001Good evening. It's 5 o'clock p.m. And I'm calling this meeting to order. Have we have any blue cards been received for closed session items? We do not have any blue cards. The board will now recess to closed session. We're still friends. Thank you. Okay, step on, please. Step on. I think that's a sound. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, is that right here? Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. It is 6 o'clock, or no, it's not 6 o'clock. It is 6.05 p.m., and the board is reconvening from closed session. During closed session, on a motion by Trustee Rawlings, a second by Trustee Sciosi, the board voted to appoint Charity Fisher as assistant principal of Carlsbad High School with an effective date to be determined by the following roll call vote, which was a
002unanimous 5-0. Welcome, members of the public. Board members. You're welcome. Welcome. Is that better? Okay. Welcome, members of the public, board members, and staff. Thank you for attending. As noted in Board Bylaw 9324, this meeting is being video recorded and broadcast via a link on our website. The recording and broadcast may capture images and sounds of those attending the meeting. I'd like to remind the audience members and speakers that it is not unusual for students and young children to be in attendance at our meetings or to watch the recorded broadcast. I invite you to model civility and decorum as we go about the business of the board this evening. While I cannot prohibit anyone from using unprofessional language, please think about the students and the adults who are watching our proceedings. I'm also asking for
003speakers this evening to not use names of students when you are speaking. We invite you to show support for a speaker by waving your fingers or clapping. We'll begin tonight's meeting with our student board representative, Chloe Johnson, leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and Trustee Verbeth will read from the district vision, and Ms. Garcia will take roll. Ready, begin. Our community and its traditions are deeply connected to our schools. Parents and community members partner with teachers to provide unique educational opportunities for students. Students value the traditions that built our community. Local businesses, the lagoons, preserves, and beaches are an integral part of our identity. Thank you, and we will now take roll. Student Board Representative Johnson, here. Trustee Rawlings here trustee Burbath here trustee CoC here trustee Emory here trustee Ward here Thank you,
004and we now move on to part four approval of the agenda Trustees are there any questions about the agenda? Trustees, I would like to make a motion to approve agenda item 4.1, approval and a reorganization of the March 11th, 2026, and move agenda item 6.6, superintendent's report before agenda item 5.1, student and staff recognition, Jackson Luria and Carol King. Is there a second? I'll second. Trustee Ward made the motion. Trustee Emery seconded the motion. Discussion? Ms. Garcia, please call for a vote. Trustee Rawlings? Yes. Trustee Brabath? Yes. Trustee Ciosi? Yes. Trustee Emery? Yes. Trustee Ward? Yes. Motion passes 5-0. Trustees, I now call upon Dr. Norman, our superintendent, to provide the superintendent's report. Thank you, President Ward. Trustees, we understand that many people here are in the audience to share public comment about a recent
005incident that took place at Poinsettia Park. This student incident is not a specific discussion item on the board agenda and therefore the board members are not in a position to comment or respond to concerns. However, on behalf of the district, please know that while privacy laws prevent us from sharing specific details involving minors, I want to say with absolute conviction, harassment, violence, and the use of racial slurs have no place in Carlsbad. These actions must be met with the utmost seriousness. Carlsbad Unified and the Carlsbad Police Department share a long history of productive collaboration. There are a variety of matters impacting the youth of our community where we have a shared responsibility to address issues and support the young people involved. This is one of those matters, and our collaboration is ongoing as we work
006toward accountability and support for the individuals involved. While online discourse often highlights our disagreements, there has been one undeniable through-line, a shared understanding that hate has no home here. Whether it arrives at our front doors, our parks, our schools, we must interrupt it and respond with unwavering resolve. Our strength as a community is not defined by the incidents that challenge us, but by our collective resolve to reject hate and uphold every student's right to feel safe and respected. The board and I are committed to the work required to make Carlsbad a place where kindness and respect are the standard. Thank you to everyone who has shown they care about our students and about our community. Thank you. We now move on to part five, recognition and performances. Item 5.1, student and staff recognition. Jackson Luria
007and Carol King. I will now hand it over to Dr. Norman. Thank you so much, President Ward. Dr. Brockett is going to be sharing all about the program we're highlighting and our teacher as well. Thank you, Dr. Norman. It is my pleasure tonight to recognize Carlsbad High School business teacher Carol King and virtual enterprise student Jackson Luria, and I'd like to invite them to come up to the podium. Mrs. King has been a teacher in Carlsbad since 2007 and has led the incredible growth of the business pathway at Carlsbad High School since that time. When she started at CHS, there were 36 students in business classes at CHS. In her second year, she took over the virtual enterprise class with just 16 students in it. Today, there are over 300 students and two teachers in
008the business pathway at CHS studying business communications, marketing, virtual enterprise, and engaging in real-world learning opportunities beyond the classroom. The virtual enterprise class is the capstone of the business pathway. It is an immersive in-school program where students transform the classroom into simulated business ventures, managing all aspects of a company, from development to accounting to marketing. Students gain practical entrepreneurship experience by developing and managing all parts of the business. One of those students is Jackson Luria, CEO of the student enterprise Strive Athletics, shown on the screen. Strive Athletics is an AI-empowered app that provides personalized fitness, nutrition, and recovery coaching integrated directly into students' daily schedules. By leveraging predictive analytics and smart reminders, Strive offers the constant guidance of an AI coach to help users achieve peak performance and build lasting confidence. Jackson and his team,
009along with many other CHS business students, recently competed in the state virtual enterprise competition with their Strive Athletics business plan. To qualify for the state business plan competition, teams first had to advance through two regional rounds and finish in the top 40 in the state. Once at State, they competed in three additional rounds, ultimately landing in the top eight finals. The Strive Business Plan team rose to the challenge, finishing in that top eight and qualifying for the Virtual Enterprise Youth Business Summit National Competition in New York City. This is a huge accomplishment and reflects months of hard work, preparation, and dedication. Jackson serves as the CEO and will be leading his team. to the national competition next month along with teammates Jude, Heidi, Beckett, and Kaylee. We are proud to recognize them and congratulate them
010on this tremendous achievement and to wish them success at next month's national championship. Congratulations. Hey there, I'm Jackson Lurie. I'm here with my family. My principal, Ms. Redfield, is here and Ms. King. I'm super grateful to be here and be represented. We've done a lot of hard work from advancing from SDSU to Bakersfield and now to New York City. And we're super excited to go there and represent Carlsbad there and work hard and hopefully do the best we can. Thank you, guys. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We now move on to part six, communications part one, item 6.1, report by student representative to the board. I would now like to introduce Judy Chloe Johnson of Carlsbad Village Academy. However, before we have Chloe provide her report to the board, we would like to take
011a moment to acknowledge Chloe. as this will be her last meeting with us for the 25-26 school year. We appreciate Chloe serving as one of our outstanding student board representatives this year, and we wish Chloe all the best in her future endeavors beyond high school. Chloe, we hope that you stay in touch with us and report back on how you are doing in the future. So come back and see us, okay? CSD will miss you. Let's please give Chloe a round of applause. Thank you. I now call upon Chloe to provide us with her student report. Thank you and good evening. This time of year is usually a little quieter for Carlsbad Village Academy and Carlsbad Seaside Academy. There aren't as many big events happening on campus, but it's actually a really important stretch of
012the year. Students are putting their heads down and focusing on finishing strong. At Carlsbad Village Academy, the current quarter is coming to a close. We're expecting two more graduates, which is always something our staff and students take a lot of pride in. Each quarter we see students recovering credits and building momentum and for our seniors it's beginning to feel like the final push toward graduation. Students in the graphic design CTE program have also been working hard building their portfolios. Over the next couple of months they'll be preparing those portfolios for submission to MiraCosta College in May. which is an exciting step for many of them as they think about continuing their education. CVA will wrap up the quarter with its end of the quarter ceremony on Friday, March 20th, where the school community will take
013some time to recognize student progress and celebrate the accomplishments of the quarter. At Carlsbad Seaside Academy, students recently reached their six weeks progress report on March 5th. That check-in always gives students and families a chance to take a step back look at how things are going, and make any adjustments needed for the rest of the quarter. So while this part of the year may feel quieter from the outside, there's a lot of steady work happening every day. Students at both schools are continuing to move forward, staying focused on their goals, and preparing for what comes next. Over at Sage Creek High School, the month starts off by wrapping up its second trimester and entering the last trimester of the school year. During finals week, they were accompanied by therapy dogs to alleviate the stress finals
014would bring. Bobcats also had a life skills workshop, a workshop focused on helping students prepare for future jobs and internships. It focused on resume building, interviews, and communication, and was hosted by real-life employers. To tie in with the workshop, Sage Creek is also going to have their Jive Expo, which allows students to explore internship and career opportunities at the school. like the Sage Creek Foundation Pickleball Tournament, which is held to raise money for the Sage Creek Foundation. Sage is also hosting parent nights that allow incoming ninth grade graduates and parents to view in person of what the school has to offer. Sage finishes the month with our third ever session of students and belonging, a partnership with the San Diego Board of Education that allows students to share their voices on school-related issues and also
015ASB blood drive. Thank you. Thank you, Chloe. We now move on to item 6.2 by CUC PTA President. Is she here today? She is not here, so we're going to skip 6.2. CEO of the Carlsbad Educational Foundation, is she here today? Okay. Skip 6.3. LIUNA President, is she here today? She is not? Okay. Oh, no report. Oh, she is here, but no report. Got it. Okay. And CUDA president is here, and she has something to say. Good news. Okay. We now move on to 6.5 report by CUDA president. You have five minutes to speak. Good evening, Madam President, Trustees, Dr. Norman, Cabinet, and Student Representative Johnson. It is at this time of year that schools nominate their Teachers of the Year. While only one can be the District Teacher of the Year, I wanted to
016take a special moment to name some of them now. This is a partial list. Buena Vista hasn't announced yet, so I don't want to steal their thunder. But we have Ginny Renda at CHMS, Andy Shoemaker at AOMS, Ann Hampton, Pac Rim, Courtney Brisebois, Poinsettia, Tom Bloomquist and Scott Ogden-Tide at CHS, Erica Horner at AOE, Jessica Heath at Jefferson, Magnolia. We have Katie Rivera. Kristen Lyle is at Kelly Elementary. Emily Perez at Hope Elementary. Jessica Hacker at Sage. Sarah Craver at Valley. Heather Hager at Calavera Hills Elementary. And again, Buena Vista hasn't announced, but I will say her name next month. Yes. It is my honor to work among such dedicated professionals. For those of you out there wondering, as the poet Mary Oliver asks, tell me what it is you plan to do with your
017one wild and precious life. To answer, be a teacher, would be a marvelous thing indeed. Thank you. We now move on to part seven, public comment on non-agenda items. Item 7.1, public comment regarding non-agendized topics that lie within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. This is the time that members of the public have the opportunity to address the board on any non-agendized item. that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. We have 41 blue cards. Okay, so in order to allow speakers to present their comments and ensure we are able to properly attend to the business of the board per board bylaw 9323, public comments are limited. to 20 minutes and Exceptional circumstances when necessary to ensure full opportunity for the public input the board president may with board consent Adjust the
018amount of time allowed for the public input and or the time allotted for each speaker for this for this item There are 41 speakers trustees. Are there any objections to extending the public comment to 41 minutes so that each speaker can be heard. Thank you. Each speaker will have one minute for a total of 41 minutes. When I call your name, please come to the podium. State your name and indicate whether or not you live within the boundaries of the school district. We will have the timer on the screen, and your mic will be muted when your time has expired. Okay. Thank you. Okay, our first speaker is Reginald Washington. Hello, my name is Reginald Washington. Can you guys hear me? Can you guys hear me loudly now? Thank you so much. Thank you, Honorable
019Dr. Norman, for this opportunity. I'm going to get right to the point. The Carlsbad Police Department has a program called the Juvenile Justice Program. Those programs allow intervention and prevention. They're utilizing individuals with lived experience like myself. And one of the things that hurts more than anything is to see a heinous... Video that hurt not just those individuals like this young lady right here But the relationships that we're trying to build within our community and I asked the board. How is it that? an individual was giving lunch detention and Not giving the information to the Carlsbad Police Department so we can take a look and investigate that I know that's something that no one can answer right now But understand that the crime not only hurt the young lady that was involved in the family.
020Thank you. Our next speaker is Yousef Miller. Excuse me. They also said they needed some more volume outside. Okay. My name is Yousef Miller. I'm with the North County Equal... Equity and Justice Coalition and the North County NAACP. And as you can see from the community response, that this is a very serious and critical issue. But what I want to disabuse us of is of the idea that this is not who we are. Please, that is not, that statement is old and tired. That this is not Carlsbad, this is not Encinitas, this is not Oceanside, this is us. What we need from you is to do something about it. We need you to be active in... in promoting DEI classes and ethnic study classes so people can understand the differences and be used to diversity.
021We're sending them into a diverse world, and that diverse world, you're responsible preparing them for. And you are the ones we're holding accountable to holding our treasured value, which is our children, in your system. And when you fail, you fail us. And you can fail us to the point that something even worse could have happened to our loved ones. This was absolutely un... indescribable how it made the black community, the brown community feel and all of our allies. Thank you. April, there's no last name. April? My name is April. I'm the parent of the 11-year-old African-American girl who was harassed, held against her will, and called the N-word multiple times and assaulted at Poinsettia Park. The incident was recorded and later sent to my daughter. While this behavior is absolutely unacceptable, I understand it to
022be the norm throughout Carlsbad Unified School District and our community. We as a community of parents, teachers, and leaders must do better. We must teach our children right from wrong. We must protect our children, and we must hold those accountable who choose to terrorize others with racism and violence. For those who have stayed silent after seeing this video, shame on you. You are part of the problem, but there are so many who have spoken up and who have showed up to fight for change. Thank you, and I see you. So many people have been fighting to bring awareness to these issues, but have been called troublemakers or liars. Now we see it on video, and this is not a one-time occurrence. was suspended from school with several others for an incident that started because of
023racism aimed at her and other black students. When my daughter asked one of the kids why he was not suspended, he replied, because I'm white and my parents have money. Now, whether this is true or not, that is the mentality here in this city. No one's generational wealth or lack of melanin should excuse them from consequences of their poor choices. All the kids involved, including those who sat and did nothing but record and instigate, must be prosecuted. I am not pleased with the school's handling of the suspension prior to the incident, nor am I pleased with the delay in the investigation of the incident. It is my belief that if it weren't for the video that has been circulating, this matter would be swept under the rug as many other incidences. The school needs to
024do more to keep the N-word out of these students' mouths, and the community has to do more to protect our children outside of school hours. I'm grateful for the black community who has showed up in response to this issue. We have been fighting for issues like this for a very long time. To my white friends and community members who are now here to support and fight against this issue, thank you. Please continue to fight to bring awareness to the racism that is very much alive in this community. It is unfortunate but very true that slow change will come as black people fight against issues like this, but a quicker response will be had when you stand with us. Thank you. Thank you, April. May Jean Offshon, I think I'm pronouncing that name correctly. Good evening.
025Thank you so much to the board, our community members, and everybody who has shown up today. My name is Najgan Afshan. I'm executive director of Borderlands for Equity. It's a pro bono civil rights nonprofit and a community advocacy organization. This moment in our community is critical. People here must stand up and say no to this divisiveness, to this hate, to this assault, to this ugliness, to this racism, and to this bigotry right now. We cannot continue to be silent when children, when black, brown, Muslim, trans, I don't care what you are. You have a right to be here. You have a right to be safe. And you need to, as adults, stand up and condemn this behavior, whether it be trainings, whether it be community meetings, whether it be bringing parents in. This is unacceptable.
026This is a disgusting display. And in this moment in our culture, in our society, we need to stand against this hate and denounce it once and for all. And it is, and like Brother Yusuf said, said it is very much a part of our society we have to dismantle it thank you molly shook molly shook Good evening. My name is Molly Shook, founder and president of Encinitas for Equality, a racial justice and equity-based nonprofit, and as of February 15th, a proud new resident of Carlsbad. I'm here tonight because a young black girl in our community was held against her will and repeatedly hit by a group of white students. That is not bullying. That is racialized violence. That is a hate crime. It should concern every one of us. The student should be held accountable
027to the highest standards in this district and the parents by the city. While this incident happened outside of school grounds, the students involved attend schools in this district. That means we all share responsibility for the culture our children are growing up in. We cannot control what every child is taught at home, but we can control what we teach in our classrooms. That is why DEI initiatives, ethnic studies, and programs that teach students about racism, bias, and the long history of hate in our country are not optional. They are essential. Some people will point to incidents like this and say these programs don't work. But racism in America didn't begin yesterday and we won't undo centuries of it in a few years. The answer is not to retreat from this work. The answer is to deepen
028it. Because every child in this district deserves to feel safe, valued, and protected, not just in our schools, but in our community. Thank you. Thank you. Kara Lynn. Kara Lynn. Hi, my name is Kara. I am a resident of Carlsbad. First of all, I wanted to say that I agree the incident that happened at Poinsettia Park, deplorable, unacceptable. I just feel awful for that girl, and I hope that something is done to address it. Something needs to be done. But I am actually here to speak in addition to that. about something else which is to urge the board to review AR5121. There is a discrepancy with weighted classes at Sage Creek, especially compared to Carlsbad. It seems to be a legacy policy. us parents and students would just love for it to be reviewed and
029reassessed because I think that the GPA should actually be higher than they are, at least for the Sage Creek students. This issue has been shelved year after year when we've brought it to the attention of school administrators. We don't want to wait until June 10th, so we're asking. Julie Crummery. Can you hear me? I have some... Documentations I would like to pass out miss Garcia. Can you hope thank you? My name is Julie Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize clock was already running My name is Julie Krummer. I am a parent of two Sage Creek students. On behalf of the Sage Creek families behind me and the 307 petitioners as of now, we are asking this board to enforce its own board policy and administration, I'm sorry, Administrative Regulation 5121 on grading policy and bring
030Sage Creek into alignment. The packet I provided, especially on the chart on page one labeled policy violations, just for your attention, shows clear inconsistencies. I've documented four years of data, and I've been told these concerns go back even further. During this time, many honors classes received no weight. AP courses have been weighted at only two-thirds of a GPA point, and UC Trans-Faribault College courses were not weighted according to their rigor. We've repeatedly been told by the district that colleges recalculate GPAs, but that does not remove the district's responsibility to provide accurate transcripts. Thank you. Charles Washington. Good evening to the members of the board and Dr. Norman, superintendent, and the Carlsbad San Diego community. You've shown up. My name is Charles Washington, and I posted a video inside of the Facebook group called Carlsbad Unified
031Parents showing the assault of a student female in your school district whose mom is here today. For many testimonies from parents in your school district, they shared with me that this is not the first time, yet part of many times, that situations like this has occurred tied to the same abusers, the same mob, and the same gang. I am asking that the board use their powers in the use of their connections that come with being a school board. We've heard from Mr. Washington today who has implemented such programs in local Carlsbad schools. I also ask this board that they look at themselves internally and see if a change needs to be made. If you feel you cannot live up to the duty of protecting our children and feel that retaliation from wealthy families inside your
032school district affect your decisions, please remove yourself. And let citizens who are willing to stand up for all children without prejudice do that. Something has to change. It starts with the parents. It starts with the community, who we are, and it starts with each one of you, the school board. Thank you. Thank you. Chris Simmons. Hello, board. My name is Chris Simmons. I am a father, a husband, a brother. I'm also a resident of Carlsbad. My daughter is a seventh grader and was attending AOMS until I pulled her out two weeks ago because of boy-on-girl bullying. that I didn't feel like the principal or vice principal at AOMS were handling appropriately. I've had numerous issues with the person that is involved in this hate crime, and I don't want to hear about what is going
033to be done in the future. I want something done now. Here's what's most important, though, and I've addressed you. This means no disrespect, but I want to tell you that my family is so angry for what happened to your daughter. And I want to invite you and your family to our house every week. And if your daughter ever needs to go anywhere, call me. I will walk with her. I will ride my bike with her. I will make sure that this never happens again, ever, ever. And this is, the cameras are pointing at them. They should not be pointing at them. They should be pointing at all of us to never let this happen again. That boy, sorry, I'm not going to name any names, sexually harassed my daughter. We have a case incident on
034file with CPD. This boy is out there doing this all the time. And I'm totally fed up with the weakness in the school system. Sorry, I know you're all handcuffed. The weakness with California law. And I just want to tell you again, now that I'm catching my breath, I would love to show you that we care and that I will fight for you and your family and I will personally make sure this shit doesn't happen again. Thank you. Miko Uhuru. Okay. Thank you. Okay. My name is Miko Uhuru. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm speaking on behalf of a caring adult. I'm a caring adult. I'm a restorative justice practitioner. And when harm is done to one, harm is done to all. I've been to Carlsbad several times. I've been to the parks
035and everything. And when I saw what happened, it broke my heart. Instead of breaking my heart and crying, I'm going to do something constructive about it. I didn't know all the other background issues were occurring. So some of what I need to say is going to change. But what things I want to emphasize is restorative practices, like the sister that was harmed, she had the opportunity to express the pain that she went through, how to address it and what she wants to do to make things right. And also the offenders take responsibility for what they did and have opportunity to learn what they did and not do it again. And then also can encourage. or more expulsion, suspension, things of that nature, and also being a part of a victim-offender harm circle. Yeah, thank you.
036Thank you. Lily Long. My name is Lily Long. Good evening. Oh, hello. I'm a junior at Sage Creek High School, and I'm also here to talk about Sage Creek's compliance with AR-5121. I feel for the families in this audience, and I was not aware of this until recently, but... My school, my school and my friends are also in agreement with, is also in agreement with the opinions of the community. I'd like to begin by challenging the assumption that the third trimester of an AP class is review. I've taken seven AP courses, which constitute four of my five classes this year, and in every class, material continues to be taught and tested. Today, I did a lab in AP physics, and tomorrow I have an exam in AP calculus BC on material we were taught this
037week, third trimester. It is frustrating to know that my hard work will not be shown equally with that of my peers at Carlsbad High and even those of other schools on the trimester system like SDA. I know students who chose to attend Carlsbad High School because of this discrimination. So I want to thank all the speakers that are here tonight. I do want to encourage you to follow the timer. I know that's hard to do, and I don't want to disrespect anybody by cutting you off. But there are a lot of speakers. I just want to encourage you to do that, okay? Trish and Mark Shepard. We'll get two minutes because I signed us both up on each. I didn't know that it should have been done separately. Good evening, board members of the school
038board. I'm here today because of a video many of us have seen. In that video, a young black girl is surrounded by classmates. She was prevented from leaving on her bike, called the N-word, and pressured into a fight while others stood around encouraging it. No child should ever be put in this position. What we witnessed was not just bullying, it was intimidation, racial harassment, and a failure of safety for a student who simply wanted to leave. This is 2026. Our children should be able to walk in and out of schools where they feel protected, respected, and valued, not surrounded and targeted because of the color of their skin. I want to ask three questions to the board members. First, sitting here, I did mention, I want to make mention that there is not one person
039of color on this school board, and maybe that's part of the problem. Sometimes it takes walking in someone else's shoes to know what it really feels like, and how would you react if this was your child? What specific accountability will there be to those students who participated in this harassment? the racial slurs, and the violence. After all these weeks, how is it that none of these kids have been punished? Second, what immediate safety plan will be put in place so this young girl can return to school without fear or retaliation or further bullying? And third, what long-term steps will this district take to ensure students understand that racism and bullying are unacceptable and will have real consequences? Thank you. I'm Mark. I'll keep this quick. That video was, Trish called and said, hon, come take
040a look at this. It was beyond, I don't know if I ever see anything as vile and disgusting. And so I chose to come at least make a statement. But the fact that this board viewed such a disturbing video and chose to take no action is deeply troubling. The fact... that of any follow-up or discipline sends a clear message that this behavior is being tolerated. The other thing is I send this message out in a video to several friends. They're like, Carl's bad? I go, yeah, Carl's bad. It should happen to Carl's bad. It happens everywhere. It's got to stop, and it's absolutely disgusting, and nothing's been done so far. You guys got to look around at each other and go, why didn't I do something serious? DeAndre Brooks. DeAndre Brooks. Thomas Rhee. Hello, thank
041you for having me. I grew up in Carlsbad. My name is Tom Rhee. I live in Carlsbad. I went to Carlsbad. I sat where Ms. Johnson is sitting long ago, so congratulations to you. I know exactly what that's like. It did well for me. My son went to school with your daughter, I believe, graduated at the same time. And she actually part of the Alumni Association. I'm the president of the Carlsbad High School Alumni Association. Excellent. Okay, so growing up in Carlsbad, I personally felt racism, been called all names by peers, teachers, coaches. And my kids, 30 years later, 40 years later, felt the same thing. And my best friend, who was my best man at my wedding, who was white from Carlsbad. was visiting us and he was shocked that we were talking about
042at the dinner table that my kids' racial slurs they heard at school that day. So it's been going on forever. The one thing I want to bring up is... Good evening, everyone. My name is DeAndre Brooks. Sorry about that. So is Yamiche speaking or DeAndre? DeAndre. Oh, DeAndre. DeAndre Bryce. Okay, sorry about that. No worries, no worries. Good evening, everyone. I'm just a concerned community member in San Diego County who came out just to support the mother and the daughter and the community when it comes to this issue. This is definitely unfortunate. I know what it's like to be the only black person in a certain space or the only person with lived experience in a certain space. Fortunately, nobody has ever became violent, but just the words in itself can harm someone in a
043real way. So please do whatever you have to do to get some programs or organizations in here and not sweep this thing under the rug. The community is here. This place is packed. The energy is riveting and piercing all through this place. And please do not sweep this issue under the rug. Let's take it head on and continue to support this mother, the daughter, and the whole community at large. Thank you. Yamiche, are you here? Thank you, Mom, for the space for everybody today. Thank you. Yamiche. Hello, everybody. Alexander Shoshanitsin, in his book, The Gulag, Archie Leopago, wrote, at what exact point did... Should one resist when one's belt is taken away, when one is ordered to face into a corner, when one crosses the threshold of one's home. A person who is not inwardly
044prepared for the use of violence against him is always weaker than the person committing the violence. Submissiveness has not yet softened our brains. Racism has not gagged our voice. When my kids were in Taekwondo, when a bully was in Taekwondo class with them and they were at school bullying. Grandmaster Spears would make that bully fight one of the black belt kids until they got some acrite juice. So hopefully, you know, maybe that's something that the adult person needs to look into with their little people. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Kaz Amor. Thank you for having me. I just want to tell you a story. So when I was 11 years old, I went to England to school. I was sent to England. And I'd never seen anybody that looked like me. People would
045come and touch my skin, call me names. There were four boys that bullied me. When the school found out, within a few days of me in that school, those four boys were expelled because they feared me. We had to take a bus to get home, that I wouldn't be safe getting home. April's daughter is at home. Those kids are still at school. That's the problem. This lady here 70 years ago nothing was done. I don't know how many years ago nothing is done. There's no point sitting here talking about it. I would have just got up right now all of you and gone and take action. It's not fair for Anastasia to be scared. She wants to go to church if she feels safe there. I had nowhere to go. I thought they were being
046nice to me by calling me names. But they were actually bullying me. Kalia. No last name. Kalia. Okay. Hello, everyone. I'm Kalia. I am not only a resident of North County, I actually work in Carlsbad as well. So what's going on today definitely impacts me. So one of the things that I wanted to mention, of course, the statement has changed a lot just because of everything that everyone has mentioned, but I think we have a responsibility to our students. Bullying matters, and we see the signs before it actually even gets to bullying. So the adults, you know, I urge you, students. the teachers, the parents, most importantly the parents. Pay attention to the signs. You know, it starts with comments. It starts with the need to be in charge, the separation, the microaggressions. So one
047of the things that I want to urge you is to pay attention to the students. It ends up being adults that I have to reinforce this messaging with in corporate America. So to April, you're not the only one up here. You have support. Okay. Thank you. Michael Singletary. I think I'm saying that right. Michael. Okay. Good afternoon. Just doing this about him. Last name is Singletary. My name is Michael Singletary. I'm a member of Fat Outreach down in San Diego, California. I'm also a member with the. Can't hear me. I'm sorry. Can you guys hear me now? Yes. Okay. Well, my name is Michael Singletary. Again, like I said, I'm a member of Shafat Outreach, and what we do is we mentor gay members down in San Diego, and I'm also a member of the
048NAACP, and I'm a licensed clinical social worker. And a lot of people came up here and said a lot of things that I was going to say. But my thing is to this body, where's the accountability at? You know, the slow response time to this particular situation, I mean, you know what I'm saying, it just cannot be tolerated. You know, because if it was my family, I'd be ready to kind of do something a little bit off the record. You know what I'm saying? And we got to hold this board, and we also got to hold the Carlsbad Police Department responsible as well because of their slow response time. And I'm going to say this, had that been 20 black kids... Thank you. Nakia Wilson. Salutations. I would appreciate flexibility as I'm trying to regulate
049myself. Many of these comments have been very triggering for me. My name is Nakia Wilson. My name is Nakia Wilson, and I am a resident of Carlsbad and a parent of two students currently enrolled in Carlsbad Unified Schools. I want to speak briefly about student safety, belonging, accountability. Recent events in our community and experiences shared by families highlight the importance of ensuring that every student feels safe, respected, and supported while at school and in spaces connected to our school community. When students experience harassment, discriminatory language, or unequal treatment, It does more than create a difficult moment. It can affect their sense of belonging, their emotional well-being, and their ability to fully participate in their education. Because of ongoing concerns involving bullying, harassment, and discrimination, I have found it necessary to be physically present in my
050children's school environments to help ensure their safety and stability. This has required me to put aspects of my professional career in cybersecurity on hold in order to address the destabilizing impact these experiences have had on my children's daily lives within the district. My question for the board is this What systems are in place to ensure that reports of bullying? harassment or discriminatory language are consistently documented investigated and Follow up on across all schools in the district Families rely on clear processes, transparency, and accountability so that when concerns are raised, they are addressed thoroughly and consistently. Many members of this board are also parents of children in this district. I ask that you consider whether the current system The systems of accountability and follow-through are the standard of safety, respect, and belonging, and you will want
051for your own children as well. I appreciate the work that educators and staff do every day to support students, and I hope the district continues strengthening practices that ensure every student, regardless of background, feels safe. respected, and able to thrive in our schools. Thank you for your time. Gaiola Telemach. Good evening. My name is Gaiola Telemach. I am a parent of four boys in this district. My family moved to Carlsbad because we believed this community would provide our children with strong schools, opportunity, and a safe environment to grow up in. While we have met wonderful family, wonderful people here, it is painful to say that our children have also experienced something very different. All four of my sons have been subject to racist words or racial slurs while attending school here. Recently, my youngest son
052experienced a comment from another student who told him Back in my day, people like you weren't allowed to speak. For a child, that statement carries real meaning. It reflects a history where people who look like him were affected to be silent and excluded. As a parent, there's nothing more heartbreaking than hearing your child come home and recount experiences. Layla Aziz. I'm crying. I'm sorry. I know we can't scream and shout, but first thing I want to do is everybody clap for Black San Diego who brought this to our attention. I want to also thank Wake Up Carlsbad who showed me that all white people are not bad and we can stand in solidarity. When I first saw the video, I was angry. I was angry just like every other black person in this room because
053we have all experienced what happened to that little girl. Every last one of us. That's why it's so real. This is not theatrics for us. This is real life. And we thought we left that behind. We thought it was over. These video games, this lack of supervision, and just out-of-control youth with a school that thinks it's okay to give someone lunch detention for calling a little girl the N-word and slapping her. I'm not there. I'm not there. Protect these children. Cause bad stand up. Thank you for having us. Rosalva. Rosalva Silva. Good night, everyone. I'm sure some of you already know who I am. Hello, hello. I hope you understand me with my accent, but I know many of you already know who I am, and I'm happy to be here tonight. I am here
054tonight in support of the family that most of us are here for, for the bullying and racial crime that they have suffered. But I also wanted to take the opportunity to speak in the name of my own family. The district and the police have a collection of videos just like these ones that you have recently watched. from back in September, 2023, when my daughter was attacked at the same park by Carlsbad Student District students who were her classmates since kindergarten, who were her friends, people who I went to barbecues and birthday parties at, and I never had one parent give me a call or help in any way. Thank you, Ms. Rosalva. Charles Price, Jr. Hello, how you doing? I'm Charles Price. I don't know all the formalities with this stuff. I'm not really good
055with that. I'm from Oceanside, California, born and raised, so I'm right next door. My mom called me today asking me because she's an old church lady. What's up with y'all? What happened to that little girl? Could you please speak into the mic? Charles, can you just please speak into the microphone? When something happens, usually the people of color next door in these North County communities, they're connected to somebody in Oceanside because Crossbed doesn't have an African-American community. Oceanside does, though. You know what I mean? And what I found out through that was the heinous stuff that happened to your daughter. But I didn't know who she was connected to. But your baby's become all of our babies. And I got... I got people that I've been talking to just trying to track where y'all from,
056where you come from, and all these people, all these support that has shown up from San Diego, you got people that are right next door. If she needs to be walked to school, anything, we need to pop out to support her, support you, we'll do that. You know what I mean? All you got to do, I just wanted to connect with the family, get my number to somebody. And the truth is, hey, there's a learn. Thank you, Charles. Scott Davison. Carlsbad Education Alliance, I appreciate everyone coming out tonight to demand change, and we do need change, not more of the same. As a member of the DEI Advisory Committee, I like basic questions. Do these programs work? Do we have evidence that they work? When our DEI plan was proposed in 2023, the staff had
057no evidence that it worked, but the board approved it anyway. We're almost three years into that DEI plan, and this student fight is pretty good evidence that it doesn't work. This isn't an isolated incident. These students have had years of lessons on kindness matters and no place for hate. So if these programs work, why don't they work? At the last DEI committee, CUSD reported record high favorability scores on dealing with bullying and harassment. Does anyone in this room actually believe that? We need some honesty from CUSD. How many incidents like this occur, and is this problem getting worse? And if it's worse, are we willing to admit that these plans might not work, or are we going to double down on failure? King Sh... Thank you. King Shamiko, or Shamiro. Sorry if I'm mispronouncing your
058name. I know this is followed on deaf ears. We heard several people from tragedy for years and years, and all you guys just look the same, pale. This is ridiculous makes no sense, but I want to let the sister know we stand with you See where we all came from far and near we all stand with you. Let's all say enough is enough Also, let me say where's where did she get therapy? Did the family get therapy or anything like that? All right, it's gonna go undetected like everything else. It's always under investigation and all this stuff We're gonna investigate the videos right in your face. We're gonna keep on investigating. We hear this every day We're beat killed tied up everything you name These kids are getting killed nowadays in schools. Do you guys
059realize that you guys know you can all be voted out to write? Now let's all say enough is enough. We stand with this family. Let's all stand with enough is enough. Toshua Cornwell Clark. Hello, everyone. I'm a sociologist. My name is Toshua Cornwell-Clark. I'm 24 hours away from my dissertation defense. I'm here because I need to stand in solidarity with this young black girl. She experienced colonial violence coupled and fueled by racism and rage. We've seen this before, so this is not new. We've seen it in pictures of the past. And we can no longer dismiss intergenerational trauma as the race card because we understand that this is the same game but different players. We see it right here. This is the same mirrored image that we've seen in the 70s with the same type
060of children. harassing and terrorizing black people. Now when we take a look at this type of situation, we have to do something about it. We must come together and find out, get to the bottom of this, because this cannot continue in this manner. With that being said, those children, if they were black children... Thank you. Tanisha Smith. Tanisha Smith. Hello, my name is Tanisha Smith. I am a restorative justice lead in SDUSD. I am here today because this mother reached out looking for resources that could assist in a situation where her child was harmed. The video showed a young black girl being held against her will by a mob of white children that would not let her leave at her request. At one point, the child even acknowledged that what they were doing felt racist,
061but continued to box her in and not let her go about her way anyway. I am here to show this family that they do have a community. We are here with you. We are standing by you. We got you. And I'm also here to request that the city, the school board, the police department, all implement strategies and programs that repair harm, restore relationships, and hold folks accountable on a continuous basis. Black San Diego, empowering our community. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and name the next speaker, and then the speaker that's going to come after that so they can prepare and come on up. Paisley Publico, and then the speaker after that will be Stephanie Uecker. I think I'm saying that right. So Paisley. She's coming from the back. Okay. The second person is
062Stephanie Uecker. I think I'm saying that right. Okay. Hi, I'm Paisley's mom, Sarah. This is Paisley. She went to Calavera Middle School and she was a result of a bullying situation where her hair got pulled to the ground on school campus. Okay, and those kids were allowed to return the next day at school and she was afraid to go to school And you know what they got? Detentions. Okay, and this is not okay. And this isn't exactly a race issue for us This is a violence issue that these girl fights and I'm sure you've all seen these videos of Calavera It is out of control. It is literally out of control and it needs to stop and she was terrified, terrified to go back to school and to know that those kids got to go
063back to school the next day and brag to all their friends about what happened and showing videos. And then literally last week, she's getting messages of harassment from the same kids, the same kids. And they just put a safety thing in order. Okay. A safety thing. What is a safety? What is that going to do? Thank you. Thank you, Paisley. Natalie Newland and after that it will be Jenny Hill. My name is Natalie Newland. I'm a teacher, a mother, and I'm within the boundaries of Carlsbad. This child, he needs help. He needs help and he needs accountability. Just like the other parent just said. This child was just moved into my son's science class, which means that now it's become my problem and my son's problem. My son wants to be here. He wants to
064be at school. You're going to be left with kids that don't if we do not make change. My daughter came home today. She goes to Poinsettia, telling me that she was bullied by the same girl the entire year. The only recourse would be to move her out. We're just moving kids. That's not working. Enough! Accountability is needed. Ryan Newland and then after Ryan will be Julia Gurley. Jenny Hill. Oh, sorry about that. Sorry. Hi, Jenny. Hi, my name is Jenny Hill and I live within the school district boundaries and I'm going to forego my time due to a recent incident. Ryan Newland and then Julia Gurley. Hello, my name is Ryan. That was my wife just a minute ago talking about my daughter who just came home from school who was bullied for the 10th
065time this year by the same girl. She was given a choice of either moving out of her classroom, away from all her friends, or continue being bullied. She chose to stay with her friends, but I still have to deal with it every night. She gets petrified every time she goes to school. I spend an hour trying to talk her down. And the same thing, my son is now in the class with a student that we're all talking about today. Again, no recourse. The next day back to school, now he has to deal with it. It's not acceptable. There are no consequences to any of these students. There's a reason why he felt the way he, there was a reason why he felt like he could do what he was doing. On film, he didn't care.
066There's no consequences, whether it's at school or at home or in the park. It's not acceptable. Thank you. Julia Gurley is next, and then Kimberly Pierce is after that. This is my sister. We've had, um... We've been raising our kids together for probably the past 22, 25 years. I'm grateful for this community. I'm very grateful for this community, and I'm grateful for the good people that are in it. I do believe that some changes need to be made. My daughter experienced a very similar situation just eight months ago, and I'm going to play this for everyone. I'm not good. How do I get this so that you guys can hear it? Does anybody have a mic or know how to do this? Here. Now, my daughter was... Kimberly Pierce. After Kimberly will be Kashawn Price.
067Kimberly Pierce and then... Okay. I'm just repeating the name so you guys can hear me. And then Kashawn Price will be after that. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Kimberly Pierce and I'm the mother of a 15-year-old black son. I also grew up here in Carlsbad. I attended Aviar Oaks Middle School and Carlsbad High School where racism existed when I was a student in 2005. 20 years later, it is deeply disappointing to see that students are still experiencing the same harm. My son has faced racism from children in this community. No parent should have to remove their child from the community simply to protect them. We all deserve to live in this beautiful city. Schools must take racist bullying seriously. It cannot be minimized as typical behavior. There must be
068real consequences and real support for students who are targeted. Our students deserve schools where racism is not tolerated and where every child feels safe. Thank you. Kishon Price. It's unfortunate that we are here today. However, it is a blessing that we are here today, all in unity. acting that the youth who committed this racist crime against a young woman of color be held accountable. Because it's crazy. If the roles was reversed and it was 10 black kids doing this to a white kid, the 10 black kids would be held accountable in handcuffs by the police in juvenile hall and labeled a gang with a court date. Suspension would have never been on the table. I know this because I went to juvenile hall for less. This was a crime. This was a hate crime, kidnapping
069and assault. Let's call it what it is. Black youth is judged and held to a different standard than white youth. There's an injustice system for black youth and a justice system for white youth. They are labeled as troubled kids. We are labeled as a gang. James Wiley Jr. and then Alicia Sutton. James is up first. Thank you. Good evening My name is pastor James Wiley jr and now I'm here today in support of this young black girl who was assaulted and The message this moment sends to every student in this district this incident Involving students in the Carlsbad Unified School District. It's not just about one fight It's about whether this community will protect the dignity and safety of every child I come to you as a youth pastor and minute and mentor From a
070pastoral perspective, accountability is not hate. Accountability is love. And when we hold young people responsible for harmful behavior, we're not destroying them, we're helping guide them toward better thinking and better choices. And we must also affirm something clearly. Racial dignity matters. No child should ever be targeted, humiliated, or harmed because of the color of their skin, racial identity, or cultural background. Every student, including black students, deserve to be seen, respected, protected, and this love also requires justice. Justice brings peace. This school district owes it to this child and the family to restore their peace. Every student deserves to walk onto their campus or in the neighborhood park without fear of being targeted because of who they are. So I urge this board to ensure there is real accountability and justice, as well as cultural training
071for students involved and engagement with parents as well. When schools, families, and communities work together to confront wrongdoing, we create an environment where every child can truly be safe and well. Alicia Sutton. And then after Alicia is Joe Smith. Alicia Sutton. Do you see her coming? Okay. Okay, thank you. Joe Smith. After Joe Smith will be Serena D. Reed. I come to you tonight as a father. I was forwarded this video and immediately I thought of my own two daughters. What you see tonight is folks that see themselves and... This is a reflection of history's past and a lot of things that we feel when we see these images and videos and sayings. You have an opportunity tonight to... Say what the standard is. When you look at your scores, your standard in a lot
072of areas. Tonight, you're going to communicate to 134 African American, black, and pan-African students in your district what your standard is in Carlsbad. These folks are here because they're asking you, pleading with you, begging you, and some demanding from you that you do the right thing. Think of the heart of the family, what that girl went through. Distinguished board members, thank you for allowing me to speak. On March 3rd, 2026, a precedent was set. Colin Gray was sentenced against 27 charges, including two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, and multiple counts of cruelty to children and reckless conduct. He did not do it himself. He allowed his son to do it. Maybe what we're doing is trying to punish the wrong people. Maybe we should bring their parents before you and have
073them explain why their children do what they do. Just slap her. This may be really racist because we're all surrounding this black kid. How would you feel if that was your child? I am a former community college adjunct professor. A lot of my students came from Carlsbad. Great students. Because they had a great school system. This is not Carlsbad. Thank you. Shanita Johnson. Good evening, Distinguished Board. My name is Shanita. I have three children in the Carlsbad District, two elementary and one in junior high. I'm asking you guys to allow my children to be as great as they can be, regardless of their color, because they're going to be bosses. They're going to be owners. My child has, my junior high child has five no-contact contracts from different children because of bullying. Yet she is
074the leader in orchestra and symphony and led last night. My other child is head of the friendship committee at the elementary school, yet she had the soccer boy who every day walked up to her and said, you're black, you're ugly, you're this, you're that. I asked for a meeting, and they withdrew the child from the school and never allowed me a meeting with them parents. The parents were never held accountable. My son in the first grade came home to ask me why he was called the N-word because a child in the second grade said to him, You lost that connect four because you're and said the N word. There's something, regardless of how you listen, no reason why you cannot hold other children out learning at all. For counseling, my children need counseling dealing with
075the other children at the school. But yet, if my child backed out or said there was something wrong at home, there are therapists, there are psychiatrists, there are at the school for that. Carlsbad has great teachers. They have some good principals. They have... a good background i'm a volunteer at a lot of things but what i can't volunteer at is other people's homes and hiding their racism and hiding their children's behaviors please help us thank you thank you we now move on to part eight consent calendar thank you to all the speakers i know that was really hard to come up here and share all that so thank you president ward yes Point of information will our superintendent be following up with the speakers tonight. Thank you all matters listed on the consent calendar Okay,
076we'll take a five-minute break we'll see you back at 745 head and reconvene if everybody can go ahead and take a seat, please Trustee CoC if you're in the audience, please come back. We're gonna go ahead and start Okay. Thank you. We now move on to part eight, consent calendar. All matters listed on the consent calendar are considered by the board to be routine and will be enacted by the board in one motion. There will be no discussion on these items before the time the board votes on the motion unless there is a board request for one or more specific items to be removed from the consent calendar for discussion. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards for this item. Okay. May I have a motion to approve the
077consent calendar? So moved. Second. Okay, we have Trustee Emery made the motion. Trustee Verbeth seconded the motion. Ms. Garcia, please call for a vote. Trustee Rawlings? Yes. Trustee Verbeth? Yes. Trustee Ciosi? Yes. Trustee Emery? Yes. Trustee Ward? Yes. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. We will now skip over to part nine presentations as we do not have any agenda items under this category We are now at part 10 instructional services agenda item 10.1 Proposal kindergarten program for the 26-27 school year Trustees this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Dr. Brian Brockett Thank You president Ward and trustees and dr. Norman I'm excited to be joined this evening by our Director of Elementary Education, Ms. Fuentes, who has been instrumental in working with the Kindergarten Task Force and pilot teachers over
078the past year to implement the Kindergarten Pilot and gather more information about kindergarten programming. Tonight, we're going to provide an overview of the full-day kindergarten pilot to date. Of course, we're partway through the school year. We're going to identify successes and barriers, present data and survey feedback that are available to us at this time, outline fiscal considerations regarding a consideration of a full-day kindergarten model. and request board direction for next steps. And with that, I will hand it off to Ms. Fuentes to walk us through the presentation. Thank you. Before we dive into the presentation, I want to take a moment to extend my appreciation to our pilot team, Jefferson teachers, Joanna Nya, Kristy Haberline, Shelly Thomas, and Bell Doris. Is that better? Okay. So let me just repeat, our Jefferson teachers, Joanne Anaya, Christy
079Haberline, Shelly Thomas, and Belle Doris, and our HOPE team, Denise Connelly, Caitlin Flores, Kelly Szabo, Don Ebbs, Rune Brown, and Emily Perez, as well as our pilot principals and all the support staff, the ed specialists, our campus monitors, nutrition staff, our counselors, MTSS teachers, the instructional aides. It really takes a village. and both of these sites navigated the unknown and created a truly engaging experience for their students. They were shifting mindsets, adjusting schedules, there was a lot of trial and revision, there was teaching how to type their lunch numbers into the computer pad, navigating the larger campus, so I just want to thank the Hope and Jefferson teams for pioneering this pilot. To give a bit of context, staff was directed to implement a two-school extended-day kindergarten pilot in March of last year. So in
080the spring, we brought together a kindergarten task force, inclusive of our pilot team, to navigate the planning and implementation, as well as monitor the impact of the pilot. This team visited four neighboring districts with fully established full-day kindergarten programs to help guide our work. and our decision making. We also met with CUDA to discuss and understand operational considerations and for implementation we addressed furniture and curriculum needs and hired additional campus monitors to assist with supervision. So sorry, I'm having trouble hearing. Can I request that we have someone outside and ask them to at least move slightly down or turn the volume up? Okay, thank you. They heard you. Perfect. Throughout the pilot we met several times in various teams as the pilot team the task force and with the kindergarten grade level leads in Preparation
081for this presentation. We also collected partner feedback through surveys and data from our common assessment Tonight's presentation represents the culmination of this work and seeks board guidance on the next steps As we explore the future of kindergarten in Carlsbad, it is important to situate this conversation within the broader educational context. California adopted the Preschool Transitional Kindergarten Learning Foundations, which serves as developmentally appropriate stepping stones toward the kindergarten Common Core standards. Our preschool program has aligned its instruction to these foundations, and over the past year and a half, our TK team has worked to intentionally ensure both instruction and report cards reflect these developmental progressions. With the recent expansion of TK to include all four-year-olds, kindergarten now plays a critical role as a bridge between these early learning foundations and the academic expectations of the K-12
082system. The idea of extending the kindergarten day allows for a thoughtfully designed program that honors both developmental learning and academic readiness, while giving students the time needed to build strong foundational skills. Early education is undergoing a significant shift. In California, the P3 initiative, that's preschool through third grade, emphasizes coherence in instruction and development through third grade so that learning builds intentionally year to year. In advancing these initiatives, our state superintendent and the California Literacy Task Force have reiterated that reading proficiency by third grade is a powerful predictor of future educational outcomes. One result of these California initiatives is the newly adopted reading difficulties risk screener for students in kindergarten through second grade, allowing schools to recognize students who may need additional support as early as possible. And in CUSD, we also aim to support the
083reclassification of our multilingual learners, ideally by third grade and if not by fifth grade, as the ELPAC increases in rigor at these grade levels. Our district's implementation of the reading screener, a shift towards phonics-centered literacy instruction, and focus on universal design for learning, or UDL, all reinforce the same priority, providing high-quality Tier 1 instruction, early targeted intervention, and meaningful language development opportunities so that we're building a strong foundation in those early years. As a pilot task force, we centered our work on several key objectives. The pilot was designed to help us better understand the impact of a full-day model in Carlsbad. We examined differences in instructional time, academic readiness, and social-emotional development, while also gathering perspectives from students, staff, and families. In addition, we sought to identify professional learning needs and operational considerations to evaluate
084the fiscal implications of a district-wide rollout. As these objectives guided our task force meetings, we also reminded ourselves that pilot programs involve learning along the way. At times, that meant failing forward, trying new approaches, making adjustments, and refining our practices so that any future expansion would be informed and guided by real classroom experience. This slide highlights the key differences between the two program models. Both programs are staffed the same under the required grade span adjustment, which is the K-3 site average of 24 students per class. That average allows principals and site leadership teams some flexibility in determining class sizes across those grade levels. In our current half-day model, kindergarten classes typically range from 20 to 28 students because students attend in smaller cohorts for most of the day. Sites sometimes increase kindergarten enrollment to avoid
085combination classes or larger first grade classes, where currently students are attending a full day of school for the first time in first grade. In a full-day model, the goal would be to maintain class sizes closer to 20 to 24 students throughout the day. This year, our pilot classes ranged from 19 to 22 students, and if we were to move to a full-day program, principals would work to prioritize those smaller kindergarten class sizes to support an effective student-to-teacher ratio within their GSA staffing allocation. The most significant difference between the two models is time. Our current early bird late owl structure provides approximately 180 minutes of instructional time. A full day model provides 296 instructional minutes. This additional time allows teachers to slow the pace of instruction, incorporate play-based inquiry, and provide more small group support without
086sacrificing core instruction. A full day schedule would also allow students to have two meals on campus. They would be served a breakfast at recess and lunch. And in full transparency, and as you will see reflected in the survey data, class size is the most frequently expressed concern when considering a shift to a full day program. On this slide, we wanted to provide a side-by-side comparison of the two schedules. Rather than accelerating academics, we found that the additional time in a full-day program allowed teachers to create opportunities for continued learning through structured play, similar to what they experience in TK. Because I mentioned it several times, and you'll hear it throughout the presentation, when we talk about play-based learning, we're not talking about unstructured free play. It's intentional, and it's academic. For example, when students are
087building with blocks, they're developing spatial reasoning and early math concepts. When they engage in dramatic play, they're practicing vocabulary, storytelling, and their social communication. Play is the vehicle through which students can apply their developing literacy, language, and problem-solving skills. We found that in the pilot, the longer day allowed teachers to establish routines and transitions at a more meaningful pace. Once those were in place, teachers could build more instructional touch points through small group instruction while other students were engaged in math centers or inquiry tub time. One example of this from our pilot classrooms was the beginning of the year materials and supplies boot camp where students learned how to use classroom materials independently and were certified earning a badge once they demonstrated those skills. And it was a fun way to build independence early on
088and help teachers manage the larger class size more effectively. A full day schedule also allowed for increased specials time, so that's time in STEAM, art, music, and PE. It also aligned the kindergarten teacher planning time with that of first through fifth grade teachers and allowed kindergarten teachers to participate in early release Thursdays as well as the minimum days for parent-teacher conferences. As with any pilot, implementation involves learning and adjustment. So there were some lessons learned. Teachers found that the gradual rollout at the beginning of the year did help students transition fairly successfully. While most of our neighboring districts implement a six-week rollout of half days, our task force opted for three weeks of half days before moving to the full-day schedule. During those half days, most students would go home at midday, but a small
089group of students stayed for the full afternoon on rotating bonus days. That smaller group allowed teachers time to build relationships, conduct early assessments, and intentionally teach routines and expectations in a more manageable setting. In reflecting on the experience, the team felt that extending the rollout to four weeks would be ideal to allow for one additional day with those smaller groups. The team also identified the need for an additional afternoon recess and some adjustment to their snack and daily routines to help with the flow of the day and to help build stamina. Teachers were intentional about that afternoon time and implemented inquiry-based centers and opportunities for play. To support this, we curated a kindergarten STEAM library of activities and centers that the sites could rotate among themselves. Through our discussions the team agreed that opportunities for
090inquiry and play-based learning are non-negotiable and essential for providing a balanced program that supports both academic learning and developmental needs regardless of which kindergarten model is selected. Our pilot team shared a number of successes of the pilot thus far, most notably the extra time. Time for extended instruction, time to dig into those student questions and their curiosities, time for read-alouds, and time to intentionally teach routines and transitions that support school readiness. Teachers also noticed a strong sense of community among the students being together for the full day, and they were able to participate in all school activities without needing to adjust schedules, such as having all the kindergartners be early bird in order to attend an assembly, a school-wide event, or a field trip. At the same time, the task force identified barriers that would
091need to be addressed in implementation. Those included the staffing ratios, ensuring equitable resources across sites, and operational considerations such as looking at schedule and logistics. This year, we've provided a range of professional learning to support our kindergarten teachers, including the implementation of DIBELS, the reading screener. This is now required under education code for K-2. And we also provided professional learning opportunities for self-regulation and behavior and purposeful play. As we continue strengthening our early education program, our focus will be on refining a comprehensive approach that includes that screening, making data-informed decisions, and having a balanced learning environment. Part of that work involves focusing on our essential standards in order to protect core learning time, but also create space to integrate learning through purposeful play. So not doing less, but being intentional so learning is both rigorous
092but also developmentally appropriate. And this will be the focus for our kinder team, regardless of the model. Finally, we're fortunate to have a strong partnership with our County Office of Education. They've been already supporting our preschool and TK teams, and we would like to expand that support to kindergarten to strengthen that vertical alignment. All right, so we'll take a look at some of the data and feedback that was collected. Attendance remains strong at both of our pilot schools. When we polled the K-3 daily average attendance rates, rates increased slightly at both Hope and Jefferson as compared to last year. We also saw a fairly significant decline in chronic absenteeism at Jefferson, in kindergarten specifically, meaning fewer students were missing more than 10% of the school year. Overall, the data suggests that the longer school day
093did not negatively impact attendance patterns. Academic data in kindergarten is limited. Unlike older grades, we do not administer standardized computer-based assessments such as STAR or SBAC because they're not developmentally appropriate for young learners. Kindergarten students also complete their common writing assessment later in the spring because we wait until they've had sufficient exposure and instruction for the content and the results to be meaningful. This year, however, we did implement the DIBELS Reading Difficulties Risk Screener as required under the new Ed Code. And because this was our first year using the tool, the data we have now serves as baseline data. The only comparison we have at this point is from September to January. One important thing to understand about DIBELS is that the benchmarks act as a bit of a moving goalpost. So the expectations increase
094from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year as students develop in their early literacy skills. For example, a kindergarten student might need a phoneme segmentation fluency score of a 5 in the fall to be considered on track or meeting standard, but by mid-year that benchmark increases to around 29. And the purpose of this system is to ensure that students are progressing at a pace that keeps them on track for reading proficiency. If a student's skill remains stagnant while that benchmark increases, then it signals the need for additional support, and that way teachers can intervene early. So in taking a closer look at intervention, both pilot schools had additional intervention support in place for reading. And I do want to highlight the progress that we saw at Jefferson as this team really
095leaned into the progress monitoring and intervention tools within DIBELS. As a result, 98% of their kindergarten students receiving that targeted reading support improved their composite DIBELS scores from the beginning of the year to mid-year. Now, much of that growth is seen in students moving from the well below benchmark range to the below benchmark range. So while that progress might not yet be reflected in the at or above benchmark category, it does represent meaningful growth for those students. And I want to highlight this because Jefferson's demographic is representative of our subgroups with 24% multilingual learners, 22% special education, and 63% socioeconomically disadvantaged just within their kindergarten cohort. So this underscores the importance of having sufficient instructional time to provide those targeted interventions and small group instruction. Our family survey continued to show strong support for full-day
096kindergarten. This survey went out to all incoming and current kindergarten families. Overall favorability was 68%, an increase of 4% from the last year. And support among pilot families was even stronger at 80% favorable. When looking at responses by school, the highest favorability came from Buena Vista, Calavera, Hope, and Jefferson, with support ranging from 70 to 85 percent. The lowest levels of favorability were at Kelly and Poinsettia, 56 percent and 50 percent, respectively. Family priorities remain consistent with last year, academic learning, play-based experience, and social-emotional development. The top reported benefit was increased instructional time, followed by easier scheduling for families. Now, these two priorities flipped from last year's survey. And the primary concern remains class size. None or no concerns was the second ranked, and the third concern was that the longer school day may be
097overwhelming for some children. Staff feedback was more mixed, particularly among kindergarten teachers who again expressed concerns about the student to teacher ratio. At the same time, across all other staff groups, respondents recognized the potential benefits of additional time in the day. Play-based learning rose to the top reported benefit this year, followed by the potential for more time for core instruction. And when asked about additional needs, again, class size was that primary consideration, with many comments indicating a preference for smaller, classes smaller than 24. Our pilot kindergartners also shared their perspective. Our elementary Tosa and I got to go and administer a Kelvin pulse one-on-one, and 91% of students reported feeling safe at school, 93% said they have grown-ups to help them at school, and 95% said they have friends at school. Students were also given
098an open-ended question asking, what is your favorite part about school? The two most common responses were playing with friends and centers, which reflects the importance of that social interaction and hands-on learning experiences within the kindergarten day. We also gathered community input through our LCAP thought exchange survey, which closed just a couple weeks ago. In total, there were 75 unique thoughts submitted that were related to kindergarten, and the feedback showed strong overall support for full-day kindergarten. 86% of the comments supported implementing a district-wide full-day model. with families citing benefits such as strong academic preparation, more opportunities for social development, and scheduling that better aligns with the school day. At the same time, many respondents emphasized the importance of maintaining developmentally appropriate program and a smooth transition. I feel it's also important to note what the pilot
099could not yet measure. Because this was the first year of implementation, we do not yet have long-term data to determine how students from the pilot will perform as they move into first grade. In addition, our literacy assessments have changed in recent years with the transition to DIBELS, which limits our ability to make year-over-year academic comparisons. Final ELPAC results for our multilingual learners are also not yet available as we are currently in the midst of that summative testing. While we cannot yet see how students exiting the pilot will perform in first grade, we can draw a parallel to the impact we've already seen in the expansion of TK. Since expanding TK in our district, kindergarten teachers consistently report that students are entering kindergarten with stronger school readiness skills. And on to fiscal considerations. The estimated cost
100for district-wide implementation ranges from approximately $210,000 to $223,000. This includes additional campus monitors to support supervision, essential kindergarten materials, and professional learning. During our most recent kindergarten grade level meeting teachers also suggested holding a summer Institute for interested kindergarten leads This would provide time for teachers to collaborate on pacing resources and supports to ensure a smooth and consistent district rollout at this time in using our grade span adjustment staffing model We do not anticipate the need to hire additional teachers in order to implement full-day kindergarten Now, class size has understandably been one of the biggest questions that we've heard throughout this process, so we wanted to take a closer look at it. And it's important to understand the parameters that we operate under. Education code requires districts to maintain a K-3 average class size of
10124 to 1, known as grade span adjustment, or GSA. It also states that no single kindergarten class may exceed 33 students. In Carlsbad, our class sizes are currently below those limits. Our district-wide kindergarten average was 22.8 last year and 22 students this year. We also looked at neighboring and comp districts. Most operate very similar to us, some like Poway and Vista, cap kinder classes at 26 students, lowering GSA and other grade levels. Others like Encinitas, Santa Monica, Malibu, and Rockland also follow the state-required 24-to-1 K-3 average. Del Mar is somewhat smaller with a 22-to-1 cap, and Escondido maintains a 24-to-1 cap. As we think about implementation, our task force also discussed the truly essential materials versus those nice-to-have items and how we ensure equitable resources across sites so that all kindergarten students have access to
102a high-quality program. In working with our kindergarten teachers, we are curating that list of essentials. And when we talk about essential materials, we're referring to the core items every kindergarten classroom needs to successfully implement the program. Things like foundational instructional resources, classroom supplies and materials that support literacy, math, and play-based learning, which will probably need to boost up a little bit. Beyond that, there are many enrichment items that are wonderful additions, but not necessarily required for implementation. And those things teachers can often pursue through site funds, PTA supports, and grants. Of course, with any implementation related to working conditions, including class size considerations, we would be subject to bargaining. Thank you, Ms. Fuentes. And I also want to reiterate that thank you for our pilot teams, our teachers, our kindergarten task force, all of whom
103have invested a lot of time and energy into the pilot and into examining the kindergarten models over the past couple of years. So I want to just look real quickly at kind of our next steps for where we go out of this evening. One is, depending on the board's decision and direction tonight, we will be communicating with staff. We'll be meeting with our CUDA partners, our teachers' union partners, to discuss any bargainable effects of whatever decision may be made. And we will be preparing family informational sessions either direction because our families right now, we've delayed some of our kindergarten information going out in anticipation of tonight's decision. additionally our team and instructional services would be working with kindergarten leads to finalize the kindergarten standard for some of the play-based learning items and other things that
104director Fuentes mentioned talking about program development pacing essential standards and management routines and that's been really some work that they've had ongoing as she mentioned in in looking at both models curate a professional learning plan for the 26-27 school year particularly should we see receive direction to move forward with the exploring the the full-day model we would be working with our teams to identify needs and plans for professional development And then any rollout support that might be needed, including the minimum days that were mentioned at the start of the school year to figure out what that schedule might look like, any startup support needs that might be had. And again, those types of items will be subject to bargaining with our CUDA partners as we talk through what this might look like. That all having
105been said, we've heard a lot of information and I wanted to just take a moment to distill out some of the benefits that we see to students in the full day model as we've gone through this work this year. And Director Fuentes highlighted a lot of these things. I want to just hit a couple of key points. One is the student-centered aspect of the learning, the inquiry, the extension opportunities that the additional time allowed for students and teachers. Under the developmentally appropriate learning there, I think it's important to note that The added time in kindergarten is not just for academics, it's for that developmentally appropriate piece, the play-based learning, the social-emotional development, that peer interaction, that collaboration and communication, all of which we've heard from teachers can be challenging to do when you've got students
106for a portion of the day. The school connectedness and belonging piece, we've heard over time consistently from families who would like their kids to be able to be involved in school-wide events and assemblies and things that our kindergarten students sometimes miss or schedules have to be shuffled to accommodate. And then lastly, the gift of time. And one story that Ms. Fuentes shared with me from a teacher that stuck with me is the feedback that having the time to really just sit down and do read-alouds with her class on a consistent basis was something that she was challenged to do in a shorter day and really appreciated the time to continue doing. So those benefits don't just positively impact some students, those with our language needs, economic needs, or learning differences. They really do support all
107of our students in kindergarten across the district. I'd say that there's no doubt that the early reading risk screener data that we looked at paints a mixed picture, both at our pilot schools and our... early bird late hour schools so as as director fuentes i i know there's a there's a feeling we all have to want to look at the data and see what the data tells us even in a normal year we'd be adopting a new a new screener and learning what that data was telling us as we move forward and again i think we see a mixed bag there and we need to take that data along with the anecdotal feedback of the successes and challenges that we've seen What we've seen in the journey over the past year is a pilot program
108that allows teachers, administrators, and families to learn firsthand about both the benefits and challenges of transitioning to a full-day program. We've seen strong community support and strong teacher and staff support for the full-day program at most levels. And most importantly, we've seen students with increased learning opportunities, increased developmental time with highly qualified teachers and their peers. We've seen positive outcomes for those young learners, and we can already predict with confidence that there will be a smoother transition to first grade for those students who have built the skills, the stamina, and the mindset to be ready for the full school day from day one of first grade. It is for those reasons, it's our recommendation that the Board of Trustees take action tonight to move to adopt a unified... full-day kindergarten model across CUSD to start
109next school year. And with that, I will hand it back to President Ward. I may make a point of order, President Ward. We usually move at 8 o'clock to dismiss our student representative, and I don't know if she had that opportunity. Yeah, we were. Okay. I was going to do that. Thank you for the reminder. We're all looking out for you, Chloe. We don't want you to be stuck here. Okay, Chloe, so now would probably be a good time for you to take off, and we're going to miss you. Thank you so much. Is that right? Okay. Okay. This is the time for public comment. We have nine blue cards. When I call your name, please come to the podium and state your name and indicate whether or not you live within the boundaries of
110the school district. You will have... Two minutes and 15 seconds. We will have the timer on the screen, and your mic will be muted when your time has expired. The first speaker is Katrina Ketteridge. I hope I said that right. Hi, everyone. My name is Katrina Ketteridge, and yes, I do live within Carlsbad. I am the mother of two young boys, a two-year-old and a four-year-old. My four-year-old is currently a TK student at PAC-RIM, and he attends the Early Bird Program. It's been a great program for us. He has a wonderful teacher, two teachers in the classroom, actually, along with aides. So he is in a class of 24 students, but they are split into groups of six. I know he's getting plenty of one-on-one attention. His needs are met. He's learning so much. And
111I really hope he can experience this next year at Packram as well. I know that his teacher, the other TK teacher, and the kindergarten teachers at his school are strongly opposed to full-day kindergarten, as am I, clearly. I don't believe your slides accurately represented how the staff and parents feel. Thank you. Parents have not been given enough input on this matter. We had one survey and that's the only communication I've had regarding this matter other than my direct conversations with the staff individually. And if you could go back to the slides perhaps, there was one clear point on there where only 18% of current kindergarten teachers are in favor of full-day kindergarten. I don't think you can really gloss over that. They are the ones who will be living this day to day. They're the
112ones experiencing it. They are being expected to double the amount of time our kids are in the classroom without doubling the resources. How is that going to be fair to our children? How is this going to be beneficial to their education when they are not getting the attention they need or the resources they need in the classroom to be set up for success? My son currently loves going to school and I am so scared to see what this will do to him if he is forced to be in the classroom six hours a day, five days a week, just so that he can enjoy his right to a free education. It would be so sad to see his little heart just burnt out at the age of five. We've all been there. We know what
113it's like going to school. It's like a full-time job. Do they really need to be doing this at five years old? Kids this age are meant to be playing with their friends, going outside, spending time at home with their families. To me, it feels like this is all about offering free childcare for families, which, you know, I do support. We should have more options. It is expensive. But is really forcing our children to stay in school longer the answer to that? Why not just offer some free support after school for families that need it? Thank you very much. Thank you. Rachel Marino Ott. Good evening, trustees. You clearly have a heavy task in front of you. You're being asked to make a decision based on very little data and a lot of pressure coming from
114multiple sides. I don't have any wisdom to impart that might make your decision easier, but I have one observation that I feel is necessary to explain as you do make your choice. This district is not equipped to appropriately support teachers in a rollout of full-day kindergarten district-wide. This is not based on vibes or data points, but on the actual testimony of the teachers who... were in the pilot locations. I made it very clear in my conversations with the district that teachers must be provided with supplies sufficient to support all of the kinders in the same classroom. I was assured that we have a warehouse of supplies that they're there for the using, that they may not be the exact manipulatives or furniture that teachers prefer, but they will have access to them. It was only
115after the year started that I found out a brand new to kindergarten teacher was left scrounging Facebook marketplace for bookshelves, a rug for carpet time, along with toys and blocks and manipulatives to kid out her empty classroom, and she was given $750 by the Hope PTA to do this with. The same $750 was also given to the 20-year teachers to fill out their classrooms and top up their supplies. At Jefferson, kindergarten teachers combined spent thousands of dollars out of pocket to supplement classroom materials. When asked why the warehouse wasn't made available to these teachers, the response was, did they ask? Did they ask? That is not the response of a district prepared to support more sites in full decay. I can tell you they didn't ask to suddenly have double their regular number of students
116at one time. They didn't ask for the pilot to be run on the campuses. They did make clear in multiple ways that supplies were in need. How else are they supposed to ask? Is there a secret password or tone of voice to be used? They asked. The union asked. The district ignored. The district failed these teachers. If there is success, it is due to these teachers' own money, hard work, and dedication to their profession. I am more angry about this than I can express. The district is not ready to support teachers in a rollout of full decay. They have proven unable or unwilling to dedicate funds, and they have proven unwilling to dedicate support. Not coincidentally, my time is up. Thank you. Janice Scott. Good evening. My name is Jana Scott. I live in Carlsbad
117and I teach kindergarten at Magnolia. Thank you for all of you who were able to visit my classroom recently. Nothing is free. Everything comes at a price. So free child care is the children are going to pay the price when our numbers get a lot larger. And I, since the requested data was taking a bit of time and we were told some of it was missing, and so I'm not sure how to make sense of this report. Neither here nor there. I decided to ask the experts myself. I surveyed my kinder cubs. I started with my early birds. I asked them to think about how we do our reading and writing groups and our math lessons without the late owls here with us. Then I asked them to picture doing these same reading and writing
118groups and math lessons after the late owls get here with all the cubs here together. I asked them to think about both scenarios and then had them close their eyes for a secret vote. They're used to taking secret votes in our cub den, and they know that if you peek, your vote won't count. All 16 voted, then opened their eyes and asked me which way won. I reminded them that neither side won or lost. We were just giving our opinion. Then I said, almost all of you like the way we do our lessons with just the early birds here. The only one who voted for whole class shouted out, I didn't vote for it. And I said, well, I saw that. There were 15 who like the way we do things now, and you were
119the only one who voted the other way. Would you like to share your thoughts about that? He said, sure, and he stood up to speak and said, some of our early bird friends get a little crazy during the math video sometimes, so I thought laid owl time might be better. I said, oh, sweetie, I wasn't asking if you thought early bird or laid owl time would be better. I was asking if learning with just the early birds here or learning with everyone, both early birds and laid owl groups here together, would be better. Suddenly he understood the question and he said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Change my vote. That is way too many cubs. And then he looked right at me and asked, why would you ever do that? That's what
120he asked me. And I just said, I hope we don't have to, sweetie. Because these children know. Oh, my time's up. You'd have to answer that. Lisa DeGore. Hi, I'm Lisa Degore. I'm a teacher at Kelly School. I'm also a resident here in Carlsbad. I didn't know exactly what I was going to speak to, but after seeing the presentation, I just want to say I was very disappointed, the fact that we really don't have data. but you're making a decision based on the fact that you don't have data. If you were to survey my children in an early bird lay down, I'm telling you right now, those numbers would also be in the 90s. They love coming to school. They love everything. So I don't know how we're comparing when only one group was asked.
121It's just disappointing to see how things have been skewed. I really am concerned that I don't think parents understand what this program looks like. We are almost doubling the amount of time a five-year-old is in school. We're expecting five-year-olds to be in school for the same amount of time of children three times their age. 15-year-olds and five-year-olds, big difference. Why are we putting them in school this long? That's disappointing to me. We can do better. We have done better. We have a great program. I don't understand why we are looking to change it. So I just really hope that you, I wrote to all of you. I heard back from two of you. Thank you. Some of my other concerns. When I went to look at Hope's program, Bravo, great job. We are in the
122second semester. I saw plenty of volunteers helping. We cannot base a vote on volunteers to help us implement a program. This new DIBLS that we're doing, it takes five one-minute tests per kindergarten student. That means I'm sitting down for five minutes. Well, I have to explain it and do a sample. So it's really 10 minutes. 10 to 15, actually, because, you know, they see a butterfly or something. So 10 to 15 minutes per child, one-on-one, what are the rest of the children doing? If I have 24 kids in my room, what are 23 children doing while I'm providing the best environment for 10 to 15 minutes? Do you know it's 12 and a half to almost 19 hours of testing a year for this? Shay Snyder. Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm
123Shay Snyders. I'm a parent at Poinsettia Elementary. I have a current kindergarten and a future kindergartner. And I first want to speak on behalf of my family, so I'll keep it small, just our little world. But I hope we keep part-day kinder in Carlsbad Unified. It was a selling point when we bought our house here. Our current model offers small ratio, high support, developmentally appropriate school day for our kids. And really importantly, it offers choice. Parents get to choose what suits their family schedule and their student. So our family was able to choose if we wanted half day, and we have a robust Carlsbad Education Foundation Kinder Care Program for families who want to choose a full day. That power of choice is really important. My friends in Encinitas don't have it. Oceanside doesn't have
124it. It's something special we're offering here in Carlsbad. I don't want to forget that, because parents who think that their five-year-olds aren't ready for the full school day, we like this opportunity to choose this on behalf of our student. Come first grade and beyond, there's no choice left. However, I want to go from just my opinion and my family, and here's my real ask to you. Whatever decision you all make today, ensure that our policies, that's our amazing teachers up for success. I care about my kid, but actually I care about our teachers even more, our community even more. I really, if we go to full day, please provide them with small ratios. I saw on your slide it said 20 to dash 24. That didn't say the word cap. I would like to advocate
125for cap. I also saw that in the data in the survey that many teachers said they wanted a full-time aid. We were a TK family, two teachers, 20 students. It was very, very successful, with parent volunteers as well. I would also like to advocate for a full-time aid if you decide to roll full-time kindergarten. I think it's critically important we have two educators in the room, not just for assessment, but for management. You're getting students enrolling in the school system for the first time, perhaps, and there may be undiagnosed unique needs in that classroom. And aid will provide critical support to those teachers. Right now, it's parent volunteers. We are not qualified for the job. We're willing to do it. We are not qualified. So please provide two qualified educators if you do decide to
126go full-time kindergarten. My time's coming to an end. Thank you so much for thinking critically about this and allowing us a chance to share. Erin Wilson. Hi, my name is Erin Wilson, and I live in Carlsbad, and I'm a kindergarten teacher in Carlsbad. And I've been teaching in the district for over 20 years. and I changed what I was gonna talk about after I saw the slide presentation. So first I want to address class size. I currently have 27 students on my roster during the overlap time, 28 to 30 when the special day class pushes in, which is quite often. Last year I had 29, the year before that I had 32, the year before that I had 30. When I was teaching at Calavera, I had 33, and one year I had 34, which
127is above the state cap. So the average, I have never seen that average in my class size. I secondly want to address instructional minutes. My instructional minutes are not done during my overlap time. I cannot instruct 33 kids. The only instruction my children get is during the early bird and late owl time because I have the small groups and I can address their needs. I can do small reading groups. I cannot do that with a group of 27, 29, 30. Second on the list was talk of community. I've talked to the pilot program teachers and they said they never got to know their students. They did not get a sense of community. They felt like they never knew their students. So the talk of community that you're speaking of is not what they told us.
128Thirdly, structured play. We did ask, I did ask for materials. And we were told that's a want. That's not a need. I was never given blocks. I was never given magnet tiles. I have a plastic kitchen that was donated. These materials are never given to us. And lastly, the data. Dawn Ebbs. I promised you I wasn't going to do this again. I was dragged here by my friends. This doesn't apply to me anymore because I'm not teaching kindergarten. But I feel so strongly, and I feel that that... slideshow was not true. Being a all-day kinder teacher at Hope, I spend so much of my time managing behaviors. That's what I do. Yes, they do know their numbers, but can they sit on the carpet and listen to a book with 20 kids, 21 kids? No,
129like six of them are rolling around. And the books are not magical anymore. They're just not. We cannot do this. We can't. We can't afford it. It's just not in their best interest. I've had so much experience teaching early bird and laid out, and I loved it. And they love it. And the kids love it. Why are we changing it? Don't do it. Don't. Again, it doesn't affect me. I'm teaching third grade next year. but kindergarten it rocks it's beautiful it's a beautiful thing leave it go and Reconsider that thanks, Don Jessica Haslam Good evening. My name is Jessica Haslam and I reside in Carlsbad I am a Carlsbad graduate. I'm a parent in the district and a kindergarten teacher at Magnolia I'm speaking tonight from my own classroom experience, but I know many educators
130in our district share similar concerns. From what I see every day in the classroom, I do not believe a full day is what is best for our youngest learners. These children are five and six years old. They will never be this young again. Even first graders struggle with the length of a full school day. And I know that because I taught first grade at Magnolia. I used to have a little boy who asked me for the first two months of school, am I staying here all day? Yet we're considering asking kindergartners to do that. I do not believe we should design kindergarten around adult schedules. We should design it around what five-year-olds actually need to thrive. I do understand and acknowledge as a working mom that child care is a real challenge for many families,
131but I think we should ask an important question. Should the quality of a child's educational experience be reduced in order to solve a child care problem? Right now, our model allows for small classes, usually 12 to 14 students at a time, that allows me to sit with reading groups of three to four students at their individual levels while the rest of the class works at learning stations. Because the group is small, I can quickly support every child. A couple of weeks ago, Trustee Emery and Dr. Norman visited my classroom during our late owl time. I didn't know they were coming, but I'm grateful they did. At that moment, I was sitting on the carpet with 10 students guiding their journal writing about what they love about their families, and I know they felt the magic
132in our classroom community. That moment captures what our kindergarten program really is. It is intentional, thoughtful. Thank you. Scott Davison. Well, you're going to get a theme from me tonight because my earlier comment was about the lack of evidence for the programs that we're doing in Carlsbad and how that may have negative effects. So the trustees up here and Superintendent Norman know what I'm going to talk about because only you have heard what I'm going to say. So that's why I'm saying it to the public for the benefit of the public. But in the description for this agenda item, it says that research shows that there's a benefit to transitioning to full-day kindergarten. There's no research in the presentation. So I asked Dr. Norman for the research, and I appreciate that she responded without me
133having to send a PRA because that takes weeks. But she sent me three studies, and apparently I'm the only one who read those studies because when you read the studies, they don't actually support what we're actually doing, and they wouldn't actually benefit the kids if we switched to them. So I'm just going to read that for the benefit of the public. There are three studies. One is the Cooper, Allen, Patal, and Dent study, effects of full-day kindergarten. The summary of the study is that the positive academic effects disappear by third grade and that it may lead to more behavioral problems for those kids that were in full day versus half day. The second study, and this is actually the worst one, was the Pitch and Edwards study. It said, it specifically indicated that the primary
134benefit is for class sizes which are 17 or less and have an instructional aid. We're not doing that. We're not doing any of those things. There are some benefits for class sizes between 17 to 24, again, with an instructional aid, and there are few or no benefits for class sizes over 25, which is essentially what we're proposing here. And finally, the third study actually doesn't mention class size. It just summarizes a whole bunch of other studies, and when you go into those studies, they emphasize the need for small class sizes. So I hope that once again, we don't jump headlong into something because the public has cried out and said we want full day kindergarten. As many of you know, I ran for school board in 2022. I knocked on a lot of doors. I
135heard a couple dozen people tell me, why don't we have full day kindergarten? Not a single person told me that they wanted more instructional time for their kids. They just didn't want to have to pay for kids care. So I paid for kids care. I know it's a cost. Maybe we can do scholarships, but we can do better. We can do better because your job is to educate our kids, not to provide them with childcare. Thank you. Okay, trustees, do you have any questions? Any questions? Sure. Trustee Rawlings. Thank you, and thank you for the presentation. I went back and listened to several meetings where this topic has been discussed and this is not the first year or the first five years that this has been discussed. I would say on the LCAP it's been
136mentioned multiple, multiple times over the years. But one of the big questions that was not answered and that we've asked for is how many students transferred from out of a full day or into a half day program or came back to, you know, came into Carlsbad when they were looking to go to a private school. We'd have to go student by student to see their previous school. So what preschool program they came from we have 323 approximately TK students in our program currently as far as transfers into the pilot program We did offer a lottery for the hope and Jefferson programs. There were There was one family who requested out of the pilot school, who inevitably returned to the pilot, changed their mind, and 15 that wanted to go to either Hope or Jefferson for
137the full day. We were only able to honor four of those requests based on space. Follow-up? The other piece was is that we were told back in and Dr. Nye you may have more information on this. We were advised that between 80 and 100 students go to outside kinder if they had to go to a late owl or early bird model. Did a portion of those students return to the pilots or did they remain out or do we know anything about those students? I don't know if they did for the pilot but I can speak to just the longitudinal data. It's about 80 to 100 kids that enter first grade without joining our kindergarten. That has decreased this year and I believe it's due to the expansion of TK. Follow-up? Another follow-up? Go ahead. Do
138we know how much that decreased by? It was like 60, 63. I'll pull the exact number, but it's in the 60s. And a follow-up to that, can you explain what you mean by it's because of TK? Now that TK has expanded to all four-year-olds, there's not a need to go to a different program. They can come straight into our Carlsbad School, which is a benefit to families. That's the impact that I've seen on our numbers from K to first grade over the years. Okay. Thank you. Trustee Verbaugh. Back when my oldest son started school in this district, I recall that Jefferson was running a full-day program at that time. Are any of you familiar with that program, or does it date your time? Jefferson had a full day program. I think that may predate all
139of us. Right. Except me, because I taught it. Oh, there you go. So, great. Trustee Ward then. I just wanted to know if you knew why the program wasn't sustainable, why we didn't continue it. My understanding of it was funding. My understanding at the time. Point of order. That would be during discussion. I can explain it during discussion. Thank you. Trustee Emery. Since one of the things that we were considering as well is, again. in reducing the class size and having the all-day K, what impact that might have to our declining enrollment and being able to keep some of the teachers that we currently have instead of needing to reduce those FTEs. Is that a likely scenario based on the decline that we'll have to decrease some of those? Classroom teachers if we keep the
140model just one benefit one side more than another like does the early bird laid out or the full-time benefit more of those keeping those full-time teachers Yeah, currently for our projections. We're seeing pretty much a flat for kinder We went up a couple kids this year from last year so keeping our current Staffing ratios we are not seeing That we're losing any permanent or probationary staff There may be temporary teachers that don't continue, but not any of our, but those contracts end at the end of each year, but our probationary say the same. The thing that could potentially result in additional FTEs is if there was an increase in enrollment as a result of families not having to seek full-day kinder elsewhere. Trustee Ciosi? Did staff end up getting any concrete information from Carlsbad Educational
141Foundation about what kind of concessions they might be willing to make for families in the event that we stay with the early bird, late owl? Several times that was asked, and the only feedback I've heard back is they're open to that, and that's something they would discuss after the decision was made. Yeah, I think we have regular collaboration with CEF. I'm apprehensive to speak on their behalf. I can tell you that we have had conversations with CEF leadership about the ramifications one way or the other. And what we've been told is that they have plans, contingency plans in place should they see decreased numbers, should a decision be made that leads to decreased numbers in the kids' care. And they think that they have other revenue streams that would offset. that potential loss and then
142should they have, they have existing programs in place currently that support scholarships for families and things like that that would potentially be an avenue to continue down. I think the question that you've asked previously has to do with could there be additional opportunities made available to more families. They do have programs in place to be able to support that at this point. For them it's hard to speak. on their behalf again with regard to what capacity they have to be able to support that. Obviously, they're both running programs through some of their earned income through things like kids care, also donations to cover scholarships or things like that. And I don't know what the status would be necessarily for that. I think that's where some of the feedback we've gotten in talking to their leadership
143is that they'd like to kind of see what the decision is and then be able to make some decisions moving forward. Yes. So the specific reason that I've asked this question over and over is because that could be an alternative means to providing the child care that so many parents are asking for and having that kind of feedback from Carlsbad Educational Foundation would have been helpful for making a decision tonight if we knew that we could tell these parents who are saying this is... Point of order. Is that a question? We're on questions now. She was getting there. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm trying. So I'm asking again if we've ever asked them, would you be willing to make this kind of a concession? Would you be willing to comp these fees? Would you be willing
144to do reduced fees? So yes or no, we have asked them this information. Yeah, so I think again that's a challenge for us. We don't have control over how CEF runs their programming, right? So I think that they they obviously like a lot of nonprofits You know are dealing with you know, whatever they can fundraise whatever they can bring in on a regular basis So we don't have a solid answer to that question nor do they necessarily, I would assume at this point, have a solid answer to what their capacity to do that type of programming would be? Because there's too many unknowns at this point. That's the general feeling that I can convey. Okay, go ahead, Trustee Verba. Follow-up. Could we say then that CEF is going to take loss financially if we go
145to a full-day model? What has been communicated to us is that they feel like, yes, on the kindergarten kids care front, they would take a loss. There would be less demand for that. And they feel like from a programmatic standpoint, they have other revenue sources and that their support for the district programs in general would not decrease. Again, it's hard for me to speak on their behalf, but that has been conveyed to us. Is it a follow-up? Go ahead, Trustee Rawlings. Dr. Barker, are you aware of their financial layout? My understanding was that child care is basically a neutral, a break-even proposition. Do you have any idea if that's true or not? I don't know all the ins and outs. I know that it is part of their earned income revenue stream as opposed to
146they've got kind of two buckets. They've got their earned income such as their summer programs, their summer academy at the high school level, and their kids' care. And then they've got their donation kind of fundraising arm as well. So they use... both of those buckets to both fund their operations as well as provide donations to the district. But I don't know beyond that. We'd have to talk to them specifically about what their specific situation is. So I have a follow-up to that. So can you explain a little bit about the relationship between the district and CEF? Are we here to ensure that they have revenue, or is the foundation here to really support our programs with their funding? They exist. The foundation exists to support our programs with their funding, and again, they do that
147through a couple of different avenues. So we work, I think we have a very productive collaborative relationship in working with them. They try to identify from us what needs might be. They also sometimes have needs and priorities that they're interested in, and they have, for example, they have funders that they can get donations from that are interested in certain programs. And so there's definitely a give and take, but their reason for being is to support district programs, yes. Okay, thank you. Any follow-up to that? Go ahead, Trustee Verbeck. So we could ask another organization to come in and provide child care. Is that correct? Yeah. Yes, we choose to go through CEF. But I do think the focus needs to remain on the program we're offering for our kindergartners. As a former parent, I'm still
148a parent, former kindergarten parent, we all figure it out, and we want to be here, and I appreciate Trustee Seosi caring about the child care portion, absolutely, because that is a big part of the kinder, but keeping our focus on the program that we think is best for our students. Follow-up go ahead trustee wrong and I had asked this question in advance as well And it was asked in January as well as in March and it still hasn't been answered what percentage of students are participating in in CF childcare Before the early I'm sorry before the late owl and after the early bird 57% of our total kindergartners across the district are accessing kids care through CEF. Go ahead. Do we have that broken down by site? I know we had talked about that. Yes.
149Can you elaborate? Yes. At AOE, it's 64%. Buena Vista is 59%. CHE is 53%. Kelly is 77%. Magnolia is 65%. Pac Rim is 62%. Poinsettia is 70%. Hope and Jefferson are the full-day pilots. But they still access the extended day care, so into 530 when they close. I have a follow-up to that. Okay. Not to stay on the focus of Kids Care and CEF, but they provide kids care for the entire school, right? All of the students, not just kinder. So they receive funding from all of the students that are in the school that are accessing kids care at CEF? Yes. Okay. You wouldn't happen to have that percentage, would you? Okay. I should have asked that before. Any follow-up to that? Okay, I have another question. So I really, I understand that there are
150different stakeholders that are involved in this decision. And I also understand the state of the economy right now and the impacts it has on our families. And when there's hardships on families, there's hardships on our students as well. And that is concerning to me, especially our most sensitive populations like our disadvantaged youth. You had stated in one of your slides, slide six. And I want to kind of focus on the students for a moment here. You have a couple bullets in there. It states, strong early foundations help prevent gaps with focus on high-quality Tier 1 instruction. Reading risk screener and redesigned literacy content blocks. You have another one on there, the goal by the end of third grade, every student is reading and learning at grade level. So I'll tell you, I've been struggling with
151this whole decision, so I've been doing a lot of deep dives. into this and looking at a lot of research behind all of this as well as talking to a lot of people. Can you share with me a little bit about those two points that you're making and like kind of let us know more about how that effectively supports students? Sure. So the background of this slide is that there's change happening in California. And so these initiatives become law, become part of our ed code. So most recently, we adopted the reading risk screener as part of this literacy task force with the California goal that students are reading by third grade, which means we have to reduce those gaps. early on because the older they get the more they're missing the more those gaps widen
152and it's challenging to provide phonics instruction to fill those gaps when a student is in fourth fifth sixth grade and so the focus is we've got to start with early intervention and so the redesign of the literacy content blocks is helping Providing a framework for teachers to provide that phonics centered literacy instruction which we've provided a supplemental material for our teachers in you fly and Hagerty So that we're addressing those needs So that they are prepared and and learning and that reading risk screener is to catch those So that we can provide targeted intervention if they're not on pace to do so I think a little bit, but let me follow up with that. So I know the DIBELS is an inaccurate projection of the data. I wish that didn't happen this year. However, I
153did look back at the CBM data as well, and it reflectively, when you're looking at the CBM and the DIBELS data, they kind of roll out the same way. Am I accurate? stating that? They're similar. They're short tests of the foundational early literacy skills. Yes. They're just measured differently. Okay. Another follow-up to that. Is it accurate to say, my understanding right now, especially within California, there's a big initiative around the science of reading, and that's mostly because there are a lot of concerns at the foundational levels of elementary school, TK being one of them, and that's why we have TK, and kindergarten. And so that initiative has really pushed forward. the science of reading, phonemic awareness, and phonics. Do you feel like the full day program benefits that initiative to ensure that students can have
154that stronger foundation with the science of reading, kind of that initiative? Yes, so I'll answer the first part first. With the science of reading, California did pass into law that they would overhaul their teacher preparation programs. So they will start to... train practicing teachers in the science of reading and districts kind of have to play catch-up in that in ensuring that we're providing our instruction aligned with the science of reading. Now more time in the day does not necessarily mean that we want to push more academics and more academics because as referenced by one of the studies Those interventions can wane and students can lose motivation to be in school if they are having this heavy load at a young age. So we want to ensure that it's developmentally appropriate. That extended day and the
155play-based instruction allows for those skills. The oral language is huge, especially in kindergarten. Practicing vocabulary, hearing a story, responding to questions, it does allow for more time to extend that instruction in a way that's not. heavily academic but more engaging and developmentally appropriate. So that will benefit your multilingual learners? Absolutely, yes. Any follow-up? Any questions? Trustee Emery? This might, I'm going to get there, but give me a moment. I've also been doing a lot of reading and talking. We've received a lot of emails. I've spoken personally with kindergarten teachers and I just I feel like missing something because there is a huge gap between groups, between parents, between teachers. I have spoken to numerous teachers and we've gotten emails that are both for, very for, and very against. Can you explain more? I have certainly
156spoken to more teachers and received more emails than that 18% favorable. So can you speak more to, on slide 18, that 18% favorable? Like how many teachers out of how many responded? And what possibilities there are around the bookends, you know, of the TK and the first grade, why they are so favorable to it when, you know... group of them aren't because that's not even 50% so did everyone respond you know speak more to those numbers if you would sure not everyone responded one and there were a handful of responses in the neutral so the choices were strongly support somewhat support neutral somewhat I don't know what that was somewhat opposed and Strongly opposed. So we did have, when we're looking at favorability, we're only pulling from the strongly support and somewhat support group. So
157there were responses in the neutral for that. And I would have to look up exactly how many. Do we know how many of those kindergarten teachers, you know, percentage responded compared to like the TK in the first grade to kind of offset those numbers? and maybe some possibilities of why some didn't respond? The highest response came from our kindergarten teachers and our first grade teachers in the number of responses received compared to how many are in that group. We had less with the other support staff, which included ed specialists, principals, and they were all kind of clustered together. The first grade support largely comes from the fact that And you heard from one of the speakers, it's their kind of first experience in a full day. So when they start school, they're not ready for
158a full day. They're tired at the end of the day. And so the hope is that they build that stamina in kindergarten so they can hit the ground running in first grade. Follow up to that? Go ahead, Trustee Ciosi. Do you have those numbers broken out so we're only reflecting the kindergarten teachers and not influenced by the first grade teachers? Because I think their feedback is going to be different. Yeah, so I just pulled up the survey. There were 22 responses from kindergarten teachers specifically, with 17 opposing or strongly opposing, one in the neutral. and four, supporting or strongly supporting. Trustee Rawlings? Thank you. And how many kindergarten teachers do we have in the district? 25. Okay. And with first grade as well, how many responded and then how many do we have? Among our
159first grade teachers, we had 13 responses. One was strongly opposed and... 12 were supported, two supported, and 10 strongly supported. So it was a 92% favorability among those 13 teachers that replied. And how many first grade teachers do we have in the district? There are between 25 to 27 first grade teachers. Is it a follow-up or new question? Okay. It's somewhat of a follow-up. So, excuse my voice. On Friday, I asked five kindergarten teachers that I saw to teach half-day at Buena Vista and three I sat with at Jefferson full-day. And I asked them the same question. Are you in favor of full-day kindergarten? And they said, yes, but if we are at 20 to 1, what will it cost the district? to run full-day kindergarten at 20 to 1 with an aide because I
160think that's what parents also want. According to my current staffing numbers, it would be to go 20 to 1 would be five additional teachers. So that would be about, again, this is just an average because our salaries will range, but about $530,000. And then an instructional aid for each class would run $55,000 per aid. It's 25 kinders. And it was a little over a million, but I can't get the exact amount. And that doesn't include supplies? No. So 1.4 for instructional aid is one per class, one per kinder class. And that's just for teachers and one aid. Correct. So follow up to that. Are you done? Sorry. So follow up to that. You know, I think it was Lisa DeGore that kind of mentioned about testing students, kindergartners. It takes a long time. She is
161not wrong about that. And I would say the younger they are, the longer time it takes. And it does take a lot of work, and that is true. You know, I think if it's we want quality teachers and we want quality teaching done, and we have great teachers and I know they can do that, but it can be really hard. Sometimes it could be one student that can make it really hard sometimes. And so I guess what I'm wondering is with the aid question, I think what you're sharing is a six-hour aid cost. Am I correct about that? Correct. Okay. So when I was a principal, we had full-day kinder, but we had a shared aid that was during our most heavy time. And looking at your schedule, it looks like your specials time, you
162know, you have recess. You also have the exploratory time where you might not need an aid. However, you might during your heaviest instructional time. At that cost, what could that be? Is this where you're sharing an aid at the site? We had that on one of our previous slides under potential fiscal impacts. We have an estimated cost of $207,000. That would be one per school, and they would be a four-hour position. Okay. So they could support each class for, because I had three classes, and then the shared aid would be in their most heavy instructional time for like an hour. So, okay. And so that would be for four hours? Yes. If we increase, then we add benefits. Right. If you went to six hours. Okay. Is there a follow-up? Go ahead. Thank you. On
163slide 24. Do any of these districts, and I want to add in there Solana Beach, because I think you did contact Solana Beach as well. Do any of these districts offer aids? I believe we saw in Escondido and Vista, and there were title fundings that supported in that, and those are the only ones I recall. I spoke to the superintendent in Sanitas. Two of their schools have the model that Trustee Ward described, and that's funded by PTA. And I was in Power Unified, so. Yes. Follow up. With the, when it comes to these districts and the other that you've talked to, Solana Beach and that sort of thing, what have they... I guess, how have they funded some of it? I'm sorry, that wasn't my question. Are these averages or are these caps? I see
164some caps, but then averages. So are they hard caps or are they site caps when you talk about a cap? If it has cap, that's how it was written in their contract. But most of them followed the K-3, the GSA average without a cap. And that's a district-wide or a site-wide? Site-wide. Thank you. Trustee Verba. Thank you. So somewhat of a follow-up to AIDS. I've been a parent in the school district for a long time. I raise money for PTA. I know our school district relies heavily on our parents to help fund things in the classroom, but I don't think it's fair. And when it comes to instruction time, I think we need to provide quality instruction like Trustee Ward is saying, and we can't be relying on parents. Now, in my visit to Buena
165Vista, no parent volunteers. In my visit to Jefferson, no parent volunteers. In my visit to Hope, round-the-clock volunteers, right? Kelly School. Volunteers it just depends on which site you're at. We cannot rely on parent volunteers. They are not real one of order well my question that is Is the district going to pay attention to this that we can't rely it's not equitable across the district So will the district step up and pay for instructional aides whether you know it? they're all going to have these schedules, right, that you're providing. Are you going to stagger when math is and when English is so that you could rotate? Or what's it going to look like? Because I think people would like to know. I'd like to know. Well, it would be a bargainable item that we would
166work with the union and get their input on the needs. Follow-up to that. But that's also something that, as a board, when we look at our LCAP, we can also look at where we can have funding for aids for kindergarten teachers. Is that accurate? Yes, that could be a part of the LCAP conversation as well. I think as it relates to, to reiterate what Ms. Arias is saying, I do think the implementation of the program. dependent there are aspects of the implementation the program that are dependent upon bargaining and so it's you know we want to be careful to partner with our our teacher partners to kind of lay out what that's going to look like but yes as it relates to expenditures and thinking about how to impact the needs that we identify in
167the district that's certainly part of the LCAP conversation that we'll have in a variety of ways coming up Is this a follow-up? Okay, go ahead. Can you explain how it's bargainable for a district to decide how they want to run their operation as far as adding aides or specific class size so long as it follows the contract? So in terms of aids because it's going to depend on also the number of student contacts that they have so if they're looking to Want to use an aid to help reduce that so they can work in small groups So they could be saying that's either something they feel like is needed or is not needed So I think with the purpose of that it's just the importance of sitting down and hearing from our partners what they
168feel would be important and getting that input before just making that final decision so we can hear from them what's needed. Go ahead. Thank you. Well, that's different than bargainable. Then that's bargaining. So what I'm hearing you say is that if the district decided to prioritize putting an aide in a classroom or having 20 to 20 students in a classroom, we have every right to do that and we don't have to bargain that with the union, correct? Our class size, we do have class size in the contract. It is a district-wide average, a district ratio of 32 to 1. So doing something to, you know, reduce those numbers, we would not be violating the contract. But we have the managerial district right to do that, correct? If this board says this is what we want,
169we're allowed to go under. the average within the contract, correct? And or at an aid, just like we did intervention teachers, just like we did MTSS teachers. We're allowed to make those decisions without, under the Public Employment Relations Board, correct? We wouldn't be violating the contract, but again, we'd like to work with and bargain the impacts with the teachers in case they felt that number was different. if we picked a number and they felt they needed a different number because we still need to sit down and it does impact their their work with that decision so we want to still bargain with them go ahead trustee cosi can you explain to the parents in the community Why we are not discussing class size caps as they requested repeatedly and why this is something that we're
170referring to as a bargainable thing because people in education may understand what you're saying but I think the families that are saying yes we want full day but we want a cap of 20 students we've heard it over and over and over again. That's not the discussion we're having this evening. I think I can explain a little bit. So with CAPs, they're very restrictive. If we have a 20 to 1 CAP and a certain teacher allocation, you know, the question is, do any new enrollments go to another school? Do we open another class? And, you know, let's say we're at 81 students. What do we do with that one student? And so then we're looking at combos or potentially having... maybe not being as fiscally responsible and having very small classes because we needed to
171maintain that cap and so we do want a little bit of flexibility for the principals when they get their staffing allocations to be able to look at the needs of the cohort because every cohort is different sometimes you have you know a first grade that has some high behavioral needs and as a leadership team you discuss and maybe want to have some smaller class size there or reduce a combo. Maybe you have a staff that is like, I'll have higher class sizes, but I don't want a combo. And so when you put a cap, it restricts the principal in having autonomy to make some of those decisions with their leadership team. We also like to work with our associations on, rather than having a hard cap, the what-if scenario. Let's say we have that one
172extra student. How do we compensate the teacher then? And that's something you would work out with your association rather than just making a mandate. I also think it's really important as we're just going into our second year of basic aid to be really fiscally responsible that... As you mentioned, if we put an aid in every classroom, that's over a million dollars right there. You extrapolate that over three years. You're putting that in your MYP and your out years also, which impacts then everything else in the district that we can potentially offer, including compensation. So we're just trying to be thoughtful in making sure that we're being fiscally responsible as we roll out this program. Follow-up? Okay. Go ahead. Now you can ask it, Amory, Trustee Amory. Sorry. I'm wondering and some of this is because
173You won't 100% know, but is it more, and trying to disseminate through the emails and the conversations and all that, is it more, and this is purely a feeling, because I know not everyone can speak here who might have more information, is it a feeling that full day is the problem, or is it the numbers? Like if there was still the same numbers, not saying that that's an issue, that was an early bird, late owl. Is it more of the numbers or is it more the full day? Or would you say it's 50-50 from the conversations you've had? Because those are two completely different issues that intertwine. But, you know, as someone who sent their child to full day, you know, who also had low numbers, I can understand. But, you know, how do we
174tease that out? And have we been able to at all? Director Fuentes may know better than I do, but anecdotally, I'd say it's a little bit of both. We've definitely gotten feedback on both of those items. And I know we had a question about, you know... come in about would one or the other make a difference? And I think that depending on one's point of view, we've heard sort of both of those feelings. We heard it tonight. We heard about class sizes. We heard some of our families talk about just the full day itself. So I think depending on one's experience and viewpoint on that, there's kind of a mix of feelings there. Do you agree with that? I have a question, unless somebody has a follow-up. Okay. So right now, my understanding is with
175the grade span average that we prioritize first grade because they're receiving students from a half-day program. So since we're prioritizing first grade, your averages in first grade are typically lower. So how will that change? if kinder went to full day will you prioritize kinder so that their class sizes are smaller inside of that grade span average of K through three in speaking with principals and both of the principals on the pilot principal Cobb and principal Gurgurich have shared their experience and you know, we want a smooth transition if this is to roll out and we really need to prioritize the effectiveness of a manageable ratio. Now we're operating still within our staffing allocation but the goal would be to prioritize kindergarten for that smooth rollout and again manageable class sizes. And when you say manageable
176classes, what are you saying? Well, I can't give a number because there's an average, but I will say that most of our classes are within 20, 22. Our pilot classes right now range from 19 to 22 students, which is fairly small considering. they can go up to 24. So follow up to that because we heard a teacher speak tonight about a bigger number than that. And from my school visits, I also learned that that's not completely accurate and that the class sizes were much bigger for kindergarten. For a half day or full day? Half day. The half day classes are larger, typically in kindergarten. So I think this year the highest is 28 students. But then their first grade is lower. So when you look at the average across K-3, because it's a half day
177and those cohorts have that small group instruction, kindergarten classes are oftentimes loaded because of the ratio there. So tell me why we do that, because we also heard from a teacher that said. there are no instructional minutes happening in the middle of the day when all of the students are there and that that's we don't want that to happen because there should be instructional minutes happening there right so why why is that happening well there are instructional minutes and it's about what kind of instruction is provided during that time I think that's what she meant. Yeah, in the half-day model, oftentimes that's when your whole class comes in. You do some carpet time, calendar. Typically, you'll have a recess together. And then I believe all the kindergarten specials are during that overlap time. So they'll
178go to music or library, STEAM. Whatever specials each site has to offer so since the kinder's are higher within that grade span average at the school that that teachers from How small are the first grade classes? If they're prioritized I'd have to look I want to say they're probably 20. I'm not sure I can look that up for you. Okay If they're overlapped during that time with the specials and you know, they're going essentially 28 kids in that, how are those, have those teachers been asked, you know, who have, you know, the music and PE, are they having struggles with that many? Or is that, I'm sorry, are they having trouble with that many kids? Or is that, were they asked about, you know, the difference in programming? The specials teachers were not asked. I
179know we watched a music class when we went to a site visit at Jefferson. And again, sometimes it's the classroom management and how a teacher establishes that for their class. kindergarten's unique. We also watched a kindergarten class in the library and there are a lot of movement breaks needed and so part of that is just the professional development of understanding how to manage that age level. Follow-up? Yes. Go ahead. So would you say that specials don't require the same amount of focus as an instructional time focused on reading? Or math? Like you're banging a drum or ringing a bell or going to pick out a book or running around doing P.E.? Is it different? STEAM? It's different. P.E. is outdoors and they're running around. That's different from sitting at a table and focusing on writing.
180Music and steam and art tend to be a little more hands-on and oftentimes preferred, so sometimes the focus is also there a little bit more. Any follow-up to that? I had a question. I do have follow-up that I've been waiting for. So as we shift, if we were to go to full day and this shift takes place where we prioritize lowering class size in kindergarten where we haven't been doing it currently because we've been lowering first grade, what would those class sizes look like? I know it varies per site, but what would that first grade class size range? And I have a follow-up. So after you answer this, I have a follow-up. Thank you. It's hard to answer because... It's, you're looking at four grades, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade. And so
181again, principals look at their cohorts, and sometimes you have a tiny cohort of students next to a larger, and it's challenging. You're either looking at a combo class or having a grade level with a higher number of students. It it doesn't come in a perfect package and so it really depends on the numbers and what their staffing allocation is to meet that average So typically are we around 20 to 24 in first grade on the average in our district? So could that bump up to 28 if we kept kinder small? I believe that principals would also try to prioritize first grade. I mean, if you're getting up to the 28 in another grade level and not looking at a combo, then we're potentially getting close to needing another FTE. And so I know they work
182with Ms. Arias on looking at their staffing allocation. Okay, so one more follow-up, please. Yes. So question regarding our first grade teachers who were surveyed. Were they asked, are you for a full-day kindergarten with the knowledge that they might have an increased class size? That question was not specifically asked. Thank you. Follow-up? Go ahead. Thank you. and I asked you this before, I'm not sure if you have the information, do we know how many of our kindergarten students are coming from an organized preschool or a TK or a larger childcare when they come into our kindergarten program? I can say that 323 are coming from our TK program. We'll be matriculating into our kinder program for next year. Oftentimes they do come from some program. We have a number around here. I don't know the
183exact number and where they're coming from exactly. Okay. I asked a question about students that are mainstreamed. And it was shared with me that what I asked was, explain to me, okay, what I wanted to know is if a student is mainstreamed in a gen ed class, from my experience, we would leave a seat open in the gen ed roster. for the student that is mainstreamed into that class. So the gen ed teacher doesn't have higher numbers, right? So we're not just adding more students and then on top of that they have the mainstream students. What was shared with me was we have a side letter agreement in place. This year with CUDA that states elementary students who receive special education services whose IEP indicate 50% or more of the academic day and course subjects
184in general education classroom shall be considered when determining district staffing allocations. So does that mean, am I understanding this correctly? Does that mean that when students who are mainstreamed 50% or more of the time in a gen ed class that they will be accounted for by reserving a space for them on the general education teachers roster? So what I do is the principal will sit down with the case managers and create a template with their IEPs, the subject areas, provide that data to me. I then take the number of students that meet that criteria, and I plug them into the certificated staffing dashboard as a general ed student. And then I make a note of it of how many students. We added in based on that and so that results in Potentially a higher FTE
185that's calculated into that average the staffing our average Okay, so so we are accounting for those students on a teachers roster Currently correct in in terms of their gen ed numbers if they meet that criteria then yes I plug them into our general ed staffing dashboard That's how the principals get staffed based on the general ed numbers Okay, and so I add them right in and that impacts the the FTE Okay, follow-up. Okay. Go ahead trustee Emory. I hear the concerns that And we had requested, and I know there's been a lot of change and shift in leadership during this time from the first request of a pilot to make sure that our teachers feel fully supported so that we can do the best we possibly can. And it sounds like we missed the mark
186in some areas. So if we were to go forward with this, what would be the plan to make sure that the... Teachers, therefore the students, by default there, would be best equipped to engage in this program moving forward should we choose to move that way. Well, as was shared in our presentation, a pilot helps to illuminate what we don't necessarily know. Part of that were the needs that were shared And so having lived that experience through a pilot I think our eyes are a little more open to what those needs are going into a full day Rollout or a full district-wide rollout I'm working with the kindergarten teachers and we started the work with the task force to create that list of essential materials So that we can be prepared for purchasing July 1st when
187we place our orders and have materials roll out for the classroom. This will require some additional curricular materials, but we also want to make sure that we are vetting and providing of standardized play-based instructional materials that serve as supplements. So it's not a free-for-all, but that we do have a standard that stays within that kindergarten class. And then if we need to add another class, we kind of have that standard ready. I think the pilot has helped us to see those needs. Follow-up? Go ahead, Trustee Rawlings. Thank you. And I've been talking about this since I've been on the board, and you, I'm sure, as my son's principal, I know you probably remember this as well. To my knowledge, are we going to make those same commitments to all elementary school teachers that we're going
188to make sure that they have the supplies and materials in their classroom and not ask teachers to take money out of their own pocket or parents to fulfill supply lists in K through 5? Yes, and as a former principal, it is really challenging to prevent teachers from creating wish lists. And, you know, we're working to really streamline all of that through our stores so our admin assistants can check in with teachers to see what are those required supplies and materials you need and have those on order. But yes, having a standard for every grade level. And we do in terms of curriculum and the materials. In terms of the ancillary things that maybe PTA or wish lists are supplying, we have some work to kind of see what are those needs and are they standard
189across the district or are they site specific? I have a follow up to that. I agree with Trustee Rawlings. But with the new program, we want to, if it were to happen, I would want the kinder teachers to be set up for success. So I have a few questions for you, that being one of them. Can we, you know, when we're looking at the LCAP as a board, we can probably allocate these funds. But to make sure that they have... the supplies for the play-based learning and what they need to set themselves up for a full day. So we can allocate that, yes, correct, to start that program off? Yes, that was part of our planning and fiscal considerations. Okay. And another question. So also within the LCAP, we can decide on the aid support
190too, right, the funding for that. Is that accurate, Dr. Nye? That can certainly be part of that conversation as we're going through the ELCOT process, yes. And then how can the board ensure that we are truly prioritizing kindergarten to ensure that their class sizes are low? I think we all share in the sentiment that... you know, if this rolls out, we want it to be a success. And we're here for the student and the student experience. Now, the first touchpoint are our teachers. And so, again, it's about listening and gathering that feedback. We have a meeting coming up in April with our kindergarten lead teachers. So depending on this decision, we can make some of those choices and gather that feedback. As a principal team, I meet with our principals monthly, and we need to
191make a commitment and decide on those commitments. One of those has to do with the DIBELS testing. So for our pilot schools... We had our principals provide a full-day sub for our teachers so that they could pull their students one-on-one while the sub covered their class and that helped to manage that assessment load and that's something that we would look to roll out district-wide. So again, our principals in their leadership capacity in overseeing these pilots have gathered those lessons learned for that smooth transition. In addition to that, I just wanted to add it. It comes in a form that the public doesn't always see because what happens is we engage with our labor partners. They put in requests for what their class sizes might be. We come back to the board during closed session when
192we're going through negotiations, and then we receive guidance from the board on what they would like to see implemented. And that's the process where we're working with our labor partners and then working with the board. But then that also has to transition to the reflection in the budget to make sure that... what everybody's talking about and wanting can actually come to fruition with our budget. So what I'm hearing you say then is that as a board, we can make that decision when you come back to us after it's negotiated with the union. Is that accurate? If we can afford it, yes. Okay. And that's something that Dr. Nye could probably provide some insight on when we go over the LCAP. Yes. Trustee Rawlings. Thank you. Since you brought it up, I'm going to ask you,
193if we're expecting employees to meet certain standards, aren't we obligated to provide them with the supplies and materials? And it's not a matter of if we can afford it, but it's like we have to do it if we're going to have the expectation. I was just really referring to class size and potential FTEs. absolutely agree with you that we should have a standard and we should be working with our teachers on what they need in their classrooms 100 but this was really about the ftes because that's the the materials are not nearly as impactful to the budget as when you get into multiple ftes for example what ms arias shared with five teachers is is close to six hundred thousand dollars and then you multiply that out in your myp and that's that's a big
194impact on the budget so we need to consider that Is this a follow-up? Yes. Go ahead. So we've heard from several teachers that they've made requests, and they haven't been able to get them. They've been told those are wants and they're not needs. So how do we differentiate between wants and needs? The typical process is you get together a work group, and the work group that represents the teachers would create that then. It doesn't necessarily come from us. We're absolutely the curriculum, but when you come to your ancillary, or I've done this in other districts where I've done standardized furniture, standardized play centers, theater, puppets, you name it, because I've done a full-day kinder program before as transitioning from early bird. laid out and it really came from the teachers and curating the list there.
195Go ahead, Trustee Rawlings. Would that apply to all teachers to ensure that they all have the materials and supplies that they need in order to be successful and to meet the standards of the district? I think I would echo what Ms. Fuentes says that yes, that's our goal. Today's goal is different. Today we're focusing on kinder, but I do absolutely agree with you. Trustee for Beth this is different. It's not a follow-up. Is that okay? Yeah. All right In one of my recent visits to hope which has our full day program I Took some time to watch the children eating their snack at a break and I hung out with one of the teachers who's with the special ed kids and Her comment to me really struck me And it struck me because when my
196kids went through early bird, late owl, and I was a room mom, we were exposed to the kids who were mainstreamed who came in, and our kids became buddies with those kids. The comment that she made was the class sizes are too big and overstimulating. We can't push in. It's not inclusive anymore. Can you speak to that, please? Our goal is to have inclusive classrooms and to ensure that there are mainstream opportunities. And there are some adjustments that need to be made, maybe in the time that is mainstreamed and really focusing on the IEP and what is driving the need for mainstream and kind of... Providing those opportunities. So I know this particular class had was a large class size in general for an SDC class and There are some scheduling challenges that we would
197need to work out and we can certainly work with our program specialists to ensure that students are getting what they need and it's a mutual benefit to Our students in SDC and our general ed students Did you have a question or a follow-up? Okay, and then I'm after you. One of the things when we first brought this pilot that I had kind of asked for is to think outside the box a little bit, not just, you know, kind of adopt a full-day model like every other district is doing, which I think a lot of them work very well. So if we're going to do something different, you know, how to make it uniquely Carlsbad at the same time. And I'm wondering, you know, I like the... idea of, you know, having aid support. I like
198the idea of pushing subs for those testing models. I like the idea of the lower class sizes, you know, but along with that, what about, you know, that the The four-week push and start and, you know, in eight weeks, has there been, you know, conversations on that? Is there ever a possibility of doing early bird, late owl, and full day at one site? You know, what other kinds of things are we not thinking of that maybe need to be hashed out a bit? We discussed with our kindergarten task force and that was part of the purpose of gathering all these partners together to discuss and you know we're we're trying to think on all angles and there were some teachers who were like Just rip off the band-aid just start on day one You know
199they need to get into the routine and it it's helpful and there's some that wanted more of that gradual rollout All in all, the task force decided, you know, when we looked at the models that were six weeks long, it was just too much. And they just wanted to. get all their kids together and jump in and start seeing what it was going to be like with the whole class start those management because you're almost doubling up on your management like you're doing it with the Half day and a small group, but then once all of them are together you kind of have to start over And so there are some pros and cons to that rollout ultimately there are some benefits to being able to kind of slow roll it which is what we
200see in first grade you know they kind of need some free time in the afternoon because they're not quite ready for a full day and so that's essentially what we provided in that rollout but again that decision was driven by the task force about what length of time that needed to be we also wanted to consider you know, our siblings. And if parents are coming for six weeks to pick up, you know, their kindergartner and there's no other child care, do they have to grab their siblings because they can't make two trips? So there were some concerns for our family community as well. Isn't that what they're doing now in the early bird, late owl model though? They are, but they have kids care. So you think that if it was a six-week, eight-week push
201out, there would not be kids care during those times? We would have to work with CEF to see how we could provide a short-term program, which might be challenging for them getting staff for a short amount of time. Go ahead. Back in... January we were provided with a sample extended day schedule and it included exploratory team time from 1 45 to 2 Did that time get redistributed somewhere for and what was that for for the? When the the students I believe the students would be gone at 2 and then there was the 6 or I'm sorry at 1 45 and then there's this exploratory team time So that is like the inquiry tubs. So it's center time essentially with the students. So it's like a 15-minute kind of end-of-the-day wrap-up. So it's student time. It's
202not teacher time. Follow-up? Go ahead. Because when we were putting this together, and to Trustee Emery's point that doing things a little bit different, that... We were told that we were going to go extended day, extended day, extended day, and then both of the programs are full day. So when did that happen and why did it happen? That was a decision made in the task force because, again, they had concerns with pickup. So for siblings, if parents would just, you know. grab their kids half an hour early. They wanted to match the first through fifth grade schedule. So we decided to do that match. Now Jefferson decided to stagger a little bit. So they start 10 minutes earlier, get out 10 minutes. Yeah, earlier at dismissal so that they can get kinder traffic through before
203the first through fifth grade. So again, there's some autonomy that each site needs to have in terms of looking at their scheduling, but the general consensus of our task force was that we match the schedule. Trustee Emory? Yeah, I don't believe my full question was answered, so let me ask again. With the possibility of having an early bird, late owl, and a full day at one site. concurrently happening has that been explored at all it was not explored and it would be our recommendation to have a unified kindergarten schedule so explain why I can. I've consulted legal on this also. And we've looked at it different ways. If you were to phase it in across the district at different times, if you were to have full day at some sites and not at others, there
204would be a concern that some families don't then have access to the same instructional program that's offered at other sites. And so we wouldn't be able to provide transportation either, and that puts a burden on families. We'd have to... create a whole structure for choice. We really want the most cohesive program. Then we also have to work with our labor partners in that. And then we're working on two different types of kinder schedules. So we really feel it's in the best interest, especially if you have two different programs at one site. You could easily have one program fill up and maybe your early bird late owl doesn't fill up and wants into the full day or vice versa. It creates a bit of a kindergarten. Nightmare for a principal to try to staff and not
205not I'm sorry not staff I apologize but to really make our families happy Because has a principal at the elementary setting it's hard enough sometimes to balance your requests for early bird and late owl and Sometimes you just are asking them to be patient eventually somebody wants to swap and you can make it make it happen But we don't see that that would be the best approach Follow up to that though, but you could do it We could do anything. And can I point of order? Do we need to make a motion to extend the meeting? Yes. Can I have a motion to extend the meeting? So moved. Motion. Second, you mean? Second. Okay. So motion by Trustee Emery, second by Trustee Verbath. I'll call for vote. Oh, yes. Trustee Rawlings? Yes. Trustee Verbath? Yes.
206Trustee Cossie? Yes. Trustee Emery? Yes. Trustee Ward? Yes. Motion passes 5-0. And we're going to take a break after you. Okay. So if you want to finish up. I think that was it. Oh. Did you have a question then, Trustee for Beth? Okay. After Trustee for Beth, we'll take a break. So it's a follow-up to what Dr. Norman was just saying, that we run into this kind of nightmare with satisfying parents, but we just ran a pilot. at two sites and we managed it, right? We did, yeah. Right? I think if you have two different programs on one site, that gets even more complicated. So my question then is, could we run two sites as full day? So a lot of the data shows that our low socioeconomic groups, our English language learners, they're benefiting
207a lot. And we hear this from the teachers in full day. particularly at Jefferson, that they're benefiting from having that exposure to the English language. So could we run two full-day programs at two sites and leave our early bird-laid owl at other sites? You could. You do run the risk, though, of potential complaints for families who then don't have the same access to full-day programs that are offered at other sites. That's just a potential that our legal shared with us. But are those families? making their way to Jefferson and Hope right now? Are those families, or are those, the families that are attending Jefferson and Hope, are they from those communities, or are they coming from other areas of Carlsbad Unified? I'd have to defer to Ms. Fuentes. We were only able to honor four
208requests for transfer this year because we wanted to ensure that the homeschool was available for all the students within that resident boundary. So it was limited. And I also want to add, we have to be very cautious because we have some specialized programs on certain sites. And so... You know, if we have a program, a student in the autism program at Kelly who wants to be full day but full day is not offered, we have to provide access to that. And so, but we don't have that same program on another site. So there are some complications with our special programs. Follow-up to that. So not all ELs are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Am I correct about that? Yes. Okay. And then every school site from the numbers that you shared has socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Am I correct
209about that? Yes. Okay. And all schools have English language learners or multilingual learners? Yes. Is that correct? Yes. And we have, and all schools have special education students or students with special needs. Is that accurate? Yes. And we're going to go ahead and take a break now. So we'll be back at 10.05. We are back. And did we have any questions? Other questions? Trustee Rawlings. Thank you. On several occasions when this topic has been brought up in the past, and I do know it's on slide. I believe 11. One of the barriers is facilities. So can you help me to understand what the facilities issue may or may not be and which sites may have facilities and or operations, especially if we're looking at, let's say an average of 20, average of 22, if that's
210what we're looking for, what kind of facilities issues. May we have or not have and what has changed from the past conversations around facilities to now for this program? I think facilities is always a consideration and as we look at our different programs the different specials schools offer How class sizes fluctuate and cohorts move through the grade levels as we add counselors, you know they all need a room. And so we would prioritize the facilities for classroom space. So that might mean some flexibility. However, when we looked at our projections, we don't see that we would need any added classrooms at this time. There are some sites that are tight for space. but they also might have a cohort exiting that might leave space available. So it fluctuates year to year. Just to just to
211add to that to be clear what we were looking at was considering the needed FTEs full-time teachers at the at the 24 to 1 GSA and and with our current numbers we would not require additional teachers meaning that the classroom space that we currently have in play would be adequate in future years and Number one, can you identify the sites that are going to be tight and that sort of thing? And the other piece, when we talk about facilities for kinder, you have to have a bathroom in the room and those types of things. And that was, it was discussed at... different sites that those might be a concern. So I'd like to know what those sites are or which sites. And when you talk about a 24 GSA, we've heard some discussion around 20
212or 22. That's one of the slides. Do we have the facilities in order to do that? I'm just not talking FTE, but also talking the specific facilities for Kinder. Sure. So a couple questions in there. We can operate a kindergarten class in a standard classroom. The law is that any new facilities that are built require that larger space in a bathroom. So we're fine in terms of the classrooms we can operate in. This year, again, there are some schools that come to mind. I know Kelly's using every room. AOE is using every room. But that doesn't mean we can't shift and use potentially double up learning center providers or speech pathologists or if there's an art room, we can put art on a cart and they push into classrooms instead. So there's some flexibility. We
213just have to look at the classroom space and make those decisions. Go ahead. Thank you. And then. So when we're talking about the potential of this 80 to 100 that is going into first grade that is not currently in kinder if we added those students in do we still have the facilities in order to accommodate again 20 or 22 as described on the slides and Would would it go beyond Kelly and aoe of being a bit tight? I don't foresee that at this time based on the numbers we're working with. I can tell you just staffing-wise where I saw an increase, if that's helpful, at which schools. But again, this is based on just my current numbers, and that could change. So if our numbers grew at a school, they might go up too. But
214currently, if we drop to 20 to 1, we'd be needing to add an FTE at AOE, CHE, Kelly, PAC, and POI. But again, this is based on right now because these numbers change as enrollments. If we went to 20 to 1, when I took a snapshot of the dashboard and we saw that there'd be five increase in FTEs, the schools that would first pop up with that need would be AOE, CHE, Kelly, PAC, and POI. Go ahead. Well, my question is facilities. So if we added those five, do we have room? Do we have rooms for those FTEs? We haven't looked at that at this point in time. So we haven't explored that. We could look at that. Definitely we are declining in enrollment at the elementary level when we look at overall projections. So
215I would imagine we would have space, but we haven't looked at it at those particular sites adding those classrooms. So no. We'd also need to look at the whole school population because sometimes you could have four sixth grades promote and you only have three kinders coming in. So it really just depends on the population of the school that year. Correct. Is it possible at some of the sites, say like at Poinsettia that have very large class sizes right now, we would have to reduce the number of TK classes in order to house a reduced class size for kindergarten? Is that possible? We might not reduce, but we could shift. We are always watching the numbers to make sure that we're staffing accordingly. So, for instance, we were anticipating three full classes or four full classes
216at Poinsettia last year just in projected enrollment because they take the overflow from Aviar and Pack Rim, and they only filled the three. There might we just have to watch the numbers as as they enroll and we've asked our admin assistants and they are working so hard to Process those enrollments so that we're working with some accurate numbers and can make timely decisions So follow up on that so but there's a cap on TK, right? So it's ten to one so you have to do that by state. Okay, and then Also, we don't have TK at every school, so we could always move some of the TK programs to make room at the sites that are impacted. Is that correct? Because I think Jefferson is the feeder school for AOE, Magnolia, and Jefferson Impact Room.
217Am I accurate about that? No. Magnolia. Magnolia and Jefferson this year because we shifted to Buena Vista, one class to Buena Vista. Okay. I had a follow-up to Kathy's question earlier about the... utilizing classrooms that are not kindergarten classrooms and do not have the restroom. Since we have the range of class sizes, how are we handling if there's a 24 to 1 teacher ratio and we do not have an aid in that class, how are we escorting children to the restroom during a long day? Well, I can speak from experience because when I taught kindergarten, I was in a standard classroom. I did not have a bathroom in my classroom. And we, at the beginning of the year, as a whole class, we would do a bathroom break. That was part of our transition. And
218we would navigate that. We would also ensure that we had support that we could call upon. the principal or someone in the office the health tech who could help escort you have to look at the campus and what's accessible and what's safe and so we're able to make plans based on that but it would be a site decision so just to clarify you would have 24 children going like they go in a line to the library but they're all going to go to the restroom Well, we could stop and say who needs to go to the restroom? We would use the restroom, line back up, go to the library, and it takes a lot of time, but then they get into a routine, and by mid-year, they can go independently or with a partner. You
219just build in the management and routines. On slide 24, and I do want to add in Cardiff and... Cardiff and Solana Beach because I know we've talked about those as well do we know when and if they moved from a half-day program to a full-time program and did they do it all at once or did they transition in such as like a Poway or an Encinitas Cardiff I don't I don't know the answer to when any of the other districts made these decisions or how they transitioned and then I have a new question but Do you have a follow-up, Gretchen? Well, it goes with it. I'm sorry, Trustee Verbeth. Thank you. It goes with the slide. When you asked the teachers, the kindergarten, current kindergarten teachers, if they would like full-day kindergarten, did you ask
220them if they would like to have a ratio of 24 to 1? Not directly, but it was one of the options, and then I looked at the free response. Question answers so they could write in comments in the survey and what were those responses lower class size So that goes along with the theme that I've heard that they really don't want anything bigger than 20 to 1 If they're gonna do full day 20 to 1 wasn't specifically named they said under 24 was the option in the survey and Most of it was general statements of lower class sizes or small class sizes or with an aid. Based on dashboard information and again on slide 24 and including Solana Beach, Cardiff, is there any indication that Carlsbad, based on our late owl, early bird model, that
221we have significantly done better in academic outcomes? No, I mean, we've done comparisons. We've shared comparison data, obviously, with trustees with similar districts. We look at unified districts around the county. We look at similar districts across the state. And there's certainly a mix of data in there. And obviously, kindergarten is not assessed, so you're looking at sort of some longitudinal. Data on that but obviously some of the districts we're talking about there are very high performing districts some of the districts may have You know lower performance on standardized assessments than we do so it's definitely a mixed bag Okay trustee for Beth. I thought you were gonna ask if there's any more questions, so I was waiting Is it possible to do another pilot for another year? And I'll quote Dr. Norman, anything is possible.
222Okay. It's not our recommendation. Our recommendation is a unified decision moving forward, but certainly anything is possible. However, we've had several educators state that we don't have full data yet and we can't evaluate. And we've had one teacher even say that There hasn't been any sharing of information on how this is rolled out with the teachers who are teaching half day. There hasn't been a collaboration. So wouldn't it make sense that we roll out another pilot, test it again more fully, more robustly, work out some of the details of furniture and things like that, and see if this is really worth our money and our time and effort? and make it good if we can make it better. It's possible. As Dr. Brockett stated, I think a unified decision is desired. I think it is
223desired among our teachers and certainly our community. I can speak anecdotally as we're navigating enrollment and transfers right now, the number of emails I've received asking. Is there a transfer process? How do I get to a full-day program? So there's, last year the pilot was new. I anticipate with the knowledge that there are two schools running a full-day program, we might have an increase in transfers. That's anecdotal, just based on what I'm experiencing right now with requests for transfers. Could we add a third site then? Possible. Any more questions? Did you have one, Trustee Verbeck? Are you sure? Okay. I will make a motion to approve the implementation of full-day kindergarten schedule district-wide for the 2026-27 school year, recognizing that action would be subjected to labor negotiation obligations. Do I have a second? So we
224can go to discussion. I'll second. okay trustee ward made the motion trustee emory seconded the motion discussion i'll get started it might not be my last comment but our um one of um i've heard a lot from our qualified teachers who are in the classroom and they are our trusted professionals doing the work and i value what they have to say immensely from the Teachers who are in favor who are saying I'm doing the full day, but it needs to be 20 to 1. To the teachers who are doing half day who said this is magical what we get done in this classroom and kids love school and my kids went to half day. So I'm a little bit biased and I know how valuable it was for my boys and they turned out okay.
225But one of the statements that one of the speakers made today stood out to me and that. was the union rep who said, she does not advise us to do this. She does not think we're ready. And that's why I'm asking, could we do another pilot to make sure? Why are we trying to roll out something that we're not ready for? And it doesn't make sense to me. And I shared this with Dr. Norman before. If I were creating a new car and I was running a pilot on this or a plane, whatever and There was some demand from the public for this special car that I was making or the special plane Would I roll it out if it wasn't ready if there were safety issues if there were other issues I wouldn't do
226it I would wait and I think that we're rushing something there have been plenty of red flags for all of us to see whether you're in education or not that we're not ready and I just think it's a very bad decision on our part and I'd love to get the answer from you trustee ward what happened to kindergarten when you rolled it out in Jefferson um sure so we were early bird late owls and I did have a classroom without a bathroom completely doable um but um And then we went to full day because we were in IB school. And then my understanding from what I remember, but I could be wrong, but this is what I remember, that there were some legal issues because we were the only school offering the full day. And
227so we had to revert back to the early bird, late owl program because it had to, you know, you have to provide. access essentially for students. Yes. President Ward, I'd like to ask you a question too. I believe you were at Poway as well when they transitioned to kindergarten. How did they do it and what was the process that they worked on? Well, I wasn't there when they transitioned. Yeah, I was there fairly new after. It was fairly recently that they had. Went to full day. Are you aware of how they did it? Did they, was it slowly? Did they do pilots, any of that stuff that you're aware of? They didn't do pilots, I know that. Or at least where I was, they didn't. And it was 26 to 1. And they were very
228effective programs. I'll add. So I did talk to a trustee who used to be on our board for 24 years about that program. And I asked her specifically why the program stopped. And her answer was that it was funding. So it makes sense that perhaps there was a legal aspect to it. But I also remember Mr. Dill. who was our business executive officer, who said we couldn't afford it. So I'm wondering if we really can afford this, if we want to do it right. You know, I really struggled with this because I do know how hard it is to be a kinder teacher and how much time it takes to assess kids because kinder is really unique. You have to... Do things one-on-one. There's a lot of training involved with students especially in the beginning
229and also the supplies and the prep are Huge, so I know we want to standardize supplies for all teachers however having taught K, one, first, fourth, and fifth, and a four-five combo, I will say that kinder, you need just a lot more supplies. And if we're doing a play-based learning model, you need a lot more. And also... the prep work is a lot. Your parent volunteers are key for that. And unfortunately, you don't always get them. I know I didn't when I was at Jefferson. So, you know, that all being said, I feel like what I'm hearing from the district is a lot of the things that we want, like... aid support, prioritizing kinder for smaller class sizes, and ensuring that they, with our guidance for the LCAP, could provide... materials to start the program
230off well and even looking at their schedule for conferences and assessment times and providing substitute teacher support as well during those times or maybe a Smoother rollout where they have kid days. I know you don't call them that here, but where you start You start later or you release them at like noon in the beginning Maybe that could be a little bit longer, but that's up to the teachers. But I've seen it done really, really well. And I'm really trying to not hear one stakeholder, but listen to all stakeholders, but also looking at the students, too, and the benefits to all of the students. And I don't want... You know, students that are disadvantaged, our disadvantaged youth, our students that are ELs, and from what I've learned from talking to kinder teachers and first grade
231teachers, is that it's a real benefit for these students. And I know it's a benefit, you know, all day kinder, it's going to benefit everybody, but the kids that it's really going to benefit are the kids that have more challenges. And just from... The loads of research that I've been reading since this has first come up and not just talking to kinder teachers here, but also elsewhere and attending the pilot meetings and all of that. For me, I feel like Carlsbad can do this. with especially with this initiative of looking at foundational reading skills I think they need that time to in the classroom is my thought trustee verbatim you bring up the students who have you know who are marginalized with needs there are There's a group of students who get completely overstimulated when
232you push them too far and you put them in class sizes that are too big and You know they have sensory deficit disorders The poinsettia or not the poinsettia the hope class I was addressing We couldn't even bring in mainstream kids because it was too overstimulating and there were too many kids in one space and I think I think at the end of the day for me I I'm looking at what's best for students, and I cannot say the same thing that you're saying, Trustee Ward, that this benefits all students, because I don't think it does. And I do think that there are some students that we can say that it is benefiting, but I'd say the majority of kids are going to benefit from a half day where it's small, they have individual instruction
233time, it's less chaotic, and then... A lot of those kids can go home. They have that privilege to be able to go home to a parent, or they go to an aftercare program where they get to play a little bit more. And if they are a multi-language learner or an English language learner or low socioeconomic, they still get to play. It's the same thing. They're still working on language development and play-based activities. So I just don't know why we feel the need to have to be like everyone else. I don't feel like this works for everybody. And we're hearing from our teachers and even the ones that are teaching full day right now that they want 20 to 1, and we know we can't give that to them. And when you go to that 22
234mark, they say it's hard. Every single one said it's hard. And so we're not helping the teachers. Yep, we can push them because they're amazing teachers and they're going to do what they're told. But even the brand new teacher who's at Hope, who was given that full day class, she said, I came in, I didn't even have the skills. And she says it's just management. And the only way she can do it is because she has good volunteers that come regularly. But that's Hope. That's not every class. That's not every site. So I think we are doing a disservice to our community overall, and I cannot, I'm not in favor of it. I'd be in favor of running another pilot. Trustee Emery. I know there's been a lot of talk out there that this has
235already been determined, and all my sleepless nights would say it has not. It has for sure not been determined. And I've really struggled, and I still do. I have to admit I'm struggling tonight for a few reasons. personally had a child who was a hundred percent ready for a full day and didn't bring her to Carlsbad even though we live down the street from two great schools because of that because she was so thriving and was dysregulated when she didn't have that organized environment. I also realized that there's other students who don't. And that's where the dilemma is, you know, when it is that 50-50. And I really do feel like it is 50-50. I've talked to teachers who have said, and teachers from Carlsbad who said, you know what, it's not good for teachers,
236but I think it's good for students. And that's hard. You know, what do you do with that? I've also, you know, been in a district. I've taught AMPM models. I've taught the K1 combo. I've taught, you know, a variety. of things full day, four, five, six, you know, the whole gamut. And it is a numbers game. It really is. When the district for which I teach rolled out all day K, it was a hard, and it was a hard sell. And they did, you know, the six-week push-in, and then they moved two years later, one half day. and then they took it away. And so I asked some of them, who I highly respect, I said, would you go back now? And they said, no, absolutely not. With that being said, they also have those
237low numbers. And so, you know, how do we, I fully believe in all day K. I believe that done well, but I don't want to not do it well. And I think, you know, I think the other thing I heard from a lot of kindergarten teachers is it's not going to hurt kids. And I think that's right. I don't think either of these are bad choices. You know, for kids, it benefits some and it, you know, disadvantages some, you know, in anything you do in any classroom in any given scenario. You know, but the funding does worry me as well and making sure we're prepared with that and, you know, giving them what they want to be successful. And I do worry a little bit that in the pilot, we weren't able to kind of...
238make it the best we possibly could so we could get the best possible results. And that's where I am. So I'm willing, I would love to hear some more from my fellow colleagues here. Thank you for sharing those thoughts. I've had a lot of sleepless nights as well. We've all read the same emails from people who feel very passionately about this issue and we want to serve. our community as best we can. And it's just, it's not as simple as one might think. And I'm also concerned because everyone that I've spoken to that's been in favor of the extended day has also followed that with a cap. This is every teacher I spoke with. This is every parent I spoke with. They don't want to give up one to have the other. And unfortunately, that's
239not the option that we have in front of us tonight. And I am not a gambling woman. And I don't feel great about making a decision with the option of, well, we can when we address the LCAP next year. impose caps then if the budget allows the budget's never going to allow for everything that we want and we want the teachers to be fully supported and classroom supplies to be fully funded and I don't know with all of the budget constraints that we have how we make that happen I would love to I want all students to feel supported clearly there are students that would thrive and really benefit from an extended day But study after study after study shows that those benefits are negated by the increased numbers in the classroom. As a mother
240of six, I can tell you that it is not the same instructional time when I'm one-on-one with one child as when I have all my kids together and I'm trying to do something. And so anyone would understand that math. The more students in the classroom, the more challenging that's going to be. So I think we're all struggling without the ability to promise that you would never, ever have 33, which is the legal max. I mean, we can't promise that because we don't have a cap. I do have a question for Trustee Verbeth. Would you support more than one, but not all? Would you support more than one additional pilot, but not all? I don't know what you mean, sorry. Okay, so you had said that you'd be okay with one more pilot to do one
241more school. Would you be in agreement to do more than one, but not all of the schools, all schools moving towards a full day? Like how many? What do you mean? I'm just saying more than one. Like four different pilot sites? Maybe. I mean, I don't know. What would be your agreeable point? I was just thinking one. Okay. Okay, I'm going to say my piece now. Again, I think that I'm very much in favor of full day K. I will tell you that every teacher you will talk to will say that they want a lower class size. And the studies show that the premium class size is actually 15. But yet the state says GSA is 24. So regardless, I mean, and I understand every teacher wants lower class sizes. I want lower class sizes.
242And I do think it comes down to budget priorities, which that's what our responsibility is. So we can make it happen if we want to. But, you know, that's going to be a sacrifice of other things, which that may, high school teachers may not be thrilled with that if we make that decision, right? So there is, you know, there is a piece here. However. We are funded by taxpayers. And when I see numbers like CHE at 83% of the parents want this, I can't turn away from that. And when I look at, from my perspective, that, you know, we say, you know, we need to listen to the parents. We need to listen to the parents. We're going to ignore them when it comes to 83% of them want this. And when I heard about
243transfers, the transfers were, the only transfers out were folks that wanted full day. There was no, the ones that wanted to leave for the half day came back to the full day. So really, there definitely seems to be a groundswell for this. However, I hear what you're saying, that I'm not sure, that I don't think we are ready. to go all or nothing. I'm in agreement with you there. So I would like to make a motion. I would like to make an amended motion that we pilot, that we add three more schools, and that would be CHE, BV, and AOE. And the reason for those schools is they are, we need one in the south. And I have the numbers from the favorability from last year to this year. Okay, I guess I should finish
244my motion. So let me finish my motion before I. So at the end that we set as a priority of no more than 22 or an average of 22 on the site in the classrooms and we ensure that all materials and supplies are provided. That's my motion. you are saying for a total of five schools to be in pilot that is your suggestion yeah well i i got to get a second before i can talk to it well i i think for your motion though you can't put in the 22 to 1 because that's what the bargaining has to happen so i think you need to restate that well no i mean i as um As the question that I asked before, we as a district have the ability to decide how we want our
245operations to proceed. And we've already bargained the maximum class size, which is I think it was 32 district-wide average. So we have the ability to set it lower than that any time we want. So that's not bargainable. What we raised earlier though is that now you're cutting out the opportunity for CUDA to have input on this and that's not typically how we function with our labor partners. We bring them into the process so that then we can get their input and then bring that back to the board. My understanding is that is because some teachers may not want 22, they might want 20 and that gives them the ability to negotiate that. Do you see what I'm saying? Okay, I will then, my amended motion is that we include in pilot AOE, BV, and CHE
246for an additional year and that they are provided with all the supplies and materials necessary to be successful. So can we? I need a second before we can talk about it. Can you amend a motion? I never amended it. No, no, there needs to be a second before we can. So you can't amend her motion? I'll second. Okay. Okay, now we can talk about it. Go ahead. Can I speak to the rationale why? Sure. Okay. So I did hear that people wanted that transportation was an issue. So I definitely believe we needed one in the south. And AOE does have TK on the campus, so that makes a cleaner transition than others. BV, they're... from last year to this year, they went from 83 to 76, but that's a super majority. And then CHE went
247from 80% to 83% favorable of families. And in my opinion, I believe in order to make this successful, you need strong family support. And I think, you know, you even said, you volunteered in the classroom. There's lots of volunteers. And the two that we picked initially. Jefferson was 78% favorability. This year they're 85% favorable. And Hope remained the same, 70%, 70%. The one thing we have to remember too in kindergarten, this is a voluntary program. This is not mandated by the state. And so from my perspective, again, I think we need to listen to parents. And I think parents know what's best for their children in this situation. And they have an option, just like they do now with our current With our current early bird, late owl, and what we've heard is approximately 80
248to 100 students are choosing not to come to our kindergarten program. It can't all be attributed to that, but I'm sure some of it is. And so I do believe that parents can make that opposite choice where they could choose to go to a private kindergarten if they want the half day, but there would also be transfers available. So that's why I made the motion and we have a second. Thank you, Kathy. Thank you, Trustee Rawlings. Are you not going to vote for full day unless there's another pilot? No, I will not be voting for, I won't be voting for the entire district, no. Okay. And then my other question is, one of my concerns is that we've heard from a few parents about... the school community and how some of the parents had to
249move had to drive their kids away from their their neighborhood school and it is essentially kind of impacted the student relationships in that school community because now they're being Pulled out and that was a concern that some parents did bring up. So I just want to kind of plant that Also, I wonder too and I don't know how this would happen, but you would probably know share great resource for this is that I know you've kind of said three schools, but I wonder, and I think we did hear from a kindergarten teacher saying another pilot would be good because then the data would be more relevant. But I wonder if there's a way that we could amend it. And I don't know how that would work, but this is just an idea. I'm just sharing
250this before you tell me I'm doing this wrong. Okay, is that... We're in discussion. We can talk. Okay. is i wonder if we can leave we could say like maybe half of the schools because we have nine elementary schools and maybe leave it to and just kind of have a requirement that it's schools in the south and the north but let the teachers kind of decide on which sites they are is my thought So I did want to address your first concern. What I heard from staff is there was only four parents that made transfer requests that were honored. So everyone was from their home school. Right, but they were not traveling, though. As I'm saying, it sounds like there were four students that were outside of their home school for this current pilot. Again,
251I heard it from staff that they said there was 15 total that wanted transfer into full day. There was three that wanted. that were in half day and went into, or that went from full day to half day and then they returned for their homeschools. Regardless, I think the point that the parents are, the few, it was very few parents made, was that, that reached out to us, was that it does impact their school community. So regardless of whatever those numbers are, I'm just sharing with you that that is a concern and I think that's relevant. Because I wouldn't want to take my kids to Aviara when I lived in Calavera and commute them and then have them come back to their home school for first through fifth, right? And again, my rationale for this
252is that you have super majorities in all of these schools. I mean, Aviara Elementary is 60%, but it's the... because it has a TK, it makes most sense, and we need one in the south. I agree with you on the transportation piece. But if you look at the schools in the south and the schools in the north, and then you have the Calaveras, we would have at least one full-day program in each quadrant of the district. So that's the rationale for the selection from my perspective. And I do believe, and that's why I made the motion the way I did, is because I do believe, and I don't want to go... too far over our skis. And like I say, from my perspective, I think we 100% need, to me it needs to be up
253to the parents. That's where I think, I mean, our teachers are qualified. They're multi-subject credentialed. They can teach TK through five. And like I say, they all want smaller class sizes. I mean, every teacher that I've talked to always wants smaller class sizes. And the teachers in the room are going, yes, yes, yes. I think we need to do the best we can. But ultimately, all these other schools, I mean, again, there's no significant difference in the outcomes, the academic outcomes for these students in all these other districts. And so I do believe that this would be the best way to move forward. And, you know, and then we can slowly start transitioning forward rather than all at once. So that's where. And then, okay, so I hear you. I have another idea. How about
254if it's half of the schools? I know it's nine. It's an odd number. So maybe four instead of three. And I know Jefferson isn't included in that, but I'm thinking that they might want to do it just because they were more. So could that be included? Oh, additional. These are in additional. So I'm talking five total. Right. I'm talking five total that would be in a full day program. Yes. Oh, I see what you're saying. Okay. I'm so glad I said something because I would have totally gotten that wrong. Okay. Thank you. Thank you trustee for Beth. So I just want to clarify and I appreciate you pulling up that data Something that's very important for all of us to understand is when the families were surveyed. This is how the question was written How
255do you feel about the possible transition to an extended day kindergarten program? It did not say It did not say anything about class size. Multiple emails that have come in since, and I don't know when that data was collected, Trustee Rawlings, sorry. But I wonder if we were to ask this question in a different manner, if we would get different answers. How do families feel about a possible full-day kindergarten program with... 24 kids in it versus 18 kids or 20 kids. I'm just saying it doesn't quantify size. And I think that plays a role in people's, because we've gotten the emails from parents who said, we want full day, but we want it to be 20 to one. But this question here never asked them that. And so I don't know if that data that
256Trustee Rawlings is reporting here would change if we ask that question again with that quantifiable data. I'm sorry. As the president, I'm allowing myself to ask a question of the staff. So there's no point of order. I just want to ask, if that were to happen, could we prioritize kinder? at those schools that were, again, piloting a full-day program, like in terms of class sizes. Do you see what I'm saying? Because it's a K-3 grade span, right, and we prioritize first grade. So at those school sites, could you prioritize kinder instead of first grade so they can have a small class size as well? That's possible, correct? Anything's possible. I think as Director Fuentes referenced earlier, there's a variety of factors that play into that. I think that that certainly would be the intention, and
257I think we're hearing that as a desire. But I think that from site to site, there's just certainly different factors in terms of cohort size, et cetera, that could come into play as principals are working with their teams to develop class rosters. Yeah, I just want to see if it's doable. Okay, thank you. Trustee Emery. Yeah, to piggyback on that, we'd have to remember that those, and I've got two there, those kids who are currently in the kinder going into first grade also would have that same experience. So both of those would need prioritization because they don't, that's why we prioritized it because they were going from a half-day kinder to a full-day first grade. And the first year of doing it, you might have to prioritize both. Unless Sarah Jefferson, yeah. But what I'm
258hearing from my fellow colleagues here is that we still have some reservations. I think that I like the possibility of... I like the possibility of all day K done correctly. And I think not that we weren't incorrect, but I don't think we have a full information, the full data. I don't think the teachers were as supportive as we wanted. And so I would be curious to see what other options. I know those weren't brought to us this time around, but in fiscally, I'm a little worried about being able to provide the best experience, which is what we talked about. And so. I like the idea of doing extra schools like Trustee Rawlings suggested, but I would also like to leave it up to the staff and the teachers in that regard instead of designating specific
259sites. I think we just want to make sure that we have both school east and south because it is a hardship for families. You know, if we're hearing a lot from how hard it is. And, you know, there are a lot of families out there that are diving into their 401Ks and incurring penalties and fees and just to pay the rent. So, you know, I just, you know, I think about that and it kind of weighs on me. So I just want to make sure it's... also that we're representing both sides and it's accessible. There are schools that are accessible to families and students. Trustee Rawlings. So Trustee Emery, would you be in support of the motion that's on the floor now? I would be in support of the motion of extending it with the
260possibility of those schools being readjusted as staff sees fit. Like if they if they're projecting something that we're not noticing at the moment whether it be numbers or classrooms or something that might need to change that's unexpected That maybe we're not considering right in this moment with those three schools added I mean I guess that would be inherent in the motion because it would be I mean staff would obviously come back to the board if there was a big problem with it obviously right then in that case yes, just Sorry trustee C. O. C. I'd like to revisit the question of the class size cap and the negotiable piece of that, because I'm not really clear. If we set, say, 22 for this pilot. Which is in our capability of doing we've discussed that is
261that not then still negotiable could CUDA not then come in their negotiation and say no we want 20 is that not a possibility I don't know I'm not understanding they could request it we would have to do an analysis to see if we could afford it and bring that to you and then you would Weigh in on that. So follow up. That's kind of all of the pieces of the negotiation, right? They're bringing lots of things that they'd like. They're bringing the wants. And then we're having to prioritize what we're able to accomplish. So I just don't see how us establishing a cap because we are all kind of feeling like the class size is important. We're hearing that universally. Why that is precluding. CUDA from being able to do their job of negotiating. No,
262I think they can negotiate that. Yeah. I guess what I'm hearing staff say, which I could, you know, I respect that. I mean, as far as... I think staff has heard us what the priority is from the board, but we don't negotiate on behalf of the district, the staff does. So the staff is gonna have to come in with, you know, hearing from us of what we want, but they're gonna have to come in with proposals and proposals come back and back and forth. And so we can't. basically negotiate in public, if you will. And so, but I think that, and so making it not part of the motion doesn't mean that our voices haven't been heard as far as what our desires are. That would be my best answer to your question. Okay. Are
263we good? Thank you. But I still feel like... From the public's perspective, they're asking us to place class size caps, and that is in our purvey. And the role of the teachers union is to negotiate compensation for teachers for the job that they're doing, and I understand that class size changes would be a negotiable thing. I get that. I don't see why that changes our role in determining that a limited class size is what we want to set forth for an extended day kindergarten program. It doesn't. So staff has heard it, but they are our representatives when those negotiations occur. So that would be, so it's not for us to go directly. But they work for us. Exactly, right. So we are giving them direction that this is what we want. I think they've heard
264us, right? If that is what we agree to. Right, right, right. So, Trustee Rawlings, so we just, you know, double-checked, and we just want to make sure we're doing everything correctly. So because your amended motion is outside of the realm of, out of the scope of this agenda item, we need to vote on this, and then if you want to bring that back as an agenda item, you can. It's apparently more cleaner that way. I'd want to hear that because that's not how we've done it in the past. The agenda item was to vote whether we're going to go full-day district-wide or not. Now we're changing that, and we're recommending specific sites to do another pilot for another year on a temporary basis. So we're proposing to vote on something different than what we publicized
265to the community that we were going to do. It's not that we can't bring it back. It's just that we're voting on something that wasn't what we publicized to the community. But that's happened before where we've had a staff recommendation to do one thing, and then the board has made amendments to that that have said, no, we're not interested in doing that. or changed what the board would like to do. We've done that multiple times. And that's within, definitely within Robert's rules. But I believe because we're going to a full day and switching from a complete program to a pilot, those are two different things. And so that makes sense to me. Like changing the scope within that reason, but going from a full day to a pilot, a pilot and a new program are
266two different things in my... Point of view? Yeah. So I can see why that would be. So, Kathy, I think we're just going to do it this way for the sake of time and because we don't want another Brown Act violation just in case or a potential of one. So we're just going to go ahead and vote on this and then we can bring that back. Well, actually, so are you calling my amended motion out of order? Yes. Okay. Okay. Trustee Ward made the motion. Trustee Emery. Oh, sorry. Discussion miss Garcia, please call for a vote Trustee Rawlings no Trustee for Beth no Trustee CoC no Trustee Emery no Trustee Ward yes motion fails wonderful Okay, thank you. We now move on to Part 11, Business Services, Agenda Item 11.1, Second Interim Financial Report for
267the period ending January 31, 2026. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Dr. Rob Nye. Thank you, President Ward. Trustees and Dr. Norman, give me just one moment while I get the presentation up here. President Ward. Just noting the time, we have to be done by midnight or we have to adjourn and announce when our next meeting will be. Okay. Thank you. So we have to adjourn by midnight. By midnight. Okay. So I'm going to talk real fast. So here we go. Yeah, you are. Let's go. Second interim budget. All right. So tonight I'll be presenting the 25-26 second interim budget report, which provides the district updated financial position as of January 31st, 2026. The second interim. is the second of two formal financial updates required by the
268state each year and it reflects updated revenue expenditures and the fund balance projections since the first interim report that was presented in december tonight's report also includes the district's multi-year projection demonstrating our ability to meet the financial obligations in the current year and the two subsequent out years So I'm going to give you the end of the book before we start the beginning, and that's to say that we have a positive certification at the second interim and that we're able to meet both our state minimum reserve requirements as well as the board adopted reserve targets. This slide summarizes the overall financial changes between first interim and second interim. Revenue increased by approximately $829,000 and expenditures increased by approximately $2.1 million. Most of these expenses occurred on the restricted side of the budget, and I'll highlight
269those in subsequent slides. Because expenditures increased more than revenues, the net change in the fund balance was to the tune of $1.3 million. This slide breaks down the financial picture between unrestricted and restricted funds. Unrestricted funds represent the portion of the budget the district has the greatest flexibility in allocating, while restricted funds must be used for specific purposes. The overall combined ending fund balances decrease slightly from first interim to second interim, primarily due to the updated expenditures in those restricted programs that I talked about before. However, the district's unrestricted reserves remain stable and above required levels. So when you see there, it's kind of hard to see, but on the unrestricted side, you'll see that we started first interim projecting roughly about a $13.357 million for an unrestricted ending fund balance in first interim. And
270you'll see that slightly went up in second interim to $13.6 million, where we saw the large decrease is on the restricted side of the ending fund balance. We ended up spending down some restricted dollars more rapidly, and I'll talk about why in a second. So this slide shows the district's revenue and expenditures trend trending over time over the past three years Expenditures have exceeded ongoing revenue creating a structural imbalance Part of this was intentional as the district spent down one time state and federal funds received during and after the pandemic However, a portion of the imbalance has also resulted in the district drawing down some of the unrestricted reserves. As we move into the LCAP process and next year's budget development, it would be important to keep in mind and ensure that any new expenditures,
271particularly on the unrestricted side, are paired with offsetting adjustments so we can begin moving the budget back towards a structural balance. Total revenue for 2526 at second interim is approximately $172 million. This is an increase, as I mentioned before, of $829,000. Revenue, the largest increase that we saw occurred with local revenue. And I've explained this in the past. We don't book local revenue or donations until we receive them. So as we receive donations over the course of a year, we book those donations when we actually get them. And that equates to the largest percentage there of approximately $829,000. And that's what I talk about here. There were no real changes in local property checks, projections of what we're seeing in local property taxes as we're collecting those throughout the year, as well as state dollars
272seemed and federal dollars seemed pretty consistent as of first interim. So this slide just shows the composition and breakdown of the district's revenue over time. I'm not going to go over this, but to say that you'll see that the blue bar represents local property taxes or LCFF, and you'll see that that's going to go up and up and up over time as we receive more of a portion of our revenue through local property taxes. Total expenditures, as I mentioned before, are $179 million, which is about $2.1 million higher, as I mentioned from first interim estimates. Several areas contributed to the expenditure adjustments. Certificated salary increases are largely tied to donation funding activities. So as we book in those one-time revenue and those donations, we're submitting EWA hours, we're submitting substitute hours, and that's why we're
273seeing those expenditures come in slightly higher there. As far as books and supplies, we did show a decrease of about $500,000. And what I've realized being new to this role is the materials and supplies become the landing spot for most of the budget. And then what school sites will do is move those out of materials and supplies into other areas throughout the years as needed. So what's happening is... it's going into books and supplies or materials and supplies and then they're moving them and spending them in other areas and that's why you're seeing a decrease of about 500 000 there services increase primarily due to those special education services and we continue to have monitor that. And then the capital outlay increase, there's a good chunk of that money that's being reflected in what we
274call our kitchen infrastructure and training or our kit grant. And so we have spending that we're spending down in that area. Electrified refrigerated trucks is an example that we purchased a couple of those for our nutritional services fleet. And so that's being spent down throughout this school year. On the expenditure side, we just want to point out that roughly 81% of our expenditures are spent on people, whether that be certificated or classified or benefits. We're in the education business, and we need people at our school sites. working with our students every day. So we're not unique to that. Most districts spend roughly 75 to 85% of their expenditures on certificating classified employees. In regards to the general fund and ending fund balance, this slide summarizes the district's projected ending fund balance for the 25-26 fiscal
275year. The district's combined ending fund balance is projected at approximately $17.6 million. A portion of that balance is restricted for specific programs, as I mentioned before. Within the unrestricted portion of the fund balance, the district maintains approximately $8.9 million in the reserve for economic uncertainties. And that's your reserve requirement there. And that includes the 3% reserve mandated by the state and additional 2% on top of that that's board required through a board policy. So that $8.9 million represents your reserve. And then beyond that, there's an additional board established an approximate $4.4 million in committed reserves to support specific priorities and future needs. So that represents the $4.47 million on top of that where you'll see in committed. So in regards to our ending fund balance, as I mentioned before, where I have a positive certification
276that's met, we're able to successfully meet both state and board mandated reserve requirements for the current year and two subsequent out years. And as I mentioned before, we're able to maintain that 5% reserve target. This is a multi-year projection that shows the district's financial outlook through 27-28. You'll see the dotted line to the right is really the adopted budget, the first interim budget, second interim, and the two subsequent out years. Revenue is expected to increase gradually over the next several years, largely due to projected property tax growth. Expenditures are also projected to increase, and that's included with step-in column and STRS and PERS increases, as well as health benefit and contributions there. We're also capturing continued spend down of one-time dollars. However, the district is still... projected to maintain positive ending fund balances through the
277three-year period. I just want to note that we are still projected to be in that structural imbalance next year. as well as obviously this year revenues will not exceed expenditures or expenditures will exceed revenues. However, in the third year out, we are anticipated to get more in balance, get more in of a structural balance where revenues would at least balance with expenditures. This slide highlights the district's transition to community funded status or basic aid status in 25-26. This is the first fiscal full year that we were in basic aid status. Between 24, 25, 25, 26, we did not see a significant increase in revenue because the district only recently moved into basic aid and only slightly exceeded what we would have been receiving had we been an LCFF-funded district. As part of that transition, the
278district also no longer receives supplemental property taxes. So as the district continues to move further into basic aid status, future property tax growth will flow more directly to the district, which should place the district in a stronger financial position. And just really quickly, you can see that black bar or the black line represents what we would receive if we are in basic aid. When that black bar exceeds the blue bar. that means you're in a basic aid status. So we went into basic aid in the spring of 24-25, and we roughly received about $130 million in revenue that year. The first full year that we were in basic aid is this year, 25-26. We only saw an increase of about a million dollars in revenue from that year. And that's because we just barely dipped
279into basic aid. When you look at the out years, we're going to see a much better growth because we'll be able to capture all of that revenue in those out years. So the first year you jump into basic aid, in some ways, that's the worst year. So current assumptions in the multi-year projection, quickly, the one-time expenditures do not become ongoing. So we have to be careful about that. So dollars that we're using for one-time things can't come over to the unrestricted side of the house. Otherwise, we have to have some offsetting expenses to cover those. We are anticipated, the good news there is we are anticipated in the governor's budget to receive some one-time restricted revenue in the 26-27 school year. And so we'll be planning on bringing a projected expense plan for those dollars
280through the LCAP process. But we'll be interested to hear the board's priorities as we meet for that March study session as well. We're anticipated to remain in basic aid community funded status. So we don't see any modeling at this point in time unless we see something drastic happen with property taxes that we would be falling out of basic aid status in the near future. They're turning off the lights on me. And then lastly, enrollment. We have built in some slight enrollment decreases and primarily that's... every school district in california and we're seeing the product of low birth rates in california and so that's not unique to carlsbad it's just something that we have in california in general so lastly the next steps is the adoption of the second interim budget tonight with the positive certification
281We'll take a close look at the May revision that the governor comes out with in approximately May 11th. We'll give you a proposed budget on June 10th for the following year, the 26-27 year, and then the adopted budget along with the LCAP will come in those two board meetings in June, so June 24th. And with that, I'm happy to open it up to any questions. Trustees. Oh, sorry. Yes. See, I was having a great night. Sorry. I apologize. You messed me up. Okay. Here we go. Blue cards. Yeah. Okay. This is time for public comment. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards. Fantastic. Trustees, do you have any questions? Okay. Oh. Okay. Make it short. Go ahead. Take as much time as you'd like. Yes. Just kidding. Just kidding.
282So I think the correct slide would be 13, 13, yes. So the specific commitments, I wanted to ask, the board could make different commitments, correct? Such as, as we've discussed at length tonight about reducing class sizes and providing materials and aids and those types of things. So the board could decide that those commitments could change, correct? Yeah, typically you do that through the new budget adoption cycle for the new fiscal year. So for the 26, 27 fiscal year, you could certainly. When is the appropriate time to do that? As we do budget development leading up to that, so when we bring the budget in June, there's a couple opportunities for you to make any adjustments to that. And the LCAP as well. And it's important to note that commitments are typically one-time dollars, so it
283would be for things, projects, not people, materials, band uniforms. Okay, but the board could make that decision, correct? Yeah. But the board can make that decision, correct? Well, typically when we get your input and then we disperse the, in my experience, we get the input of the board through the LCAP experience or through what we know is a need, and that's what goes in the commitments. And so, for example, you could voice that at the LCAP. Yeah. So I'm just saying that's the time to do it, that in order to change these commitments, or is it, like, for instance, I know one of the commitments is a technology plan. And I know we've had discussion about technology. If we wanted to change that to a class size reduction for kindergarten plan, is that the time
284to do that? Is it in June or is it in March? When is the time to do that? Yeah, it could be during that LCAP process. But to Dr. Norman's point. You know, staff wouldn't recommend that you put that in the commitments. We would need to just build that into the ongoing budget. Those would be things that are more ongoing in nature. Commitments tend to be more one-time. But my question is that if the board wanted to change what they are committed to, when is the time to make that adjustment? We would need to hear that during the LCAP process, and then we would build that in as we brought you the new... the new proposed budget in June. So even if the second interim or the budget is not on the agenda, it could
285still be discussed, correct? And the board could give direction on that? You know, we would be getting direction through the LCAP process multiple times. And if it comes out that, hey, we would like staff to explore changing commitments, we would bring that back for an agendized item in June. Okay, even though it's not on the agenda, but we could still give you direction on something that's not on the agenda through the LCAP process. Is that correct? I think the LCAP is a subset of the budget, yes. So I would say that that would still be appropriate. It would still be appropriate. Okay, I wanted to get that clarified. And then on 15. How accurate has, is that 15? Okay. In the past five years, how accurate has the second interim been to the unaudited actuals
286in expenditures, revenues, and reserves? Yeah, I didn't do a historical look at the accuracy of second interim versus unaudited actuals. I think... I don't know that information. I could do an analysis of that and put that on a Friday update, though, certainly. Would it surprise you that it's been approximately $2 million at minimum each year? No. From unaudited actuals, no. It would surprise me. From second interim to unaudited actuals. No. Okay, that wouldn't surprise you. And then if the board wanted to commit those dollars of the difference between second interim and unauded actuals to other items, when would be the appropriate time to do that? Yeah, I need clarification on what you mean by that. Okay, so right now you're saying we're at this point, this is what our money looks like. You know, this
287is what we think we have. And then unauded actuals comes out and we actually had $5 million more than what we thought we had. could the board decide that we want to spend that $5 million, or that $5 million in a different way, rather than just going into the slush fund per se, could the board make commitments for those dollars? I would imagine yes. And when would be the appropriate time to do that? Would it be an unauded actual time? You're comparing unaudited actuals to... Yeah, you're comparing one fiscal year to another. No, I'm just saying that at second interim, we're saying we have, you know, this is where we think we are. And then we, at unaudited actuals, it's like, oh, no, we have $5 million more than we thought we were going to
288have. Can the board decide how we spend that $5 million? And if so, when would that occur? Yeah, I think that could occur in either first interim or second interim as you're going through the budget cycle for that year. So first interim would be the time to make that decision. Either of those, yeah. It would be uncommitted at that point because we didn't know we had it, right? It would be. it would be part of the unrestricted ending fund balance. If that's what you're talking about that's falling out is unrestricted dollars, some of those could be restricted. And if it was $5 million more than what's projected here. What I've done in the past when that's happened is whatever commitments have been, whatever large bucks of money have been committed, I've added to those and
289then presented it to the board. And then at that time you could say, I don't want it added. Like let's say it's facilities and you added. it was a million dollar difference you would add a million dollars to the facilities that are already in commitments because it's already a bucket you've established once your buckets are set you don't typically change your buckets because that's how your budget is now so i would add money to it and then that was always a priority of the board so we could certainly tell you we have a million and we could get your input on where you'd like it to go and that decision would be made at unaudited actuals, at first interim. It'd be at first interim. I'd bring it back to first interim. And then sometimes there's
290an adjustment at second interim too. The budget's only as good as the snapshot that you take it in. We're always working through it. But you're going to go from September. So in unaudited, you're going to tell us, we have this much more money, and this is where we're going to put it. And then at first interim, the board could say, no, we'd rather you see it over here. Is that accurate? Yeah. Okay. But you can do that at second interim also. You could. Anytime you bring the budget forward, you could do that. So anytime you see that extra money. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. Any other questions? May I have a... Oh, I'm sorry. Did you have one? Trustee Cofield? Okay. May I have a motion for the board to approve submission of the second
291interim financial report as of January 31st, 2026, Exhibit A. So moved. Second. Trustee Ciosi made the motion. Trustee Verbeth seconded the motion. Discussion? Okay. Ms. Garcia, please call for a vote. Trustee Rawlings? Yes. Trustee Verbeth? Yes. Trustee Ciosi? Yes. Trustee Emery? Yes. Trustee Ward? Yes. Motion passes 5-0. okay we now move on to agenda item 11.2 annual measure hh financial performance audit fiscal year 2425 trustees this is a discussion action item i'll now hand it over to dr nye thank you president ward proposition 39 requires school districts to conduct an annual independent financial and performance audit on bond funds to ensure that the bond proceeds are used only for voter approved purposes Christy White and Associates completed the Measure HH Bond Building Fund audit for the fiscal year 24-25. The auditors issued an unmodified opinion,
292which is the highest level of assurance that can be provided, indicating that the financial statements are fairly presented and that the district complied with the requirements of Proposition 39. The audit had no findings and no question cost. and no deficiencies in internal control, and confirm that Measure HH funds were being spent on projects approved appropriately. I'll turn it back over to President Ward for any comments. Okay. This is a time for public comment. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any. Okay. Trustees, do you have any questions? Okay. May I have a motion for the board to accept the Measure HH Bond Building Fund Audit Report for Fiscal Year 2425? Okay. Okay. As presented in Exhibit A, I'll make the motion. Can I have a second? Second. Okay. Trustee Verbath made the
293second. Discussion? Okay. Ms. Garcia, please call for a vote. Trustee Rawlings? Yes, trustee verbat. Yes, trustee CoC. Yes, trustee Emory. Yes trustee ward. Yes motion passes 5 to 0 Thank you We now move on to agenda item 11.3 authorizing a preliminary guaranteed maximum price execution and delivery of a site lease sublease construction services agreement and other acts relating to the district's Carlsbad village seaside Academy project Trustees this is a discussion action item. I will hand it over to dr. Nye staff's happy to answer any questions that you have but I'll turn it back over to you I think the board report speaks for itself great this is a time for public comment have there been any blue cards there are no blue cards fantastic trustees do you have any questions Oh, fantastic. May I have
294a motion for the board to approve authorizing preliminary guarantee maximum price execution delivery of a site lease, sub-lease, construction services agreement, and other acts relating to the district's Carlsbad Village Seaside Academy project? So moved. Second. Trustee Verbath made the motion. Trustee Sciosi seconded the motion. Discussion? Okay, miss Garcia, please call for about trustee running. Yes trustee. We're back. Yes trustee CoC Yes, trustee Emory. Yes trustee ward. Yes motion passes 5 to 0 Okay Now we're moving on to agenda 11 point for consideration of tracking field synthetic turf for natural grass grass replacement Trustees this is a discussion action item Where was I I just got a discussion action item. Okay. I will now hand it over to dr. Knight Thank you again president Ward based on boards discussion in January regarding the replacement of the
295Carlsbad high track and field staff is bringing this item back tonight for formal consideration and a vote the existing track and synthetic field have reached the end of their useful life and staff previously presented the board with the information comparing the replacement options of synthetic turf versus natural grass. Based on the information presented at the board meeting in January, staff's recommendation remains to proceed with a synthetic turf replacement at CHS. While the initial installation cost is slightly higher than natural grass, synthetic turf provides a longer-term operational advantage due to the significant lower water use, reduced ongoing maintenance, greater year-round field availability, and more consistent playing conditions. Given the heavy use of the field by athletics, physical education, band, and community programs, synthetic turf provides the most reliable option for program capacity. and I'll turn it
296back over to President Ward for blue cards. Fantastic. This is a time for public comment. We have seven blue cards. When I call your name, please come to the podium, state your name, and indicate whether or not you live within the boundaries of the school district. You'll have three minutes. We'll have the timer on the screen, and your mic will be muted when your time has expired. The first speaker is Phillip from UCSD. Hello council members. Tonight my name is Philip Parnes and while I'm not currently a resident at Carlsbad, I represent, I'm an intern representing Clean Up for Kids, an organization dedicated to creating a safe and sustainable environment and world for the next generation. And tonight, I encourage you to reject the application of synthetic turf all over your campuses in favor of
297less detrimental alternatives, like natural grass fields. In spite of all the financial benefits that lobbyists claim artificial turf would provide via reduced water usage, they misrepresent the truth. Grass fields are actually more financially stable. For every 980 gallons needed to manufacture and maintain synthetic fields, the same volume of water can support organic plots for years. Lobbyists also contend that artificial fields do not contain hazardous compounds linked to chronic and acute illnesses. But again, this is not true. Every plastic blade, binder, or layer of synthetic turf used in the creation of synthetic turf has been found by organizations like the Center for Environmental Health and the Environmental Protection Agency to contain heavy metals and PFAS, forever chemicals linked to debilitating health risks like type 2 diabetes, impaired neurological development, and the immune system suppression. This is
298also not to mention the increasing prevalence of infection from bacteria like MRSA due to the dirt and grime that collects in these fields because of improper cleaning. With safer natural alternatives on the table that are even more financially responsible, the communities of Carlsbad deserve to have spaces in which they can play and have activity that will not jeopardize their health and safety. More information from alternatives can be found in our letter. as well as in our website, cleanearthforkids.org. I encourage you to reach out to this organization and assist in ending synthetic turf usage. Thank you for your time. Okay, Leah from UCSD. Good evening, council members. My name is Leah Flanagan. I am a marine bio major at UCSD, and I'm an intern for Clean Earth for Kids. And on their behalf, I'm here to
299oppose the use of synthetic turfs in our schools. Synthetic TERFs are exposing our children to toxic chemicals including sulfates and PFAs. Sulfates are a neurotoxin that disrupts the endocrine system and are correlated to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, infertility, and other neurological issues that impair child development. PFAs are a class of chemicals that share many toxic characteristics that are linked to higher risk of thyroid disease, increased cholesterol, liver damage, kidney cancer, and teluscular cancer. We entrust our schools to provide a safe place for the kids of our community to be educated, and for that we must stand against synthetic turf for their safety. Thank you. Good job. Matthew from UCSD. Good evening. My name is Matthew Hanson. I'm a student at UCSD studying microbiology. I'm also an intern for cleanearthforkids.org, and
300we implore you to not install synthetic turf on your campuses. I know it seems like an easy decision to make, but it poses a serious threat to the health of the players who are going to be using the fields. the synthetic turf gets very hot compared to standard grass and dirt fields and Sorry, it's very late. Um and they can cause serious burns and blisters on players feet and coaches feet and I can tell you from experience as a former football player and track athlete that those burns hurt for a very long time and they affect affected my ability to play and Does not need to be a particularly hot day for these to occur. Additionally, the NFL Players Association has found that synthetic turf has increased the risk of non-contact injuries by 33% for
301the knee and 69% for ankle injuries. That is a significant increase in non-contact injuries. And for any young players who hope to continue playing at higher levels, those injuries can be detrimental to their careers. Not only are they causing adverse effects for young athletes, it's going to affect them as they age. The Journal of Occupational... Medicine found that a 92% chance of osteoarthritis in anyone who suffered an ACL injury. That's not a 92% increase. That's a 92% chance of developing osteoarthritis. For the sake of these young athletes' careers, and for the coaches' health, and for everyone's futures, please keep the fields natural. Thank you. Diane Lowkey. Lowkey. Lowkey. Pardon? Wolke. Wolke. Okay. Wolke. After playing on these fields. I'm Diane Wolke. I'm an Oceanside resident. I'm a board member of Safe Healthy Playing Fields. And
302I have deference because, excuse me, I've delivered many of your students and alumni. And I also have a daughter who is a English Lang, AP, IB English Lang teacher. So. Let's get this show on the road. Anybody here opposed offshore drilling of fossil fuels? Why would you support? Plan B for the petrochemical industry, which is plastics. These are plastics. They are heavily chemically laden. We did test both Tenkati, which does in fact have ultra short chain PFAS. You have it at Carrillo. It's what the city is doing right now at Poinsettia. They're putting in Tenkati Pivot. I also provided to you in my letter, excuse me, expert, independent expert testimony. who specialize in PFAS. Field turf also has PFAS. It also has flame retardants, UV inhibitors, all of which are toxic on these fields. Why
303would you, this would be your third replacement in 17 years at this high school. That's a life expectancy, yes, 2009. This would be number three. 5.66 years life expectancy. and yet you keep going back to the same manufacturer. The high school is also in the local permit zone of the California Coastal Commission, which has not allowed synthetic turf since 2003. There has been no sequel filings for this project. And under the local permit that you have in Carlsbad, this project has to go to the local permit office, the planning department, which then has to communicate with the Coastal Commission. I know this because I'm deeply involved in this issue currently in both Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades. And we're in frequent communication with the Coastal Commission. LAUSD recently passed a resolution in December transitioning away
304from synthetic turf. I was present along with other board members and advocates. I personally asked for an immediate moratorium for high schools and it put five high school projects on immediate hold in addition to middle, elementary, and the earlier age schools. Children's health matters. Adolescent lives matters. They too have developmental windows that persist into their 20s. Black and brown lives matter. These are the athletes that are dying most frequently from heat stroke and heat-related illnesses on these fields. I have seen 205 degrees on these fields with crumb rubber. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Wolke. Thank you. Do you want your grass back for those gifts? Okay. i wasn't sure leah flanagan okay she's not here uh did you want your grass back we have it right here for you uh matthew hansen pardon oh okay
305and then phillip is also twice okay all right thank you very much okay trustees this is a discussion action item sorry am i right okay um Public comments. Trustees, do you have any questions? Trustee Rawlings. Thank you. To one of the speaker's points, how are we disposing of the current turf? We'd work with the contractors. I believe they recycle the current turf. And I don't know how they're currently going to dispose of it, though. It is correct. We confirmed today with Debbie it'll be recycled. Yeah. Can you provide more information on how it's recycled? My understanding is that these turfs are not available for recycling. Yeah, we checked with our purchasing director, and that was the information that I had. So I can certainly follow up if we need to follow up. And as far
306as... if it's recycled or what have you, how much microplastics would go into the environment by removing this turf and adding additional turf? I do not know that. To the point that some of the speakers talked about is the forever chemicals. What type of forever chemicals are part of the disposal of the current turf and the new turf that we're bringing in? I don't know about the disposal of the current turf. I do know that the current turf that's being brought in, they had in 2026, there was an independent laboratory that conducted testing on field turf, H51 turf blades. to determine whether PFAS compounds were present and whether they could potentially leach into the surrounding environment. The testing looked specifically for the range of PFAS chemicals that regulates typically monitor. The results showed only trace
307amounts of PFAS compounds and the concentrations detected were below the US EPA environmental safety screening levels. for both residential and soil and drinking water. Follow-up? I'm sorry. Yes, go ahead. Thank you. Is that just in general, or is that our particular turf? That's the turf that they tested that was our particular turf that we're proposing to be brought in. Okay, but not the removal. No, I don't know about the removal. Yeah, like I said, I'd have to get more information about... Whether that's being recycled or not, apparently it can't be recycled, according to the speaker that spoke. But, you know, I'm going off information that we received from our director of purchasing. Well, my question is, is that around the forever chemicals and the rainwater and the heavy metals, has that contributed to the heavy
308metals? I don't know that. As far as the removal, I don't know. The removal and the current turf that we have. I don't know. Okay. And then to the speaker's point about CEQA, do we need permits before this could be put in? In my understanding, we work with the architects and it gets submitted to DSA. And so they'll be permitting along the way through the Department of State Architecture. It's part of a CMAS contract that we entered into. So it really is a replace. So there be replacing the existing turf and so I'm as it's a replacement that we wouldn't have to get the CEQA permit I'm not aware of if we're applying for a CEQA permit or not through this process, but I know that we're going through the Department of State architecture to
309get California State approval on that, but I'm not sure if we, Dr. Norman. We replaced both the TERFs in Oceanside last year or two years ago, and we went through DSA. We didn't have to do, and we might have done a CEQA exemption. Ma'am, I'm sorry, but you can't be speaking from that area. So isn't Carlsbad in a different zone for CEQA than Oceanside is? CEQA is something that's throughout the state. You might be thinking of the Coastal Commission, and that varies based on different areas within each district. It's not a hard line. And do we know this for sure? I know that we had some issues before with we had some. We had some construction going up on the baseball fields that were part of a CEQA and Coastal Commission issue. if you recall,
310and I don't know if that, are we positive that we don't need this permit and that we don't need to go through these? We would work with the architects and the engineers to make sure any permitting that we need, we would acquire. So what we're doing tonight is approving that job to move forward, and then the subsequent board items that we have is for the architect for... the geotechnical and all the other engineers that would submit the appropriate permitting. Wouldn't it make sense that if we have turf there now that we followed all the protocols that were required at that time, the Coastal Commission would have come in at that point and said, no, you can't do it. So we wouldn't have turf there, correct? Correct. If it wasn't permitted. So to clarify, so we'll
311be relying, if this passes, then we'd be relying on the architect to tell us whether we need permits or not. And then if they tell us we do, then that we would have to move forward with that, correct? Okay. As far as heat on the turf, do we hold any liability for injuries for athletes if they get burned or if they have injuries based on the turf rather than having natural grass? We have liability insurance through our JPA. And they cover the fact that it's a higher temperature on the artificial turf where the burns can occur. Yeah, you know we the CIF monitors temperatures on field spaces We're not allowed to play on certain field spaces if it exceeds a certain temperature, so we can't even play or Practice if it exceeds a certain temperature
312Do you have any idea how many days have been missed of playing on those fields because of the artificial turf? No in the coastal region not very many. Yeah, okay and with I know you had talked before about the maintenance of artificial, I'm sorry, of natural grass. As far as the maintenance of the artificial turf, what's involved with that? They routinely clean the turf. There's power washers that power wash the turf as part of the cleaning schedule. But beyond that, it doesn't require much else. And how often is that done, the cleaning? I need to check with the maintenance crew. I don't know how often that occurs. Okay, thank you. I don't have any more questions. All right, any other questions? Okay, may I have a motion for the board to approve the replacement of
313the existing track and synthetic turf? So moved. Can I have a second? Second. Okay, Trustee Ciosi made the motion. Trustee Verbeth seconded the motion. Discussion? Go ahead, Trustee Rawlings. Thank you. We've been talking all night about how we want to do what's best for kids and how kids should be the center point of our focus, yet we're willing to put forever chemicals, we're willing to subject them to diseases, and we're willing to subject them to infections, injuries. and not only our students but our whole community. So I will be voting no on this agenda item. Okay, thank you. Anybody else want to share? Okay. Ms. Garcia, please call for a vote. Trustee Rawlings? No. Trustee Verbath? Yes. Trustee Ciosi? Yes. Trustee Emery? Yes. Trustee Warren? No. Motion passes 3-2. Thank you. We now move on
314to agenda item 11.5, approval of the project assignment agreement with Runeau Clark Architects for construction documents and construction administration services for the Carlsbad High School track and field replacement project. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Dr. Nye. Thank you, President Ward. As I mentioned before, Runeau Clark Architects will work. in preparation of the construction documents coordination with the division of state architect and construction administration services needed to move the project forward and maintain the targeted summer 2026 construction schedule i'll turn it back over to you for any comments or questions are there any blue cards there are no blue cards oh it's time for public comments so no blue cards okay trustees do you have any questions Okay. May I have a motion for the board to
315approve the project assignment agreement with Runeau Clark Architects for Construction Documents and Construction Administration Services for the Carlsbad High School Track and Field Replacement Project? Second. Trustee Ciosi made the motion. Trustee Emery seconded the motion. Discussion? Okay. Ms. Garcia, please call for a vote. Trustee Rellings? No. Trustee Verbeff? Yes. Trustee Ciosi? Yes. Trustee Emery? Yes. Trustee Ward? Yes. Motion passes 4-1. Thank you. We now move on to Agenda Item 11.6, Approval of Field Turf USA, Inc. for the Carlsbad High School Track and Field Replacement Project. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Dr. Rob Nye. So this is to award the contract to install the turf. Thank you. Any public comments for blue cards? None. Okay, thank you. Trustees, do you have any questions? No. Okay. May I
316have a motion for the board to approve the utilization of California Multiple Awards Schedule Contract, CMAS Contract Number 4-06-78-0031A with Field Turf USA, Incorporated for Carlsbad High School Track and Field Replacement Project. So moved. Trustee for Beth? Second. Trustee Emery seconded. Discussion? Okay, Miss Garcia, please call for a vote trustee Rawlings. No trustee for path. Yes trustee CoC Yes, trustee Emory. Yes trustee Warren. No motion passes three to two Okay. Thank you. We now move on to agenda item 11.7 approval of the professional Services agreement for the Carlsbad high school track and field replacement project trustees. This is a discussion action item I will now hand it over to dr. Rob Nye Again, just back to you for any questions that you have at this point in time. Okay. Public comment, any blue cards? Nope.
317Okay. Trustees, do you have any questions? All right. We have a motion for the board to approve the professional services agreement with the consulting and inspection services LLC for the inspector of... Record Services, NOVA Services or NOVA Services for Laboratory of Record Services and Balance Environmental Consulting, SWPPQSP Stormwater Monitoring Services for the Carlsbad High School Track and Field Replacement Project. So moved. Second. Trustee Emery made the motion. Trustee Verbeth seconded the motion. Discussion? Okay. Ms. Garcia, please call for a vote. Trustee Rawlings? No. Trustee Burbett? Yes. Trustee Ciosi? Yes. Trustee Emery? Yes. Trustee Ward? Yes. Motion passes 4-1. Okay. Thank you. We now move on to Agenda Item 11.7, Election of the 2026 CSBA Region 17 Delegate Assembly Candidates. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I'll now hand it over to Dr. Andrea Norman.
318Thank you. Each year, the California School Board Association holds elections for representatives to CSBA's Delegate Assembly, the policy-making body of the California School Board Association. Each school board may submit a single ballot to CSBA. A memorandum from CSBA dated January 31st is attached as Exhibit A. All re-elected and newly elected delegates will serve two-year terms beginning April 1st. 2026 through March 31st, 2028. The next meeting of the Delegate Assembly takes place on Saturday, May 16th, and Sunday, May 17th, 2026. The names of individuals nominated in Region 17 are attached. Exhibit B, additional information about each of the individuals nominated in Region 17 is attached to Exhibit C through Exhibit G. The Board may vote for up to the number of seats to be filled in the region or sub-region. As indicated on the ballot, there
319are nine seats to be filled in Region 17. Accordingly, the Board may vote for no more than nine candidates. Per CSBA, the board may cast no more than one vote for any one candidate. The ballot also contains a provision for write-in candidates. Their name and district must be clearly printed in the space provided. The ballot must be returned to CSBA. The U.S. postmark deadline is Monday, March 16, 2026. It is respectfully recommended that the board president poll the board to determine trustee support for up to nine candidates for the 2026 California School Boards Association Region 17 Delegate Assembly. Exhibit B and direct staff to submit the completed ballot to CSBA. By the required deadline, thank you. I'll now turn it back over to President Ward. Good job. This is a time for public comment. Have
320any blue cards been received? There are no blue cards. Trustees, do you have any questions? Okay. We have a motion for the board president to poll the board to determine trustee support for up to nine candidates for the 2026 California School Board Association Region 17 Delegate Assembly Exhibit B and direct staff to submit the completed ballot to CSBA by the required deadline. I'll make a motion. Can I get a second? I'll second. Okay. Trustee Emery, second in the motion. Trustees, I'd like to go through each name one by one to determine who will go on the ballot. The staff will return to CSBA. Are there any objections to Edward W. Jones of Fawbrook Union School District? No. Did you get that? Okay. Are there any objections to Melissa Krogh of Warner Unified School District? Okay.
321Are there any objections to Guy Wachmach of Delmar Union, Delmar Unified School District? I think it's Union. Yeah, Union. Are there any objections to Don Perfect of Ramona Unified School District? I object. Okay. I object as well. Any other objections? No. Okay. Are there any objections to Rhea Stewart of Cardiff Elementary School District? Okay. Are there any trustees that would like to consider a writing candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot as allowed under the write-in provision? Trustees, is there any discussion? Can you tell me why you don't want Dawn Perfect? Me or? Either of you. My experience is that she has not supported CSBA procedures and policies in the past. Agree. Okay. Ms. Garcia, please call for a vote. Almost midnight. You want to call for a vote? Oh, okay. Where does
322it say that? Yeah. Yeah, it was just polling, right? Okay, yeah. I'll take a vote. Okay. Trustee Rawlings? Yes. Trustee Verbeff? No. Trustee Ciosi? Trustee Emery? Yes. Trustee Ward? Yes. Motion passes 4-1. Do we have time to do this one? Do you need this one? Do you need the reopeners? Okay. So we're going to bring back Part 12, Part 13, Board Policies, and we are now at Communications. I am going to request – can I do that? No? Okay. And then we have to finish closed session? Okay. Where am I? That can't be done. Direction to staff. Okay. The time is midnight, and the regular meeting is now adjourned. Our next regular meeting will take place on April 15, 2026, at 6 p.m. at the Carlsbad Unified School District Office. Should the board? No. Okay.