001Good evening, everyone. I'd like to open the session. I'd like to call this meeting to order at 5.01. And do we have any public comments regarding closed session items? Hearing none, we'll adjourn to closed session at 5.01. We're back from closed session. I'd like to reconvene to open session at 5.31. And let's do roll call. Trustee Brutus? Present. Trustee Sandoval? Present. Trustee Rodriguez? Present. And Trustee Arroyo, present. Item 3B, report of closed session. And we have nothing to report. Moving on to pledge of allegiance. You can all join me. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So would anyone like to make a motion to approve the agenda? So
002moved. And do we have a second? I second. It's been moved and second. All those in favor? Aye. Approved. Moving on to Item 4, public comments. Do we have any public comments? We have none. Moving on to Item 5, action items. Item A, superintendent. Item 1, board seat vacancy, trustee area 5, discussion and decision on filling vacancy. So we received, as all of you know, we received Mr. Binjar's resignation. And the official date of the resignation was April 10th. April 10th. April 10th. April 10th. April 10th. April 10th. April 10th. have 60 days from receiving that to fill the board seat if we're going to make an appointment. So the choices are special election or do an appointment which is is really the history of what has happened in this district. So just reading from
003the law itself whenever a vacancy occurs or whenever resignation has been filed with the county superintendent of schools containing a deferred effective date the school district and community district governing board shall within 60 days of the vacancy or filing of the deferred resignation either order or an election or make a provisional appointment to fill the vacancy. Once the provisional vacant appointment is made within that 60-day period the registered voters of that trustee area district within 30 days of the appointment can petition to have a special election to fill the vacancy. And they need a and depending on how many people live in the area there's a different percentage of how many people have to sign the petition. It also states just so that we're you know aware of doing this sorry like it's a coming
004through all the papers here so it says when authorized by law the board shall opt to make a provisional appointment to fill vacancy the board by resolution may approve procedures for selecting the person to be provisionally appointed to fill the vacancy these procedures may but not are required to include advertising in the local media and and to solicit candidate applications establishing a committee consisting of less than a quorum of the board to review the applications and determine who's eligible for board membership and then announce the names of the eligible candidates. And then an interview during public session would be the last step and then the board does not have to make the appointment at that interview session but it will will we will have to make the appointment by June 9th and that is it
005and it's up and so the board just needs to give administration direction and we will make it happen. Do we have any questions? Any discussion or a motion? So I'm still trying to figure out what do we need to do first do we need to make a motion? Yeah we need to make a motion that we are going to have an appointment rather than a special election. Okay so then I'd like to then make a motion that we make an appointment for Trustee Area 5 for filling the vacancy of Trustee Mejiares. And if any questions? Any questions? Anybody's wondering basically he an appointment fills the vacancy to the next general election which is November of 2026. I'll second for you know just sake of discussion. Okay it's been moved and seconded all those in favor?
006Hold on hold on discussion discussion right discussion. You know we need to talk a little bit about the process right so you know before we make a vote like what is this going to look like. like, what are the dates that we're thinking about, you know, because once we're done with this, like we're going to be announcing this to the public, they should have an expectation as to what to expect and we should talk through that, right? So I do agree that we should make the appointment, right? Because special election will cost over probably $50,000 to run. I think that we should do like we have in the past, right? Which is an application process. So people within that district, right, can apply. And then from that, you know, usually what we would do is
007interview those people. Now those interviews have to be an open session. They don't have to be all that crazy. We could, you know, develop a few questions. We could post them so that you can see them. We can do that. We could do that. We could do that. We could do that. We could do that. We could do like a number of different things. Those interviews can be done at a special session if we feel like we need to, right? Between the time that we have to get this done, we have two more board meetings, right? And at least one of them is going to be talking about like the budget, isn't it? Like in May? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, we're going to have some pretty jammed packed, you know, meetings. I'm feeling
008within the next couple of weeks. So we need to think about whether we want to do the interviews, right? Either, you know, before a regular, you know, meeting, we do a special session, you know, say at say 4.30, gives us an hour and a half. Then we don't have to come back twice since we've been, yeah. So, or we can do it in two separate times. What do we all think about that? So we're looking... We have to make a decision within 60 days. Yes. Yeah. So, and that's at a regular board meeting. So working our way back, what would be the last meeting that we have to make our decision by? May the 28th? Well, it's May on the 28th. Yes, May the 28th because June 10th, oh, I assume the 11th is our
009board meeting and it has to be done by June 9th. So May 28th is the final decision. My recommendation would be... At least to notice on Monday before noon in the Santa Paula Times so that it's published on the Wednesday paper, which is May 7th. How long would you like it to, do you want to do two weeks in a row? Do you want to just do one? Well, so when do we want to do the interviews, right? So again, working backwards, if we don't want to do the interviews on the 28th, and that's where we just do the decision, then we could do the interviews on either the 14th at a regular board meeting, right? Or the 21st at a special. If we do it at the 14th, that gives about two weeks, right?
010Because I would start giving notice tomorrow. Right. I mean, starting through our social media and all that other stuff. So... Yeah, but if you guys want the paper, that's as soon as we could do it on Santa Paula Times is Monday. Yeah, we'd go in on the 7th. On the 7th. Yeah. So it's three... Venues though, right? Jeff, it's three notification venues. One of them could be paper. That's a different part of that process. Okay. It's when you make the appointment, you post it at different locations and announce it in the paper. But just doing the applications or getting people to fill out applications for review to make sure they're eligible, which is like verifying their address and those types of things. Yeah. So, you know, we don't... Optics would say put it in the
011Santa Paula Times and our social media, even though it's not required. Well, I mean, that's absolutely right. So the question that I have really is how much time do we want to give people to respond to that? You know, because hopefully those who are interested in the school district have heard that we have a vacancy, so it's not going to be completely out of the blue for them. But even still, you know, if there's some sort of application process, you know, they're going to have to hear that that's there. They're going to have to fill it out and get it submitted. You know, would we say like May 9th or May 16th is the deadline to get those applications in? Because that would decide whether we do the interviews on, say, the 14th or on
012the 21st. Because once we have them and it's closed, then, I mean, we can just go ahead and start. So. So are we interviewing at a public meeting? That would be May 14th? Either regular or special. Interviews can go regular or special. Now, I would argue, right, that, you know, we will have read the applications because, again, the applications are public. They get posted. You know, everybody can see it. We can read them. We're going to be doing what, say, a five-minute, ten-minute interview? Yeah. You know, depending on the time. depending on how many we do, like, will we need a whole week, right, to decide, right, and come back and then do it then, or do we do it right away, because that's going to be fresh in our heads, right? Usually the city
013will do it, no, I guess they go, it depends on what they're doing, right? Sometimes I've seen them do it separate, and then sometimes I've seen them do it at the same day, but again. I think for me, Jeff, what I'd like to know then, okay, so if we're looking at May 14th possible interviews, then make a decision on the 28th, or I like Trustee Sandoval maybe doing the interviews on the 14th, and then possibly making the decision at that time, but here's the question, what's our agenda going to look like on those days? The 14th is not going to be as busy as the 18th. I think it's going to be a little bit more busy, but I think it's going to be as busy as the 28th. Okay. The closer we get to
014the end of the school year, it gets a little nuts. So let's say we make a decision on the 14th, we interview, and we decide on the 14th, which I'm not against, I'm not opposed, would our new board member be sworn in on the 28th? Yes, the following board meeting. Okay, or then, if not then, on the no later than June 9th? So I'm just trying to hear the dates, okay. So if we go by that time, we would advertise on social media tomorrow the first, we would then contact the Santa Paula Times, and they would advertise it out in the paper on the 7th, and then we can close the applications on the 15th. No, we interviewed on the 14th. Again, it depends on if you want to do, yeah, if you want to
015do a special, then we're going to do it on the 21st, and if not, I mean, I kind of like, I mean, I think, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, May the 28th is going to be a busy meeting, so I would kind of like, and I'd actually like to have us have it all fully seated, you know, when we're talking about budget. It's a little bit of a good, and we can close applications on Monday the 12th. I would agree. That gives almost two weeks. I mean, yeah, put it out on social media. Right, and I don't think that this, you
016know, this application is going to be all that. Dressful. I mean, just for my sake, because I've never been a part of this before, what does an application look like? If I'm a regular member of the public, what would I submit? Well, it's just a regular application that talks about your experience as either a passport member or an educator or a city council member, and what are those things that would make, you know, or a parent. I think it's a parent that would just say, you know, that we can discern from the application, one, the eligibility, and two, a structured question and answer where they can, you know, we can ask anything from, please describe your history of employment or volunteerism, and then the second one would be as a new CFO. Okay, so how
017would you, you know, how would you want to approach that? You know, do you have anything in mind? So having gone through it once before as an applicant, I remember we had to, the application wasn't that challenging, but it was, you know, questions as you pointed out, Jeff, but there was also a letter of intent, like almost like a cover letter. Oh, why do you want to do that? I would like to see that. And that's, you know, a little bit more thought intentional. But I think what it does is that, one, it could potentially weed out just anyone that's not really interested and really put a hyper focus on those that are interested. I would 100% agree. Like, I mean, and I think that there does need, I mean, this is circumventing the traditional,
018you know, election process, right? So it's not just, hey, you want to do it? Come on on board, right? I mean, this is something I know I take very seriously. And I remember we went through it twice, you know, during that time period. Yeah, it might have been three times. But, yeah, I was, you know, but we all took it seriously, and that was a good thing. You know, it does what it does. It takes what it takes. So, you know, I would be in agreement with the cover letter, right? Plus that application. So we have the application. Oh. We verify addresses. Here's one other gum in that, one other snag in that, though, right? Because they're going to have to be posted with the agenda, the applications, right? So they're going to have to
019be done by Friday. They'll have to be in by Friday because the 12th wouldn't give enough time. I mean, it's going to be, it's a regular board meeting. Right. Well, if we decide that we want to screen for eligible applicants before the board meeting, then it would have to be done on the 9th. So then we're talking about, you know, a little over a week. Are we comfortable with asking that of the public? The only optics that look bad is that you post it in the paper for the 7th, and then the 9th two days later. Yeah, the more that I'm thinking about this, I'm not excited about another special meeting. But I'm... I would support a special meeting at this point because it's just, I mean, posting it on the 7th and then having
020it... Okay, this is going to be complicated, though, right? Well, it doesn't have to be on that Wednesday. No. You guys can pick whatever date makes sense for all of you. Okay, what about May 19th? Because that week I'm going to be starting on Tuesday. I'm going to be in Orlando at a conference. 19th works for me. The 19th works for me. So special board meeting on May 19th. Just the other way? I'm not 100% sure, but that's fine. Is there a possibility of a conflict? I mean, we all have to be there. Like, that's not... We're doing it at 5, right? Yeah, the special board meeting normally starts a little earlier than open session type board meeting. But it's not a public... It's not a regular scheduled board meeting. So we can actually start
021it whenever... We can actually start it whenever we want. As long as we notice the public that this is when it starts. Just like we do the board member workshops and we're here on a Saturday in the morning from like 8.30 to 12. It's the same type. Special board meetings are the same type. Do you have something... Do you have a conflict that day or... No, I'm just like on the call. Oh. But if I find it, we'll say 5. Yeah, I can't do... Sorry, 5 or good. I can't do daytime either way, so... Yeah. Okay, so 5 o'clock on May 19th. Okay. So 5 o'clock on May 19th. Okay. So 5 o'clock on May 19th. So just to clarify, so we're looking at applications closing on... We can do May 12th still, right? I
022mean... Well, if we're gonna do it the 19th, we can do it by the 14th. Well, the special meetings have only a 24-hour notice, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not too, too worried about that. We can call it the 5th. I mean, we can call it the 14th. It gives two hours. It gives two weeks specifically. It gives you time to prep or do whatever we need to do. You can even screen so that on Friday, when we have to post the agenda for the 19th, then it's only people who are been... Right. Who actually are in that area. Yeah. And then that too, then that gives you the opportunity to then give us information that we need on the 14th. Yeah. Which will be our regular board meeting. Okay. And it's not a bad
023idea to have a little bit of time? No. We can have a little bit of time, right? Because remember what happened the last time, which there was a conflict with someone and that conflict was after the appointment resolved. And I would really like us to not have that same sort of problem again. So even if we can look at those applications and see like, hey, is this someone that say, you know, someone who works for the, or has a spouse that works for the district or has any one of those other conflicts of interest? Yeah. We can kind of notify that person and say, hey, like, you know, clarify the situation and then decide whether they're, you know, really not eligible for other reasons other than address. Okay. And then can I ask that we
024also then if we conduct interviews on the 19th, that we also make the appointment on that day? We can't. The appointment has to be at a regular schedule. Okay. So then it has to be on the 28th? Yeah. Okay. I mean, I think we can... Well... Maybe a... Can we can we can discuss and we could say kind of this is where we're leaning. So we have, you know, pretty much an idea going into the 28th. Like the... I mean, we could we make it I mean, maybe you should take if you can, hey, contact our CSBA legal counsel to say, like, how much can we get done in that special meeting? Yeah. No, I was thinking the same thing called legal and just to make sure we're on the same page. Yeah. And maybe
025we can we can make the decision, quote unquote, but then ratify it on the 28th. Right. So, you know... That way, then our potential candidate can be available for the 28th. Right. Rather than... Yeah, potentially. Yeah. So we'll we'll have to get that clarified. We've got a little bit of time to figure that out. Yeah, but I'll get it out on a Friday update, what legal says. And then at the very least, you know, if if our understanding of that is, you know, that we're going to have to get that out on the 28th, we're going to have to get that out on the 28th. Yeah. But I'll get it out on a Friday update, what legal says. And then at the very least, you know, if if our understanding of that is really way
026off on the 14th, we could talk about that as an agenda item. Yes. So. All right. I think we just need a... So. Got you. I agree. It's being recorded. So we're going to on May 1st, we're going to post on social media. We will after we get the social media post, we'll send it to the Santa Paula Times. So they'll have it by the second. Okay. So that means they'll post it on their paper on the seventh. And then we need applications need to be in by the 12th, I believe we said. Well, you switched it to the 14th. The 14th. Okay. But that only gives... It's almost two weeks from the social media post. No, no. But for the... Because then we're going to meet on the 19th special meeting. So if you
027get everything on the 14th, that you're committing your staff to have everything pretty much done on the 15th, which if you're okay with 15th and 16th. I think the staff is going to be me, but that's fine. Yeah. No, I think that if we say by noon on that day, that'll give me the afternoon to make sure everything is the way it should be. And then a special meeting on May 19th. Yes. At five. To do the interviews. And then regular meeting on the May 28th. Okay. So that's the first thing. And then the second thing is we would appoint the new person. Right. Does that sound correct to everybody? Yes. The only other question I would have is if we have that old application at the ready to be actually be able to be
028posted. I'm pretty sure that we have it saved. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. Cool. With the cover letter. Yeah. And then we just have to make sure in the posting that we say, this is what we need a cover letter. And then we just have to make sure that we have the application filled out, verification of address. Okay. So I think now we are ready. If anyone would like to make a motion. So, I mean, I will, but I'm a little confused. So the motion is that- That we're going to do an appointment. We're going to work. Yeah. We'll conduct or we'll do the appointment for trustee area five. Yes. Okay. With the- We'll do the appointment for trustee. Okay. So the motion goes down with the timeline. The timeline. The noted timeline. With the noted
029timeline. Okay. And do we have a second? I second. So it's been moved and second. All those in favor. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Is that Simeon again? Mm-hmm . So we're moving on to item five B, human resources. Item one, adoption of resolution number 2024-2025.24 regarding the implementation of the implementation of classified layoff and elimination of a classified position. Positions. Ann? Vanessa. Vanessa? I'm sorry. I have it in writing right here. I'm so sorry. I have it in writing right here. No problem. I just didn't. I didn't see it in the audience. So I'm curious, why isn't Craig here, or Greg here today? He had a family kind of emergency. And he told us like at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Okay. So, again, we understand, Ms. Donahue. I mean, no, no, it's not. We
030understand that it's not. It's on you. One moment. One moment. I believe we need a mic for the recording. This is the final resolution layoff for classified employees. It follows up on the March resolution. The March resolution listed positions only. Preliminary notices were sent by March 15th to employees in the affected positions. Others who could potentially be impacted due to bumping as well. Employees were informed of their rights to request a hearing. No one requested a hearing. This resolution now lists the employees whose services will be terminated after all bumping occurred. Employees who bumped into other positions. Employees whose hours will be reduced starting 2025-2026 school year. And all employees. All employees being laid off will be placed on the 39-month reemployment list. If vacancies occur before July 1st, the superintendent or designee may rescind
031layoff notices based on seniority. Discussion or a motion? So, I'll start in with discussion. So, having spent some time on the budget committee, we've been really trying to encourage discussions at site levels. Site levels, evaluating funding, formulas, staffing formulas. And it sounds like the school sites, their work is not complete. So, they're still working on it. And to that, I definitely want to congratulate our staff for our sites for having those challenging discussions because we know this isn't easy. With that, I mean, I, you know, I encourage any of the members that are that are are a possible reduction layoffs or whatnot, you know, to reach out to your to your leadership, to your and find out what is next for you, because there's a lot of steps involved. And I don't want to get
032in in the weeds of that. But but again, I just want to just thank the staff for for having spent all the time in getting us to where we're at today, although challenging. But I know that it's it's we're going in the right direction. All right. Well, with that, I'll make a motion to accept this resolution. Twenty four, twenty five dot twenty five. Do we have a second? It's been moved and second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Passes. Thank you, Vanessa. Moving on to item two, adoption of resolution number twenty twenty four dash twenty twenty five point twenty five terminating services of certified employee as a result of reduction or discontinuation of particular kinds of services. This resolution implements the final action to terminate the services of a certificated employee due to
033the reduction of discontinuity or discontinuation of a particular kind of service. particular kinds of services as authorized by the board on March 12, 2025, through the resolution number 2024-2025-19. The affected employee was provided timely notice of proposed layoffs and did not request a hearing to challenge the recommendation in compliance with Ed Code sections 44949 and 44955. And having met all legal and procedural requirements, I am now requesting that the board take final action to approve the termination of the certificated employee. You'll notice that there is only one certificated employee, and that is because this is the only employee who is being terminated as a result of the reduction in services. The other employee would receive a classroom assignment. I just wanted to make mention in my motion for the last item, I did misstate the
034resolution number. So, Mr. Weinstein, I don't know if we want to... I don't want to correct that. Yeah. Okay. So, I'm going to make the motion to adopt resolution 2425.25, which was the same motion I made in the last item, mistakenly, but to terminate certificated employees. I'll second that. Item 2 says certificated. That's correct, correct. Yeah. So, okay. So, we have... It's been moved and second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Passes. Thank you. Moving back to item 1, resolution number 2024-2025.24, regarding the implementation of classified layoff and elimination of classified positions. So, I will make that motion again, right, to adopt resolution 2024-25.24, regarding implementation of classified layoff. So, it's been moved. Do I have a second? I second. It's been moved and second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye.
035Passes. Thank you. So, moving on to item 6, board member comments, requests for future agenda items. Yeah. Happy board meeting, everyone. Yeah. You know, it's a special board meeting. So, I guess I would expect an audience to be here, but, you know, it's a hit or miss sometimes. So, I look forward, I encourage members of the public of Area 5 to look or to hear what the timeline we have laid out, to look out for our posts. And to consider again, you know, applying. We really do need a fifth board member, especially before budget discussions because that fifth board member would be the representative for Area 5. We have some exciting events coming our way. We have a Cinco de Mayo event, I believe, on May 10th, happening at Santa Paula High School. So, again,
036if you're a community member interested in celebrating Hispanic culture, that would be definitely an event to go out to and see. Other than that, we do have some very exciting events that are happening that are really exciting to see. very interesting awards nights happening this coming may and towards the beginning of june so please be on the lookout and celebrate our cardinals and condors um as far as the vacancy is concerned um it's not an agenda item per se but uh the map that is on our website um that shows the trustee areas has two boundaries you know kind of set out because we were using that map for when we were redistricting um so the ones that are actually outlined are not right the current trustee areas uh it is the um colored areas
037that are actually the the trustee areas and there are at least some subtle differences between those two maps um so i just wanted to one alert the public that that is actually true and two to alert the staff so that we can get that corrected um and just so the public does know that the area five uh incorporates really from you know uh macabania right swinging into harvest into the oaks above i think it's richmond um and then it swings all the way through fagan canyon uh and comes back down on the uh west side of pec right so las posadas the mobile home park hill states um in that area so again just because you're not in an elementary santa paula elementary school district doesn't mean that you're not necessarily eligible because some of
038those families from briggs and mupu are eligible to be um to run for that as well so um and i think i'm right on that correct right because it's the unified district not necessarily the elementary boundaries so okay thank you i've got nothing to report no questions no comments keeping it short so moving on to item seven future meetings and our next scheduling meeting is may 14th but we will have a special meeting sorry thank you i apologize yes our next meeting is may 14th um so item eight adjournment so i will adjourn this meeting at 607.