SPUSD Board Meeting 03/12/25

001Good evening everyone. I'd like to open session at 5.04. Any public comment for closed session? No. Hearing none, we will adjourn to closed session at 5.04. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here tonight. I'd like to reconvene to open session at 6.06. Thank you. Moving on to item 3A, roll call. Board Trustee Gonzalez. Present. Board Trustee Perez absent or will be late. And Board Trustee Velasquez will also be late. Moving on to Board Trustee Minjarez. Here. Board Trustee Rodriguez. Here. Board Trustee Sandoval. Present. Board Trustee Grutos. Present. trustee Arroyo present item 3b report of closed session we have nothing to report at this time item 3c Pledge of Allegiance if you could please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance So moving on to item 3D, approval of agenda, I

002believe we have a few changes. So we're going to be pulling, admin would like to pull 6C, the ethnic studies program presentation, and 8.3, which is the purchase of Chromebooks. I'd like to move that we approve the agenda with those two stated changes. I second. So moved and second all those in a preferential vote all those paper. Aye Thank you board vote all those in favor aye Thank you So moving on to item for staff reports item a student board member report Take it away Good evening to you all in the audience and to everybody who is watching this on our YouTube channel So this week I was given the opportunity to speak and to communicate with principals and directors at the high school and Blanchard and McKevitt Elementary School. And here are some of

003my findings from those conversations. From McKevitt Elementary, as McKevitt approaches the end of the third quarter, they are excited to recognize their students' hard work and accomplishments. There are several key events that are planned for the upcoming weeks. For example, we have the Accelerated Reader Bingo Party on March 21st. Students who have met their AR reading target will celebrate with a special bingo party. Quarterly awards are coming up, so teachers will distribute quarterly awards to students on March 21st, acknowledging their academic achievements and progress. Also on March 21st, Spring Picture Day is happening, so smile guys. Parent conferences are scheduled for the 25th through the 28th. The Scholastic Book Fair is coming into town, taking place on the week of March 24th. ELPAC testing is beginning on March 31st so students in grades 3 through

0046 will participate in ELPAC testing to access English language proficiency. And there is a second grade study trip on April 1st. Their second graders will visit the Thousand Oaks Civil Arts Plaza for an enriching study trip experience. For the Blanchard Academy of Visual Arts, yes. They had a very good science night that was hosted here at Glen City Elementary. I was able to volunteer here for the science night. Ms. Lopez would like to thank Ms. Julie Bergman, principal, for the continued collaboration. Between the two school sites is that night was specifically designed for both Blanchard and Glen City kids and I could tell just by volunteering there the kids had a blast not just the volunteers, but just also the kids that came through they were engrossed in each and every experiment so Thank you

005guys for that. They are doing something that Blanchard School has never done before. They're doing a CASP campaign. So CASP is state testing, which every child in the state does. Elementary through middle schools, they test each year for every subject. Then high school, it starts to get freaked out a little bit. However, they're doing a campaign to CASP, so each week they are doing something new to celebrate the CASP. They are preparing their students for the CASP, and they are promoting the CASP, so that way each student is prepared to excel. This past couple weeks, they've also celebrated Read Across America Week, so they have had guests come into their classrooms. read them book and promote reading to them. I could tell I was invited to read actually at Blanchard. The kids loved it. They

006really loved it. They were engaged. They asked questions. So that just goes to show the power of reading. For the Santa Paula High School Athletics Department, track meet today, so good luck to our Cardinals as they race across other schools. Golf league match tomorrow, so golf, which has just started up, they are playing against, if I'm correct, Port Hueneme. So they are going over to the Port Hueneme Navy base, and they are going to play against the Port Hueneme golf team. And baseball, unfortunately, is postponed, I believe, due to rainy and bad weather. For Santa Paula High School Performing Arts, the Santa Paula High School Choir hosted competition at the Santa Paula High School Auditorium. They actually came in first, beating, I believe, three other schools in the entire Ventura County. And band, the Santa

007Paula High School Band and Color Guard is also traveling tomorrow to Sonoma State for a band competition. So good luck to our band members as they perform. and play his songs. That is all I have to report for this week. Thank you. Student Trustee, whoever wants to go first or is ready, please. You ready? Trustee Velazquez? Hello, everyone. A lot of faces here today, but I just want to make sure everybody's having a great night. I'll start off with Barbara Webster. Bar Webster Elementary is having a dinner of free pizza and drinks for parents and students of third grade through fourth grade. The students of 2023 and 2024 school year state great scores. It will be Thursday, March 13th at 530 to 730. at the cafeteria. Extra recess for students who attend. Also there's a

008family science night of 2025 for Barbara Webster on April 30th at the cafeteria. Good afternoon everyone. As Ms. Mech said, there's a lot of people in the crowd today. So here's my report for Glen City. Alpac testing has started and students are doing a great job showing what they know. Grizzlies turned out for last week's family science night. It was a great learning experience for the whole family. There was guest readers that have been visiting classrooms to celebrate Read Across America. I know a few of the board members went, or majority. As you're driving by Glen City, make sure to check out the amazing murals being painted. This beautiful artwork was donated by the Isabella Project. Next week, there will be a fourth grade family lunch. We can't wait to see all the families from

009the fourth graders. Now, moving on to Isabel. It was a true honor to welcome Dr. Beth Lusk, California School Boards Association President, and Mary Lynn. Delin, CSBA Public Affairs and Community Engagement Representative to our school district. During their visit, they had the opportunity to visit Isbell Middle School Academy of College and Career Sea Perch Program. Through the Sea Perch, Isbell worked in teams to design, build, and test their very own underwater robotic vehicles. developing critical skills in problem solving, teamwork, and creative thinking along the way. This innovative program is made possible through a special partnership between our school district, California State University of China Islands, and the U.S. Navy's Naval Surface Workforce STEM program in Port Hueneme under the direction of Dr. Ramon Flores, Ventura County Board of Education. Also at Isbell, this past Thursday

010our Child Nutrition Services CNS team treated Isbell students to a special tasting of beef birria during lunch. Students enjoyed crispy corn tortilla chips topped with tender, slow-simmered beef birria in a flavorful sauce, finished with some fresh cilantro, onion, and a squeeze of lime. To gouge interest, the CNS team gathered student feedback through surveys and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Students couldn't get enough of the rich savory flavors. CNS is excited to continue exploring new delicious and nutritious options for their school meals. Also moving on to the high school, as Asher mentioned, the SPHS Cardinal Choir did absolutely amazing on Tuesday. It was so exciting to meet all different people from different cities and different schools. I would like to shout out to Elias Garcia, a senior at Santa Paula High School who currently holds an

011impressive 4.8 grade point average. and has dreams of becoming a mechanical engineer. As a first-generation college-bound student in his family, Elias is paving the way and setting an inspiring example for future generations. Although he has not yet decided which school he will attend after high school, Elias has been accepted to prestigious universities such as UC Davis, UC Merced, San Diego State University, CSU San Jose, CSU Northridge. He has also applied to various military... academies including the U.S. Naval Academy which consisted of a highly competitive application process that required him to receive nomination from the office of Congresswoman of Julia Brownlee. During his time at SPHS, Elias has played both baseball and football. Last year he received the Junior Rotary Award from the Rotary Club of Santa Paula. He is currently a finalist for the Hispanic

012Scholar Foundation Scholarship and the Albino R. Pineda Scholarship. Out of thousands of applicants, he is one of the 50 finalists for a 50,000 Edison Scholarship. Lastly, he was selected as an apprentice for the 2025 Office of Naval Research Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program with a $4,000 stipend. So good luck to Elias Garcia. We're all rooting for you. Also, I would like to brag about our STEM students at the high school. Four students from the Mesa Club are going to regionals in April. I am one of them. Surprise. And so good luck to Rodrigo Mendez, Miana Galvan, Daryana Rocha, and I. And as Asher said, all the band students who are going to the Sonoma Festival tomorrow are very excited. Correction, Color Guide is not going. So we're not going. And I hope to hear all

013your lovely voices today. And thank you for letting me talk. Thank you, student trustees. So moving on to item 4B, committee updates. Does anybody want to start? Oh, I have nothing new to report. Okay, moving on. Yeah, I'll try to make it quick. I know we got a lot of stuff to go over. So I had the pleasure of, and first of all, Manuel Minjares, I'm one of your new board members here in Santa Paula Unified School District. Very proud to represent Area 5, and thank you for having me. Thank you for being here. So I had the pleasure of reading on Monday at Bedell Elementary School. And it was to a much older class that I'm accustomed to reading to. Usually, you know, you participate in the Read Across America. You're reading in front

014of kindergartners, first graders, maybe some second graders. I got a class of fifth graders. And I got to say, you know, I've got a child in fourth grade at Isabel, I'm sorry, at Bedell and a child in sixth grade. And it was a little intimidating. I know they wouldn't just sit down and like me to read, you know, a cat in the hat to them. I didn't know how they were going to take it, but to my surprise, they were all just very, very, they received me very well, and they really liked the book that was chosen for me to read to them, and it was a great experience, so thanks for everybody involved in that and everybody who had a chance to read to our students. I also want to mention, just talk about

015the basketball season that just ended. I had the pleasure of being... I'm so sorry to cut you off. That's under comments. I did the same mistake when I first started, but I'm glad you presented because not everybody makes it to the end of the meeting. Okay. So, unless you attended one of the committees... Okay. So, I want to talk about that. Okay. Thank you. So, two by two, I had the pleasure of attending my first two by two board. Committee meeting so that you were on that right Daniel was that Tommy that was Tommy So the two by twos are really great opportunities for the school board members to meet with the representatives with the with the city and there are a lot of things that we're working on that influence a lot of the

016things that we're doing so we got a an update on the Santa Paula The Santa Paula Street bridge that the city's working on to connect the harvest community into Santa Paula proper and a number of other projects that uh that they're working on and also they're going to be they're going to be hiring a consultant to evaluate their development impact fees which include a fee that's paid to uh the school district where it's called the develop a school fee so um some of the things to pay attention to when when following your your your city council meetings as well uh but uh yeah that's about that's all I have to report this time thank you sure and your comments please share everything because I also read it was nice trustee's out of all In my

017California School Board Association's role, this week we had our alleged action week. So today I spent most of the day on Zooms with Senator Monique Limon, Assemblymember Steve Bennett, and Assemblymember Greg Hart. The concerns that we push were Prop 98 in the governor's January budget. maneuver to withhold 1.6 billion dollars and we're telling them you shouldn't you need to fund prop 98 which is our primary source of funding here at the district and around the state for public education we also reiterated to them that even though cola uh is relatively meager this year we do expect you know and we'll be pushing for them to fully fund it at 2.5 percent uh one of the other governor's initiatives was as a discretionary block grant of about 1.7 million dollars over five years uh we're pushing

018for that to actually be discretionary and not to what um the legislators want to push upon us um So there is that. And one that I personally brought up outside of CSBA is attendance relief. Usually, there's probably not very many that know how education gets funded, but we get funded on our attendance, not the number of students that we have. And that number gets calculated in the spring. And so usually our second census day, which is P2, is higher than our... First one, P1, this year it's different. This year we've lost about three percentage points at least from our attendance, right? And we believe, right, that a lot of that is because of the chilling effect on immigration, right? So we're asking the state for relief and we will continue to fight for that. And

019hopefully that'll make it into the governor's budget in June. Bad side, right, is each member reiterated the budget concerns that we are going to be facing at the state. The LA wildfires are not being funded by the federal government, right? The cleanup efforts and the rebuilding at this point, right? There's concern that that's going to land all on the state. That's billions of dollars that may have to come from. the general fund. Medicaid is on the chopping block, right? We spend quite a bit of our budget on that. They're grappling with what happens if that money doesn't come through. And anybody checking their IRAs, right, or retirement accounts know that the stock market is down in correction territory, down about 15%. Our state budget is largely funded by... capital gains on the stock market. And

020so that kind of portends a bad budget year for the next coming year. So they're really worried about it. They're saying, don't ask for more money, right? But we're just trying to fight for what we've been promised. Thank you. Trustee Frutos? All right. So the one committee that I did attend was in concurrent with Trustee Mejiares was the city and school district two by two meeting. Some of the highlights were four new crosswalks that were located throughout. the the city the harvest bridge it was interesting hearing about the negotiations with the Just like labor agreements and whatnot Let's see the developer fees And then one of the future items that we're at least having discussion on is inviting the Ventura County Community College to attend Our meeting just to help build some of that that

021gap the bridge and communication since we are definitely trying to increase our dual enrollment for the the high school um it's uh it would be a great opportunity to build a relationship and a partnership with the community college district so and that's all i have to report thank you and i have nothing to report at this time So, moving on to item 5 public comments before we do public comments. I'm sorry. It's my fault on the agenda. The item pulled of 8 3. Should not be pulled and instead. Under consent calendar, when we get there, the item will be pulled. So, we gave the raw I, I personally gave you the wrong information. So, do we have a motion to approve the changes to the agenda? So moved. A second or do you need some

022time to look at it? No, I'll second that. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. And I jumped you guys. I'm so sorry. Student trustees, provincial vote. All those in favor? Aye. Thank you. Passes. Okay. Now item five, public comments. And before I read what the agenda says, I just need to ask as a courtesy to all to please no clapping after each comment. It's just, it disturbs the meeting and it prolongs the meeting. And some will get clapped, some won't. And it's just part of public meetings that clapping is not appropriate during public comment. Okay. As we continue to encourage the public to view the meetings via YouTube at Santa Paula USD. Public comments are welcome and encouraged by the board within reasonable meeting time considerations in order to conduct the district's business. During

023this time, the president of the board may acknowledge a visitor's request to speak on a topic not on the regular board agenda. Persons wishing to address the board should complete a speaker form and turn it into the recording secretary. Individual speakers shall be allowed three minutes on any agenda item. The board may limit the total time for public input on each item to 21 minutes. Also, speakers will not be allowed to give their time to other speakers. The board is prohibited from taking action on any item that is not part of the printed and published agenda. Any individual with a disability who requires reasonable accommodation to participate in a board meeting may request assistance by contacting the superintendent's office at 805-933-8802 members of the public may submit written comments by 3 p.m on the day

024of the scheduled meetings to i sanchez at santa paula usd.org these comments will be read out aloud into the record written comments submitted to the board are limited to 300 words and i believe if how many How many items do we have? All the comments? We have approximately about 20 public comments. And in order to allow everyone to speak, we're going to limit the time to two minutes. If not, then we would have to not hear all. And that's not correct. We want to hear everyone. And it's very important to hear everybody. And if somebody has the same thing to say, you can just acknowledge that you have the same comments and then add any additional comments. That others have not spoken that usually helps cut down the time. And with that said, we will

025start with the people who are here and then at the end, I will read the other public comments. I will call the 1st and 2nd person. So if you can be ready to come up and speak to. I'm gonna raise the question madam president based on public comment It and again, I'm only making an assumption shouldn't our comments be made under the appropriate agendized item Can you confirm whether they're agendized? in your items but just instead of doing that let's just go ahead and and let the public so i mean it's just it's let's not make this more complicated i mean if it was i know what we were trying to do okay all right but i think that's probably going to be so i'll receive my comments i'll rescind it thank you yeah so

026if you give me a moment they were corrected and we do have The correct agenda item, so I won't have to cut anybody off and they start speaking. So the 2 that are not under an agenda item. And if you are, because it's 2, I can correct this right now. Is Rafael and. I can't read the last name. Is there a Gabriel from port winning me? She's raising her. Yeah, so if you're your item is not on the agenda. You would be second after Rafael. Okay, Rafael. Yes, please. Yes. Hi. So on the topic about the protests that happened like a few, like an hour ago, I think that it's not right that they're taking away the, that they're making cuts on people's jobs that work in the district. My mom works in the district

027too, and I don't think it's fair that they affect like a bunch of people. that work there. And I think that the students are, it is important that the students have safety and that they deserve more and not less. I think I'm done. Thank you. ...to grow within their community. Instead, I was forced to homeschool them because the district failed to create a safe, functional environment for families. Santa Paula Unified cannot afford to repeat history. The board must act now to remove Jeffrey Weinstein before more families are driven away and our schools face financial collapse. From Jane Doe, Santa Paula resident. Hey, Steven Faulkner. It has come to my attention that the district is still attempting to shut down McKevitt Elementary, albeit in a much more conniving way. Why is the superintendent still trying to

028shut down McKevitt? Why is the district attempting to shuffle the student population around in such a way as to make it appear that McKevitt would suffer from low enrollment and thus have reason to shut it down? I want to make it crystal clear that we are not in opposition to the Isabella Project. Conversely, all the parents in Santa Paula that I know are proponents of it and hope they will work with us to help educate our children. But why at the cost of shutting down McKevitt, a school that is neither the lowest attended or the lowest testing? So what is exactly about McKevitt that has to do, that has to be with the school that closes? On top of that, the CBO has fired and at least 59 classified staff members are looking to be

029let go this year, who now knows how many certificated jobs will be lost. I find this highly unusual and ask if we open a forensic investigation into the budget of the school district, what would we find? All told, there are 11 directors and a superintendent with two assistant superintendents. that cost nearly $3 million in base salary per year and $604,000 in benefits and a grand total of over $3.5 million, totaling $350,000. I must call into question his leadership abilities if after multiple years of service we are now having financial troubles enough to fire 59 classified staff, dozens of certificated staff, and are having to close down the oldest and most beloved school in the district. For a man with a background in finance, it clearly seems that there would be a better control of the

030budget. I think we as parents deserve direct and honest answers as to just exactly why our district has fallen on such hard times. None of this includes the poor budgeting from the special meeting planning from the 10th, where we are pulling from multiple funds over the next four years, all in an attempt to have multiple projects across multiple campuses with what seems not likely nearly enough money. Are we planning? Are we planning that we get more funding from the state? Are we taking into account the potential loss of federal funding? The potential rise in construction costs due to tariffs. Are we hoping to tax the people with more measures? I hope the district is actually planning for these contingencies. Thank you. Moving on to item six, presentations. Item A, overview of the independent studies program.

031Can we? Hello. All right. Good evening, board. Superintendent, attendees, I'm Robert DeCandy, assistant principal at Isbell Middle School. I also oversee the district's independent studies program. And this is Justin Schmidt, our lead teacher in the independent studies program. Cool. I want to introduce you to some of our staff. Without these people, none of this would be possible. First is Lily Populis, our elementary teacher, K-5. She does amazing things on a daily basis, you guys. I've seen students who, when they came to our program, couldn't even blend sounds, recognize grade-level sight words. These students are now reading at or near grade level from the work she's done. She also is helping with some of our high school overflow right now. Mr. Schmidt here, our lead teacher, high school teacher, kind of a figure in this community.

032Barbara Morabian, our middle school teacher, one of the most organized teachers I've met. Her outreach is amazing to the point where parents are like, man, she's calling me a lot. But I'm like, well, good, you know, we got to make sure your kids are working. Ms. Erica Jimenez, who is here tonight. She's technically our wellness room coordinator, Isbel, but also one-sixth of her job is to help us out in independent studies. Miss Erica Magana, who is also here. Where are you? There she is. She didn't want to get embarrassed, but she is here. I have commonly referred to her as my right arm in this. We would not have been able to even get off the ground last year without Erica helping in every aspect of what we do. Two and a half hours a

033day. Yes, I do get her for about two and a half hours in the morning and then she goes to Renaissance for the rest of the day. Jessica Limon, she's currently hosting a parent academy at Isbell right now, but she's technically the Isbell outreach, but I bug her every now and then when he's not available, do home visits. She's also great with some of our fun events that we'll share here in a little. All right, so I concur. No, I've If we get too excited, just let us know. Like, hey, we get very passionate about what we do. As you can see, our staff has been it's amazing. We work well together, but we do have to get pretty creative with our time with some of our staff members limited in their capacities. But we're

034as you can see, as you'll see later on the presentation, we're making it work. And and I think this is going to go, you know, go to great places. All right. So what is independent studies. You know that's your definition there. But what we offer is a program that fits the needs of students who are experiencing difficulties at you know traditional brick and mortar school. This allows them to complete all the necessary coursework in an alternative setting while still getting support from a credentialed Santa Paula Unified School District teacher. DIRECTOR HERSEY- So on a daily basis. We're working with students. It depends on the grade level. Our elementary teacher has groups throughout the day. She's got a rubric. I don't know how elementary teachers work. They scare me. Everything's color-coded, and they have times and

035centers and rugs and books and all these things. I hear her next door and she has these kids in here. They're doing amazing things. They have celebrations. They come over next door to me. And Trustee Minajares, when you were talking about having students come in and read, these kids are coming over and they're so excited to come in and read to me. And just to see these littles come in is amazing. Ms. Populis is doing amazing things. The support. We kind of look at it, if you've ever been to Disneyland, kind of like Autotopia, with the upper grades, with the secondary, we kind of let them drive. We let them think they're driving, but if they get too far off track, we get them right back on track. So at the middle school level, the

036support, we're kind of... Kind of weaning it off in high school. We really are independent studies. I meet with each kid one day a week There's an opportunity a number of different opportunities for them to meet with me And if they miss those we go out and find them so we don't we don't lose too many kids And it's not for everybody. We have kids that say hey, this is this is not what I expected I want to go back in person and there are kids that We say this is not what we expected from you. You need to go back in person. So it's a very fluid program, and we'll get to that when we start looking at the numbers. But a day-to-day basis, it could be very, very busy online or it could

037be very busy in person, and no two days are alike. So the program we use now is Edgenuity. I worked closely with Dr. Moore last year to determine what program we thought was best for our independent studies program. Last year we used APEX, the year prior APEX as well. We did a little pilot at Renaissance with some 11th graders in Edgenuity. Students overwhelmingly enjoyed it. Some of the other online platforms, there's a lot of just .12 font, looking at pictures, reading, clicking, moving on. Edgenuity does offer videos, drag and drop options. So there's a lot more there. So that kind of what you're looking at there is what a student would look at logging in each day. There are six core classes. Some can have more than six. Progress in the class, color-coded bars, if

038you're on task, so on and so forth. And we do encourage questions at any time during the meeting. What we are looking for here is not only progress in grades, but also time in seat, right? So we have Ed code that we follow closely. So we, Edgenuity, and this is one of the reasons we chose to stick with Edgenuity, is the logs that they give us in the reports are really good. So we look at session log. That's time working. And a great feature of this program is it has idle time. So we don't count idle time. For example, we did a home visit today. A student said, oh, I did 20 hours this week. But if you subtract the idle time, there was five hours in there. And so we don't count that time.

039But we also are looking at, are they making progress in their courses? We're not just looking for the 20 hours a week, but are they passing the class? Are they making progress in there? And Justin's going to let you kind of detail what it's like with these reports and how we relay this information to parents. So just to step back, I've been an impotent study teacher for the last three years with different leadership, and we've grown it along the way. We started with Apex, and Apex is great for credit recovery. It's great when you've had that foundational instruction, and maybe you weren't as successful as you could have been, and now you're revisiting those essential standards. So, Edgenuity does have that option and we do use some credit recovery in Edgenuity. But we have students

040that the majority of them are in college prep. We have a couple students that are in honors. And the great thing about Edgenuity and the district chose this feature is the AI and the plagiarism component. So if a student submits an assignment, before it even comes to me, it's scanned for AI, it's scanned for plagiarism, and we get different types of alerts. There might be an alert where a kid has 6% plagiarism. Well, maybe they cut and pasted a sentence out of something that they read, but the majority of their work is their own. Well, we get those notifications. We get those notifications if they've quoted something, but it's cited. So if they've done that correctly, right, they're collaborating, they're borrowing work, but they've correctly cited it, we get those notifications. And we get those

041notifications where it's just cut and paste this page, paste this page, or the AI support that kids can have now. So it's very detailed. And if you think about it. I was an in-person instructor for 22 years before this, and I don't know that I could look at a student for a period, a class period for 60 minutes and look and see how long they were sitting there. I can't check a student's idle time in person. So that's a great feature to really gauge the engagement of the student. All right, so some of our programming enrollment and demographics. we made this slide on march 3rd we had 82 students in the program we now have 91 just in that short period of time the bulk of the students are in high school but we are

042seeing more elementary students this school year last year we probably had four or five but we have a le we have 12 now one more one of the two pending enrollments did enroll the other i think moved to a different city so you know our trends is growth and also this year we added special education students we have 12 students with ieps justin is also a credentialed special education teacher as myself so we take care of the ieps for those students when they move over we are currently looking i met mr with mr weinstein about this for a long-term sub to help alleviate the overages like i mentioned our k-5 teacher Again, she's amazing. She is taking on some of the high schoolers and Justin is taking on quite a few extra students right now

043until we can find someone. Did you want? Yeah. And I think this is a slide that's most. Meaningful to me. Those of you who know me, I'm very passionate about the youth in Santa Paula. I've taught and I've coached here for generations. Taught some of your kids, taught some of... Once I get the grandkids, I don't care how good I feel, I'm gonna have to retire. Once I say, you were my grand... You coached my grandpa. But I'm very passionate about it. And if we're really truly looking at our district model, every student, every day, these 91 students, maybe not all of them, but the high majority of them would have gone to homeschool, would have gone to VISTA. Right. So we're keeping these 91. And if we're looking at budgets and I know all

044those those things that are going to come up that aren't fun to talk about, we're keeping 91 students in our district. We're quick. We're collecting 91, you know, 91 students worth of ADA. But but they're not just numbers there's there are kids who are you know there's there's a there's a young student who's enrolled in all honors classes who needs to stay home to help their family right because they have younger siblings and they have you know grandparents that they have to they did they have to stay home and watch. So now we're providing an opportunity for that student to still stay connected to our district. Right. Those other independent study schools in our town may serve a purpose for our students, but we're keeping our students. And we have families that say, well, I'm

045going to go try this. I'm going to go try this. I'm going to go try this. When we keep our students our our numbers don't get get blended. We don't have to reevaluate classes You know a class at Renaissance looks the same as the independent studies. It looks the same as Santa Paula High School So we're allowed that fluid movement, right? We are an alternative education We are we are providing something to students who maybe not wouldn't be successful in person and like I alluded to earlier This isn't this isn't Right a big basket where everybody's successful not everybody successful in this program We're not gonna sit here and tell you that that there aren't things that we could get better at and there are there that this program is is Pie in the sky

046and it serves everybody it doesn't but for those 91 students that are currently enrolled It's making a difference for them and it's keeping them with us So our program structure is essentially is what is required to remain in the program. This is on the far right would be the Ed code. Right. And then this is we put it in hours of week and then students get 30 minutes of the LD that my teachers also do K-12 work there. But yeah, essentially what we need is 20 hours a week from fourth grade and up. First through third, 60 minutes daily, three hours a day on your own. So synchronous is with a teacher. Independent is at home. Edgenuity for elementary is not just online. There are workbook components as well. So if a student's not comfortable

047on the Chromebook, they can fill out the workbook, submit the hard copies to the teacher. And on that, I just want to say that's a minimum. We have some students who go well above those 20 hours. We have a couple students who live on the very, very, very far end of town. And I've taken them Chromebooks. I've taken them, you know. Hot spots. We do everything. We've delivered them lunch because they've done so well. On those logs, we looked, and one of them, their brothers, one of the brothers worked 10 hours on a Sunday. So he got up at 6.30 in the morning and worked all day on a Sunday. And he happened to be one who accelerated and finished a course early. So there's just a lot of opportunities. This program opens up a

048lot of doors. This next slide, we still have to do state testing. And I know one of the logos up there is FAFSA. I know that's not state testing, but it is a graduation requirement. So it's something that we help guide our students through. But if you... Sorry, can you make sure you hit the microphone so that the online audience can hear? I have no idea where that came from. That was me. I'm sorry, Dr. Sandoval here. I apologize. It was the voice of God, actually. Thank you. At least I'd like to think so. I feel a little better. Thank you. We understand that. You have to speak to the mic, speak to us. So I apologize. You can take off the mic and walk around if you want. I'm not going to speak to

049you, right? I just get excited. I get excited and I talk with my hands and I'm going to knock it over. So we understand that the fast foot is not part of state testing, but it is a graduation requirement. So we do help our students do that. Those of us who are familiar with state testing. Right, we organize it on campus. We send passes to kids maybe for the ELPAC. All right, we're gonna pull this group of kids today, they're gonna work on their speaking and then tomorrow we're gonna pull them out of their English class and they're gonna do their reading, writing and listening. And those who are absent, we'll send another pass. Within a bit of study, it doesn't work that way. We have to find ways to get students in person because

050All of these state tests happen in person. We need to verify who the students are. They have their own numbers. We have to sign affidavits. All those things that we have to do in person, we still are required to do this on independent studies. So we have to get very creative. We have to get creative with our incentives. Why are these students going to come in? In years past, it hasn't been. We haven't been that successful. Writing this requirement into the independent study contract has helped that it's mandatory that you come in for state testing. So, you know, fixing those things. I'm happy to say that we had to get very creative between CTE vans and SROs and Dicandia's Hyundai Elantra that is board approved to pick up students in. We had to go to

051the students and pick them up and bring them to us. And I'm happy to say that this last administration for the ELPAC we just finished, we did get 100%. testing for that. So it's hard enough to get, you know, I will pat ourselves on the back because it truly was a team effort from calling parents and going to pick kids up and then the kids actually coming in and testing. It was a team effort and, you know, we need to celebrate the students for coming in just as much because You know, from being in a traditional classroom and then that not being your comfort zone to then being asked to come in to a place that maybe not be your comfort zone and still perform and be assessed. That's that's a lot of that creates

052a lot of anxiety for some of our students, too. But with that, I think this year, more than any, we have provided so much more. mental health, social, emotional support. We understand that, I think you heard the passion in my voice earlier when I was talking about our students, that they are our students. So we wanna make sure that they are included in everything that they can be included in, right? So we have ice cream socials that we bring them to. We do, we... I got you. We do our best to make you still feel a part of the district. For instance, we went on our canned food drive. The school had a canned food drive. Justin and I went around and picked up cans from students. Still participating in all... the Santa Paula High

053School functions graduation prom. I want to thank Mr. Weinstein and Mr. Guzman for allowing that to happen. We had quite a few independent studies students go to the prom last year. That was really special for them. We had our first ice cream social. We've had an open house this year. Classrooms down there, Ms. Poplis had a little Valentine's Day party for her students. So we really are trying to make this feel more like a school. And the previous slide had the mental health aspect. Ms. Jimenez has been amazing this year. She has a two hour block every day for drop-in or virtual meetings if students just need to talk. She is there for them. Currently, I mean, a lot of her job is enrolling new students, credit checks, evaluations. She's meeting with all our seniors

054and juniors right now to make sure they're looking good as we move in towards the end of the school year. Next steps. So I've met with Mr. Weinstein quite a few times this year, and we've seen huge growth in the program, but there is so much more room for improvement. I've met with other principals in other districts and other programs on what independent studies in homeschool looks like in our county. And what you see here is just a sample of what kind of went through my mind after meeting with them, speaking with Justin and our other teachers. So one thing that would be amazing is like a maker space, right? Get the kids in groups by grade, building things, STEM activities, art activities. I would love to, Mr. Guzman, maybe use the high school gym

055one day a week or for a little period. We'll see. We'll talk. But letting our independent, or we thought maybe partner with a local gym, right? Give us a discount so our kiddos can go into the gym. Field trips. We have a lot of places here. Fire station, grocery stores, farms. museums that we could start going on. Edgenuity has CTE courses. It does cost a little more. That's something Dr. Moore we could look at there. Increasing the social-emotional, Ms. Jimenez has talked about in-person social-emotional groups on a regular basis. Dual enrollment, but this would come at the cost we do. need you know a full-time office assistant full-time counselor as mr schmidt has pointed out we are all coming together and doing what we can to make this program as successful as it is but

056we would need other things moving forward so that's that's all we got are there any questions yes yeah do we have any questions of the board i just want to say it was a very thorough presentation thank you so much no it's We've been wanting this information. So thank you again for doing a great job on it. And I hope you're more than welcome to come out. Yeah, anytime, please. There's so much more that we could explain, but I don't want to be here all night, guys. You guys got a busy night tonight. We very much appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Thank you. No, no, no, hold on. I was just being polite, right? To make sure that no one else had questions before I took my turn. A couple things, right? So enrollment is

05791. But what is attendance. So the last report I saw from Dr. Santa Maria will be like 76 ADA there which was it's better than it's ever been. Last year was brought to my attention it was the first year that independent studies generated ADA. So there is room for improvement with that. And that comes to outreach. I'm, you know, I work at Isbell Middle School it's hard. There are things that are happening there for me to get away and to do is home visits and to put as much into that. There is room for improvement. So what do you think steps, what steps do you think we need to take in order to get that number up? Mr. Schmitt. In the mic. In the mic. We do have a process of sending students back. We

058err on the side of trying to encourage without enable. And so we have a timeline to where students... Get their feet wet and then they have to hit the ground running and then if they don't hit these milestones if they don't hit these benchmarks with their attendance then that triggers a phone call an email an attendance letter a home visit a Formal letter and then you're sent back to your home school So in the past we've had students that have come to independent study and it could have been just a place to Get away from SARB get away from the attendance issues of the great issues and then maybe I don't have to do do a lot of work. That's a big misconception. I know we still communicate with the SARB board. We get phone

059calls during the SARB meetings. So their attendance is still tracked on independent study. What we could do in the future is just have more bodies, more time, more assistance to reach out to both our English and Spanish speaking parents, to our guardians, to the students, and then have those. in-person meetings to transition them back in. So I try to take care of all that business in the first two and a half hours that I have Erica. of the day and then like I said she goes to renaissance so we're every day Erica who we calling who we who we checking in with and all of this is explained in an intake meeting no one can join independent studies without coming to my office parent and student meeting with me reviewing the contract going over expectations

060and I always start with why are we why are we here today in my office right like it's a big change in from being in school to coming to independent studies so How well do you think this program is known? One of the concerns I'm thinking about is that we have seen a dip in our overall ADA, and that could be kind of twofold, and both of them are questions that I have. So let's say the easy thing. We had a horrific flu season. There were kids that were home for, you know. a while right is this used in those or can it be used in those kind of short-term situations you know so there's the ed code short-term long-term they have to go over a certain threshold before they can transition to long-term independent

061studies. The short-term independent studies is under, is it 15? 15 days. So 15 days. Okay. And you guys don't handle those? No. Okay. Who does? So I handle that for ISBEL. So yes, ISBEL counselors to handle short-term independent studies. And a lot of the Edco changed with that this year, attended a webinar and there's another one coming up. as far as how to take attendance for short-term independent studies and how to collect the ada from short-term independent studies based on work completion and in there okay um the um other side of the the um drop in ada right are families who might be afraid to be in in school, right? I mean, are you seeing any of that? A little bit, yeah. We've seen a few. We've seen that even with our home kids. They

062see us, you know, Robert and I go knock on the door and maybe some parents are a little hesitant to answer the door. We've seen students, parents who were... We've seen students who are in the program, parents who are in the program now hesitant to come in and meet with us when they have been very forthcoming before, very willing before. So I definitely think that that. uncertainty, you know, create some anxiety in attending in person. Yeah. Well, I mean, but I wonder if we're missing students who are just kind of like dropping, right. And not getting into it. Don't even know that independent study is an option for them. Right. So so I do wonder if we need to be doing a bit of outreach so that there's alternatives. This is the first year we

063have a tab on the website. Last year we didn't have a tab. Julissa, thank you. She did a great job. So we're on the website. We would love to promote. We've made some flyers, you know, but it has grown a lot, I think, mostly by word of mouth. And Mr. Guzman works with his counselors. Everyone should come across to Candia's desk before they want to go to Vista. um and that's how we want it to be like hey i want to take my kid to vista hey meet with this guy real quick see what he has to offer then if you don't like it explore somewhere else i mean we would like to put this three out of business like that's what our goal would eventually be and just the the increasing the outreach piece

064of it increasing that connectedness um if we have a kid who's not who's leaving school or who who's not attending school and and he's not really and that's not known other than a number, then he's not really connected. We need to find that connectedness with the school and the district. And I think the outreach piece of that, going out and finding those kids, going to all corners of Santa Paula, right? And look for every kid, every kid, every day. Most of the principals know me now and know what we do. And I get phone calls from all elementary and everyone like, hey, DeCandia, can you meet with this kiddo? They're having a... tough time but um i think we need to yeah promote it more that would be great All right. Thank you. And any

065other? Oh, go ahead, Ms. Holmes. Thank you. How do you account for student and parental feedback? Is it when you go to those home visits that you start to account or see their perspective on how their student is performing? Or how do you how do you account for that? Yes, we had some parent testimonials we were going to share, but we were trying to didn't want to take too much of your time. But no, our teachers are in contact all the time with the parents. That's a. crucial part of their job is the outreach checking in with parents. So far our parents love what we do, love the program. As I mentioned, Ms. what that parent called me, Ms. Moravian calls me a lot, Mr. Candia. And I'm like, well, you know, that's, that's her

066job is to check in with you and that. So we do gauge it by that, but you know, maybe a survey is a great idea towards the end of the year. We have a couple of kids have been in the program two or three years. They're rolling over. They love it. Some are new at different times of the year. i i just want to say um you know as a my son who has dealings with with both of you two gentlemen um you're definitely a positive uh role model in our community and i just want to say thank you for that um two it's refreshing to hear that the work is not done in a in a building it's done out in the homes in the streets that's a that's something that i've just been

067touting for for for many many years and uh and it's nice to know to know that and i know that to be for you to be credible in saying that because i know that the type of gentleman you are so thank you for your your professionalism and your your go-get-it attitude that's awesome thank you gentlemen yeah we sat on two different couches today yeah last week i got offered a cappuccino that was pretty pretty awesome but all right i think any other questions And if anything else comes up, we're very approachable. If anything else comes up, we're very approachable. Let us know. Come visit. We'd love to have you. Thank you. So moving on to item 6B, brief overview of our wellness center. And I believe we have one public comment after the presentation. Thank

068you. Good evening President Arroyo, members of the governing board, Superintendent Weinstein, cabinet, members of our audience. It is my great pleasure for you this evening to be able to present to you information about our wellness centers throughout the Santa Paula Unified School District. With me here today tonight are our fabulous an amazing team of Wellness Center coordinators as well as some of our wellness peer representatives and Throughout our canva presentation. We do have some embedded video testimonials from parents and I believe some staff so I'm going to just begin by passing it on to our first presenter tonight. I do want to share with you that one of our Wellness Center coordinators, Raul Perez from Blanchard, was not able to be here tonight. So presenting on his behalf is Eva Hernandez from Barbara Webster. Thank

069you. I'm going to pass it on. And I've got IT helping us with video. So thank you. You can pull the mic over. Yeah. Story of our life. Okay, so good evening, everybody. I'm Eva Hernandez, and I'm the school counselor at Barbara Webster Elementary slash wellness coordinator. So the web, we called it Where Everyone Belongs. It's been over two years that my principal, Mr. Madrigal, and I advocated for this space. Thankfully, our previous board allowed us to pilot, you know, the first wellness center in the county. So now I believe there's about 140 across the... Ventura County districts. Our Wellness Center is a safe space for students and parents to access support for their mental health. Students are welcome to come in and check in with me, the counselor, when they need any type of

070social emotional support. We've been lucky enough to have amazing wellness leaders, and I have some here with me today, who are not afraid to offer a helping hand. So here we can see in some of the pictures. They lead classroom presentations. They've also partnered with Bright Youth Program. They come twice a month to help us with any social-emotional lessons, and they run lunch pop-ups. They've also been a part of the wellness fair. My previous group, we had a Santa Paula Unified School District wellness fair, so they participated and they were vendors there. We also do yoga for all ages and that just before school in the middle school sometimes and then in the top corner you can see our wellness peers. We also always have a calendar that you guys can follow us on Instagram

071and we try to update it you know in the beginning of the month so that way students know when they can participate in those activities. So when it comes to addressing student need, right now, as of February 27th, we've had 2,922 visits. So students are able to check in on the iPad. They let me know whether they need a wellness break, they need to speak to a counselor, or why they are there to maybe to participate in one of the wellness activities. Obviously, I mentioned Bright. We partner with them. We also partner with Kindness is Free, where they come in and they do presentations. They do school-wide assemblies and the lunch pop-ups as well. The web has also allowed us the opportunity to lead wellness peers. And sometimes they also present in the classrooms. As

072far as for right now, we have about 50 classroom social emotional learning lessons that we've been able to, that I've been able to present, and sometimes they help support those lessons. Be Your Best Self, we do with a first grade, the first grade clap cohort. And obviously you can see that they've also been panelists. So just yesterday they were at VCOE presenting on the benefits of the wellness center. So they were able to present on that as well. So the reason why we have Wellness Peers is it really started from the high school. And obviously we know that our youth are increasingly turned to each other for peer support and advice. So we decided to start this program. And I lead them through a curriculum that we use. But honestly, they're learning communication skills, how

073to talk to each other, how to support each other, just how to connect with mental health resources and other trusted adults. But mostly we'd like to wear our wellness gear to kind of reduce the stigma of seeking out mental health supports. So they're always proud to wear their clothing, to identify themselves as those wellness peers. And here we have some testimonials. So we have a staff who had some positive feedback for us. Hi, my name is Amanda Crafts and I'm the After School Competitive Sports Program Director at Barber Webster Elementary. Our Wellness Center is essential to our campus life and students. We utilize our Wellness Center to decompress, de-stress, and express ourselves here at Barber Webster. I believe all students should have the opportunity and access to a Wellness Center. And we also have a

074parent voice. So one of the parents there, she has a kindergartner who, you know, was just having a hard time entering school. So she said, thank you for teaching the wellness peers how to support others. My child had been struggling to walk into school. So some of the students have walked my child to class and made sure she's feeling safe and comfortable at school. And so now I would like to introduce you to some of our wellness peers. These are fifth grade students who applied, interviewed for these roles and demonstrate empathy and compassion to their peers. In total, we have 11 peers that have been training, but tonight we're joined by Jalene Gonzalez, by Athena Carrasco, Miranda Gonzalez, and Jose Angel Zamora, and they have something to share with you. Hello, my name is Jalene

075Gonzalez. I became a wellness peer because I like to help people. I also like to help Ms. Hernandez with wellness activities so she doesn't get stressed. I believe Wellness Center should be on every campus because a kid might need to talk to someone and might need a quiet room. It's also a place a kid can calm down. All kids need someone to talk. and kids deserve to do wellness activities. I use the Wellness Center when I need someone to talk to and Ms. Hernandez has helped me a lot with that. I love you Ms. Hernandez. My name is Athena Carrasco and I became a wellness peer because I wanted to help kids feel safe at school. When my little brother was in TK every morning he would cry because he didn't want to go to

076school and my mom would take him to the Wellness Center to calm down. And my counselor, Ms. Hernandez, would play or talk to him, and she would distract him so my mom can sneak out. Later, he felt better, and he would go to class on his own. I also wanted to learn more about mental health. And then I believe wellness centers should be on every campus because they offer a space where kids can de-stress or calm down with a trusted adult or peer. All children of all ages have moments of stress or times they feel like they have no place to go. From a kindergartner who doesn't want to go to school to a high school student who may need to talk about what's going on in their life, even parents can get support there.

077I know my mom has with my little brother. Hello, my name is Miranda Gonzalez. I became a wellness peer because I wanted to help kids with their mental health and with their problems. Also, I wanted them to feel safe. I hope they can tell me anything and I hope they can trust me to offer support. Ms. Hernandez inspired me in third grade when I had a situation with another student. She helped me feel safe. I believe wellness centers should be on every campus because every kid should be able to have a quiet room. Also, every student needs a counselor to talk to about problems they might have. Wellness centers can... can help students stay healthy both physically and mentally. Hi, my name is Josean Casamora. I became a wellness peer because I used to feel

078like I wasn't good enough. But my parents were always there for me. They encouraged me, and then I went to my school counselor, Ms. Hernandez. She helped me get control of my feelings when something happened in my life. Now I want to be able to help kids, and I want them to feel safe and secure, just like my parents and Ms. Hernandez helped me. I believe wellness centers should be on every campus because everyone should have the opportunity and freedom to express their feelings and emotions and not be judged. Wellness centers also give the opportunity to the kids to get to know other kids in the wellness center. They will not only be able to speak about their feelings without being judged, but also get better communication skills. Thank you. You guys did a great

079job. Okay, so I'm here to talk on behalf of my colleague, Mr. Perez. So he runs Bernie's Den Wellness Center, and that's at Blanchard Elementary. So as you can see from some of the pictures, we have bright wellness activities that also come to his site. You can also follow him on Instagram, Blanchard Wellness Center. They have wellness activities at least, I know, at least twice a month, where they actually also do parent workshops. So I believe... In the month of January, they run a nutrition workshop with VC Public Health. And in February, they did a drug prevention workshop as well. He also has wellness peers that he trains through the Wellness Center. And they update their calendar also monthly. When it comes to addressing student and family needs, they've had at least 479 visits at

080their center. They've done at least 16 wellness activities since February 27th. They work really hard at doing those parent workshops. They've had over 40 participants. They've also done the mental health referrals as school counselors do. They have 33 as of the 27th. And then he also does SEL lessons with two grade levels. So this is some of the positive feedback that the den got. So one of them is the wellness center has been my safe place from a sixth grader. Another one is when I'm not feeling well, I just like to draw in the wellness center and it makes me happy. And a second grader said, I love the wellness center because I take breaks to help me calm down. And then a first grader said, I enjoy being able to talk about my feelings.

081And then we have, I believe, a parent who had some feedback. Hi, my name is Marilyn Cardoza, and I have four grandkids here at Blanchard Elementary School. I want to talk about a little bit about the Wellness Center, how awesome it is, all the things that they've been coming through with, letting the students go in and do activities and help them out with their problems if they have any problems. And I know my grandson gets to come in here and does a lot of things with the person that's in charge, which is Raul Perez, and he's a very awesome person. And I think he's doing great for the school and all the students really care about him. He's a very good person, very caring, very loving. And it's really to where with students with problems,

082it's an awesome thing to have at the school and especially with the counselor. He's very awesome. Good evening. Hello, my name is Annette Campbell. And my name is Sonia Perez. And we're the school counselors and wellness coordinators at Glen City Global STEAM Academy. We opened our new wellness center at Glen City on December 9th, 2024. The Grizzlies Den. We'd like to highlight some of the things we have done so far at the wellness center. We have pictures that we share on our Instagram page. Please follow us at Glen City Wellness Center. Monthly calendar of wellness activities we offer. In January, we have a picture. We celebrated the Great Kindness Challenge, a school week long initiative. In January, students wrote kind notes to other students and practiced random acts of kindness all week, part of an

083anti-bullying campaign promoting positive school culture. We also have a partnership with Bright Youth. They do a visit once a month. and do wellness activities promoting creativity and community building. We have completed two professional developments for staff, focusing on strategies to promote wellness every day. And we also did a professional development on behavior strategies in the classroom and building relationships with students. We have done a parent workshop, Coffee with the Counselors, an informational meeting regarding wellness centers, our services and resources for parents. So this next slide is how we address students' needs. This data was collected December 9th, 2024 through February 28th, 2025. And the number of whole class introduction to wellness centers, we service 27 class visits, which totals 641 students. And number of individual counseling visits, we serviced 88 students, so we visited with

08488 students. And number of small group counseling and topic areas, five social skill groups. Number of referrals to mental health or outside services, five. Wellness center breaks, so. We've had 2644 students visit with Wellness Center breaks and I want to give a little bit more information on how we address the wellness breaks. So basically when a student visits the Wellness Center we assess the level of need based on colors. So we have four different color zones which are blue zone, yellow zone, green zone and red zone. So students are allowed to visit the Wellness Center when they are feeling blue or yellow. So the blue zone is defined as feeling sad, losing focus, and the yellow zone is defined as feeling frustrated, worried or nervous. And so by applying these zones of regulation, it allows

085students and staff to know when it's appropriate for students to visit the Wellness Center. Okay, now we would like to share student and parent feedback. These quotes are directly from Glen City students. A third grader shared, the wellness center calms me down because sometimes I feel anxious. A second grader indicated, I love how I feel safe to talk about my feelings in the wellness center. And a fifth grader stated, I like the wellness center because it gives positive vibes and keeps kids happy. We also have parent feedback. So first we have Hermelinda Diaz. She shares her sentiment in English about the Wellness Center. Hello everyone. My name is Hermelinda Diaz and I'm the mother of two students at Plant City. And this time I want to share my experience with the Wellness Center that they

086introduced at the school. And I want to share that this is a great resource for us as a parent, especially for me that I have two students and I've been able to have the support and also the assessment in order to help my children to be directed or redirected to achieve better results. This has been a great asset to the school. because of all the support that I've been receiving. I believe that's the same as me and other parents as well, which makes me feel more comfortable and more supported from the team, from the school, from the staff, from the counselors, which provides me the peace of mind knowing that my children are safe. It's well care and it's being supported in a way where they can accomplish great results at school but also at

087home. So that's all I want to share this time. Thank you so much. So next we have parent Maria Diaz. She shares her feedback in Spanish. Thank God they opened it in December of the year 2024. It has helped us a lot for my daughter in her work because she has had some problems and thanks to this center it has helped her a lot. When she has a problem she comes to the center. and it helps her a lot because she has a lot of fire, so she has her emotions, contains her emotions and when she feels ready, she goes back to class and finishes her homework and leaves very happy. Thank you for your time. So my name is Erica Jimenez. I am the Wellness Center counselor at Isbell Middle School. I am also

088the Independent Studies counselor K through 12. And I brought a couple of my peer mentors. I have a total of 10 peer mentors this year. So I brought three of them and they brought gifts for you guys. So feel free to open them and check them out. Check out their gear. We're promoting mental health. So, so far in the Wellness Center, we have had 3,116 visits and counting. This includes the number of students that are coming in for our Early Start program. The Wellness Center at Isabel is open in the morning from 7 to 8 in the morning for those parents that need to get to work early and need a place for them to be dropped off at. That is able to happen with the support of our Outreach Specialist, Jessica Limon, who opens

089the center at 7 in the morning. These numbers also include our lunch and nutrition activities, our individual visits, our new visits to the center. These are students that are new to the center learning about what the center is like. is and the resources. We have our wellness check-ins and these are just students that need a break, need to get away, are feeling stressed out, overwhelmed, they need a space to be at. And we are also seeing students from staff referrals, meaning if a staff notices the student is having a hard time, they can be sent to the Wellness Center. And just letting you know, these numbers could be greater, but I do have to close the center two hours per day due to being also the Independent Studies Counselor and having to do those tests.

090So these are the type of activities we have in the perch in the center. We have parent wellness Wednesdays, which have been a success. So twice a month on Wednesdays, we invite parents to come and join our wellness activities from 8.30 to 9.30 in the morning. And they get to experience the same type of activities that our students are experiencing. We've done drum circles with them. We've done sound baths with them. And we're going to keep doing them. So far the feedback has been amazing. They love the fact that they can experience the same activities that the students do and they themselves are learning self-care ideas. We are also working with Bryant just like the other centers. So we partner with an agency that comes and does activities in our center twice a month. So

091we're doing friendship. friendship bracelet making, stress ball making, rock painting, nature collages, a number of different activities. Like I said, we are starting to do sound baths too with parents and students too. So sound baths are kind of a new thing that's kind of going on and it's kind of a meditation experience where participants lay down on yoga mats. We have the facilitator who kind of roams around the room and is playing different musical instruments and it's creating an atmosphere of relaxation. total relaxation where you can just honestly fall asleep, which we've had some students and parents fall asleep, and it's supposed to reduce stress and reduce anxiety. So if any of you ever want to come to our sound baths, please, you're all welcome to come. We are also doing drum circles in the

092Wellness Center. So drum circles is another way of having complete relaxation. I run the drum circles, and I feel like more and more students that are in our special education programs are joining the drum circles, and for them, it's become extremely therapeutic because they are really feeling the vibrations. especially for students who are on the spectrum, they really truly enjoy the sounds and the rhythms and the vibrations of the drums. So these are some of the activities, our students in action. And I always wanna make sure that I say that we're not just playing, we're not just doing activities or fun activities in the Wellness Center. I feel that every single activity that we do has a point, a purpose, and they're learning a skill. So they're not just making stress balls, they're creating a

093physical I guess way of being able to de-stress, to be able to get their anger out, their emotion, their stress. They're not just making bracelets, right? They're able to socialize and be able to connect with other students. So every single thing, every single action, every single activity that we do in the Wellness Center has a purpose and a learned skill. So like I was saying, a lot of our special education students have been joining the drum circles. They're joining the drum circles, but also coming in and just doing the drums on their own. So this is one of our students. It is Mr. Gabriel. So he loves coming to the wellness center and it's either to join in one of the drum circles or just do the drums by himself. I actually called his dad

094to make sure we were okay to play this video and he actually told me a story that he self-taught himself how to do the drums. And he's amazing at it, has great rhythm and is so good at it. So I feel like more and more students know they can just come in and utilize the center and utilize all the manipulators that we have in there. The other video is a short clip of a parent doing a drum circle. And then we have the response of one of the parents that participated in the drum circle. Hello, my name is Monica Perales and I have a student at Isbell Middle School and I'm happy to share some of my recent experiences with the Wellness Center. My daughter is in seventh grade and she is currently part of

095the peer mentor program. She really enjoys being a part of the program. appreciates being able to learn how to help her peers through the support of the counselors at the school and the staff. She really likes to be able to play a role in making the overall experience of middle school, which can be tough, a better experience, a healthier experience, and that is focused on Being the best version of yourself and they're learning that through the Wellness Center through her being able to Share that with her peers and her peers being able to come to her when they need that support. I also recently was able to participate in a coffee with the principal, which I hadn't done before. And that was my first time doing it. And I will be back. It was a

096really interesting experience. They shared with us a drum circle. I liked that they were sharing what the students are going to be doing and what they're participating in so that when our students come home, we're able to talk to them about it, but also we're able to experience what they experienced. The drum circle is a really unique way to get kids to learn different coping skills. and different strategies that aren't just talking. And I think that really speaks to children. So I'm excited to see what more the Wellness Center has to offer the students. I think it's been really beneficial to the students to have a place to go when they need it and also to learn. how to cope with tough things that can happen throughout our lives and especially during the tough years

097of middle school. So I'm really grateful that the school has that available to all students. And I'm grateful that my daughter is able to be a part of making the school a better place and overall wellness of the community and the middle school. Thank you so much. And then I'm going to have my three peer mentors introduce themselves. Hi, my name is Maria Landeros and I'm an eighth grader and I've been a peer mentor for three years. Hi, my name is Robert Cruz. I am an eighth grader, and I've been a peer mentor for one year and a half. Hi, my name is Denise Salas. I'm 13 years old. I'm in seventh grade, and this is going to be about my third year being a wellness peer. So I'm going to have them answer a

098couple questions for you. So the first question, peers, why do you think wellness centers are important? I think wellness centers are important because it helps other kids socialize with other kids that they don't know. I believe wellness centers are important because it helps kids calm down when they're feeling stressed. I believe that wellness centers are an important place to have in schools because it helps kids express their feelings in a safe environment. Second question, as a peer mentor, how do you promote wellness centers? As a peer mentor, I promote wellness centers by helping out with the activities we do. I promote the Wellness Center by encouraging other students that are feeling bad or sad to go to a Wellness Center. I promote the Wellness Center by passing out our business cards to kids I see

099are in distress. If any of you guys are wondering what they are, they're little cards that Miss Jimenez gave all of us Wellness peers with our name, information about the Wellness Center, and basically just like to know where to go when they need help. And third question, what is your favorite part about the Wellness Center? My favorite part about the Juana Center is the activities we do like Legos. My favorite part is also the different activities that we do. My favorite activity is the sound bath. My favorite part about the Juana Center is being able to go in and talk about what's going on in my life with Ms. Jimenez and also our little chisme talks. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, my name is Miranda Pecksock and I'm the Wellness Center Counselor at Santa Paula

100High School at The Nest. And I brought two of our wellness peers with us today. This is Kayla Sanchez and Jessica Diaz and they brought a couple of gifts for you. So they're going to pass that out while I talk. So The Nest was the first of its kind in the district and started virtually in 2020. We were one of eight that started in Ventura County. and in the beginning of 2021 when we came back from distance learning we opened in a small space on campus this school year we are excited to have moved into room 210 which is a larger space actually a full-size classroom and i actually have a video of it i don't know if you can click on it the new space is up right there Oh, maybe not. OK. So

101the Nest enables students to access mental health services early. Oh, there we go. So the nest enables students to access mental health services early to address issues before they become severe, reduce stigma and discrimination, improve awareness of mental health and create a safe space for students like Isabel and all of the other wellness centers in our school district. We have a variety of activities that we do in the center and also outside during lunch. I've got some photos up there of just some of the activities that we've done this school year and beyond. We also work with Bright and do activities at lunchtime. My wellness peers, we go to the county office of education in Camarillo and have trainings. So we've done two this year there. And it's really fun for our peers because they

102get to meet with the other school, the schools throughout the county and meet with the other peers and mix and mingle and share stories and come up with new activities. fun for everybody we've had a few guest speakers come in like the arc of ventura county came in and presented on project r during lunch to our students and we've also had the coalition and diversity collective come and present as well so addressing student needs so far when this slide was created. We've had 1,409 students visit the center. These include individual check-ins, students who just come in to take a break, lunch activities and presentations, and also staff referrals. I have done 20 referrals and counting for our mental health services through the grant partnership with Ventura County Behavioral Health. We have a therapist that comes

103on campus once a week and meets with students. And I've done also some referrals to our district mental health therapists as well. And then just some student and staff feedback. We've had quite a lot of feedback this year since we moved into the new space. The students are really excited about it because it's so much bigger and there's a lot more activity in there, which is a lot of fun. We've got one student, a sophomore student, who said the nest is a safe space for everyone to feel welcomed. A staff member at the high school said the nest is so relaxing and calming from the moment you walk through the door. And a senior student said I feel safe to share my feelings in the nest. We also have an Instagram, so feel free to

104follow us. We post activities that we do, our monthly calendar as well. And then now I'm just going to let our wellness peers come up and share their experiences with you. Hello, my name is Kayla Sanchez. I am a senior at Santa Paula High School, and this is my first year being a wellness peer. To me, being a wellness peer means a lot. As a high schooler, obviously in my senior year, I've been through all four years of high school, and each year can be maybe a bit difficult. Currently, as a senior, there's this thing called senioritis, so it means that you get a little lazy or maybe you burn out. The Wellness Center actually helps a lot with that. It provides a safe space for students to come in during breaks or during class.

105I've seen fellow classmates who may have like an emotional distress and need a place to run. They always like to go to the Wellness Center to talk to Ms. Pecksock or a wellness peer about things that they might be going through. Just spreading mental health is very important. I've taken child development classes where, as we could see, our elementary students are also spreading mental health. Mental health is a very, it's a big necessity, especially in the development of children and in the youth as we get older. It's really important to understand and communicate our feelings to get through the day and make high school a bit easier. To me, being a wellness peer is... Spreading mental health, I've done presentations. We have this thing called Wellness Wednesdays where every morning we have a presentation to

106talk about different aspects of mental health. Actually, last week I made a presentation about burnout and the previous week I made a presentation about men's mental health. There's a lot of stigma that surrounds it. being like men need to be strong but we need to teach our youth especially this generation to break those ideas that we have that men's mental health isn't as important but it really is and that's what being a mental wellness peer means to me thank you Hello everyone. Good afternoon. My name is Jessica Diaz. I am a mentor peer at Santa Paula High School. I have been a wellness peer for at least two years now. It has been a journey, to be honest, to go along the pathway, lead other children, students, anybody at the Santa Paula High School. My

107experiences here as becoming a wellness peer, it has impacted me a lot to provide my peers with the resources. anything they could support, anything they need. Just in general, we need to take care of their mental health because sometimes I know there's students where they would be too shy, embarrassed to even seek the support that they need. So overall, the treatments that I have been going, like at least two times or one, I have saw many... things that I have not learned before. In general, it's like you have to be the bigger person to help others out. Make them say, hey, like come to the wellness center. We're here for you. Don't be scared. We know deep inside of you, you might be scared, afraid, but we all got this. One thing that really stuck

108out to me was be the bigger person. and you are the one to support them and as well give them motivation to keep on going. Overall, the wellness center has changed since my senior year. It used to be like in a small little room. Now it's like really big, so it's really comfy. I have not learned much, but overall, when I became a mentor peer, it has given me so many information, resources that I have never even liked. thought or you know seen before in my life. Well it made a huge change and it's great for students overall to go there as their comfort place and whenever they feel stressed, mad, upset we consider the Wellness Center a place where everyone is welcome and they could feel free to be safe. Very grateful to be

109someone to change and how the Flyers promote those resources to everyone. Overall thank you so much for your attention. Thank you for all the presentations. Dewey. Thank you, board members, for listening, for audience, everyone online. I do truly hope that you were able to get a sense of the amount of impact our wellness centers are having for not only our students, but for staff and our families throughout Santa Paula Unified School District. At this time, we will open the floor for questions. Go ahead, Trustee Minhaj. Thank you so much. Wonderful presentation. So proud of the students that took time and their parents that allowed you to take the time to share what the wellness centers at your schools mean to you and are doing for you and how it's allowing you to interact with and

110support your fellow students. So that's amazing. I love to see culture being built within our schools. That's a big part of what we need from our wellness centers. And I guess my questions kind of revolve around. you know, focusing and making sure that we're doing what we need to make sure that we're capturing the needs of the kids that are maybe at a little bit more of experiencing more severe or acute type of mental health challenges. And some of these questions are, you know, what kind of are we using best practices for? you know assessment so when they when they come in you know maybe if you can describe the assessment process that they go through so um uh you know to give me a better idea of how are we able to capture um

111the type of or the level of mental you know health issue that a student may be experiencing Well, because I know at the high school, the grant is very different. So they partnered with VCBH. So there's an actual clinician that goes to the high school once a week to take in those referrals. And there is an assessment form that every student needs to, well, Ms. Peck saw, right? So there's a questionnaire that students fill out called the PSC 35. And VCBH has a criteria number that students need to score in order to qualify for the services. from that therapist their program is prevention and early intervention so that is mostly for students who are just starting to experience mental health issues for the first time never really have met with a therapist before very low

112level so i have them do the screener and if they qualify i refer them to our vcbh clinician if they score a little bit higher than that then i will refer them to our our district mental health counselors Gotcha. And I feel like at the middle school, there isn't a grant associated to VCBH, so it's more of a collaborative approach. So when a student comes in and I notice that they're coming in more often or they need more support, then I collaborate with the other two counselors on site, and then we determine whether it needs to be a referral for ongoing counseling services within the school site to our mental health counselors or to VCBH through Logrando Bienestar. Gotcha. So it's a little bit different based on the resources that we have at the various

113sites. yeah so the same with elementaries they collaborate with each other and find out what the best um service is depending on the needs okay um and then as far as you know our our outcomes in terms of referrals for service um how are we doing compared to other similar sized districts uh have we have we looked at those metrics com you know given you know the number of of of uh referrals that we've you know you know sent over to vcbh are are we You know, in comparison with other districts, how do we feel we're doing? Are we meeting the needs of the district? Yeah, because, I mean, I had that similar question because I looked and saw that there was 20 referrals to BCBH and our own, right? And I want to make

114sure that we are utilizing BCBH as much as we possibly can. And now that you're talking about it's more low level. Right. That kind of concerned me a little bit more because I would assume that more students would qualify for that lower level. But if you can kind of talk about that and like how long that referral process might take or any bottlenecks. So, I mean, I have questions. Yeah. So I know there's a lot of data that we collect, especially at the middle and the high school level, because we are through the grant at VCOE. So we meet with VCOE on a quarterly basis to submit all the data. And at the end of the year, they do submit all the data in comparison to the other districts. So when we do get it,

115we can share it. But I feel like we're comparing to other size districts in the county. I feel like we're about the same. I feel there's a decrease in the referrals, which could be a good thing because kids are able to seek out their very low-level intervention at the wellness center, and we're able to kind of catch them there without having the further need. Also, you were asking about bottlenecks. They're pretty good about reviewing the referrals and meeting with the student within 10 days to give them the services they need. Also, if a student scores maybe like a 30 to 35 on the PSC, I will still send it to VCBH and they will help connect the student with the appropriate level of care. So if it's not with the wellness center therapist through VCBH,

116they will work with them, either refer them to CareLon or beyond. Another question I had is, you know, it's my understanding that the district has the ability to bill Medi-Cal directly for services. But, you know, you've got to have the, you know, the correct screener. Is the screener that we use, does that allow us to bill Medi-Cal for those services? I would have to get back to you on that question. I'll find out more information about that. Okay. Thank you. I don't know. I have a couple more, but I don't know if you got some. Okay. I just wanted to say one thing because just because we're not making the raffle doesn't mean that students aren't already connected. So some of our families, we speak with them and they're already connected either through private insurance

117or they have Medicare. So they're already connected. So you just wanted to mention that. Thank you. That's good to know. Thank you. And I guess the rest of my questions is, you know, just to get a better feeling of understanding of, you know, what is our connection like with VCBH? It's my understanding they have a lot of good training for that would be very helpful to our staff. Do we participate in training that VCBH offers? So we have had meetings with VCBH partners. I would have to get more information in relation to the types of trainings that we've connected with, and I can get that information for you. Oh, that would be very helpful. And let's see. Gosh. Yeah. There's a number of other issues I think that I'd like to bring up and discuss

118with the staff. And just like I said, to make sure that we're doing everything we can to one, make sure we're billing, if we're capable, if we have a capacity to bill Medi-Cal that we're getting the proper documentation to do that, that there's training available to the district, that we're taking advantage of that and not missing out on those opportunities. Yeah, I'd be happy to meet with you guys offline to go over that stuff. But thank you very much. I'll let the other board members ask questions if they have any. I do have a couple, right? I mean, the number of visits to the wellness centers kind of across the district at one level seems great. And at another level makes me go, okay, how much instructional time are we missing? I think that's something

119that we need to get a handle on, because I'm sure that there's a lot of repeat visitors. If that's happening, then they might be missing more instructional time than necessary or that might be harmful. I think looking at those kinds of patterns is important. The one thing I do worry about sometimes is that over prescribing right it's like you know having a bad day versus like a you know a need right you know the teaching resilience right you know i mean we can't run to the to the to the wellness center you know all the time necessarily and again i don't know how if that's a problem right or if you're seeing that at all or or what you might have to say about that? I can speak for at least primarily for our level,

120but I do know that the middle and the high school will agree with me on this, that we have a lot of drop-in hours. So I know for the middle school, it's like even before school, it's after school, same with the high school. At the elementary level, we do have drop-ins during recess and during lunch. Can I ask the audience members in the back to keep your voices down? It's getting hard to hear what you have to say. Sorry. Those drop-in times are where the kids come check in. At my center, we can fit up. to probably like 30, 35 students at one time. So they're checking in and then they get that five, 10 minute break and then they check out. So during morning recess, we have two morning recesses and then during lunch

121recess is where we get a lot of the drop-ins. So those numbers, you might think like it's out of instructional time, but it's a lot of them are during lunch and recess where we check in with them. And it's always a check-in, check-out with the counselor. Like, hey, why are we here? I just see what they kind of check in with. And a lot of the times it's for the wellness activities. So if we do, you know, at least two a month, I know that Isabel and the high school, because they do have one counselor dedicated to the wellness center, then they're able to, you know, do more wellness activities. At our elementary levels, we're kind of split for the school counselors slash wellness coordinator. So we try to do at least two a month.

122But I think that's where you're seeing those numbers. It's not necessarily that they're leaving instructional time. It's that they're doing it during the drop in time. All right. Thank you for that. and i will say at the high school level if it's during school time during instructional time i limit the breaks for the students for 10 minutes okay and then i send them back to class all right okay great and just roughly like what do you think is the average in the elementary during instructional time is it One student five students because I'm sure they need to get a pass from the teacher or it's usually the teacher sending them So it's usually the teacher sending them and I think we were just discussing that earlier that the teachers really do like to give them

123a brain break in the classroom first and then if they need that more but at one time I wouldn't say we have more than five I like to keep it to like one or two because, you know, usually they are kind of like a level 8, 10. If they're in there, they're upset. We have a privacy tent, so sometimes they just go in there and I just check in on them. But it's really the five to ten minute. They don't lose a lot of instructional time. If it leads to a lot of visits, then that's when we refer. I self-refer, right? I'm the school counselor, so I refer to myself or to the mental health counselors. um or vcbh because we kind of have dual roles so i'm like oh i see you a lot

124in the wellness center i should probably see you for school-based counseling um so we do that or we send them to vcbh um or if they have private insurance obviously we we help parents kind of linked that way Just a couple of others. Can I? Sorry. Yeah, just a couple. So out of the 3,000 and some numbers at Isbell, 90% of those were visits during the lunch or breakfast or nutrition activities. So I feel like 10% of my total numbers are during instructional time. That's the kind of numbers I like to see. to hear about. I also want to mention when students visit our Wellness Center during instructional time, students are aware they need to make up their assignment if they miss 10 minutes of their assignment. They're aware they need to do that after

125they visit the Wellness Center. Sorry. Sorry, I just have a question. And this is just a general question for all of you. But is the wellness center utilized during times of like crisis or in times of like when something occurs in the community? Are you all made aware and then some of your counselors are made to respond? So do you mean by like, just... Just in general, like if there was an incident that occurred in the community that made people feel unsafe or something like that. Yeah, for me at the elementary, I tend to use the lunchtime where I just kind of send like a mass email to the teachers. Hey, send them. I know for us, we met with a lot of the older students, primarily fifth and sixth grade, especially with immigration policies.

126I just opened up the wellness center just to check in, you know, on their social emotional health. A lot of them feel safe to talk about things like that. So yes, when there's a crisis around in the community, we open it up, especially at lunchtime, so they don't miss any critical learning time, and we open it up for them. One question. So I see the wonderful students and teachers here who are running the Wellness Center, so I want to say kudos to you guys. I'm curious, the schools that are represented here in Blanchard, including Blanchard, are those the only wellness centers in the district? And if so, are there plans to open more wellness centers in the other elementary schools? So the short answer on that, Ashton, is yes. We do have a wellness room

127at Renaissance High School. It's not formally a wellness center. They do consider it a wellness room, so it is a space for students to access on campus. But currently, these are the sites that currently have wellness centers. There are thoughts and plans and intents. to open another wellness center at Bedell Elementary School, which would be the next school that we are considering. I am a little bit concerned about some of the grants, right, and the funding that we're going to need to maintain this. You can speak to it. If you'd like, it's more of a general concern. Sure. Well, we knew, you know, obviously going into this for the high school being the first one, that they were going to be the first ones to end their grant cycle. We recently received great news from

128VCBH that they will extend their grant level funding. for the 25-26 school year. And so we're excited. We were really excited to hear about that opportunity. For the Isbell, that grant continues. That's still in place. For the elementary schools, we were using SBHIP to open up those wellness centers. That grant... has expired as of December of 2024. However, given the amount of funding that we received in that grant, my plan is to pace out that funding so that we can continue to support wellness centers next year as well. I provide, well, outside of the initial startup costs to open a wellness center, I've been providing each wellness center to the tune of $10,000 a year this year, being new in this role. And I intend to continue that plan going into next year. Okay. We're

129going to have to monitor VCBH, right? Because I think their budget is going to be taking a hit soon with the Prop 2 changes. I think it's Prop 2, right? There was a March proposition, change the funding formulas for mental health. So we got to just continue to be in conversation with them with any changes that might be coming down the pike, right? Because they can hit us. And just one last thing. I do work with the Ventura County Family Justice Center. It is about domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, teenage dating violence. My group of students in my sociology capstone at CSUCI are creating materials to distribute to wellness centers. If you would like a presentation, if you'd like us to drop off something, please get a hold of me, and they would love

130to interact with you all. Wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Sadoval. I just want to just say very briefly to our students here, I know how challenging this could be for you to have to speak in front of so many people, but you guys did an absolutely fabulous job. So good job to you guys. Okay, keep up the good work. Because what you're learning is lifelong, and we recognize that as a community. So again, we're doing good things in our schools, and thank you guys. And thank you to our support staff. You guys are... are rocking it i mean look at the smiles on their faces and it's uh what time is it it's already eight o'clock uh and i know they want to move on but again thank you for all you do uh one final

131thing i know that i did attend the vcba dinner back in in january or it was actually in february and uh miss thoms we we learned i got a presentation from chris ridge regarding mental health Fee services, so maybe that's something we need to look into and that's a program that we can it's like a billing Site that then we can generate some funds So I know there's some some cost to that indirect cost but but if the the benefits outweigh the cost and that's something that maybe we need to to look at And I know that conversation needs needs to happen at least as conversation conversation level. Thank you again. Have a good evening Thank you so much Thank you everyone. I am so sorry. We had one public comment under wellness is Laura

132Espinoza available Good evening trustees. Mr. Weinstein Very pleased to offer public comment today Fabulous reports as I reviewed them at home the written reports. I thought were some of the best reports I've seen Wellness ethnic studies and The first one, continuing ed, yeah. Very, very good. I also want to thank you, trustees, for asking for these reports. These topics are just so essential to our students' well-being and important to the parents and important to the other stakeholders like myself, representing Latino Town Hall. On the Wellness Center. great activities that are being done. I see there's a bit of an uptick in the referrals. Not sure that it is where it should be, but there's an uptick there. And my questions are... I wear a couple of hats. I'm also chair of the Ventura County Gold

133Coast Health Plan. We oversee 250,000 Medi-Cal recipients. Santa Paula is one of the largest in the county of Medi-Cal recipients, as you well know. And I'm interested that our district is billing. for services because now that's available to you. So I like the question that Mr. that Tommy, I'm sorry, Mr. Frutos just asked because the district needs to recoup as much resources as they can and that is a really good way. Now that leads to my next comment about the universal screener. You heard the staff talk about that. And the state demands of all providers a universal screener. And so I hope that you are using a universal screener. I hope that data is being collected and used not only for the wellness centers, but it provides a wealth of information that is very valuable

134to the district and to the students' well-being. So whatever data is collected, please ask to see what that data is because I think it is going to be an eye-opener for you. Also in another role as Latino Town Hall President, we meet monthly with Ventura County Behavioral Health in a committee that we demanded. Latino Disparities Reduction Committee because we saw there were gaps in services to the community. So we have targeted six zip codes with high Latino populations and we're trying to bridge those barriers. We're encouraging Behavioral Health to collaborate more assertively, I guess. I'll wrap up right now, more assertively with the school district. So if you see them knocking at your door a little bit, it's because we've been pushing them to do that. We really want them to work with the school

135districts because we know there's high need here. And so we thank you for the work that is being done. I think we have more conversations to have. And I... We'll leave with one last point, and that's my concern with new arrivals to the district. High anxiety, high needs. You think about going to a new city, new language, and what are the strategies in all of your wellness centers to address those students? Thank you very much. Thank you, Laura. So we're moving on to Section 7 information. Item A, Preschool through Third Grade Coherence Collaboration, P3CC Program Overview. And presenting is Dr. Gina Ramirez. Hello, everyone. Good evening, board members and the public. We are very happy to be able to present to you today the work that we've been doing with our preschool to third grade.

136And actually goes really well with our presentation because you know that in order for our students to really be able to learn, they have to be able to get the support mentally. So you're actually seeing the MTSS in action, which is the... wellness center and then what we do with mathematics. And I'm joined here by some of my team that have been doing just wonderful work around this. The one key person that I'll talk to you a little bit about. So what is P3CC? It's a collaborative with 11 districts from preschool to third grade. And the goal is to really build coherence. And so we get to work with the California Ed Partners and with UCLA. So the author of this book, Megan Franke, and this book also is one of our lead partners that

137we get to partner with. And really the goal has been focusing on math. So that is what P3CC is. I'm trying to not go fast. How does it align to our strategic plan? So Mr. Weinstein, along with his cabinet at that time, created this strategic plan. comes out from that which is strategy two, which is the foundation of high quality learning through guided inquiry instruction. That's the whole idea for CGI. CGI is cognitively guided instruction, which means that we learn from our students to be able to adjust instruction. And that's the whole premise of the work that we're doing together. So here's our journey. I'm going to try to summarize it quickly. Year one, there was only three of us. Myself, Cambria, who is Cambria Van Eerden, couldn't be here today. She would have loved

138to, but she had a grandson. So she is with her daughter in the hospital and Sylvia Grego. Then our team grew through four teachers and three admin, which we're really excited about. Then now by year three was the year that Allison LaPrell. Dr. Garcia, Tim, and joined our team. And then now we're even more lucky because we have three principals working with us, which is Julie Bergman, Betsy Chavez, and Lachme. and they have partnered with their other elementary principals to really make the work come to life. So that's critical for us as we continue our journey. And we're going to attribute a lot of the successes the district is having to the foundation that we have laid in the last four years. So I'm going to turn it over to Tim and Liz. Good evening,

139board. board members uh so excited to be here tonight p3cc stands for pre-k through third day at third grade coherence collaboration say that 10 times um but i just wanted to let you know that this this slide here talks about our district aspiration i came on in year three as a director of special project in order to help co-lead this team alongside dr ramirez and alongside tim smith who is our elementary director and I'm so excited that we are building a system in order to make change. And so Tim is going to take us through kind of the iterations that this vision went through. Good evening. And so as you can see by the district aspiration, this is something that has been worked on every year that we've been a part of this and just

140some key parts to pull out there that it aligns with those strategic. plan that was set by the board and by the district. So students sharing their ideas, that's the collaboration part. Students learning from students, that was a big part of having students collaborating and doing that one. And then students having fun and increasing their confidence, that's part of it also. And then when you look on the other side, it really talks about how they're applying that and working on that one. So those are really some key areas that we want to go and just... to kind of talk about this that student confidence part to soon be engaged in math is something that has really been prominent that we've seen both through the The accounting collections the choral counting the math labs and through

141the CGI work So, thank you Tim So this right here in the center exemplifies what we want all of our students to have when they leave our district. And so this center is all about our learner profile. And so I want us to focus in on the center because it's all about being student-centered with our pre-K through third grade coherence collaboration. And on... what you see surrounding the students is what the profile elements are. Being compassionate, collaborators, confident learners, courageous communicators, creative problem solvers, cooperative global citizens. And around our learner profile, what we have are our instructional strategies that are aligned to the National Council for Teaching Mathematics outlines our mathematical practices. And so we want to... take this math vision from our work across the district and we're aligning all of our elements. These

142right here are the basis, the research basis for what we are doing. So we've got Coral County and County Collections on the right, and we've got the Children's Mathematics with cognitively guided instruction. So we are taking our elementary school teachers through cognitively guided instruction training, and they have been immersed. We've got a lot of teachers that are here in our audience tonight who have talked about how... this has transformed their classroom, it's transformed their teaching, and most importantly, it's transforming how students are expressing their thinking. So it's moving from rote memorization to students solving open-ended problems that are very difficult and utilizing many different types of strategies and honoring that knowledge that they bring forward. So it is amazing to see at work in the classroom, like I am floor... There are some problems that

143fourth graders are solving. And I'm like, I mean, I took calculus. I did lots of memorization, lots of problem solving. And the way we are having students problem solve now really lays the foundation for their conceptual framework so that they can go on and really understand all of the algorithms as they move forward in their math trajectory. This is such an important slide here. This is all about systems. It's all about growth. It's all about continuing our work so that we can have sustainability into the future. And those gears in the middle all represent those elements that are surrounding it. We want our... teachers and administrators, our certificated staff, to understand what those standards expectations are by grade level. We want to make sure that we have effective instructional practices and that we're not just

144talking about the practices, but we're actually modeling what those are and seeing those in action with students. And then we want to make sure that we're always building capacity. Training is extremely important. And then last but not least, monitoring student practice. This is about evidence, collecting evidence to see that our work is impactful. And so I'm gonna introduce this and then Alison LaPrele behind me, one of our teacher leaders is going to walk us through the process. So this process has really been a growth project. So we started four years ago. So we're in our fourth year in our last year with the CalEd partners. And this takes us through something called our unit planning process. So it's considered a high leverage pedagogical practice. That means that we're going to get a big bang for

145our buck by going through this process. And we have gone through this process with our second grade. Then it... went out to our first grade, then went out to our fourth grade. And what we are doing, and you'll notice these colors align with the previous slide. Sorry about that. Previous slide to these colors. And it's important because these are all aligned to the systems and the elements on the prior slide. So it's about intentional use of our curricular materials, not just being page turners, but being critical consumers of our curricula and making sure that we're making instructional decisions that matter. Phase two is creating open tasks that are rigorous and Phase three is about incorporating effective teaching practices. And you can see underneath each element examples of what those high leverage strategies are. And then

146lastly is gathering evidence of student learning. And that's where the assessment piece of things comes in. Allison is going to come up and she is going to take you through the work. And I just want to give a huge shout out to our teacher leaders because this is really about us working together as a team and building our team from within so that we can sustain the work and so that we can see amazing changes with student achievement as we move forward. Hello board members. Thank you for listening. So I am a second grade teacher at McKevitt and I joined this committee because I love math. I'm very passionate about it. So I'm going to take you through the phase, the process quickly. So phase one, what we did is we took our math expressions

147math curriculum. We went through each lesson and decided if it was a green, yellow, or red lesson. So green means it's good to go, that it meets the expectation of the grade level standard. Yellow means that there's parts of the lesson are good, parts we need to take out. Red means it's not a grade level standard. So what we have discovered through this process that a lot of our curriculum is not aligned to the standards. It says it is, but then when you really dive deeper, it's not matching what we're actually have to teach. We started in second grade because there's been research that has shown that second grade curriculum has the most discrepancies with the standards in the curriculum. For example, the standard algorithm is not taught till fourth grade, but it's all over

148our second grade curriculum. So we went lesson by lesson, decided which lessons were good. If it was a red lesson, we replaced it with something more engaging, more developmentally appropriate. Instead of doing flashcards, we came up with a game to teach the same concept. And then here's an example of our unit plans. And then in phase two, where we had to make it more rigorous for our students so they'd have deeper understanding of the concepts. So we start each lesson with an open task and math warm-up. This could be choral counting, it could be counting collection, it could be a number talk. So these are intentionally in there just to open up the floor so all students can answer a math question. And then phase two. So this is what our curriculum looks like. There's

149a ton of problems, not necessarily to do all of them. So we replaced it with a game, made same thing as being taught, more engaging. Kids love games, so more developmentally appropriate. And then phase three, incorporate effective teaching practices. So this is basically the structure of our lessons now. We followed this format. for second grade than when we did first and third grade. So we have the warm up and then the launch. It's totally changed the way I teach. You know, you put it in the kid's lap and you say, here's this problem. How are we going to solve it? Instead of the old fashioned way of teaching of me standing up there, lecture, lecture, lecture. The kids are checked out, not listening. So now you pose a problem, tell them, solve it any way

150you want. Okay, then you let the kids explore together. They would do a lot of partner work group work collaboration There's a lot of talking going on I told Gina that this feels like an ELD lesson when I'm doing math now because they're talking so much to each other they're asking each other questions, and I'm just stepping back and listening and Then also there's a summarized portion So that's where I bring them together if there's anything that wasn't touched then I teach it directly and then the next phase is where we do the assessment, the gathering of evidence. And do you want to talk about this? Okay. So what we also did is we revamped our assessments. The unit tests were not appropriate for our kids. It was more of a can you match the

151question to the answer, like through it with dotted lines. I don't know if you know what I'm talking about. was not about math anymore. It was just like, can they pick the right answer? So we've revamped our assessments where they have more room to explain their thinking. It's not a tiny box. Less questions. It went from 20 questions to now 10 to 12. So they have more opportunities to explain really how they know. So on the right you'll see our data these are we call them math concept checks these this replaces the unit tests So as you can see the first math concept check we gave in September in second grade 88% had mastery the second one same and then first grades numbers are in yellow 59% 75 72 so kids are understanding the math

152concepts way deeper. Can I say a couple of things? Yeah, sorry. I just wanted to say real quick, I had a few teachers email me and tell me about their experience with this. So this is a second grade teacher. She said, everyone who's come into my class during math, including Dr. Moore. has been in awe of my students' ability and engagement. I love the way we have collaboratively created lesson plans that are CGI-based, standards-aligned, and developmentally appropriate for all students. My students' depth of understanding, confidence, and interest in math is significantly greater than I've seen in my 25 years of teaching. I hope the board understands the value of what we are doing and makes the decisions to honor that. I just want to say thank you so much to Allison and just wanted to

153give a brief highlight of the data. So our CASP data remains relatively consistent year to year as we implement CGI. So typically when we bring in new curriculum, this is just citing from the research, there's typically an implementation dip, but we saw no dip. And at fourth grade, we had a year-over-year increase of almost 10%. Last year, I was working with the pilot school McEvitt that showed... massive gains that we're just so proud of. And we developed these math concept checks and we've got assessment committees at all grade levels. We're really focused on our elementary work, but we also have great work happening at the middle and high school. I just wanted to throw that in as well. So just really proud of the work and we are continuing to grow and looking forward to

154what comes next. So Julie is going to come up and Julie Lakshmi and Betsy Chavez joined our team this year. And so it's that we have our stakeholders that are all representing our district improvement team. And then what we're doing is trying to scale out the work, which is so important if the work is going to take hold and it's going to last into the future. So here we go, Julie. Good evening. So this is some of the fun part. You get to see the work that the students are doing. So this is first and second grade work. The first one is a word problem. You solve it however you want to. And in this particular math class, this student was doing something. I happened to be in there that day. And he figured out

155the answer and his teacher was like, okay, that's great. And the little boy's like, my mind is blown. can do math so between CGI and p3 CC it's changed the way that students are looking at themselves as mathematicians the middle one is how is called how many ways and Students are given a number. This is from a third grade classroom. This is actually the second piece of evidence they gave you. The first one they turned in when they found out it was going to be seen publicly. They said, we need a harder number and we need to show you different ways. So these are third graders that are already starting to use notation. They're implementing parentheses. They're understanding what that means. And then. counting on coral counting is the next one and they examine patterns

156in their counting what do they notice what do they wonder and it's just making math much more real to them and they're seeing themselves as mathematicians So part of the process that we're doing while this work is p3cc we see the value through sixth grade So we're working with all of our staff in the no-show process and that is taking a look at the standards that we've identified as priority standards and Figuring out how to unpack them how the students are going to show What they're learning And so we've done that in staff meetings. We've done that with instructional leadership teams, and they're taking that back to their collaboration and working on it with teams. And the teachers at the same time are going, okay, now my mind's blown because I know that this student

157can prove this standard in this way. It doesn't have to be a worksheet. So this just kind of goes through the process that I just talked about. So I just wanted to show you an example. This process has really helped me as a teacher understand what is my standard? What do the kids actually have to know? So on the left is a first grade standard which is add and subtract within 20. So the things they will know by the end of knowing this standard is they will know cardinality, number of cents within 20. And you can read the rest. But the part I love is the show. So this is what it's going to look like for a first grader to have mastered the standard. So a word problem, Lola bought 11 pumpkins. She bought

158eight more pumpkins. How many pumpkins does she have now? So there's different strategies that they can solve this. They use number lines. They drew dots. They did a number bond. So we just celebrate all the different ways a kid could solve this problem. And then. On the right, there's another example. But this has been powerful to bring back to my site just so we really understand what are we supposed to be teaching. Just because it's in the curriculum textbook doesn't mean it's matching a standard. And I think one other part of the no-show process that's been powerful is that vertical articulation. Because as the sixth grade teachers are working on their standards and the fifth grade teachers are working on their standards, it's like, oh, wait, that was from third grade. So it's starting conversations

159that it's not a silo. It's not an isolation. Math is happening from pre-K through sixth grade. And one thing that I want to say is that I wanted to just give a shout out to Dr. Moore, who really has... embrace this idea of systems work and standards alignment and getting us all on the page of ensuring that standards are understood and that we all have high expectations for our students. And to Dr. Ramirez, who has had a vision for the P3CC work since we started it four years ago. Thank you. And I just want to really reiterate the importance and the value of our teachers. So Allison. Allison has led the third grade team in the process that we're doing. They went through it themselves. It was her, Cambria, Christine Roberts, and myself in a

160room, and they were doing all the work. And now they own that work. And I think that's the power of this is that it's not something that's going to go away when one of us goes away. It's something that the teachers have embraced, and they see the value. I even had a teacher say, why can't we do the same thing for ELD? I said, great, we can definitely do the same. thing. So I just want to really give lots of gratitude to Allison and Cambria and all the teachers who are, Tanya Rowe who stepped up and they're really working hard. If you ever see them in a room, they're sitting there looking at all the standards and think how they're going to make things better for our students so that our students can have a

161greater opportunity that when they get to ninth grade math, they're going to be able to do lots of great things. So I just want to really thank, you know, take this time to really. thank the teachers and you know Julie came in on this year and she just was like I'm going to do this and she's been doing the the no show with her staff and Lachme and Betsy so we are very blessed to have the team that we have Dr. Garcia has really supported with the implementation and the assessment pieces that brings everything together so any questions that we may answer at this time for you I won't wait. Can you define coherence for me? Can we define coherence? Yeah. Yeah, when everything works well together, which means that we are working from, right

162now we're looking at preschool all the way to third grade, but we are moving it all the way up so that there is vertical articulation all the way through. And then there's a system in place to make sure that we're always calibrating to make sure that our students are truly making academic gains. Don't you have to be able to read to be able to do those word problems? Well, yes. However, the one good thing in mathematics. She was shaking her head no. Would you like to speak to that? Because we can read it. Go ahead. So the process we've learned through the CGI training is that we unpack a word problem. So we read it with them three times. Like I read it the first time, I pick another student, read it if they can.

163And then I ask a lot of questions before I send them off. I say, what do we know about this problem? What do we need to figure out? So it's more of a comprehension thing. They have to really understand what they're figuring out so they don't just add the two numbers together. So I take 10, 15 minutes on one problem because now we have the time to really go deeper. Like, did the cookies go away? What happened to the cookies? So we're talking about it. It's like a story. We call them math stories. So they don't necessarily have to read it because we're talking about it so much. Okay. I ate the cookies is what happened to them. How does this align to, I need to get my head a little bit more around this.

164How does this align to the CGI math professional development we've been doing? Right. This seems like they're two different things. No, they're not. They're actually not. Yeah. So explain that a little bit towards me. So CGI means learning from children. Right? That's CGI. So the strategy that we're using for CGI is counting collections, choral counting, and math stories. So the math stories is the big focus for third grade, third, and up. So the foundation that we've done to be able to build, to be able to add to this book, which is really learning from children, which is what CGI is, is that we are doing, laying the foundation for the students so that they are then able to be more ready to be able to do the work. And we do work problems in TK

165and kinder, and we did the math. So we do math labs and the math labs is when we go into the classrooms, just like they do with CGI, right? They go into the classrooms and they're working with the teachers, the same thing. doing in preschool with our own preschool teachers and our tk and all the way through so this is really an enlightenment and so we were really we wanted to really be careful to not say that they're two different things because they're not they're under the umbrella cgi again is cognitively guided instruction which is learning from children so when you're doing counting collections you're learning from children when you're doing choral counting you're learning from children when you're doing the math stories you're learning from children that is what cgi is all about How

166do you, and I want to hear from Allison, because I actually like talking to teachers and hearing from there, right? How do you teach higher level abstract concepts? Like there's a lot of manipulatives in here. There's a lot of like hands-on. I did see an exponent in there, I think. Someone was using in third grade. Like how do you get there? Do you want to answer? You were a teacher at one point. So it's been really interesting. I mean, if you know me, you know, I'm a control freak. This whole thing was very hard for me because this is like Gina said, Dr. Ramirez said, learning from children and letting them guide the discussions. And so as educators, we're having to let go of some of the reins and Linda Levy, one of the people

167that, that we're working with. told me like trust the process trust the process she's like julie i see you're skeptical you need to trust the process okay i'm going to trust the process so the kids are coming up with the ideas it's like allison said we we unpack the problem with them they know what they're trying to figure out and they're going to show you how they're going to get there we were measuring dinosaurs in a classroom a few weeks ago and they figured out how to use the yardsticks that they had never used before. So the exponent actually came from a student who has an older sibling. So he has seen his older sibling. He knows it's a thing and he's pretty sure he knows how to use it. And so he explained to

168his teacher why he was using an exponent. Interesting. I didn't get to exponents until I was in the fourth grade. So what I wanted to also add, so It has been very hard for me to just say, go for it, do it however you want, and not show them, like, you have to use it this way. You have to figure it out this way. So the kids are teaching me. A lot of the times, kids will come up with a way to solve it, and I'm like, what did you do? I have no idea what you did, but you got the right answer. So that is the higher level thinking. They're having to, I tell them to prove it to me. How do you know you're right? So they have to write out the steps

169for me, which is preparing them for higher grades. So that's, I think, how they do the higher level things. So now that I've pandered, oh, go ahead. And they're teaching their classmates because they're going up, they're doing the work on the board, and so they're explaining it to their peers. And so one of the other students is like, okay, now they've taught each other another way. Okay. So now that I've pandered to the teachers, I'll pander to the classified, given the audience we have. Have we done any training with instructional aides? Right. they they've been getting the same training for this and actually for the um the uh science of reading so i mean both both of those like because because they interact with the kids oftentimes as much if not more than than the

170teachers so you know i'd want to make sure that Dr. Ramirez has been awesome and she's trained a lot of the Aspire staff on these things. She's held meetings, I think on our last PD day, she had Aspire teachers do the counting collections so they would understand how to help the kids with their homework after school. Someone had mentioned a strategic plan, right? And I'm not, I cannot emphasize this enough, right? These presentations are huge for the board, right? Because the board needs to own these things because we need to make this what the district does, right? The last thing I want, right, is, you know, a superintendent, an assistant superintendent, you know, leave, right? Administrators come in and go, right? This has got to be what we do, right? So I think we need

171to better articulate that at a board level, right? In our, you know, any sort of like documentation or, you know, strategic planning or vision or whatever that we do to make sure that anybody who steps in here, whether it is, you know, an IA or a teacher or administrator, they know this is what they're getting into. And if they don't want to do it, don't come to our school, to our district, right? Because this is what we're going to do. Last. Question, and then I'll turn it over to everybody else. How is there such a disconnect between standards and curriculum, and how come it took so long for us to do anything about it? I'm a pro at this. Oh, you guys are all laughing. I guess that's... I can answer this because a lot

172of teachers ask me this. Why are we doing this? What happens when we get a new curriculum? We're going to have to start all the way over. So it's a long answer, but... So the California math framework was just finalized. Okay, so now the process is the curriculum writers are going to hurry up and put out their curriculum and say, district, you need this. We're amazing. We follow all these standards. But they're not going to really check their work. It's just like a checkbox. Like, yep, we did this. We did this. Okay, so we're not jumping into a new curriculum because we are creating, we're revamping what we have. creating what is developmentally appropriate. So curriculum writers are not teachers at all. They're not in the classrooms. They're very smart people, but they don't know

173children like we do when we're in the classroom. They don't know that we have a lot of fires to put out, that we have kids all over the place. Kids need movement. Kids need games. They can't just sit and do worksheets all the time. And again, I think that, I mean, that's music to my ears, right? You know, because I've heard too many times in this, you know, at these meetings, here's this next program that's going to make everything better. And it never does, right? It never does, right? So, you know, again, I think that's part of, we've got to make that part of the district culture, right? And it's got to start with the board so we can continue that, you know. So one thing that I mentioned earlier in our presentation is that

174we need to be critical consumers of the curriculum. So there's no perfect curriculum out there, and we know what publishers do, and the books are not meant to turn. turn pay you know turn the page and memorize what's on every single page or you know not think about what the expectations are for the standards and what the unit planning process has done with the green yellow red process is really allowed us to have a collective conversation about what the standards mean so that we come out of that calibrate and we understand okay this is the high expectation and then this is how we get students to be there and to pander to the administration because I pandered to everybody else, right? How many directors have worked on all of these things? I mean, so Tim,

175myself, and Dr. Ramirez have worked together as leads on this P3CC team, and the work has definitely exponentially grown. Under Dr. Moore, too, who's involved at some level, too, right? Absolutely. So Dr. Moore basically allowed us to be able to participate in P3CC. I just wanted to be fair, right? I mean, it really is like my thread through all of this, right? Is that classified certificated admin, we're all working together, right? To increase those test scores that are in the basement, right? And it's methodical, right? And it's a lot of work and it's a huge change on what we have done as a district over decades, right? And it's not something that just happens, right? You have to invest and you have to have someone who's leading the charge. So thank you. Agreed. Thank you

176so much for calling that out. Does anyone else have a question? First of all, I just want to say good job with the presentation. I mean, I love it when you see a collaborative and a community approach when it comes to students. As a fourth grade teacher, that makes sense. It makes sense when I've learned that the students do a really good job of teaching us as the adults, but also their peers. And when they can explain it using their own keywords. and using the mathematical phrases that they've learned through this process really makes sense. So good job there. A question I have is maybe just on the funding side of it, what are the consultation fees? And maybe if there's not, then that's good because it leads to the next question is sustainability. If

177we're paying for consultation fees and professional development, at what point then do we start looking within? and asking of ourselves as professionals within our own organization to then start to provide that professional development because that's where you get the bang for the buck, I believe, is from within rather than paying outside. And I'm glad that you mentioned that because that's why I say the power of our teachers, right? Because our teachers are the ones leading the work. So we have, so Christine Roberts, who was our lead person from... Ed Partners, and we also have Karen Racinos and Jennifer from UCLA. We are building our teacher leaders from within. So we have a committee of... five, six teachers in second grade, and they're the ones sitting together, calibrating, reviewing, and creating all the units for all.

178We have the same thing for first grade. So now we have Allison and Cambria leading the first grade and third grade team. So we know that we need to build the capacity from within to sustain the work. Because like you say, if I leave tomorrow, The work will continue because the teachers have seen the value in it. And the principals, like I give lots of kudos to our principals because without them, we can't do the work because they give the permission to the teachers to be able to lead PD. Allison leads the PD and McKevitt. for this work since last year. Can release the work at Bedell, Sylvia at her school. So every teacher is really involved and invest and believes in this because I, as a former teacher, don't want to do anything that's

179going to waste my time. Like I want to be able to see that my kids are really learning. And that's why I think that so money wise, we're not going to, we have our professionals here. We pay them to do the work. So we, they get the extra duty to do the, the units and, and, um, and we respect them as professionals because they do invest a lot of time no that that that makes sense to me um again it just it just comes to the point where well i've benefited over the last two years of seeing the uh the board updates and and the pictures and and the development and and again i just want to again say uh good job to to our our our district for really investing the time and energy

180and our students because you can see it. We're going to, we may not see it at full tuition right now, but eventually it's going to pay off. And we've been saying that with our ELD program and our reading programs and whatnot. So, I mean, the best is yet to come. And I look forward to that. And I do attribute our third grade CAS course to all the work that these ladies have been doing in the last three years. Yeah, I just have a question. It's more for the teachers. What are the parental reactions to this? Because I can imagine you're a parent. You were either born in the boomer years or the 80s, and you were taught one strict way, and now you get to see your student. Okay. But what have been their reactions,

181and how have you met their skepticism or their openness to this way of teaching? That's a great question. So it has been challenging. However, It's also created more opportunities for parents to be creative with their child. They're actually relieved that we're not sending home worksheets that they can't even figure out anymore. Even in second grade, parents are like, I don't know how to do this. How do I help? But we're giving them options like... Collect a bunch of beans in your house and count by fives with your child. So it's more hands-on fun family things. And so they're seeing that and they're like, wow, like this is math. Like I can do this with them. We're sending home math games that they can do together as a family. So we're stepping away from the worksheets

182because we know that kids can't do not learn from worksheets. So. But it's not corrected is it that they can't or it's just there are other forms that you believe are our best because I want to make sure we stay stay there too because You look at cast it's a worksheet. I know it's on it. So we got to make sure that we don't discount that students have to build that tolerance and that ability to be able to work off of computer. At this young level, in kinder first and second, they need to have the foundations before they can do the algorithms in the worksheets. So we have found that worksheets are not appropriate in younger grades as the only way to teach math. So some parents, you know, they want to show their kid.

183Their way the way they were taught and so we tell the kids that's fine But you have to prove it to me like if you're gonna do borrow carry the one How do you know and a lot of times they don't know and that's the problem like they don't understand the place value. They don't know Why do you have to take a ten away? What does that mean? So does that answer your question? Yeah, if I could just speak to it a little bit. Actually, as a parent of a fourth grader who, you know, is my son, he's very, he learns very dynamically. He learns with a lot of interaction. And one of the more frustrating things that I've been frustrated with the last couple of years is that dynamic way that he enjoys learning

184has been kind of, has been stifled. And I can see with a... a process like this with CGI, this would be very, very beneficial and helpful to a learner like him. So it's exciting to see it and something that I'm gonna look at trying to help influence in the house. So this is great, thank you. And we also, at one of our DLI family nights, we presented CGI thought process. And so the students that came with their parents were teaching their parents how to do it. And the last two years we had parent nights and actually this room was like full of parents at one time when we did counting collections with them and the teachers were the one who let them, the parents to really learn how to be able to count and what

185they can use. So we are really trying to bring our families along with our new way of thinking. Anyone else? I'll just say a little comment. A comment? Is that okay? So I love the entire presentation. I was especially loving that the whole presentation was about math because I'm a little nerd. And so I just love the whole layout. I love seeing the progress. I was looking at the CASP scores. So it's really cool how everything has been like. What's the word? Huh? Grown? Grown, yes. Sorry, it's late. It's almost nine. So I don't know how the people in the audience are doing it, but we're getting through it together. So I love looking at the scores. I love looking how this program is actually benefiting all the students. And I hope you guys keep

186using this program so that we can see more growth in our students. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. We're just going to give you a summary of what we just talked about. And a one pager. So we're on to item 7B, first reading revision to board policy and exhibit number 4040, employee use of technology. I'd like to invite our director of IT to come on up and let us know the changes that are being made in the use of technology for students and staff. Good evening, Moore, superintendent, members of the public. So these policies haven't been updated since 2015. So when I saw that, I pretty much, you know, there's been a lot of changes. So we have artificial intelligence. We have a lot of streaming services. Throughout the pandemic, also, we

187had a remote education as well. So I pretty much... took what a CSBA policy sample had and also I included what I I You know by looking at other districts policies and also Just by looking at what we do throughout the district Just what will be best for for the district or students and our staff Great and scary that it's been 10 years since it's been updated. So thank you for doing that. I know sitting on the CSBA's AI task force, we're still reviewing policies. So there will be new policy updates to get us in line because of the challenges of AI. I think that this is a good first step to have. something in there. But I do think it's a conversation we'll have to revisit. And I think we need to engage all

188the stakeholders, right? You know, how are we going to use that in an educational setting? How are we going to use it in an employee setting? You know, these are really big questions that we can't just say, oh, yeah, you know. Don't be bad with AI, right? I mean, there's a lot of different ways, right? Other than just, you know, cheating on a test that you can, or a paper that you can use AI for. And some of those are great and some of those are not as great. So we just need to be very open about that. But this is a good first step. So thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? So quick question, sir. So as I'm looking through the... The the packet here what's highlighted is that what's recommended what's highlighted? It's

189what right what it's recommended. Yes Okay, and then what's stricken through is what we want to get rid of exactly. Okay Anything that should jump at us that we should be looking for? Or is it kind of similar to what was in the past? Because I haven't had a chance to review it, but I will knowing that it's a first read. Specifically for the staff one, we had to redo the whole thing. It didn't have a CSBA awarding, so it was pretty much a staff use policy. Staff, what is it called? Let me see. Give me one second. Acceptable use policy. So that's what it was. So it was a staff acceptable use policy. So it wasn't really a CSBA sample policy, per se. Thank you. Hearing no one else. Thank you. Item 7C. I'm

190sorry, B. Oh, I apologize. I saw those two separate ones. So moving on to action items. 8C1, donations. And I'd like to thank Robert Hand and Evelyn Almaraz Perez for donating $2,000 to the Santa Paula High School Band and Music. And for... to Daniel and Kay Salas for donating $25 to the Isabel Middle School Band. Thank you. And moving on to Item 2, Approval of Second Interim Budget 2024-2025. Good evening, Lord, members of the people in attendance and people at home. This is the second interim budget. We are looking for approval for this tonight. The major updates. So the first interim, the way you presented was for expenditures through October 31st. So these expenditures are through January 31st of this year. Okay. So the major updates from the first interim to the second interim. revenues

191increased due to well there's some changes property taxes came in high so then state revenues came in adjusted accordingly medical allocations were up and we received an increase to our LCFF entitlement of $57 per ADA so that was about two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars there We had some SPED contracted services that were increased, some excess costs also increased, and we did reallocations to the LCAP so we can accommodate indirect costs. So what you're looking at in green was our first interim. We break it out by it's unrestricted, restricted, and combined. In the salmon color is second interim, the same. In the gold bar, it is the differences between there. I want you to notice that down on D1, there is inter-fund transfers of $3.6 million that are coming from deferred maintenance into this

192budget. So if you look at the net increase down at the bottom, that 2.5 decrease, that is with the 3.6. So it's actually we are running a negative decrease for this current year of $5.6 million. Off to the side here do it than that of what we are increasing to what we are decreasing We actually are up 189 thousand dollars over first interim. So that's a good thing Then I want to call attention to where it circled. Those are our ending fund balances so for second interim for unrestricted budget we are ending with 11 million Oh 85 for the restricted it's 8 million Now, these are expenditures that those numbers are going to change because we still have July or I'm sorry, we still have the next from now to the end of the year.

193So we may we've budgeted for a certain amount of expenditures and they may or may not come to fruition. So sorry, we're having difficulty hearing Lori. You can just lower voice, please. Thank you. And Lori, maybe. the mic that way. Yeah, thank you. There you go. Sorry about that. So those numbers hopefully will increase so we won't see as big of a deficit. But right now, like I said, we're at an increase as of right now of 189,000 over the first interim. However, that's still at a deficit of $5.6 million this year. the multi years when we worked on the multi year here were the assumptions that we made so I want to explain the difference between What our ad is and we what we actually get funded for because this is gonna we're gonna

194run into a problem here soon So the top line is our current ad a what our funded ad a is we get the average of the last three years So those last three years were better numbers than what we're looking at now So as you can see And in the 24-25, our current ADA was only 43, but we got funded on 45. Moving forward to the next year, we're projecting $42.57, but we're getting paid at $43.74, and then $26.27, we're projecting $41.72, and we're going to get funded at $43.20. As you can see, our funding is going down as well as our actual ADA is going down. So we get either the better of the average of the last three years or our current ADA. So if our ADA... goes up, then we get to

195use that number instead of the rolling three-year average. The other thing that we did is we factored in the COLA 1.07. Current year, 2.43, 2526, and 3.52 in that 26-27 year. STRS is flat at 19.1. CalPERS is going up incrementally, not crazy, but just a little bit. Our unduplicated percentage numbers are there. And we also factored in, which I left off of this list, is CPI on expenditures moving forward at 2.92 for expenditures for next year and 2.70 for projected year. Next slide. So the next slide shows our multi-year projection. And you guys have a... The revenue broken out a little different than this. It's the same net number, but I want to call your attention to So this year we see the transfer in a 3.6 million in 2526 we're transferring one second work

196behind a slide for the One more there we go. Yeah Thank you. No, so we're transferring in 3.6 million from other funds to cover Our general fund which is going to ride at a 5.6 million dollar deficit for the current year so you'll see our Fund balance as beginning as 13 million With that influx it only nuts out to two million. However, just know that we are taking money out of our other funds This first round is our deferred maintenance fund that we're hitting to pull that money over in 2526 We are going to be moving over three point seven million dollars if the expenditures don't change moving forward from this year to next year We are going to be negative six point nine eight three million dollars and then in 2627 we're going to

197have to move out another 3.785 million dollars and we are going to be negative 84 i'm sorry 8 million 427 000 we're just going to barely make our three percent that are risk that our mandated reserves are so moving forward what can we do next slide please um We're going to renew review and consider new and proposed legislation for multi-year impacts We're gonna look for new funding 25 and 26 and beyond We're going to continue to monitor enrollment and ad a I'm going to develop a model of continued right sizing or other people who could be charged to different pots of money Trying to get the general fund to balance We're going to clarify and define our structural deficit, assess expenditures, and utilize other resources as appropriate. And we're going to monitor the economic forecast.

198We might have slight E. coli increases over the next few years, and the May's governor's budget revision is coming up, so that might give us some information that we don't have now. So that is where we are. Any questions? So I've got one. So under the final slide looking forward, first bullet, incorporate new funding for 2526. Can you maybe speak to that in terms of? There are rumors that there may be some more LRE money coming. Again, right now they are just talk. We don't know if they're going to actually come to fruition or not. So it's just going to kind of look for those, look for grants, look for things that we can pull more money in. And just so you know, that is pulling from the governor's budget, the January budget. It may

199or may not survive. Okay. Right. There's also a discretionary grant that when I first looked at it, I was like, oh, this is going to be great. Right. It's $1.7 billion, which is about 1.7 for us over like four years. Right. The problem is that next year's budget is going to look so bad. Right. If the stock market continues to tank that they'll probably pull that back. Right. Because that's what they've done. Historically, they did that with LRE. This LRE isn't actually new money. It's replacing money they took back last year. Right. Right. So, you know, that one time pot of money expires sooner than we were expecting because of that pullback. They were going to make us whole from a promise they made three years ago. Right. This is the state budget for you,

200though. Right. It's so volatile. Right. That these. these things happen, right? And so I think we need to not necessarily, you know, we'll see what May brings, right? We'll see what the trailer bill brings because it's never done until June anyways, right? We're trying to make, we've got to make hiring decisions in March for a budget that we create in May on numbers that we get in June. I mean, this is the most backwards way of running a school, right? But this is California for you. So, you know, that's what we have to do. So there are opportunities. I think the school community, the community school grant is an opportunity that grant is, you know, up there. Hopefully we'll learn by April or May. That would be a huge help. But it's not a panacea

201either. And again, those numbers are not, once we move into this year, we've budgeted for certain expenditures, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to spend all of that. Right. So once we. Once requisitions are done coming through we can kind of take a look at where we're at we could pull some of those funds that we've actually Budgeted for to spend back into the general fund and I think that'll get more into focus What what we were actually where we're gonna land? Laurie Actually before I forget I thought I actually had questions on the same thing on incorporating new funding and so sandoval mentioned about community school grant is that yearly or is it for what's the term so so it is a five year and then during our wellness presentation there was

202a mention of the extension of those grants and is that a one year and was that included in the budget numbers i believe it's just it's not in there it's not in there because it's not i don't think we've received Yeah. Last week is when we actually got the numbers. What is the amount of that extension of the grant? 150, 150. So, okay. So we'll be looking at the 150 to help with the wellness and every, every dollar counts. And is there any other grants that we know that we've applied and are maybe coming next year or that we're like 90% sure? I don't want to say 50, but just Ellery and. Community grants and then the wellness. And the, sorry, the community grant was for what amount again? 150. The community grant. Oh, community

203schools grant. That was. I think it was about like 9 million, but that's over five years and it's spread out over all the sites. And we will know. And we will know about that when it's 8.9 million. Eight point. Right. Assurance. But that would be when April or may. Okay. So we have to, so is that part of the 8.9? So, but we can't, but we can't rely on that until like April, May. Correct. And then having to make decisions today before March 15th, knowing where we're at the numbers. So, okay. I just, I just wanted to just make sure the public knows where we're at with numbers and why we can't. Count our chickens. Right. Going with that, Director Toms, can you please speak to, again, I know it was in the first interim,

204but what is our current deficit at this moment? I think I was hearing 5.6 million. with the $3.6 million transfer in is 2.86, but that's kind of a blended thing. The real deficit is the two of them together at 5.6 million. Okay, and thank you. And then projected for next school year? For 25-26, it's almost $7 million deficit. And then for 26-27, it's 8.5 million. Okay. That's one. And so if you don't mind, so I want to be creative thinkers right here only because, and it's not going to happen right now, but we talk about new funding. I know that we're spending a great deal amount of money in special ed services through Ventura County Office of Education. I don't even know where to begin that conversation, but we need to have that conversation. We

205need to maybe start looking at what can we do to be more creative. in terms of providing our own services that we're not outsourcing so much. Can you speak to how much we are spending? You know, that would be a great conversation to have with Dr. Lawrence. And if memory serves you correct, it's somewhere in the $5 million range. That's one of our biggest contributions that we have to do from the general fund is to cover special ed. And again, I'm not asking to reduce it. I'm not asking to cut it out, but I'm asking what can we do to be... more creative um you know maybe hiring and spending and providing services for for our students so but uh thank you just so you know other districts are starting to do that now pleasant

206valley just talked to a board member today where they had pulled in their um yeah some of those services i think trustee mean hades you were wanting to speak or Sorry, are the increases in deficit for the next school years, are they just projections if we continue spending at the rate we're at right now? That's correct. Okay, so none of the restrictions that we may think as a board or as an administration have been included? The only thing that we've seen as reductions for next year are the personnel, which we talked about earlier. Okay. Okay, I guess I'll go. So being a new guy coming from, you know, county, city government, what are the consequences for continuing to build up this debt? We're talking about a $5.6 million this year. Three years from now, $8.5

207million. What are the consequences for the district? Well, those funds were set aside to be used for projects within the district that those funds will no longer be available for. And the big thing is on the third year out, we made our 3% by $74. So we're looking at a qualified budget. I don't think he knows the qualified budget, what happens, the different steps, if you can explain that. Yeah. Actually, would you mind stepping in? So we have a positive budget. If it goes down to qualified, then the county. comes in and works with us to get us back on track. If it goes below that, you're a negative certification, and that's where the state actually comes in. Yeah. So, and yeah, and so when we... When we look at it, you can see that

208there are plenty of districts out there in California, unfortunately, that the state has lent money to and they're trying to pay back. But that is for a negative budget only. And doesn't that, don't they take over the board? I mean, does the board? The state does, yes. Yeah. I mean, we don't have a board at that point. Yeah, they put in a... Because they're like, what good are you? You didn't make the decisions, right, that you needed to. So we're going to put our own people in. All right, so we lose local control. All right, they'll get the budget. One way or the other, one way or the other, this budget will balance whether we do it or whether the state does it. I just wanted to kind of... underline some of the places where

209we are going to have to look, right? We are going to have to look at sped. Like we're going to have to look at everything. We're going to have to go program by program. We're going to have to see what's essential, what's not. We're going to have to see what contracts are we spending, what's not. You know, we're going to have to look at all levels, admin, right? District office, site admin, you know, certificated, classified, right? You can't solve this deficit without going through and doing whatever you can, right? Looking at every single thing, right? So I think one of the things, though, that we also have to realize is that this is going on across California, that we're an expensive state. We don't have as many kids. Ventura County has lost more students than

210any other county in the state. We have gone from 5,000 as the max to now about 4,600, and we're looking at 4,500. 500 students is $8 million. The other thing is that, to be completely honest, we didn't do what we needed to when we got all of those one-time funds. Right. Because all of those funds came in and it was great spending it. But we knew. Right. We knew that they were going to expire. The problem is, though. Right. Is that how do you do that cleanly? Because we needed more staff. Right. We have a lot more mental health professionals on staff than we did before COVID. Right. Do we go back to 19 or 2019 levels? Right. Because we don't have, you know. 2020 dollars right you know so we have to prioritize what

211our priorities are and then we're gonna have to make adjustments you know and It's not going to be, this year isn't so bad, right? Because that deferred maintenance, we put in $4 million before you guys knew, right? We put in $4 million because the state was running surpluses. They had maxed out their reserve fund. There's a rule, right? If you do that, you have to get down to 10% of reserve, right? We were running about 17%. So we socked $4 million in there for a rainy day. It's come right we're gonna use that training. We have one other fun special 401 right that is about eight million dollars That's for year two and year three After that fun after that those funds are gone, right? There's no other bucket we can go into right because

212all the rest are either the bond funds which are for facilities right the county the county fund There's the county fund. That's for facilities, right? We can't touch those for this, right? We shouldn't have to touch 401. Not if we're going to do Isbell and if we're going to do the high school. Yeah, we shouldn't touch that if we don't have to, right? So that's going to be one of those trade-offs, right? Where how much can we smooth this out, right? Give us more runway. And how much are we going to lose on the facility side? Because we had this discussion on Monday about what those two basic projects, just modernizing Isbell, which is a minimum we have to do, which is long overdue, and building that Brighton gym, which is we got to get

213started on. Those two projects alone are going to break out those facilities. So going into those other funds means we can't do anything else. That's correct. Anyone else have questions? Yeah, just another question. You may not be able to answer it. I don't know if Mr. Weinstein can answer it. But as a person, you know, young person in the community, I see a lot of building going on. And some of the projects are being done in the harvest. Have we seen new families actually move into the harvest that will increase our revenue or? We are gaining students from people that move into Harvest. The rate of gain per household is not what it used to be. It's the best way to put it, that we have literally less than one child per household that goes

214around. It used to be closer to three. We do have a lot of apartment buildings coming in. Most of them are income qualified, so we should see a lot more students coming from there too. As far as the developer fees, it's at occupancy. So we can estimate what it would be, but it's how fast they sell the harvest homes is how we get our revenue. And to be very clear, they have not been selling very fast, right, recently. And there's no end in sight for interest rates being up at 6% or 7%. And, you know, there is starting to be talk about recession, right, which will definitely put a damper on. uh home sales so the potential is still there there's another 1400 units that need to be built out just in harvest alone apparently

215there's a lot more units around it's the question of builders aren't going to build unless the demand is there right and so until that demand builds up we're not going to see you know even the slight gains that we are seeing from you know from that development No, that was my question because I just wanted to introduce that to the members of the public, which is that just because we're building in the city doesn't mean we're bringing families in. And that may be due to the cost of living. That may be due to the cost of the homes. I think some of you in this room have seen it. You may not even be able to afford those homes. So, again, you see that amount of building happening. Again, that doesn't mean families are coming

216in. I guess. There's no other questions. I just wanted to reiterate that the money that the way we were staffed pre-COVID and during COVID because of one-time funds, we were able to spend money on certain things and there was needs. I mean, I just remember, you know, my daughter going to school and having her temperature checked and mask and all the staffing that we needed. And our ADA hasn't grown, I believe, like. the last senior class was the larger group and now there's less. And based on all the projections and all the information that we've received, it's not going there. Before coming on the board, I remember when there was tons of layoffs and I didn't understand what's going on. I mean, with development that's going on, there's more housing, but like Nathan said, they're

217not having the children, they're in our school district. We've been trying. We started with promoting what we do and how great all our schools are and what we're doing through social media. Anybody want to add anything else on the budget? I gave you two. Two of my four kids. You got two of them. You got two? Yeah. I have three, all three came through the system. I mean, I think we're all looking, you know, I did this with my students. We do a social policy and social work seminar. And I was like, okay, let's figure out how much you need to make to afford the median house in Ventura County, which is about $900,000. Now we're less here in Santa Paula, so it's not apples to apples, right? But we calculated it. right it was

218225 000 a year in order to afford that house and that's if you had the 180 000 for the down payment because if you didn't hit that 20 now tack on pmi right this state is not conducive to raising a family anymore unless you're making a huge amount of money. And we're just seeing that. And Ventura County is a very unaffordable place to live. Families can't raise their kids. So what we're going through here, Oxnard is going through it, Ventura is going through it. We've seen it up and down, especially the coastal cities where it's most expensive. know the only growth places are probably the central valley right maybe still uh the high desert right in the inland empire but they're few and far between we are blessed that we do have non-profits building affordable

219housing and those are restricted i mean the last project was people self-help and that was like 60 something units i don't know if anybody knows a number of students we received from people self-help but it's just a few and they're not large families either that's all i have to say and lori thank you do you need a motion i'm so sorry so i i'll make a motion to approve the second interim budget for 2024 2025 i second so moved and second uh could i have a preferential vote all those in favor aye aye aye oh thank you Board vote. All those in favor? Aye. Passes. Thank you. Thank you. And I need to move back to item C1. I need a motion to accept the donations. So moved. Thank you. Moved and second. Preferential vote?

220Aye. Thank you. Board vote. All those in favor? Aye. Passes. Thank you. So item three, approval of Chromebook purchase with... The City Tech PBC. Do you guys want a presentation? Okay, go for it. All right, good evening again. So in this action item, the administration requests approval to purchase 800 new Chromebooks with Viva City Tech to replace outdated devices. This upgrade will provide students with reliable, secure, and effective technology for learning while supporting the district hardware renewal cycle. The total cost is not to exceed $279,702 and will be covered by LCAP P4B. The technology administration recommends that the board of trustees approve the purchase of, to ensure students have reliable devices for learning. Thank you. Do we have any questions? If hearing none, is there a motion? i'm sorry so uh what would happen if

221we didn't approve it what would be the ramifications if we did if if somehow we we did not agree to this purchase right now So we have about 800 devices. So we have a four-year hardware recycle. So basically we're using outdated devices. So these devices need to get updated. So after a while, they become slower, less reliable for the students. So they keep going to the library, returning those devices. that will be the consequences basically of having less reliable devices for the students if we were not to approve this. I'm just worried that making a purchase like this right now maybe it just. I understand that it's for student purposes, but I guess what I'm looking at is the only students that really need to have Chromebooks would be, from what I understand, would be

222third grade and up because they're the ones who will be taking ELPAC and CASP. Or are these computers homebound? Are they only in school? They're only in school. So they'll be going to fourth graders and ninth graders. Fourth graders and nine graders. So those 800. That's correct. Yes. You know, let me like just go under this. I mean, I'm going to move to prove this this year. Right. But, you know, we've made a commitment. Right. As a board over the years to do a one to one. Right. I actually change out my hardware every three years, which is really what the cycle should be. Right. But we extended it to four. So until we have the discussion on. Is are the Chromebooks making an educational difference? Right. And there's a lot to that. You know,

223I'm not going to second guess that because that's what we decided to do. But we should have that conversation because this is how much it's going to cost us every year to maintain these that program. Three hundred thousand dollars. That's only going to increase. All right. And so, I mean, I guess it'll decrease because we're gonna have less kids. All right. So I guess there's a plus on that. But every single thing we do. right is a consequence of decisions that we have made in the past and we need to review every single one of those so i move to um approve this contract do we have a second i'll second preferential vote all those in favor aye uh not in favor aye aye nay so two who's a who's a yes for the chromebooks

224who's a yes So two and nay one. Okay. Thank you. Board vote. All those in favor. Aye. Opposed? Nay. Passes for one. Thank you. And I'll just make a comment. I think my daughter's had her since sixth grade. That's five years. She's kind of kept hers. It is slower. You are correct. So she's. We do look at older inventory so whoever gets a new Chromebook coming up you know fourth graders and again fourth graders, ninth graders. Ninth graders keep their Chromebooks all the way till they graduate. So some of those Chromebooks that they give back on eighth grade they're gonna be going and obviously some of them some of them are newer so they're two years one year they'll be going your daughter is in sixth grade. No, no. She's had hers in sixth grade.

225She's a junior. She was taking summer class and we just kept it. So she'll keep it six years. Okay. So. But they can last. I mean, for what they do online and what they're doing, it works. But when you're doing, you know, spreadsheets or mapping or drafting, I mean, obviously you need like three years. And we do go through the inventory if it's more than five years. You know, we reach out to the students so she could go to the library and, you know, get a new one. She doesn't want to. She's good. Thank you. Section D, human resources. Item one, establish one new eight-hour after-school program leader for the district. Good evening, board members. I'm presenting a request for a 40-hour per week after-school program leader position at the district level. This position is

226needed to support the day-to-day operations of the after-school program and alleviate some of the workload currently handled by Assistant Superintendent Dr. Ramirez. With multiple Aspire sites across the district, this role would help streamline program coordination, provide direct support to site leaders, and assist with administrative tasks to ensure efficient program management. And most importantly, this particular position would support... the coordination of youth sports programs with the city. The fiscal impact of this position is approximately $61,000 annually. Any questions of trustees? Where's this money coming out of? This would be ELOP. ELOP, okay. If there aren't any other questions, I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second. Moved and second. Board vote. All those in favor? Aye. Thank you. Passes 5-0. Moving on to item three. resolution 2024-25 regarding non-reelection of sort of certificated probationary employees good

227evening board members i have before you tonight the resolution to release in uh for the release and reassignment of certificated administrators pursuant to california education board 44951 it requires that unless certificated employees holding a position requiring an administrative or supervisory credential is sent a written notice by march 15th or unless the signature of the employee is obtained on the written notice by march 15th that he or she may be released from his or her position for the following school year then he or she shall be can shall continue shall be continued in the position and this is for the release of employee number 883. so just clear correction i read number three instead of number two which is a resolution 2425 release and reassignment of certificated administrators Thank you any questions or motion Well, I

228do have questions, but should that go after the motion we can wait till discussion. I'll make a motion to approve resolution 24 25 16 I second it's been moved in second discussion So my comment is this. Again, having been in education for well over 30 years, I've never seen a practice of an administrator that was not an employee as a teacher or classified employee have an opportunity to bump into a teaching role. So I'm concerned about that. So I know that. I feel like I'm not informed. I can't make an informed decision on this one particular resolution. I understand that that one leads to the other. So we're kind of in, you know, tied to two moves in one action. So I'm a little concerned about that. But I guess, you know, I know that

229I would like legal. Council on something like this You know going forward I mean if it is it whatever happens today happens I get that but I think going forward You know a union member where you know, I just think you know for for union members Taking a role taking a position might be of concerning to me at this point given the next budget items or the you know agenda items that are before us right i understand your concern um and we did work with legal on these resolutions any further discussion or questions so hearing none i'll take roll call vote let's start with you want to use last names so use the two first names start with trustee rodriguez uh yay trustee minhades yes Trustee Sandoval? Yes. Trustee Frutos? No. And Trustee Arroyo? Aye.

230Yes. Passes 4-1. Now, I think I'll read the correct one. Item D, Human Resources 3, Resolution Number 2024-2025.17, regarding non-reelection of certificated probationary employees. Pursuant to Education Code section 44929.21b, the board is required to notify probationary employees on or before March 15th of the employee's second complete consecutive school year of employment of its decision to not re-elect the employee for the next succeeding school year. And before you tonight, we have the resolution regarding non-reelection of certificated probationary employees. So if we don't have any... Just one thing. I just want to make it clear, right? This is May, right? There's any one of these teachers who is on this, right? This is March, not May. This is March. No, no, no, no, no. Sorry. We may let... the person go, right? Yes. We don't have to

231make the final decision until May 15th. Right. Right. So we could potentially, right, looking at what our needs are, what our enrollment is for next year, all these other factors, blah, blah, blah, make a decision, right, on any one of these. I just want to make that very clear. Yes. And when I met with the probationary teachers, I did let them know as well. Yeah, because, I mean, and this is, this one's hard for me because I know that we have some probationary teachers that, you know, that there's, that maybe, you know, have a place here, you know, but these rules are what they are, right? So. Quick question. When are we going to hear public comment? At what? I'm so sorry. That's under item six. All of our public comments are classified. Classified. Okay.

232For D6. Yes. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Any more questions of staff? If not, do we have a motion? I'll move to approve resolution 242517. So moved. Thank you. I have a motion. I'll second. Second. Board vote. All those in favor? Aye. Passes 5-0. Thank you. Number four, resolution number 2024-2025-18, release of temporary certificated employees. So pursuant to California Education Code section 44954, the board is required to notify temporary employees of the district's decision not to reelect for the next succeeding school year. Before you tonight, we have the resolution for approval of release of temporary certificated employees. Any questions? Hearing none, do I have a motion? I move to approve Resolution 242518. Do I have a second? I'll second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, board vote. All those in favor?

233Aye. Passes 5-0. Number five, Resolution Number 2024-202519, Reduction or Discontinuance of Particular Kinds of Service. Pursuant to Education Code Section 4495, it is the opinion that it has become necessary to reduce or discontinue particular kinds of services. This resolution is for the reduction and discontinuance of one psychologist position and one director of special projects position. Any questions? Yeah, just to clarify, the number of psychologists that we have working in the district right now. what's that number nine it's nine okay so in this this position is not going to be filled right so that would be the tenth we're not going to fill it the tenth so we'll be we'll be left with nine yes but the position's not going away permanently it's just we're going to wait and see what we can afford got it

234right thank you very good question anyone else if no questions then um do i have a motion I'll make a motion for approval. So we have a motion for approval. A second? I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. This is 5-0. Thank you. Thank you. Item 6, resolution number 2024-2520. abolishment and reduction in hours of 59 classified positions. So this is where we have our public comment. Not sure if we lost anybody but up first Gabrielle and after Gabrielle would be Giaquita. Thank you. Okay. Good evening superintendent board members and everybody who's still left here. My name is Gabrielle Geraldizo. I'm a teacher at Renaissance High School. I'm here tonight to address the staff cuts affecting our school, particularly the loss of our outreach specialist, Mr. Juan Garcia. When

235I first started at Renaissance in the 2021-2022 school year, Students often mistook Mr. Garcia for the principal not because of his title but because of his unwavering presence and dedication. He wears many hats being visible during nutrition and lunch announcing opportunities in classrooms mediating conflicts organizing field trips improving attendance and even playing in all of the student volleyball tournaments. His impact goes far beyond his job description. He is a pillar of our school. Removing this position would severely weaken our ability to support students and strip away a key part of what makes Renaissance special. Our district's motto is committed to serving every student every day. Yet eliminating roles like Mr. Garcia's does the opposite. I urge you to reconsider this cut. Our students deserve better. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name

236is Jeff Kitta. I've been the social science teacher at Renaissance High for the last 18 years. And while I understand all seven outreach specialist positions are proposed to be eliminated, the fact that Juan Garcia has served in this role at RHS for the past 18 years needs to be highlighted. The RHS staff and I believe this would have an extremely negative impact on our population who are fragile and often need much more support than the average high school student. Taking support away from the RHS team will have a direct impact on whether or not our students will continue to experience the levels of success they've been able to reach with Mr. Garcia's guidance. In addition to his many duties, one of the most important roles Mr. Garcia assumes at RHS is to provide a positive

237role model for our students. Since he's the only male staff member in the office, it's very common for our male students to go to him with their problems. For many of our students, he's the primary trusted adult on campus. Mr. Garcia is an excellent listener and provides support for our students that would be sorely missed. Additionally, he helps support the staff when there are behavioral issues and provides excellent interpretation during school events such as back to school night or if a parent phone call requires it. Over the past few years, we've been thankful for the presence and support that S.P.U.S.D. leadership and board members have provided RHS. Many of you have witnessed firsthand how special our student population is. I'd argue the students at RHS are some of the most vulnerable students in the district,

238and Mr. Garcia is an integral part of the team that catches these students so they don't fall through the cracks. During difficult budgetary times, it's been past practice to keep cuts as far away from students and the classroom as possible. Eliminating Mr. Garcia's position would objectively and clearly run contrary to this goal. In my 18 years of working with Juan Garcia, I've had few colleagues who show more dedication, professionalism, and passion than he does. I don't imagine removing support from RHS as what the board and district believes is the right decision. I strongly urge the board to reconsider the elimination of his position. Thank you very much. Thank you. Diane Wilkinson. Two minutes. That was smart. Don't worry. Good at sending angry emails, you'll get one in your box. I was going to be up

239here, professional and respectful, but it's just not going to happen. I've heard a lot of you talk about, oh, the problems that California faces with increasing costs to housing. And you're all, I'm sure that you think you've done all you can for this year. I can assure you that is not the case. Dr. Zanaval, I see you. We have been working hard on the budget meetings, but this is absolutely unacceptable. Oh, we're going to all of a sudden have to work to find and look at through everything that needs to be cut? I can assure you that should have been done last fiscal year, the fiscal year before, all of it. Out of respect for the president of your school board, I will not, you know, you said no, you know, I'm just going to

240let everybody else speak. I understand that. But I had a big, long speech about South Kern and going looking up that FICMAT report. I stood here five years ago, almost to the day. The faces I see before me are all different, but the reason is the same. Administrators that failed to protect the fiscal health of this district now turning to the standard hack of attempting to balance the budget on the backs of classified staff. And I don't want to hear about the law, all the legislative issues, because the layoffs have to happen now and you don't know what's going to happen. It's called uncertainty. We all live in it. Do a better job with the budget. These people deserve better. It's a tale as old as time. It's not a fairy tale. It's a tragedy.

241I actually am really glad that we got to stand and hear about all of the great presentations. Jessica Limon called out twice for her dedication. Couldn't even be here to protect her own job because she's working to benefit the students. She's going to get a pink slip tomorrow as well. All right, I've got 12 more seconds. I'm just going to put the rest in an email. But I want to say thank you to all the classified staff standing here still. Thank you to the classified staff watching this online. Oh, so many hacky tactics that bad districts use. I expect better from this community. Thank you. Thank you. Judy Alvarez and then Jesse Prado. Good evening, board members. My name is Judy Alvarez, and I'm the campus security officer at Renaissance High School. I, like other

242campus security officers, may potentially lose their hours with this proposed budget cut. Reducing hours means reducing the number of eyes and ears that are actively keeping the kids, actively keeping our students safe. Campus security officers are not just guards. They are staff who build relationships with students, understand the dynamics of our campus, and act quickly in times of need. Their presence help prevent incidents, deescalate potential conflicts, and respond quickly to emergencies. Along with my hours possibly being reduced, RHS also faces the position elimination of our outreach specialist, Mr. Juan Garcia. I worked at Renaissance for the last five years and seven years at Santa Paula High School prior. For the last 12 years, I have with the district, I have known Mr. Garcia to be a huge part of the Renaissance campus. Mr. Garcia is

243not just an outreach specialist that follows up with students attendance, SARB and SART, but he truly goes above and beyond his title for our students, such as helping organize field trips, other various school events and activities. Without Mr. Garcia, students would be negatively impacted and a key figure of continuing and a key figure of continued support on campus would disappear from their lives. Mr. Garcia makes it a point and priority each and every school day to be present, available to our students in the mornings as they arrive, nutrition, lunch, and after school. If you have ever visited our campus, Sorry, if you have ever visited our campus during nutrition or lunch, it is most likely you found Mr. Garcia engaging or interacting with our students in some way. Whether it's playing volleyball, basketball, corn holes,

244or simply conversing with our students, he is without a doubt a vital and positive influence our students at RHS need. Being the only campus security officer at Renaissance, having his presence gives me a sense of ease knowing if I need assistance, he would not hesitate to be there. Mr. Garcia is more than his title. He is a positive impact, a mentor, and a state person to several students. Eliminating his position at RHS would negatively affect and loss of the few steady resources that we have. Thank you, Judy. After Jesse Prado, Shane Norwood. I'm a shorty, sorry. Good evening board members. My name is Jessie Prado I've been a campus safety assistant and campus security officer for the past 31 years at Isbell middle school Here's some facts about campus security at Isbell We at Isabel

245run a tight ship. There's no gate unmanned. We supervise every restroom, hallway, quad, field, portables, and everything in between. We run lunch lines, supervise the cafeteria, and I could say with assurance that students who need assistance with anything on campus, we are always in view and ready to assist. When students are in class, we are at our busiest assisting administration with student pickups, searches, conflict management, student removal from classes, teacher potty breaks, and picking up cell phones and other items in classes that are not allowed. Good changes have been made so that every door is closed and locked on campus where there are students. You can't get in a classroom, building, or on campus unless security opens the door or gate for you. A security officer also mounts the front entrance of the school at

246all times to assist with parent needs and student tardies, making sure everyone checks in and tardies are logged. We are the first responders to all emergencies and incidents that acquire on campus. We are a well-oiled machine that continues this grind on a daily basis. This will not be the case if campus security hours are reduced. In order for this machine to run well, you need full-time security officers at Isbell. We cannot continue to run a tight ship with the same effectiveness with less. When this machine starts to break down, it will affect students, staff, and parents. Behavior will fall and parents will want to take the child somewhere else. And enrollment is already a problem for this district. When you remove the eyes that watch, you also compromise the safety and security of the students

247and staff. Do you know that we've only had three on-site fights this school year? That is an unheard of, that's unheard of at a middle school. We might possibly be the best middle school in Ventura County as it stands right now. So Mr. Superintendent, you had a big hand in that. You made some significant changes three years ago and they worked. So let's not go backwards. Let's move forward with this victory, celebrate it and build on it. I know the board, I'm going to wind it down. I know the board has some difficult decisions to make regarding the budget. And I ask, do not affect the student's safety. A questioner goes out to parents every year asking what's the most, three most important things. Safety is always number one. So I have hope that the

248board will be wise enough to see that reducing the hours of our security officers and compromise safety is not the wisest choice. Thank you for your time and God be with you. Shane Norwood and then Julia. Good evening. My name is Shane Norwood and I serve as the lead campus security officer at Santa Paula High School. I recognize the difficult financial decisions before you and the immense challenges they present. I would not want to be in your shoes. So my purpose tonight is not to criticize. Rather, I wish to inform the Board and our community of the unintended consequences the proposed reduction in hours will have on campus safety. A low-known fact is our security team at Santa Paula High School responds to approximately 2,000 service calls per year. It's important to note that this

249number does not even include the proactive measures our security officers take daily to prevent incidents before they occur. These include assisting students in crisis and directing them to the appropriate resources, intervening in physical altercations, and diffusing potentially volatile situations before they escalate into larger situations. Our current manpower allows us to effectively monitor campus entry and exit points, thoroughly vet all visitors, and maintain near constant restroom supervision, which has drastically reduced fights as well as drug and alcohol use. The proposal to reduce four full-time security positions to 5.75-hour shifts would create a significant challenge of maintaining many of the services we currently provide. Moreover, it greatly increases the risk of losing experienced officers to resignations who will undoubtedly seek full-time employment opportunities elsewhere. In recent weeks, off-campus gang activity and violence has escalated, directly involving SPHS

250students as both victims and perpetrators. It is undeniable that our team's vigilance, high level of training, proactive approach to campus safety, and current level of manpower have been instrumental in preventing these incidents from spilling onto our campus. Lastly, I take tremendous pride in the fact that our security team and procedures have become a model. for campus security around Ventura County. In fact, our leading practices have been recognized at county safety seminars and neighboring districts have even expressed interest in visiting our campus to observe our team and our procedures in action. So I get it, we're in ominous times, but I just don't see a scenario where security cuts of any kind should be on the table. My team, many of them are here tonight, put it all on the line to take care of others.

251I feel the least that we can do is find a way to continue taking care of them. Thank you. Thank you. Julia? And after Julia would be Vanessa Hernandez. Julia, your last name? Queen. Queen. Okay, thank you. It sounds like the voices are coming from over there. Thank you. Hi, my name is Julia Queen, and I've taught the functional skills class at Isabel Middle School for the past 17 years, and I just wanted to come tonight and support our classified staff. Our classified staff are the backbone of our schools. I could not do my job without my team of instructional assistants. They truly care about our students and they work hard every single day to help our students reach their full potential. Our campus security offers are vital to the safety of our school. For

252the past couple of years, we finally had enough security officers to have eyes everywhere on campus. Campus security are the first to respond during emergency situations like lockdowns that happen frequently. Their presence makes students feel safe. Thank you. Thank you. Vanessa Hernandez. Okay. Then Paul Robinson. Thank you. And then Elva Zamora. Good afternoon. My name is Paul Robinson. I'm a personal commissioner for the Oxnard Elementary School District. I'm also a regional representative for Region 8, which is this region. I'm very surprised and disappointed for the lack of appreciation towards the classified employees. They have put so much on the line to contribute to the growth of this district, and only for the budget to be lessened, and they are the ones to be cut. Now, just to put it in context. It costs $20,000 to

253hire one of the campus assistants for the year, whereas it costs $20,000 a month for an individual employee. If you look at the context of it, you are balancing the budget on the backs of one employee for the one to receive that difference. I'm going to share with you. The community is where those people live. This is where they live. By you doing that, you're creating a domino effect on the family who lives in this community. I'm saying to you that you are doing something that is very, very detrimental to the community that you take an oath to serve. By serving them with injustice is not... the right way to go. And as board members, I know that you said students are first. Safety is first and students is a part of that. I'm going

254to give you an example, just a very short example. I have a grandson who was walking, he's seven, he was walking and he fell and he broke his front teeth. And the district is giving my daughter a run around. And this is what you call liability to the district. Campus assistants or power educators, they are essential to the district and essential to the protection of our students. So I would say, I would urge you to consider, please don't do what you're about to do because it's going to be detrimental to our community. Thank you. Thank you. Elva Zamora and then Xochitl Gomez. Good evening, superintendent, board members, members of the public. My name is Elva Zamora. I am a campus supervisor at McKevitt Elementary. It saddens me that our position is not seen important. We

255are the ones who keep our eyes on our beautiful students. We know each of their names. Do you know our students, each of their names? Why are you eliminating or reducing school positions that are essential at school sites? Every position at each school site is an important role. Your school sites are where your students are learning. Your priority is students. Without students, there's no school district. Our district has outstanding teachers that work so hard to meet with all the district teaching requirements. At school sites is where the positions are needed because that's where the students are being taught. Students are not at the district office. Are positions at the district office being eliminated or reduced in hours? As a parent of an incoming seventh grader at Isbell and a freshman at Santa Paula High School,

256it worries me that campus security will be reduced, as these are the schools that have higher rates of fights. You cut security, what's going to happen? What will happen if some school sites don't have security or campus supervision for an amount of hours a day? I feel that our children and our schools will be more vulnerable to unfortunate events. I feel that instead of moving forward, we are, as a district, we are moving backwards. Do you wonder why we lose students that are going to Isbell or Santa Paula High School? It's the stories we parents hear about Isbell and Santa Paula High School about bullying and fights that worry many parents. Parents want a safe school for their children, especially nowadays that there is so much violence targeting schools. Parents would rather pull their child

257out of the district to take them to Briggs, Mupu, or out of town school. Do we as a district want to lose more students due to reduction of campus security? If the answer is no, then you should really reconsider the idea of reducing security at schools, or is it worth it to lose more students due to reduction in security in our schools? Thank you. Thank you. Is Xochitl Gomez here? Is there anybody that I missed? We have one written comment. Dear board members and superintendent, I am a proud S.P.U.S.D. employee and a parent. I urge you to not lay off my fellow co-workers and possibly myself. Please be transparent with the community on your plans to downsize your employees. Not only does this affect the staff and their families, but it affects the students as

258well. This will mean combo classes which will affect them academically. This will also affect the security and safety in our schools. If safety and or academics education of my children is a concern, I will definitely consider removing my children from this district. The children don't deserve to suffer the consequences of the district's budget mistakes. Why don't we start off by budget cutting Mr. Weinstein's annual salary? Maybe budget cut a percentage of each of the directors. Please make a wise decision because it might seem like cutting staff will help with the district's debt, but in the long run, it'll raise more difficult issues to resolve. And that concludes public comment. And now we're here for... presentation from our director oh i'm sorry not presentation resolution presentation of the resolution good evening board um the board is

259considering resolution number 2024 25. 20, which eliminates the and reduces hours for certain classified positions due to lack of work and or lack of funds for the 2025-26 school year. This action is being taken in accordance with Education Code sections 45117 and 45308. The resolution includes the elimination of all seven outreach specialist bilingual positions as well as seven instructional assistant bilingual positions across various schedules it also includes a reduction of hours for 41 campus supervision assistant positions and four campus security officer positions employees whose positions are eliminated or reduced will receive written notice by march 15th in addition any employees who may be displaced due to seniority displacement will also receive notification layoffs will be conducted based on seniority within each classification and those affected will have re-employment rights for 39 months. If approved, this

260resolution will take effect at the conclusion of the 2024-25 school year. Is there any questions? If none, do I have a motion? I just have a comment. Am I allowed to comment on this action? no no i understand but okay trustee frutos will wait go ahead oh okay um as a former student of renaissance um high school it would be very sad and um a dishonor for the district to eliminate Mr. Garcia and reduce duty and all security as ours to eliminate Mr. Garcia. When I was at Renaissance, Mr. Garcia gave me like courage and he encouraged me to go to school. And when I had no motivation, he kind of gave me that sense of like, you can do it. And when I wanted to go back to the high school, all of Renaissance

261staff were behind me saying you could do it. And They were my number one supporters. So to take that away from Renaissance students now and Renaissance students in the future is, it's sad to not have, let them have that. He went to all of the field trips I went to and he was great. He, I can't, sorry, I'm getting stuck. He, helped out with every field trip. He did more than he was supposed to or more than he's required to. He's a great influence on all the students, makes us all want to do better. And he helped me succeed in my goal of going back to the high school and doing the things I thought I would never be able to do going into Renaissance. And that goes for all the Renaissance staff. As well

262as security, Ruben, there's so many connections that students make with security and as well as outreach, those positions, just a lot of security connections and they make us feel safe. I wouldn't feel safe if I didn't have a security member there at all times while I'm in school. I would feel unsafe and not. if there was insecurity at each gate. And that also goes for Isabel and all schools. So thank you. I just want the board to take that into account. Thank you, Elizabeth, for speaking up. Adding on, can I also attest? Yes, of course. Okay. So in my experience and in the people that I work with at the high school and all my friends, there's always the security guards that will... and custodians actually, security guards and custodians, whenever you enter the high

263school, Gabby, Robert, Kurt, Ruben, everyone will say hi to you. They will greet you. You may be having a bad morning, and just with the one good morning or what's up, Jenny, or a little something, the fact that they recognize your name and recognize you really just makes you feel better. Security? You would think security on that, you would think that the job of a person who's titled as security would be to just protect you from outsiders coming in, which they do during lockdowns and other drills or when they're not drills, the opposite of drills, real life scenarios when there's like bad people trying to get in. Not only are they protecting us, they're making sure that we're safe inside the school. They're making us feel better. They're giving us motivation to keep on going

264as Elizabeth said. They're taking time and effort to meet new people, to create connections with the kids that they serve. Just like you are serving the students, a way to serve the students is to just keep the staff and not... This isn't, I don't know how to say this in a positive way. I'm one of these few students that may be at school from 7 to legally 8.30. And most of the time, the people that I see there from the morning to the afternoon, whether they clock out at 4 or anything like that. or maybe later, sometimes I'll see them in the night being security for after school sports teams. They're always there. Oh, it's cold. I'm sorry. It's cold. I'm shaking. They're always there working really hard. And just if you were to cut

265their hours, how would they be able to work as security for the football games, which could get really rowdy like in the future? I'm sorry, I'm cold. I'm shaking. Yeah, just, I don't know. I don't think that cutting their hours would be beneficial because they're really used... That's weird. That sounds weird. Their job is very important. And I just hope that... just that gets, you know, recognized and I hope that just shout out to all of you guys, everyone that's still here. It's 10 p.m. and they are still here for their cause, for the cause that they want to keep their job, well, keep their job and keep their hours and help our students and even, they're even helping our staff by also keeping staff protected when there's, you know, intruders or they're helping, they're

266working along with, um, the police, the SROs on campus. They're just amazing people and I hope that they could keep their job. And I'll stop here because I'm shaking of how cold I am. Jenny, do us a favor and close the doors afterwards, please. And then they'll keep some of the heat. And thank you. Thank you, mr. Robinson, so a couple of questions and maybe this is more for first staff Has CSCA been at the bargaining table regarding these layups and reductions? Maybe Jeff you might chime in on that. They have been part of the Budget Committee and We have talked about it in our I think it's our monthly meetings with CSCA So I'm also on the Budget Committee, and I do know that we have had classified, and we have seen Diane Wilkinson,

267our CSA labor rep, also present. So I know that they've been present and understand the budget shortfalls that are there. Again, please reiterate, maybe give us a little bit of background knowledge. Are we looking at today as first step, but final decision will be May 15th? Final decision needs to be made before May 15th. Okay, correct. But this is just a projection that it may happen. Okay. And just a final thing, just on a personal note. Mr. Garcia, you were my pupil. I mentored you in that role, so I understand what it means to be an outreach counselor. And myself, I had to go through eliminations and cuts, so I know how difficult it is. When I worked in Santa Paula Elementary School District for 18 years, and in that 18 years I was lead

268negotiator, classified rep. I see Jenny Foster here. We had good times, some challenging times. But nonetheless, the work gets done, even though it may be challenging. I remember signing my own reduction in layoff. And through that, again, this is just advice. I mean, I know that we're going through a challenge time, but I'm a firm believer in being resilient and taking on the next challenge in life. And I get that. I know that we're dealing with a difficult time. But when you negate the idea that you're no longer a resilient individual, then you've lost the battle. You have. But if you continue to fight and you continue to be resilient and find new ways to reinvent yourself, you're probably going to rise through the ashes. And I'm one example of that. It was personal. It

269was hard. 18 years of giving that, I understand what it takes. But I take solace in knowing that we'll make a decision today. and that there's still an opportunity to revisit and look at budgets and hopefully we can come to a different agreement or one that benefits. And I will say the one that's gonna benefit our students. And I know that's hard to hear, but that's ultimately my priority as a trustee member. So I'll make a motion or do any more comments? So anyone else want to speak before me? Yeah, I just I just want to share a little bit of a little bit of my background, what your testimony has meant to me today. My first full time job was was at the city of Fillmore, and I worked there for six and a

270half years. I was blessed to have been given an opportunity, a chance to work in the profession that I went to college for, which was as an urban planner. And. Got a ton of great experience there. And in 2011, a couple of years after the Great Recession, the impacts of that time, you know, hit Fillmore. And they ended up having to lay off half the entire city staff, including myself. And, you know, I had two young children at the time, 32 years old. I thought I was going to be there a lot longer, and it's a real tough time. So I can only imagine what you're going through right now. We're all in different times in our lives when things like this hit us. And so all I can say is I understand what you're

271going through, and I don't take decisions like this lightly as an elected official. And I do just want to reiterate that I do value your public comment today. As mentioned earlier, this is not the final opportunity for us to make this decision. Campus security is very important. I'm speaking as a parent. To have a campus that's secure for my children, who mean everything to me, I can't put a price on that. And so I know exactly where you're coming from. So what I can offer you today is that I'm taking this very much to the heart, and it's not a decision that I'm going to make lightly, okay? Mr. Weinstein, can I ask you a couple questions? All right. On the outreach specialists. What's our intention with those positions? We have seven outreach specialist positions.

272We have applied and received money already for the community schools grant. The coordinators that would be working at each of the sites, their job duties would be very similar to what our current outreach specialists do. And so, you know, right now, the intent is really, you know, to shift those positions, right? But we have to eliminate those positions first in order to create those positions because part of the grant is that you can't supplant. Correct. So we, we would have to create a new position, job description negotiated with the union. And then once that's done, then we can, you know, and so in the transition. And so in the, in the chance, right. Because I mean, we've all spoke about the good work that the outreach specialists have been doing, right. And that the value

273that they bring to this district. So in the chance that we don't get the grant, which hopefully we'll, we'll have to make this decision before May 15th, for sure. Right. We would revisit right that decision, right, to look to see if there was other sources of funding like at Renaissance. They have the equity multiplier, right? That could be used. There's sites, funds that could be used, right? There's other sources of money, right? But to help with other parts of the money we're trying or the budget, we're trying to reserve those. Other pots that we could take it out of because we have this opportunity with the community school grants. So if we didn't do this tonight, we wouldn't be able to make that adjustment. Correct. Okay. So as far as the campus security, right. You

274know, I think we do need to. You know, I would like to hear from from the school sites like because we have made a huge investment, especially in Isbell. Right. Because we knew like coming in four years ago. Right. My idea, you know, one of my goals was to blow up Isbell and reconstruct it. Right. Because it's always been such a sore spot in the district. Right. For decades. Right. Since I went there. Right. So we did invest more. Right. But we also took away a grade. You know, so what that mix of campus supervision needs to be, I'm not 100% sure, but I absolutely don't want to lose. None of us want to lose the gains we've made there, right? Same thing with the high school. I live right next door to it. I

275see the cop cars. I know what the stabbings are, you know, and seeing it up in the Virginia Terraces last week, right? Part of the... The reason we're seeing that activity outside of school is because inside of school has become safer. Right. So for sure. Right. I want to revisit, you know, that level of staffing and what we can do. At the same time, there are other pools of money. Right. Like ELOP percent. that we could potentially leverage, right? We have to do our due diligence, right? Because we can't use it from seven to 12 without satisfying different conditions, right? But that's one source of money that we could use to help fund some of those positions. And we could go to school sites, right? Councils, right? And see what they want to do, right?

276At their site. But we're going to have to make those decisions. We're going to have a lot of work to do over the next two months. if we don't make this decision now though we're locked right and whether or not you agree with the rules or how i'm interpreting them or whether we're using them to our favor That's the rule, right? So the intent isn't to just walk away from this and say, they're all gone, sorry, right? That happens because we've all been subject to layoffs and we know that they're horrible. I'm getting laid off this fall from Channel Islands, right? Welcome to the club. Our intent is to try to save as many positions as possible. So this is not done yet, but it's a necessary step. And I will make one comment because

277it's in my mind, right? To think that, for anybody to insinuate, right? you know, over the line that I'm just doing my due diligence now is laughable because they haven't been watching me for the last four years, right? This is not easy stuff. And anybody who tells you that it is, is lying to you. We have been very clear and I have been very clear that we need to talk to our stakeholders and we need to bring them along for sure. and we have done that to varying degrees of success right and can we do better absolutely did some of the things that roll out on this were they you know would i wish they were rolled out different absolutely right that said this is where we're at and we will always right this board

278will always you know make the commitment to try to do better and to bring the district along but There is no darn way, right, that this district is going to be taken over by the state on my watch, right? And that's what's going to happen if we do nothing. Do we have any more comments? Yeah, I'm sorry, Mr. Weinstein, as for the instructional assistance, is the same plan of action for the outreach or the intention? similar to the outreach specialists where we'd find a new way to create a new position and hopefully bump them in there? Yeah, it's with all the positions. I mean, what we have to do is be creative, think outside the box, look at all different funding monies, and try to, you know, make sure that the people who have worked

279for us are going to stay working for us. And for the other positions that are facing a reduction of hours, we can always refer back to the school site and see if they can fund all the costs if they deemed it necessary. The site has a budget as well as the school site council has a budget, and they can deem what they use the money for. Thank you. So just some comments. I mean, we've said that one of the priorities is our students and their safety and also being physically sound. I think we've all said it. We're kind of tied because of the deadlines of March, but we will be revisiting this before the May 15th deadline. I would encourage you to email your principals. our superintendent to stay on top if you have questions.

280I believe that now that I've been on the board a few years and I was in purview to the budget committee, but there is needs, as one of my trustees mentioned, about budget workshops. So those that are interested. We can discuss further and brainstorm some ideas as a parent I was always part of the LCAP and for me LCAP was how our principals and certain staffs would say what is important to each school site and they were able to decide how the money was spent, you know, whether it was more people at lunchtime supervising our students or just whatever it was. So I know for me, looking at the security, what it was pre-COVID and now and moving sixth grade out, the changes that it's done to Isabel. So, I mean, there's... We have an

281SRO at Isabelle. Do we want that or do we want more hours for security? I mean, those are things that need to be discussed during this time a little further. So, I mean, any input, you guys are all welcome to email us and the superintendent with ideas. And, you know, if we do do a budget workshops, if you are interested in that. With that said, I need a motion. So move to accept resolution 2024 2025 20 abolishment and reduction in hours of 59 classified positions I'll second it's been moved and second roll call vote. I'm sorry. Just all those in favor Passes 5-0 does anybody need a break or do you move on? Item 9, consent calendar action items. On the consent calendar, admin would like to pull. B1. I had it written down here.

282Ah, here we go. 9B1. And in the 9B1, it has four different contracts. The contract we want to pull is the Apple Inc. contract. Okay. We're renegotiating the price. So. besides the item pool do we have a motion to approve consent items so moved i second no because there's a certificate thank you sorry it's only a board vote all those in favor passes five zero nine so now we have nine b one it's pulled we're not gonna vote on it but just that one item from just the one item uh apple inc is the contract I'm so sorry. I was looking at another one. So see now for two. But two. These are all consent. Yeah. So item 10 board member comments request for future agenda items. Student trustees. To those of you who are

283still watching and to the people who have just left and the people who are still in the audience, thank you for staying with us through this board meeting. Have a good night, and I'll see you in two weeks. Thank you. Jenny Perez. Again, another big shout-out to Elias Garcia. You're doing amazing work representing our district. Also... Everything today was interesting. I especially love the math presentation. I love how there's new ways, new and different ways to teach kids how to teach both their colleagues and their teachers. So I think that's pretty awesome. I love seeing how the different ways they added 167. I'm like, this is how I would do it. But I think I saw one that I agreed with. So it was pretty cool in the little picture. I'm just grateful for. All

284the time that everyone puts... Okay, I'll hurry. Dr. Sandoval told me to hurry. Have a nice night. Elizabeth, sorry. I just want to tell everybody to have a great weekend and to stay positive. and trustee rodriguez oh happy board meeting everyone um let's see i'll make this quick i did the read across america at bar webster it was nice visiting my alma mater and saw my kindergarten teacher miss pasadas you know i'm a board member now but she saw me as a little kindergarten before um other than that last month i had the opportunity to visit the school sites of bar webster elementary and grace the elementary and they were wonderful they were beautiful and i just love talking to the principals and seeing all the great work they're doing Thank you. I'll just finish

285my thoughts on the basketball program. That's been on my mind this whole time. I just wanted to communicate the great experience I had with everyone at Bedell, with the school, the principal, the staff that helped, Ms. Patty, who helped coordinate the gym use. It really was, took a village to do it, and thank the city as well. Greg Barnes and Andy Rico, who helped run the program at the city, they do a great job. And all the coaches for volunteering. It was a really great experience. Thank you. Trustee Sandoval. Just a few things. The Glen City Blanchard Science Night, Family Science Night, I was able to come to. It was fantastic. This room was packed. Outside was packed. We need to find a bigger space next year. I am in conversations with a professor at

286Channel Islands, a math professor who is leading an initiative there called the Innovation Hub. He is working with the Navy base. One of the first projects they want to be working on is called Advanced Aerial Mobility. I was like, what the heck is that? Air taxis. I'm trying to convince them that we need to partner because they need a pipeline right here. Advanced Air Mobility. that's what it was advanced air mobility right so um an exciting opportunity area and i want to make sure that the district is involved in all the things that they're doing right because he's reaching out to a number of different universities and community partners and what have you and then finally um shout out to isbel um and um principle, uh, Guerra and, um, director Garcia and I think, uh,

287Mr. DeCandia for hosting, um, the CSB president, Betty Lusk, um, very last minute. And that was my fault. Uh, but as was reported, um, by trustee, um, Perez, the, she was able to see the sea perch program, right. For the, our Navy base collaboration with CI and VC, uh, the Condor closet and the wellness center. And. It was fantastic. Great press for us. Thank you, Trustee Frutos. Excellent. First of all, I just want to thank all our presentations today. Again, it does warm my heart to see our students really gaining some excellent ground in their personal and academic growth. You know, anyone that says Santa Paula is not worthy and threatens me, ya basta. That's how I feel. Because we are amazing right here in Santa Paula. I believe that. Water polo, making CIF finals,

288our CGI program, our reading program, our academic CTEs, STEM program. The list goes on and on. Santa Paula is amazing. And that's because of the amazing people we have here. I know we're going through challenging times. But it saddens me and it frustrates me when we hear those empty threats. I don't buy it. If you bleed red and you're a cardinal, you'll die red. That's the honest to God truth. That's how I see it. I want to say good job to, I was reading some school site council minutes, and good job to Blanchard, Bedell, Glen City, and I'm sure they're out there, but you're having those tough discussions on Title I funding. You're having them. You're discussing our kids, and that's refreshing to me. And again, I just want to end with... I love what

289you said down the road, Mia. Stay positive. Okay? Believe me. I believe in that. Stay positive. Thank you. So I just wanted to make a comment that I really appreciate the Read America and the emails that we receive from the school sites to go read. And I had the pleasure of reading before Trustee Rodriguez at Barbara Webster, and I read to second graders. And it was nice to, you know, just to be in the classroom and get to enjoy and see how the kids, you know, enjoy having visitors. and just having, you know, reading to them. And I know Asher read as well. I did see the post. So kudos. I guess I really just want to say like. trustee Ruto's I mean Santa Paula is great uh when I moved here 20 well nine

290years 29 years ago you know I heard a lot of things but I'm just that person that you know I want to see it firsthand and I was that parent that would go and yeah just like anywhere else there might be certain you know staff people that you have issues but you speak up and and bring it up I came to board meetings my children came to board meetings um They wrote up in the newspaper of, you know, the music program at McKevitt, the ag program. I mean, I've, as a parent, gone through a lot of frustrations throughout the years and have brought it up. And things change. Sometimes it takes a few years. I mean, I would love to see the math grow more in our reading. I believe that there is a lot

291of buy-in and as a board member, you know, it's now being on this side, you see the hard choices you have to make. I would, I hated having, you know, to recommend approval of all these reduction in hours and positions, but it's necessary. I mean, I remember recessions 2008 and people taking pay cuts or furloughs. And I just don't think. We need to be there. I mean, well, at this point, I mean, if a recession does come, you know, then we will have those discussions like we did back in 2008. Ask your parents. You'll remember. But so that's all I have to say for now. And again, just again, also thank you for all the presentations and all the hard work you guys put in. I know everybody works above and beyond their 40 hours.

292So I just want to say thank you. And item 11, our future meetings, we have a special board meeting on March 17th. And for item 12, we have... We'd like to close today's meeting in honor of David Perez, who was an 11th grade student at Santa Paula High School. Unfortunately, he passed from cancer. He lost his battle on 3-7. So just a moment of silence in his honor before we adjourn. Thank you. So I will call this, we'll adjourn this meeting, not call it again, adjourn it at 1039.