. So, thank you very much. And I know a couple of you in the room, so I'm looking at you guys. And and I would just say to that note, um did receive an email from Matt today. Yes, confirm that. Um we did he did ask that they approve it at their next regular meeting. So that's what's going to happen or you know that consider it. I I assume I guess we're we're you know presupposing that they're going to that they're going to approve it. But yeah, I think the intention is that it'll be approved at the next meeting. We're just moving forward um pretty much full force, but we do have the document.
048Um the board had asked that we put together a document. Both parties will sign. We've already passed that and approved that here. Um that'll just get passed on to division chief to do their piece and then we'll have that on file and be able to do all the account. It's really for accounting sake, you know, it's to to to receive monies and send monies um so that our team, the business office and and Da Vinci's business office can kind of make good on on whatever, you know, the the financial side of the agreement. Rebecca, yeah. Uh just as we start this project and the project is happening at the Wise Sports Complex, I know the SLC building is still there. So, can you just give me an update of like the impact with this the
049baseball field project and the and that in terms of when SLC will be moving? SLC is currently still under DSA review. Um, during my last uh bond program update, we discussed potentially looking into a contingency plan. We certainly want to to look into that and just be prepared. That is definitely not what we're going to um expect. So, we're going to keep pushing and do whatever we can to keep um keep the the project uh at on time. Um we're in in fact we're out to bid currently on a parallel path. So, we expect bids to come in on May 8th. We're hoping to bring it to the May 22nd an award of contract. So, we can't really award a contract until we have DSA approval. So, we're we're very close. We're about six five
050six weeks away from that. Uh, we are confident that we will have DSA approval by then. Um, if not, then I think we're going to have to call that lifeline. Remember, I talked about potentially having to call Yeah, call a friend. Phone a friend. Yes, phone a friend. There you go. Phone a friend. I think it's going to We're going to have to call Doug Humphrey uh and beg. I've already had to do it once, but maybe next time Blake can be in the room because I've already used my pono friend within this year. appreciate. I was just curious about the timing be of when that needs to go away at the Weisborn Sports Complex part so that they can Well, the plan if everything goes as planned is that we're going to allow them
051SLC to finish the year the school year at their current location. We have no intent to demolish until summer until summer. Obviously, um the staff and students will be temporarily relocated to Delair for summer school at which point it allows us to get in there and start demolishing the plan that we're potentially looking at and this is something we're just talking nothing has maybe we shouldn't we shouldn't say it. Yeah, we Yeah, I won't say it. I just June our our goal is to start demolishing the building June 16th. Um, like I said, we're planning to award May 22nd for the contract for SLC new home at Da Vinci Connect. If it all goes as planned, then we can start as early as June 1st with that project, but it doesn't impact this baseball field
052project. It will. It'll be it'll be a very tight area. I mean, something to be aware of, but contractors are used to working on top of contractors on much larger scale projects. I mean they are working essentially within the same footprint by the good news is if we do in fact move forward with the baseball field on May 1st then we're buying time and we can start the demolition that way we don't have demo happening at the same time with two different contractors. Okay. Thank you. I just want to say it's not we're not being secretive. It's that we need to get fully fleshed. I don't want to share an update three times. you know, you don't want once you start changing something once and and there's just a lot of moving pieces and and
053timelines and trying to figure out when DSA approval is going to happen and you know, how much um how much adjusting do we actually have to do. So, um we we are working on a plan. I think we have a pretty decent contingency opportunity that um would be as little impact as possible. Um you know, I don't think it's going to be hurtful. I mean, it's going to be a bit inconvenient, but um you know, we just don't want to go there until that plan is fully vetted and and we're able to talk to administrators. This is fresh off the press. We haven't we haven't talked to anybody. We were just talking about it today. So, you mentioned a six week sorry, you mentioned the six week timeline. What is our kind of quote drop
054dead date that we need DSA approval by to use the plan A, the original plan? So, I'm going to give it a couple of weeks. If in a couple of weeks I don't have at least DSA comments, then it's time to call. Um, you'll keep us updated. I'll keep you updated. I I wish I had more information. This is a project that was kicked out by DSA. Um, when we first tried to submit because that site hasn't been touched in years, there was a lot of open legacy projects that they called it with a numbers that were not closed. So, they wanted us to incorporate a lot of that. It's not a easy project. It It's not because the project itself is hard. It's a challenging site. So, But I'll keep you updated. Hopefully by
055the next board meeting I'll be able to present a full plan. Thank you. Motion from Nelson and a second from Rebecca. All those in favor? I I motion carries 50 as well. 9.3 change order number one to bid number 2025-03 for TK conversion and kindergarten classroom door addition project at Holly Land Elementary with art dependable construction to be paid for measure E funds. Is there a motion? We have a motion. Second. You have a second. Any questions hearing? None. All those in favor? I I Okay. Moving on to section 10 under fiscal item 10.1 is to adopt resolution number 24/25.42 of the board of trustees of the Wiseman Unified School District authorizing the issuance of Weisman Unified School District election of 2022 general obligation bonds for series B actions related and actions related there too.
056Is there a motion? Yes. Motion. I believe we have a presentation. We do have a presentation. Rebecca and move to the presentation before. So, I just want to um you know really uh energetically uh introduce Jen uh from Piper Sandler really been awesome in helping us you know prepare these documents to prepare for this uh this next sale. Uh sort of keeping us on track from the financial standpoint. Um as you know Piper Sandler is our financial adviser. Um Jen being the lead of that. And then I believe we're joined by Nick uh from Straddling. I'm going to mess I know it's a list of straddling and there you go who's our bond council. All right. Well, thank you for that introduction. Oh, thank you. Well, thank you for Thank you again uh for that
057introduction, Dr. Silver. So, good evening uh President uh Bonuelos, members of the board. My name is Jen Kim and I along with your bond council help the district on matters related to your facilities financing needs. So, I know we're here this evening to ask you to consider adopting and approving the bond documents related to the next general obligation bond issuance. So, prior to doing that, we thought that it might be helpful just to do a quick review about what a general obligation bond is. You know, a little bit about our measure EE bond program and then some of the steps that are involved in the bond issuance process. So to that end, I've prepared a set of slides for you and I'll try to be mindful of the time and go through these slides riskly,
058but quickly what is a general obligation bond? It is a widely used financing tool to address the facilities needs of the district and the community. And because it's doing the work of the community, the community is asked to tax themselves. And they were asked to tax themselves through a vote back in November of 2022. Now, one thing I like to remind the community is that the bond tax rates are calculated not based on the market value of your homes, but on the assessed value. Or put it simply, I tell my friends that the tax rates are calculated on what you bought your home for rather than what you could sell your homes for today. And we know that there's a big delta between what you can sell your home for today versus what you may
059have bought your homes for years ago. Now, because bonds have to do with taxes, there are many protective features built into the law. And one of those protective feature is what we're doing today, coming before you to seek your approval before taking a bond draw. And we will do that every time we take a bond draw. The other uh transparency and protective features is that there is a citizens bond oversight committee that reviews where bond proceeds are being spent. Now you might be wondering well what can we spend our bond proceeds for? Put it in broad categories. Bomb proceeds can be spent for facilities update, modernization, technology upgrades, security and infrastructure projects. Where you can spend bond projects are for utility bills like paying for your electricity bills, water bills, and paying for administrative and
060teacher salaries and pension. Those cannot be financed through the bonds. Now, now that we covered a little bit about what a geo bond is, let's talk about measure E, our bond program. If you remember, the voters approved and authorized up to, I'm sorry, $98 million bond package back in 2022. We've taken a draw of $25 million already. And if you notice here, we're not taking the entire draw all at once. It's actually spread out over a 10-year period. And this is a very common practice by school districts, especially for a TK12 school district like ours because we want to take bond draws and make our bond draws last for the duration in which the current students are metriculating through our program. And that's this is done by design. Now, this next bond issuance, which we're
061here this evening to seek your approval for, is the $34 million bond package. Now, again, a little bit about our bond program. Each bond draw has a repayment period of 30 years, very similar to our mortgage. And you're going to see this common theme. You're going to see some similarities between our own personal finances and bond finances. And one other thing I'd like to point out here is while the voters approve the $98 million bond package, the community is not paying taxes or are we paying interest on that 98 million. It's like a line of credit. We only pay for interest and we only levy taxes for bonds which we have taken draws for. So currently the only thing that the community is paying for is that $25 million bonds which we drew back a
062couple years ago. Couple of other things here. The $30 tax rate that's the targeted tax rate which we are targeting for your community. The maximum legally allowable tax rate for a district like ours is $60. Okay. So we're well underneath that. that assessed valuation growth rate, that 4%. You might be wondering, well, is that a reasonable percentage, right? And how do we come up with that? Well, to come up with that value as a planning tool, we looked at the district's past historical growth rates. And when we looked at the 25-year history, we noticed that the district's average growth rate was above 5%. So, based on that set of facts, we determined that a 4% might be a reasonable tool for us to assume here for our community members here. Lastly, again, each bond draw
063has to be approved by the board prior to proceeding with the bond issuance. Now, what happens after the district acts on the bond today? Well, broad broadly speaking, a bond issuance process can be divided into three major phases. The first phase is the drafting of the legal documents which are before you today and asking you to take action on those documents. After that's done, we enter into a credit rating phase of the process. So, here is another similarity to our personal finances. Just as a bank might check our credit score, when we took out a mortgage loan, every time we take a bond issuance, the investors would like to know what our credit rating is. And during that process, the district will be represented by Dr. Silvers and his team along with myself and Nick.
064And we will get a credit rating assigned to our bonds. Once that's completed, we enter the final phase, which is the bond issuance phase. Here, your banking and underwriting team will conduct a nationwide bond search for to find investors on your bonds. And they will create a competitive environment where all these investors will be vying to purchase your bonds. And their job is to compile a set of interest rates which is in the best interest of the district. And that interest rates will be presented to Dr. silvers, the team, Nick and myself, and we'll make a determination as to lock in those interest rates. Once that's done, and we sell the bonds, we will take the proceeds and deposit that at the LA County Treasury, and the money will be held in trust for the
065district's use on facilities and projects. So, that's a little bit about what a geo bond is, a little bit about our measure E bonds, and the process involved. So, I'm happy to answer any questions. Um, if you Yes, I do have a couple questions. Um, you said something that's interesting I I hadn't thought about before. Uh, that this is shopped out to potential buyers. Um, is this likely to be funded with organizations that going to send it out to the cons to individuals or is this institutional buyers? What are we likely to get here? It's a combination of both because our bond is a 30-year repayment period. There will be slivers of bonds which will be appropriate for the individual investors, if you will, and there will be slivers of bonds which will be more
066appropriate for larger institutions. Typically speaking, bonds with shorter maturities, so the earlier maturities will be sold to individual investors and then the longer maturities will be sent sold to institutions like insurance companies. Okay. And then my other two questions are premature probably, but just get your thoughts. Um the I'm assuming you're going to Moody's or who would we go to for rating? That's absolutely right. We will be going to Moody's Investor Service. Just as a refresher, there are two major credit rating agencies in the country that rate bonds like ours. It's Moody's Investor Service and the others is Standard Empors. Historically, we've gone to Moody's Investor Service and just like we did last time, that's what we intend to do this time around. So, do we have any I know we have no control over
067this, but we have any predelection on what that rating will be and then more relevantly to our community and all of us as residents is um predelection on the rate. And I know that's a difficult question. I'll hold you to that one. By the way, I know you I know you will. I know you will. Stable environment. Yeah, I I know the timing is silly, but to the world you're in, it's perfectly fine. So, every time a credit rating analysts or credit rating agency make an assessment about what to rate a school district bond issues at, there are 11 potential outcomes. It ranges anywhere from AAA all the way to non-investment grade. And however, I like to categorize them into three categories. High credit rating, middle credit rating, and low credit rating. Our bond will
068probably be in the high credit rating. That's where it was rated last time, and I expect that we will be in that same high credit rating. Now, when we're in the high credit rating in terms of the interest rates, you know, you've probably seen all of the macroeconomic news this past week or this week actually, right? And it's still ongoing. As a matter of fact, I was looking at my uh charts today this evening. The interest rates are starting to tick back up again. Um so it's hard to predict where the interest rates would be, but for a bond like ours based on current set of facts where we stand, I think the average interest rate, you know, would be under about 5%. I think you got us under three last time. So we did
069um in a high rate environment, I will add blown away. Yes. So that was a very attractive interest rate. you know, that will be challenging to get almost, I would say, impossible simply because back then we were in a different environment. We're coming off of a COVID pandemic and interest rates were historically low. You probably see that in your personal finances as well. If you refinanced your mortgage loans back then, you probably got two, three%. If you were to get a new mortgage rate today, you're thinking six, 7%. So, it's very akin to that. So, I don't think we're in that environment anymore. But even at a 5% interest rate, it's still very competitive because if you think about our mortgage rates now, it's five to seven percent. And if you were to go get
070a construction loan, I'd imagine it'd be even higher than that. So, we do offer uh Is this not Last thing? Sorry, we're in the weeds here. Is this not uh double taxfree investment that would lower the rate? Therefore, that's exactly what it is. That's why we're getting the 5% because it is double tax free on the majority component of it. I challenge you to do better than that. And we will try. I will try. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Any further questions for Jen? No. Okay. I have a motion from Nelson and a second for Rebecca. All those in favor? I I I had two votes. I'm sorry. [Music] [Laughter] You better call the question. Call the question again. It was Michelle, right? It was Michelle. I requested change. Well, Jim, thank you for your
071presentation, but I don't know what's going to motion and second from Rebecca. All those in favor I There we go. 50. Thank you. You guys all had me nervous there. Item 10.2 adopt resolution number 24/25.43 of the board of trustees of the Wiseman Unified School District regarding its intention to issue taxexempt general obligation bonds. Is there a motion? Have a motion. And a second. Yes, sir. Go ahead, Michelle. I second. Oh, Michelle. Yes. Any questions? No. Hearing none. All those in favor? I I All right. I see. I like it. You guys are on it now. Just, you know, that allows us to reimburse ourselves. I mean, that was pretty self-explanatory. Okay. All right. Thank you, everyone. Item 10.3, ratify a consultant agreement with Education Management Solutions, EMS. Is there a motion? So moved. A
072second. Second. I'd be careful about this one. Joking. Couldn't help myself. Any questions? No. Thankful for uh for Greg being here. Early welcome, Greg. Excellent. All those in favor? Official welcome, Greg. Welcome, Greg. I feel like an old hat on the board because the last time I was a newbie when Greg was working with the district, now Michelle is, but we're still talking about the bond that we helped best. Feeling a little bit of pride. That's right. Thank you. Item 10.4. Can I make a quick comment? Just just a quick comment of the bond. Due to the wisdom of some people don't we don't realize this. We don't talk about this much, but due to the wisdom of those who created school funding, no one ever create there was no school funding created to for
073facilities. The the the state, the federal government, nobody gives us money for facilities. So, thank you again, community. We can't do this without you. So, thank you. Very well said. Thank you, Neil. Yep. I'll call the question. Um, actually, not call the question. Is there a motion for items 10.4 and 10.5 to be together? 10.4 is ratify a memorandum of contract with San Huain County Office of Ed and 10.5 is to approve master service agreement with inclusive learning partners. Some moved. You have a second. Any questions? No. All those in favor? I motion carries 50. Thank you, Rebecca. 10.6 Six. Approve auditor for fiscal years 24, 25, 25, 26, and 26, 27. So that's three school years. Uh Chris with Christy White and Associates or Christy White Associates. You have you have a motion. This
074is for measure CL2. Correct. Yes. Comment. I can speak to it to um bring you into the conversation, Dr. Silvers and I were having um in that I had commented sent a note regarding this is measure CL which is a joint effort of five school districts and uh it struck me that anytime we can have economies of scale and leveraged expenses shared expenses all five school districts not buying auditing services independently but can we leverage that together that was my suggestion Dr. So, as you have an update, yeah, I was um we actually have been in communication with uh as you all know, Senella Valley is the AU, the administrative unit for this um um for this uh partial tax, sorry, uh for the JPA that that manages this partial tax. And um we are
075uh responsible to do a measure CL audit every year and present that to the board and present it to our um oversight committee. Um we are looking at options to centralize that to have one auditing firm. I know we have an attorney that's going to uh visit the group, the JPA, uh to share some of the um benefits of doing that and also it is a a cost savings and probably an efficiency um you know an increase in in five times, right? And it's it's it's not a ton of money, you know, that we're auditing. So, it's uh should be it should be relatively easy to push to that that process. So, we would still bring to you um an audit report to accept, but it would be it would probably have other districts as
076well. Not sure what that final product will look like for you all, but but certainly we we would have that annual report for you all to accept as well, the audit report. Okay, Nelson, did you have a question? No, no. I have a motion from Nelson and a second from Neil. All those in favor? I motion carries 50. 10.7 approve revision of not to exceed cost for purchases of uh Chromebooks from NWN Carousel. Is there a motion? Motion second. Second and a comment. Yep. Sorry. Surprising, I know. Um I just also reached out to Dr. Silvers and I loved him to give the the conversation uh the learning that you gave to me. One, this is a significant expense, not a significant add-on. We did we did approval of last of our last meeting, but
077I wanted to ensure this was vetted significantly. And um Dr. Silver, just give us an update. I already forgot what I told you. Yeah, it better be consistent, right? No, we uh we actually um thank you to Tony. Tony helped uh spearhead this process. It is a piggybackable contract. Um and um and we did receive three three bids that were informal because um it's a piggybackable bid. Um so they were informal bids and and WN was the lowest uh the lowest price. So it was well vetted. Um you know, we did we did reach as far as we could far and wide as we could. Obviously, the more the more um bids you get, you know, the better the better it is. You know, hopefully you'll get some lower bids in there, but um NWN
078did come in. Um at the lowest bid, what you're seeing before you today is um just a it's an administrative error. Uh we just didn't add tax and uh some of the shipping costs to it. I believe it was a 60 Sorry if I'm I'm not exact, but around a $60,000 difference. Um so, we're just adding that to this just to make it one package. Um and this will will make us complete on that $1,700 purchase. But it was it was um you know it was bit uh competitively. Thank you. All those in favor? I you going to jump to section 12 which is upcoming dates and events. Spring break. I heard a lot of people already excited about that. So here April for Monday start starting April 14th through Monday April 21st. And then
079we're get coming back. We will be shortly shortly thereafter having our open houses at Holly Glenn starting on Wednesday, April 30th, followed by Dell Air on May 7th and then our next regularly scheduled board meeting is May 8th and May 22nd. Any other major items or anything, Blake? Yeah, I would just add rock around the block. Rock, April 25th. Two major items and that's one. Sorry, did I get that right? Yeah. 25th, right? 26. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Thank you. And we Saturday, I'm going to show up the 25th and be in the dunk tank on the 25th. There you go. That's what's going to happen. No watering. Yeah, exactly. You will definitely be the first one. Right. Yeah. That that actually that concludes our agenda for this evening. I want to just say thank you
080to everyone. Thank you for all your contributions that make Wisburn a great community and a great school district. Thank you again for everything you do day in and day out for our students and community. Thank you. With that, we're going to adjourn to a close session at 7:05.