June 10, 2025 Board Meeting

001They did fridges, microwaves, sorry. You know me. Call the meeting to order of the St. Isabel Union High School District Board of Education Tuesday, June 10, 2025 regular meeting. Roll call, please, Jerry. All board members are present. Thank you. I will stand for the flag salute. So we'll move on to the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve? I motion to approve the agenda. Any seconds? I second. Thank you, Jose Juan. Roll call, please. Mr. Johnson. Aye. Ms. Noble. Aye. Ms. Grace Velasquez. Aye. Mr. Ibarra. Aye. Ms. Sheehy. Aye. Agenda approved. And now we can move on to the superintendent's reports and presentations. The first thing I'd like to do is show you a little video. Can you press play on that? Oh, perfect. Just to show you a little video that

002was sent to us by one of the teachers in one of our step classes. And it's just a sweet video of kind of like encapsulating their year. So I wanted to show that to you. So I loved that video because it just kind of showed some of the highlights from their year. And it was just very sweet. And the kids are so happy and such good students and good citizens of our campus. So I wanted to show that to you. I also wanted to let you know that summer school is well underway. We're in our second week and it's being well attended and kids are working hard. And so we have about 100 students here in summer school working hard on all their courses and making a lot of progress. So that's good. I wanted

003to give you a quick. Update on we did receive our raw scores so they can fluctuate two to three percentage points. Maybe usually not. But so kind of some good news. I want to also acknowledge like Kelly Carter because she makes sure that everybody gets tested, which helps us get valid scores. And that's really hard to do. So I want to acknowledge her. But currently. It looks like an ELA. We are a plus 15 percentage points. And in math were a plus nine percentage points, which is huge in both of those areas. So our juniors did a spectacular job taking the test seriously showing what they know. And so we're just going to keep our foot on the gas pedal. I want to acknowledge Tori. She's here today. You'll hear her LCAP. She's worked really

004hard on the LCAP and the master schedule and Jasmine's worked really hard. Jasmine day. Our other AP has worked really hard on our safety plan and just the three APs have done a phenomenal job this year. We have already pivoted you guys like school ended and we literally jumped right back on the treadmill. So we have already been working on plans for next year. We know that our focus for professional development will be on our profile of a graduate our school-wide research-based. Instructional practices are cycles of inquiry so that we have more current and timely data so we can turn that into data-driven instruction. And then we'll also be looking at a lot of AI policies and practices next year. Maintenance this summer is already well on their way to doing a ton of stuff.

005We Student Services is accepting residency confirmations and data confirmations. I think the last. I checked there were only like eight incoming freshman that had not confirmed their residency. So that's pretty great. Our library Student Center is right on schedule. It's all happening a few more staffing decisions. We still have to make before the end of the year. I know we have some interviews next week for music. Fingers crossed. Like I said, our master schedule is pretty much done. Teachers have been given what they'll be teaching. Next year. There could be a few little tweaks. Students have been scheduled into their classes already. There will be treat tweaks based on what kids complete in the summer school. But we are already pretty prepared for pirate check-in, which is happening at the end of July. I feel

006like it's right around the corner. And then the other things we will be working on is policies for 18 year olds. And then the other things we will be working on is policies for 18 year olds. Because we need to really take a good hard look at our 18 year olds and the policies that we have in place to make sure that they remain successful after they turn 18. Especially in their attendance. And then also we're going to be taking a really hard look over the summer and next year on our grading practices. We have, I'm very happy to announce that we have been doing a great job. All the districts in the valley. There's seven of us. Just been articulating really well with each other. Working together. It's a great working relationship. And one

007of the positives of that working relationship is that our eighth graders will be offered algebra in the fall. So that's huge for us. I know college, San Ynez, will be teaching a section of algebra. So we will be working on that. And then we have a little bit of a break. We have a little bit of a break. We have a little bit of a break. We have a little bit of a break. We will be like solving. I know has a few kids. So they'll either come to us or they'll go to college to take algebra. No. No. That's a big deal. So there is going to be some algebra being taught next year with the goal of everybody having algebra in the next few years. And possibly even geometry. So that we can

008really accelerate these kids in math. So that's huge. Huge and a great testament to the working relationship that we have with our feeder schools. All the teachers were given a duck. All the staff members were given a duck on one of their last days. And we just said it's time to duck out for summer. So they're supposed to take this duck on vacation with them or take it on an adventure and send us a cool picture for a beginning of the year video. So we're hoping that they all participate in that and do that. I've already gotten a few text messages from them. I'm at the river and I have my duck. I'm like, great. Send me a picture. I want to give a special thank you, especially at the end of the year, to

009our PTO who does a phenomenal job in everything. They did a great luncheon for our teacher appreciation. But they also provided, once again, three days of food for finals for all of our kids. And they just selflessly give to our kids all the time. Thank you. And the community donates food. And it's really amazing. And the kids really appreciate it. The San Ynez Pirate Foundation is always asking how can we help, what can we do. So that's great. I want to especially thank the senior parents who participated and set up baccalaureate. Baccalaureate was a wonderful event. Lots of talented students. A lot of great speeches there. Very heartfelt. The parents also arranged the senior breakfast. So that's great. And I think the burritos were all donated. So that's amazing. I think El Rancho actually donates

010the burritos to the kids. So always community members and places in the community that are coming through for our kids. And then sober graduation was unbelievable. And I know sober graduation isn't just current parents. It's parents that have been involved for years in the community and continue to give back. Don't look at me like I'm crazy when I say this. I showed up at sober graduation at 2 o'clock in the morning just to see how it was going and what was going on. And it was phenomenal. I got there in time for some of the last activities and then the raffle. The raffle? I was like how do I get in this raffle? The prizes they were giving kids. E-bike. Electric scooters. Tons of stuff they could use for college. Coffee pots. Dorm fridges. Microwaves.

011Air fryers. PS, you know, PlayStations. Like virtual glasses. A couple of hand shaped cowboy hats. You know, that the kids were just dying for from some of our. But everybody in the community. I mean I can't even begin to tell you how many different places provided just amazing gifts for our students to keep them safe. On graduation night. And the parents that were there just giving of their time all night. And the kids were exhausted. But they had a wonderful time. So just really wanted to thank those parents for doing that. And just the whole community for always coming together to really support our students and our school. I think it's huge. It's huge. So. And I think. I think that's it. I'm just curious, Kim. What's the participation rate of the sober graduation? Of

012the sober grad night? You know, that's a good question. When I got there at 2 in the morning, there were still, I would say, about 100 kids there. Yeah. Okay. So 167 tickets. And there's 207 graduates. So 100. So I mean that tells you it's pretty well attended. I knew it was over 100 kids when I got there at 2 in the morning. So yeah. So a lot of kids participate and go. And how can you not? When you go in there, it's like magical. It's decorated great. It's like you step into a, you know, just this fantasy land of amazing. They have. They had. They also had something real cool. They had silent disco. So, you know, you wear headphones. And you only you can hear the music. So everybody's dancing. But they can

013be dancing to different songs. It's really cool. Yeah. It's really neat. It's really nice. Lots of fun things for the kids. So amazing. Thank you, Kim. Great update. Now on to board comments and correspondence. Does anybody have anything they'd like to bring to the table this evening? No? Okay. You do. Okay. Go ahead, Kath. Apparently, I guess a month ago, and I don't want to be a downer to this wonderful grad sober night. But it looks like grading, I'd love to talk, open up for discussion next board meeting. The grading policy, there's something coming up in the state that Newsom, Governor Newsom, passed that 21% and F will be a passing grade for high school students in a class. And I think that we might want to look at it that how that would be

014implemented at our school. Because we don't want to lower our bar for our students. We want to raise the bar. And I think this should be a policy that we should look at. We will definitely put that on as a discussion item for the next board meeting. And that's something, like I said, in my supervisor's office. And that's something, like I said, in my superintendent report. Grading practices are something that we're looking at across the board as well. Thank you, Kathy. Any others? Okay. So now we can move on to public comment time. And first up will be Raul Sandoval. Hello, everyone. My name is Raul Sandoval, mostly known as Coach Sandoval in the community. I've lived in the Valley and coached at the high school for the last ten years. I own and operate

015a local martial arts gym located in Solvang. I have dedicated my life to helping others better themselves. I live and breathe martial arts. I've been involved in wrestling for over 30 years. With great effort, countless lives have been changed for the better. Most recently, I was released as head coach. After the most consistent run pirate wrestling has ever had, we have created many champions on and off the mat. My son, Richard Sandoval, is the most decorated wrestler who has ever roamed these halls. Most recently, he qualified for the NCAA championship. Graduated after five years of D1 wrestling and high academics. Look in the main gym. You'll find my name next to many champions. I did not step down. I was forced out. With no due process, no write-ups, no warnings, no opportunity to speak, all

016it took was three emails and a couple of wolves dressed in sheep's clothing. Small town bureaucracy. I am concerned as a coach, community member, and as a father. I ask that you take a look at this matter. Where are the checks and balances? For school policy, Jena can answer that. Every single policy, Jena command was broken. It's been six weeks since I was released. I question professionalism by both our AD and superintendent. After five principals, four ADs, three superintendents, and COVID, really? Now? Why am I under attack? Is it the color of my skin? Or my wife's? With an intentionally diverse coaching staff. Was it a racial motive? Did they know what pin to pull? Without me, it falls apart. It falls apart. Did they know? As a community member, I have a huge concern

017for the youth and the future of this community. Who will do the work? There is no coach. There is no plan in place. I ask to speak up. I was asked to speak up by the community. Biggest reason I'm here today. Good people stay quiet and bad people speak loud. I think that's some of our problem. As a father of the highest achieving wrestler with three more up and coming and dreams of small town living, I am saddened to say that my next 20 years of service to the community will likely not be for this community. Saddened that my sons will not wrestle for their school. That their picture and name will not hang high in the rafters of the gym as their brothers does. That they will not be pirates and they will not

018wear black and orange. That their older brother will not come back here and teach and coach at San Ynez as he once dreamed. The massive repercussions for this decision was taken lightly. Without thought, without consideration for the community. I ask you to consider. This topic in next board agenda. It's not too late. Huge injustice, unjust decision has been taken. I only get three minutes up here. So much to say. I wish I could take you guys to lunch. Thank you for your time. I came here tonight by myself to speak to you from my heart. Board members, I sent you an email. I hope to hear back from you. Thank you. Thank you, Raul. Next up, Chantal Castellanos. Good evening, members of school. Board and community stakeholders. My name is Chantal Castellanos and I serve

019as co-head coach of the San Ynez Pirate Wrestling Program and head coach of our Lady Pirate Wrestling Team. Just four years old. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today about an issue that deeply affects our community, our student athletes and the integrity of our athletic programs. First, I want to recognize the incredible achievements of Coach Sandoval. Under his leadership, our wrestling program has won two league championships recently and has produced more leagues, CIF, masters and state placers than any other wrestling team. Thank you. Coach Sandoval has been a great coach and a great wrestling coach in the history of San Ynez wrestling. His dedication and mentorship has been essential to the growth of our athletes. However, the recent decision to dismiss Coach Sandoval raises serious concerns. While California law allows for at-will employment, it

020also emphasizes fairness, transparency and due process, especially for someone who has dedicated over a decade of service and is a respected community leader. His removal, without any formal review, documented misconduct or chance to respond, seems to overlook these important principles. Additionally, Coach Sandoval's role as a prominent minority leader and community advocate potentially provides him with legal protections. Dismissing him without a clear, transparent process risks violating these protections and further undermines community trust. It also deeply challenges the trust of our remaining program staff, as I'm sure you can imagine. Most importantly, removing Coach Sandoval effectively halts progress of our entire wrestling program for both boys and girls, something we have spent the last decade doing. Thank you. We have spent the last decade working together tirelessly to grow and develop into what it is today. Our

021coaching staff works in great synergy, fostering teamwork and shared goals that benefit all of our student athletes. While we have grown into having four squads between our boys and girls JV and varsity teams, we still train as one team, largely under the leadership of Coach Sandoval. Unfortunately, in an effort to keep balance, I have found myself largely managing the off-the-mat work, while we have struggled with booster support and involvement and parent involvement in recent years. Disrupting that harmony not only impacts individual athletes, but also the overall strength and future of both Santa Ynez high school wrestling programs. I urge the district to review this situation, clarify the reasons for his dismissal, and ensure that all procedures have been followed. Our community deserves open communication, fairness, and leadership built on respect and integrity. Thank you for

022your time and your commitment to our students and community. We're 30 seconds left on the clock. We together run Youth Empowered Sports. We're a team. We're a team. We're a sports club here in the community. We've been here for 12 years. I started training in a very similar program when I was 15 years old. And we've really, really put together a 30-year plan for this wrestling program. We're a decade in, and we have 20 years left of where we were planning to go with it. We've just started implementing our mindset training. We're moving in pretty outstanding directions with some highly decorated athletes. So I hope you'll help us get to the bottom of why the plug was pulled here. Thank you. Thank you, Chantal. No further public comment? So we will move on to the

023consent agenda. Is there a motion for approval or any discussion prior to that? I motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll second that motion. Roll call, please, Terry. Mr. Johnson. Aye. Ms. Noble. Aye. Ms. Grace Velasquez. Aye. Mr. Ibarra. Aye. Ms. Sheehy. Aye. trailer, consent approved. Now we can move onto our action agenda. And the first one is courses of study for alternative diploma pathway. MS. I'm going to apologize in advance. I've been dealing with weird laryngitis, and it just won't go away. So, it warms up, just give me a second. Good evening, so I'm Tori Martinez, an assistant principal here at the high school. The action item in front of you, I wanted to explain some of the context. Typically, we do courses of study in places where you're actually fractionally vaccinated, and we

024wanted to talk about it. of study just as consent items but in this situation what we're dealing with is really a programmatic adjustment based off of legislation for our special education students so I'm just going to go through a couple of slides to kind of explain the why before you approve um so the California alternative pathway to high school diploma it is basically a an alternative to students typically can get a traditional diploma where they can get a certificate of completion in the last few years the legislation excuse me legislators have created this third option that is a way for students that have severe cognitive disabilities to earn a diploma but it bases that off the state minimum so who qualifies for this alternative pathway you had to have been enrolled in high school starting

025in the 22-23 school year so we do have current students on our campus that may shift into this alternative pathway. You also have to be a student who qualifies to take the California alternative assessments or the CAW. That is for students who have again severe cognitive disabilities and it's determined through their IEPs that they require a modified state test when it comes to like the English and math tests that our students take for CAASPP. And then they have to do the state standards aligned coursework that is required of them and it's typically 13 different courses over the course of their four years. So that required coursework involves basically three full years of English, two of math. It does include Algebra 1, although there's been quite a bit of work in the state talking about ways

026to create exemptions and there is a lot of work in the state talking about ways to create exemptions and there is some legislation on the books to allow for that process if a student does require that. Two years of science, it has to have a biology and a physical science. Three years of social studies and that includes US history, world history, government, and econ. So those are the same things our students here take. Just all of our students, we have a 240 credit requirement for graduation for standard high school diploma. This focuses on the state minimum so it gives our students that have higher needs less coursework and more time to complete it over their four years. They're also required to to take a visual performing arts or CTE and a PE course. Now these

027courses are already in the course as a study for our students and currently those students who are in those ESN courses and those classes, they are taking math, they're taking social studies, they're taking science, but they've been more generic titles where they've been doing standards and really individualizing that for students. What this alternate pathway does is say really over the four years we want to make sure they're meeting the required course content standards in a modified and accommodated way for all of these required courses so it allows us that other option for them to earn a diploma. It's just a diploma that makes sense for what the needs are for the students. So things the IEP team will consider when they're working through determining if a student should be on that alternative pathway to diploma

028versus a certificate of completion versus a regular diploma. So looking at, does a student have a functional mode of communication? Are they able to communicate in some way to show mastery of some sort? And then are their IEP goals aligned to grade level standards? Or their goals are, do they have academic goals that can make sense? They should. Every student can look different for each student, but there should be academic goals that make sense. How will the students access the general education curriculum and their peers? So what does that course of study look like for the student over four years? And really what does having them included in classes versus receiving specialized small group instruction, where's that balance for them to get what's required? And then for transition, what transition activities do they need to

029do? And then what transition activities will prepare the student for the future steps? And that is a lot of the work that happens in those classes where students really are looking at, what are we doing to prepare you for the life you are going to have? It is important for all of our students at every level. Now I mentioned this is kind of slipped in where sort of completion and diploma, we just had these two paths and now we have this alternative path. So when we talk about the difference between earning a diploma of any sort, alternative or regular, versus a diploma, we're talking about the difference between earning a diploma of any sort, alternative or regular, versus a diploma, we're talking about the difference between earning a diploma of any sort, alternative or regular,

030versus a diploma, we're talking about the difference between earning a diploma of any sort, alternative or regular, versus a sort of completion. I just wanted to share a couple of differences. So a diploma definitely requires a specific standards aligned set of coursework determined by the state of California. It opens the door for potentially more job opportunities. Our students will say they have a diploma. It will just show it's 130 credits, but we have other students who already do receive 130 credit diplomas, such as students who qualify under legislation related to some of our English способ, but we will expect that that to be a good idea later. Also our foster homeless youth, they also have the ability to receive their diplomas on the state minimum. Enables potentially higher earning potentials for them because they no

031longer have to have just a sort of completion. They can also have a diploma that was earned and that provides pathways to further education. There are sometimes programs that make sense for students that they have a hard time accessing. Now, assertive completion, it's based on IEP goals only to meet the things you made certain of them. I just think we really needed a different approach upon these conversations. That's not always throughout the So sometimes that's saying they need to be attending school. Sometimes that's based off of Just practical life skills, whatever it may be. It does not require specific coursework. It is very individualized It's meeting the need of the student, but it does not have the set courses that you have to take That's why we've been doing them under more generic titles Historically,

032that's a pretty common practice previous to the last few years and Then signifies really the end of high school. So once students receive their certificate of completion Usually it means they just move straight into transition house and then it's not considered an actual diploma. It is a certificate It is acknowledgement for work they've done and being part of our community But it is not a diploma So the timeline and eligibility for an alternative diploma the intent of this legislation that students would Complete it within the four years along Alongside same-age peers however They can't have more time so students have until they're 22 and for a student They may need more time to work on the required courses while they're still parallel working on transition goals and life skills Post the age of 22. So

033the IEP team they'll determine the eligibility based on the state guidance The consortium is currently working on kind of a worksheet as they have for eligibility on other items that will help them in IEPs have those conversations and Then that planning really should begin early So we have some students right now that we believe we're going to move towards an alternative pathway You all as a board approved the required board policies about two months ago Um, so we're already ready to go We just needed to have all the courses in line and a number of school districts in the county have been doing the same work all year because the guidance has been tough It was really what makes this different from a regular diploma versus asserted completion. What's required? What do those modified curriculums

034look like? There's been a lot of conversations at a lot of levels So I'm happy we're finally on this side and we're getting close to Having this as a pathway for our students Um, so just some things to keep in mind so the continued services and supports So receiving a diploma through an all pathway it does not end eligibility for services under IDEA so students again may finish this and then move into our transition house and Receive more of the supports and skills to keep meeting goals within their IEPs Again, they can remain in school until they're 22 unless a parent family decides that their student is moving on to something else They can continue to attend even if they've received that diploma and then the IEP team determines Really what services are required for

035students? What they need to be done with their high school and transition experience And it's all driven by the assessments and their goals and what's in their individualized plan So that's the program what's in front of you is just the need to approve right now. There are 13 courses we have here We are using unique learning systems Also known as news to you for the curriculum that we've already been utilizing this curriculum amongst all of our ESN classes across the consortium what work that curriculum provider has done is Take their standards take their materials and really put them into specific courses So that teachers can really go through a sequencing that makes sense for students and so it's not new information It's just been supplementing now We are saying we are moving towards specific coursework

036that is aligned to the standards that will allow for appropriate modifications and really support our students So I'm here for any questions you may have I Do have a question. So are the courses taught? Where are they taught? Are they a consortium deal or are they actually so they are taught in our ESN courses? they are taught on-site typically they are taught with a Modern it's now the credentialing has changed but it was what was a moderate to severe credentialed teacher um, so yeah, so they're on our site the classes are already happening. They've just Been with a little bit less structure in the course Sequencing so a lot of the work has already been going on. It's just really creating a framework for it to exist within understood Are some of these students in

037the monitor to severe in the regular classroom and is the teacher responsible for? modifying the curriculum within this framework So every single one of our students who is in the ESN 3 class that that is their primary assignment They are all in at least one other course more often to meet their academic and Needs they are taking core classes in ESN and they're doing electives fine arts CTE PE all in mainstream situations and those teachers continue to be responsible for modifying the curriculum based off of the students accommodations and modifications within their IEP there could be a student who is in a Let's say they are Able to be in let's say a science class and they're they're in a science class or they are in a English class, maybe they have a cognitive ability.

038That's a little higher but they are still on the California alternative assessment They're still on what? Typically used to be a sort of completion where there could be a teacher who is modifying but that's where a special education teachers they really come into play because they will help our Gen ed teachers to modify their curriculum We've had that this year and teachers have been working alongside special ed to figure out what does this look like in my class? And how do you know that I was I'm curious about the assessments, you know how if it's you know, according to what the student is You know, they're you know the IEP team How do we know? Yeah, you know the you know that what's I can miss in the word but Stand you know, they're not

039standardized But yeah mastery to a level that it's a diploma because I get a little confused when we use a diploma for the students that follow The regular in the society, you know the whole the rest of the world does not know that this is really a modified diploma It's not a regular diploma, but we're calling it a diploma It's just a little bit, you know confusing And notice this started officially 22 23 these are the exact conversations that everyone across the state has been grappling with and so a lot of it is For when your questions specifically related to like assessments and how do we know? The first indicator for us is does the student based off of their needs and their assessments related to cognitive their social assessments their functional? assessments Do they

040require an alternative assessment if they're there then that is the only way they first open up the ability to do this and then From there, it's really seen again some of the prongs that were in there. Can they communicate? Do they can they have academic goals? Can those things be met? And so all the checklists they work off of will be Based off of those considerations and it's legislated like it's not everybody's been trying to figure out we were told let's go figure it out And so everybody's been trying to figure it out There's a lot of collaboration Throughout the state and especially in this county for everybody saying what is this looking like on your site? And a lot of it has already been happening in our classes Miss LeBeau who was doing she

041did the class with the videos in there today She has been our primary ESN teacher in the amount of direct instruction and academic learning that's happened this year For students and really figuring out what does that mean for them each in small groups and whole group? In other classes has been growing and leaps and bounds so It's gonna be a work in progress and every student's gonna look a little different So go ahead Jose Juan No, okay already I already have you know, oh well, you know, I actually have more questions Just there's an element of I'm curious about the acceleration process or what that might feel like to the students in their own development and their learning to the families And and then that what happens after and I and what I heard in

042it is that they end up in a transition Learning space where they learn about life skills and that sort of thing and then the next question I have is like, okay What are we looking at in terms of their own? The age and their development and you know, they're reaching their goals and that sort of thing so It also feels like it's a very big ask of the board to approve such Such a Endeavor, right? It feels like we need some education first so that we can iron out any questions that we have in place so that we can really understand You know, I'd like to benefit the benefit and the cons, you know with this sort of thing and I'm not necessarily suggesting I'm not in support of just curious to learn more about

043it before we take just 10-15 minutes to make a decision and something that will make an impact. So just to clarify one point, and I'm more than happy for us to table the course approvals for August, because we can backdate and do that. We don't have a choice whether or not we offer this, it's a legislated requirement. And so we do not have a choice whether or not we offer an alternative pathway. What I can suggest is that we continue to bring forward what and ask for this next year, cause consortiums doing that too, ask for them to bring what does that look like within the IEP? How do we determine whether or not, how students are deciding, because we have to meet the requirements. And like I said, everybody has been playing some catch

044up because it's been a really tough set of legislation for us to meet the requirements. So we won't have a choice whether or not we do it. We do have a choice on how we do it. So things like what curriculum and content we use that's where we've been in the thick of that. And we are lucky enough that what we've already been using really does align that we don't have to take on brand new. And so I do want to respond to, to you had, can you repeat your first question though? Cause there was. Can I just, so in reality, we probably should have been doing this since 22, 23. The whole state should have been. The whole state should have been. So, so we are a little behind. The ball on this. What

045I can say is with the curriculum that is in front of you with the courses that we've selected, they are a lot more standards aligned and rigorous than was previously occurring within some of those classes. But you do have to qualify through your IEP for the California alternative assessment in order to qualify for this diploma. And that is a very difficult bar. To reach. I'm trying to think of how many students we have on our campus currently that qualify for the Cal, is it like 11 total? It's typically been around 10. And for this. In our whole school. And in conversations. Out of 200 or out of 860 kids, we. Oh, we have 12% of our kids have IEPs. And so that's about 120 kids and only 11 or 12 students 10 qualify for the

046CAA or would qualify for this diploma? And out of that, we'd expect less than five to meet all of the prongs to meet an alternative diploma. Does the diploma state it's an alternative diploma? It does state that because that was my concern, that it waters down the Santa Ynez diploma, you know, that it's... Well, there's the diploma and then there's the alternative diploma and then there's the certificate of completion. So when kids walk across the stage, nobody knows who's getting a diploma, a certificate of completion or an alternative diploma, but what they're handed and what they receive is different. And their transcript reads different as well. Now I remember what your question was earlier and the idea of how are we celebrating our students and also communication related to families. So a lot of the

047communication with families, it will be a family driven set of information similar to this that will happen prior to and during IEP conversations for students where the threshold has been met for the CAA to have that conversation. It should typically, moving forward, happen as students are in their first high school IEP. And so it would happen their freshman year. Students would all be in a similar course of study, but the requirements to complete it. Is what would shift depending on if they qualify for an Alt-Pathway diploma or not. In celebration, we continue to celebrate all of our students in the same ways as Kim shared, where they are participating in graduation at the time in which it makes the most sense for the student. Typically, it's after their fourth year before they move to transition.

048But every so often there's a unique family request for the student to not walk until they have finished even their transition time. So two years ago we had that scenario. I'm sorry. I meant to say acceleration, not celebration. It's okay. The acceleration process, right, for students who maybe are a little bit more advanced in their own learning capabilities that may reach the 130 units. And so what happens then if the child is at the end of their sophomore year? Just to say, maybe it doesn't happen that way, but what if we did have a situation like that, or even a junior? And so what would happen then next, right? What I did hear is that they could continue, once they meet the alternative diploma requirements, they can continue receiving services. So these are the minimum

049requirements to meet the alternative diploma. But if a student is excelling through their IEP, let's say that they struggle with language, but they're brilliantly gifted. They're talented in 這 And I think it's important to understand that there's nothing that holds them even if they didn't do a full-time job in mathematics. There's nothing that holds them back from accelerating beyond algebra into geometry, algebra 2, calculus, any of those subject areas. They can accelerate in one path. Or all paths. doing exceptionally well in high school, it wouldn't be too late at that point to transition them to a regular diploma. We would never want to, you know, you know, the goal of the IEP is like the most rigorous curriculum. So, so we would absolutely challenge students and make sure that, that they are meeting their needs.

050If they need more push in to the general ed curriculum in certain areas or more pull out, that's the beauty of the IEP and it's very flexible. Yeah. Just for clarification. So a student comes in with an IEP and they would normally take the CAS, the state testing, correct? And then if it's determined that they don't have the ability, there's a potential of doing the CAW? Is that how? Usually students are already on the path for the CAW before they ever get to us. Okay. So, so because they have been, they have been testing in third through eighth grade and they have been receiving services. So that, that the CAW is usually, the CAA is usually determined through an IEP at a, at a pretty young age and they revisit that testing every single year.

051And at, at those yearly IEPs with how they're doing on those tests. And that determination is made in that IEP team meeting along with their families that yes, they're going to continue taking the CAA or they're going to take the CASP. Typically the kids that take this, take the CAA, I'm trying to think how to phrase. It would be really unlikely for a student to qualify for the CAA and then no longer qualify because where their cognitive abilities are, even with sometimes substantial growth, usually in the areas that are assessed related to those, those assessments, reading, writing, listening, speaking, calculation, those areas, usually it is extremely rare. And I've not heard of a circumstance where a student has moved off, even when it is evaluated annually. And then they only take it their 11th grade

052year here. So my question then is the students having a rigorous or more rigorous standards placed in front of them. And I understand that there's, the state has, the legislation has passed. That they deserve to have the alternative diploma. Is a, are these standards really available for the student to access? So this, yes, so they are with their modifications that are required by their IEP. So in these, it is based off of they can access it with modifications and accommodations that allow them to meet the standards. And then I guess my next question is, is that you have the classroom, teacher, the highly qualified classroom teacher, say in history, who then has to make, who makes the modifications, but then are, do we have to have additional special ed teachers to, my concern is the

053fiscal impact on the school with special ed teachers. So all of the courses for the alternative diploma are taught by what we used to call a mod to severe teacher because of the cognitive abilities of the students. The only time the student would be pushing into the general education curriculum, for government is if that was a really big strength of theirs. And they would be pushing in with some of our other students who are on a traditional diploma track, but need additional aid support within that classroom or a co-teacher, which we already have in place for the, for the traditional students on an IEP on the traditional diploma. The interesting thing is, is that I think where the, is that they called it a diploma, right? Had they not called it an alternative diploma? Had

054they called it almost anything? I don't think anybody ever used to have an issue if we said, oh, they are getting a certificate of completion or these students are getting a diploma. But because the legislation specifically stated that you have to call it an alternative diploma, that's where some of the, but it does not hold, I mean, the student would be able to go to a, like Alan Hancock, like any of our other students and access maybe certificated programs or things like that. But these courses are not A through G approved. And so they would not be able to apply to a four year school. And the state's not requiring these teachers to be highly qualified. So we don't have to have a specific credentialed teacher other than being a SPED teacher. They have to

055have a mod to severe credential. Right, but not in history or English. Right. If a student met, so, no, there's not, it's not, here's the deal. It's not adding any, nothing related to the alternative pathway diploma requires extra staffing or increased fiscal impact of any sort. Because the way our structures are currently set up, we already have the structures in place to do it. This is just creating that framework for the courses that needed to be there. Okay. This is the curriculum now that the same exact teachers, the same exact teachers will be teaching, but they will be teaching this curriculum. So the curriculum we read. It already existed. It's just basically giving the classroom, say the history, US history teacher and the SPED teacher an outline of what they're gonna follow and help them.

056So more than likely a US history teacher will not follow these course outlines. But these very, there are definite benchmarks within this curriculum that mirror the standards and benchmarks in the, in the, in the, in the curriculum. Okay. Okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. So this is the curriculum that A through G approved. I think where the confusion was, it was like we were, we were acquiring new curriculum and there potentially was a fiscal impact of a curriculum and or staffing. No, and part of why we are using the unique learning systems is because it's already being utilized. We actually did evaluate other curriculum options to potentially present, but they all involved extreme fiscal impacts and they were all equitable. And they were all really equal in what they offered. It was a lot of publishers with

057a lot of options. It was a lot of great modified curriculum. And we're like, do we really, is it tens of thousands of dollars or is it just creating framework that's really accessible for our ESN teachers and for the supports in there to give guidance to the courses these students should be doing? So. Just one thing for clarification. When you were presenting, you mentioned that kids in foster care are also eligible for the minimum state. Whether they have any additional support, or they're not eligible for the minimum state, it's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. It's just a matter of whether they have an IEP or not. Yes. So, and I'm happy to at some point if we want to talk about those at another time, but yeah. So, there's education code

058on the books that actually is in the same realm as some of that was edited in board policies, not the Ed Code, but our policies related to it. Where there are certain students who can meet the state minimum for their regular diploma. So, yes, there are students who come in as English learners later in high school. of foster homeless youth. It was actually during COVID, there was those COVID seniors got time too. So there's been different groups at different times. Okay, thank you. And have you received feedback from the families about this alternative diploma of the kids that would qualify or that already engaged with it? That's the next steps. That's where consortium comes in because those conversations need to happen in conjunction with us through the IEP. So when we looked at roles and

059responsibilities, a lot of ours sat with the board policy, which you've already done, and making sure we had courses approved and ready to go so that they could start rolling this out through the IEP process and come up with the worksheets that need to happen to determine eligibility. So those are next steps. Actually, I just saw a great worksheet on the alternative assessment and how detailed it is because I'm like, oh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't I saw blind or visual and deaf, and I'm like, whoa, the visual deaf students I know are not cognitive. And then they really go into the specifics of drilling down. And that was really helpful for me. So I'm a little more comfortable knowing that there's just

060this. It's not easy to qualify for the CAA or for the alternative diploma. It's very difficult to get there. If I remember correctly, when I first read about this a couple years ago, some of the families that were involved in working with legislators to have something like this, there were students who had some pretty, they had cognitive disabilities, but they also had some pretty severe physical disabilities that impacted also and created a lot of extra barriers too. And it came up a lot of families advocating for those kids who really sat kind of in the middle. So they could do more, but they needed the modifications to get there. And it was families and educators working together to say, what can this look like for our students? There's still a lot of work to be

061done in implementation and again, what it looks like, but it is a, in our conversations in this last year, we've talked about it likely never being more than a couple of students in any given. Year where that would, they would qualify and meet the parameters based off of the prongs that are named in that code. So Kim, you may have answered this, but I'm going to ask it again. So out of the kids, what percentage of our IEP students would end up potentially qualifying for something like this? One to 2%. Okay. Cause it looks to me like the standards are pretty high. I did read through all of that. And, I mean, that's great. At least it does set a bar and I can appreciate that. So again, I'm not, I'm not on the path

062of opposing it at all. I just want to make sure that we're making a decision with doing all of our homework. Right. And so at this point, I think it is really important that we do hear from our parents because they're the closest ones to us. And it would help me, you know, to know that this is something that they're going to be able to do. And I think that's something that we need to do. And I think that's something that we need to do. And I think that's important, you know, for a parent to have, you know, our Burton family life's up to this day. Students and families have also been both aware and informed and supportive and they understand clearly what this is for, potentially their child, their children. So that everyone feels

063like before the board decided on this, our voice mattered and we all contributed to that. So a couple of things. We have to legally offer it. The parent ultimately as a member of the IEP team has to agree that they want their child on an alternative diploma or a certificate of completion or pursuing a traditional diploma. The power really lies in the parent as a team member on the IEP. So they're very well informed in the IEP of what the different tracks are to completing high school and where those tracks lead after high school. So they have a lot of, the parents have a lot to say. And this legislation came about from parents driving the legislation, actually, not necessarily our parents. But our parents are pretty well informed in their IEPs that there are

064three tracks towards, or there will be three tracks towards adults. So they're going to have to agree that they want their child on an alternative diploma. So previous to this, certificate of completion or regular diploma, that was it. So this just gives them an opportunity to step up and get that. Yeah, it was recognition that there are some students who didn't meet either clearly. And so trying to find an alternative option for them related to accessing post-secondary options in jobs and life. So as far as. The board is concerned, we're just approving the curriculum that has been put together to set that bar for this alternative diploma. Yes. Okay. Just so that's clarified. And I liked what you said. You clarified that some of these students may be a physical nature that there may be

065some cognitive concerns, but also physical issues that don't allow them to access curriculum. And so there is. When you look at these students that there is a difference and to give them the access to have a more rigorous access to academics without it being full content area is tremendous. And I think it's important to note that whether you receive the alternative diploma or a certificate of completion, you're still eligible for the transition program and services until you're 22. So that's a specific group of students, a very small and specific group. This is just for those kids who need to be challenged a little bit more academically. The alternative diploma is the way to do that. When I think of the two E student who could be intelligent, have challenges, whether it's special ed, but that's

066highly intelligent. And so some of that's blocked. And so they do need like maybe a math protege, but then has other cognitive or physical impairment. So, yeah. It really is a unique group of students who will. Benefit. Jose Juan, what I'm hearing from you, too, is, again, the idea of the family components and the pieces and understanding what the communication is with them and what that looks like. Something I can suggest, too, is that as consortium transitions over the summer to new staffing and who our support person will be, because as I left the conversation with them was we've done the back end parts of this. Now we're at the parent facing and we need you. While we have to work together on these next steps and what it looks like in the IP is

067what the worksheets look like, what the communication with families look like, all of those pieces. Those are those next parts that have to happen because they need courses to offer them when they offer the diploma when that comes up. And so we're right at that transition point. And I would really love to come back in conjunction with consortium to share about to what the communication plan is. What? That rollout. What that looks like and how we make sure this is an option for students who meet the requirements and not just a blanket. Everybody gets it and not that we are blocking students who really should access. So I think we have to bring back more and share what that looks like. And that is the next step after this. But I got to get through

068this at some point. I'm so sorry. I have to even ask you that. I just your poor voice and I know this is. I'm not. We're doing this all. It's it's I'm no, I'm so sorry. It sounds ridiculous and it's fine. I know I know we're doing this. It's been two months. We're doing it. So I, you know, I'm looking because I'm multitasking, which, you know, the unique learning system and all I see are pictures of kids with computers. And I'm like, what? You know, I'm a little concerned because we're looking at, you know, kids that learn differently. And we're are we putting them in front of computers? It's just like all it's all over the website. It's. Yeah. Because the publishers think that's the piece everybody wants to see. It's hybrid. So what the

069computer part allows them to do, sometimes it relates to accommodations and modifications they have related to communication. Also for our students that have a lot of verbal limitations, there's a lot of those visuals. So think back when a lot of it was just the cards. A lot of it's on there and it allows for a lot of data tracking and goal tracking that does have to be standardized somewhat to it is ULS allows for everything to be printed, to be. Played on the teacher curriculum is accessible online, but it is all downloadable, printable, able to be done on paper for a lot of students. That is. But there are students who struggle fine motor to hold a pencil, but they can point to. So some it's used to the extent that it meets the students

070needs, but it is not only an online. It is really both. Is there a teacher teaching them or is it through the computer? Yes. OK. Yeah. This is not a computer adapted program. It is not like ingenuity. There's a. It's not ingenuity. It's direct instruction, collaborative learning, small groups and and one on one. It is it is not an online learning management system. No, not not at all. No, it just saves the teacher from having twenty seven binders of everything they print from. And there is an online component that can be utilized for students who need that to access. We have students who do have communication devices. That is their only way to communicate. And so it allows for that. It's a great question. It is not like ingenuity. I'm not just coming at you

071with computerized programs. I promise. Great question. Any further discussion. So is there a motion to approve the courses of study for alternative diploma pathway? Motion to approve the course of study for alternative diploma pathway. And I second. Roll call, please. Mr. Johnson. Aye. Miss Noble. Aye. Miss Grace Velasquez. Aye. Mr. Barra. Aye. Ms. Sheehy. Aye. Ms. Sheehy. Aye. Motion approved. Now we can move on to our first discussion item. College and career access pathways agreement with Allan Hancock College. It's me. Hi. It's me. I got this and one more. This one's a little bit quicker though. So annually, all of you at some point have approved with Hancock our MOU. Right? I think it's a little bit of a mix there. One is we approve it every year. It kind of shares what courses we're

072going to offer and here's how all of this works. Allan Hancock has worked with all of its partner districts this past year to move towards CCAP agreements, which is legislated partnerships between community colleges and high school partners. So a CCAP agreement, it refers to a college and career access pathways agreement. It actually comes from California assembly bill AB288, and it allows community colleges and K-12 school districts. school districts to offer those dual enrollment opportunities. So I've just got a couple quick facts about the agreement and the highlights. I'm sure you all really enjoyed the 30 pages of it, just like you enjoyed 100 of the LCAP. I'm just bringing all the fun stuff this month. But honestly, CCAP is really exciting. So moving forward, we're going to work on the languaging part, but Hancock will

073now refer to all the concurrent enrollment and dual enrollments in early college as CCAP offerings. So we will often still refer to dual enrollment, but there's times where we have to refer to, because people won't know what we're talking about for probably another five years. But in all formal documents and like in LCAP, there's some tweaks to language because it is the CCAP now. And now those courses are courses that are offered through our agreement, either during our school day by our teachers or outside of the school day, but still on our campus or through. So online offerings like our econ one-on-one class that used to be an early college class because it's online or in person at night. But that is just another form of a CCAP class now for us. CCAP courses at

074high school, they're tuition free. So whether they're during the school day or outside of the school day, they will not cost our students a cent, which is really great. Allen Hancock campus courses, they still require students to pay a health fee, which has been an on and off. So we're not going to be paying a whole lot of costs to the district or to the students over the years. It was waived during COVID. It came back in December for spring semester this past spring. But then there was a waiver. So our counselors went through dozens of documents to try to get the students fees waived because first and some just paid it to simplify because first semester students in econ didn't have to pay it. But second did. It was kind of crazy. So now

075we don't have to deal with that anymore, which is really great. Um, CCAP students, they may take up to 15 credits or four courses per semester, whichever comes first. We used to be capped at nine credits before we had to do a waiver to take more. Every waiver required wet signatures from counselors approval from Hancock. It was a ridiculous amount of paperwork. And we had students who were taking three classes in the same semester through us. We were doing waivers for and that came up with our English classes because they're four credits. We were ending up over the threshold for seniors quite a bit. So we're really excited to have less paperwork. Cause it is a lot to work on these partnerships. So students that they exceed, 15 credits or four classes hundred percent of

076the cost is on them. So we have to, Hancock is working with us to try to make sure we don't have students over that threshold. Um, the computerized system does not stop them. But counselors are required to be a part of their enrollment tables. enrollment so we'll be able to keep track of it pretty well unless a student scurries through on their own and sneaks something in but a lot of that is our communication with our parents and with our students to help them understand don't do it or you're going to pay you don't really want to pay you know seven eight hundred bucks right now for this class don't do it um so some fun metrics going into next year and the work we did on the c-cap you'll notice in there there's courses

077that are named with our teachers and there's also courses that are ones that you're like i've never seen this that's because that list of courses will update annually but it gives us the ability to potentially have hancock offer those courses on our site with their instructors outside of the school day so we have some justice classes on there there's a communications class i'm really crossing fingers they can staff a couple of dance classes there's a myriad of options on there that are just a starting point just because they're on there doesn't mean they for sure will be offered but if they're not they're going to be offered and we're going to be able to make sure that they're not going to be offered and we're going to be able to make sure that they're not

078going to be they're not on there, we can't offer it, and we can't change the agreement other than once a year. So we started there, and we'll see where we go. All of the courses on there that are with our teachers, and they're mentioned as high school staff, those have been approved. So with that in mind, we have six new courses approved through Allen Hancock for the 25-26 school year. Three are ag, one is auto, we have another English class, and we have a film 102. So we have six new ones, we're really excited about that. The course approvals are not easy, and I'm really thankful for staff who gave us all the materials to get themselves approved. It's been really good. Eight courses are on the CalGETC, or what used to be called the

079IGETC list, meaning that they are transferable to UCs and CSUs, they meet those kind of minimum requirements. They meet those requirements in five of the 11 required categories, and we may meet two more of the categories, like 1A, 1B, 1C, all those numbers, if Allen Hancock's able to offer us, for example, the communications class. If that can happen next year at some point, we meet another category, we meet 1C. Current offerings, what we currently offer with the History 107, 108 in the Econ, we meet the CSU, U.S. History and American Institutions requirement. So our students who are going to CSUs that take care of those courses while they're with us, they've already met that requirement, which is great. And then we have the potential to meet the UC language requirements, if we can get some

080language courses on. There's ASL on there as a potential. And then we have 15 confirmed CCAP courses being offered in the 25-26 school year, and as of now, 26 sections amongst those 15 courses. So we have a lot of potential to meet the UC language requirements. We have about 50% to deal with with CCAP courses. And that's with declining enrollment. Right? So right now I think we have about 39% of our students scheduled to take one or more concurrent enrollment class next year. 15 confirmed CCAP courses. It would 26 sections of all of those, because some run one semester some run two. Thirty-nine percent. It's actually in – I asked the question for a second. 39 percent. added that metric into the LCAP, so it's in there. I'll review it in a minute. Yeah, so

081we have about 39% of our students take one or more concurrent enrollment class. Potentially, is the freshman coming in will potentially graduate with a high school diploma and then possible AA or two? We are working really hard on that. There are a few barriers in the way for that AA degree, but they are going to be close. But that would have to be their primary focus. So they possibly wouldn't be able to take a CTE pathway or other things. So it's going to be a difficult choice for some kids, but the fact that they can walk out of here with quite a few college courses already under their belt is pretty remarkable. I don't know if Tori's done with this section, but I just really want to thank our partnership with Alan Hancock, the president

082of Alan Hancock, and Tom Lamica, who works really closely with us and some other people, as well as the other school districts in the North County here. We have all been working really hard together with Alan Hancock, and it has just proven to be a really great partnership. And Alan Hancock is doing a great job ensuring that our students are getting really quality, quality courses and just a jump start on college. And the amazing thing is that if they take an Alan Hancock CCAP course here and we show them, you just took a college level course. If you can take one, you can take 20. You can do this. So Tori's kind of our liaison between Alan Hancock, but it's a really great partnership and it's just exploding. Just so, this is probably the dumb

083question, but so how do we, two questions. Do we, how do you, how do we determine that it's a college, a rigorous college class versus a high school class? Second, actually I have two questions. Second, are the teachers paid extra to do a college class? And third, is the state reimbursing Alan Hancock for these costs? And books, I saw books that were paid extra for the course. So what if it's not a book that we already adopted? Do we pay for those students' books? These are great questions. Okay, so next board meeting. All negotiating these things. Yes. So next board meeting, I am going to blanket put forward all of the course outlines, basically what the college would consider the course of study for all of our Alan Hancock courses being offered on site next

084year. For transparency, for updates, and just to make sure we have it, even though they are college courses, we're going to be offering them to the students. So if you have any questions, you can just email me. I want to ask for further account answers. Okay. Well, I will make sure that those folks have a copy and read it, because I'm curious to make sure we have an update on what kind of a course that teacher back to see by now. So I finished the course. And just to make sure we have it, even though they are college courses, I just want us to have all those on our books as they currently are, and then I would expect potentially some annual updates with those. So those are coming to you next week. That's my

085tomorrow work to finish those cover sheets. No worries. Thank you. And so in those course outlines that will have all the student learning objectives. It has all the requirements, and then our teachers who teach concurrent, they are evaluated at least once a semester by Alan Hancock. So they come in and they watch. their requirements, each department's a little different. They, Allen Hancock, whereas we have, right, kind of our like faculty association sits as one blanket. The community colleges I've learned, they have a lot more of departmental say and kind of silos. So each department kind of has some different requirements related to how they evaluate the rigor of the course. But our teachers have to include the slows in their syllabi. They have to adhere to them and they get evaluated on that. And then

086when it comes to the dollars and cents of it, this is an ongoing conversation. So there were potentially going to be some changes, but in all of our partnerships with Allen Hancock and our partner school districts, the current agreement is at the status quo. We have received a reimbursement as a district for a number of years. It's in the agreement. I can't remember the exact number, but it has been great for us to cover costs related to materials. We also have the ability for some of our teachers to be able to do some of the work that we do. So we have a lot of that work. And we have some of our courses we added this year. They were add classes intentionally added related to our Golden State Pathways. And so that's actually, we're

087covering some materials through that grant. I've also submitted for something potentially to help with other costs related to CCAP. But I won't know until the fall whether or not we receive that funding. But in general, as we put courses forward, part of what we have to look at are expenses because Alicia gets mad at me if I don't. I think a couple things are important to point out that teachers that teach these courses, they have to meet minimum qualifications to be a professor at Allen Hancock. Anybody who's teaching these courses on our campus would also be qualified to teach them on Allen Hancock's campus. So not anybody can teach an Allen Hancock course. Also, they do put our syllabi and match it to their syllabi, and it has to meet their rigorous. So really, we

088are teaching their course on our campus. So it is truly a, like, English 101 course that is a college-level course. Do their final tests align with your final schedule? Their final schedule and our final schedule do align. They follow our final schedule, but we have deadlines for them. When our grades have to be in for them, it's like an articulation. It depends. So fall semester, it looks a little closer. Spring semester, typically, like this year, they ended the week before, but not after. But the econ class, like, buckled up. So thankfully, the instructor for that online class was really great with our counselors. The collaboration is probably the most intense collaborative relationship I've been a part of because we're all public schools, right? But the higher ed and the K-12 systems are so diverse. They're

089all different, but they all involve so many requirements. Their funding, they do receive funding related to our students. And so that is why there is some payment that comes back. And right now, the work to be done this year, Kim gets to be in on this group, but the work to be done is to figure out how do we really name what they're receiving and their costs and the school district's costs. So it's ongoing because as of last year, 25% of Alan Hancock's enrollment were high school students. Oh, yeah. That is expected to increase again. Us alone have six more courses we're offering. Other sites that are larger, you want to talk about Santa Maria and Lompoc, they're adding quite a few. So that increases the students. If 39% of our students have one or

090more class, get a school of 3,000 and let's talk about it, right? And in negotiating with Alan Hancock with the CCAP agreement and the MOU, I want to make sure that whatever Santa Maria is getting, just because they have more students and more courses, they're not going to be getting the same amount of money. And so we're going to make sure that these schools are going to believing free and open-use education. So that increases the students. And I'm going to put that into equivotion. This is super. What's happening is this idea is we're trying to make the work a little bit moreенная if that's necessarily what it's going to cost. So... Yeah, so, aha! And, you know, there's two things that are going to move. One is we're going to try to provide a normal

091setting. And then it's IRA as well. So, you know, it's going to mean, and again, I want our teachers and other basement teachers to be competitive in introducing some baixas, but also in allowing us to get into new ideas that we didn't want until a series of manufacturing that we had that we were trying to develop and the director from Oklahoma was able to work on, was able to get those things. I don't want you to negotiate for something that my kids and my teachers aren't going to get. We kind of need to stick together in this. And all of the superintendents have agreed that we will stick together and that we will ensure that all students get the same and all teachers get the same. On this positive note, I have a Debbie Downer

092question. So are we losing classes because these are high school teachers? It's a two part question. Are teaching these then also on a positive note, can we get rid of AP classes? Because these will be you don't take the AP test. You still get the college credit and the weighted grade. This is such a philosophical loaded question. This is such a philosophical. So I think everybody looks at it differently. So I think that if you are a student who is looking at the Harvard's, Yale's, the Ivy League's, I think it is. Important that we even the UCLA's of the world. I think it is still very important that we have AP offerings because that's what makes that population of students truly competitive in that space. Yes. But if you're talking about one of my students,

093one of my own children, my own, I would choose to put my own child in a Alan Hancock course because it's guaranteed. College credit, whereas AP is never guaranteed college credit. It is dependent on what college you go to, what courses they'll take and grant you credit for, what courses they'll waive. But if you take an Alan Hancock course with us and it's truly like the English 101, you have received your college credit for your English course. Or so. So it's that balance where that's going to come down. So I think that's where we're going to be. I think that's where we're going to be. So I think that's where we're going to be. At this point, we have not lost any AP courses. We still have a robust AP offering because we still have

094students that want those AP courses. So at this point, those Ivies and those high, you know, those top tier universities are still looking at the APs. And to speak from the master schedule lens, I'm currently at 96.8% scheduled. I've got 25%. I've got 25% scheduled. I've got 24 kids without complete schedules. And info from our feeders is going to blow that up and then we'll build it back. But that being said, what it's done is we increased concurrent enrollments in content areas like English and social studies. It just creates more complications in our master. But it's because I'm offering both now. So it creates another level, another course at the same grade level. So I might have, right, we do have less sections of AP if I were to look back probably five years ago.

095Some of that's just in general enrollment. But some is because like for English, I have for AP literature, it's going to be one section. It is a more than full section. It's a little over 30 students currently because some usually move out of there at the beginning of the year. For concurrent enrollments, I have three. So there are some students that they would have taken AP, but they choose they are not as literature of a student. They really like the writing. And they could have done AP. They're choosing the concurrent or for the credit, they're going to California schools. But what it's also doing is a student where an AP and that level of AP reading and that literature focus and that analysis, they would have just done a regular CP class. They're saying, hmm,

096maybe I can do this concurrent enrollment. So it's really those classes can be quite a mix of students and abilities, which is challenging. But that's similar to a freshman level college. Right. We all, you know, anybody who's been in a freshman level college course, the abilities vary. And so they get that experience on our campus to start with, which is cool. But also we haven't seen any of our AP offerings disappear. No. Yeah. We have not one less course, just section shifts. I guess I would just think I would rather take a college course and not take the AP exam and do it in a semester versus a whole year. But that's just, you know. I'm really thankful we can meet both. I think the populations of students Kim mentioned that we can still provide

097options for those students who are looking for those elite schools. And we have students get in there every year and that we can provide so many courses for students to save money when they go to college and to experience what it's going to be like so that they can feel like it's more accessible. It's really cool. Thank you. You're going to be done with me for like three minutes. It's coming. Yeah. So that's fantastic. What a great, yeah. What a great discussion. How will it be for you? Yes, it will. I see. Yep. Perfect. So we'll move on to Instructual Continuity Plan, ICP, Supplemental to Safety Plan. Thank you, Jeff. A teamwork here. Yep. What happened last time? That's perfect. And I just, yeah. All right. There we go. Sorry. Hello. Thank you. I'm Jasmine

098Day. I'm another assistant principal. I'm a director of the National Safety Plan. I'm a director of the National Safety Plan. I'm a director of the National Safety Plan. I'm a director of the National Safety Plan. Mine is a very brief presentation. This is really just something supplemental to the safety plan that we already reviewed in February, I believe that it was. And this is just a piece that needs to be added by July 1st of this year. And then we'll be from here on out just incorporated into that safety plan every year. So this was a response to sort of the natural disasters, specifically the fires that happened down in L.A. And so we wanted to make sure that we had some sort of instructional continuity plan. So. This was something that we already had

099sort of a rough draft of from COVID. So I used that one to start off with. And then it really focuses on the unique needs of the L.A. So in terms of guidance for this, we worked with the SBCO. I looked at the ICPs for both Ballard and Buelton. I then went and spoke with different departments because different things are discussed in this ICP plan. And really, it's just making sure that students have access. So. And then the other thing that I did not put up there was health and wellness. And I apologize, but she was a huge help with this, too, thinking about, you know, the SEL needs of our community, our parents, our students. And so just some of the broad topics that are covered are the timelines. You know, when are we

100going to be speaking with families? When are we going to be speaking with students? When are we going to be actually resuming some type of instruction? For communications, we talked about kind of the how, the when, what platforms are we using? Do we have hotspots? Do we not have hotspots? So IT was very helpful there. We looked at a large piece of the educational access. So is this going to be asynchronous? Is this going to be remote learning? What kind of devices do we have? Because as we've spoken about at board meetings this year, we're doing a rollout of Chromebooks now. So this year, we'll now have two years. So freshman and sophomore will have Chromebooks, I believe. And then the MacBooks will be for juniors and seniors. So, you know, do we have all

101of these things? What happens if something breaks those pieces? And then the different supports. We're looking at are for students who have IEPs, are language learners, students who have SEL needs. So we really touched base on all of those things in this plan. It's just seven or eight pages that we add on to that. And it really it looks different for each district, I guess. So each school site slash district in our valley. So that was the work that was done here. Again, it's very it's short. I to be perfectly honest, we all know that all you can do is sort of brainstorm for a natural disaster or for something because the incident itself is going to be very, very specific and we're going to have to have a very, very specific response. But I

102thought it was a great exercise in getting to meet with all of the different departments and say, where are we at with this? Notice some things that we didn't have. There's a very specific line item in here that says water, you know, drinking water for students. And so I went to Polo and I said, hey, do we have drinking water or where is that located? And he said, oh, gosh, we used to have it over. And I said, well, we used to have it in the science building, but we don't have it anymore. So, you know, went over to Alicia and then we came up with the plan for that. So the basics are there. The groundwork is there. But also knowing that we will have many, many more meetings necessary if something happens that

103will be specific to that situation. So thank you for any questions. Oh, wait. Oh, I do have one. Is there is there a shelter in place type plan? Is this part of it, too, that would have to work? And then so we do. Would the gym be the shelter in place? Is that I mean, are we not discussing that? I mean, is there a self-contained place where there's water and things that kids have to stay? So two or three days or something like that? Yeah. So that so, you know, as we think through these things, the the idea of us being in unable to go anywhere for three days is it's hard to imagine what that circumstance would look like, even if a fault line were to open up right through the middle of the

104campus. Right. And split the whole thing into we have a rancho right across the street. We have the YMCA, which is right over there. Some of our plans will include having water accessible in every building. So some buildings have an internal space like our science building where we could keep supplies. Other supplies would be had within the individual classrooms. And that's part of the actual safety plan itself. The comprehensive school safety plan. This is really just specific to the continuity of the instruction piece. Mm hmm. Yeah. Any further? Discussion? Great. All right. Thank you. So now we'll move on to the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six local control accountability accountability plan. OK, we're doing it right. So tonight I'm here to present annual update information related to our twenty five twenty six El Cap.

105This will come back next week for approval next week. Also, Kim will be sharing local indicators with you, with you all that are will be going on our California school dashboard and our required component. But we can't present those until we are at the meeting where we approve the El Cap. So I'm prepping more materials, but Kim will share that with you next week. So this year is an annual update. We're not on the full cycle. It is far less painful, I can say very confidently. The county has had a full review. I've worked through all of their suggestions and other than potentially a few more suggestions later in the summer. We have met all of the required components of the El Cap with the county. There was nothing in red. Everything, even the template

106is correct. So we are doing just fine on that realm. Made a few tweaks Friday morning after a meeting with them again. And so I am feeling good about what is in here. This year and also some adjustments I mentioned in August I would be making for this next year's El Cap related to some metrics and the usual data review that leads to changes in actions and things like that. Required plan. It is meant for transparency, transparency and accountability and how we support our English learners, our socioeconomically disadvantaged students and our foster youth. Those are the three groups that are specifically named. Also there are requirements related to students with disabilities that you have to make plans for them. But it is not attached to the money requirements. Just we have to name the things

107we are doing that are really important for students with disabilities. It ensures that alignment of funding makes sense. At least we are explaining that, how we are spending our funds. And we have to have metrics that are attached to actions and we have to talk about is what we are doing. Is this what we are doing? Is this what we are doing? Is this what we are doing? Working or not? And if not, when we read our three year plan we are going to have to make changes to the actions. Kim went over this with you all last year. But just as a reminder, if we were an LCFF district, that the funding would be based off of student need. And so we would actually receive base funding for all our students and then additional

108dollars in both supplemental and concentration grants to help the students who are on duplicated pupils. mentioned earlier. As a basic aid district or community funded district, with property taxes, we are playing with the same bucket of funds. We don't receive more for these students. The plan just has us name how we're allocating our bucket of funds towards these students in the amounts that are required by state law. The annual update, the purpose of that is just to review what happened in the prior year or potentially a year and a half ago because of some of the metrics I'll explain where you have to function a little bit behind. Analyze how it's gone, what went well, what didn't. Do some reflection based off of trends in the data, changes at your site. We've only had a

109few changes here in the last year. So really being able to account for those changes and then you are just informing what's going to happen next. So naming where we've been and where are we going. As another reminder, we have three goals. One related to student achievement, another related to student achievement, and the other related to student achievement. So we have three goals. One related to student achievement, another related to student achievement, another on culture and climate, and then our educational partner engagement. These are our same goals. They are not going to change. You'll hear from me about these probably two more times. Other than the mid-year updates, we have to hear from them a little bit more. And so these are the goals we're working with and all the actions have to align with

110these goals. Every metric under each goal has to be measuring how your actions are doing. So some areas of success, and really I decided to just highlight where some areas where we did really well and some areas of growth. So our graduation rate remains high. It increased a smidge. We always have a little bit of variability because of our enrollment numbers. We can see that. I was actually going over our last year grad rates today with Selena, our data specialist, and talking through that. And so we're doing okay. We want to keep increasing on that, but it stayed high and went up a little bit. College and career readiness, that sits at the green performance level. If you remember on the dashboard, the highest is blue. Green means good. And that's sitting really high for

111us. That's also higher than the state average by quite a bit. And so our English learner progress, we made great progress for our English learners and increasing their language proficiency. So that was really nice to see. And then our suspension rate also decreased by 1.8%. So a lot of that is the work that's been happening in student services to streamline and create great discipline practices that hold students accountable, but try to keep them learning when they can. And so we also had some increases on some qualitative measures like school connectedness and perceived safety. Those came from surveys that went to all community and educational partners. So parents, students, staff, both classified and certificated. There are some revisions to actions and also kind of some new actions too, just because of the way they were revised.

112So we had named in our LCAP before a CTE lead. That role, that was what Kelly Carter was doing before she moved into administration. It really hadn't found its space. And also when we were developing last year's LCAP, we were waiting to hear back about Golden State Pathways grant because they kept doing the give you money, take it away for like seven months. So that, I have replaced that action with the college, career and community TOSA position, because that really aligns with what we're doing in trying to increase our CTE completion and our A through G rates that all align. So that's naming the work that we already moved towards doing for next year. A cycles of inquiry, there was a interim assessments item, but the cycles of inquiry where we're trying to get the

113real-time data that Kim has mentioned so many times before, we've named that as an action because that's what we're doing. It's in our water. It's in our L-CAP now. It is in our professional development plans. It's aligning the work that's happening. Pirate Academic Center, instead of just naming generic tutoring, PAC is really intended to be addressing areas of need in math and language arts. And we plan on continuing that, thankfully with partnership with the Pirate Foundation. So we are so very lucky that we were able to launch that this year. And it really has provided targeted interventions. And we've already seen some of that in the raw data related to CAASPP, which is good news. And then on our health and wellness model, and really under the Health and Wellness Center, I really just made

114some adjustments to language because there's partnership shifts that are occurring. You all approved our contract with presence last meeting, which is providing counseling supports. It really, we wanted to give ourselves the ability to encompass all of our partners that we utilize at different times. And it was just narrowed a little bit more. So I just made it a little bit more broad in describing that and naming how some of our partnerships look. So it was more playing with words than a true change of action. There are a number of metrics we've added. One of these was required. The others were responding to what I mentioned back in August, that we were struggling to get the right amount of support for the students. And so we had to create real time metrics that could help us

115in measuring how are we doing right now, because the LCAP has what is called lag data, right? So we have to pull a lot of information from the prior year as you're making plans for the next year. And so I wanted some other pieces of information for us to look at. One is a percentage of teachers completing at least one cycle of inquiry. So and that was really neat to see. We've had a large chunk of teachers, even more so than have received the official training. They were able to use support from our instructional leadership team and do at least one cycle. So we'll keep an eye on that metric. Yeah. Sorry. No, please interrupt. Yes. Just clarify cycle of inquiry again. Yeah. So that is the training related to achievement teams that we had

116a number of teachers and administrators go to in January. It's kind of, it's really adding great real time data into what were PLCs in some ways. So we're not going to be able to do that. We're going to be able to do that. So we're going to be able to do that. We're going to be able to do that. So we're really using pre-assessments, doing some pre-teaching, some pre-assessments and adjusting your teaching based off of the kids that are right in front of you versus just using information to inform what happens right down way down the road. We want to make changes in the moment and you choose your instructional practices based off of what's in front of you. So instead of pre-planning all your teaching, having a bank of strategies based off of who's

117in your class at that moment and how are they doing right then. So it's giving teachers the, some of the freedom and the structure to say, I got to change what I'm doing right now, not just next year. There'll be a lot more about cycles of inquiry into this next year as we get more of our teachers onboarded with it. Science achievement data, we had to include a metric related to that. That was required. Science will post to the dashboard in a color in the fall. This year it was just distance from standard. So currently we are 13.4 points below standard. It doesn't name fully what the standard is. Right. It's a little vague. It's all gray right now, but it is similar to the state. We are a smidge above the state, but that

118is also the data from 2024. Right. So we'll see how we did this year. Once we get all that information, it'll start funneling in later in summer and then we get dashboard in the fall. The college and career preparation. So that's percent of students classified as prepared on the college and career indicator. We're at 61.2%. I mentioned that metric earlier. I've also attached in the information in front of you kind of how students can meet that CCI. So it can be A through G plus something else or a CTE pathway plus something else, but also concurrent enrollment classes can help you meet, CLL by literacy. There's a multitude of ways of meeting that. So we've been working on how do we create better communication related to the CCI and a lot of counseling work happening

119around that. So students, you may say already a four year college is not my plan, but do you have a CTE pathway that you're planning on completing? Are you working on your CLL by literacy? What are you doing here? That's going to help prepare you for your goals. So we want to look at that and we want to keep an eye on that. It's a great measure for us to be looking at are we meeting the needs of all of our students because they, there's so many different ways to look at what preparation means. Okay. So the data, I mean, I hear of all the dual enrollment and the APs. That just seems low to me. So that is actually, I want it higher too. And some of it is based off of, if you

120look at the sheet, it can be, you've done the classes, but maybe you didn't get a high enough grade. You may have done your A through G, but you didn't do one of the other items too. That's intentionality on our part and communication with all of our partners, making sure our teachers understand it. Our parents understand it, our students understand it. So yeah, I think we can go quite a bit higher. I will say comparatively with the state, I believe the state's at about 45%. So we are much higher than that, but I don't always like looking at the state because I want to look at us and how we're doing. And so, yeah, I would like to see that higher because I think there's a lot of ways we can be intentional. And so

121that is a lot of the work to come. Dual enrollment, that is a metric I already mentioned to you earlier. Percent of students enrolled in at least dual enrollment course that was just trying to figure out how do we quantify and look at we're doing this dual enrollment it's an action that we have but how are we looking at whether or not it's mattering um the cci plays a big part of that but i wanted us to really be looking at that dual enrollment um number and then i added one metric specifically into parent participation and just looking at what percentage of our parents are attending and four or more events per school year because we have back to school night we have showcase great that's two what else are they attending and so in

122that it asked about theater events football games performances music anything you may be coming to and for us to look at over half of our parents are attending something but also wouldn't it be great to have a community that's meeting the needs of all of our students and to see that continue to increase so if we're looking at we want our families engaged and we want their voice heard and so them seeing what's happening for their themselves and finding ways to connect it's really important so those are the additional metrics so what five here's some areas for growth and we need to continue to focus on they aren't new these were on our original but it's where our current data is really showing us we got to keep working and driving our ELA performance and

123math performance I've we've already mentioned we're showing growth but the metrics we have to report on this year's LCAP are 2024 so that was the drop we've talked about that we know that's there that was a large part of pirate academic center and attentionality behind that intentionality behind how we prepared students for state testing and communicating the importance all of that mattered and so we believe we're seeing that but we got to keep putting pedal to the metal and seeing if that continues to help or if there are other actions that need to take place you , when you revisit this I would love to see the comparison not just the 2025 numbers but I'd love to see them next to it because the growth will be tremendous and I would like to be reminded

124of that minus and the plus yes and we'll show we'll go back to the beginning of this so we can show that there it's not fast but intentionality makes a difference and we're gonna see that so here it'll also be really encouraging for our students and for our staff everyone worked really hard for us to be reflecting how great our students are and there's a lot of great things happening so we're looking forward to seeing those yeah and then chronic absenteeism still an area we'd like to focus on now that's not a like dashboard reported metric for high school it actually stops and actually the state has restopped reporting that on anything so we are choosing to continue to measure that because that matters to us and so we're still above what our goal is

125it decreased a smidge but work again we'll get to look at that now for next year because we have to we had to wait for everything to close out timing of this getting sent in so when we look at all of our data we'll kind of keep an eye on that metric and then a 3g completion it was really similar year over year but again that's 2024 we want to keep increasing so we'll have that official number at the end of summer in to fall because it happens after summer school there can still be some changes and adjustments so we'll keep an eye on that one and then our partner engagement so we have 66% of our families attend something but just getting their opinions and their responses we stayed about the same at about

12619% and so how do we figure out ways to really engage our partners in sharing what their wants and needs and interactions really are with the school and so we also had again 74.4% of families feel the district seeks input but then the ways in which we're asking for input that's out of the 19% that responded so there are many others that may feel differently so that metric looks good but is that the full picture possibly not so can you go back yep looking at this chronic absenteeism is one of the metrics that affects every metric on that hmm and that's it that's a big deal so I'm glad it's up there it's unfortunate that everybody doesn't use it as a metric mm-hmm and so the Student Services Department did a really great job this

127year in doing start contracts with students and really trying to be proactive instead of reactive sending out letters meeting with families and they even to the point where they had a celebration at the end of the year for the students that had improved their absenteeism we are also starting at pirate check-in there anybody that has 10% or more absenteeism absences, will start the year on a SART contract so that they understand how important it is that you show up to school and that you're engaged in your education. And our goal is just to get on top of it like day one at pirate check-in before school even starts. The other thing that we're doing, and it's just one of those philosophical things, but we're adding in our ledger of how we clear absences. We're adding

128a metric. So I think a lot of times parents don't understand there's excused absences and there's unexcused absences. And just because you call doesn't mean the absence is excused. The absence is only legally excused for doctor, dentist, maybe bereavement. We want you to call. But your calling in the absence is still unexcused. So trying to explain to parents, they're like, I called, how is it an excuse? So the metric that we're adding this year is we're adding unexcused but verified. So it's a verified absence by their parent. We have verified their parent knows their absence. And we will be having those conversations with parents that we understand that you verify. your student's absence, it's still unexcused. So then we can, we can disaggregate out the truly unexcused kids that are absence, that their parents don't

129know they're absent and aren't calling to excuse them from the ones that the parents are calling as unexcused, but verified, and then the truly excused absences. So our absences will fall into three different categories now, instead of just excused and unexcused. And I think it'll be clear to parents that it's unexcused, but verified, or it's just completely unexcused. I should know this, but what is the consequence for unexcused absence? There's, there's detention, there's alternative classroom, there's a SART contract. So the specifics are if they have four or more combined tardies or unexcused absences in any given year, they're not excused. And if they have four or more combined tardies or unexcused absences in any given year, they're not excused. And if they have four or more combined tardies or weeks, then the following week, they

130will have one detention. If they have six or more of those combined, then they have two detentions. If they do that three weeks in a row, then they will go into an alternative classroom for seventh period so that we continue to tier things because the goal of discipline is to make the behavior stop. And clearly, if something isn't working, then we need to try a different angle. So once they're in AC, that's when they have these wonderful conversations with Mr. Wolf. And he tries to get to the bottom of what's going on here is that the parents aren't receiving messages is that that you don't have to go to the school. You don't have somebody at home to call for you. Are you staying with a friend? You know, how can we help and support

131you get to school because it's important and the number one indicator of academic success, which is graduation. So those are the pieces that we're starting with now. And then we're also going to be looking at holding them accountable for attendance for things like going to school dances and things as well. Plus the privilege points that we have for students as well, their attendance matters in terms of their off campus privileges for senior year, as well as junior second semester. For lunch passes. Chronic absenteeism has never been a metric in which they used for privileges or obligations for students to be allowed to have a lunch pass. So if you start the year off with a SART contract and your previous semester, which is the semester we just finished, and you were chronically absent and you're

132a senior, you will not be given a lunch pass. You need to improve your attendance in order to be given the privilege to be able to go off campus for lunch. So there's kind of like those carrots and those sticks right now that we are starting to implement. But it is just about giving the opportunity to change your behavior. It's not a death sentence if you don't, you know, you have a quarter to bring up your absentee and then be given your lunch pass. So it's not like you can't ever earn it back. So who keeps track? That's a lot of data that you guys are like managing. I'm like, I'm just like, whoa. It's just like being so hard to keep track of it all and report it. So five of us actually sat

133in the superintendent's conference room. Our data specialist ran all the queries for us. We put the student's name on the top of each sheet. We put how many absences they had, what their GPA was, how many tardies they had, if they had any major or minor discipline infractions. Each of those behavior academics and attendance were, they're each a column. They're each assigned a point value and you have to have a certain amount of points to be eligible. And so we sat around a table and we did it and we looked at every single student. And what it did is it really made some kids stand out to us. And then we had the commitment to have the conversations with those kids about why they're not eligible and how they can become eligible. And the, oh,

134sorry. No, go ahead. Oh, the other piece is our attendance assistant reached out to all of our feeder schools as well to flag any of those students who also for their past year at their schools in eighth grade had 10% or more. So they will also start the year with a feeder contract. And that was very interesting and helpful because we got the notes from the attendance people as well, which is just invaluable for us. Yeah. This is tremendous because I don't think kids really understand the consequences. It's like a cartoon. You know, the anvil drops and then they get back up and they move on. But to lose a lunch pass as a senior, but understand that, that it's on them to take the responsibility is just really, just a great. Or to lose

135the privilege to attend homecoming. Like you have to earn the privilege for extracurriculars. Well, then it becomes their choice and they have to decide, am I going to do it or not? And we have some community service opportunities built in for kids that are maybe just a few points away. Where they can do some community service and earn a few points back. So we have that opportunity. The interesting thing too, when we were looking at GPAs, when we did it the first time, we did unweighted GPAs. And there were a number of kids that came to me, well, to all of us and said, wait, I should have, they had enough points, but they're like, I should have more points. I'm not sure you weighted my GPA. So now we're making sure that we're weighting

136those GPAs. And we're just making sure that we're doing it right. We're just making sure that we're doing it right. So we're making sure that we're doing it right. We're making sure that we're doing it right. It's not. Yeah, it's not counted against them. And we take, you know, the quarterback, you know, from playing on Friday night. The coaches hold their athletes to a very high standard for behavior, attendance, and grades. As a matter of fact, sometimes I'm shocked and I'm like, our athletes at times have a double jeopardy. they get punished double the amount of time as anybody else. The coaches here hold those athletes to a very high standard. Yeah. So typically our athletes aren't, and since more than 70% of our kids participate in athletics, what you're seeing when we see these

137contracts, it's this very small pool of kids. And we can now really give those kids the attention and the targeted interventions that they need and maybe find what they're interested in to get them to want to be eligible. It might not be sports for these kids. It might not be theater performances, but what is it that you're interested in that we can make sure that we can get you the privilege of doing by being on campus and, and being eligible for these things. And so, so, so, you know, we want to make sure that we're targeting all the kids and not just like this one group of students. And, and, and that's brilliant because they are individual and it might be a leadership. It might be, it may be something that is so obscure that

138you don't think of, but it actually, there's a larger pool of kids that they need. It'll, it'll bring it into home to them. I'm just thinking of so many children that you don't know what it is. And when you find it, you're like, Oh, that's obvious. Yeah, we can do that. We can get you involved in that. I mean, we have quite a few kids that are really involved in photography here, you know? And so photography and, and different things in the, in the arts or robotics, or we now have our e-sports. So all of these things are really things that kids trying to find something for everybody. And then that carrot can get bigger and bigger. And so that it becomes like a goal and then they feel successful. Wonderful. Just a few reflections

139and adjustments. Some of these we just talked about. So one area for this next year where we need to be really intentional is related to our ELD professional development. It's been named an action 1.1 for the last year. I've met with SPCEO and they're some amazing people at the County. And we've discussed some options in just how our program set up on the backend. And also the idea that some having professional development for both our designated ELD teachers and also our integrated, we have sheltered courses and we are due for, some very intentional professional development. So I'm going to work with them to set some things up for those teachers throughout next year. And so that's some of the summer work is to talk with them and figure out what does that look like? Because

140when I discussed with them kind of, here's our model and what we're doing as a small school where we're looking at 30 students or less typically, but 30 students who have real needs and we have a responsibility to support. They said, yeah. And they asked really good questions about professional development and about for all, those teachers who are involved, what does that look like? So looking forward to some planned time for that. I already mentioned the CCI college and career indicator and intentionality related to communication about all those areas again, about helping students do whatever it is they want to do next. That idea of the profile of a graduate that all plays into it. Students understanding what we want for them when they leave us, that we want so many good things for them

141and that they get to want good things. For themselves in whatever way that looks. So the work around that is going to be ongoing, but needing to be intentional. We just talked about SART quite a bit. And then the other one, just to note, I had to make a metric adjustment. Some of this also led to the conversations with the County about help me think through our English learner supports, because as I looked at it, teachers had self reported, you know, basically are you using the ELD standards? There's standards specifically related to, to English language development that are supposed to go parallel with any other courses standards, really when you're working with an English learner. And last year they were reporting really high. And then this year I got a more realistic metric and I

142went, that's an education piece. It's not because our teachers aren't supporting our English learners. Our teachers are bending over backwards, but there was a realization of we need to equip them better to understand how to use those, what that means and how those standards can really help. Teachers understand where their students are with language and how to support them in that to access content. So it was a good find a little bit of an, Oh shoot. And I had to ask, how do I fix a metric? That's completely wrong. Like I know that wasn't a good baseline. And so I worked with the County on that. They're like, yeah, it happens. So that means that we're doing the right work and looking at is what's in our L cap actually accurate. So that was one

143thing that wasn't, but it'll be good for us to track that and look at that for next year. So that was one thing that wasn't, but it'll be good for us to track that and look at that for next year. So that was one thing that wasn't, but it'll be good for us to track that and look at that for next year. So that was one thing that wasn't, but it'll be good for us to track that and look at that for next year. So I'm looking forward to that. And I'm open for any questions. It's a lot of me tonight. I'm sorry. Alicia is next. She's ready to go. Thank you. Thank you. I think we got the questions out. That I'll take that. And next week it'll just be a clean approval and

144then the local indicators. So we are almost through this part. So thank you so much. And thank you for your patience this year and the adjustments we had to make in the fall. It's better. It's a lot. It's aligned with our WASC. It's aligned with our mission and vision. It's the right work. So we've made a lot of progress and I'm looking forward to it, helping us keep track of some things that it doesn't matter. So we know how much, how much work. Yeah. I was just going to say, I want to make sure to publicly say it because I probably don't say it enough to them personally, but, um, Kelly Carter, Jasmine day and, um, Tori Martinez are very hard workers. They. Work hard to do what's best for students all the time. And

145they're in the trenches and they never take their foot off the gas pedal. I mean, school just ended and we're already talking about next year. So, so I just, we couldn't do this without them and this school wouldn't be as successful without, without them. And then this one over here too, you know, she's a rock star. She's like, no, we don't have the money. We are surrounded by. Many hardworking crazy. So I need to open the public hearing for the 2025 26. Control accountability plan. Okay. And I'll close it. And now we can move on to the original adopted budget. 25, 26 through 27, 28 multi-year projections. Thank you. And thank you, Tori, for setting it up for me. Oh, wait, I need the thingy. I'm blind. I covered it. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

146Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I do it daily almost. It keeps her on her toes, though. Okay. So welcome. I feel like we were just here. We are here to talk about the original adopted budget for 25, 26. As always, we'll go over a quick agenda. We'll talk about the reporting documents, both internal documents and those that are required for the state. We'll talk about the assumptions that the budget is based on. We'll go over. We'll go over. We'll go over the assumptions that the budget is based on. revenue, expenditures, our ending fund balance, multi-year projections, as well as out-year considerations. And we'll start with

147reporting documents. I'm just going to gloss over this because this is just kind of a reminder, most likely for those at home that are looking at the documents. They're very difficult to read. And if you don't know what you're looking at, they're not very informative. So we have the SACS forms on the left. Those are the ones that go to the state. Those are all the account codes put into numbers and figures. If you really want to understand what's changed in the budget and how to read the SACS forms, look at the analysis of changes. That's all posted on the budget website for every iteration of the budget. And it compares the numbers and says, hey, it was $10. Now it's $20. Here's why. With a bunch of legends and codes so you can figure

148out where you're looking. So if you ever need that, if you ever need to reference it. They're always on the website. So we'll jump into the original budget. So the original budget for 25-26 is probably, like I say, the least accurate of all the budget iterations that I bring to you. This is because this budget contains projected ending fund balances for a year we have not yet finished. And we use those projected ending fund balances to project out what the beginning fund balances are going to be. So immediately it kind of sets us up for things to not be super accurate. In addition to this, the budget, the original budget is due to you by this first board meeting in June, which is June 10th. It's due for inspection from the public 10 days before

149today's date of the meeting. And there's weeks worth of work that go into just creating the forms and the presentations and all the things that have to be attached for inspection. So the original budget only contains known information through April 30th. And I think sometimes that's not thought about when we look at the original budget. We just assume, oh, we all know everything that's happening. Anything that kind of changed after April 30th, new additions, new retirements, new happenings, whatever the case may be, whether it's internal, state, federal, those are not going to be reflected because we cannot continue to reflect those in the original budget. So the original budget, while we're working, there has to be a cut-off point. So that's why this is, it's a great look into where we're going and kind of

150what our plan is for next year. And it encompasses all our LCAP goals and expenditures and all that. But it is very, very shaky and inaccurate based on the fact that it is missing information that we already know is missing as of, you know, May 1st. We know things have changed. So just keep in mind when we're looking at this that it's not the end-all, be-all. The first interim board meeting, it's not the end-all, be-all. It's the end-all, be-all. It's the end-all, be-all. It's the end-all, be-all. It's the end-all, be-all. It's the end-all, be-all. It's the end-all, be-all. It's the end-all, be-all. budget is much more accurate and we get more accurate obviously as the year goes on. So we are increasing our projected property tax increases in this budget and the two out years

151from our historical 2.5 to 3.5 and we're doing this because we are trying to still maintain you know the conservative budgeting but also not be so dramatic that we tell people we're only going to get two percent when we know darn well we're going to get more. So we are trying to balance transparency and accuracy with being conservative and making sure we don't get to the end of the year with less than we think. So looking at our 10-year average 3.5 is still safe within our 10-year average so we have upped that again for this budget and the two out years. In this budget the original budget includes settled negotiations for both our classified and our classified management. bargaining units but it does not include any increases for certificated or administration as the faculty association

152association I can't speak tonight has requested delaying negotiations until the first county property tax projections are received in November. So it does not so we did not proactively put any increases in there because we don't want to be presumptuous as to what they're going to want to talk about what our situation is going to be or anything like that. So we don't want to be presumptuous as to what they're going to want to talk about what our situation is going to be or anything like that. So we don't want to be presumptuous as to what our situation is going to be or anything like that. So we let's it stable so the only increases in terms of the certificated and admin bargaining units are stuff and column those that we know that OK you were

153on step 9 this year your own stuff and column those that we know that OK you were on step 9 this year your own stuff 10 next year if they earn credit you know to move up on the columns we know that we've included that so only those types of things that are already are established for movement are included for those bargaining units all state required planning factors were used in the budget including CPI stirs and purrs increases and all those things. And all one-time revenues and expenditures have been adjusted to reflect decreasing balances. So as we get, you know, a million dollars, it's one time in the first year, you'll see revenue of a million dollars. In the second year, you'll see revenue of zero, but you'll continue to see the expenses for three

154to five years. So those things have been adjusted as we go. Okay, so we'll start. Oh, this is not cooperating. So we'll start looking at our revenue. Combined revenue decreased by 1.9% or about $344,000. And the decrease is reflected really in the restricted side of the house rather than the unrestricted. And this is an expected decrease as, like I said, we don't receive additional one-time dollars and we spend down our one-time dollars. So it is not alarming to see a decrease in revenue specifically on the restricted side of the house. Oops, I forgot these aren't connected. So as we move to the restricted revenue, restricted revenue just by itself had a 50%. So that's a 54.2% decrease, which amounts to about $805,000. Most of the decrease was seen in the state revenue. The federal revenue

155had a modest decrease due to our decreasing ADA in the district. And we have several smaller pots of federal funds that rely on ADA and, you know, students in seats and that type of thing and enrollment. The state decreases consist of things being removed like the one-time Golden State Pathways grant, which was... The one-time Golden State Pathways grant was $1 million. That's been... Well, actually, we only received $700,000 of the million so far. But that's been removed from revenue because we know a smaller amount is going to come in to finish that grant allocation this year. We've also removed the... What is it called? I didn't write it down. I just used an acronym. The capacity grant. So the mental health capacity grant has been removed as well as carryovers for our ag career tech.

156So we have several grants that our ag department secures. It's called... It's called... If they don't complete their spending by the end of the previous fiscal year, they're allowed to carry it over. So some of that revenue was in last year's budget. They have everything projected to be fully spent. So the carryover revenue is not included again in this year. And that pretty much sums it up in terms of restricted revenue. It's all unalarming what we would expect for decreasing revenue despite the fact that 54% seems like it would be an alarming number for revenue. So looking at the unrestricted... I have separated the unrestricted revenue into two pots because if you do this graph with property taxes included, it makes everything else on the right look so small you can't really see the comparison.

157So the left side box is just property taxes. And again, we have increased our property taxes from the 2.5 to the 3.5%. However, we did have some mitigating factors to the property tax increase. One of those was that... Last year, we received $80,000 in one-time back tax collection. And that inflated our revenue in property taxes last year. That can't be used for the 3.5% increase because it's one-time, not something we get every year. We also had a $20,000 increase in our in-lieu payments to Olive Grove Charter School based on their ADA. Sometimes their ADA is low. Sometimes it's high. So we are using our projections for 25-26 based on what we ended up... with this year. So it's not horrible, but it is a $20,000 increase. So that, for us, the way we code that

158in the account is a reduction in revenue because we're basically... We receive it, but we transfer it out. So it's just a reduction to us. We had a slight change in federal funding, almost negligent. It doesn't even show up on the chart. We had a slight increase in our lottery projections. And lottery is one of those things that's based on ADA. So the increase is not because... We have more students, but it's because the allocation factor that they are using for the lottery went up slightly. So I just want to make that clear. Our local revenue decreased about $40,000 as we received a one-time CalSTRS excess... What is it? Excess contribution refund. So we removed that from our revenue. But overall, our unrestricted revenue increased by about 2.7% or $461,000. For next... Next year. And

159looking at expenditures... Overall, so looking at expenditures, both restricted and unrestricted, our expenditures increased by 0.7% or only $132,000. This level of increase in expenditures is really commendable. It's a group effort with all the staff in their departments, not spending just to spend because they have the dollars there. This is part... Of our deficit reduction plan. And I would say that 99.999% of the staff, even if it is begrudgingly, have got on board with the deficit reduction plan and have not... Like at the end of the year and previous years, they'd be like, okay, how much more do I have left to spend at Office Depot or Amazon? Yes, I'm sure they needed the pens or whatever it is, or they could have used the pens. But did they actually need them for that year?

160The answer is probably no if they're ordering it at the end of the year. So they've done things like not do that. So they're ordering as... They need it rather than stockpiling. So it's just a nice reflection that everyone's trying to get on board with the deficit reduction plan. And an increase in expenditures from one year to the next of 0.7% is good, especially when we are also still spending down other funds. So, yeah, I'm proud of us. We're doing a decent job. Our restricted expenditures decreased about 13.4%. This is, again, because as we spend down and have less to spend, the restricted expenditures... So we're going to go down with the balance as it decreases, the expenditures decrease. Our certificated restricted salaries went down as we transferred those back into the unrestricted side of

161the house because the learning recovery block grant, which we were using to pay for summer school over the last couple of years, is fully expended at the end of this summer school. So we've moved those certificated salaries back to the unrestricted side of the house. So it reduces the restricted side salaries. So we haven't cut positions or lost people or, you know, anything with... Entirement's not refilled. It's just moving from a resource that no longer exists back to the traditional area where we were paying that out of. Classified salaries and benefits increased as we see the impact of classified negotiations. Materials and services decreased as one-time pots have been spent down. And it's not easy to see here since the expenses were down this year, but we've stopped transferring out of Fund 01 into Fund

16214 for our deferred maintenance. And we've added those. We've added those expenditures into our routine restricted maintenance account that is required by state because it was the trigger for us receiving the Prop $51. Once you receive that for 20 years, you have to put 3% of your general fund into routine restricted maintenance. We, prior to that trigger, had been taking $75,000. It was at one point $150,000 each year and putting it into Fund 14 and spending it out of there as a way to... Make that money. Make that money. Make that money. Make the point that this is only for deferred maintenance. Yeah, but now that we have a state-required restricted resource for that, it's sort of duplicating work to have it both in Fund 14 and the restricted resource. So we've combined it to

163just the restricted resource in Fund 01. We've left Fund 14 open just in the event that state or federal changes trigger some requirement that we use Fund 14 for something else or for any other reason because it's a pain in the butt to open. So we've left it open. It will be... I think there's a couple, like maybe $50,000 left at the end of this year. We'll spend that down and spend Fund 14 to zero, but all of those ongoing costs are moved into Fund 01. So we're not decreasing what we're spending on routine maintenance, you know, not paying attention to things we should. It's just being spent out of a different spot. Capital outlay in the restricted side of the house is almost eliminated because that entire capital outlay was a grant. The KITCH...

164The KITCH... Infrastructure and Training Grant. And we have fully spent that grant at the end of this year on new kitchen warmers, ovens, toasters, you name it, you know, mittens, all the things you use. We have fully spent the grant. The $10,000 in there is more of a buffer in case something comes up in the routine restricted maintenance that we don't know about. But as of now, there are really no plans for that capital outlay. And the outgo listed at the end, has not changed. That is mental health dollars that... So in prior years, prior to 23-24, there were mental health funds that were allocated to districts that they sent straight to the consortium, and that had always been allowed. There were some legislative changes that affected 23-24 that required those funds to be sent

165to each LEA, to each district. So we get them, and we immediately just transfer. We transfer them over, I believe it's quarterly, to the consortium, because it is technically part of the consortium revenue. We're just now having to be the pass-through for that, for those funds. Okay. Looking at unrestricted expenditures. Our unrestricted expenditures increased 2.4%, which is also not bad. $378,000 is the equivalent of that. Certificated salaries increased simply as a result of our step and column changes. And we also have a couple of new hires being paid more than some of the retirees they replaced. This is not due to some special accommodation. This is just due to when... Oftentimes when we're looking at the CTE ROP sector, they have varying types of degrees and such that got them into their teaching credential. You

166can have some that come in with a master's and a bajillion credits, and you have some that come in because they had industry experience for 10, 15 years. And they're, you know, coming in with a BA versus a master's. So we have a couple of situations with this round of new hires and retirements where the person coming in has more educational experience that places them higher on the salary schedule. So it's not special accommodations in that respect. It's just a difference in how they came into the district. Classified salaries also on the unrestricted side of the house increased as a result of negotiations. Benefits had a negligible change from second interim to the second interim. So we're going to have to look at that. So they didn't change anything in regards to their benefits. Their

167entire tentative agreement and plan was spent on the salary schedule. So that's why you don't see such a change in the benefits rather than the salaries. Materials decreased as we removed one-time expenditures. We were also able to transfer some departmental expenditures to remaining grants, such as the mental health capacity grant, taking some of the health and wellness center expenditures and the mental health capacity grant. We also increased the number of students who were enrolled in the golden state pathways grant, taking some certificated expenditures, some benefit expenditures, and also some materials and supply expenditures as we increase our pathway and move some teachers around to be TOSAs for that program. We also did not increase department budgets. We only increased utility budgets and only applied CPI where required. So our utilities have gone up every year,

168water, trash, sewer, all of that. We've included all those increases and we've included increases for CPI to those materials and departments that we have to, rather than doing CPI across the board, which inevitably increases everyone's department budgets for the same items. So we've kept department budgets across the board, not just teaching. That's maintenance, that's admin, that's business, that's the library, everybody flat as part of our deficit reduction program. Capital outlay has increased here and you'll notice that we've gone from zero to $75,000 in a year. We've had a planned effort to replace one district van every single year. And this is a great example of things that have changed since the budget was completed, put together. We were only planning on one van per year, but we were contacted by the dealership that we worked

169with to secure the first van. They had an opportunity, a rare opportunity, because these vans are excessively difficult to track down and get here. To trade a vehicle that another dealership wanted for a van that they had, that they have had sitting there for the year that they couldn't sell. So they called us and said, we'll only do the trade if you guys want the van. And I was like, heck yes, we want the van. So that is actually going to be probably double that ish, maybe a little less than double because we're now going to do two vans next year, just based on the circumstances and it being silly to, you know, pass that up. Yeah. Yeah. They're real bad. They're real bad. Real bad. But the new one is beautiful. Like I would

170almost drive it just because like it's beautiful. So I got right. I got to drive it from the dealership and I was like, oh, this is so nice. So I think everyone's going to be fighting over it. We're going to have to come up with some parameters as to like everyone gets a lottery. I don't know something because it's going to be like knock down, drag out fights. I'm sure another issue or not issue, but change that we have is our special education. So on here, we. We only have reflected the increases that we were able to secure from the consortium and built in unions second interim. So we we were not able to get updated projections for whatever reason. We were not able to get them. And in addition to not being able to

171get accurate updated projections for original budget, there are things that have changed since April that were known before April that should have been in second interim that were not in second interim that we were made aware of after the budget was put together, like legal settlements and changes to transportation increases, all of these things that should have been included and should have been reflected that were not necessarily reflected accurately or timely. So I will caution you that while the SPED looks like a model, this increase that is likely to blow up at first interim based on the things that we know are coming that have not yet been reflected. Yes, ma'am. Is there any movement of getting those accurate numbers? Do we anticipate getting those accurate numbers that we've been asking for since I don't

172know when before last year? So we all of the CBOs are working very collaboratively in an effort to. help facilitate the creation and release of updated numbers. I think there are roadblocks that are keeping CBOs from getting that information that are unrelated to the consortium CBO. And I think as we work through some of those roadblocks, the transparency and the timeliness and accuracy of the information that we're receiving will get better. But I'm going to leave that discussion for Kim in the next couple of items. I just don't, I remember asking the head of special ed specifically a yes or a no question. You know, are we going to get the read-only amount? And I'm assuming that's the same. And I just got a bunch of verbiage. And then I asked again, can you just

173tell me yes or no? And I got a lot of verbiage. And I know that's coming up. But I want to put up, I just want to make sure that I don't know how you can do your job without having those. And I, I'm just, I am just really frustrated that you cannot give us those numbers. We need to have those numbers. You need to have those numbers and we don't have those numbers. Yeah. No, it's extremely frustrating. All the CBOs are, you know, we're doing everything we can to help support the consortium and built in CBOs, you know, helping look at the spreadsheets, coming up with suggestions for increased transparency, increased accuracy. The roadblocks, I don't believe lie in, in the CBO realm for any district. I think it's just a unique situation that

174we're working through on another front that will help with the transparency, but it's very difficult. It'll, it'll be part of my discussion item moving forward, but I do see a path forward where those roadblocks will be removed. And I'm only bringing that up because I was in those meetings and I, we asked and we did not receive, and I want it to be reflected that these are real, you know, concerns. It's not just, oh, I, you know, we're not happy with something. This is not okay. So I'm just. Well, it's detrimental for your planning purposes and my planning purposes and decision-making because right now I'm not even gonna lie. Our budget looks great. Like our budget looks great. If you look at it, you're like deficit reduction plan. Are these people like, what is wrong

175with them? They're overly. Conservative or something, but it's because we know that there's stuff that we can't legally and accurately reflect in here that are going to blow things up because what am I supposed to do? Put $4 million and then look like a liar when it comes in at three or put three and then look like I can't do math when it comes in at four. So it's best to just leave it at what we have and hope that it won't blow things up too badly. But it's, it's very difficult because we go to make decision and it's like, yeah, sure. It looks good. It looks like we can do this. It looks like we can do that right now, but that may change in a week, may change in a month. And it's

176very difficult to make informed, solid decisions that we can be, you know, confident in when we are lacking such large puzzle pieces in our budget. Yes. Okay. So we'll talk about our ending fund balance. So we're comparing our second interim projections because we don't have a really good handle on our estimated actuals right now, um, to our original adopted. So we can see the beginning balances for both second interim and, you know, 25, 26 adopted increase the ending balance, excuse me, the ending balance increases and our surplus while it doesn't increase, there is still a surplus projected for 24, 25 of about $200,000 and a surplus in 25, 26 projected of $153,000. We remove the required board reserve of $3 million from our ending fund balance. And the bottom line is that we're not going

177to be able to do that. So we're going to be able to do that. So we're going to be able to do that. So we're going to be able to do that. So we're going to be able to do that. So we're going to be able to do that. So we're going to be able to is what looks like our excess reserves in the district. And I want to point out that this looks great. I would just caution us on making major decisions based on these numbers, because we know we have at least two major things at play. One of those being negotiations with our largest bargaining unit and our most expensive bargaining unit, as well as, you know, the special ed cost increases that we can't project accurately at this point. So our budget

178is going to be, you know, budget looks great. It looks like all of our efforts for the deficit reduction plan are working, and they are working, regardless of where we end up. Our deficit reduction plan is working. It is the things that we can't control that are going to, you know, probably tank some of these numbers. I do want to bring up the fact, again, that our $3 million board minimum fund balance requirement is only 17%. So we have to be careful. We have to be careful. We have to be careful. We have to be careful. We have to be careful. And I think that's going to be a really important part of this. And I think that's going to be a really important part of this. So as part of our deficit reduction plan,

179part of that was not just reducing the structural deficit and spending more than we're taking in, but also looking at what is a conservative, but not overly conservative, ending fund balance amount that takes into consideration the volatility of being community funded or basic aid, follows best practice, but also doesn't look like a good thing. So I think that's going to be a really important part of this. So as part of our deficit reduction plan, part of that was not just reducing the structural deficit and spending more than we're taking in, but also looking at what is a conservative, but not overly conservative, ending fund balance amount that takes into consideration the volatility of being community funded or basic aid, follows best practice, but also doesn't look like we're hoarding money and not taking care of

180programs or people that we should. My suggestion is that 17% is probably no longer a super safe number. And we should take a look at increasing the minimum fund balance to that 20, 25% range, even if you want to incrementally, you know, increase it. That would be a fine decision, too, along with the deficit reduction plan. But we should bring that back at a later date throughout the 25, 26th year to, you know, actively work on that while we're working on our other items. So the end game on that's about 4.5 million, sounds like. Ish. It'll be different with every budget iteration. But yeah, we want to hover around the 25% mark. 25% is like the best practice with like the CBO organization and school services. More is obviously from a budget perspective. Of course.

181But not good from like a staffing perspective, because once you get too much, then they're like, dude, you have 50%. We don't care. We don't care what you're saying. We don't care if you're overspending, because you get 50% of your budget in your bank. So we want to find that balance. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Well, I'm sure when the 3 million was adopted, that was looked upon. It was around 35, 37%. I'm sure everybody said, what? Are you kidding me? Yes. And now look where we're at. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. So looking at multi-year projections, just highlighting the revenue in multi-year projections, we're just highlighting the fact, again, that we're keeping our... Property tax projections at the 3.5%. If you look at... I wish this thing had a little thingy, but it doesn't. If you look at

182the bottom where I'm pointing in purple, that is our contribution to our routine restricted maintenance account. So that is a contribution that will be there in perpetuity, basically. I think we have 19, 18 something years left. So consider that there forever. Looking at the expenditures side of our multi-year projection, the items circled around the 3.5% per year. So that's a good thing. So that's a good thing. So that's a good thing. So that's a good thing. The blue circle circled in red indicates the step and column changes to both certificated and classified. The blue circle shows where we've removed one-time expenditures out of books and supplies. And I'm highlighting in our multi-year projections, because of the lack of information, we are keeping our special ed flat with this budget iteration, simply for budget, for original

183adopted budget, because we really didn't know how bad it was going to be. We didn't want to doomsday it, but we also didn't want to suggest it was going to be something different. So it's flat. At first interim, we will correct this to the best of our ability, and we will continue to do so as we work through those roadblocks. And if you look at the last one, I believe that's orange, a little colorblind up here, that is our debt services transfer out. And that is for the refinance of the stadium when they refinance the debt in the stadium. And it has one more year after this budget three cycle, and then we're done. So that will add back about $325,000 to the ending fund balance, reducing expenditures in that amount. So this is 25

184to 60, 60, 70, 70, 20, 28, 29. And then looking at the ending fund balance, again, multi-year projections look great. Our ending fund balances look like they're increasing, even if they're modest amounts, they look great. Okay. The issue with this is that it's artificially inflated to, you know, in the positive because there are several large ticket items that are not included in these budgets because we just didn't have the information to bring to you at the time. Again, we have no negotiated increases for any units in out years. So that includes classified and classified management. Our tentative agreement with them was one year agreement. It covers 25, 26. So 26, 27, and 27, 28 don't include negotiated increases for any units. So that will take from the bottom line for all units. In this budget,

185it considers or assumes that we're going to keep all the department budgets flat. If that is still something we are able to do, then that will be accurate. If we need to increase that, you know, as things get more expensive, it may just not work to not increase a little bit. That's included. Also not included in these budgets are two larger ticket items that we need to bring back for actual board discussion. We have to replace buses. We are, we are, our buses are about the new ones that we bought when I very first got here are like 10 years old and they are not doing well. They're breaking down all the time. So we need to look at the replacement of school buses. We also have large IT needs that will come due in

1862030. And this is because all of the equipment that was installed with the E-rate and the big grant. Tech grants that we received will be obsolete and need replacement at this time. So that I believe he told me is, I want to say $60,000. Don't quote me on that. I might be lying, but the bus replacements each, each bus, when we bought them 10 years ago were $75,000. So I anticipate them to be considerably higher now. So, and we have five buses on the regular, so we have our, our routes though. Yellow. School buses. The, I think they were seven. Yeah. 10 years ago they were, they were 75 to $76,000. Yeah. Do they release buses or do you have to buy them? I believe that they probably do considering they lease everything else. I

187mean, we can even lease forklifts and stuff. So I'm sure they do. I have not personally looked into them. I can say that we looked into leasing vehicles for our athletic fleet and the interest for leasing, like. Suburbans or, or expeditions or whatnot. It was ridiculous. So it wasn't worth looking at leasing for those vehicles at this time. Buses may be different. So we can definitely look into it and see, cause it might be a wise consideration to lease and be out of them when they're old. So on the, on the buses, how many do we have in service? Four. And then we have one that is used for athletic field trips. Yeah. So we have five, but four that are in service regularly, like routes. Okay. And then, so two of them are about

18810 years old. You said two. Those are the newest ones. I think we bought three. At one time. At one time. Why not start a rotation? Yeah. No, we, we, we will likely have to do that. We are likely going to have to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's the best way to be able to budget it out as well. So I am trying to, um, I was trying to address our, our van, our fleet vans. First, because they're real bad and they are something we are required to maintain right now with the current contract that we have with CPT. We do not pay for the maintenance and breakdowns and repairs to the buses. So I'm trying to be a little strategic and use the money for the things that we have to

189pay for until our contract comes up for renewal. And there's other, I like until that becomes our problem basically. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So looking at out your considerations again, we have negotiations. Okay. We have olive grove charter authorization impact. Will they be reauthorized? Will they not be? What will it look like? Will they be dependent? Will they not be dependent? Where will they be? And what will it look like? We don't know. We have the buses that are needed and we have the tech infrastructure infrastructure upgrades in addition to just the normal stuff. And that takes. And we could possibly add another bulleted item there being spent. Yes. Yes. I just, I left that. I left that for sunshine to talk about. I was like, how little can I step in this? So yes, that

190could be another bullet point. Are there any additional questions regarding budget? Okay, cool. I'll do the rest of my pontificating from over there. I'm going to open the public hearing and close the public hearing now. And would you guys all like to take a little short break before we go to the next one? Sure. We're good with that? Sure. Okay. Take it away. Take it away. Okay. We'll take a short break here at 8.04. Of course. So we'll reconvene at 8.07. Or excuse me, 8.12. And we'll move on to the 2025-26 proposed EPA budget and resolution 2425-11 resolution for education protection account. Did you open the hearing? I did and closed it. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, before we left for a break. Yeah, I did. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. The EPA item is a

191housekeeping item. The EPA item. Sorry, I'll restart. The EPA item is a housekeeping item. It's already included in the general district budget we just went over. However, Proposition 30 requires that the board actually approve the EPA spending plan specifically on or before at the same meeting where the action is taken on the adopted budget. We're also required to annually report EPA revenue and expenditures on our district website. The report of unaudited actual EPA revenues and expenditures for 24-25 will be posted to the district website before September 30th. The attached 25-26 EPA budget report shows the estimated 25-26 EPA entitlement or revenue is projected to be $150,056. The proposed revenue is based on ADA enrollment, and as a declining ADA enrollment district, our apportionment has been decreasing over the years. Expenditures are relegated to guidance counselor

192salaries and benefits. And to note, the budget is out of balance by $1 due to how ESCAPE internally rounds numbers. And this will be corrected at first interim because it really bugged me, but I was like, I already did this. I was like, I'm not changing it after I just did all of this. So first interim it is. Yeah, it was embarrassing, but I was like, whatever. It's not worth it. Okay. That's it for me. Thank you, Alicia. So we'll open the public hearing, 8-15, and close at 8-15. It is. It's a full board. We'll move on to excess reserves for 25-26 through 27-28. Okay. This is another housekeeping item, as excess reserves are also included in the district budget we just discussed. But SB 858 requires that districts that carry more than their state-defined,

193minimum-income, and minimum-income income, and that they have a minimum-income income, and that they have a minimum-reserve for economic uncertainties, to specifically call out certain information about these excess reserves, including what the state-required minimum reserve is, which for us is 4%, what our excess balances are, which we just went over, and what those excess balances are being kept for, and ours is being earmarked for prolonged deficit spending and economic uncertainty. So as a reminder, we are subject only to the reporting report. We are subject only to the reporting requirements in SB 858, but we are exempt from any reserve restrictions or mandatory reserve spend downs as a community-funded slash basic aid district. Thank you, Alicia. Thank you. Open public hearing for excess reserves for 25-26 through 27-28 at 8-17, and close at 8-17. Now on to

194the consortium update. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to read a letter that I sent to Claudia Cheveria, the consortium director, Ray Avila, the Santa Barbara County SELPA director, Randy Haggard, the Buellton superintendent, and Dr. Susan Salcedo, the superintendent of the Santa Barbara County Office of Education. I sent the letter on behalf of our district, but worked very closely with the other five, five other districts in our valley, and I'll name them in the letter. So I'm just going to go ahead and read the letter, and then we can talk about it. The topic was termination of membership, and this correspondence serves as a

195formal notice of the San Ynez Valley Union High School District's intent to terminate its membership with the consortium effective July 1, 2026. Our official date of notice is June 29, 2025, in accordance with the California Education Code 56207B and the California Education Code 5607B. The consortium agreement section 4.1. The decision to terminate membership stems from our district's strategic goal to explore new models that better serve the needs of our exceptional students. We remain committed to collaborating with all the current members of the consortium to establish a reimagined agreement that enhances educational outcomes and operational efficiency. As stated in the consortium agreement, our purpose remains the same. With a new and updated agreement, we hope to continue to work together to ensure that the consortium agreement is a model that will work collaboratively to provide special

196education programs and services to individuals with exceptional needs who reside within the participating districts that comprise this consortium. Our ultimate goal is to continue to work with all current members of the consortium with an updated model that serves students and addresses but is not limited to a period of agreement, the purpose of the agreement, updated definitions, membership, administrative operation, compliance assurances, responsibilities, and the purpose of the agreement. We hope to continue to work together to establish a reimagined agreement that enhances educational outcomes and operational efficiency. We hope to continue to work together to establish a reimagined agreement that establishes the purpose of the agreement, and to ensure that the consortium agreement is a model that is in line with the standards of the consortium agreement. We hope to continue to work together to establish a

197reimagined agreement that is in line with the standards of the consortium agreement. We hope to continue to work together to establish a reimagined agreement that is in line with the standards of the consortium agreement. We hope to continue to work together to establish a reimagined agreement that is in line with the standards of the consortium agreement. We hope to continue to work together to establish a reimagined agreement that is in line with the standards of the consortium agreement. We hope to continue to work together to establish a reimagined agreement that is in line with the standards of the consortium agreement. We hope to continue to work together to establish a reimagined agreement that is in line with the standards of the consortium agreement. participating districts, funding, hold harmless and indemnification, insurance, dispute resolution, record retention

198and inspection, separability and waivers, non-assignability, integration, attorney's fees, procedural handbook. As stated in the agreement, the purpose of the agreement, of the consortium agreement, is to provide for the creation of the Santa Ynez Valley Special Education Consortium, an agency which is separate from the parties of this agreement. The agency shall designate an administrative unit to provide fiscal services for the consortium. The consortium is an association of school districts who will work collaboratively to provide special education programs and services to all individuals with exceptional needs who reside in the participating districts that comprise the consortium. Each participating district acknowledges that the consortium is a collaborative effort to provide for the creation of the consortium. And that decisions made by the administrative unit's board of education and or a majority consensus of the participating districts must be

199complied with and adhered to. As per the consortium agreement, we acknowledge that the necessary one year plus one day notice period ensuring compliance with all legal and procedural requirements. Our district will work diligently to facilitate a smooth transition towards a new agreement that enhances the special education outcomes and operational efficiency and minimizes disruption to services for students. In 4.1, termination of membership, a participating district may resign from the consortium by notifying the consortium director and the Santa Barbara County SELPA. We notify the director in writing of our intent to do so at least one year plus one day prior to the proposed date of resignation. Any participating district who does not participate in the signing of the process of the consortium, district may terminate this agreement with prior written notice pursuant to California Education Code

20056207B, which states the date on which the transfer will take effect may be no earlier than the first day of the second fiscal year beginning after the date on which the sending or receiving agency has informed the other agency and the governing body. For purposes of this agreement, the participating district's fiscal year ends June 30th, and therefore prior written notice must be given to the consortium's director of special education and the SELPA director on or before June 29th in order to terminate or program transfer to become effective as of July 1 for the second fiscal year. For example, prior written notice was provided on June 29th, 2020. The program transfer would be in effect on June 29th, 2020. The program transfer would be in effect on June 29th, 2020. The program transfer would be in

201effect on June 29th, 2020. The program transfer would be in effect on July 1 of 2021 for the 21-22 school year. That's an example. We deeply value the shared commitment and collaboration that have defined our time within the consortium. As we look to the future, Santa Ynez Valley Union High School districts remain dedicated to fostering strong partnerships with our neighboring districts. Our goal is to thoughtfully reimagine the structure and operation of the consortium in a way that upholds the purpose and integrity of the consortium. We are optimistic about the opportunities ahead and confident that together we can develop a renewed agreement, one grounded in mutual respect, transparency, and an unwavering focus on student success. We look forward to engaging in productive discussions in the months to come and appreciate your continued support as we embark

202on this transition. This letter was sent by our district, by Los Olivos, and by the SELPA. We are very grateful for the support and support that you have given to this project and the students that have participated in this project. By college, by VISTA, by Solvang, and by Ballard. And we each sent a letter together because we really have a commitment to continue to working together. We really, really, really want to reimagine this together with Buelton to ensure, like the letter said, transparency and services, staffing, and fiscal. I want to point out that I know that some of our leadership campus, some of our union leadership, did contact some Solvang board members to ask questions about the year and the day notice. And I just want to make sure that it's clear that none of

203our board members were contacted by any of our leadership. Our leadership contacted Solvang board members to ask the question. So just want to make sure that that's clear. We also sent out a letter to all of our staff, ensuring them that we want to continue to work together with the consortium. And we sent a parent square letter out to all of our parents, not just our special ed parents, all of our parents. All of that took place on the 9th. Was that yesterday? Just yesterday. Seems like forever ago already, but just yesterday. So I think that moving forward, as we talk about special ed budgets, as we talk about transparency, as we talk about all of those things, I think moving forward, I know that we have a new director of the consortium. Buelton has

204hired a new superintendent who takes effect July 1. I know that they have a commitment to ensuring that the consortium is also successful. So hopefully working forward, moving forward, we can do that. Questions, comments? This is a discussion item. So I'll just start just the transparency. I think that transparency alone, that Alicia can't, her numbers are off, and that alone is just, and as Sherry has mentioned, is a concern. And so I think that with other things and whatnot, just transparency alone, fiscally and maybe, you know, whatever, just I think if everybody's working together, and I just love to say for excellent students and to create a transparent and collaborative, moving forward organization, maybe it's time. And I know that a year ago when I was hired, one of the things that we discussed, that's

205part of my evaluation, is getting answers and ensuring that there's transparency with special education. And I can just say that since I started attending meetings a year ago, April or May, I still have unanswered questions. And I know that you have unanswered questions. I know that you have unanswered questions. And I know that you have unanswered questions. And I know that we, Chris Johnson and Sherry Noble represented this board at two Valley, at two board workshops, consortium board workshops. And I know several questions were answered and I won't speak for them, but I think that this will be very good moving forward. I think this is a culmination of probably at least a year or two prior to you coming on. I think this is a culmination of probably at least a year or two

206prior to you coming on. Of something that needed to happen. And I know it's been a discussion ever since I first got on the board. And I'm actually excited to see how it turns out. I think it'll be much better transparency, how everything works. We'll all understand what's going on. I remember when I first heard consortium, I'm going, what the heck is that? Had no idea. And then just to get that information was difficult as well. So I'm encouraged. And I, you know, the ideal of it, of us all working together in a small Valley is it should be that way. But then we need to have fair transparency. And that was evident by those two meetings that, you know, when it just, I could not get a yes or a no, if you were

207even going to get the, what you've asked for. And, you know, that run around is, you know, kind of more typical in our larger political systems. Then a school district is supposed to work together. And that was very disappointing to just witness that and not get just we're and we, you know, are supposed to be, you know, fiscally responsible as a board. And so it makes me very uncomfortable to pass or approve something. And when we don't have the numbers, it just, even a business really can't run that way. And so how can a public agency run that way? And so I'm disappointed that it has to come to this, but I have faith in, you know, at least in what I see here in our school to do that. I'm concerned about the, obviously

208the money that it'll take and the staff and the organization and the hiring, you know, and most of all, we have to commit to the students that need these services. And I remember the first time I was in the school, I was in the first year of high school. I was in the first year of high school. I was in the first year of high school. And I remember the very first meeting we went to at, in Bealton before your time, Kim. And it was like, no one even talked about the students. It was all about the money. And we can't, we cannot forget that these students need the services and legally they, you know, need to have them. And we need to hire. I mean, I talked to teachers in the special, in the

209consortium that are sad that they lose their staff. They don't have a chance to build. They don't have a chance to build a sense of community. And here we're talking about all these collaboration and teamwork thing, you know, that goes on and they're not allowed to do that. If they keep moving staff and that might be physically responsible, but is that really best for the kids that, you know, are, you know, our staff are just kind of moved from one place to another without having that, that collaboration. And with special ed, you have to have those relationships with the regular ed teachers, with your superintendent. You have to work together. Not just as a separate entity. So I, I think that value of moving towards something that, you know, also gives the special ed teachers

210who it's a hard job and I want to support them as well. And I want to make sure that everybody knows that at the forefront of this is the continuity of services and always putting the student for the students first. We will ensure the continuity of services. We will ensure the continuity of services for our students. And I can tell you that all seven districts, and I'm going to include Buelton in this because we have had a conversation with their new superintendent, albeit brief. He doesn't start until July 1. And with the new director, everybody is committed to work together. These are all our students in this valley. Even though we are seven separate districts. Everyone is committed to ensuring, whether it's a student that lives in their attendance zone or not, that they are

211serviced and receive the education that they deserve and that they need. And we are all going to work together to ensure that that happens. And that is our commitment to do that. And we're hoping that that will be the end result. Thank you for that. And I think to add to that, the boards, I've spoken to board members from other boards. That feel the same way. And what originally, the student focus is the main thing. It always has been and it should be. But the main reason why the red flags got raised was because of the budget issues. So, unfortunately, money comes into it because SPED is so expensive. And the state basically doesn't support us. So, it comes out of all of our budgets. So, when that budget, you see these enormous numbers and

212you're going, that's servicing how many kids? Then you go, okay, we want to actually see where that money is going. And then when you don't get those answers, that's why we're where we're at. Bottom line. So anyways. So what's the next step? So the next step is we are actually have a meeting on the books with SELPA. I believe it's the 24th of July. We will meet with SELPA. We have also sent a letter to SELPA a year and a day notice to opt into services with SELPA. So that it gives us the you have to also give a year and a day notice to opt into services. So we are opting into services or at least leaving that as a potential as we move forward. So all the superintendents and I and I'm I'm

213assuming that Buelton will be part of that because we did add them into that. We will all meet together with the SELPA. And then we met yesterday. And we met today. And we are committed to meeting weekly. After that, moving forward until an agreement can be reached. And if we have to meet more than weekly, we are going to get this done and get this done for kids as soon as possible and get the transparency out there. So everybody's committed. It's not for us. No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll interrupt you. Kim, but I just wanted to state the obvious is that this collaborative that you've been a part of is the beginning of a lot more. They can create changes that need to be changed and creating pipelines with getting the feeder schools to

214get their kids to the high school, even much more prepared and looking at curriculums and so forth. And I've really appreciated how informed you have been. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But also how you have kept the board abreast of what's been happening. And so, yeah, sometimes things need to reset to get better. And this is a good place to start. So thank you for all the work that you and your team have done to collaborate with the other districts. I'm on the same page. Can I give a shout out to even the other districts that

215it's just nice that we are working together, that you're meeting regularly. That's very comforting to know. especially when all these kids end up at our schools. I think that's the way it should be. We're a small valley, and that's how our sense of community has grown and why I think we're so invested in this place. So thank you. That is the mission of the consortium. No, it was nothing other than just a dot, dot, dot. That's why this valley is so successful, is because of the community. But that was you. Thank you, Kim. Appreciate that. So on to board matters, meeting dates, any problem with next week? Okay, and then future. Yes. I don't have to speak at all. Just say ditto. And you two are good, right? Okay. Well, that's great. So at this

216point, we can move to closed session at 835. And if you want to take a little break in between.