March 11, 2026 Regular Board Meeting

001Call to order the March 11th, 2026 regular board meeting of the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Trustees. We are, it is four o'clock and we are going to move to item A1, public comment on closed session agenda. Is there any public comment? Yes, we have one public comment. Our first speaker is Kelly Wattel. Kelly, there's a one minute timer. May I go ahead? Thank you. As you head into closed session, I just ask for you to consider the administrators that are doing amazing work within Santa Rosa City Schools. And I ask you to consider the following. I'm Kelly Wattel, a math teacher and department chair at Rinkin Valley Middle School. I have really good classes, really good students, and really good administrators this year. We've been able to hold our students accountable. Removing Principal

002Coriel will return our campus to the instability that has plagued us for the last several years. Please come and see how amazing things are at Rinkin Valley Middle School. Daryl is the glue that holds us together. We haven't seen any board members or executive directors at our site in a while. Again, we really ask you to come and see how awesome our students, teachers, and administrators are at Rinkin. Please do not remove our principle. We need stability, especially if we are expected to move sites in the next year or two down the line. We will fight this. We fought this last year and we appreciate Daryl returning as our principal this last year. We will not give up. We want Daryl back again year after year and many years to come. We need stability and

003we thank you for your time and consideration. Have a good night. Our next speaker is Kimberly. Raise. I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing your name correctly. It's okay. My handwriting is terrible. It was Roper. Thank you. Sorry. Hi. So I also am here just to speak on behalf of the RVMS and tracks community. We have an excellent principal right now. My kids have been there for the last six years. And so Daryl has by far and away been the best principal we've had. He I'm on the board of the SFPO for Shracks and he has. always been there supporting. He's on the ground at meetings, at events, at sports. He's beloved by, as you just saw, a teacher came here right after school. We barely just heard about this and we were just, we wanted

004to be on the record as supporting him and just saying what a valuable part of our community he is. He's really under his leadership. The environment has changed, improved for the better so much at RVMS. We at Shracks, I have a daughter at Shracks and at RBMUS right now. It's really nice to know that there's strong leadership, that the school is going in the right direction from Shracks that we can send our kids on to a middle school that's going to be a safe, nurturing, wonderful environment that he's really turned it around in the last two years. And we just want to keep seeing those improvements continuing under his direction. Thank you. Thank you. President Kasten, there are no other cards. All right, we'll move to item B and recess to close session. We're recessing

005to close session to consider items B1, public employee performance evaluation for the titles listed, B2, public employee discipline dismissal release, and item B3, student expulsions. We're recessed. All right, we will now reconvene to our study session on priority two, safety and security. We'll first take public comment on the study session. Is there any public comment? President Kasten, we have one public comment card. Our first speaker is Joy DeFosse. Oh, sorry. Unequivocally, the most vulnerable student populations are those with special needs. Children with disabilities are two to three times more likely to be bullied than their peers without disabilities. Over 34% of middle school students and 24% of elementary school students with disabilities experience bullying. Over 60% of autistic children are bullied. Children with disabilities are also three times more likely than children without to be

006victims of sexual abuse. Nearly 50% of children with autism attempt to elope. Autistic children elope to explore, escape overwhelming anxious situations, or to reach desired item place. The top dangers associated with elopement include traffic-related accidents and drownings. Drowning is the number one cause of death for autistic children. Now answer this. How can you seriously ensure the safety and well-being of special needs children with the cuts you want to implement? With fewer trained trusted adults and the student-to-teacher ratio increasing, how are those students going to be kept safe from eloping from an overcrowded classroom not set up to meet their needs? with an overwhelmed and distracted teacher. Thank you very much for your comments. Thank you. President Kasten, there are no other cards. All right, we will now move to our discussion. I am C2, Strategic

007Planning around Safety and Security. Superintendent August. Thank you, President Gaston, members of our board and our community. And I'm going to hand it over to our executive director, Stacey Desideri, to share some information as we talk about, continue the discussion around our strategic goals. And specifically tonight, this session has been rescheduled from an earlier one. We wanted to make sure that we had a full board here. Super happy to have Officer Crosby here to share conversation with us as we move forward. So we're going to start by talking about the difference, I think, between safety and security. So thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Stacey Desideri, Executive Director of Wellness and Engagement. Here with me today is Sergeant Crosby from Santa Rosa Police Department. And we are looking forward to talking with you, answering questions, and

008just exploring this idea of safety and security. So I am going to turn on my presentation here. Okay, so when we talk about climate and safety, we really, I think it's important to pause just for a moment to ensure that we know that when we think about this concept of school safety, we're really talking about two different categories of information. We're talking about security. And security is measures that are taken that protect from external threats. Sometimes those external threats are people in the community or external forces in the community. It can be environmental. It can be the community kind of coming onto the campus. but it can also be from students or staff. And these could include things like fences and locks and practices and policies that are designed to address external forces that might

009be coming on. But when we think about this concept of safety, safety is that holistic environment. It is often referred to when we talk about the feel. of a campus, the climate or the culture of a campus. It is that environment where people feel secured and valued and they feel like there is a connection. So when we think about this concept of safety, it comes from a place of familiarity and trust, which leads to connectedness and belonging. One of the things that I've shared with you in this little slide presentation is a link to a summit on safety and security that Santa Rosa City Schools participated in with Schools Insurance Agency. It is a participation, a collaboration of districts and community leaders in the concept of security and safety working together to develop a roadmap

010for helping. schools address both the issues of safety and security. We are on the front runners of this program and this participation. We are working on designing through this year a roadmap that a school community could pick up, use to analyze where they are, and design some next steps. It's in the beginning phase, but I wanted to share the work that we've been doing. Did you share that presentation so we could click on the link? It is. The presentation will be uploaded so that you can have access to it. Thank you. Absolutely. So we can't do this alone, and that's why today we invited Santa Rosa Police Department to join us. But this is so much a bigger community when we talk about safety and security of our schools and our students. We participate in

011the Violence Prevention Partnership through Measure O and Santa Rosa City Services. So in addition to our partnership with Santa Rosa Police Department, Santa Rosa Fire, we also work with a variety. And this is not exhaustive. When I put everybody up there, it's no longer readable because of the font size. But these are just some ideas of some of the community partnerships that we have. we work with. All of these have relationships with us, can work with our students directly through our MOUs that have been in place for a number of years. I also wanted to take a moment to share how our community has been communicating with us through our regular surveys, sharing with us how they feel about perceptions of safety. I'm going to start with the Panorama survey. Just as a reminder, the

012Panorama is a survey that is administered to staff and to students. And I'm looking specifically at how our students report whether or not they feel safe at school. And as you can see, when we are talking with our students grades four through six, there has been a 4% improvement over time of students saying to us on a variety of questions on this survey that I feel safe at school. We see that same improvement in grades 7 through 12, but at a much more dramatic rate. This started much lower than elementary and grew much higher, so we had a 12% improvement with grades 7 through 12 over the last three years. However, Although we are celebrating our wins, we have to acknowledge that not every student on our campus shares the same experience. And in Panorama,

013very similar to what we've seen in years past, we are seeing that different. groups of students are reporting a different experience. So whether we look at students by age band, we look at students who might be, who report as Hispanic or Latino compared to students who say, no, I am not Hispanic, Latino, or by gender. I could have included significantly more. collections of students, but I targeted these three. We do see that depending on who you are, you may have a very different experience. And I think one of the most important areas that we have to continue to focus on is our students who self-report as non-binary, because there is almost a 20% difference in their experience of safety at school. as opposed to students who identify as either male or female. That continues to

014be an area of focus for us. So when we look at moving from the Panorama survey to the Youth Truth survey, this was actually administered just a couple of weeks ago in January of this year, 2026. There are some questions that are asked at two different age levels. They asked all the middle school students to respond to the question, I feel safe at school. The middle school students, and this is a little bit of a complicated graph to read, but each one of those yellow bars is a year. that these students answered this same question. And what we've seen is that since January of 2024, there has been steady improvement year to year. And January 2026, just a few weeks ago, is the highest we have been since January of 2021 when asking middle school

015students, do you feel safe at school? We saw this same improvement at the high school level, where again, since 2021, we had a couple of years that things declined. And in 2024, we hit our lowest point. But since January of 2024, over the last three years, we are seeing steady improvements. One of the advantages of the Youth Truth Survey, unlike the Panorama Survey, is that we have an opportunity to ask that same question to staff and to families. And our staff at elementary, middle, and high school all reported feeling that they are safer at school this year than last year. And I want to really point out that middle school. line because we asked both the staff and the families, do you feel safe at school? And the middle schooler community actually reported the most

016significant improvement where 12% more of our families said, I feel that my child's school is safe. And a 17% improvement for staff saying, I feel like my school is a safe place to be. But we did see with our families a 1% decline at elementary and a 5% decline at high school saying, I feel like my child's school is safe. There was an additional question that came up. Are we seeing that there has been a change at the middle school experience now that families are getting used to some of our schools being 712s as opposed to traditional middle schools? So to explore this, we looked at the question of 7th grade and 8th grade, looking at Comstock. Montgomery, Rink and Valley, and Santa Rosa, looking at the junior high school years. And we looked at

017the question, does my child's school set high expectations? Are my children given the resources necessary to prepare my child for the future? Are my children getting guidance to that help them succeed? And does my child's school have the resources necessary to achieve learning goals? And we see that our seventh graders, when families are just coming in, we see that there is a relatively positive experience. And when we ask our eighth grade families how they feel, and this one is particularly interesting because these are the families who started in a traditional middle school experience and are now at. the 7-12 experience. And we do see that the families are reporting this to be a more positive experience for students. Then to just touch on some of our suspension trends, and I'm using the same questions that

018we do every year in our annual report on safety. So the first question that we ask is, how many of our students this year, so it is this year, this is year to date, how many of our students have been suspended at least once this year? And this year, 4.1% of our students have been suspended at least once. This is a 1.2% decline from last year. So fewer students are facing suspension. The second, and this is a really positive piece of information, of those students who have been suspended, 76% of them have only been suspended once. These are not students that are finding that they are getting into trouble over and over and over. And that's an 8% improvement since last year. Yes. Yeah, that is looking at the whole district. When we look at

019weapons possessions and this data, we actually took this data through to January 10th because that's when we had originally planned to present this information. There were about half as many confiscations of weapons on campus. There has been such a marketing engagement with our community that these items should not be on campus, that we are seeing a reduction in these items being brought to campus. Sorry? And this could maybe come back to this question later, but I'm wondering if there's a correlated increase in youth arrests maybe between those two years that maybe have also correlated with this. There were a lot of strategies that we put into place. I don't mean like within us. I mean within the community outside. Absolutely. Maybe SRPD could provide info on it. Okay. We are always monitoring the reports of

020either bullying, cyberbullying, or harassment on campus. And again, this is only through January 10th, because again, we are looking at that information. And this year, there have been fewer reports of bullying, cyberbullying, and harassment on campus. And when we look at Stop It, One of the things that, because sometimes a question will come up, is it just being reported less? And it's important to know that when we look at how our community is using Stop It, Reporting issues of bullying and cyberbullying is the number one topic that families are reaching out to us with concerns for. This might be students reporting that they themselves have been experiencing an issue or that their friends are experiencing issues. So this is not reflective of people reporting it less. This is something that our families and our students

021speak out a lot about. about. This is very reassuring because this is our school community saying, we don't like this, help us do something about it. So it is an active value of our school communities. Just for clarity on that, is that based on actual reports or is it based on incidents? So three people reported the same thing. Does it only count as one? When we look at the stop it, that is looking at each report because we want to acknowledge that each report, even if we have two people reaching out about the same topic, each report is critical because it is that connection, that it is that asking for help, that... gets us in a better place. And one of the areas, I didn't actually pull it as a data point, but one of

022the areas that we did see improvement is on the youth truth question. If I am facing bullying at school, I believe there is an adult at school who can help me. That is an area where we did see improvement over the last three years. So one of the questions that came up in your brainstorming session earlier is, what do we do with contraband that is on campus? It's important to know that if the contraband is a weapon of any kind, you don't see this listed right here on this sheet, we immediately call Santa Rosa Police Department. That is not only our practice, that is the law under education code, that when we confiscate a weapon on campus, we will immediately... call Santa Rosa police. Santa Rosa police will come over. They will take confiscation of

023that weapon and they will decide whether they are going to cite the student. take the student into custody, or give the student a warning, depending on a variety of factors, which I'll throw to him in a moment. But we have had an adjustment in how we respond to confiscated contraband, that is, intoxicants. In the past, we would turn all vape devices... tobacco and marijuana over to Santa Rosa Police Department for their evidence team to dispose of. But we have updated that policy. Alcohol gets poured out in the sink. Vape devices get separated as a battery and the material that might be in it. And the battery is turned over like any other battery for disposal by our custodial staff. And tobacco and marijuana leaf are separated and thrown in the dumpster. So there's not like

024a bag sitting in the dumpster. This was a new plan that was developed in coordination with our partners with Santa Rosa Police Department because they were getting tired of us calling them and saying, I have a bag of goodies for you. I also wanted to share just some short information on our expulsions. Over the last three years, we have sat at around approximately the same number of expulsions each year. We had about 37 in 22-23. Then we dropped down into the 20s, both in 23-24 and 24-25. We, at this point in the year, are staying pretty much in that range. But I would not be prepared to tell you how many this year because the year is not yet over. And it can be unpredictable. It's not a clean linear line when we look at

025how many. It's also important to recognize that there are two new resources that are available to us in our community. Sonoma County Office of Education, who helps our students with their transitions. either to and from Juvenile Hall or to and from the county community schools, have hired two new staff. One is a transition counselor and one is a social worker. And these staff work directly with our students who may be impacted by the juvenile justice system. And they follow these students back to our campus. So it's not only Santa Rosa staff who are supporting students through these transitions. The county also provides staff that is ongoing mentorship, guidance, and support. There was some interest in our attendance data. Overall, we are doing quite well. We currently have, at a district level, about 21.5% that is

026dealing with chronic absenteeism. And when we take a look, just so you understand the way these bar graphs work, anything that is blue, yellow, or green, is what we want, because that is 90% or better attendance. The students who live in the red are receiving attendance at less than 90%, which is where they fall either into chronic absenteeism or truancy, depending on the reason for the absences. If the absences are for excused reasons like illness, going to court, medical, it would be considered chronic absenteeism when they're in the red. And when they are for unexcused reasons, then it would be considered for truancy. And you're able to see that in most schools, the lion's share of our students are exactly where we want them to be. We see that same practice in our middle schools.

027We see that same in our high schools. However, The last bar there, it is critical to understand that you have to look at Ridgeway's attendance through a completely different lens because they count attendance differently simply because they are an alternative school. And being a continuation school, they look at that differently. So I didn't want to leave it out and have anybody think, why aren't you talking about Ridgeway? But Ridgeway is evaluated completely differently. What period of time is this? I'm sorry? What period of time is this? I pulled this this morning, so this is year to date. And then you see here at our charter schools, we are seeing at our charter schools some of the highest rates of attendance, which is a predictable outcome because these are the schools that families make that personal

028commitment to. It may be outside of their neighborhood, and this is where we tend to see the higher rates of attendance. That's a huge bit of information. And I'm going to pause and just be open to questions. And I'm going to stop sharing my screen. Trustee De La Torre. Thank you, Director. A few questions that came up. Have we had any proactive discussions with our community partners as our needs may shift with the unfortunate necessary cuts to our staff and programs that we'll start seeing next year? Yes. We participate in two different monthly meetings. We participate in the Violence Prevention Partner Operations Meeting, as well as the Policy Meeting. And at these meetings, we meet with leaders in our community organizations on a monthly basis. At both the Policy and the Operations Meeting, we have

029been presenting on our heightened need for additional MOUs. to be able to provide some supplementary care and resources for our students. Tonight, in particular, there are two items on consent. They are no-cost MOUs to be able to pilot some additional mental health support this year that we may be able to expand next year as some of our resources are changing. Thank you. And when you provided data for the 7th and 8th graders, was that differentiated between the two junior high programs and the two comprehensive middle school programs that we still have, or is that all cumulative data of 7th and 8th? No, I delineated it by each school. So you can look at the two schools that are this year, traditional 7th and 8th, which is Comstock and Rink and Valley. And the two schools

030this year that are the 712s, which are Montgomery and Santa Rosa High. Thank you. Sorry, Santa Rosa Junior High. Thank you so much. And Sergeant Crosby, I'll put you on the spot. In your opinion, sir, are there any areas that the department has seen that we can have active conversations about and help assist to be in better alignment with as partners? Yeah, it was really good to see everybody here today. I just want to start off and I'm going to answer your question, but I really want to appreciate the relationship that we have had. It's no secret there's been some challenging years that we've come through. I think some of the numbers that were presented today definitely show that collaboration and some of that work in progress in a positive way. And we as a

031police department are happy to share in that success, in that relationship and sharing that. I think what it always comes down to is just that open relationship, that open dialogue. There are sometimes some challenges with what information we share and how timely we can share that. Some of that's confined by case laws. confined by FERPA and some of the restraints within the school district themselves. But I can tell you that we've been working actively just as recently as this last week and having discussions on how we can even better communicate with those restrictions so that we share in the goal and success of really doing what we're talking about today, right, which is school safety, both the feeling and the actual outcome of what it looks like for students, for staff and everyone. So we

032share in that. We're always open to that. We appreciate the dialogue. And the more we can have that, I think the better success we're going to have well into the future. Thank you, sir. Sergeant Crosby, while you're already speaking, could you just give us a sense of trends related to youth violence in general in the community? I think we've had a bit of a sense that the violence hasn't necessarily gone down. It may have just moved off of our campuses. Sure, sure. Yeah. You know, we, you know, we. We are noticing that the violence is still occurring in and around campuses, even though it may not show up on the campus themselves. It is still occurring in the community. Our chief of police, our command staff, our department continues to be focused on the collaboration

033with a lot of our partners. We can't do it alone. It's the partnership that we have with a lot of our community members, parents, families. The mall, I go down the list. There's a laundry list of resources that we depend on, that we communicate with. And, you know, it's really kind of taking that proactive approach, right? And like, let's not wait for it to happen. What can we do to get out in front of it? I think a lot of it shows up in some of the behavioral threat assessments that we do. It's a great collaboration we have with the schools. It's really a time for us to come together in our own individual expertise. in a room and to talk collaboratively about what we each bring to the table, right? And not only identify,

034I mean, sometimes identifying the problem is the easiest part, but what are we going to do about it? How are we going to, and more importantly, how are we going to follow through with it, right? And how do we measure that? And so I think. And I want to believe some of the success that we've shared tonight is rooted in that. And I think that's been built now for several years. And we want to continue to be strong in that. And it goes back to the relationship to make that happen. Trustee Kirby? Just a couple things about the presentation I just want to clarify. So, for example, the weapons possession and the bullying trends that you had up there. The 24-25 numbers were for the full year, correct? Or did you? No, I wanted to

035make sure that we weren't looking at a full year compared to a semester. So what I did is I pulled the fall semester of the 24-25 school year to compare it to the fall semester of the 25-26. Okay, perfect. That's why I just wanted to clarify, make sure that we were in fact seeing those numbers down. It wasn't just a full year and a half year. Okay. Regarding the contraband, I didn't see up there anything about our procedures for... like pills. I know that's a big problem on the campus. So we don't want to just flush them down the toilet in our water supply. So what do we have a procedure for that? We do not put any chemicals such as pills down a toilet because of the danger of some of the pills that

036are active in our community. When we are finding either powder or pill, we are incredibly specific that We don't touch anything, even if it just looks like a cigarette or just looks like marijuana. We don't touch anything without our gloves. We bind and secure the items. And when it is either a pill or a powder, we will call Santa Rosa Police Department and ask them to take possession for our own safety. It is important to know that when we are taking a look at these chemicals, we are required by Ed Code 48902 to call Santa Rosa Police Department for every possession of a controlled substance. But because it can be so frequent. We call with incident reports, so we don't ask a police officer to come out and cite a student for every cigarette or

037every tobacco vape. And that is based on our relationship and collaboration with SRPD. But we do ask them to come out and take possession of pills or powder. Thanks. And for Officer Crosby, we certainly hope to, we're glad that we were able to get the MOU approved between SRPD and you for the perhaps reinstatement of SROs on our campuses. I know, and Superintendent August brought this up, maybe it was last meeting, I believe, but just about the fact that when an officer is called to our campuses, These are officers that most likely have not been through SRO training, so don't have a relationship with our kids when they're reporting to campus. But we haven't had any reports I know of over. For zealous officers on our campuses or anything like that, have you guys received

038any complaints at all regarding that when reporting to our campuses? No. What I would add, though, is in regards to the Nessarero program, I think one of the values of it is that consistency, that familiar face. That equity, that fairness that we apply from one circumstance to another. You know, sometimes some of the feedback we've heard recently is, you know, maybe there's an instance where we do take a student to juvenile hall over a crime. And maybe there's another instance under similar circumstances where we cite the juvenile out. And really what it comes down to is the explanation that which people don't always see. on the face as to why we may be doing that. So there's generally other contributing factors that would force our hand to do one or the other. An example is

039maybe a parent is not available or around. are able to take custody of the student in that moment. So we take a different direction. But if they are, we try to handle it generally at the lower level through a citation if it's a low-level type of crime. If you're viewing that from afar, that can appear to be one way, right? It could appear that maybe we're treating one student one way and one student another way. The value of an SRO is the ability to... to have that relationship so that there's follow through with that conversation. I know when I was a prior SRO, the value wasn't so much in what happened in that moment, but it was the follow-up conversation a week later, a month later, and that mentorship and that why behind what we

040did and how we learned from it together and how we. really kind of valued the relationship. I often said that, you know, some of the students I became the closest with were the ones who got into the most trouble and it was for that very reason. And so, so those are just some of the little things we hear from afar is that, you know, you're getting a different officer with different backgrounds, different levels, expertise, maybe a different kind of approach. And ideally, I think having a consistent person who knows the students, that knows the faculty, that can navigate some of those nuances is ideal. But we're trying to do the best under the current circumstances. And when the officers arrive, they are always working with our administration and with our staff. So it's never a

041situation where the officer arrives and the staff hands the student and walks away. So keeping that relationship that the staff may know the officer better because they may have worked with the same officer and is able to help with that interaction. Trustee Jenkins? Kind of similar to Trustee Kirby's questions with when weapons are found on campus, do they automatically go to, do you guys take them? And does that include all weapons, even like pocket knives? Yes, any knife, whether it is defined under Ed Code as a knife, because Ed Code requires that if we use the word knife, it means a blade of three inches that is locking and folding. I think penal code accepts the word knife for two and a half inches, but we treat every blade the same, whether it is a

042locking or a folding. We call on all of it. Because we want to make sure that A, the right people are involved in the conversation. And B, we are sending a consistent message to our community that these are not items that we will ever accept on our campus. Thank you. And then another question, while I understand that SROs are not happening right now. Are there any programs, like proactive programs from the police department that you foresee coming onto the campuses in an educational manner, such as, you know, we have stuff with e-bikes a lot, the risks of substance use and driving, driving laws that apply to a bunch of students that they may or may not follow? And just like some of the basic law enforcement stuff for students, I know it's such a benefit

043when we have SROs on campus and those established relationships, but without those, what kind of programs, if any, are you guys possibly doing? Those are good questions. You know, when it comes to e-bikes, that's obviously a hot topic right now in the community. I know as a police department, we have worked collaboratively with the schools recently. We did a whole social media campaign where we put out a lot of information in regards to the law surrounding different types of e-bikes. We work closely with the school, several principals, obviously with the staff at the district office on how to push out some of that educational material. again, trying to be proactive more than anything else. We've heard the complaints in the community. We've heard from parents that are taking and dropping their kids off at school,

044some of the safety concerns they have. And so we definitely have worked hard to try to address some of those things. You know, one of the challenges we have is like so many entities is that, you know, the time it takes to do a lot of this work. It's important work, but it's time consuming. And so we would like. for nothing more than to have more opportunity as a police department to devote officers to do more of this because we do find great value in it. We think it has an impact. We think that, you know, not only for the students themselves, but the staff, the parents, we've heard this feedback. And so again, it's, it's time, it's, it's resources, it's money. It's, it's, it's all those things. We. try to do the best we

045can with the resources we have now from afar. And we, you know, typically it revolves solely around the hot topics right now that are occurring, e-bikes being one of them. But, you know, we had, you all remember last year, we had, unfortunately, we had a couple of fentanyl overdoses. We held several joint assemblies throughout five or six different campuses, I believe. We invited parents, the community, students themselves to come out. We had a lot of educational pieces within those presentations. We had a gang component with that, gang awareness. And so we try to find opportunities to impact big things that are occurring and really bring that forward and work together. So we hope to do more of that as we move forward. One brand new that you may want to mention, we just found out

046about it this morning and we'll be sharing it not only with our schools, but with our students and our family community is Santa Rosa Police Department just did a little video campaign helping the community understand. I think of it as a field guide to local law enforcement because over the last few months, we've been hearing increased concern at seeing someone who looks official and wondering, is that one of my trusted police officers or is that a federal agent? And there's been a lot of tension and fear in our community about who is this person who might be approaching me. And so there's a brand new video that SRPD just created on how to recognize that this is one of our local officers and what is their relationship with the federal agencies that may be creating

047some fear in our community. And so just getting that, I think you guys. Released it a week ago. We're going to be helping communicate that with our community as well. Thank you. And one last question. In addition to saying that I really appreciate the collaboration today with both of you here. And, you know, I honestly, I personally can't say enough good things about Sanders, the police department, just with my experience. And as far as a system running really well, here it is. But my question is more for Stacey. Excuse me, Director Desideri. Is that the right one? Sorry. With changes coming to our campuses next year, we are losing a lot of support staff. We talk a lot about the feeling of safety in those relationships, those trusted adults, the people who are the leaders

048on our campuses with our children. Anything additional? Any additional resources that are being discussed or being like brainstormed right now outside of the partnerships that we have that were listed? But what what is the district doing to ensure that? With the loss of so many staff, so many support staff that produce that feeling of safety, we don't lose that culture and community within our campuses. Thank you for calling that out. It is important when we think about so many of these resources, these resources should be programs that are wall-to-wall campus-wide. These are not resources that live in one individual human. They are resources that everybody participates in. So when we talk about, for example, restorative practices, restorative practices should never be an individual who works with students. should be how we talk to each other,

049how we communicate, how we prioritize the needs of our community, and how we develop those relationships. We are looking not only at exploring additional relationships and potential grant opportunities. to foster some of those relationships, but also looking at amplifying the current relationships that we have. So our continued relationship with restorative resources and community matters as a means of supplementing until we reach such a time that we're able to bring those programs back. And before I continue with the questions, I just want to let folks know we started our study session about 15 minutes after 5, so we're going to be continuing it until 6.15 to give folks the opportunity to engage in these questions. Before we go too much further, though, if both of you could just address how our newly constituted SSA positions have

050been working on the campuses, both on campus and also how they're interacting with law enforcement, I'd appreciate that. So our SSA position is a, I like to think of it as the evolution of the position that we've had on our campuses for many years. We've always had campus supervisors and yard supervisors at elementary schools. And now we have evolved to the student safety advisor, which is not only at our secondary schools, but at each of our elementary schools. Our student safety advisors are staff who are not only trained in supervision and crowd management, but they are also trained in restorative practices at the tier one and tier two level. So they can, in addition to directing crowds out on the campus, they can do either one-on-ones, they can do classroom or community building circles. They

051can support students at meetings where students may need additional, you know, an ally who sits with them. So we have SSAs who can sit at IEPs or 504s or at reentry meetings. And all of these are the strategies. But they are also the ones who are supporting our administrative staff with the investigations when they're in. is something serious. So when we are calling Santa Rosa Police Department, they can be another set of hands and ally to the investigation as needed. Yeah, I would just add to that. I think the foundation of what we've built now for several years has really kind of helped. to kind of train the new staff. You know, I think our expectation is not that they come in and they know exactly what to do and how to do it right

052away. We try to give them some grace. We should give them grace on how they do certain things. But I think there's enough leadership around the kind of mold together and make it all work. And I think that we appreciate that from our side. There's been a few bumps and bruises expected, but nothing that we can't overcome. and nothing that we can't continue to get better at. And my anticipation is that we will continue to build those relationships. That's kind of been a theme here tonight is the relationship, the information sharing, the getting out and being proactive, really kind of understanding our roles and responsibilities and being clear on what that is. And I think that as long as we continue to reinforce those things time and time again, I think we're going to get

053stronger. Thank you. I just want to say that I appreciate the level of cooperation we've had, especially in the last 14 months for myself, at all levels with the city. So from the mayor, the chief, yourself, I think it's been a big part of the turnaround we're seeing in some of that numbers. Trustee Prack? Hi. So with the SSAs, or essays, student-saved SSAs, you know, SSAs, They're similar to restoratives, but what makes a restorative a restorative and an SSA a restorative? Because I'm assuming it's different hours of training. Yeah, so when we look at the differentiation, our restorative intervention specialists, in addition to the affective language, how to interact with people through the lens of empathy, trauma-informed care, and the community circles and proactive work. The restorative intervention specialists had also received training in the

054tier three, which are the responsive, either restorative dialogue or formal restorative conferencing. With this being one of the services that is being reduced, our relationship with programs like Community Matters, Restorative Resources, and R.J., which is a restorative program through the Juvenile Justice Program. We will be relying more heavily on our community partners to facilitate the formal conferencing if that needs to happen. Okay. And then you also mentioned that SSAs would also be helping with... 504s and or attending the meetings, right? When they develop the relationships with the student, a student will often say, this is someone who knows me and this is someone who can support me. So we have had SSAs who have such a tight relationship with a student that they can provide input to an IEP or a 504 team. More frequently,

055they are present at re-entry meetings, which is where they really play a role in helping identify where the student has strengths and where the student may need additional support and being someone who can do the check-in and check-outs. They do not play a professional role in developing an IEP or a 5-4. But because 504s and IEPs can also ask what might this child need for support in behavior in addition to their academics, they can sometimes be a resource. They develop those trusting relationships, and the families and the students say, this is somebody I want to have by my side. Okay. And last question about the SSAs. Are risks, do SSAs make more money than restoratives or is it vice versa pay scale wise? I would defer to our salary schedule because I don't have that

056answer, but it is something we can definitely provide in the board weekly. Do you know who gets paid more? Okay. I just wanted to know, because I think restoratives get paid more than SSAs and if SSAs are doing restorative work, then there should be a pay increase. I think one of the bigger differences is the calendar. So a restorative intervention specialist is an 11-month employee, where an SSA may be a 10-month employee. And so when you look at the salary schedule, you have to keep their calendar in mind in addition to the skills and the things that they do. Okay. Oh, negotiable. Okay. And then how much time do we have? Okay. I got time for my, you have questions too? I have one more question. Okay. Can you, when we go back to talk

057about the transition support for kids with, that are returning from expulsions, has. You go first. Okay. So there are two staff members that are employed by SCO. One is a transition counselor. This is a staff member who not only works with the student while they are either in Amorosa, which is the county community school, or in DeForest Hamilton, which is the school associated with Juvenile Hall. But when that student is ready to transition back to a traditional school, they may come to the family entry meeting. They come to meetings with counselors where a student might talk about graduation pathways and goals. They will meet with me prior to a student's readmission to the board to help us talk about what kinds of resources the student may need. And as the student settles into school, they

058will reach out two or three times over the weeks and months. And if a student starts to slip, we call them and they come back to work with the student. Okay. Because speaking of the transition, I know there was an incident this past year, school year, with a child that was getting readmitted. Stop me if I speak out of a, you know. Legal stuff. And there just wasn't communication with the child returning to school because they were supposed to go elsewhere, but he came back. Let's just make it more general about the reentry around communication with other folks on the campus. Right. There was a lack of communication and teachers didn't feel safe with a particular student coming back. And it wasn't like that teacher was denying this child coming back onto campus. It was

059more of the safety and the communication that was missed. And I know that there's issues with like FERPA laws or is that the school one? Yeah. And just making sure our teachers are feeling supported with trauma that had occurred because of the incident. And so just, I feel like we dropped the ball on that. I understand. We do everything we can to ensure that the communication goes to everyone on a campus that is relevant to every admission. And there's always an opportunity when you have humans working within a human system to have moments of fumble. And every time we have a moment like that, we learn from it and we continue to strive to do better. Good answer. Trustee Medina. Thank you. Going back to the slides. First on the panorama perceptions of school safety,

060wondering if we could get that provided also by site sent to us. Then there's the one that asks, I feel safe at school. I was just trying to see if you could help me understand what these numbers mean, like the 3.64, like how is that measured? Yes, these questions are on a five-point Likert scale. So when a student says, I almost always feel safe at school, they would score that as a five. When they say, I never feel safe at school, that would score as a one. And so they take the aggregate of the students who respond to that question, and that's where you might get a 3.4 or a 3.6 or a 3.7 because it is the aggregate of all the students who are responding. Or parents or staff. And I'm curious, in terms

061of what it means to be safe, is there any problem that students are given or is it just that? There's a variety of questions that go into that specific answer, and it can include questions like, I see fights at school, or I'm aware of students who have weapons, or how likely is it that someone may bully me? And it is those that come together to become that single question. And I mean, what stood out to me is right here, just based on the dates of these that were provided to us, how there was a big jump right after we removed Soros and how basically we're still kind of at the same or above based on this data provided here. I just want to highlight that for everybody on the board. I did also want to

062ask on the, there was the low percentage of, on school safety for non-binary students. And I did want to ask, what community partners do we work with to help provide them additional resources towards feeling safe? We have a variety of different community organizations that we work with through the VPP. And we specifically work with a program called Verity that looks at relationship health and support. But one of the areas that I think we could do a more deliberate and intentional job is working with some of our community organizations that target support directly to the LGBT community, like PFLAG, like the Rainbow Coalition. These are communities that we partner with. Currently, we don't have active MOUs for programs. Over the last few years, there was a rewriting of the health curriculum that specifically addressed a different

063educational approach through supporting and highlighting the needs and the awareness of our programs. But I think it's an area that we could continue to grow. You're talking about the other SSAs, the Safe School Ambassadors? That's through Community Matters, right? Yes. And what schools don't have something with that? Is that only in elementaries and middle schools? No, I'm not prepared to give you the full list because there are some schools who currently have an active SSA program that is on their campus. Other schools have done it in years past and are still using the strategies in the practice, even though they may not have an active community right now. But regardless of whether or not they have an active SSA. We have an active relationship with Community Matters. They have been one of the leads in

064our training that is beyond the restorative intervention specialist, bringing restorative training to not only our SSA teams, but our administrative teams directly. And, you know, as we lose more adults on campus, I'm looking at things that we could do and I'm reminded, like when I was in school, we had conflict managers in high school and in middle school or junior high in my days. Do we have anything like that or can we bring something like that that's peer-based towards problem resolution? Yeah, and you named it already. The SSA program is exactly that. It is a peer-led, peer mentorship program where you have student leaders that are designed and trained to be those kind of first responders on the playground or an option. If you're having a conflict, you don't have to necessarily have that addressed

065by an administrator. But again, not every campus has that active today. That's something that we want to continue to look at. Just to clarify, safe school ambassadors, not school safety ambassadors for the SSA acronym there. It's a student safety advisor is the adult SSA. The student SSA is the safe school ambassador. Yes, too many acronyms. The other issue that I think was brought up around e-bikes, but as it relates to the safe routes to school, we don't have that in all of our schools. I think one of the things that I recall hearing was we need somebody on the site that's willing to take that up. Are we doing anything to maybe further encourage that? I think I heard. There's maybe potential funds at the federal level that's coming down for some areas of the

066city that could help with that. But I think some areas definitely need more of that. And some of our schools need more of that. Any info on that? Yep. We don't disagree. We do have the active audits that happen cyclically. So not every school's safe routes are audited every year. It goes on a cycle. And the safe route to school team is currently reaching out to the schools whose turn it is next year to have their audit done for the safe routes to school. But in preparation for the transition that we did from our former model of instruction to the new 7-12 model. We did work very closely with our Safe Routes to Schools partners last summer. To update their communication strategies, we gave them updated rosters because they take our active rosters of which

067children attend which school, and then they design the routes with those students in mind. And when we've been changing our boundaries, we knew that was going to make obsolete some of their routes. So we worked with them starting last April to give them that additional information so that by July the information that they were sharing with our community was updated with our new boundaries. We're going to continue that. I'm going to give Superintendent August really briefly on this topic and then we do need to wrap the study session but this will be an ongoing item. So Superintendent August. Yes, just to address another piece with the Safe Routes to School. We have a Safe Routes to School task force that incorporates the superintendents and our teams in Santa Rosa. So we're working. Our next meeting

068will be sometime in May or June. So we'll be identifying staff from the district that will be participating. Short final points, Trustee Kirby and then De La Torre. Sergeant Crosby, are you aware, do any of the other school districts that you have contact with, are they utilizing the ActVNet program? Are you familiar with that at all? It's a web-based program. It integrates with the first responders on the school sites. I'm familiar with the program, but I don't know of any local districts that are using that right now. Okay, thanks. We were invited to participate in a pilot. It has not yet gotten off the ground, but we were asked when they launch, would we like to be part of that pilot program? And we said yes. Let's see the auditorium. I really appreciate all the

069information we received on students, and I just want it to be said out loud that I would like us to also continue to focus on identifying our staff, teachers, administrators' sense of safety on our sites, if we can survey them and do you feel safe at your site, and ensure that we're making available appropriate professional development and mentoring and training for de-escalation tactics, restorative tactics. and providing opportunities for our staff, our teachers, our aides, our administrators, and even our guest teachers to have that sense of safety on our sites and our classrooms. So it's an overall concept. Thank you, and thank you both for your presentation. Sergeant Crosby, thank you so much for being here. I think I've heard nothing but positive things about the progress that we're making, and I really appreciate all the

070energy you've put into this. Director Desideri, thank you for everything you've been doing as well. Thank you. Thank you. We are now going to reconvene to open session. We're going to take items D1 and D2 for the Pledge of Allegiance and Territorial Land Acknowledgement. Before I ever stand up, after D2, I'll take public comment. on items D1 and D2, but we're gonna do the statements first. So if I can have everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and stay standing for the Territorial Land Acknowledgement, which will be presented by our student board member Fitzsimmons. I acknowledge that the Santa Rosa City Schools is on traditional territory and homelands of the Pomo people, traditional territory and homelands of the Coast Miwok people, and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded

071it throughout the generations. This land acknowledgement calls out us to commit to continuing to learn how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit. By offering this land acknowledgement, we affirm indigenous sovereignty. and will work to hold Santa Rosa City Schools more accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples. Thank you. We'll now take public comment on item D2. Our first speaker for public comment on D2 is Peter Alexander. You have one minute. Is the timer on? Go ahead. It'll start. I am Peter, and since I got one minute, I want to say simply regarding the land acknowledgement that all the treaties have been broken, and the Tsalagi, the lost tribe of the City of David, intermarried with all the tribes, including all the Mexican peoples. And so this is their land

072as much as it is any other Pomo's, and that the power is to understand where the power is, and the power is with the people. Leonard Peltier spent 50 years in prison. still under house arrest. John Trudeau was their speaker for 40 years. I invite the young people to look up John Trudeau's YouTubes. I am Peter, and I got lots of information on my site, which is called Commander Alexander Truth on TikTok. And the power that we have is called a strike. It's something that a lot of people don't think about, but we have that power and the time is at hand. Thank you for your comments. All right, we will now move to item D3, reports on action taken in closed session. First, in student expulsion case 2025-26-10, with a vote of 6-0, an

073extension was approved on that item. On resolution number 2025-26-61 to notify nine non-reelect probationary certificated employees that they may be non-reelected, the board voted 6-0, specifically pertaining to employees 14195, 14277, 14320. 13818-14054, 13972, 13801, 13961, 13855. In regards to item, to resolution number 2025-26-62 to notify 60 temporary certificated employees totaling 31.40 FTE that they will be released from their positions at the end of the 25-26 school year. The board voted 6-0. This is not one requiring... Specific identification. So the board voted 6-0 pursuant to Education Code 44954. In regards to Resolution Number 2526-65 to notify 10 certificated administrators, totaling 10 FTE, that they may be released from their positions for the 26-27 school year pursuant to Ed Code Section 44951. The board voted 6-0. In regards to employee numbers. 13617, 13928, 12903, 14167, 5585, 13793,

07413145, 11938, 14182, 10539. In regard to resolution number 2025-26-64 to notify seven certificated administrators, 7FT, that they may be possibly reassigned from their position for the 26-27 school year pursuant to Ed Code section 44951. The board voted 6-0. In regards to employee numbers 1-2-8-1, 1-4-1-6-8-8, 1-4-1-6-4. 9529-2940-239-2342. In regard to resolution number 2025-26-66 to notify seven certificated administrators, seven FTE, that they may be released and or possibly reassigned from their positions for the 26-27 school year, for certain to add code section 44951, the board voted 5-1, with Trustee Jenkins voting no. In regards to employee numbers. 10296, 10558, 12862, 12886, 12408, 12498, 10042. And I just want to say that these actions in relation to our budget are actions where there are people that are working hard that are receiving these notices. And as we've seen,

075And we know they're going to continue working hard from now until this end of this year, even with not the knowledge of this, because they care so much for our students. And these are tough decisions in order to handle this budget situation. And I greatly respect, and I know the board greatly respects, the work that each of these individuals has contributed to our campus communities and will continue doing so for the rest of this school year. With that, we're going to move to statements of abstention. Are there any statements of abstention? All right. Seeing none, we're now going to move to adjustments to the agenda. Trustee Kirby? I'd like to pull G5, specifically contract number four, please. G5. Trustee Jenkins? I'd like to pull G9 and L4. Oh, I can. L4. Any other? Trustee Medina?

076Yes, I'd like for us to move item I-1B right after reports. That's because we have a lot of young kids here that probably should not have to wait so long for that item. It basically is right after reports. The consent calendar should move relatively quickly, and that's the first item up on our action calendar. You got reports, you got public comment, you got consent, you got the H.I. You want to move it ahead of the public comment as well? We could take the whole finance calendar ahead. Is there a second to Trustee Medina's motion to adjust? Second. Is it just switching H.I. pretty much? No, it's putting it before public comment, right after reports. Yeah, so before consent, before public comment, taking the finance calendar up, which I'm not inherently opposed to. There's still public

077comment on the item. It's just the non-agenda. So we'd move item I-1 to before F. Is there any objection to that? So we're talking entire I before public comment? So that's the... I just thought I1B. Oh, just I1B? Let's just do I1B. Because interim, that's going to be a big conversation before public comment. It opens a whole nother... Are we good on that? I got a motion and a second. Is there any more clarification on changing the agenda to move item I1B to before public comment? President Kasten, wouldn't we also move public comment for that calendar as well? Yeah, we would take a second, a first public comment on that at that time. So we're good on that one? Any opposition? Do it for the kids. All right. We'll go ahead and do that. Any

078other adjustments? I just also want to, again, reiterate my objection to this style of public comment on an entire list of items. limiting speech in my opinion to one minute on like three items for example here. I just want to again echo that. Any other adjustments to the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move ahead with reports. We'll start with report E1, California School Employee Association Santa Rosa 75 report. One moment. Good evening, President Kasten, Superintendent August, members of the board, members of our community, and my union siblings. I am Jason Andrews, current chapter president of CSEA 75. I prepared some comments, brief comments. I did want to reiterate something that President Kasten just said. There's a lot of people who are doing really good work for our school communities right now. And they're either not going

079to be with us next year or they're going to be in some completely different situation. So just want to acknowledge, keep up the good work, supporting our students and our communities. Yesterday, staff began receiving reduction in force notices and demotions. This begins an anxious time for many of our classified staff as they wait to find out where they will work next year. Those who are subject to an involuntary transfer are facing many uncertainties, including the uncertain timeline of such drastic workplace changes. For many, this will be the second straight spring break anxiously awaiting news. The chapter is getting many calls and emails from our members about what comes next for them. We're trying our best to support them and make sure their rights are respected. Thank you. Thank you for your report. Next, we'll move

080to item E2, Teamsters Local 665 report. There's no Teamsters report tonight. All right. So next, we'll move to item E3, Centers of Teachers Association report. Good evening, President Kasten, Superintendent August, members of the board and community, fellow teachers. I want to start by saying thank you to the board members. I know that this is a hard job, and I want to say thank you, especially for those who've continued to keep the lines of communication open with SRTA. We have a common goal of keeping and giving the best education possible to our students. We know the only way we're going to make it through this ongoing district destabilization is keeping students at the center of our conversation. The board just finished a study session on safety. The one public comment asked you, how do you plan

081to keep our students safe given the program cuts that are destabilizing our schools? The nearly hour-long conversation, in my opinion, didn't fully answer that question, so I'm going to ask it again. How are you planning to provide things like bullying prevention, mental health supports? The holistic environment that was referenced in our schools was disrupted when schools were closed. It's going to be decimated when more schools are closed and programs are eliminated. Items G9 and 10 directly related to the safety conversation. The SRTA collective bargaining agreement actually established a district safety committee. It's tasked with looking at the site safety plans and safety issues district-wide. As far as I know, this committee did not have an opportunity to fully discuss these site safety plans before they were brought to the board. And as far as I

082know, many of the sites themselves did no authentic work in creating these plans. In many situations, it was a last-minute checkmark done at most site councils, not a conversation or a collaboration, and certainly not taking into consideration the huge number of changes. in personnel at our staff and our sites next year. In the destabilized schools of next year, we need better safety plans, not boilerplate ones. Are your actions tonight protecting our students' future? Also, a new contract with Keystone Therapy on the agenda. The company is going to be largely replacing the SBTs and the SBT program. That has been drastically reduced. Educators don't have any idea how Keystone works, how students are going to get the mental health services they need, what's happening to students who don't have the insurance that allows Keystone to bill.

083And what's the workload going to be for the remaining SBTs? No one seems to know that, not even the people that are in line for those jobs. With program elimination and cuts in special ed, larger class sizes, restorative programs, you know them all. Who's going to help educators support our students? Certainly not an outside agency. This program cut will destabilize our schools and our communities. And I'm going to ask you again, are your actions protecting our students' futures? Speaking of destabilization, and as Mr. Andrews said, dozens of employees, SRTA, CSCA, Teamsters, were all given the preliminary rifts this week. We now have a lot of employees with precarious employment, and they're going to leave. They're going to leave our students without the highly qualified and experienced educators and educational support personnel that they need. They're

084going to leave to find jobs in more stable districts. Our families are going to continue to make choices about what schools right for their kids. And many families are going to look at this long list of programs that are no longer offered and look for better educational opportunities elsewhere. Are your actions protecting our students' future? The board is being asked tonight to reconsider the closure of Steel Lane Elementary. There is what I would call a really small savings. I've been told $800,000. But the community of Steel Lane is priceless. You may feel like you need to continue with this closure, but it's going to destroy the community. It's going to drive students to other districts. And it's all for a really tiny percentage of our total budget. Are your actions protecting our students' future? Closing

085another elementary, additional middle schools, overcrowding the schools we have left, spending millions of dollars on new buildings. These decisions are bad decisions. The 7-12 model was not developed for educational excellence. They were created to save money, and they have created a lesser educational experience for our 7th and 8th graders. No matter how much we wish, that was not true. Please keep our students at the center of your decisions, make better choices, and make sure students have the district, the school, the teachers, and the educational opportunities they deserve. Thank you. Thank you for the report. And based on the report, if there's no objection from the board, I'm also going to pull item G10 for discussion on the Keystone contract when we get to the consent calendar. We'll now move to item E4, superintendent report. Thank

086you, President Kasten. I'd like to start by recognizing our employees who are doing an amazing job. I would say that is across the board, but we have some standout. finalists for Classified Employee of the Year. And I want to start by recognizing Lori Banks, District Assessment Coordinator, Brittany Doucette, Restorative Specialist at Comstock Middle and Helen Lehman Elementary School, Marcy Alpine, Special Education Assistant at Proctor Terrace Elementary, Rosalba Estrada de Martinez, Child Nutrition Services at Steel Lane Elementary, and Claudia. Gallegos de Salazar, school office manager at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School. These individuals are a true testament to the impact our classified staff members have on our students and our school communities and just really want to appreciate and recognize them. The ceremony is during one of our April board meetings, so we won't be able to

087be there in person. So I just wanted to make sure that we publicly acknowledge that. And thank you again for your dedication and care for our students and your colleagues. Tonight, we will present the second update for our 25-26 budget, our second interim report. Positive certification we bring to you for approval is the product of this board's resolution to the changes necessary to meet our current fiscal reality. We are at the point with our fiscal stabilization process where we are moving from what the plan looks like on paper to how it impacts our people. And I wanted to say for those of you who are in the audience wanting to provide public comment on non-agenda items around personnel, I want to thank you for coming out to advocate because it means that you care about

088our staff and our students. This is an extremely challenging and important time for our community. These are not decisions that we want to be making. It is action that we must take to maintain local control and our ability to continue advocating for how decisions are made. We are committed to working with our staff and our families through these changes. We can and must find new ways of providing students with what they need. We cannot afford to continue to do things the way that we always have. We can't operate in the same way. We will weather this together. Our students and our future generations are relying on us to move forward as a community. Thank you. All righty. Thank you for the report. I'm now going to move to my report, item E5. And I think

089I first want to just comment on last week I got to do one of the more pleasurable duties that we get to do as board members, which I was invited to Lehman to read for Read Across American in first grade class and a third grade classroom. And the book I choose to read is What Are You Going to Be When You Grow Up by Weird Al Yankovic. And it's a fun book to read with first and third graders because it always ends up leading to a conversation about all the crazy different things that we could be. One of the suggestions in the book is to become a snail trainer. And I had a student in one of the classes that very much wants to become a police officer that is also a butterfly. And the

090creativity and the energy that comes from that and the hopes and the dreams that an education means, a public education means to these students, I think is something that we also take for granted. A lot of the work that we've had to do has felt like we've been taking away in this last year and a half especially, because that is what has been happening, because the money that we've been receiving as a district has been resulting in taking away. But what we're taking away is being done in the spirit of preserving a public education system in Santa Rosa, putting it in a strong financial place. and leading to a future where we are able to know that we can offer the programs that we're offering each year, every year that a student is attending our

091schools. So while this has been a very... very difficult and painful course creation to get here I have significant hope of what this future brings because it's going to mean certainty for those students that the programs that they're going into in the future aren't at risk because we've actually managed the funds we've managed the budget and we know that we're in a sustainable place and I know it's very hard to Hold that future at the same time that we're taking these actions because these actions are taking away really important people and services from our community simply because we do not have the funds to continue operating them. And while we're doing all of this to preserve our ability to have local control, our local control is very much limited by the state and the federal

092governments who both control how much money we're given to administer. And I would just make another call to action that one simple Followed through by the federal government to honor their commitment under the Special Education Funding Act, IDEA, where they committed to fund 40% of special education. The simple act of the federal government actually providing us the funding that they committed to would have made us... This year be a place where we were in a surplus and not only did not need to make any of these cuts But we would have been in a position of adding resources to our district. So we're maintaining a local control that is limited In that we don't control the revenue and there are people that have committed especially at the federal level to provide revenue that they are

093not providing and we're having to administer the cuts on their behalf and I don't like that any more than I think any of my colleagues do up here With that, I'm gonna move to my colleagues' reports and we'll move on with the agenda. Trustee Jenkins, then De La Torre. Hello. So in the last couple of weeks, I have met with Boys and Girls Club to better understand offerings of their programs. I had a brief meeting regarding policy subcommittee, the board policy subcommittee, which will be meeting quarterly and trying to post, will be posting meetings two weeks prior to the actual meeting to give folks time to review what's coming up for discussion. As a reminder, policies that will be discussed there. We'll allow public comment and first read prior to coming to the full board

094for a second read and approval. Some, of course, will come to the full board for discussion and first read, and we'll just roll with it. The facilities special meeting was very productive and helpful. I think that was last. Was that just last week? Holy cow. Although there are... continues to be concerns on the direction we're going, it was extremely helpful to have kind of big picture with pictures of the facilities and kind of pre-planning on stuff. On Friday, Montgomery had their boys volleyball juniors versus seniors volleyball game, which was really amazing to watch and a little bit bittersweet as well, as boys volleyball was talked about a year ago as an additional support. sport, but with the crunch on facilities with the merge, I'm not seeing that on a near horizon, but it may be

095something that comes up in years to come. I had the opportunity to attend Montgomery's production of The Wizard of Oz, which was an amazing cross-department and cross-junior-senior program performance. We had some of the ninth graders with the high schoolers in this production and the bands, and it was a musical and the dancing. It was so fantastic. I hear Maria Carrillo is in the middle of their production for Mary Poppins. I'm hoping to get there in the next couple days. We will see if that happens. And then I can't forget to mention my wonderful experience also at Helen Lehman reading to a few classes. It was so much fun to be back in the classroom. And Dr. Seuss is a timeless author. I brought my own book. I brought the 11th hour by Graham Bates that

096I love. And I did read that to one of the classes. And then I let the kids choose the rest of the books. And so it was interesting. So I read Green Eggs and Ham, Yertle the Turtle. If you have not read that one recently, I highly recommend. Ends up it's... Something that's happening right now. What else did I read? The Lorax and Oh, the Places You'll Go. I hadn't read these books in a while and they very much land differently as a parent of teenagers versus when you're reading them to a little kid. And then also I had an incident at work recently where someone that I know professionally is no longer in their position. Something that that manager did so well, excuse me, I haven't cried in a while at a meeting. Something

097that the manager did so well in that situation was to make space for the feelings from coworkers and made it a point to communicate with the entire team, excuse me, that everyone will always know where they stand. will know what they need to improve on and should not feel surprised by any change in their employment status. I mention this not to ruffle feathers, but it's something that is challenging for me as an individual. It may be helpful for all of us to remember that as individuals, we will never have the full picture of another individual's journey, professionally or personally. I encourage everyone to treat each other with compassion and grace through these next coming months as we continue to navigate the changes that we face. Trustee De La Torre. Thank you, President Kasten. I just

098want to honor the emotion that Trustee Jenkins has brought to the DS and to the room tonight and take a moment for everybody to take a deep breath, please. Emotions at these meetings have run high, will run high. And we'll continue to be pivotal in our discussions because the humanity of the discussions that we are having. We are needing to let people go. We are needing to cut programs that are loved, beloved, and simply not understandable of how to move forward without them. Bottom line, as Lou so elegantly presented with us a few weeks ago, there are a lot of things we just cannot no longer afford. Things that we love, we can no longer afford. So we have to make some really difficult decisions to course correct and provide opportunities to sustainability. With that

099being said, I want to join my colleagues in highlighting the positives. And I also got to read with Helen Layman Elementary last week. Brought my two favorites again from our family. Dragons love tacos and dragons love tacos too. They're always a big hit. And as we interact with the students and open up Q&A and comments and looking for inquiring minds, a question was posed of what was my favorite book read growing up. I grew up with different circumstances. Reading wasn't on the forefront of priorities. But one book that has always resonated with me from my childhood was The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Clearly. And the most amazing comment to come out of the room was from the student who said, is that from the 1900s? Yes, sir. It most definitely was from the

1001900s. And just to have those connections and those relations. I got minimal time throughout my workday to stop by certain campuses and had the pleasure of visiting with Piner last week. And I stopped in to check in on Steel Lane this morning. And those visits aren't looking for anything. They're not pre-planned. They're to say hello and to say I see you and to say thank you. and to show gratitude and appreciation for all the work that is being put into our students, and to be on those campuses and to see students focused and engaged, and to see learning opportunities being provided, and to be on a primary campus and have your heart filled with their laughter as they run around, is why we have to make these tough decisions. It's why we have to continue

101to find opportunities to provide environments for what we can afford to exist. So I also ask that we seek grace and kindness and we choose to hold space for each other so that we can process our own emotions and for the others have the space for their emotions and for their comments to be heard and understood and not just waiting to respond. Trustee Prack? Hi. So I also met with the Boys and Girls Club. to discuss services that they can provide. And as well as I read at Helen Lehman, kindergartners were a little rough to read to. I didn't, none of the books hit with them. And I also, what else did I do? Oh, I went to Maria Carrillo on Monday and I saw the wellness center. Is anybody from Carrillo here? Great use

102of space. Incredible services that your licensed clinician provides for the students as well as her team. I was really impressed and I wished every campus could have something that nice just with the room space and what they're able to with the private rooms. And just, I know the last couple of days have been really tough for everybody. And I'm really sorry if your school's been affected with losing. would be losing really great staff members and administrators. I have probably over 80 emails in my inbox just from the last few hours of advocating for your principals. Being that I'm 13 years as a parent volunteer in Santa Rosa City Schools, you know, I've emailed the board. I've spent years yelling at Omar, right? I've yelled at you a lot. You made the mistake of allowing me

103to have your personal phone number and I used it. It's just being that I'm on this side now and still advocating for our kids, you learn things that you have a different perspective. And so I just want to share that I know that sometimes decisions have been made that seem unfair or intentional, but they're not. There's been a lot of thoughtful consideration that goes on, and I know that might be hard to understand, but just know those decisions weren't made lightly, and sorry if you're hurting. That's Tim Medina. Thank you. Serving in this role comes with a lot of getting yelled at, and I think it's... not always fun, but it's also part of the strength of the diversity that so many people have so many different opinions and perspectives that our job in part

104is to listen. And so to me, that's always important, even if maybe it's not always the funnest to be on one side of it. That's not so easy. But I did want to start off by saying next week's spring break. I hope everybody has a great spring break. The Art Quest is doing another performance of Just Ice this Friday at 7 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. at the Imaginative Theater. I don't know if they have any more tickets, but sold out. Well, they're performing. I've... had a lot of interactions with different groups, the CTE Foundation, the Haas Foundation, Sutter, just about how we could find ways to support our students. I did see that the CTE Foundation posted them doing some promotional videos of some of our CTE programs yesterday. I got to meet with them

105afterwards and I learned. that maybe at Santa Rosa High School we have like through the floral program, maybe a subscription model that you could subscribe to getting flowers. I think my wife would like that if we have that. So if that's a thing, I'd love to learn more about it. I did want to... Follow up and ask about a couple things. I know we have our DLAC parent meeting tomorrow. There was just information that was requested for that meeting that I know our parents have a lot of concerns about how our English language learners will be serviced. So I hope we can get that addressed at the DLAC meeting tomorrow. Last week, the board had a facilities master plan study session. If you haven't been involved with that at your campus, I think make sure

106that your site administrators hear any concerns or any input that you might have. You can look at what was posted last week. I think one thing that really stood out to me that... seem frustrating is that one of our sites, Proctor Chair specifically, because of where it is on a fault line, the plans for the future for that site is to basically rebuild the whole school. And yeah, that didn't seem like a... the best route to go given where we're at in our situation. So I just would say pay attention to what's going on with all of that stuff because those are long-term plans. The other thing, when I was meeting with the folks at the Haas Foundation, they talked about like their interest in investing in our youth related to the... data from the

107Portrait of Sonoma. So if you don't know what the Portrait of Sonoma, it was a report that was initially done in 2014. It was updated again in 2021. Our district is a signatory to that. Basically, it measures the HDI, the Human Development Index. And one of the big key components to that is education, educational attainment and the results that we get with graduation and all of that. But their big focus is on the The areas that have a lower HDI, which is southwest of Rosa, the... west side of the city. And so I think that in terms of building equity and in terms of how we plan and how we focus our energy, we got to keep that in mind. What are the areas that are underserved that have the most potential for growth in

108terms of that HDI so we could elevate everybody in our community? We're part of a larger community. And I think that I would ask that, if not the whole community, but at least our board members. familiarize yourselves with those studies that were led by the County of Sonoma and specifically focus on the area that our district serves. With that said, again, just want to wish everybody a happy spring break. And in the context of ethnic studies, since March 17th is St. Patrick's Day, I'd recommend the movie One Man's Hero, which is about the San Patricios. And one of our Piner alumni is in that movie. So One Man's Hero, look it up. Thank you, Trustee Medina. Trustee Kirby? Thank you. I just wanted to quickly just say I also got to read over at Helen

109Lehman last week with the kids, and boy, their questions were just amazing. Also, just a reminder that... There's only six of us up here. We need a seventh person. The trustee for Area 2 is still open. The application is through March 25th. Please come join us. Join the fun. Sorry about that. And I hope to secure a ticket to the Mary Poppins play tomorrow. Maria Carrillo. So yeah. Anyway, that's all I got. Thanks. All right. Student board member reports. Simmons. I don't want to take up too much more time because we've already spent almost an hour on all of this. So I just want this meeting to go as fast as possible, but I really just want to say, and I know I truly in my heart, I know many of you guys will just

110brush it off. It won't really mean anything to you. But I really want to say it and I just, some people might feel nice to hear it. I'm really sorry for everything that's going on right now. Truly am. I wish this wasn't the state that we are in right now, truly. And yes, I may be. leaving this district in less than a few months now, but that doesn't mean that my heart won't stay intertwined with this district since I've been here since the very beginning. And I just really want to say I'm sorry and hope that things will be better in the upcoming months and years to go on. Thank you for those comments. We'll now move to item I-1B, and we are going to take public comment on this item first, and then we'll

111move into the discussion. So let's move to public comment on item I-1B. Thank you, President Kasten. I'm going to call the names in order with students first. Both podiums are open, so when your name is called, please make your way to one of the two podiums. Again, the timer is set for one minute. Our first three speakers is Jasmine Marcello and then Emily Castro, followed by Herba Tito Vargas. And I apologize if I'm mispronouncing your name. Thank you. Hi, I am Jasmine, a educator at Steel Lane. I think Steel Lane should stay open because where will families put their kids? And all of the kids love it here. And it is so hard to leave friends. And all of the teachers and staff love it. to see the kids every day and love to see

112the kids' faces every day. And families are fighting to keep Steel Lane open. That is why I think Steel Lane should stay open. Next, we have Emily Kasten, followed by Herbedo Vargas, followed by Kristen Ott. I'll call her name again. Hello, my name is Heriberto Vargas. I'm a community member from Santa Rosa, and I would like to speak about why Steel Lane Elementary School should remain open. Even though I did not attend the school, I have seen how important it is to the community. Schools like Steel Lane Elementary are more than just buildings. There are places where students learn, families connect, and neighborhoods grow stronger. Closing a school can disrupt students' routines and force families to travel farther for education. It can also take away an important community space that many people rely on. I

113encourage you to consider not only the budget and the numbers, but the importance on students and families. Don't let such an amazing community feel neglected. Thanks for taking into consideration whether the closure of Steel Lane Elementary is the best alternative, and thanks for your time. Next, we have Kristen Ott, followed by Micah Carlin-Goldberg. Emily just arrived. I don't know if you want to let her speak ahead. Sure, go ahead. Hello, my name is Emily Janelli Castorecoulis, and I'm here to discuss with you about closing my school, Steel Lane. If you close Steel Lane, it will be very hard for families to relocate, and some families might move their children to another district, and you might lose more money than the money you're trying to save. I've been in stealing for seven years, and it's a

114place where I can feel safe and everyone else. And if you close stealing, it's going to hurt our hearts, minds, and our future. Thank you. Next, we have Kristen Ott, followed by Micah Carlin-Goldberg, followed by Carol Franston. My name is Kristen Ott and I have been a proud teacher at Still Lane for 28 years. As a community, we know that closing a school is disruptive and harms student learning for years. This is especially true for our unduplicated students, the very students we are supposed to protect the most. The board has repeatedly said decisions should be based on data. Before closing another school, we need to evaluate the closures that have already happened. How have they impacted student achievement? Has enrollment changed as predicted? And have the promised financial savings actually materialized? Steel Lane. serves more

115than 420 students and sits on nearly nine acres with room for future growth and development. Closing it now removes valuable long-term options for this district. If this board wants to rebuild trust, the responsible step is simple. Pause, review the data, and verify the savings before making another decision that permanently impacts students in our community. Steel Lane is a gem, and everyone knows it. Next is Micah Carlin-Goldberg, followed by Carol Cranston, followed by Peter Alexander. Good evening. My name is Micah Carlin-Goldberg. I am a sixth grade teacher at Steel Lane. And one of the most unfortunate things for me with the planned closure of Steel Lane is that, unfortunately, Emily is a fifth grader. And if you guys close Steel Lane, I will not have the opportunity to have her as my student as I did

116her older sister, who is another amazing Santa Rosa City Schools student. The school district has not shown any public evidence that they have actually saved a dime with the school closures that have already happened. Where is the receipts? First, we were going to save $25 million, and then it was $17 million, and now it's $7 million. Did we actually save a single dime? We lost 500 families. We have families at Steel Lane asking the teachers, how do we go about leaving Santa Rosa City Schools? This week, they're talking to our staff now about how they can leave. Closing Steel Lane does not make financial sense. You will lose more money, just like you did with the last closures. Thank you. Hi, my name is Carol Cranston, and I taught at Steel Lane for 25 years.

117I really am disappointed. that you people are still considering closing down Steel Lane. There are other options. And what is going to be your legacy when you leave if you do that? And our community at Steel Lane is a strong community, and it works. To take that apart... It's not right. It's just not right. And people have spoken over and over and over again about there are alternatives, you've been wasting money, et cetera. I just really, really beg you to not close Steel Lane. Thank you. Next is Peter Alexander, followed by Thomas Ells, followed by Linda Allen. I believe everything has already been decided and it's been decided not in your favor because you all sitting here allowed it to happen. You all allowed it. It is within your power, however, to consider cease paying

118and funding wars by not paying mortgages and rents. Instead, use all that money to grow huge gardens and greenhouses for your children's future and your teachers. I believe that there's an opportunity for homeschooling that will benefit the teachers and the students big time. But they've already decided. So those of you listening, I invite you to look up and find the definition for the word treason. Those who gave this school board their marching orders and their one-minute public dissent are insulting to me and probably the rest of you, and they do not care about your steel lane unity. Is our education system that's brought this nation to the depths of insanity worth saving, or with the American spirit and ingenuity, a whole school program could work worse? Our next speaker is Thomas Ells, followed by Linda

119Allen, followed by Claudia Lambera. Go ahead. Microphone's not on. It is. I can see it's not on. I don't believe it's on. We can hear you. Usually there's a time here. Thank you. Superintendent August, I believe, and Board President Keston and members, thank you for the opportunity to speak. We just celebrated MLK Day, and we remember him for saying we should not judge someone by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. So that's a background. My mother was valedictorian of Santa Rosa High. She came from Rose School, St. Rose School, which are quite different, you know, in their opportunities. My father was third in the state in advanced placement, There were two advocates for public education. One was Horace Mann. He developed the normal schools and the other was a

120relative of mine, the Reverend Calvin Ellis Stowe. Of course, most of you remember his wife, Harriet Beecher Stowe. They were great abolitionists. Thank you very much for your comments. Is that a minute? Yes, sir. Oh, do you can, if you are not able to finish your comments, please send them to us by email as well. We have time. What I'd like to do is engage with you. Hold up. I'll take care of ordering the chamber. Thank you. Let's go to the next public comment, please. Our next speaker is Linda Allen, followed by Claudia Lambera, followed by Matt Mintz. Still laying. You plan on moving some of the little littles this next school year. That opens up a whole lot of classrooms that are already geared for younger students. Restrooms and things that they need without

121any expense. We have fenced in areas for students who need a little more corralling. Maybe we have runners. It keeps them safe. We have playgrounds that are already fenced in. Like I said, we have numerous classrooms that will be opened up. All this with zero expense. We are not on a fault line. We have room to grow. You ever come to Still Lane during a time when students are out of class? Almost every single student is moving. They are playing. They are laughing. They are interacting. It's how they're dealing with daily stresses. You're moving them into schools where you're taking all the room they have to move and putting buildings on it. Those students are going to have no room to handle the daily stressors of life. Still Lane should be kept open. It's large.

122It's ready for growth. Our next speaker is Claudia Lambera, followed by Matt Mensch, followed by Phillip Snyder. Good evening, everyone. I'm sorry. This year is the five-year anniversary of Still Lane Elementary. We are 423 families affected for the closure of the school. We are different races united in this school. Let the children stay in the place they feel welcome, safe, happy, where they have a sense of belonging. More in these uncertain times when our community is getting attacked. Our families are in such a distress. Please don't give these children one more reason to be stressed. Thank you. Next is Matt Ment followed by Philip Snyder followed by Yoni Hercules. Hi, trustees. Again, it's Matt from Steel Lane. I teach fifth grade, but I also run the chess club, and I've been the coach of the

123Lego Robotics Club for the last 10 years. We've competed at the Lego Robotics Challenge through SCO. Every year, we've won ribbons, and I've seen that. That is just one program of many at Steel Lane that will go away once that community is dissolved. This type of community takes a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears to put together. It's not easily created elsewhere. It gives our students who have many limitations and obstacles a path for possibility. I have two students who are in the top honor roll. One of them is number four at Santa Rosa High School academically in his GPA. And it starts here. Our test scores aren't going to be affected by the things that we start, but they pay off. Thank you. Our next speaker is Philip Snyder, followed by Yoni

124Urquhart. Hi, Philip Snyder. I'm a teacher at Lewis Early Learning Academy, so I can speak to the fact that there will be four very nice classrooms that will be opened up at Steel Lane when we depart. I'm also the basketball coach at Steel Lane, and I have one of Matt's students on my team, and the services and the support that they provide at Steel Lane, to see that go away would be heartbreaking. One of his students... bouncing around ordering food after one of the basketball games. And just to see the change in that kid who I had the hardest time communicating with just because of the language barrier last year and to see all the hard work that teachers like Matt or Dan DeVoto have put into helping that kid acquire a multi-language and be

125able to communicate and order a snack. And he was just talking to me about how confident he feels now. And just I would ask that we keep Steel Lane open so we can keep that going in our community. Thank you. The last speaker I have for this item is Yoni Hercules. Good evening. My name is Johnny Hercules. My family and I come from El Salvador. I am thankful for the Steel Lane School where my daughters have been learning English. I have three kids, Stephanie, who's the oldest, who graduated last year with honors. She was student of the year. My second, Emily, is in fifth grade, and my third, Erica, is in the Steel Lane Child Care Program. Steel Lane is not just a school, but rather a second home for us. Please do not close

126my school. I know you're very intelligent and can find another way to save money. Thank you. We have one more speaker, Natalie Solerio Orzocco. Please come forward. Keep stealing open. We don't want to close this wonderful school because the teachers make kids learn, and this school has a lot of nice teachers, and I learn English because stealing. We are one of the biggest schools, and we have over 100 and something kids in our school. So please don't close Steel Lane. And I want my little sister to learn in Steel Lane like me and my sister that already graduated. And this was a school I learned everything. Thank you. Thank you all for your comments. I'm going to go to Superintendent August to open up the item, and then we'll start with Trustee Medina. Thank you

127for the outpouring of care for your community, for our school community with Steel Lane. These are not easy decisions, and just, you know, I'll hand it over to our board in a moment. Just a reminder to our staff, our community, that there was a... team of community members who spent eight months reviewing information and making recommendations and our board took action not because of not believing in a site or students or programs but because we have to make difficult decisions that none of them are what we want to make So, hold on. We're back with the board now. I'm going to trustee Medina first, and I'm going to kind of go through the board to comment on this item. So, trustee Medina. Thank you. First off, thank you, everybody, for being here. Primero, gracias a

128todos por estar aquí. So as many of you may know, I was not able to be a part of the school consolidation discussions because I had to recuse myself due to a conflict of interest. So this is an issue that I've never had the opportunity to vote on. I've asked the president to put it on the agenda because one of the things that we as a board are supposed to do is when people are asking for something. It's the right of the people to have it be discussed by the board if it's within our jurisdiction. And that's what I made sure after seeing so many of you come out and advocating for this and sending emails and saying we should reverse that decision. I made sure that to ask the president to bring it on.

129And after a few weeks, it's finally on the agenda. I wanted it on sooner, but I'm actually glad that it's on right now. for a variety of reasons. The most important being that what I saw with the Facilities Master Plan last week in terms of another campus and how that just makes no logical sense to me. But aside from a strong community and... And the results based on any school closing to any school is difficult. Somebody is going to get hurt. No matter what school you close, it's not going to be easy for the people, for the students, for the families. But since the decision back in February was made to. do school closures, some of the things that have really stood out to me that I feel are logical issues that we are going

130to deal with is the issue of capacity within our elementary schools. I see from what has been presented to us over time, it's going to be very difficult. We're going to have our schools very packed and tightly packed together. The issue of having to bring in portables on other campuses to house students. Those are issues that I think we really need to think about in terms of the impact that they have on our students, at least in this next year. I really think there's, I mean, I'll just be blunt. I think that the site to close should be Proctor Cares, but that's not what's on the agenda. I brought up earlier the issue of, the Human Development Index and the Port of Sonoma County. And I think on a larger scale, closing this school is

131going to create some bigger equity issues. And one of the arguments that's always used is, well, we don't want to lose these kids or we don't want to lose those kids. People are going to leave our school. That's going to happen throughout. I think I look at it in the context of. Also, again, looking at the census tracts of data and who has the greater capacity to adjust to these changes and these closures. I think given what I've seen from the attendance areas for this specific area, it'll be much more difficult. It'll create much more. financial harm on these families. And so me personally, I am supportive of reversing the decision. That does create additional issues in terms of our fiscal situation. It's not something that it just snaps and happens. I don't know how

132we would get. Through that, that would be an additional problem. I also don't know, given how long we've waited to have this on the agenda, the issue of any rifts or anything. Should we, you know, I would be an advocate of closing a different school. I think there was a mistake. I mean, in the sense that if we're going to close down a school, not having to just start it right away. I mean. which, you know, leaves everybody with this long, I want to say, painful delay to closure. So I think the board faulted in that sense, if this is something that the board wanted to do. So I don't know. I don't know if anybody wants to speak on this issue, but if not. I'll let you ask for any more comments and then

133I'd like to- My intent on this item is to give everyone a chance to speak on it in deliberation. Is there any other comments from other trustee members? Trustee De La Torre? So there's no denying community and strengths of Seal Lane Elementary. A decision had already been made to close the elementary and that was prolonged for a year. I appreciate the opportunity that it has been agendized so we can discuss again because we are very fresh in decisions that were made a year ago and we've got nine months of seeing what worked or didn't work and what hurdles we're continuing to run up against. So I really appreciate the opportunity to have this discussion. My main point of context is going to remain. affordability can we not disrupt this community and find a way to

134afford it that's gonna be my question your comments trustee Jenkins um I had a comment just regarding the delay like the two-year delay because that was a real issue last year as far as like why Because we didn't want to delay the two-year thing, but because of the fires in LA, we weren't able to get portables. And so it really put this huge hitch in, like it was curveball, curveball, all the curveballs. But I remember that being a very specific issue that we were faced with, with the consolidations at the elementary level specifically, which was why the delay, part of the reason why the delay happened, which sucks. I am fully aware of that. Like having to put this off a year is extremely challenging. And we had a portable issue. Like we literally couldn't

135get portables because there weren't any because of the fires in LA. Trustee Kirby. Sure. Just to director Medina's point that, you know, if we did reverse the decision, you're right. This would completely. change all of the plans that we've made and all the work that's getting ready to be presented to us here in the interim financial report. And it will basically pretty much nullify and change all of that. And there's no way that we could end up with a positive certification, possibly not even a qualified certification. But we would have to... redo all that and I don't I just don't see where the time how we have the time to do that at this point. Trustee Prach and I'll provide my comments and I'll go back to Trustee Medina. Weeks I've been stressing out and

136trying to educate myself since I wasn't on the board last year. I wasn't listening to any of the board meetings because I was in my master's program and I've been physically sick. I've called Luce, our CBO, our interim CBO. I've spoken to Lisa privately. I've spoken to President Kasten privately because I still don't understand. It's just me being hardheaded probably. Why such a large population, a body of school, would be not disseminated, closed down, and then separated. Because when you're closing a school, The school that you're closing, those students will be placed onto a, I don't know a politically correct word, a higher quality school or what's the right word? Yeah, like better academic performing, nicer school. Even I know I'm more effective when I remain calm. So it bothers me, you know, and the

137best part about going to visiting campuses is you're seeing the pride and the pride that the staff has and the kids have for being on their school. I knew I would have to join this board. I joined at the worst possible time to make world's most difficult decisions. And so I, so I don't, well, and you saw me last week. I wanted to flip over the table talking about facilities master plans and seeing what was on the, Table with Proctor Terrace, basically getting a brand new campus and how knowing me as a taxpayer that who would be voting on future bonds, I don't want to see a lot of that money going to one campus when we should be doing the most good for the most amount of schools. Like I still want new carpets

138in our campuses because when was the last time your carpet was replaced? Probably not until the school was built or when the school was built. I want every campus to have wellness centers that are just as nice as Carrillo's. So I just feel like if we're closing schools, it should be the schools with the fewest amount of students and the fewest amount of families so that there's the least disruption. And that is my opinion. I want to closing schools, closing any of those schools that we've closed have been very difficult decisions. Myself and several of us came onto the board in December three months before we had to make those decisions with that process already going on. There wasn't a single one of the campuses that we closed that didn't have a community that supported

139it that had. a sense of belonging, a sense of safety. I can remember the parents from Albert Biela coming and talking to us very passionately about that campus and what it's meant to their students. And all I can say is that the entire closure and consolidation plan was done first off in the context of the whole district, in this case the whole elementary district. And it was done from a perspective of knowing that this year's votes that we had to make around program cuts, around mental health services, around class sizes were coming. And if there was an ability to preserve funds by providing our services in fewer locations in order to have more resources available. to then preserve the programs and the offerings and the teachers in the classroom and the support specialists that that

140was a important priority for me. A sense of place is incredibly important, but if we don't have the funds to actually provide the services and the people to do that and Even with those closures, even budgeting for this closure, as well as all the other ones that were made in our budget, we have still cut seriously to the bone. For me, a priority, if we're sitting down and figuring out where another $800,000 or $1 million is going to be, it's going to be on how we restore class sizes in our first or third grades to under 30 students per teacher. It's going to be restoring counselors to our elementary campuses. For me, those two things are where I would want any fund savings that we could find in that amount to go first. So I'm

141not ready to change this decision. And I think to the point of let's go pick a different campus. To close down, one, the incredible... challenge and disruption that we will cause if we set up in place a two-year plan and then we start undoing it and changing campuses we just had this conversation around Lincoln and Comstock where this board stuck with the plan for our elementary district and did not close down Lincoln and that was with many more and that was with a full recommendation to actually move forward with that So I think it's important for us to stick with this and recognize that the conversation at the time around these closures was not about stealing versus Proctor Terrace. That is a very newly introduced political dynamic that is very dangerous. Proctor Terrace, the Doyle

142campus, and the Brookhill campus were the three... eastern region campuses that were impacted by fault lines. Proctor Terrace is the only one of those properties that is feasible for continued operations as a school, and we closed the other two east side campuses down because they're not feasible, because Proctor Terrace's fault line issues don't apply to most of the parcel. And yes, it does require us rebuilding there, but we're rebuilding one of three education sites in that region. And just because you have fault lines in your community doesn't mean that you shouldn't have access to a local school. Steel Lane, the discussion with Steel Lane was predominantly around Hidden Valley, Steel Lane, Monroe, and Lehman. And to a certain extent, Burbank and Lincoln, although Burbank and Lincoln were more related to each other in that conversation.

143And one of the factors for me that was very compelling in addition to the safety report that was... Not positive from the city as a part of our environmental review and was provided after the safety improvements were made So we have this very solid recommendation that the site was not a good location from the city's perspective for this type of use It was also about making sure that the next closest school to these neighborhoods and many of these neighborhoods are in my district. I mean I I feel this closure, but the logic behind having the next most convenient site being one of our schools instead of a school in a neighboring district where we have Monroe with its athletic fields, we have Hidden Valley with its really nice campus. And we have you know those

144available so that there is a place that is safe, there is a place that has a sense of community to welcome our students and so you know, I think the challenge with this conversation being coming forward this way, without all of the context that went into that overall decision is really dangerous in. What it can do if we start picking going back and picking it apart and creating instability in our ability to actually carry through these decisions With that I'll go to trustee Medina or wait. Sorry student trustee board members would either of you like to provide comments on? Trustee Medina, thank you I think just kind of following up on some of the stuff that you said, I think it's always important to recognize that until a school is closed, it's not closed. So

145it doesn't mean we can't change a decision. So I'd say that. I think with both of those issues, I think since that decision was made, we've had a lot of new information. And I think that's a lot of what. to me, makes it even more relevant to make a decision like this. The issue on safety, the issue on the fault lines, the extent of that. Those are two examples. You know, folks have highlighted, have we realized the savings that we expected to realize? The other issues that have come up since are the issues of capacity of the different sites. So all those are things that have come up since that February decision that, to me, make me... want to make this decision differently. I try not to let feelings impact. The logical choices that I

146see. One of the big things that we're always threatened with is like people will leave from this school or that school or whatever. I don't like to let those types of arguments feed into the direction that I'm going with in terms of decision because I feel we have a duty to provide education. If we build our schools and we do our best to provide good education, eventually. people will come. But I do also think about the impacts of decisions as it relates to mobility and what the demographics show us about the impacts that these decisions are going to have. And so like, you know, these to me are school is a school that's on the margins. And when I look at it, and I'm not afraid to say it, is that, you know. I feel

147that some of the decisions are politically motivated in the sense that we're more afraid of losing people over here than we are over here because those people have more access to or more ability to send their kids elsewhere versus some here. So, I mean, that's... That's a sentiment, a feeling that I get, but my feelings should matter. So with that said, I'd like to make a motion to reverse the decision to close Steel 8 Elementary. Second. I'll second. Oh, you beat me. So we have a motion and a second on a motion to reconsider. What was the word you used? To reverse the decision to close Steel Lane. Is there additional discussion? Trustee Jenkins and De La Torre. If possible, I'd like to ask a question to either Luce or Eric. It is possible. I'm

148going to go to Trustee De La Torre while we're having them come down. Trustee De La Torre. Thank you. So I have further discussion as well, even with the second. With the TKs leaving Steel Lane. There's a potential of six classrooms that are going to be open on that campus. I really wanted the opportunity to explore what that campus could look like with different utilization. How does that open up space on other campuses? How does that provide stronger community within the Sill Lane community? If we've done as dangerous as the discussion is, As dangerous as changing past decisions is, it is absolutely vital that we have these discussions now that more time has been put in front of us because as painful as the decisions we made in February. They had to be rushed. We

149had no other alternative. We had to make those decisions. And if we had a few more months in front of us to at least discuss it and see what's possible, then we are incumbent on having those discussions and seeing what's possible or not. I've heard an $800,000 number of if we were to keep Still Lane open. That's a number that... We'd be losing in the negative. What I get worried about is if we close Steel Lane, do we lose a larger amount fiscally through attrition, through transportation, and through other... decisions needed to be made on other campuses to find space for those students to fit. So those are really real concerns that I have and just have second in it because I want to continue to have this discussion and have a proper decision made.

150As we have our folks coming down. I want to clarify that when I'm talking about the dangerous part, it is the part of this conversation that's involved what I would consider a very arbitrary process in trying to suggest that we close another campus in this discussion. So which has definitely been said. So that's the part that I find very dangerous. I'm correct. Let President Kasson speak. He's just trying to explain. And I appreciate that clarification of the dangers. And I'm not specifically speaking to that, but yeah. The dangers also is the fact that other decisions were made in February that I personally will ask to get agendized that we look at because they may not make sense. So we need to be able to have that opportunity to discuss as a DS and we're not

151trying to walk away from it. It's just, thank you for the clarity. This conversation is an appropriate one. It's talking about the other campuses that it gets very dangerous. Trustee Jenkins, I'll let you combine your question with Trustee De La Torre's comments before they speak. Thank you. So we are, there's a motion on the table to reverse closing steel lane. And I wanted to ask you both a question because as we have talked in recent meetings about cuts coming, cuts that are happening, and we have spoken about course correction. And I would like your opinion, your professional opinion, if... This is something that would make sense for course correction fiscally and within our facilities stuff that we do. Does this make sense in your opinion? I'm going to struggle with this one. Yep. Yes. Is

152that better? How's that? Can I raise it up a little bit? Yeah. See, it's not meant for tall people. There we go. Okay. Does it make sense? To course correct, course correct, meaning to reverse the decision on the closure. So I'm going to approach this without humanity for a moment and just answering if I just look at the numbers, right? So I'm not thinking about the people that are impacted, but just thinking about the numbers. The district is in a place of making. really hard decisions. And so I would submit to you closing schools is one of, I think it's the hardest decision. So I put that one first, I put second layoffs. So first is closures. Undoing it doesn't mean, there's like not a period at the end of that. It's a paragraph that

153I'm looking for. So I need to know. To think about does it make sense, I would need to hear a complete paragraph on does it make sense to undo the school closures, undo the savings associated with that, and instead undo this, eliminate this, reduce that, right? I have to hear what the other end of the idea is. Because I guess if the question is, is it a good idea to just? reverse that decision, I can answer that simply. It's not a good idea to just reverse the decision. I need to know what you're going to do instead of. So if you're going to undo that batch of savings, you're going to reduce and eliminate what other jobs, what other programs, what other services. Can I follow that up? Let's let Eric speak to the question

154as well. I will say that I think at the time that the consolidation committee did their review and the board came up with their recommendations, it was before any fault studies were done. So it was a little, at that time, I think the questions were fairly clear from a facility standpoint. Now they're slightly different than that. And that's been said within the... talks we had even last week around the different campuses and what has come up since then. But I can't recall the exact dollar amount from the 2023. I didn't pull that up, I'm sorry, before the meeting of the master plan for Steel Lane at the time. But I know there was some significant things in there, but probably not as significant as a new campus. And just quickly, can you speak to the

155capacity? I know there's been work done at Monroe and Lehman around new buildings for the capacity to receive these students. Yeah, we have significantly increased capacity at Monroe, especially already. It's going to be done in August or ready for the school year. So that campus has significantly increased its capacity to, I think, 700 students. Same with... Helen Lehman as well with the new addition of six new classrooms. Thank you. Well, first off on that capacity issue, that's temporary capacity increases are permanent. No, we increased it permanently at Monroe. Okay. And. I think I just want to clarify in terms of what you mentioned, Luz. I think for me, if the board were to decide to make this decision, then there definitely would need to be a what then or what else would happen. And I

156mean, for me, if this were to pass, then I would definitely bring something forward. which I've alluded to earlier, to potentially change that. I recognize it might impact our budget and whether we're qualified or not, but I can't move something else forward if this decision hasn't been made, and I think that's important for the board to recognize. And again, I think... As you mentioned, there's been a lot of new information that's come forward. And we need to think of the direction of the district, not just within these next couple of years, but also long term. And I think that's important to recognize. Trustee Kirby? So I just want to verify that we're still assigned a person from SCO, right? Overseeing all of our financial decisions, correct? Yes, that is correct. And they would have the

157ability to override this decision if it's made, if it's passed, if it's not fiduciarily responsible? You would have that option. Okay. So I know you're getting ready to give your report following this shortly. Does the action that the board, if we take this action, if it's passed to reverse it, how does that impact? what you were prepared to present this evening. Are we not going to be certified any longer? So with this action, we would have to adjust, and we wouldn't be able to do until third interim, we would adjust the savings that are built into the multi-year projections for the closure. But again, I would be looking for and what am I going to insert as the new savings. So I don't want there to be any misunderstanding of that. So in my role,

158a decision to undo something should be coupled with a responsible decision to do something, right? So the net impact that I would be looking for, pushing for, encouraging for, demanding. Is that net impact of zero? So just to follow up on that, the motion before us and what's agendized is just around not closing the Steel Lane campus. We would definitely not be in a place we would have to agendize closing another campus as has been suggested. I'm not even sure the logistics on that being feasible, but that wouldn't happen before the second interim. Would the recommendation change from positive to a qualified or a negative if we were to do that action right now? I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but I do believe if we were to undo it,

159you'd still have your 3% reserve for the next two out years. But we're talking by a margin. I wouldn't encourage you to take, right? So I'm going to say again, a decision to undo something should be coupled with a responsible decision to make up for it. The question was, is it reasonable? It is reasonable if you can give me a complete paragraph that says we're going to undo this and instead generate the savings we need to ensure we've eliminated our structural deficit because that was the work. And this is what we're going to eliminate, reduce instead. Trustee De La Torre? So perhaps this is you lose, probably not. Perhaps this is Lisa. Who do we ask that question to? Because I don't have that information. Trustee Medina doesn't have that information. So I cannot offer

160that alternative of where to end up net zero if we don't have that information. So who and how do we ask for what alternatives would possibly be looked at for savings to balance out the difference? What I would refer to would be the items that were listed when we presented the budget solutions and the items presented, the items considered not implemented. That is where I would look to for those savings. And with the timing, I do not believe that that would be feasible to have happen. I will say that my recommendation. regardless of how it impacts our families because what we would be doing is then creating even more uncertainty across our district and across our community. I cannot in good conscience recommend overturning the decision that took a lot review and consideration and hard

161work by this board in coming to that decision. I cannot in good conscience recommend that you overturn. Is there any other discussion? Okay, I'm going to go to a vote. Roll call, please. Student Board Member Curio. Aye. Student Board Member Fitzsimmons. Aye. Trustee Medina. Aye. Trustee De La Torre. Aye. Trustee Jenkins. No. Trustee Kirby. No. Trustee Prack. Yes. President Kasten. No. That motion fails on a 3-3 vote. All right. We're going to return to the agenda, and I'm going to take a five-minute break to allow folks that were here to clear out, and then we'll move to public comment on non-agenda items. We'll reconvene at 8.05. All right, we're going to reconvene. We're going to move to item F. This is public comment on non-agenda and consent items. Let's move to public comment, please. Thank

162you, President Kasten. We're going to start with students. Again, it's a one-minute timer. Both podiums are available. Our first speaker is Nadia Curia, followed by Amy Alvarez, followed by George Atich. Is Nadia still here? Oh, go ahead. Yes. The school board should be preserving the quality of education in our district. The handling of budget cuts have been doing nothing but harming staff and students. I've experienced it firsthand in Arquest at Santa Rosa High School. More kids are being shoved into overcrowded classrooms, one teacher not being enough to provide for the three grades of an Arquest specialty at once. If anything, were to take away the fundamentals of our programs. We wouldn't see transfers to our district if anything kids would leave. We understand there's a deficit, but that doesn't mean schools aren't willing to negotiate

163better ways to go about cuts that don't erase our schools and programs. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Amy Alvarez, followed by George Atich, followed by Angel Diego. Hi, my name is Amy and I'm a student at Piner High. Today I want to bring attention to the huge staff cut. This cut isn't just affecting our teachers' jobs, but it is affecting our education too. Less teachers means bigger classes, but having one teacher for a class with 30 or more students puts our grades at risk, since one teacher can't go around and answer 30 different questions during one class period. A solution to this would be having a co-teacher, which gives students access to twice the amount of help, since there are now two teachers. But again, unfortunately, co-teaching is being cut as well.

164And if a student were to fall behind in credits and needed to recover them to get back on track to graduate, Pioneer has a program called Grace, which is... used for exactly that, a class dedicated to students who need to recover their credits. This program is also being taken away, so students who could have used this program will be moved to Ridgeway to receive the help Grace could have given them at Piner. And Ridgeway only has a limited amount of students per school who are able to attend, which means most students wouldn't be able to get in due to limited space. This can result in a higher chance of students dropping out and not finishing school. Next, we have George Attich, followed by Angel Diego, followed by Ethan Stove. Sorry. Evening members of the board.

165My name is George Autier and I'm an eighth grade ASB and the president at RVMS. I stand before you today not only as a representative of our students, but as a voice for our entire community. We are here because Principal Darrell Correale has built a culture at RVMS where everyone feels safe, respected, and heard. He is a leader who leads with his heart. Whether it's clear communication with our families or the way he advocates for a student with special needs, Mr. Correale shows us every day what it means to lead with integrity. He doesn't just run a building. He supports the people inside of it. Losing a leader who has earned this much trust from students, staff, and parents would be a massive loss for our school. You have the opportunity to listen to people

166who are on the ground seeing his impact every single day. We respectfully ask you to reconsider this decision and keep Principal Correale. leading RVMS towards the great future we all want. Thank you for your time. Next is Angel Diego, followed by Ethan Stove, followed by Joy DeFossi. This is working. Okay. Hi, I am Angel Diego. And before I get started, I would like to show appreciation to Mark Kirby. Anyways, on to me, an innocent special education student. Not receiving FAPE for two days. Yes, on March 9th, I was allowed equal access to support after being banned for 129 days from getting support. Anyways, Donna, I noticed that you tend to project empathy and give me compliments on my shirt. However, I noticed that your automatic email says that I will get back to you by

167the end of the week. I've sent you numerous emails and you have never gotten back to me. Lisa, when Vicky from HR was in Cabo, aka Mexico, that complaint was your responsibility. And that ended up... getting the California Department of Education having to email you. Also, by the way, Omar, hope is not going to get anything resolved. Advocacy will. Anyways, I made this in my fourth period. I don't think you can see it, but it says Team Mark because that's where I am. I'm Team Mark and it's really cute. I don't know. I don't know if y'all can see it, but like I really like put a lot of dedication into it. And Mark, you should visit me at Santa Rosa High. Our next speaker is Ethan Stove, followed by Joy DeFosse, followed by Amanda

168Kovlent. My name is Ethan Stortz, and I'm a visual fine arts student and in the ArtQuest Student Council at Santa Rosa High. I'm so grateful for our teachers, opportunities, and to spend two hours a day with my craft. It's a catch that draws people in. But our site is being forced to cut 67 sections, and it's been said that the easiest way to meet this is cutting our classes down to one period. If you do this, you might not be fully taking away the arts, but you're making decisions that undermine our program. It takes away what makes us specialized and separates us from elective classes. We're willing to make changes to adapt, but we can't do that without two periods. I'm an inter-district transfer student like many who come all the way here for ArtQuest.

169If you continue to reduce ArtQuest, you will not only drive those families away, but lose the money they bring in. If you really prioritize decisions that enhance learning and prepare students for their future, please think how you'll impact their community. I can't just tell you what not to do, so I'll also ask you to start by looking at and reducing the admin's salary. Thank you. Next is Joy DeFosse, followed by Amanda Kovland, followed by Micah Carlin-Goldberg. In America, children with disabilities weren't allowed to attend public schools, and it was the 1965 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, that paved the way for disability advocates to fight for educational equality. Tragically, the district is taking us back to a time when disabled children were deemed unworthy of an education. The failure to make the

170necessary cuts is now being put upon disabled children with a substandard education. IEP stands for for individual education. program. They are not one size fits all. They are legally binding federally mandated documents that outline tailored special education. You, the board, have the power to reject these cuts, reject shoving special needs children into overcrowded, ill-equipped, understaffed classrooms to get lost, looked over, and ultimately fail. But maybe this is the end goal of the administration for our disabled children to fail and drop out so the district will no longer have to pay for our children's special education. education. What other possible conclusion could there be when the district... Next is Amanda Covalent, followed by Micah Carlin-Goldberg, followed by Raymond Joseph Soto. Is that on? Okay. Hi, fellow parents, students, educators, and members of the board. My name

171is Amanda Covalent, and I'm a proud parent of an incoming freshman at ArtQuest this fall. I ask you all to take a moment and think of just one thing in your daily life that is neither a direct result or touched by art in one way or another. Did you? It's impossible. You can't. The arts are all around us and have an impact on everyone all the time. Art just isn't pictures and statues in a museum, actors on a stage, or music. Art is everything. Art is the television shows and movies you watch, the music you listen to, the food and wine you drink, the books you read, photographs, I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. Without art, humanity would cease to exist in the way it does today. All

172the programs at ArtQuest instill different things for different students. Each of these students made a choice before their first year of their programs to attend this school. My student made this choice in the second grade and has had his heart dead set on becoming part of this program. We learning about the cuts to our quest has made our collective. Thank you very much for your comments. But also give it reason to fight. Thank you. Next is Micah Carlin Goldberg, followed by Raymond Joseph Soto, followed by Peter Alexander. Good evening. Student board member, and student board member Fitzsimmons. I am appalled by the disrespect shown to you by the adult members of the school board by calling you for a roll call vote and then ignoring your votes. It's not okay. And I am sorry that

173they did that to you. If they're not going to let you have a voice, why call your names and take your vote? Why not listen to you? Now, that's not the intent of my speech today. Today, roughly half of our elementary music team received reduction in force notices, which means that our school district will no longer have sufficient elementary music teachers to fulfill their prep requirements or to offer elementary instrument. music classes because we need at least three, excuse me, four music teachers to go onto a site at one time in order to offer instrumental music. So this short-sighted, yet again, unplanned, useless cut is going to hurt our students. Next, we have Raymond Joseph Soto, followed by Peter Alexander, followed by Molly Woods. Yeah, summer 2000 I went to the center of the high

174school to get my high school transcript. And I was told by the administrators there were no records and database available for any student in 87. January 3rd, 2020 I went to the administration center. And the mayor turned around and gave me a candy coating copy that said I did not have enough credits. I presented it to the school. By the summer of 97 transcript, the original university made me cut a copy. So the records faded with the high school. August 6th, 2024 I went to the administration on Tony Point. She didn't fill out the property. She gave me this, which I expected this. The seventh in high school gave me this. Students. I don't know who she was. August 9th, I went there. Me and my sister went to get her transcript, which shouldn't look

175like this. She graduated in 89. I got this. I had to go through another student, and two students did it. It wasn't registered by the administrator. And then somebody went into the system and scrambled my college degree. And my sister, I don't even talk to her anymore, but her written transcript was like this. She didn't go to college right after she graduated. She had to go back and get it, but she couldn't find it. She provided me what they provided me with. I got the name, I got the card, and I got the all-stand date. I just wanted to turn around and represent. Thank you very much for your comments. Thank you. Next is Peter Alexander, followed by Molly Woods, followed by Maureen Cecil. Are we on? Okay, so I'll start off with a Lakota

176saying. It says, Taku Wakanskanskan. Something sacred is in motion. The moment requires spiritual courage to action. America, till now, has never experienced an uprising with a strike for freedom. Your homework, should you consider your homework, is watch V for Vendetta and remember the part where he hit the first domino. That first domino knocked them all down. And a strike will actually help them do a better job. So it's not about pointing fingers. It's the system that's caused all the problems. Because the first group of high school students or college students to walk out for freedom and school this nation with a 40-day strike, all the schools will walk out. The first group of parents and teachers to stop paying mortgages and rents and get off the fence and stop funding the wars, everybody will follow.

177I am Peter. I say it is done. Next is Molly Woods, followed by Maureen Cecil, followed by Thomas Eltz. Members of the board and community, trigger warning, this will be discussing suicide. My name is Molly Woods and I am a teacher at RVMS. I am alive and speaking here tonight because of the compassion shown by my principal, Daryl Correal. Within six months last year, I lost four friends and I was struggling in ways people never saw. The person who did see it was my principal. He recognized that I was not okay and instead of ignoring it, he stepped in with compassion, support, and humanity. Because of that moment of leadership, I am still here today. He took me to Kaiser, saw that I was checked in, and I was unable to complete my plan. Leadership

178is not about budgets, spreadsheets, or restructuring plans. Leadership is about people. It is about recognizing someone needs help and creating an environment where both students and staff can thrive. Tonight, I ask you to reconsider the impact of this decision and reinstate him for next year. When you remove a leader like this, you're not just changing a position on paper. I am here today because Daryl cared enough to see me as a human being. Our community deserves that. Are you ready to be willing leaders in our community, or are we just another fun piece of paper? Thank you very much for your comments. Next is Maureen Cecil, followed by Thomas Ells, followed by Lauren Frost. My name is Maureen Cecil. You've seen me before. I've sent you emails. I was going to talk about Piner, but

179really quickly, every time I turn around, there's a new cut to a program that wasn't put out. It feels like the district office is doing things behind the board's back and not explaining what the heck they're doing. So instead of cutting all of these schools and programs, how about we riff the district office? There are 30 of you. How many do we actually need? And those are the admin. for one to two teachers who are in the classroom. Please rethink how many people we need at the district office. What do you really do? I know what I do every day to take care of my students and to teach them something. What do you do? And how many people do we really... need. Again, that's one to two teachers for every district office administrator. That

180doesn't count in their secretaries, other people who help them out, their assistants to their assistant secretaries, etc. And then we could also riff them. So if we have money, you can come back later. Thank you very much for your comments. Next is Thomas Ells, followed by Lauren Frost. Sorry. Go ahead. Thank you. So technically, What I have to say falls under the aspect of non-agenda items because I'm offering you an opportunity that as Mr. Member Dela Cruz, I believe, is that right? Dela, I'm sorry. Dela Torre, excuse me. Sorry. Is asking for. So there's a completely different structure that you can look at that hires teachers and doesn't emphasize. the spaces that you have, you have large schools, you could have many more school sites that could be owned by the teacher. And then you

181fund the teacher, the teacher owns that space. It's not owned for them to be arbitrary. It's to love the students and to give them more. It's a different way. And I'd like to talk to you all about it. Thank you. Thank you. Our next and our last card is Lauren Frost. Ms. Lauren Frost and I'm a teacher at the ArtQuest program at Santa Rosa High School. Today, the Press Democrat reported about a Sonoma County native who recently won two Emmy Awards for animation. He reflected in his time at ArtQuest and he said, we had two periods a day, every day of high school. I only realized upon leaving how rare that was. Programs like ArtQuest matter. They keep students in our schools. Families transfer here specifically for these opportunities. Right now, we know that Santa

182Rosa is facing significant section reductions, and we are hearing the changes may be coming to specialized programs like ArtQuest. But the details remain unclear, and the people who run these programs every day are still waiting for clear information. Too often, it feels like decisions about our program are being made and discussed around us rather than with us. The uncertainty is already affecting families. I personally had a family withdraw their ARC Quest application for next year because they don't know what the program will look like. Our students choose ARC Quest. Many transferred here for it. They committed years of their lives. They committed years of their lives to this program, and they deserve clarity, transparency, and decisions to help keep students and the programs that inspire them at the center. Thank you. Thank you very much.

183for the folks that were here commenting on art quest um i do want to let everyone know that on our next board agenda art quest is specifically going to be agendized along with our specialized programs for that clear discussion and you know direction so we'll be here With that, we're going to move to the consent calendar. I am looking for a motion on items G1 through 4, 6 through 8, and 11. Moved. Second. Moved by Trustee Jenkins, seconded by Trustee Kirby. Roll call, please. Student Board Member Carrillo. Aye. Trustee Jenkins. Aye. Trustee Kirby. Aye. Trustee De La Torre. Aye. Trustee Medina? Aye. Trustee Pratt? Aye. President Kasten? Aye. That motion passes unanimously. We'll now move to G5. Trustee Kirby? Just had a couple of questions on some of the finer nuances here on the contract.

184Just want to clarify, there were some different options in here. I just want to confirm that we are looking at the pivot system, right? Sorry. I'm trying to get the name of it here. Sorry. The first option, right? Sotera with the Sotera 20 millimeter shock pad and the pivot performance turf. Correct. Yeah, I'm sorry, I don't have it in front of me, but yes, I believe that is the one. Yep. The top option. Top option there, okay. The no-fill. Right. And I guess I just want a confirmation that since this system is going to be put on top of an existing base, that this company is not stalling. I know they're going to inspect it, I believe. Is there any way that the warranty would be reduced or avoided by us putting this turf on

185top of an existing base? They will come back when they take all that apart and look at what's underneath there. So I could. I pray I don't. I have enough contingency to cover that in this project, but everything underneath there is good enough to cover that. Otherwise, you might see something come back to you if there's something more challenging. But I have not heard. I've talked to all the athletic directors and coaches on those fields, and I have not heard of flooding issues or anything like that. So I suspect that we're in pretty good shape. Okay, yeah, I just want to make sure since we kind of got burned by the warranty on this last field, I just want to make sure that we're going to. be good for the full 12-year warranty on this.

186That's why I'm bringing this one forward exactly, yes. Perfect. Additionally, so I got a note from the athletic directors who just had a meeting, and they were in the quote there, list for the striping to include women and men's lacrosse, which while I... Would love for our schools to have those programs. We don't have it, and it's currently not a CIF-sanctioned sport. It is CIF? Oh, nice. Well, we don't currently have it, though. They were asking if it's possible to... Have that part switched to flag football striping versus the lacrosse striping without an additional cost. Yeah, we can. And we're going to bring it to the sites for input on everything before we finalize it. This is just to get them going. Perfect. And lastly, they were also asking if it was going to be

187kind of like for like, because I know it's a small nuance, but. The field right now, they have the alternating light green and dark green every five yards, I believe it is. That is what we're planning, correct. So a like for like. Yep. Okay, I think that was it for my questions on that. Thanks. Just going back to the striping, you said you would be going site to site to figure that out? Yeah, we're going to get site input from athletic directors in the site to make sure we're putting the lines that they need on the field, not just ones we are arbitrarily putting on there. Okay. But in the end, all the schools will have the same striping? It will be like this site has this, this site has that? Yeah, as was mentioned

188before, I don't think lacrosse is actually at any site, but I think eight-man and flag football are, so those stripes I imagine will. Since they're not on the field will probably come to the top. Okay. I did just because the way that you said I was like I don't want some schools to have certain striping and others not if Eventually there's a sport at one school that hopefully would get to all of them. But thank you. Sure I actually have the reverse question of that because I'd want to make sure that we were meeting the individual campuses needs For their athletic programs and plans. So when you're saying you're getting site specific feedback if a site has an intent and a desire for something the nurse doesn't have, they'd be able to get that for

189this field? We could pretty much do anything. We're at square zero, so we can add a multitude of things here. Trustee Prack and then Trustee De La Torre. Hi, sir. Quick question. From when the project starts, how long does it take to do the fields? We're requiring them to be done only over the summer, so it'll be ready for the start of school. So they can't start until after graduation as well. Trustee Daly-Torrey? Mark started the striping questions. So just to be very clear, lacrosse is a CIF sport. Somebody at this DS came to that podium and argued for seven years to get lacrosse added. And it never was. So technically, it's still on the list of sports to consider and add. We have a very big youth lacrosse program in Santa Rosa. And all

190the students go to neighboring schools to play for their high schools because we can only play club. And if the sport is a CIF sport, then you cannot play club for your school in that sport. You cannot have a lacrosse club. represented in any of your specific high schools if it's a CF sport. So do any of our current campuses have lacrosse lines? I can't remember, but I believe one of them does, and I can't remember if it's Carrillo. I believe Montgomery and possibly Carrillo have lacrosse lines. What's the cost on these lines? Because they can only be done when the field is laid. Correct. Yes. So we have to get it right the first time. Yeah. I don't have the extra cost if we need to add something last minute, but our goal is

191to try to work site to site to get the correct lines that they feel they need for their site for the future. Because there's, you get, this is a 12 year warranty. So this is a 12 year field. It's a 12 year warranty. I ask that it also be considered the investment that it is. And if your fields are appropriate lined, then they can be revenue sources for clubs and other programs that use those fields for their appropriate sport. So I would err on the side of writing as many lines as possible for those fields to be used, opposed to taking some away. But I completely respect your decision to talk to the sites. And we will keep talking about lacrosse until somebody gets it. Lacrosse and boys volleyball. I think you both come up

192tonight. Anything else on the turf field, recognizing director Odin's commitment to making sure that we have what each site wants. Okay. Is there a motion? Motion to approve a G5. Moved by trustee Kirby. Seconded by trustee Jenkins. Roll call vote, please. Student board member, Curio. Aye. Sorry. Trustee Kirby. Aye. Trustee Jenkins. Aye. Trustee De La Torre. Aye. Trustee Medina. Aye. Trustee Prach. Aye. President Kasten. Aye. The motion passes unanimously. We'll now move to item G9. Trustee Jenkins. I pulled this one. I recall talking about this last year at this time as well. So I understand that we need to have these. approved at the site level by March 1st or something along those lines. And then I noticed that there was, in the attachments, there were all the signature pages because some of them were

193not complete in the actual safety plans. My question, concern, panic, is that, so there's a couple of things. We're changing so much, and so many things in these safety plans are specific to people and even categories of people who may be changing next year. Additionally, the cell phone policy piece is already kind of in there. My understanding is that's not something that's going to be a... one or the other, like the stuff that's already in there is going to be with the policy that we have yet to approve. But I'm wondering if there's any way that these can come back to us complete, the threat assessment. Attachment isn't, I didn't see that in any of them. The ICS is for staff this year, whereas we really need those in it. And then they're like the

194restoratives are listed in there. The safety advisory round table is listed in there. So is there any way that these can come? Like I saw in there that they had to be. somebody has to be alerted if they're not completed by like October 15th. But is there a way that they can come back at the beginning of the school year or at the... the meeting, whichever meeting happens right before the school year starts, if we have one, there might not be one, that's complete so that we know that the staff that are at these schools then actually has the most current information. So, Ms. Martin, if you wouldn't mind, I'm going to rejoin so that I can share a couple of items just to give some clarity on this. Make sure I'm in the right

195one. While you're doing that, I do share in the concern of the public about, and I also understand why it happens, like the checking of the boxes to make sure that like we're doing the things that we need to do, but also that our staff are well aware and trained of the processes that are in place. And it's not just grading to the test, treating to the chart of the things that are there. Absolutely. There we go. So what I wanted to share is that it's important to know that the comprehensive site safety plan cycle is an active cycle that should be happening all year long. This is not something that is written in January and presented in March. This process begins every single July where site administration will be updating. the incident command with

196all of their new staff. That is an expectation that they would do. In August and September, they would roll the plan out to all staff because some of their staff is returning staff, some of their staff is new staff, and whether you're returning or new, it's important to refresh your understanding of the site safety plan. In October, November, and December, it is the expectation that either the school site council or the Site Safety Committee, or both, are reviewing their safety data that they have identified as part of their components and their goals, and they are actively having conversations with their standing committees to be able to identify what are their areas of focus and priority and need. Those in October, November, and December need to be reviewed. updated, rewritten. In January, they need to add

197the required adjustments to the site safety plan because every year the CDE will give some instruction on certain sections that need to be written into the plan. They also need to be sharing that updated in February with ELAC. And we, as a district, share that updated plan with Santa Rosa Police Department and FIRE. They have reviewed the plans for this year. They have reviewed the required updates. And they have signed off on that. So what is being acknowledged by March 1st is the work that is happening at all points. That's why we bring this to the board. But I don't want there to be any confusion. This is not something that happens March 1st. This should be an active commitment to safety by state staff annually all the time. And I hope that helps. I

198was going to just add the March 1st deadline is based on ed code. Correct. Is it based on Ed Code that it has to be signed off on the board by the board at a certain date, or is it that it has to be updated by March 1st? It should be brought to the board by around March 1st. This time, we barely missed it. Last year, we agreed as a district to give our district more time, but our goal is either at the end of February or at the first meeting in March to share the updated plans. I guess I can hear what you're saying, and I hear that there's Ed Code related. And if we are talking about a safety plan for next year, the information in these safety plans, one, is the same

199at all the schools, and two, isn't complete for next year. So like, I see that our hands are tied in this and there needs to be some other loop. So if there, if there's like a, you know, the board approves that it's been reviewed at this time of the year. And then at the beginning of the school year, we have some other kind of update with like updated that comes to us so that we know what's going on. Like, I understand it probably happens at the district level, but it would also be nice if we're signing off on something to have the latest information. come back to us, like with the ICS and then the new policies in there and then the wording adjusted because we don't, as of right now, we won't have restoratives

200and the threat assessment is not in the documents. Does that make sense? So let me just suggest, because we do have this as one of our... five strategic priorities and that was a part of our study session earlier that i think is entirely appropriate for us to agendize again prior to our next strategic planning session in september so prior to that agenda is again a more comprehensive review of our site safety procedures um and i'll if you're open to it take that as a request to add to a future agenda item so we can dig more into it with a prepared presentation trustee de la tory Thank you very much for pulling it, Trustee Jenkins. I just want to reiterate that this can't be something that we're rubber stamping and it would be the same

201at every site because our sites are different. And it's something that a document, I expect the site administration and staff to be a part of creating so that they have ownership of what is safest practices on that site. And for us to approve a document now. knowing that we're going to have less admin and less staff next year, I really don't want to just sign that and need to hear more that it is a living document that's continually worked on and adapted and adjusted, and mainly that there's time for that staff and site administration to understand that document and have that document and know what's going on so it can be appropriately implemented and that safety drills can be appropriately understood. before an incident happens. We always want to be as proactive as possible. I

202really appreciate these steps and understand what Ed Coden has to lead into this step. But this is most definitely not something we should be rubber stamping or assume is the same across the board. And I do want to clarify that there are sections of the comprehensive site safety plan that have to be the same at every site. You do not want each of our 20 different sites deciding individually what to do in the case of a fire or what to do in the case of a lockdown. Because if you have each site writing a unique plan and a student transfers from one site to the other, There is no consistency. You need to have the essential five consistent, not each site identifying. However, there are specific areas of the comprehensive site safety plan that are

203the obligation of the school to write individually. Ingress and egress is going to be unique at every single site. their approach to how they are addressing things like their personal dress code. It's going to be very different at a school like Cesar Chavez that has a uniform policy than it might be at an elementary than it might be at a high school. And so there are areas where everyone's plan will look the same. And every year the schools are told. Right at the beginning of the year, this is actually part of our launch, reminding the administration, you can't wait until January. You must make this a living document. These are the things you have to do in July, in August, in September, in October, because this can't be a rubber stamp for you as the

204board. It can't be a rubber stamp for the site as well. Trustee Mendea? Yeah. I think I was just going to say kind of along the lines of that, that it's constantly changing. We got to do it by law. And March 1st is for it to be reviewed and updated. After that, it could come to the board for approval. And I was going to ask, I see a lot of these don't have, some of them have like Sergeant Matt Crosby signature. Others are missing the signature from SRPD and from the fire department. Chief, could you give us some insight onto that? If they're considered complete without the signatures or what's the status of that? Each plan was reviewed by both SRPD and fire. The two representatives each took a different approach. So in years past,

205we've had one signature page that gets attached to everybody that has Sergeant Crosby and Chief Lowenthal. And then the individual sites. This year, Sergeant Crosby went to every single site, downloaded their signature page, and signed each individual, while Chief Lowenthal signed once for all of them. So that's why you see two different approaches, and that's why we included in the upload of the documents both... Chief Lowenthal's signature on the single page, and Sergeant Crosby, who printed them all and signed them individually. So that was a thing. I didn't see Crosby's signature on the sub. I just wanted to clarify. Has he done that for all of them? Yes. All right. With the commitment to bringing back something where we can get into more detailed conversations on sites in the future, do I have a motion?

206Move to approve. Moved by Trustee Medina. Second. Second by Trustee Kirby. Roll call, please. Student Board Member Carrillo. Aye. Trustee Medina. Aye. Trustee Kirby. Aye. Trustee Jenkins. No. Trustee De La Torre. Aye. Trustee Prack. No. President Kasten. Aye. That motion passes with 4-2. Trustees Prack and Jenkins, we already know. We will now move to item G10 and my understanding is that we have representatives from Keystone here as well as Director Lofty. And specifically my question if you were able to recall is to address the concerns that were brought up in our SRTA report from earlier and provide more information. Yes, I appreciate the opportunity to come up and speak about this new pilot that we're starting with our partner, Keystone. This originally started off as a way to improve the access to care for students

207on our campuses. So we've been working with... Veronica and Erica to help us. work with community partners under the CYBHI fee schedule. I think it's important to point out that it's a pilot and that the proposal that I brought forward, that we brought forward, is only for this school year because we still want to see, and we don't have answers to a lot of the concerns because we haven't done this before. It's a new and untested funding program, and we want to see. Is it a viable option? And we believe that we can start seeing that within the next month or two. And to what extent will it be scalable for next year? Because when we initially started planning this, we did not think that this was going to have to be a response to

208losing staff. But now we're well positioned to do that. And I kind of want to maybe pass it over to you guys to talk a little bit about the work you've done to become participating providers working with school districts in the county. And please take a moment to also introduce yourselves. Of course. Good evening. I'm Erica Bosky. I'm the CEO and Executive Director of Keystone Therapy and Training Services. I'm Veronica Bosky. I'm the Chief Program Officer at Keystone. And yes, for sisters, if you were just to check. Not twins, but sisters. Okay, great. Great. We need to get our own mic. Wow. So we wanted to say first, we will consistently welcome all of the questions because what we are doing is unprecedented. So our organization's partnership in schools started predominantly during shelter in place

209and with the use of COVID dollars to assist in mental health and social services to families. We have a Medi-Cal contract and because of that we were positioned now, it's weird to say about three years ago, to begin the process with DHCS and HCI around what would it look like to have the fee schedule be utilized to fund. health services for students. And we are in a position to be able to be a contracted partner within the fee schedule. And that means that our services will be paid for through the fee schedule for insured youth. And so it's interesting for us now we're learning this process of what does it mean to partner with schools to collect health insurance, to have appropriate consents, and then to figure out which providers can provide what service. So

210right now we are with 23 different schools across the county, and quite a few of them are participating in the countywide option to begin implementing the fee schedule. We are currently positioned in this stage of submitting claims to... Carol on is the insurance provider pair and seeing how it works to have our staff placed in school districts to build the fee schedule and learn, to be honest, the ropes of what this looks like with hopes of partnering with districts to think about what it looks like for you all to use the fee schedule and to think about other organizations that also we keep calling it. to enter kind of like the insurance party of what it's going to look like to be able to bill the fee schedule for services versus grants or school-based contracts.

211So that's in a nutshell where we're at in terms of piloting. We also just want to keep voicing that this is like an and partnership. I mean, you know, you mentioned Maria Creos Wellness Center. We partner with them a lot. We know the wellness center staff. We know all of them. And if we get to a place where we get to continue having partnerships like that with school-based staff, we welcome that. And we want to be a part of that team and be able to bring in potentially other organizations that can offer services. And just to confirm, you said the contract goes through the end of the year, but it's also essentially a month-to-month, which is a 30-day either-party termination clause. So if something's not working out, this is truly a pilot. A hundred percent.

212And to be honest, I hope that we can come back and, you know, be able to say, hey, this is what we've done so far. This is what we've learned. And to the similar conversation you were having earlier, thinking about the teams that we will be working with next year, because the landscape at every campus is going to look different. I like to focus on the hope, but also recognizing how unknown everything is in this. So that's excellent. Thank you. And thank you for. Putting this business together sounds very innovative. We're trying. Trustee Jenkins and then Trustee Medina. Thank you guys for being here. I actually don't have a question question. I don't think it's more of a comment. I'm familiar with Keystone. I work for the county. I worked in YFS for a long

213time, and I'm on the adult side now. And so I am very. aware of how much you guys do, which is amazing. So thank you for being in our community. Thank you for providing services to all sorts of groups and providing groups too. Don't you guys provide groups? That is a hard one to find. So thank you very much. I'm glad that this connection is being made and this collaboration is being made. The only concerns that I have are just from my experience in the mental health world with capacity. And I feel like that's something that we're just going to figure out as we go, because that's how mental health works oftentimes. And so I'm really excited about the collaboration and I hope that it is very productive. And thank you so much for doing

214this. You're welcome. Trustee Medina. Thank you. A couple questions. First off, in terms of, I don't know how big your capacity is, but in terms of the diversity of your providers, do you have Spanish language or other languages that are provided? Yes. So we have Spanish speaking providers. We just have an array of different backgrounds and cultures and languages that are offered by our staff. And in terms of how this will all work, I think I see some of there will be collaboration in terms of getting the insurance information right. I don't know if that's coming from emergency cards or whatever. I do see the HIPAA highlighted here in terms of maintaining confidentiality and privacy. But what happens with. uninsured students? Do they go to you all and then you guys determine whether they have

215insurance or do you help navigate them through the county to obtain that? I imagine you would deny them service initially until they got that or how's that going to be managed? We're statutorily required to serve students regardless of their insurance status. So we will continue to do that. When we look at who that actually is, it's a small percentage of our population. And who that is that, who's the small percentage? The uninsured students. And what we have discovered, a portion of our population that thinks they have Medi-Cal but have come off the rolls. This program will put that front and center, and it should be front and center. to provide a student a bunch of psychotherapeutic services before we said, oh, wait, you don't have insurance, but you think you do. You think you have

216Medi-Cal, but you do not. We want to make sure that we are getting them registered and getting them signed up with a health program so that they're not walking around with that uninsurance liability. And we're trying right now when we have an uninsured student or they don't consent for care or their parents aren't consenting to share information for billing, our staff are going to be seeing those. And we will have to, before next year, figure out which staff that we will have that can do that or figure out provisions within the contracts that we'll bring for next year on how to make sure that we can meet that statutory obligation. So tied to these two things, I just see private insurance referenced. Do you guys have relationships or agreements with many of the local providers

217or are there providers, insurance providers locally that don't work well with your services? So the way it works is we technically have contracts with eight insurance companies. Some of them are private, Anthem, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, all those lovely people. Kaiser is unique. It has Medi-Cal and it's private. And then we have Medi-Cal and we also technically have Medicare. So with Kaiser, is it only the Medi-Cal Kaiser or private? But so for the fee schedule, though, just to be clear, the way it works is it won't matter who the student's payer is. So that's the beauty of the fee schedule and why we're in like very new territory is that the fee schedule says across the state, it doesn't matter who the insurance payer is. Kiddos have access to the stuff through school-based referrals. So

218one of the new pieces that we're figuring out is that if we have one portal system that we're basically using, which is called Carillon, we send the claim to Carillon. Carillon sorts out who the payer is. We don't have to do that. Caroline sorts it out. And then we are reimbursed for the service. So that's unique. That's very new. And so that'll be interesting to figure out how it goes because we're really doing it like as we speak. So, and the, just really quick, the other point that you just highlighted was that identifying a church will become front and center. And I think from... What I've seen in our district, who is responsible for doing the work that gets that information from our families and from our students, that's a concern for me in terms

219of the capacity of... Who does that work on our campuses? Yeah, we've made really great strides with collecting consent and insurance information through our data validation process. So we have a lot of our students' information that we've been collecting. We also have the ability to collect this information through the electronic health record system that we use. The school-based therapists use that. already have access to all of the insurance information for all of our Medi-Cal students. That information is already synced within our electronic health record that we use now. And so those have allowed us to already bring in roughly $100,000 that we've billed under this program. So given that you had that information, if their coverage lapses, do you get some sort of notification where somebody could follow up? I think we're going a little

220further than just the Keystone contract. And what I actually want to suggest is that we bring back the CYBHI, the whole program, and agendize the staffing on our side as a part of one item. Once we actually have a little bit of the data from this pilot over the next couple months, so that we can have that conversation. with full information. Would that work for you, Trustee Medina? Yeah, you know, as it relates to the Keystone contract, I'm totally supportive of this idea, just looking at some of the details on how it'll work. Yeah, absolutely. Anything else on Keystone, Trustee De La Torre? And then Trustee Pratt? Thank you very much for being here and providing the service to our community. I am curious, though, about working with outside providers, not necessarily the financial responsibility

221aspects, but the consent aspects of how are we properly or are you allowed to properly provide therapy to children that may be in a household where the parent is abusive or the parent is not the child that doesn't have consent? for the child to get the help they need? How are we working around that or working with that appropriately, legally? So the short answer is we follow the minor consent laws. So any minor that is 12 or older can consent to their own care without parental consent. So that's California state law. We follow all of those protocols. Of course, we're doing our best to collaborate with caregivers and family members. We want to do that. When it's not possible, then if you're 12 or older in California, you can consent to your own care. And

222the other piece around that from a... medical insurance side is if you're 12 and older, you can also provide your own insurance information and consent to services for medical services without parental consent. So if you're 12 and older, you're pretty protected. If you're 11 and younger, we have to follow also the other protocols if a child is being denied care that they need for their health and safety. So the laws... there to protect us with that process. And Eric and Stacey would 11 and under be like CPS or other laws we'd follow to protect them? Yes. I want to point out a unique difference between when a school provides the mental health services and an outside provider who's not being paid by the school for that service. They may not be bound by the same

223FERPA regulations that we are, which, and that's a, We're still trying to figure out that in the whole state of California. But that is an important distinction is that some of the limitations that we have on billing for a student, they may actually be able to bill for. Correct. Okay. Trustee Pratt. Hi. Hi. So how are you giving the paperwork to the kids to give to their parents? Are you talking about if they're 11 and younger or just in general? Just in general. You're not going to like my answer. It's just like it depends on the situation. So if they're... I mean, sorry, let me rephrase the question. It's 9 o'clock. Like is this paperwork going to go out at the beginning of the school year or the forms that go out at the beginning

224of the school year on ARIES? Because what's the data of parents actually completing the forms in a timely manner? Because, you know, you brought up the Medi-Cal information that... You have all the data. You don't. I couldn't find my son's medical card, and I just filled it in incomplete. Well, in that particular case, we do have a lot of bad data. I know I'm the problem. It's not you. Don't worry. We have a lot of bad data from that particular way of getting information. I'm talking about... through the state's clearinghouse of Medi-Cal insurance roles. We can search a student by name and date of birth, and if they are Medi-Cal students, we can get their number from, because we're part of the network of care and insurance folks, we have access to it. And I

225look up kids all the time. I'm sorry. I'm still not done. Because when I went to the, well, I went to the wellness center a couple of days ago and they were showing me their paperwork that they have to physically hand to the kids to send home for the parents to sign. And if they don't bring it back, then they can't really provide those services for the kids. No, if you recall, as long as the child is 12 or older, they don't have to get permission from the parent. The child can consent to their own care. And so at the beginning of the year, families are invited to provide their insurance information in the data confirmation process that opens up every July. If we get to a situation where a child... or a child's family

226has consented to care and we discover we don't have their insurance information, we work with that family at that moment to determine, did they forget to put it in? Did they not find their insurance card so they skipped that part? And now we can fill it in. Once we have that child's insurance information in our student information system, it tracks them as long as they are active in our system. And as long as they have that same insurance, which is why every year we ask families to log in and update that information. But we can do that at the point of service if needed, if it isn't already collected. And before we keep going down as we are. on the contract for this particular provider. We're starting to get into the whole process of the

227system, which we do need to talk about. We just need to agendize it. I got more questions regarding the contract. And with the school-based therapist that we're letting go or the psychologist, are you able to hire them so that they can work for you and still work with our students? Ooh, wee. That's a really great question. It's a really great question. I mean... I get one at least every board meeting. I'll ask a really good question. You know, and we can put that in the chat. We've been asked that question multiple times, and it speaks to capacity, right? Like if we have the demand and we can figure it out, we're going to need more. We're always going to need more people. Well, yeah, because just if I was understanding and listening correctly, you said

228you could only take care of 50 to 100 kids without your capacity? Not, I mean, this. Oh, this year? I mean, yeah. I mean, it was, yes. I mean, that's what we stated because that's what we were planning on. Oh, the next two months. Right, yes. Okay. Because we're just talking until May. Okay. But what would you anticipate you could serve the kids for next school year? That will really depend on the staffing levels of the district along with what the referral could potentially be. So we'd have to do some analysis, sorry, to determine what our staffing levels could then do to match the demand. Okay. So is there a way to figure out how many kids on each site are getting mental health services so that they can better determine how much staff they

229need? I think that's a part of the pilot over the next couple of months that they can come back to us with. Yes. Okay. Did you have any other questions, Trustee Brank? Omar can go now. Okay, Trustee Medina. Trustee Medina. Y'all brought up minor consent. Will it be Keystone's responsibility or the district's responsibility to ensure that those students submit their minor consent medical application and who will follow up on that? I don't think I'm not exactly understanding your question. So if a student doesn't have insurance, right, they could apply for minor consent Medi-Cal. But they need to apply for it. So who will help them do that? I think right now the pilot plan is we, because we are going to have to figure out what it looks like, because to be honest, this is

230like, I'm not kidding, this is new. So I think that's something that needs to be figured out. We have had conversations. I've had conversations with Santa Rosa Community Health. because they have health care navigators whose job and expertise is in helping people sign up for the insurance programs that are available to them. And again, that's a new place for schools to get into. We haven't thought about needing people to help us navigate those resources. And if you didn't know, I used to be an eligibility worker for Med-Cal. And so it would be probably a good idea to... connect with the county human services department so i think maybe train our staff to understand what it is and what that whole process is like so they're able to inform students or talk to them about it

231if needed yes your comments motion to approve to approve second Second. Moved by Trustee De La Torre, seconded by Trustee Kirby. Roll call vote, please. Student Board Member Currio. Aye. Trustee De La Torre. Aye. Trustee Kirby. Aye. Trustee Jenkins. Aye. Trustee Medina. Aye. Trustee Pratt. Aye. President Kasten. Aye. Ms. Pat. That motion passes unanimously. We're now going to move to item H. This is a first reading of our future board policies. We use this space to take public comment and notice that we'll be taking action in the future. We do have two public comments on this, so we'll go ahead and go to public comment on the board policy first reading calendar. Thank you, President Kasten. Our first speaker is Emma Thompson, followed by Jen Velasquez. Hello, I'd like to take a moment and ask

232the board and the cabinet to really take some time and think about the creation of the Santa Rosa City Schools SELPA. With everything else that we have going on, we cannot take this on right now. Families, teachers, and staff at all levels have reported that they do not want this and they don't want it right now. Because of the speed the district is moving in this decision, we will need to contract back out to SCO and the SELPA that we are currently in for services that we will not be able to provide for the coming year. These contracts will not only wipe out the proposed savings that we will have for next year, but could actually push us further back financially. Please create the time to create a multi-year plan to make this sustainable investment.

233We're not saying we don't need it, but what we are asking for is to not do it right now. We don't have the time or the energy to focus on this. What we need to do is focus on the investments and the impacts that are going to affect our students now. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker is Jen Velasquez. Are you here? I don't see Ms. Velasquez here still. And there are no other blue cards. All right. I do want to note the board policy change that's on first reading is a CSPA consistency update that is actually necessary for either SELPA. And the recommendations from the... advisory committee and staff are actually due for our next board meeting. So if we have any comments, it would be specifically on the board policy change, not

234on the future agenda item for next meeting. So Trustee Medina. Yeah, so just to clarify, to make sure that I understand this correctly, this is just update based on CSBA recommendations still under the multi-district self-help plan, right? That's correct. The CSBA policy, there used to be one SELPA option. Now there are three depending on the kind of SELPA, which is either a single district SELPA, multi-district SELPA, or multi-district with county SELPA. The current Sonoma County SELPA is a multi-district SELPA. potential or proposed center of the city self there would also be a multi-district cell bus so the policy should be updated regardless of any decision which would be made on march 25th any other questions on the first reading this is not an action item all right with that again the reason we institute the

235first reading calendar was specifically to be able to get input before we're acting so um this is the notice that in two weeks at the next board meeting will be on a second reading And with that, we're going to move to the I-1 calendar. We'll take public comment on the finance calendar. I do not have any other blue cards for this calendar. Thank you. Then we're going to move to I-1C, which will be approval of the 2025-2026 second interim fiscal report with a positive certification. Lucent Joel? Yes, Superintendent August? While they're getting set up, I just want to express my extreme gratitude for the team and their tireless work on this or very tired work on this. I can't tell you the hours put in on this and the great effort over a long period

236of time and especially the detail going into the attached information. So thank you. We're going to get the slide deck up there. While that happens, good evening, everyone. We are happy to be able to report on second interim. It's hard to choose unhappy where to land on, but that is ultimately where I'm going to go. A lot of hard recommendations. a lot of hard decisions. And now we are in that place of implementing those decisions. And that's hard step number three, implementing the recommendations and board decisions with fidelity and discipline. And this is a step where you get to see the financial impact of those decisions that were made. You can go to the next slide. So we are now at second interim. And so this is the space and time where we will present

237to you. Our revised budget as we know it today, we did incorporate all of the fiscal solvency plan, fiscal stabilization plan solutions in the MYP. And we're also reporting on actuals through the end of January. So that's included in the report. And we have made some adjustments to the current budget to reflect some of those actuals. And we'll walk through those when we get there. There are multiple options that we have as we consider how to self-certify for ourselves. As a reminder, at first interim, we were self-certified as negative. We are now self-certifying as positive. That definition of meeting our financial obligations for the current fiscal year and subsequent two years is a notable one. It essentially means we can pay our bills. in the current year and the next two. And we can meet

238our REU, our Reserve for Economic Certainties, for the current year and the next two. You will note, we don't actually meet our REU, our 3% requirement in the current year. Yet my recommendation is we do self-certify as positive. That is, essentially, we've got... Five of six indicators showing us moving in exactly the direction that we need to move. The place where we fall short is one indicator in the current year, which I will show you the work that was done and the change in that fund balance of what was done this year. So with a positive cell certification and any other certification, the focus really is on the out years. Have you solved your structural deficit? Yes, we did. Are you solid on cash now? Yes, we are. Do we have the fund balance we

239need to maintain our REU in the next year and the year after? Yes, we do. And as you'll see, it is growing. So we are exactly where we need to be to ensure that families understand. We saw the problem, we understood the urgency, and we made the solutions that we had to make. We've solved the problem. So I am very comfortable and confident in self-certifying as positive. If we can go to the next slide, I just want to walk through some of the changes from the first interim to the second interim. You'll note that our LCFF sources have improved. That is especially important to us because it is our primary source of revenue. That's the one we rely on the most. And that improvement that you see there is a result of an increase in

240our, the state refers to them as the UPP, the unduplicated pupil count or unduplicated pupil percentage. I don't like that term. It removes the humanity from the students. And I think of this population as our special scholars. So we receive special dollars for special scholars. And those special scholars are the ones who historically have been underestimated in our school systems. And so we get extra dollars for those special scholars. And that percentage has increased. And we see the benefit there of that. We also received some new state dollars. That's that increase you see of $825,000. About $550,000 of that was for a new grant for literacy coaches and reading specialists. Revenues were received in this year, so we got the benefit of that. And the spending is expected to happen in the upcoming fiscal year.

241And so we appreciate having those dollars available for those purposes. On the expenditure side, as a reminder, we did have some expenditure adjustments that were part of the fiscal stabilization plan that are impacting the current year. About a $740,000 reduction in that services and operating expenses that always has everybody's attention, right? So there was an adjustment there. You see the total is $929,000. Also includes an adjustment to our insurance costs. Other places where you can see the impact of the fiscal stabilization plan solutions over on that line that reads, I don't have my clicker. If you can do it on there. Yes, thank you. The transfers in. You can see it's a pretty notable increase from first interim. We go from 1.1 to 6.5. That is primarily the increase, the transfer in from Fund 40

242for the redevelopment dollars, the redevelopment agency dollars, RDA. So that's at 5.4 coming in. You see some restatements there that reflects us making use of some of our restricted fund balances, particularly ELOP. We're taking advantage of those dollars to be able to... charge in the past expenditures that we charge to unrestricted and instead transfer that expenditure over to the restricted side. This is an accounting technique that we use along with our, we work with our auditors on this. I can't go back in time because books are closed. So instead of reopening books, which really isn't an option, we do restatements. And so that's what's reflected there is making use of maximizing the use of our restricted resources. I want to highlight just a couple of what I think of as gold stars. So if we

243look at the salaries and benefits, the difference between first interim and second interim, that's a pretty minor increase. It's pretty small. And this is an area where in most school districts that I work with, this is a place where I have to push staff to ensure that at every reporting period, we are updating our projections for salaries and benefits. Here. Haven't had to push anything. It's standard operating procedure here. This is a critical component of success for a school system because that's where most of our money goes. Most of our money goes to salaries, what goes to people's salaries and benefits. And this has been a standard practice in the school district. And so it's a pleasure to see how well that works for us. Another place, just that gold star that I really want

244to highlight for us is if you look on the components of the ending fund balance, those last two lines, you'll see our restricted ending fund balance is decreasing. That's planned. We were taking those restricted dollars, right, and that goal that we had was to maximize the use of our restricted dollars and our restricted balances. We did it. That's a reduction of $6.9 million. And then the other one, that we were at first interim, right, that was December. We were at minus $14.5 million in our ending fund balance. We are now in the black at almost 2.7, right? That is $17 million swing in the right direction in the span of months. That's tremendous work. I have started mentioning to a couple of colleagues that I think Santa Rosa City Schools should be a case study

245of this is what it looks like when we do the work and we do it with urgency. And then I remembered, I know people who do case studies. And so I will start calling folks and letting them know, I think we need to be a case study to show this is what it looks like when a district is willing to solve the problem and solve it timely. You can go to the next slide. Just as a reminder for us, right, this is something we know, but it's good to be reminded of it. When it comes to spending dollars, we spend dollars based on enrollment. When it comes to generating revenue, we generate based on attendance. Attendance matters. Because we generate revenue that way and attendance matters because that's where the teaching and learning happens, right?

246We make a lot of investments in our schools and who we staff there and ensuring that students come to school is critical to the success of any school system. The general fund revenues you can see here, we rely so tremendously on the state. You've heard me say, how much do we rely on the state? We rely on the state so much. When the state has a good year, we have a good year. They have a bad year, we have a bad year. When they have a cash problem, they solve it by making it our problem, and they've done that. We've got a cash deferral that's planned for in June. So you know we do actually plan to apply for a waiver to that deferral. because our cash position has improved so much with the solutions

247that the board has approved since first interim, we were planning on applying for it. I'm not sure we'll be approved for it, but we'll still go ahead and apply for that deferral just in case they approve it for us. On the expenditure side, again, we spend most of our dollars on people. This is often considered a criticism of us, and I don't believe in that one. There's many things we don't do well and we could do better, but it takes people to educate students, and so that makes perfect sense that this is where we spend our dollars. The non-personnel side of our spending always gets a lot of love and attention. And so I'll just remind us that of those dollars that we're spending on the non-personnel side, almost $62 million gets spent on the

248$5,000s. And that's usually the one that people are noting and worrying about, thinking that maybe we're doing something there that we shouldn't be doing or could be doing differently. About 58% of that is on special ed alone. So that's non-public agency costs, non-public schools costs, transportation costs. So that's roughly $36 million of that $62 million, right? That's 58% of it. There's about another $23 million that I describe as unavoidable. What does unavoidable mean? It means utilities. It means insurance. It means more transportation. It means summer school, after-school programs. And at this point, I'm down to, I shared with you, I was doing this work and I'm now down to about $3.4 million that I would describe as discretionary. Some of that is at the school sites. And so I share that because it wouldn't be

249as easy as we've got $3.4 million that's discretionary. Let's cut that. Some of it is at the school sites. And so if we were to decide to cut that, it would mean... the school sites would still get the dollars and they'd spend it somewhere else. So it wouldn't automatically generate savings. So that's still some of the work that I'm finishing up there. We can go to the next slide. Our contributions, right? So we have two notable contributions. One is to special education, and the second one is to the program we call RRMA. That's the Routine Restricted Maintenance Account. Special education is the notable one, $65.9 million, and about... 63% of those dollars that we spend on special education come from the contribution. So that means we take unrestricted dollars and then transfer them over to

250the restricted program we call special education to be able to fund the expenses we have there. Next, we've got three slides. We have three slides that are building out for you the assumptions that we used to develop our multi-year projections. So here you can see the enrollment and average daily attendance, the ADA-related assumptions that we've used in the multi-year. On the next slide are all of our revenue assumptions. The one I'll note just so everyone can see is the federal. We do tend to assume 0% increase year over year. We don't always get 0%, but it's a safer bet that way. We all know that the statutory COLA for LCFF was decreased as of the governor's proposed budget. That's reflected here, and so we've adjusted the MYP assumptions to reflect that. What are these numbers?

251Are these just literally thousands per student? I'm sorry, one more time. These numbers, like the base grant, 10,000, 25, is that per student? I'm sorry, was the question, what was the financial impact of the change in COLA? On the MYP assumptions, for example, base grant, TK to three. It's currently about the base transfer on $10,000. It's different in the values for... But is it per student? Oh, yeah. So, well, no. Okay, good question. Now I got it. So it's per average daily attendance. So one student, if he shows up every day for school for the P2 attendance period, we get that full amount. If they show up 95% of the time, we get 95% of that amount. So this is... Yeah, based on... That answers my question. Yeah, we're good. Okay. Thank you for that.

252Anything else there? No. Next one over on the expenditure side. Step and column is built into every single, into the every year of the multi-year projections. And we also assume an inflationary increase that's similar to that concept of step and column. Step and column applies to salaries. But we also have a similar increase that happens on the natural for supplies, books, contracts, right? We expect rates to go up year over year. And so we also make that assumption there. And then special education is one that's worth highlighting. And so we've included it here as an assumption just so that we're aware of it. As this is one where in other school districts who've gotten themselves into periods of fiscal distress, it was not budgeting properly for the increase in the contribution to special education that

253caught them off guard. And so we don't want to get caught off guard. And so we put it front and center. So we're all talking about it and keeping it in mind. Can I ask a quick question on the slide? I'm just curious, do we... account for the planned health care increase percentage in here somewhere? Yes. Thank you. I'm going to make note of that one and make sure I add that one for the next one. So, yes, health and welfare increases are reflected in there. Both the... Two ways. So one way is there's an increase year over year, right? We're almost in this place now where we're seeing those double-digit increases in plans. And there's a negotiated increase on the percent that the district was going to cover of that increase. Is it fair

254just to make a quick note on the special education contribution, growth in contribution, just it kind of does reflect a little bit of the current self-funding model update impact? So when we put all these assumptions together, we end up with our multi-year projection. And here we can see what the impact is on the figures. You can go to the next slide. So one adjustment we've made in the way we present the MYP is we've added the prior year. So we have one year of reality is the way I think of it. So 24-25, the year is closed. It's actuals all presented there. The other years that are presented are as projections. And so we can see the impact of the COLA as well as the impact of the decline in enrollment. as well as the

255impact of that increase in our underserved or underestimated student populations. And so with all of those factors, we see an increase in our LCFF sources, which again, that's something we pay close attention to because it's our primary source of funding. You'll see that the remaining revenues, those are the other state, the federal, the local, does decrease from the current year to the next. That's because we ensure that whatever one-time dollars we received, we don't plan on receiving them again. So this year we've received over $4 million of one-time from the state. We know that's not coming back, and so that's reflected there. We also know in the NYP, as Joel was noting, the... This still reflects the impact of the SELPA change, that funding formula. So it does not yet reflect what is the world

256going to look like once we have our own SELPA, right? Once we do that, we're expecting some level of savings, but we're not reflecting that yet. So we're not going to count on that until it's real. It still feels too speculative to me. And so it's not reflected in here. With the services and operating expenses, In my brain, that should be going down significantly and not up if we're closing campuses and cutting services. So it's a great question. I would just remind us for the most part, those services are provided by employees. not actual contracts. And so we might expect some decrease in utilities and adjustment in our insurance, things like that. But those are going to be minor in comparison to the dollars that we spend on people who are staffed at the school

257sites. And that's really where we see the changes, right? And it's reflected from last year and the decisions that were made in the prior year. If we look at salaries and benefits from 24-25. And then projected onwards, right, we see a significant decrease from last year to this year, and then again from this year to next year. Why does it go up, though? Because we can count on with absolute certainty, we will have increases in the rates for our utilities. We're going to have an increase in the rates for insurance. We're going to have an increase in the rates for non-public agencies and non-public schools. So that's why we apply the consumer price index. It's an inflator that we know is going to happen, and so we ensure that we apply it there. And we

258use 3% for that CPI? to just debate. The CPI varies by year if you go back? I mean, in your calculations here, what do you use? Yeah, that's what I go for. There we go. So the inflationary increase CPI, so it was 2.86 last year. That was real. 3.37 this year. That's real. And then we're projecting it at 308 and 275 for the next two years. Those are not numbers that we come up with ourselves. Those are all provided. They're provided through what we call the DART board, but they are all agreed upon. That's a very specific inflator that we use, CPI. I was just going to say, so when I do the math from this year to next year, the increase is only 1.14%, which in essence would mean it's a decrease if you

259account for the COLA. That's right. Yeah. That might be similar math you're doing in some of the other areas, right? So you might be looking for, if we go to... Salaries and benefits, right? So we know we eliminated, we made about $16 million worth of ongoing solutions. Most of that was in people. So you might be looking for $16 million worth of savings there. It's the minus 16 plus step and column plus the increases in the statutory benefits, right? So it's the net adjustment for all of those pieces that get reflected there. Thank you. Let's see. So there were a couple of other things I wanted to note here. Salaries and benefits, that gold star. You'll notice if you look at books and supplies, we have a bit of an increase happening in the current

260year, and then we go back down over the next two. So those are specifically for a couple of grants. So one is the, I've forgotten what KIT stands for. Kitchen infrastructure and training? Training, yeah. So those are dollars that are expiring. We have to have them encumbered by the end of this fiscal year. And so we plan on doing that and then spending them in the following year. And so you see that increase go up there. And then we've had an adjustment to Prop 28. Do you want to tell them a little bit about the Prop 28 change that's happening? So working with Lisa Haley and the school sites, a component of the Prop 28 program is mandatory spending 80% of the proceeds towards personnel costs and 20% towards supplies or other areas. And we

261have built these programs with our schools. It was a program that I think came out in 23, 24. 24, 25. But we have a balance left over that's rolled over, and we have an allowable time to spend it by. And Elisa worked with the CDE on a waiver for that 80% so we could use those proceeds to purchase supplies. And some of that has been budgeted in this capital outlay column as well. And actually, before you continue, can I get a motion to extend the meeting? Move to extend the meeting to as late as 11. 11. Second. Moved by Trustee Medina, seconded by Trustee De La Torre. Any objections? Seeing no objections, it passes unanimously. Please continue. Thank you. A couple of other notes, highlights here. So the transfers in and out, that reflects the,

262that $6.4 million is that $5.4 million coming in. And then in the next two years, that $900,000, again, being transferred in from Fund 40 for the RDA dollars. And then gold stars. So I want to show you just the line that reads other adjustments. That is typically the line school districts use to plug in an amount of reductions that is needed but unknown. So school districts will plug in, for example, $36 million in there because they are otherwise in the hole. But when you ask the question, what are you going to cut that totals $36 million? There isn't a ready answer yet because they haven't figured it out. So there is no staff recommendation that gets to $36 million, much less board action approving the $36 million. So gold star there. We do not need

263any other adjustments to be able to meet our financial obligations in those out years. Next gold star. The current year increase, decrease in fund balance, that's the line we go looking to determine, do we have a structural deficit? It doesn't always answer the question at the first round. We might have to do some nuance and some follow-up questions. But what this shows us here is we have eliminated our structural deficit for the organization in the out years. We will have more revenues than expenditures in the out years. That is the result of the hard recommendations, the hard decisions, and the implementation we're now working our way through. Go to the next slide for me, Joel. So here we see what we call the components of the ending fund balance. We can see that our ending

264fund balance is increasing from 11 to 13 to 14. And our restricted ending balance is decreasing. All right, so that's the good work we wanted to do. We will meet our reserve for economic uncertainty next year and the year after and have dollars left over. I want to go back to the question I received earlier on school closures, on Steel Lane specifically. I was finding myself feeling very dissatisfied with myself that I answered the question by removing the humanity in the questions and just focusing on the number. So to relieve myself of the frustration I felt with myself, I'm going to note that there is... Having to make a decision about a school closure is the hardest thing that a school district has to do. What matters the most in that is how we do

265it. What the research shows very clearly is that for students who are coming out of a school closed, they're better off if one. They go to a school that is academically better than the one that they're leaving. And two, they have a welcoming environment in that new school, and that is primarily the classroom teacher. That's number one. Number two is the office staff who receive them. All right, now, I've worked with school districts who are in fiscal distress and have had to close schools, and it is all about the how, how you implement it. Do you sometimes have to make this hard decision? Yes. But there is so much to be said for how we do it, and I think there's an opportunity to ask ourselves hard questions to ensure that we are doing it

266in the way that we know research shows students are better off. Thank you. Cash flow. I noted that we are better off with cash. And the way we show cash flow for the current year and the next year doesn't include any solution. So you'll see here balances that go down to minus $40 million, minus $50 million. We never actually reach those minuses because we have a line of credit with the county treasurer and we borrow from them. And so we... If we ever had a minus of this size, it would mean we couldn't meet payroll. That's not what happens. We have a line of credit that well exceeds this, and so we're able to wait until we have our big bumps in the revenue coming in, and those usually happen when folks pay their property

267taxes. We receive the property taxes, and so that's usually when we count on those big bumps on the revenue side on the cash coming in. This is what we do for the... The report is we report on two years, but we've got the current year of cash flow projections as well as the next year of cash flow projections. And you want to go to the next one? So we also end next year with a positive. Here are all of our other funds, right? We give most of our love and attention to the general fund, but we do have multiple other funds. I'm just going to highlight a couple of them. So one, our child development fund, that is where we keep our ELOP dollars, our expanded learning opportunities program dollars. And so that fund balance

268is decreasing accordingly. And then the other one is our special reserve fund for capital outlay projects, fund 40. So that one. has also decreased as we've moved dollars out, you will see we didn't zero out the fund. There's still a million dollars sitting there. And I would expect come third interim, when we report again on our finances, I'm going to guess that might actually go up a little bit. Next slide. We're continuing to monitor the areas that matter, and we will continue to... Pay attention to what's happening at the state level and the budgets there. We'll see you again in May. I think in May was when we'll see you for third interim. So not far away, but the focus for the next few months is going to be the implementation of those budget solutions

269and the development of next year's budget. And with that, I will pause for any questions. Trustee Mendema? Thank you. First off. If this is all right, great job. Second off, one of the things from VicMAT was about our percentage spent on teachers not being at 55%. Do you anticipate our changes will be okay on that? That is a great question. I have not looked at that. I'll put that one on our list of things to look to see whether this is going to change that for us. I think we said before, we're in great company on not meeting that requirement. And that's in part because so much of the new dollars that have come in have been spent on... love and attention for a student that's outside of the classroom. And so that is where

270many of our reductions did occur. And so it is possible we'll be back to meeting that requirement. And I don't know where this might fall in with this, but you brought up the... the whole issue with the treasure and how we borrow money for them. That was another issue highlighted from FICMAT. Are we on track or is there some sort of plan being developed so that we get away from that? So nothing yet. It's on my radar. I'm thinking about that one. It is. I don't know that the answer is going to be we move away from it. I think the answer might be we have to revise the way we approach it ourselves so that we essentially follow the rules that the county treasurer has in establishing their line of credit. So we're probably

271not going to ask them to change their rules. We'll change the rules for ourselves and just hold ourselves to a different standard as we think about the cash needs that we have. Yeah, and that's what I meant for us. So we're not in that situation. It was a similar question, but within these presentations going forward, because we have a board policy to eventually reach a 10% reserve, I think it would be good for us to show the progress towards that as well as the 3%. And, I mean, a part of the reason that we set that is this question of borrowing from the county. 3% is less than two weeks of payroll. And so a 10% reserve would put us in a place where we're a month and a half out, which is still incredibly

272lean in my opinion. The state not allowing us to go above that is... because 17%, I think, is what I've read is kind of the right place to be, kind of that three-month reserve. But seeing where we're at with in regards to our board policies of that health within these reports, I think would be good context going forward. That's helpful. I'll make note of that one. That 17% is the GFOA. The government finance officers association's recommendation. The push and pull always on it is we've got kids who have generated the dollars. And so when we think about what dollars do we want to put into that reserve, we can be thoughtful about which ones come in from the state on a one-time basis that then we choose to insert in as opposed to just not

273having a plan for spending money and then having it available at the end of the year. We want to do things with intention. Otherwise, it's good to see the outcome as projected here. I don't want to celebrate it because there's a lot that's happened that we shouldn't be celebrating to get here. And I think there's going to be great need in our community over the next two years because of that. And I see... Being able to move to a positive certification and pushing for that, both you pushing for that and us up here pushing for it, being what will put us in a place of actually having confidence and strength and an ability to fulfill our commitment each year to the students showing up so they know that what is here is actually sustainable. So

274thank you. Thank you. Other trustees? Trustee Medina? One spot that I was left a little confused and maybe I misunderstood. I think you said under the service and operating expenses, one of the things that you said was a lot of that is people. do those services and stuff. Was that correct? It was. The question was, why are the services going up when we've done so much to reduce at the school sites? And it's my answer was that because we spend most of this, most of the services at the school sites are in the people we hire. So they show up in the salaries and benefits, not necessarily in the in the five thousand. So five thousand is going to be utilities, transportation, things like that. Okay, so I think that clarifies it for me. And

275I did have another one, but I forgot. Well, last clarification on that. There could still be reductions in the 5,000s because of the process you're going through. So when third interim comes, we may see. Yes, you might see them there at third interim. Probably, I think by the time we get to third interim in the current year, it's going to be folks didn't spend it. We will have closed, I think we would have closed POs by then, by mid-April, I'm guessing, is when we stop the encumbrance process. The budget process for next year. For next year, and the NYP is where we'll see. So there's, and yeah. I remember by the question, by the question was related to. charters and how we build charters. I think there was something about that in the past, how

276we adjusted processes to benefit. That's exactly right. So we've adjusted the way or the timing for charging charter schools for the things we're allowed to charge charter schools for. In the past, our practice was to wait until we were going through closing. And so we would charge them usually in the month of July, August, is when we would calculate, here's what they owe us. Now we're going to charge them and we'll, We'll see the benefit of in July. Now we're taking the opportunity to do that during first interim. We've done it again for second interim. And so we're doing it more on a quarterly basis. So we see the benefit of those dollars during the fiscal year. And how we're charging the charters, is it still the 15% estimate or is it against actuals? Yeah,

277we continue to charge as we develop our new process. It's not processed, but a new document going moving forward that we did show at one point, and we'll pick that back up and get that approved. So yes, still 15%? Yes, still 15%. Yeah, we're still developing that procedure. Trustee Jenkins? I want to preface this by saying I'm not minimizing the work you've done because it is huge. And this is the start, right? Now it's up to our community. It's up to our staff. It's up to whoever fills your shoes next. And we can't do this without the relationships. Relationships are talked about a lot earlier. And with so many cuts, typically with a lot of cuts comes a lot of change, obviously. But then there tends to be a higher need in the scarcity mindset.

278And so. I guess this is a question for Lisa and the board and, like, the community. Like, what can we do so that we're not back in this place? How do we strengthen the relationships instead of damaging them? And what's our backup plan if we cut too deep or if, like, there are certain things that we... You know, disasters happen regularly to this area. And like how, what's, what if this doesn't work? I think the way that we continue to make sure that this is how we move forward is by doing exactly the things that we have been doing, which is changing our mindset about how we approach problems. about future planning, the strategic conversations that this board is continuing to operate and have in having the open dialogue about where are we, where do

279we want to be, what does that look like, holding us accountable and holding yourselves accountable to making sure that the implementation planning happens and that we revisit that regularly on those check-ins to see where we are. in, in that throughout the process. So it's us being accountable to the board and to the community as well as to our partners. So when we think about, you know, we've had this conversation a couple of times in, in concept and theory, and now we need to be bringing back what it looks like when we say, before we talk about bringing something back, we need to say, what is our process around that and have that set up first. So. Who's involved in deciding to make a recommendation to come back to the board with something to change, to

280reimplement? And should it come back in the form that it was? Or should it really be looked at as what is going to best serve our ultimate goal in supporting students in having a fiscally healthy district to be able to do that? So continuing to do things. in a forward manner with clarity and transparency as much as we can. I mean, there are, and we continue, we'll improve it as we have been doing. And I think that's such an important conversation to have at every meeting as a reminder. And we have to be better at our relationships with our line staff, with the people who are caring directly for our children. We have to heal those relationships. We're not doing a very good job right now, which makes sense because of all the cuts, but

281we have to continue trying and to get to a place where we're not going to be faced with, oh, well, we need this, this, this, this, and this. You can't have it because we don't have the money. Like, we have to have the relationship so that that understanding can get there. Trustee Kirby and then Medina? I just want to take a minute also to just thank you for all of your hard work, you and your team for all your hard work. Appreciate you more being now on this finance subcommittee and getting to see you even more behind the scenes. I really acknowledge and know all the hard work that you're doing. I know a lot of people don't see it because you're only up here. every so often so um a couple things regarding the

28255 i know that was brought up um i'd also like yeah i'd like to see not only where we stand but compared to the state i know just cursory stuff i've looked at you know over 60 percent of the elementary districts statewide don't meet that threshold so i'd like to know where in the state uh you know what how we fit into that and none of that but in the county also like where the the other districts in our county uh sit with regards to that that'd be good information to know um all right the positive certification assuming we accept that i hope we do uh and that goes to sco uh for for their blessing on right um is there any chance that they would disagree with our findings or may challenge our findings?

283It's a great question. I would expect that when they see, well, they've known for quite some time that this was our plan, and I've never received a phone call asking a question or questioning it. In fact, in my initial conversation with the CBO at the county, she was supportive of us doing this with the understanding that if the board does the hard work, right, so if we actually get to that place, and we have, we've gotten to that place. I'd like to quote Mike Fine on this one. So Mike Fine, the CEO of FCMAT, describes this part of the county's work as art and science. They're both components in there, right? And so the science of it is looking at the technical pieces. Do we have the cash? Can we pay our bills? Can we

284pay staff? I'm looking at, do we meet the REU, right? Those are good. That's the technical piece of it. The art of it becomes a part that is oftentimes for school districts can be challenging because the example I give is you can have two school districts with exactly the same MYP, the exact same multi-year projection. And if you have one that's qualified and the county believes that staff is going to do the work and the board is going to do the work, they might agree with that qualified status. If on the other hand, they've got that exact same MYP, so same numbers, but they don't believe staff is going to be able to do the work, maybe there's too many vacancies in critical positions, and they don't believe the board is going to do the

285work because it's a brand new board and they don't know, you know, it's going to, the onboarding is going to be. not long enough for them to do the hard decisions that they have to do. They can decide that one of them can stay qualified and the other one can get downgraded to negative, even though, right, the science part of it, the technical part is the same. So I would expect if the county had, it's going to start with just reviewing and asking questions, where I would imagine they're going to put the weight on this is the improvement, the dramatic improvement in our finances in the current year and the fact that the structural deficit has been eliminated in the out years. Cash is solid in the out years, and we more than meet our

286REU, our 3% reserve requirement in the out years. So the idea that they might downgrade would have to mean... they place more weight on that one variable of not making the 3% this year over everything else that's happening in the out years. And that just seems unlikely. I'm going to say unreasonable to place emphasis that way. Okay, well, thanks for that explanation. That was very good. Regarding FCMAT, I still want us to keep... for his recommendation about how we're getting our funds from the county tax office. He was very specific that that was something not quite right there. So I want to keep digging on that and finding out what we can to rectify that. Absolutely. That was two times. So yeah, we will definitely do that. Trustee Medina, and then I'm going to Trustee

287De La Torre, and then Trustee Pratt. Two things. Oh, my gosh. I just blanked out. Go to Trustee De La Torre. I've got to remember it. Trustee De La Torre, then Pratt, then Medina. Thank you. First and foremost, an appreciation. Plenty of sleepless nights and long weeks, and thank you for crunching the numbers and doing the hard work. and heavy lifting to figure this out. None of this is easy. None of this was easy. And nothing moving forward is going to be any easier. The impacts and decisions that have been made truly haven't even been felt yet. They've been noticed. They've been worried about. We're really going to feel them moving forward. I thank my colleagues on this board for having these open discussions and making tough decisions, even when we don't agree, so that

288we can continue to reflect and push forward to try and continue to provide educational opportunities as a district that are very much needed in this city and in this county and remaining the largest district north of the Golden Gate. I do caution. I'd like to, yes, it is board policy for 10%. We should be keeping an eye on how we're going to get there. But I'm in no big rush to get there because I don't want to not spend on students when we've cut so much and not spend on sites and staff when so much cuts have been made. So it's an important goal to have. I just want us to take our time getting there and not assume we have to get there right away with all the chaos that we've just been through

289and are continuing to go through. This isn't over yet. But I really wanted to voice my appreciation. We need to be very mindful when opportunities come across this dais to make decisions on of here's a great opportunity. Here's some special funding that comes with it to introduce it. If we don't have the sustainable funding to move forward with that program, we've really got to think twice about it and make sure it's the right program and the right fit for our site. Does that program, does that opportunity increase enrollment? Does it increase reasons why families want to go here? Has there been proven success? Being pilots is great, but when it comes with that one-time funding or an introductory funding or a grant to just introduce it, how do we remain sustainable? beyond those. So where

290we're building opportunities that we truly believe that we can continue to provide and build on and not be in a similar position a year down the road, two years down the road, where we'd have to cut something that we fell in love with. We have to cut something that the community fell in love with. And most drastically, having to cut things that students have fallen in love with. Thank you. Thank you everybody on this DS. Thank you for the community for working with us and continuing to keep us accountable even when decisions are not going to our hearts as often as we'd like. Trustee Pratt? Trustee Mendeo? Thank you. Okay. I remembered because. I had Taylor Swift's Out of the Woods playing in my head, so I don't think we're out of the woods yet.

291I did want to highlight two things that I think we need to keep in mind because this feels good, but I know there's still more to come. The fact that whatever comes out of negotiations still isn't in here. And I'm really concerned about... how strict we are within our plans to get here, especially as it relates to Course offerings and students, right? I think we're looking at very high student to teacher ratios. And some of the things that I've been hearing is some courses might not be offered at all because there's only 20 students, for example, physics, right? And so then does that eliminate that opportunity for students if we don't meet that 30 to 30 teacher, 30 student to teach? two-month teacher or something ratio, whatever we got planned. Those are some of the

292things that I'm worried about as it relates to equity across our schools and how we're going to deal with that. I'd like to kind of know more as to, I would like us kind of like a... Picture a time of where we are with students registered for classes for next year in our secondary program to kind of understand what are the needs, what might get cut. I know some of that work is probably being done, but to maybe help us as a board understand where there may be some equity issues around that, because that might also impact, you know, how we move forward. Well, at least from my perspective, I wouldn't want. us to really have extreme issues on equity. So those are some things that are maybe not accounted here that I would like

293to make sure we're looking at and addressing. I just want to circle back to the negotiations piece. So there's no misunderstanding. Anything that has been negotiated and agreed to has been incorporated into the MYP. Anything that's new, which is what you were describing, has not been incorporated. We don't make assumptions about where negotiations are going to go or land until they land. Thank you. I tell you every time you're up here, I don't want your job. And so I just want to acknowledge that you do a very difficult job that I don't think anybody wants to do. Wait a second there, Joel. You know, I see these cuts. I know they have to get made. And I just, You know, I think worry about the kids. We've had that conversation earlier today. You know, if

294you want happy kids, you need happy teachers. And if you want happy teachers, they need to feel supported by their administration. And just thinking of what creative ways we can do with not having money that we can best support our teachers so that they can be the best that they can be with our students. And I don't know if there's ways that we can either offer free child care for our staff. You know, because a lot of these, it's shocking to me that teachers have to pay for the school site, on-school site child care for their kids. And, or if there's programs that we can partner with the city about having free child care for kids under five. I know Windsor offers free child care for their teachers. Or if there's... Getting it, making it

295easier for parents to volunteer in classrooms, not saying not to do away with the mandated reporter training or the sexual harassment training, right? Not that, but if it's getting the volunteer center to come out onto the school sites, making it easier for parents to get fingerprinted. No, I don't know. I mean, we need more volunteers on sites if we're reducing the amount of supervision or not supervision, but staff. I just want us to get more creative with the less money that we have to provide the additional support that we need. I want to make sure we capture, especially the child care suggestion you had, because one of the things the state is robustly funding is our ELOP ongoing appropriations. So I think there might be room for those types of things when we get to

296the budget discussions. And that is one of the areas where... The state is giving us funds that can't go towards the 55%, but do come out of our Prop 98 allocations. I don't want to go too far down the road on predicting our discussion about the budget coming up in May and June. Is there anything else on second interim? If not, I'll turn to our Finance Committee Chair Kirby for a motion. Thank you. Motion to approve the second interim report. Is there a second? Second. Moved by Trustee Kirby, seconded by Trustee Pratt. Roll call vote, please. Trustee Kirby. Aye. Trustee Pratt. Aye. Trustee Jenkins. Aye. Trustee De La Torre. Aye. Trustee Medina. Aye. President Kasten. Aye. Thank you both very much. Thank you. And I want to give a special thank you to Joel. He

297and his team, but Joel in particular, is... I feel like he's my right hand, my left hand, my right foot, my left foot. I tell everybody he is worth his weight in gold encrusted in diamonds. Oh, thank you, Joel. All right, we're going to move to item. Let's move to item I1D. Luce, you're on this one as well. Yep. Trying to escape there. This is a consideration of a resolution 2025-26-63 authorizing the expansion of the scope of properties being reviewed by the District 711 Advisory Committee. And I will tee up Director Oden to introduce the item with the awesome nature that we address the scope of what they consider within each property. Thank you, President Kasten, Superintendent August, members of the board. We bring to you for approval Resolution 2526-63, authorizing expansion of the scope

298of properties to be reviewed by the District 711 Advisory Committee. and that would include the properties at steel lane elementary hilliard comstock middle school and slater middle school and to be specific when we say that we would be reviewing it to that we'd be referring it to the committee for review the committee's scope of what they can come back to us for advice on it can include things such as our use of the property for other purposes joint community elements and disposition, if you could just clarify the scope of what they're going to advise us on. Yes, correct. They could advise you on what, it's an advice on what they could be done with their disposition of property lease or other uses of each property. Any questions on this resolution? Trustee Medina? Just as it

299relates to this. I know in the past I've brought up the issue of the furridge fund, but I'm wondering if there should be something parallel being done to discuss the use of that fund and how it might tie to some of this that we should be looking into. Maybe you could come back. Can we bring that back? Sorry. So the furridge funds that we have, that's... Sorry. That's what I was like, what are you saying? Burr. Burr? F-I-R, like the tree. Ridge, R-I-D-G-E-E. Yeah, I think I spelled it right. Yeah, fur-rich funds from the selling of that property that's supposed to be for something around housing, right? So if we're considering stuff, what we do with properties, I think we should also look into how that fund might be spent. That has to be worked

300with with our teachers and stuff and our staff. But those two things might intersect in some way. So I think we need to be. perhaps we could target having an update on the options for those funds to come back at the same time around the same time that we received the recommendations from the 7-11 committee yeah definitely we can't okay then we can think then we can think about it comprehensively but we don't necessarily want their process to all that any other questions on this resolution i ain't seen none is there a motion moved by trustee prac second by trustee jenkins roll call vote please Trustee Pratt. Aye. Trustee Jenkins. Aye. Trustee Kirby. Aye. Trustee De La Torre. Aye. Trustee Medina. Aye. President Kasten. Aye. That motion passes unanimously. We'll now move to item I-2,

301the Human Resources Calendar. Is there public comment on the Human Resources Calendar? There's no public comment. Seeing no public comment, we'll move to 2B, Revised Resolution on Criteria to Determine Skipping Criteria. Dr. Zanz, please introduce this item. Okay, thank you. So what I'm bringing forward is a revision to the skipping criteria that was approved on January 28th. The reason for bringing this forward is based on current enrollment numbers. We are having to move forward with... preliminary layoff notices for math teachers, as well as for biological science and life science and physical science teachers. So this motion is to remove those single subject credentials from the skipping criteria. Question, Trustee Jenkins. Oh, how is this possible? Like math and science. I know we've talked, we talked about this at the skipping criteria conversations before. And while

302I understand it is not about my children, however, I have experience being a parent with teenagers of two and a half years without a math teacher, no chemistry teacher. Like, it is mind-boggling that they would, that this is where we're at. Can you help me understand? Okay, I was going to say, is there a question? So I agree, it's mind-boggling. And unfortunately, where we are in terms of students who are currently enrolled and who have selected courses, we are overstaffed in math. For the science, we are overstaffed in the life sciences and then the physical science credential, which can only be used for middle school. We are keeping chemistry and physics and geosciences on the skipping criteria because that's where our area of need is for science. But at this point, it looks like unless

303there are more resignations or retirements, that we may need to lay off some math teachers. I don't like that answer. Okay. Trustee Jenkins? I have an actual question. The actual question is, when we discussed RIFs last meeting, all year long, We talked about the ceiling of RIFs and that would be, are we still at the same number or is that now expanding if we approve this? So that would not change the number of notices that we are giving out. Also, like sometimes when we... have to lay off teachers. We have to do it by seniority. And there are several teachers, usually with the first day of school for a given year, that will have the same seniority date. So, for example, if we need to lay off three people, one person has a unique seniority

304date, the next person has a unique seniority date, and then we have four people that have the same Next seniority date, we have to issue layoff notices to all four teachers until we do tie-breaking, at which point we'll rank them one through four of who would receive the actual final layoff notice. So there are times when the number of layoff notices for a particular subject area is greater than the number that we indicated on the PKS. That sounds like a contradiction. Because I asked if it was at the ceiling, so are we needing to provide rifts to more? We are not riffing more positions than what was on the PKS. However, more people may have received layoff notices because they're tied in their seniority. How is that different? I'll process. It'll be fine. Okay. We

305can talk. Can you clarify when we're talking about the math credential, what is the situation between a teacher with a supplemental math credential and a teacher with a full single subject math credential? Does this change not prioritize the teacher with the full math credential, the non-supplemental math credential? So our skipping criteria typically does not identify the math credential as a foundational math, a supplemental math, a math by examination, math by major. We say math. Where that comes into play is as... principals are building their master schedule. They need to look at credentials. And if a teacher that is on their site is only able to teach the lower level of math, they would teach math one and they would need to be assigned only math one. And teachers that have a full math credential would

306be assigned the higher level math classes. And, but what happens if we Just walk me through how we make sure we keep both those teachers to be able to fill those classes if we don't have the skipping criteria in here. The skipping criteria that we're taking out did not specify between the different levels of math. So the original skipping criteria from January 28th did not disaggregate. It did not say we're... Only going to skip those with a full math credential versus those with a single subject foundational math credential. Could we be more nuanced tonight? To re-bias the skipping criteria? So, for instance, instead of withdrawing the skipping criteria for math, we could withdraw the skipping criteria or rephrase it to be specific to a full single subject math credential. So somebody with a foundational math

307still has a single subject math credential. And I'm working on the feedback every single year, which is why I'm walking through the logic. I know what you're referring to, yes. So I want to understand the... Yes. No, I know what you're referring to. We could do that. It would change possibly which people got layoff notices. So it wouldn't change the number of layoff notices. It would just change which people. So there are some people who may have already received them that we would have to rescind. And some that have not received layoff notices, that would then receive layoff notices. Part of the problem with that. is without having all of the course requests in, we don't know how many teachers we need that are able to teach the lower level and how many teachers we

308need that are able to teach the higher level. And I guess my question is within these credentials for the skipping criteria, are there credentials that give us more flexibility where the teachers have the training to be more broadly? To be able to answer that and then. Yes. Would there not then be a logic where we would want to keep the teachers who have the broadest ability to teach those classes? I mean, you see the direction, I mean. I do see the direction that you're going. I do see the direction that you're going. It's more nuanced than that because there may be somebody who has, and this is just an example. I'm not, you know, there may be somebody who has a math major and therefore they have a math credential because they majored in math

309or they did math by examination for their CSAT who. would not be the ideal person to teach middle school math. So there's other nuances to it. What would give us more flexibility is definitely the teacher that has the higher level math credential over the teacher that has the foundational or supplemental. Other trustees? I'm interested in continuing that, but I want to make sure we get to other trustees. Yeah, two things. First, is this something that is coming just straight from us, or did we consult with SRTA on this? So one thing that you need to take into consideration is it is March 11th, and notices need to be delivered by March 13th, because March 15th is on a Sunday. So any decision that we're going to make needs to be made tonight in order to

310meet the statutory deadlines. Was that a yes or no to the question? We wouldn't be able to bring it back to the board before March 15th. I think the specific questions... I just wanted to know if we had. Have we talked with SRTA about this resolution? Yes, we have had the same skipping criteria for many, many years. Sorry, between last meeting where we consider this and this meeting, have we had conversations, either yourself or Superintendent August or anyone else, about these changes and the need for them? No, I think we've only discussed the tie-breaking and how to do the tie-breaking. We have not discussed the skipping criteria. I believe there was just a mention from the executive director, or the director of certificated to the president of SRTA just that we needed to revise, bring

311back additional revision to the skipping criteria due to needing to go deeper in the notices. Okay. Ms. DiMedina? The other question that I had was because... I was talking to someone and they were talking about, oh, B-CLADs aren't offered anymore. And so my understanding is that now it's no longer a B-CLAD. It's called bilingual authorization. Should we be updating our language on this? We can update the language on this. Do know that when we look at credentials, we do look at the... bilingual authorization in Spanish. So it's now called a BASP rather than a BCLAD, but we do consider those in the skipping criteria. But it would be a good idea to update that language because the French one as well is BRAF. Yeah, so my concern is just is that like those people wouldn't

312be like if someone didn't get a B-CLAD, but they got bilingual authorization, they're not being ignored here. No, they're being skipped. In practice. Right. In practice, they're being skipped. And yeah, I hope that we can update our language to meet that. And that goes to number seven. It does say bilingual certification. Is that something different than bilingual authorization? So I know that there was some conversation actually that I saw today stating that school psychologists and speech language pathologists don't have the opportunity to get a bilingual certification. However, I do know that there were two psychologists that did attend. a training over the summer. It was a lengthy training over the summer to get their bilingual authorization. Not last summer, I believe it was the summer before. So I know that there are opportunities to get

313a bilingual authorization. I'm just not sure of the mechanics of how that works. And my last question goes back to, I think a couple of meetings ago. When we were talking about the SBTs, I had asked to maybe look at the whole impact on bilingual need versus bilingual site-based therapist. Was that considered at all? Was there any update on that that might tie to this? SBTs are, that's classified, and so it's not skipping criteria. It's unrelated to the sign-up. Thank you. But we did include it in the tie-breaking. So it is included in the tie-breaking for the SVTs. Is that for school counselors as well, like the academic counselors? Because we had two counselors that are bilingual get ripped at Piner. Right. So we did offer an opportunity for the counselors that are bilingual to

314do a written exam. as well as an oral component. And that has happened. And so we now have a list of counselors that did pass the test. And so that will be used for tie-breaking, but not for skipping. Okay. I actually had a question that reminded me of that one question. So... Making sure I'm asking this right. So on EdJoin, there's positions available for example, Spanish teacher, but we're ripping Spanish teachers. So then a school would need to replace, apply for two Spanish teachers. I don't understand how that works. So the best way that I can explain that is that for calculating how many teachers we need, particularly in the electives, because for the core classes, so for example, English, social studies, we can do a calculation. This is our projected enrollment. We know that

315we need this many English teachers for this many students. We know that we need this many math teachers for this many students. But if the course requests are not entered for the electives, then we can only use the number that is in there in order to say, this is how many Spanish teachers we're going to need. Do we anticipate that we will probably need more Spanish teachers? Yes. Do we anticipate that we probably would not have had to have lay off Spanish teachers? Probably not, but because the course requests are not there and because of the statutory deadline of March 15th, we have to go ahead and lay them off. Once all of the course requests are in and we see, oh, we really need this many Spanish teachers, then we can rescind the notices,

316but we can't do it the other way around. Okay. And then just to make sure it's clear, because it's late now, so now I'm really struggling to focus. We're riffing with the ceiling, and I honestly don't know. I think you asked this question, so now I need you to talk to me like I'm five. Okay? So if the numbers that were supposed to be going for the ceiling, and we're riffing far more educators than there are available positions, right? Right? Sort of? The tie-breaking criteria. But what if they're the same criteria? I don't know. So this is the way the tie-breaking, I'll explain tie-breaking really quick. So let's say we have five teachers with the same seniority date. that's number one. That's how they get on the list together. So we only need to, let's

317say, eliminate two, but five of them have the same seniority date. Then we have to give notice to all five of them. Then there is the tie-breaking criteria, which is the different credentials that they have, the number of years in prior districts that they may have taught. There is the For the counselors, the bilingual, there is supplementary credentials. So we do all that. And then let's say that there are still two teachers that are tied. Then we do a lottery. And I'm not going to talk about how we do the lottery. But we do a lottery. And Catherine Howell, the president of SRTA, and I do a lottery to determine the ranking of those teachers that remain tied after we do all of those other things. Okay. Thank you. I understand. And then lastly, so

318like one of the first schools I visited was Burbank. Yes, Burbank. And they started the year. It was rough because they had incorporated more students and there was more students than that were anticipated. And they started off the year with three kindergarten classes and one TK and they only had one teacher. Because it took so long to get hired or for them to receive notice that their risks were, what's the word you used? Rescinded. Rescinded. And then there was only subs for like the first two or three months. How can we prevent that from happening next year? I don't think that we could completely prevent it. We do it based on our projected enrollment. So as long as our projections are as close to accurate as possible. then we are closer. The other things that

319factor in are things such as resignations and retirements. Sometimes we have teachers who, for whatever reason, need to move or they find another job and they put in their resignations a little bit later after the May 15th. So after May 15th, we... that's where we give the final notices. And so if after May 15th, they've been laid off, and even with the March 15th, as soon as somebody gets that layoff notice, they start looking elsewhere. And so they may have found jobs elsewhere. There may have been more teachers that found jobs elsewhere or decided to retire or won the lottery or whatever happened that once school starts, we now have less teachers than we originally anticipated having. when we did the layoffs. Okay, so I'm not trying to sound rude here. No. But with the

320school consolidation and us incorporating more kids in the classrooms and then anticipating those numbers, what I'm hearing is we really can't learn anything new from last year's practices. And I'm not trying to be rude. There has to be a nicer way of saying that, and I'm really sorry I can't think of that. So the way we do it is we have the projections for each of the school sites. We take those projections, we put them into something called a classmaker, and we create classes. And by creating classes, we see how many teachers we need at each elementary school site. But the TK kids don't always, we don't always know that they're coming. People wait until the very last minute, the day of, to enroll. And there's nothing we can do to predict that. And also,

321I mean, TK, K first, because there's no mandatory TK or K. And then all of our feeder districts feeding into seventh. It's all dependent. Our data is as good as the enrollment. And then on top of that, we, on the master calendar side of this, the one structural thing that I see that we could do is force all of our students to pick their next year classes in like December. so that we were able to get that information before our statutory deadline. But I am assuming that I will hear a litany of reasons why that's not feasible necessarily. Exactly. So I think one of the challenges is it's not that we haven't necessarily learned the lessons, it's that the state does not give us the ability to make these decisions in a logical order. Trustee

322De La Torre and then Medina. So we're in a very unfortunate position of having to do massive layoffs second year in a row. Last straw is the lottery that you and Catherine do. And how extensive is that process? And did we have to do a lottery last year? We did have to do a lottery for a few positions last year, but it's something that we just, we sit together and we do it. It's very quick. So, the first thing that we do is we have a shared document where we go through and do the actual tie-breaking using credentials and supplementary and yours in other districts and all of that. And then, so, Catherine and I both see that document. It's transparent. And then from there, we say, okay, we need to get together and we

323need to do a lottery tie-breaker for an elementary school teacher. And then we just do it. We just get together and do it. So it's not super extensive. So what do you do as a lottery? I can tell you what we've done in the past. I just want to avoid last year's incident because it turned into an unfortunate joke, I guess. If Catherine would like to share how we did it. Can we say that it's a process that is determined between... Yeah. There you go. Can you just say it a little louder? If somebody can answer it, that'd be great. Sorry if I should already know what it is. That's something. My only other issue with this, and I know it's been pulled to discuss later, is we got all this projections trying to figure

324out teachers and not teachers. And we have several schools with wait lists. And we've got to wait longer to empty those. I know it's pulled and we're going to talk later, but it just seems really counterproductive to be having these things up against each other. alternating timelines that are appropriate. Yeah. So I can explain a little bit about how we avoid that or how the calculations are done. So for the secondary level, the way that the calculations are done are not by school site. They are, we have this many ninth graders in the district. And so of those ninth graders, we need this many English classes, this many math classes, this many science classes, this many social studies to take into account Korea. And then we do 10th graders. So assuming that the majority of

325the kids that are on those wait lists are moving within the district. that doesn't really affect the projection, the projected number of teachers that we need. What it does affect is where those teachers are going to be, which happens at the beginning of the school year when we have the solid numbers. That is why teachers get involuntarily transferred in those first few weeks of school is based on where the kids are. But what it would affect is if we wait too long on those wait lists and those families choose to go elsewhere, then we lose the student altogether. Not my department. Okay. One as a part of that, also a part of a conversation coming in our next meeting. So trustee Jenkins, I'm sorry, trustee Medina, then Jenkins. Thank you. In terms of the May

32615th deadline, obviously knowing how many. classes will need to provide for each subject. What is the if there's a deadline for counselors to have put together every student's schedule? We request that course requests be put in in January. That doesn't always happen, but the request is that they are put in in January for this reason so that we're able to do the projections. But right now, I think I see a lot of counselors working with students still to make their schedules. Do they have a deadline or what's the cutoff point that you all look at before that May 15th date? What is that date? Well, we will do it based on whoever is enrolled in courses on May 15th. So if they're not done by as we approach that May 15th date, which is actually

327the board meeting before the May 15th because it needs to come to the board. So I would say if I was going to pick a date, I would say by April 30th. in order to account for all of the students so that we're not giving final notices to too many teachers. And has that been communicated to site admin and counselors, or should it be? The site admin know the deadline. Superintendent August? I just, I have, I wouldn't say that that is our drop dead point, and the issue with us even waiting that long is that If it's earlier, we can start rescinding those notices earlier and letting people know that, hey, we have enough. Course, you know requests and signups that we can remove this person's layoff notice That's the big piece around around the

328timing around it is that that's what leaves our our staff hanging for so long that we don't want to do that either to people just you know, it's We want to move through this as quickly as we can and with oh, sorry I was just gonna say in the longer we wait the more the larger the chance that people will find jobs in other districts so that when we go to rescind, the teacher will say, well, I've already found another job. My other thing is kind of addressing what Trustee Pratt was addressing about learning. Are we doing or can we do anything more proactive to ensure people like our enrolling, whether it be... TK or even with our feeder districts to make sure that they're rolling faster? Are we doing anything now and can we

329do anything more? So we are far away from the adjustments to the... resolution before us on the skipping criteria? I have one question on it. So a question on the resolution. So number three, the possession of the special ed credential. I just don't recall, were we riffing special ed folks? And if so, did that argument around math teachers also fall for that issue? We did not issue any layoff notices for any special education teachers. Thank you. Any other questions on the resolution? Trustee Jenkins. Going back to the conversation about math. I don't know if it got wrapped up. So the conversation about having it possibly on there for the higher level math who can then teach all of the levels of math if needed, that makes sense to me so that we have math teachers

330instead of saying no math is getting skipped. I don't know. I'm happy to. to make a motion to approve this with a high level of math in there. Is there a second to that motion? Well, how do you do that? I don't know. Either they have a math credential or not, because everything else then ties to seniority or experience or other stuff. I guess, can you do that somehow? I don't know. What was your question? The higher level math. So there was the conversation about the single subject math, which could only teach the lower but not the higher. But the higher level math, the full math credential, could teach all of it. Vicky, what was the official name of that? So it would be a full. So it would be a teacher that has a

331math credential based on a math major or passing the math CSET. Is there a shorter version of that? You can just say what she said. Yeah, if Margie's behind me, she might have a shorter version. Well, there's also the foundational level math, which is a foundational level math credential. So it's not a supplemental. It's actually foundational level, which allows them to teach up to ninth grade. as opposed to a supplemental, which also lets them teach up to ninth grade. So there is the one credential that does that, that is still not the math to pre-calculus, calculus level. Are there any that can teach the high and the low? What is that called? Does that have a name? Yeah, genius. This is a math credential? What did you say? I feel we're mucking in the waters.

332We go with what's presented and stop trying to change it on the DS tonight, or we don't. I don't understand how much we got. We got 12 minutes to try and figure out if we're not understanding what we're trying to do. So I think we had a response that was a credential based on a math degree, or what was the second part of that? Passage of a math. exam. So a math subject exam. Either the CSET or prior to that was the Praxis. Is that your motion, Trustee Jenkins? That's the higher one? Yes. That is my motion. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Moved by Trustee Jenkins, seconded by Trustee Kirby. Is there further discussion? Yeah, I want to get clarity on these matters. Do you know about how many were anticipating riffing

333right now or how many people this overage is affecting? I believe there were... possibly four math teachers that received notices. I will now go back. If this is what is approved, I will go back and look at their credentials, and it may mean that some of them are skipped and others further up the line would receive notices. And if we didn't include the math, what would happen if... If, let's say, that we didn't have enough math classes, would they be able to teach something else if we had the need, or would we just have to offer a section? I'm just curious. If we do not issue layoff notices and we end up with too many math teachers, then we have too many math teachers. Yeah, they could do like a core math science in middle

334school if it's a middle school that offers a core program. Thank you. Any further discussion? We have a motion in a second. Roll call vote, please. Trustee Jenkins. Aye. Trustee Kirby. Aye. Trustee De La Torre. No. Trustee Medina. No. Trustee Prack. Sorry, no. President Kasten. Yes, that ocean fails on a 3-3, so we are not revising the skipping criteria. We'll keep the math and the science skipping as was previously approved. With that, we'll go ahead and move to item I-3, the charter school calendar, and we'll go to public comment on the charter school calendar. I do not have any public comment cards. All right. So we'll move to item 3B. This is a discussion on the board role for dependent charter schools. This is anticipation of future action that we'll be taking for renewals as

335well as discussing our overall role as the board for the charter schools. And I'll start with Superintendent August. Well, this is going to need to be a much shorter conversation about this than we had planned. Some of the things that I think are key to keep in mind is that for our dependent, there's a difference in your role as the board in relation to independent charter school oversight or dependent charter school oversight. And under Ed Code, there's not really... independent or dependent, but for our purposes, that's how we refer to it. And so our dependent charters are those that are reported within our fund 09. So they are covered for our district. They're covered by their teachers are covered by our SRTA contract. Their classified staff are part of the class, the CSCA, Teamsters, all

336of that. They are treated as another school of the district in some ways, but not all. And why I say that is you see that their financials are reported separately. That's required by law that they are all reported in Fund 09. We keep track within some other funds internally. So when you're looking at financials, we'll start explaining that when we're bringing each individual. charter document to you like when we go with LCAP. Trying to think of like a five-minute overview of this. Essentially, for our dependent charter schools, you serve not only as the board overseeing as an authorizer. So when the petitions are coming forward and you're making a decision from an authorizer perspective, that's around oversight. Is it meeting all the criteria, the 16 elements, all of those? versus your role as the board

337of the charter school is to ensure the fiscal stability and health and well-being. What do the programs look like? How is it just like any other school that we have in the district in ensuring that it's thriving like our other schools? So it's not a clear, easy... delineation in the way that we have always done things. I think that there are ways to look at charter schools as either a benefit to the district or sometimes they can be looked at as or considered as funneling off students from district programs. And so it's finding that balance around how do we serve students within Santa Rosa City Schools, whether that's at one of our charter schools that tend to attract students in from outside the district, while also attracting some of our students from inside the district.

338And how do we balance the growth there with also not strict, you know, cannibalizing essentially from other schools within the district, making sure we're ensuring the overall health is... part of your role as the board of the charter. An example, when the SHRACs and CCLA petitions come forward later in this month, later this month, you'll need to look at those through both lenses because the lens of the board of trustees around In fact, we're looking at how do we alter the program, the petition, or are we requesting permission from another district to maintain that? Those are pieces as this board that you would be deciding. As the charter board, so the parent advisory committee and the advisory committee that staff and parents and that our advisory, just like a community advisory committee for SELPA, a

339advisory committee from providing input on anything else. Ultimately, it's the board's decision with. these with the advice of charters. So charters are largely parent and staff driven, but for us as a board of a school district with dependent charters, you also approve their LCAPs, which they have their own LCAP. They don't have SIPSAs. They don't have the single plan for student achievement. That's essentially rolled up into their LCAP. So they have to be able to be self-supporting. If they aren't as a dependent charter school, that means that we are responsible to cover any shortage in revenues for expenditures. So I think to hit the thrust of the purpose of having Simon here with the amount of time we have left was to make it really clear that there is no other. Sometimes there's conversations where

340it's like, well, then they'll have to figure it out or anything else like that. But that is. Us as the board, we are the board of the charter responsible for their strategic success, their planning. We're responsible for the leadership and making the decisions that make them successful. And I think it's a part of what we captured in our academic enrichment study session when we started. Talking about what success means, how many students are we serving in the Santa Rosa City Schools school instead of necessarily number of students going to their particular residential school is the mentality of recognizing that the dependent charter schools are a part of what we do and are a part of our success and that we are the ones responsible for making those decisions and making it also really clear that

341that flows through the district office and the support to those campuses. There's no group of others out there that are doing that. It's our responsibility for them to be successful, our responsibility to make sure they're able to grow. And I personally like to think of it not as cannibalization. When a student from our own district uses one of these alternative education options, it's retention, and it's meeting the students with their needs and where they're at. Agreed. And we have to make sure we're keeping that balance. The piece that is important also is to know that in their LCAPs, their staffing ratio, it has to be what they can afford. So they may have different things than what we're implementing through our general fund, through our traditional schools. So I'm going to interrupt. Trustee Madin, reconsider

342item 2B as it was originally presented. What? Item I-2B. There's a request to move back to item I-2B. Any objection to moving back to item I-2B? The skipping criteria, because if we keep too many, if we don't go far enough in there. We got one minute. Any objections to moving back to the item? I see no objections on moving back to the item. So it's been moved to reconsider. I have a motion from Trustee Medina. Is there a second? Second. We're called to question by Trustee Prack. I'll go ahead and do a roll call vote. Trustee Medina? Aye. Trustee De La Torre? Aye. Trustee Jenkins? No. Trustee Kirby? No. Trustee Prack? We're all flip-flopping. Aye. It's different, and the reason is that if we don't go deep enough in the reductions, then that potentially impacts

343our budget solutions. I understand that. I think that maybe the vote would have happened differently if we understood that it went back to the original. Go ahead and finish the roll call. Trustee Pratt? No. I'm sorry, President Kasten. Aye. Motion passes 4-2. It's 11. We're adjourned.