001Good evening, everybody. We are reconvening back in open session at 4.10 p.m. I am going to report on our closed session. Item 7.1, consideration of student expulsion, Ed Code 48918C, student case number 242502. Do we have a motion for the expulsion of this student? That's okay. I can't vote my nose. Oh, correct. So we're going in order. So 7.1. Yes. First one. We discussed, yeah. So just for clarity, we have to take a vote in public. So we're going to do exactly what we did in closed session in public. We're looking for a motion. I will make a motion with respect to case 242502 that the board will move forward with the expulsion, but not the suspended expulsion. I second. All right. Roll call vote, please. Aye. Oh, no. Sorry. Just point of clarification. Do
002we need a, it's not roll call? Yes. It is roll call vote. Yes. Okay. So but does it? Yes. Yes. Trustee Bell? Aye. Trustee Ching? Aye. President Landry? Aye. Trustee Lehman? Aye. Trustee Winders? No. OK. 7.2, consideration of student expulsion, Ed Code 48918C, student case number 242503. Do we have a motion for the expulsion of this student? I will make a motion for expulsion case 242503 that we will adopt the recommendation as put forward by the discipline committee, which is expulsion with a suspension. Is there a second on the table? I second. All right, roll call vote, please. Trustee Bell? Aye. Trustee Ching? Aye. President Landry? Aye. Trustee Lehman? Aye. Trustee Winders? Aye. Student case number 24503 is expelled with enforcement of the expulsion, served as a suspended expulsion at the current time. However, the
003expulsion order may go into place if there is another student code of conduct violation that occurs. Item 7.3, consideration of readmission of expelled student, case number 222306, Ed Code 35146. The board has granted the readmission of previously expelled student. 7.4, consideration of readmission of expelled student, student case number 232401, Ed Code 35146. The board has granted the readmission of previously expelled student. 7.5, conference with labor negotiators. Government code 54957, agency designated representatives, Rena Sipes, associate superintendent, business service employee organization, Valley of the Moon Teachers Association, CTA, NEA. There was no action taken. 7.6, conference with labor negotiators, government code 54957, agency designated representatives, Rena Sipes, associate superintendent, business service employee organization, California School Employees Association, chapter 376. No action was taken. 7.7, conference with real property and negotiations. Government Code 54956.8, properties 20,000 Broadway-Sonoma, 18751
004Railroad Avenue. Sonoma Agency negotiators, Rena Sipes, Associate Superintendent, negotiating parties. Tower Point Accusation, LLC, under negotiation. Price and terms of payment. No action was taken. Okay, can we do roll call, please? Trustee Bell? Here. Trustee Ching? Here. President Landry? Here. Trustee Lehman? Here. Trustee Wenders? Here. And we will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay, at this time I'm looking for approval of the agenda. Do we have trustees that would like to make a motion to approve the agenda? Make a motion to approve. Is there a second? I second that motion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay, announcement of Spanish language translation services. Our interpreter this evening is Judith with the language people. Dr. Chin, will you make the announcement in Spanish? All right, tonight's Norman Inspiration will be presented by Trustee Bell. Good
005evening, everybody. Thanks for joining us. My inspiration norms tonight come from Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest human beings of my lifetime. He spent 27 years in prison for his beliefs in justice and equality. And upon his release, he chose reconciliation and healing over revenge. So some of the quotes, you know, thus shall we live because we will have created a society which recognizes that all people are born equal, with each entitled in equal measure to life. liberty, prosperity, human rights, and good governance." Another quote. As I walked out the door towards the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison. And then... The inspirational quote which really sort of resonated with me was that everyone can rise above their
006circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do. Thank you. Thank you, Trustee Bell. OK, communications to the board in regards to public comment. The board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and provides this time for members of the audience to address the board on any school-related matter, not on this agenda. The board can take no action at this time. Each speaker is requested to identify themselves prior to addressing the board and to limit comments to three minutes. Our district is committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment to all and does not tolerate hate speech in any form. We recognize the law requires the Board of Trustees to provide a forum for expression during board meetings, but in order to ensure the board can proceed
007with its business, the board expects that no person shall delay, interrupt, or make threats of violence during the meeting. Disruptive behavior, including comments on topics outside the board's jurisdiction by any individual during a board meeting, could result in removal from the meeting. Such removal may occur if an individual makes threats of violence or fails to adhere to the rules or laws governing conduct of the meeting. If an individual engages in inappropriate conduct as described above and is participating remotely, they will not be allowed to continue to comment. I would also like the public to know if we are experiencing a disruption on Zoom tonight, the board reserves the right to limit further public comment via this communication channel and may require that all comments be made in person. Are there any comments in the room?
008Or excuse me, are there any public comments in the room for items not on the agenda? So items not on the agenda. Okay, I see none in the room. Oh, hi. Can you tell us your name? Hi, my name is Haley Murray. I am a student at Flowery, and I saw a couple things that I want to say. So at my school, my friend doesn't eat the lunches because she doesn't like them. And another thing, my friend drank expired milk. It was March 21st. I don't know if you can help, but at the office, they don't really help the kids. They only give bandages, ice packs, or water. Thank you. Thank you, Haley. Hi, Ronette Wesson from Sasserini. Can I ask a quick question? I don't want to do the wrong thing. I just had
009a comment about something that's in the budget report. Can I say anything about that? No, I have to wait. Right, because it's on. Thank you. Do you have the discussion of the agreement, the tenant of agreement with the MTI on the agenda or no? So we do have an opportunity in the regular agenda for you to have public comment about that, yes. So I need to wait. Yes. Yeah. So any other public comment on items not on the agenda in the room? Hello, I'm Connie Schleilein and I'm the chair of the Cultural and Fine Arts Commission for the City of Sonoma as well as a co-chair of Creative Bridges, an organization that is working in partnership on the strategic plan for the school district to improve, rebuild, as you would, arts education, visual and performing
010arts for the students of our schools. um I'm not going to be able to be here for a study session in January, which may or may not occur with the topic of the strategic arts plan. So I wanted to just update you in this tiny bit of time that there are some bright spots and there are some sticking points we've run into this year. And I think that individually I'll probably be speaking with board members and have reached out to a few of you and talked with some of you. It's just good to know I think as we are moving forward there are 45 nonprofits and organizations in this town that have at times been rivals not been on the same team have competed for money have competed for students and attention and we're all
011now working together with the school district and with the goal the North Star of providing a full, complete arts education, TK through 12, for our students. The bright spots since November of last year when this board unanimously and enthusiastically adopted the strategic arts education plan. The bright spots that we've had, we have one instrumental music elementary teacher thanks to Proposition 28 that has been added to our elementary schools. Incredibly important. uh... because the high school in middle school programs have suffered we also are very intent on more performing arts programs uh... at the elementary level, middle school and high school, and have course proposals coming forward soon. The museum has started an integrated arts program which is tremendously dynamic. It crosses subjects. The pilot is beginning in January and there's much more to talk about
012that. I've got 32 seconds, so the sticky points. The district's been a little distracted. And we are just starting year one and are disappointed with that. But our intention is to double time it starting in January and really you're all going to hear about it. We continue to push and 45 nonprofits are working together. Thank you. Thank you, Connie. Hi. Now I know what I'm going to say. Ronette Weston again, Sassarini. I asked you guys last time, and I'll keep asking every month, about doing something for the students that you've placed into an ESN classroom for this year in their fifth graders, and they're going to be going on to Altamira. But there's nowhere for them to go next year. They're going to go back into a gen ed situation, and there needs to be
013more than that for them, I believe. And then also, when we look at all of our numbers about how kids are performing and reading and whatnot, something to consider that we need to do is something for those students that we put up for testing. We do a meeting for it, and then when they're tested, they're too low in both categories, math and reading, so then they get no services besides the two hours a week that we give for walk to read. So there's like they need more but there's nothing that's done for them besides what we can do in the classroom and we used to I know it's a serene you don't know about the other schools we used to after school intervention and Teachers would be extra to stay after school three days a
014week for another 45 minutes to work with the kids and we don't do that anymore So we need something more. Thanks Thank You miss lesson There any other public comment in the room on items not on the agenda? No. Okay, we'll go online. I see one hand raised. Josette, if you can hear us, here. Hi, Josette Broseiker, Boys Hot Springs. I would like to ask if there is a member on this board that is posting comments on the Index Tribune online edition that I and others find disturbing. There is a David Bell posting. some of the comments that appear to lack an understanding of immigrants and others in our community. These comments are on IT news and opinion pieces and in response to comments by other community members. So it is simply just an ask.
015Thank you so much. Thank you, Josette. Is there any other public comment online on items not on the agenda? All right. I see no. Hands raised. So we will move on to our reports. Our first report is from our student voice, Kendall. Hi everyone. So at SPHS, the leadership class has been having different lunch activities available for students such as cookie decorating, cupcake decorating, cornhole, basketball, and ornament decorating. Additionally, in honor of the holidays, Mr. Hansen and the Campus Beautification Club decorated our campus. The Wellness Center at our school has had a stress-less week with lots of events because of finals coming up. They have had hot chocolate for students and support dogs and will show movies next week. The Link crew also hosted a cookies and cram for first-year students to help prepare them
016for finals. As a reminder, finals will be next week, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Also, as a reminder, in result of Slate's actions to create a survey for the bell schedule after popular demand, after winter break, the schedule will be changing. On C days, the day will go first period, then second period break, third period, then fourth period lunch, fifth period, then sixth period. On a different note, I wanted to discuss my thoughts on the board's actions tonight after last board meeting when I spoke. This process has moved too fast and lacks organization and efficiency. The trustees and the public's potential solutions need more data and statistics demonstrating that this is the best solution. You cannot take it lightly when disrupting vulnerable students' daily interactions with teachers, peers, and educational experiences. The impact on these students
017is significant and should be a primary consideration in any decision-making process. When solving the district's budget issues, it seems you have only unchecked and unjustified numbers and ideas without consulting experts well. I hope next time you listen to the teachers, parents, and most importantly, the students. As a district, many of you talk about how students are first on your agenda. However, I've noticed a contradiction today. I find it inappropriate for today's board meeting to have been scheduled on a Friday. The board, or whoever was responsible for scheduling this time, did not consider that school gets out at 3.35. It was physically impossible for me to drive from the high school to here before the meeting was planned to start at 3.30. Most of the students at Altamira Middle School and Adele Harrison Middle School are
018involved in after-school activities and sports, and the board meeting clearly conflicts. Additionally, teachers at these schools often help students with assignments or meetings after school. Teachers have to clean up their classrooms before weekends and drive across town. This means you made it so they cannot attend and speak their opinion. Also, the majority of parents do not get off work at 3.30. Someone is trying to silence important conversations and public comments from parents worried for their children's futures. It also appears that whoever determined this timing intentionally made it so teachers, staff, and students could not be here today. I'm assuming someone has an excuse for why, but no matter what, I truly believe you deliberately ignored Sonoma Valley Unified families. I'm disappointed in the district. I'm disappointed in the board. The students at Adele and Altamira
019do not deserve to be silenced. I don't deserve to be silenced by having to come here when school gets out at 335. Please show the public some respect. We deserve to be considered in the decision-making process. Thank you. Thank you, Kendall. Our next report is from VMTA. Good evening, trustees and cabinet members. We are Laura Hoven, VMTA co-president, and Shelly Ryan, VMTA vice president. We'd like to welcome Jason Lehman, our newly elected trustee. We will waste no time. We have no time to waste. The health, well-being, and safety of our students, our members, School staff and community is at stake. We won't tolerate any less than full attention to the matters facing us in regard to school closures and negotiations. We have decided as our board report to start by reading our VMTA press release.
020The title of our press release is Valley of the Moon Teachers Association charges the district with bargaining in bad faith by undermining the tentative agreement their lead negotiator and legal representative signed off on. Districts incompetence and failure to honor their commitment erodes trust with educators and community. The Valley of the Moon Teachers Association has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Sonoma Valley Unified School District with the Public Employment Relations Board. The charge alleges SVUSD is bargaining in bad faith in violation of the Educational Employment Relations Act. The district's failure to follow through on a tentative agreement shows a lack of foresight and understanding, losing credibility as a professional school district. Quoting Drew Jacobs, On October 1st, 2024, during mediation, SVUSD lead negotiator Raina Seif's SVSD's attorney, Matt Jewell-Darlington, and I, Drew Jacobs, signed a
021tentative agreement resolving negotiations. VMTA entered that agreement, and as a democratic union, we put the terms to our members to vote. Our members agreed with what both parties agreed to and voted to win language protecting small class sizes for our students and our educators amidst school consolidation. For SVUSD, negotiations with labor organizations are governed by Board Policy 4143, titled Negotiations Slash Consultation, which reads, Once the final terms of the agreement have been ratified by the membership of the employee organization, the contract shall be presented to the Board at a public meeting for acceptance. Since the tentative agreement was signed, two regular board meetings were held on October 10, 2024 and November 14, 2024, and despite dozens of letters and protests, the board has taken no official action on the signed tentative agreement their own team
022signed off on. If the school district's negotiations team reaches a tentative agreement, but the district later denies it, it signals a breakdown in the communication or decision-making within their team. This is alarming to us and the greater community. This signals to us poor management, a lack of proper decision-making processes, and leadership dysfunction. They have lost the trust of parents and students, said VMTA Vice President Shelly Ryan. The district does not seem to know how labor agreements work and instead would rather gaslight our community by refusing to acknowledge that mediation is over the moment both parties sign a tentative agreement. They are completely ignoring the process in statute and in their board policies. The process exists to ensure transparency and accountability so our families, educators, and community can ensure our elected officials are following the law
023and respecting everyone's rights. The board making irresponsible decisions does nothing to serve our students or our community. Instead, it's a reflection of their incompetence and unprofessional behavior, said myself. On November 18th, 2024, coming out of closed session, SVUSD board president Celeste Winders reported that. The board has voted to approve a TA with VMTA for the terms reached in impasse mediation. The board will bring the complete TA and articles and CBA back to an open session at its next regularly scheduled board meeting. Side note, that's tonight. Later that night, however, SVUSD Superintendent Jeanette Chin emailed VMTA notifying the union that the board had not voted on the tentative agreement reached with VMTA. Instead, it had voted on revising the terms that had not been negotiated with or agreed to by the union, and those were the
024terms of the agreement that would be presented at the December meeting. This is not how labor negotiations work. This is called not bargaining in good faith. The board can't simply decide to change a signed agreement. For us to move forward in this process, the board needs to take action on the terms their team signed off on and what VMTA members voted to ratify. Regarding school closures, the negotiation process we are experiencing is very similar to the challenges our community, students, and teachers have faced during school consolidation. This is an incredibly difficult time for our families, students, and staff, filled with uncertainty about the future. We urge everyone involved to lead with compassion and kindness as we navigate the months ahead. That said, we must question why any school is being closed or consolidated when according
025to the business report we have a balanced budget for the next three years. As a basic aid district we have more money to spend per student than any ADA district in Sonoma County making this decision even more puzzling. In closing, we hope that the SVUSD board and district staff will commit to the restorative work we want for our children. How will you repair the harm now that you have lost the faith of the community and its teachers? We wish the families of Sonoma Valley happy holidays. Thank you. Thank you. Our next report is from Kimberly Smith, CSCA. Good afternoon or evening, Sonoma Valley Board of Trustees, Student Voice, Kendall, thank you, Superintendent Dr. Chen, and District Directors. I am Kimberly Smith, your CSEA Chapter President, Area B, Region 24, Chapter 376. Welcome to new board
026members, Trustee Lehman and Trustee Bell. This is a time of year we reflect on the past and share good tidings with families and friends. We find ourselves baking, attending events, traveling, and giving. The greatest gift is giving. CSEA members are one of the most giving groups I know, always willing to pitch in and lend a hand. You can always count on a classified employee to be there for your time of need. I am proud to be part of this organization. Speaking of giving, the Moon Valley chapter is hosting a blood drive through Vitalant this coming Wednesday, December 18th from 1.30 to 5. I personally had an experience of a family member needing five pints of blood to save his life. I was unable to donate directly due to a non-matching blood type. I am very
027thankful for the others who did donate. In fact, five people donated blood to save my son's life when he was an infant. Remember to give to yourself as well. It is important to honor your own self-care to fill and refill your giving heart. With declining enrollment and budget concerns, the school board has some difficult decisions to make. keeping in mind staff, family, friends, and the community, and especially the students. As you are making these decisions, which will affect us all, ask yourself what decision will you make and what will you be giving in order to enrich the educational environment. Bottom line, we all want what is best for the students of Sonoma Valley. They are the future. They deserve to have their best in education. Consider the least impact and ease our minds. Change is
028difficult for all of us, and we all need to set aside our emotions and move forward for what is best for the students. I wish you all a blessful season, whatever and wherever you find yourself. Thank you for giving me time tonight. Better together, stronger united. Thank you, Kimberly. CHIEF CUTTING. GOOD EVENING, TRUSTEES, STUDENT VOICE, SUPERINTENDENT, AND MEMBERS OF THE AUDIENCE. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I'M STANDING IN FRONT OF YOU WITH A SMILE ON MY FACE BECAUSE SINCE THE LAST TIME WE ALL MET, THERE'S BEEN NO LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS ON ANY CAMPUSES. SO THAT'S A VERY BIG POSITIVE FOR ME. ASIDE FROM THAT, ED ESPANDA, OUR COMMUNITY RESOURCE OFFICER, HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN ONE career day and we've been working very heavily with the high school to improve traffic safety in the parking lot and
029entering on Broadway and so we're going to be working I think you'll be getting some messaging from the school at the end towards the end of the school year. this semester here before they come back. We're going to be redirecting traffic at the high school based on a plan that we've come up with with the high school staff. So I think it's going to be much better and hopefully improve the traffic safety for students and parents alike. Other than that, it's been a very good last month and I'm looking forward to another couple of weeks before school is out and then coming back next year. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Chin with our superintendent report. Yeah, um, but I'd like to ask the board if it's okay with you if I can do half of
030my report at the beginning like now and then half of the report at the end of the meeting you're gonna be listening to a couple of plans from our our staff and I have some commentary about the plan so I want to make sure that I have the opportunity to discuss that at the end so if it's okay with with you So the first thing I want to start off with is congratulating our football team. They've done an excellent job, obviously, of really doing a great job of just not just the actual games themselves, but working together as a team, practicing with their coaches, and also congratulating their coaches because we know that it's not an easy job to get from the beginning of the season to an undefeated. season and going to the championship
031game so congratulations we're really proud of them the other thing i wanted to mention is that we've just launched our farm to table committee that's district wide We're really excited about that as well. We don't have right now the opportunity to write for grants for our farm-to-table or our culinary programs because we don't have a district vision for that. And so this farm-to-table committee is going to be working on putting together a vision, goals, and some actions so that we're able to write grants so that we can get some additional facilities, additional programs, equipment, and other things that the farm-to-table committee might need. The other thing that they're going to be working on is looking at additional certifications and pathways for CTE. So we're really excited about the Farm to Table Committee. And then the
032last thing for just this part of the report, I just, again, want to welcome both Trustee Bell and Trustee Lehman to the board. We have a lot of work to do and just welcome you on board. And thank you for being here. Thank you, Dr. Chin. All right, we will now move on to our consent agenda. The purpose of the consent agenda is to act upon routine matters in an expedious manner. Items listed are usually considered routine and are acted on in one motion. It is understood that administration recommends approval of all consent agenda items. There is no discussion of items unless a member of the board requests removal of an item to be inserted at an appropriate place on the regular agenda. Each item approved by the Board shall be deemed to have been
033considered in full and adopted as recommended. The Board is asked to approve the Consent Agenda item as submitted. Is there a motion on the table to approve the Consent Agenda? I express a motion to approve. Is there a second? I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. So before we went into Closed session, the board decided to add, let's see, move an item from discussion prior to going in, which would be considered number two, setting the date, time, and place of regular monthly meetings. So we voted to move that to 16.0, which is where we will now be. So setting date, time, and place of regular meetings. Regular monthly meetings are generally scheduled for the second Thursday of each month at 5.30 p.m. No regular board meetings will be held during district recesses or legal holidays.
034Special board meetings and study sessions are called as necessary. All meetings will be located at the district offices unless otherwise noted on the board meeting agenda. So we don't really have information to discuss about this, but we did want to bring it back for discussion. So That was your request, Trustee Ting. I'll turn it over to you. Yeah, so my request was this is a time for all of us. We've got new board members. You know, we're all trying to balance both the interests of the public and also our, you know, we're all working. We all have jobs outside of this. So I thought it was a good time to discuss whether or not the timing. works for people's schedule and also the dates. And I kind of wanted to open it up. I know
035that some boards, like I looked at Rinken Valley and Petaluma City Schools, they have a later state start time to accommodate the public. So I just wanted to kind of throw that out there. We're also working, trying to balance our work schedules. So that's the reason why I requested to have a conversation about it. Also, it's a time to also think about location. Is this the best location? Because we only kind of visit this topic once a year. So I just kind of wanted to throw that out to the board and see if people are happy with the way things are going. You know, that's why I wanted to discuss it. Are you suggesting we move the meeting to Steiner's every second month? No. Can we just kind of opine on the reason for the
036date of the meeting today? Because I know it was brought up. Yeah. And I kind of have a feeling it was something to do with a budget deadline or some sort of a deadline, was it? No, the reason. Can we refer to, yeah, to legal counsel? Yeah, let's refer to legal for explanation. Oh, just on the timing of the meeting today on the Friday. I can't speak to it. I'm just wondering if we want to disclose the reasoning to the public. I just, that was. Yeah, I think that the superintendent can speak to that. So we were notified that again by legal counsel that we had to move our meeting from Thursday to Friday because of the way that the election this year was set up. I think the county, there's a stipulation or something
037about how those meetings line up and so that's why I wanted you to respond to that. So because of the statutory timeline requirements, it had to be moved. It wasn't to put anybody in a bad spot. It just happened to fall on a Friday. And so because of those reasons, we had to move it that way. That answers your question, Trustee Bell. Thank you. OK, thank you. Ms. Clements? Did it have to be at 3.30? the in terms of the timing it act we actually didn't start this meeting until four we started closed session early on purpose in order to make enough time to then get get to the four o'clock so okay Thank you. Can I comment? I mean, I acknowledge that this was not a convenient time. It's an exception, which is why
038I really want to discuss ongoing how do we set the time of our meetings in the future so that we can accommodate both the public and also, you know, board members that are working. It wasn't ideal. Definitely was not ideal today. So I get it. I want to acknowledge that. I think we all recognize that. And I think that the reason why we started early was because it's a Friday and we don't want to be doing this meeting at 9.30, 10 o'clock on a Friday night. So I think, you know, and because we started closed session at 1 p.m. because there's so many different items to discuss on the agenda. And previously we've had closed. closed sessions where we've run out of time and we haven't had the ability to really give the items enough
039time that they deserve so that's just my take. Trustee Winders. Yeah I don't think we were I mean it was just my interpretation but I don't think we were trying to accommodate it because it was a Friday night that certainly wasn't my intention I'll stay here till midnight on a Friday if I need to to get my work done. We had an earlier start time because we had a very large closed session item, closed session items. There were multiple items and they included some student expulsions and I think it's important that when we have a large agenda for closed session that we ensure enough time to be able to give each of those items the time that they deserve. in board discussion and i think that that's particularly important when we're talking about items such
040as expulsion so the early start time was definitely not something that was out of any convenience to the board i mean i definitely had to do some rearranging on my end to accommodate my work schedule which is fine because this is the commitment i made and i'm committed to that commitment but i also wanted to ensure that when we go into closed session we're not running out of time and we're not short changing any of those items or rushing through each of those items and that we're giving each of them the time that they deserve so that was my understanding of the early start time was to accommodate the closed set so that we would have enough time for closed session and we did hear from the community about the agenda. At the time that
041the agenda was set, I was the Pro Tem president and in setting that agenda, I very intentionally requested to have the items like school consolidation be further down the agenda and not be the first item to ensure that by the time we got to those important items that I knew there'd be a lot of community input on that it was well into and past our normal start time to be in alignment with ensuring that people could participate in that. while also making sure that we had adequate time in closed session to give the attention that each of that closed session items deserved so i just want to provide that you know from from where i sat that was the intention behind it and to remain in alignment with election laws The election laws aren't something
042that we could say no thank you to. And so it was important that we stayed in alignment with those. And so that would be my input. In terms of this calendar, I'm good with all of these states. I don't have any changes that I would ask for. I've already got them on repeat in my calendar and I schedule my work around them. i don't have any feedback for the calendar in terms of any requested changes trustee layman It's unfortunate this has to be the first board meeting where I speak about the schedule. Kendall, I appreciate you bringing up what I think a lot of people in the room were thinking. I've been coming to board meetings for a year and a half. It's the first time I've ever seen a board meeting start at 4.
043I do know I was one of the elected officials that caused the reasoning for the board meeting either being today. I think our window was today, tomorrow, or Sunday. So it was a very, the way the laws worked, it had to be basically today, the 4 o'clock start. There was no malice. I was emailed about. getting all of our agenda items in place and Miss Winders is correct and that we're trying to accommodate schedules for people that are working by having the most important agenda items later in the day so that people can get here. I think moving forward, I would expect this all to start at 530, which has been the precedent set here for the board to start at 530 after. normal business hours. I understand there's other sorts of jobs as well
044with different schedules. I would be fine sticking with Thursdays at 530, but I am open if there's any board members that do want to start either different days of the week or different times. I'm flexible enough to have a discussion on that. But as the schedule sits for the remainder of the school year, I'm good with what's on the calendar. And for clarity, You're referring to the 530 as the open session start time. The closed session start time is 4. Correct. Okay, just wanted to make sure. Correct. Closed session still starting at 4, open session at 530 on Thursdays, unless someone has another one. I mean, I think that depending on the item, the agenda items on the closed session, we should obviously then adjust that start time. No? or do we have to set
045it like in stone? My understanding is that you want to set the start time to be fixed for the open agenda because people habituate to it. And so if we think that it is always so at the last year I had proposed that we set ours. Closed session I wanted to have more time in closed session because we only used to allocate an hour to it And I and I felt like we could never really address things Adequately in that short amount of period and sometimes they we would have a few items and other times We'd have many items so I asked for us to move the meeting from 5 to 5 30 The start time of the open session so we had like that flexibility So, but I think it's better, in my opinion,
046because people habituate and they want to know in their minds what time is the board meeting. And they habituate to that. So you don't want to have a variable start time for open session. That's just my take on it. I don't know if there's any ed code or statutory reasoning for that. No, I was just saying let's adjust the start time at the closed session to then accommodate the. the size of the agenda and then fix the start time of the open agenda, right? So I have a preference not to do that partly because I have a job and it's just hard for me to always, I'm always constantly shifting my schedule. I like to know kind of ahead of time but I will defer to the majority of the board. Trustee Wenders? For a
047point of reference, every once in a while, historically, not just since I've been on the board, but even prior to being on the board, because I would come to all the board meetings, every once in a while, the board would open closed session early if they had a large closed session agenda items, like a numerous amount, or they had some that they knew were going to take longer. So I've always historically seen... the same open session start time but the closed session start time be mostly consistent for like 90 percent of the time and then every once or twice in a school year there might be an adjustment on closed session for an earlier time just to accommodate that's just been my experience for the last 13 years of being on the board that's what
048i've observed and seen his historic leap in the practice may i ask a question uh trustee chang are you suggesting that we potentially start later in closed session to accommodate work schedules for the trustees? I just wanted to open that up because I don't know the obligations of other trustees and I thought today was a good time to have that conversation since we only have it once a year. I'm okay with the 4 o'clock start time for the closed session. I'm also... like having a set time when the open session starts, but I wanted to give other new trustees the opportunity to opine. Trustee Lehmann. Yeah, I think 430, I wouldn't, my preference wouldn't be to move earlier on a 430 closed session. I actually have a... I think gotten used to the schedule as
049it stands today. So four o'clock, closed session start. I do think 5.30 for both us, for the hour and a half window, and the flexibility for the community, for folks that are getting off at five, I think that does allocate at least some window of time. And we do know that the most important topics don't start at 5.30. We have a few things to get through before. So I think it allows the community to be here. at the most opportune time for their participation. So my preference would be to leave. I appreciate you bringing this up that we have new staff, our new folks up here. I would say to leave the 4 o'clock and 5.30 times as they stand today. I actually have a recommendation for the board that's a little different. But it's
050also, it would require some things from the board. So I would be willing to entertain a 4.30 start time with an hour and a half in closed session. So a 4.30 start time going into closed session until 6 o'clock. We've heard from our community, at least I know I have, that there is things on the closed session agenda that... members of the community would like to have the opportunity to speak on i'm not sure if a half an hour is enough time but it is some time if we have a six o'clock start time for our meetings i would just suggest that the board do some work on our on our how we conduct our meetings so that we're efficient with our timing so that if we are starting at 6, again, we're not going
051until midnight. So that would take some work. But I think it might be something worth entertaining. I don't know if anyone else is interested in that. So the suggestion would be a 4.30 start time to go into closed session with an hour and a half in closed session still with a 6 o'clock meeting time, sticking with the Thursday day of the week. Yeah, I'm good with that too. Yeah, okay. I also had a suggestion for the board I am wondering if the board would entertain Moving the January 9th meeting up a week to January 16th Excuse me moving it back a week. I apologize to January 16th. Is that does that is that something that I think that's a good idea to get a little bit beyond the Christmas break for get us all ready
052More time to prepare and district staff to be better prepared for the January meeting for sure. Yeah, I would say that seems sensible for staff Okay trustee Ching do you have any input on that OK, what about Trustee Winders? OK, Dr. Chen? Yeah. Yeah, so I'm fine with for just January moving it, postponing it by a week to the 16th. That seems fine. OK, Ms. Clements, does that work for your schedule? Yeah, that seems to work. And I also like that you guys were talking about keeping consistent schedule. And then also, not trying to bring it up again, but just wanted to give a suggestion. Maybe it says estimated time, 3.30. So maybe be careful about that. I know it did start at 4. But from my perspective, I thought I was going to miss
053my report. So maybe just be careful on it saying estimated time. OK. So I'm going to open it up to public comment. I think now is an appropriate time before we move to make a motion to make changes. Is there a public comment in the room on this item? OK. Seeing none, we'll go online. Oh, my hands are going down. OK. Doesn't look like we have any public comment online for this item. Let me just double check. All right. I will bring it. Oops. We just had a hand go up. Oh, nope. It went down. Okay, is there public comment online for this item? Okay, seeing none, we'll bring it back to the board. Would there be a motion to approve the moving of our start time to 4.30 for closed session, 6 o'clock for
054open session? So I will make a motion to modify the... Meeting time, our regular meeting time would move from starting closed session at 4.30 and the open agenda would start at 6 p.m. and also moving to make, and it would be on the second Thursday of the month except for January of this year, which would be January 16th. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay, thank you. All right, moving on to 16.1, action approval of 2024-2025 first interim report and analysis. Interim financial reports are required twice each year as of October 31st and January 31st, respectively, and due to the county office on December 15th and March 15th, respectively. Good evening members of the board. This is public. I'm going to be presenting the Sonoma Valley's first interim report. So
055this is a the reporting cycle. Every January, every July we have to have an adopted budget. By December 15th the first interim report needs to be presented which is another reason we're having this meeting tonight. March 15th the second interim report is due and September 15th the unaudited actuals are due. The major changes from the adopted budget, LCFF sources, the original revenues were $55 million. They went down slightly by $275,000. That was due to property taxes went up slightly by $47,000, but in lieu of taxes, which are the taxes that we pay to the charter schools, went up by $322,000. Other state revenue declined by $125,477, and that was a decrease in our home-to-school transportation allotment. Other local revenues changed minimally, $311. So our total revenues declined by $400,000 from the adopted budget. Expenditures declined
056by $596,000. We realigned the salaries and benefits to match what the current staffing is right now. When we set the budget, we set it on estimates based on new hires, if people resign, replacements and so forth. So we've realigned the budget to correlate with what's actually actual salaries. Textbooks. We moved $200,000 for there was a lot of two textbooks to the lottery so that decreased by supplies by 200,000 we also decreased travel and conferences and some money for communications resulting in a decrease of 596,000 So overall, our original budget was projecting deficit spending of $1.4 million. Interim is projecting deficit spending of $934,000, which is a change of $499,000 overall. So this is a slide that breaks out what I just went over in summary. I do want to point out that if you look
057down under fund balances, did receive the approval of the appeal of our transportation finding, and so that's listed there of $654,000 as a restatement to our fund balance, so that increases our ending fund balance. I've included a history of our property taxes. Like I said, they've changed very slightly since what we proposed. Overall, our regular property taxes increased by 3.8% over last year. which is actually a lower increase than what we've experienced over the last several years. Like in 22, we had a 5.73% increase. In 22-23, it went up by 6.7. 23-24 increased by 4.4. So our increases in property taxes are actually going down. I'd also like to point out that... the community redevelopment funds down there. We budgeted at $4,300,000, and the county office actually recommends that we budget it at 50% of
058what you received the prior year because those funds are unknown and very volatile, but we've chosen to do $4.3 million. So this is a multi-year projection just for our unrestricted funds. It doesn't include any pay increases. It doesn't consider school closures. It only includes step and column for teachers and classified. It also takes into consideration increases in health and welfare benefits of between 3 and 5%. So for 25-26, we're anticipating almost, well, a balanced budget of just by $19,000, and 26-27, $936,000. This slide represents projected fund balances for all funds. I won't go through each one of them, but these are all of the funds that the district currently has. So our interim reports can have three different certifications. A positive, which means we'll meet our obligations to current in the two subsequent years. A
059qualified means you'll meet it the current year and maybe or may not the next two years. And a negative means you'll meet it the current year and that you might not meet it the current or the subsequent years. so we actually have a positive certification this year and so we're Asking the board to approve the interim report with a positive certification questions We'll come back to the board for questions for our miss Ives. Does anyone have questions? No trustee winners trustee Ching So I'm interested in whether or not the multi-year projections, the MYP, how do you... How do you account for the safe grant for the expenditures associated with the safe grant? Are they so they're obviously in this year's budget in the 2425 what what happens in 2526 and 26 and 27 the safe
060grant is actually funded out of restricted funds this year So unless there's a funding source becomes available Currently there isn't funding included in the unrestricted funds. So I believe we're hoping for donations or contribution from the Ed Foundation or some other funding source for this safe grant. Okay. And then could you also explain So the decrease in the home to school transportation, is that because the state has reduced its reimbursement rate the way they calculate the reimbursement rate? Or was it, I'm just curious, like what kind of drove that? It's based on 80% of the previous year's expenditures and the reimbursement rate did drop slightly. And that's not statutory. They come up with whatever their formula is. Yes, I believe so. Okay. Then the last question I have is, so the board adopted a resolution
061for this year and for next year about the minimum reductions that we wanted to make in terms of having a balanced budget. It looks like we're very close or we've actually achieved that target for 24-25. But the 25-26, where do we stand on that? Because I think our resolution was that we were going to reduce the budget by about $940,000 in that resolution. So does that calculation include the fact that we have decided ahead of time that we're going to reduce 940,000? No, that's based on the reductions that we could make. And we will have... We are anticipating savings from school closure if school closure doesn't come to fruition then if we want if the board's desires to cut more than just to have the balanced budget then We'll have to find other things to
062cut I mean do we have a sense of what those cuts could be without school closure like this there's really not much else we can cut we're we're gonna be we're working on better staffing alignment but there's really not a lot of cuts additional cuts that we can make okay that's that's my question trustee Winders So, but we also do still anticipate that SCO will be, begin the process of ending some of the classes that they provide to some of our students. And we would need to be bringing those students back and developing a program for them. And so that's going to cause an increase in expenditures that we're going to need to prepare for as well, correct? Well, we'll have an increase in expenditures for building the program, but we'll have a decrease in
063expenditures for tuitions for the kids in the program. But I can't factor in what I don't know yet. So, I mean, we're still working on the cost of that program and what the program is going to look like. So at that point, then. Hopefully by second interim we'll know what that looks like and be able to incorporate that in there then. Yeah, I mean and I could just say like those are those are pretty significant programs It's why historically SCO has has run those programs because those are more students with more significant needs So we would need to be building a pretty robust program that had some pretty robust supports in place. It's my understanding that they weren't going originally they were going to move forward to doing that in 2025 but I believe they're
064going to hold off giving the school districts that are participating more time to be able to build their programs. Yeah, that was my understanding too, is we weren't looking at that something we would do next year, but it's something that we would need to begin the process for the year, likely the year after that, start beginning the planning phase next year. Right, and I do believe we have begun the planning phase for that. Okay, thanks. I just wanted to make sure that was still the case. Trustee Bell? And so just to confirm, the 24-25 projection has no numbers in here for theoretical. pay increases to classified and certificated, correct? Just the step and columns that are built into the PASIS. So the theory is that once we reach an agreement with both of our labor
065partners, then that'll have to change. So the deficit for 24-25 will increase from the $931,000 negative to something more than that. Okay, great. Thank you. Trustee Ching? Do you happen to remember what, I know you presented this in a previous presentation about the amount of expenditures that we, or the amount that we actually pay SCO for the SCO program for those kids. I sort of tend to remember like 135 or 140,000 for kids. I think it was 102,000. 102, okay. And how many students approximately? 22. Okay, thank you. Trustee Winters? Yeah, but just to clarify, we don't necessarily know from year to year how many students are going to be because we don't necessarily know the students and who's coming and what their needs are. It's a number that would fluctuate forever because we can't
066predict that. Trustee Lehman, do you have any questions? Not at this time. I think great work on the transportation, I guess, refund or correction from earlier in the year. I know that was a gaffe that was missed and there was a lot of turmoil that that created and just good work by the staff on actually getting that revenue back to the district. That really does help us. That is not an insignificant amount. So thank you to the staff and folks that worked on that. No further questions at this time. Thank you. OK, I just have one question. Can you help? us understand the transfer and contributions can you just give a little bit of a background on that so contributions are funds that are transferred from the general fund to other funds so the bulk
067of that is special ed and the districts required to transfer 3% of its total operating expenditures to routine restricted maintenance which funds our maintenance department and a lot of the repairs that we do through their other contributions Is like is really that's those are the only two contributions that we had this year transfers in we were transferring money from fund 20 to the general fund to cover the retirement incentive we did one that was 194,000 and one that was right around the same amount and so that 300,000 transfer in is to cover those two those two years worth of the retirement incentive. But there's really not funds available in Fund 20 anymore, so the general fund will be funding those. Okay. So just to clarify, because I thought special education. So special education comes from
068the restricted side of the budget. However, there is money that then can be taken from the unrestricted. Special ed is considered restricted. Right. And we do get about $900,000 from federal funds, and then we get another $63,000 for preschool. There's $757,000 in property taxes that's allocated for special ed. The rest of it is funded. Although it's considered special revenue, it's funded through the general fund via contribution. Okay, thank you for clarifying that if there's no further questions from the board I'll open it up to public comment in the room Is there any public comment in the room on this item? I see none. Oh Yeah, I run it wasn't again I just wanted to make a comment regarding how it seems to happen every year when we get into budget information We had a lot
069of blustering and a lot of fear-mongering that was created this year to our community, to our parents. That made a lot of people feel really horrible. And then now it's not. There's nothing. We're fine. So please stop doing that to our community. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other public? Oh, yep. I'm Kambiz Dazad. Here as a community member. If you don't know, I have four grandkids. And I'm here to talk about the school closures because it's going to affect the community. But on this topic, thank you. Because it took me a minute for the dust to settle after this conversation of the budget. It really seems like that was the doom and gloom coming back in August to now. And then just hearing the balanced budget, you know, presentation. And then trying to
070reconcile what I just heard, the $102,000. per student times 22 is 2,244,000. I think that's what I heard. And so that's where, again, we're really having a good conversation right now because those are good data that we need to know. And I think it's really healthy to have this conversation so we understand what we're talking about. So I am a little bit flustered by the fact that... It just seems like we really would like to have a situation where it's Christmas season, you know, and we're coming to a point where the fighting and all of the discussion that's taking place between all the committees. So this item here, again, the transferring fund 20, where I think it was unrestricted to a general fund. I just don't see how that continues for the safe grant. That
071is something the safe grant hoping for contributions that that is something that is completely out never been talked about but it's kind of lingering about. So maybe you know as a family you want to have those conversations before we start putting students all in the same classroom. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other public comment in the room. Go ahead. Hi, Regina Mellinger. I just noticed on the last presentation in the corner, it said made with gamma. I just want to like put this out there. That's artificial intelligence. I would just be careful putting confidential information on websites like that when making presentations. I just want to put it out there. Just keep that in mind. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Laura Schumer. And I guess I just wanted to comment
072on the fact that they said they don't think there's any other way to cut funds other than closing a school. And I feel like that feels quite narrow minded. in terms of not thinking outside the box. I don't have numbers right now, but it feels like the number, Sonoma Valley is a small district, but I don't quite know how many people in the district office we need based on the number of students we have, which is a smaller number of students than we had in my entire high school. Growing up so I just feel like there's other places that could be possible to look before we talked about closing a school That they've talked about possibly having more students come in in the next few years It's just a concern in terms of budget talks
073It feels like there could have been other ways or at least maybe ask other ideas to be put out there Just keep thinking before we make a one decision that affects so many people and so many lives Thank you. Is there any other public comment in the room? i see none we'll go to public comment online is there any public comment online i don't see any michelle do you see any no okay we'll bring it back to the board no no trustee winders yeah so just for for some context um so Where our budget was before was real. We were in deficit. We've been in deficit for many years. Our reserves got spended down. We got placed into a qualified status. That wasn't something we made up. That was something that the County Office of
074Education in the state of California placed us in. And there was a lot of hard work that went into the budget to get it balanced and get it to this place. There were a lot of cuts that went into place to get it balanced and get it to this place and to get our reserves to the minimum. the minimum 3% and as a basic aid district, we are mandated to be at a minimum of 3%. A lot of hard work that went into getting those transportation funds back, the reimbursement for the transportation, it wasn't looking good. I mean, we had effectively been told it wasn't likely we were going to get them back at one point. I mean, because it just wasn't, it wasn't a strong appeal that, but a lot of work went into
075really, really pushing on that and getting those funds back. And I really want to touch on the fact that when we talk about the 3% minimum reserves, that is the minimum. It's not a reserve that is healthy. It is not a reserve that I would consider responsible. And that really our reserve needs to be up closer to 20% or more in order to weather the storms, so to speak, the financial storms. um that are happening i think that when we look at public education and what we have coming at us in the future in public education our state budget it's it's not great um and that's and then we have some changes that are likely to be coming um at a federal level as well um we already don't get a lot in federal funds
076but we still depend on them And to have those potentially reduced in some way when you're running at a 3%. and your reserves are really low, this is one of those times where it's important to say we need more robust reserves than this in order to weather the storms. Some of those storms are we're going to have to build our continuum of services for our students and our continuum of placement for our students to be able to provide them their free and appropriate public education and to meet our mandates. there's a lot that that happened to getting this budget balanced it it wasn't there was no secret pot of money somewhere that we were hiding um and i i'm not saying that facetiously like i've actually had people come to me and say that that
077that was a belief that that was happening and It's not because trust me, if there was a suitcase of money somewhere that we could have dipped into and not made cuts, I would have gladly have chosen that option. And so the truth is, is we're not the only school district that's facing this. This is happening throughout the state of California. We are not in a bubble in Sonoma. There are school closures happening throughout the state, Oakland, Alum Rock. Santa Rosa, I mean, I could list them endlessly. And it's not accidental, and it's not something anybody's doing on purpose because they're choosing these things that feel badly. We have a declining enrollment. We have decline in funds. And we have to, and we have an increase in requirements and mandates, by the way. So when legislation
078passes, for instance, for a financial literacy course, which I support a million percent, and I'm so glad that that's happening because I hear from our students that's one of the things they want more than anything, and now that's going to be a graduation requirement. However, it wasn't passed with any funding attached to it. So it's a class that's going to need a teacher. It's going to need a curriculum. It's going to need materials. But there was no funding. So I'm just using that as an example of there's things that happen legislatively that also impact our budget because we have to find the funds to implement them because they're mandates. And some of them are really good things for students, like a financial literacy course. I think it's important that we give context when we're talking
079about the budget and we hear things, well, now it's all fine. Why did you scare everybody? We weren't scaring everybody. We weren't coming and having study sessions on the budget and spending Saturdays doing that out of some theory. It was a real thing. We were in qualified status. The fact that we have gotten back to a positive status is a really good thing, but we still have a lot of work to do. There is a lot of work to do. left in this budget we are not done and the work is not done and we have to look ahead so I'm saying this because I want us as a board to keep that context and I want us as a board right when we we look at our budget is to build up our reserves
080and to be looking ahead at what's coming and what we know is coming but also look ahead at what we don't know is coming and having a good plan for that so that we can keep our programs running I remember when we got the SAFE grant, it was a five-year grant. I actually spent a lot of time as a parent working with Charles Wilson, who started that process going. And we always knew that it was ending in five years. We always knew that we were going to have to seek other funding to sustain the programs that we built out of that SAFE grant. The SAFE grant was designed to launch and give a launch pad for these important programs. but we have to sustain them and one of the best things that ever came out
081of that grant was our wellness centers and the wellness services that we've provided students. I'll just say I think they've saved lives. I think that we have students who are alive because of that program. So, and I feel very confident that we will be able to sustain them and that we'll be able to find the grants and the funding to do that. But it was always a five-year grant and always, we always knew that. So that's the only discussion piece that I have on the budget. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Trustee Bell? Oops, sorry. So, I don't know if everybody really understands. These numbers aren't real because they don't include any salary increases with our labor partners over the next, in those three columns there. So, if we're not going to pay teachers or classifieds
082and give them any raises, those are the numbers. But that's not the reality of the situation. So, just as long as everybody understands that, the way we get to a $19,000 profit in the projected 25-26 is by not raising salaries for classifieds and certificated. And that $931,000 loss in the first column, in the negative, that will increase based on retroactive labor negotiation raises. So these numbers are not real. These are without raises to our staff. So just as long as everybody's clear on that. Thanks. Trustee Belt? Yeah, I think there's some optimism here. I know I heard the word fear-mongering, and I have felt that that is not overblown. We have not had a positive ending balance of our budget in this district. I believe in, someone would have to correct me if I'm wrong,
083but six, seven, or eight years. It's somewhere in that gap. 2017, so the years are... 2010. Okay, so the years are going quick and we're talking about almost 15 years of negative spending and that's why we're here. Now there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is some light in the fact that we've reduced significantly that deficit spending every year, but we're not there. We're not out of the woods. So I think as a community, as we're thinking ahead of how we continue to get there is we do need to continue to be very cost mindful and cost effective in what we do it's exciting to see the projections but to trustee bell's point those are those are still projections we have not materialized a savings yet as a reminder yeah the
084three percent scares me too three percent is the bare minimum we are millions of dollars a year away from getting there so when we talk about decisions we need to make as a board I think it is great that there is a path to get there, but we are not there yet. I look forward to sitting here two years from now and saying we got out of the woods and we're on the right path, but we still have a few years of work ahead of us to get on a strong financial footing, and we need to remain competitive with our salaries in our district to maintain our staff. So we have to be thinking about... how we're paying our staff that absolutely is get included in this projection. And we're going to continue to think
085about our staff and budget for that in the future years. But we are not there yet. We're getting very close. And thank you to staff for getting us there. I don't think they actually get enough credit for pulling us out of millions of dollars in deficit spending per year to a place where it's less than a million this year potentially and a potential positive next year. We are moving the right direction. We need to make some really hard decisions still. And that's not a, it's not a fun place to be in. Trustee Winders mentioned all of our adjacent districts are sitting here and making the same Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Napa, having the same exact conversation we're having around where we allocate our resources. I want to get out of survival mode into thriving. The only
086way we're going to thrive is when we have a bit of a surplus to get the programs we want, you know, and continue to fund them. I absolutely agree. The wellness services are a huge win in our district. They cost money. They're not free. So if we want to continue to fund those programs that thrive in our district, we need to be really mindful about cost. And that's why we still have difficult decisions today, this year, and next year to make to get us there. Thank you. Trustee Ching? Thank you. I just want to echo many of the statements that my colleague just made. We aren't crying wolf. We still have a structural deficit, right? This year we spent 934. We spent $934,000 more than we took in as revenue. That is a problem. It's
087been an ongoing problem. We've had a structural deficit. I'm looking at it, you know, back to 2010. We need to align our... spending with our revenue. We need to live within our means. And I do want to bring something up to the trustees that you may not be aware of. Well, a couple of things. One is that I don't know if you had a chance to look at the cash flow statement, right? So we can look at our monthly cash flow statement. Last month, we ran a negative $15 million cash flow. So when districts... LCFF districts, they get monthly apportionments from the state. So they don't have as much volatility as a basic aid district. We have a lot of volatility because we get two lump sum payments, I believe, every six months. Anyway, something
088like that, right? Because we get tax revenues directly from property taxes. We can't... And we need to be able to, when you run a negative cash flow, it's like using the credit card because you don't have any money in the bank. We can borrow from funds to be able to manage the cash flow, but really we need to have reserves that can deal with the volatility in cash flow. We should not be doing inter-borrowing in our funds. It's not safe. We have our... reserves of 3% minimum 3% is two weeks of payroll that you know, if you ever run a business, two weeks of payroll is nothing. So we need to be able to cushion and have, you know, a large cushion for we are just one lit it we are one lawsuit away from
089insolvency. We're one roof away from insolvency. This is not crying wolf. So I just want you to be aware of this. And the other issue that I've been trying to harp on for a really long time is this RDA money is going away in 2030. We have to start weaning ourselves off the RDA money. There was a recommendation back in 2017 that we should not treat it like recurring revenue, at least divide it into two buckets or three buckets, because we treat it like recurring revenue. Guys, the $4 million is going away. And so we need to start preparing for that. I also do want to, you know, give a lot of credit to staff for how quickly and how hard they worked on this. The last time we were in a qualified state was
090in 2004. It took the district like three years to build up its reserves back to 3%. So we did it very quickly. It's still very painful. I mean, this stuff, you know, affects our kids in the classroom. We need to do it judiciously, but we need to have a plan in place for how we're going to deal with the declining RDA money. That's going to go away. I mean, 2030 is going to come up very soon, so. Trustee Bell. And so just to Reena's point on the property tax revenue increase, so 2024 is the lowest year of home sales in America since 2008, and that's why that number of property tax increases has been the lowest since then. And the reality is 2025 is not going to be a significant improvement over this current year.
091it's going to be some time before or if ever we see another increase that we've seen previously so one of those factors is the the you know the increase in our property tax revenue is not looking as rosy in the future as it has been in the past Can I just follow up? Yeah, absolutely. I just have a quick other comment for the board that we really have to think about. We have a structural problem and a lot of districts are experiencing this, which is to Trustee Bell's point, which is we have taxes growing. Like if you look at a five-year rolling average, it's about 5%. That's kind of what our assumptions are. But the problem is that expenditures have been outpacing that. And so what do we do in the long term to protect
092against that? Because I don't want to be here three years from now and say, well, we have to close another school. Like fiscal stabilization has to involve more than just school closures. It's a big problem. And we've got we're not going to solve this tonight, but I just want it on the table because we need to have some pretty serious conversations about that's the disconnect in this district. Yeah, and I think the question for us is what are we weighing as opportunities to save, right? And I think just being hyper-transparent with the community on how we save and how we listen to the community on that. We've heard from the community priorities around class sizes, small elementary schools. Those come at a cost, and we need to weigh how we value those, the wellness program
093and counseling programs and other... um kind of social services that we offer those come at costs and how do we weigh those in our district you know we want it all for our kids i get it we all want it all we also need to be here and be judicious financially about where we set our district up long term because it will eventually impact the education in the classroom if we're not thinking about having a buffer in place in case something happens right now we are living life on the edge so to speak so um there are decisions we have to make um and what we value in this community and those are those are the decisions where that's where we're at we're at a crossroads on that so that's all i have to say
094Thank you. I concur with everything my fellow trustees have said, and I just also want to say thank you to staff for all the work that you put into this. This is an action item. The board is asked to consider approval of the 2024-2025 first interim report. Is there a motion on the table to approve? I propose a motion to approve. I second that motion. Motion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay we're going to move on to 16.3 action approval of resolution 25 25-10. Oh, excuse me. I apologize. Incorrect. 16.2. Information. Labor negotiation process. Legal counsel will review the negotiation process between SVUSD and labor partners. This is an information item only. Mr. Joel Darlington is here to present. Great. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Welcome this evening. I'm glad to see our labor
095partners here with us for this discussion as well. Just as a reminder. in the steps in the negotiation process this is an informational item only we're not getting into any specifics about deal making and so forth it's more about kind of how we go through the process and what it looks like just to bring a little clarity through the process and what what the actual steps in the negotiations process looks like so let's begin I've already covered the first item, which is introductions. So we've already achieved part of what we have to cover. In terms of employer-employee relation issues, we're going to go through what negotiability, what that really looks like, what negotiations are, and how they happen and why they happen. I'm also going to be talking about conduct, what expected conduct is when
096you're at the bargaining table as you go through the bargaining process. We'll talk about sunshine, what sunshine actually means. Throughout the presentation, we'll be talking a bit about the Brown Act and ERA. ERA is the law that oversees labor negotiations. And then lastly, we'll be talking about the impasse process. So in terms of negotiability and why we negotiate, the Educational Employment Relations Act or the RADA Act dates back to 1972. It's codified in the government code and it really was a creation of law to set out what fair labor relations need to look like for employees that are employed by school districts, LEAs, and COEs. And that is where you find all the rules and all of the laws that we have to follow. And in terms of why we negotiate also is to improve.
097personnel management and employer employee relations. So when you're at the table and then for the board itself as you're engaging with your partners, it's to make sure that you're maintaining a healthy personnel management and then that employer employee relationship so that moving forward, the end benefit is to benefit our children, right? Which is the main goal of why we do this. Another reason why we negotiate in terms of the scope, the matters that we talk about are wages, hours, and then a bunch of other terms that are contained within the articles of the collective bargaining agreement or we refer to that as the CBA. All of that is contained within the scope and then with regard to representation, the district will have representation and then our labor partners have their own representation. Then we come
098together and then we negotiate it. And then in terms of what's enumerated, the terms and conditions of employment, that's also why we negotiate so that we have the set set of rules and understanding in terms of how, when, where, what we do when we work, how we work. what those conditions look like and those are all dictated within the collective bargaining agreement. School districts are a sovereign entity and so because of that you have your own way of kind of choosing what your path will be, how you govern yourself and then how you work with your employees as well and how your employees then work with management and so that's another reason why we negotiate. And then what do we negotiate? So in terms of what's enumerated, the terms and conditions of employment, this is
099just some examples that are here. Health and welfare benefits are a big part in a package of what we offer to our employees. And as we all know, as an example, health and welfare benefits have become much more complicated over time in terms of how benefits are received, how they're implemented, how they're paid for. And then leaves, for example, that is still continues to be the largest section of the CBA. And it continues to grow, as we know, for those of us that have the joy of sitting at the table together. The leaves section continues to have rules and laws that we have to implement. And that's an example of areas where while we are negotiating this and some of the room have heard me say this before, while. we have to negotiate it because
100it's something that's covered by law. We also have to put it into the CBA or I say we have to, but it's a better way of doing it. There's also transfer and reassignments in terms of when employees are moved from maybe one site to another or from one class to another. Those are also set out in the CBA. And then safety and conditions of employment are key in terms of just. day-to-day activity in terms of where employees are, that you get to work in a safe environment just as our students under the state of California under our Constitution. They're entitled to a FAPE, that's every single child, and they also are entitled to a safe school environment and so too are our employees including our management as well. And then class size has become a
101growing portion, a growing part of CBAs as well in terms of what to expect for class size, how that's laid out within the CBA. And then there's also evaluation procedures and grievance processing. This is also why we negotiate because these terms can change over time. When you look at evaluation procedures, for example, what has happened I've seen over the years is that the tools that we now know how to evaluate our staff or how our staff can evaluate us in a reverse fashion for management. Is to go through the process of having different tools and we can negotiate those tools so that we can more effectively evaluate each other And then grievance processing which sounds like a negative term But a lot of times it really means that the the Union might say well this
102isn't being implemented properly And so we want you to look into this and there's formal structures of then how the Union can actually grieve And even within the grievance process itself, there's an informal process so that we informally meet and confer so that we're talking and then moving from the talking pieces to then putting things into writing all the way through maybe even arbitration. Those terms are all laid out within the collective bargaining agreement as well. So that if as a member of the public or if you're a member of the union or on the board, you would like to know how that's all laid out. It's all spelled out there for you step by step. Conduct. I think I feel like sometimes we talk about conduct it sounds negative I look at as positive
103which is how do we expect conduct to be among us as partners? So a lot of times I'll just say this in general a lot of times when we talk about our norms and expectations and how we want to engage in harmonious labor relations and the best way to do that is to say well how do how do we want to? talk to each other how do we want to engage and there is this duty it's a legal requirement that when we bargain that we bargain in good faith and i like this picture this handshake because it's something that i actually do i believe in doing this which is even if we maybe don't agree that we can still shake hands i'm sorry i'm looking at you kimberly but i i believe in that um
104and that we can advocate for both of our sides but that we can also still have good labor relations school district employers and the exclusive representatives are obligated to meet and negotiate in good faith on matters within the scope so that means that it is a requirement under law that we that we meet and that we do act in good faith that we are good labor relation partners with each other and that and that we do our best in that regard and that is always my goal in terms of the duty to bargain in good faith some additional elements There are enumerated terms and conditions that have to be bargained between the parties, and those are set out within the collective bargaining agreement. And then in terms of an obligation to reach a specific outcome
105but to bargain, there is that kind of tension there. So you have to meet, and you have to meet and confer, and you have to negotiate. That's a requirement. But you don't have to agree. In fact, it's okay not to agree sometimes, right? It's like what we say just in general, like even to our kids sometimes. But you want to hear each other out, and you want to be bargaining in good faith through that process. Other elements of good faith bargaining, it's a subjective desire to reach an agreement. It's very subjective when you're sitting at the bargaining table because most of the time what we're talking about are very specific items. You already have a collective bargaining agreement, and you may need to do tweakings to it. There might be elements that you have to
106switch, change. Laws can change. expectations can change and that's the place where subjectively you can state to the other side what you would like to achieve. In terms of the totality of conduct that comes to mind and that happens, this really takes place because of the actions of how we engage as labor partners together. But in terms of frustrating the process, intentionally engaging in behaviors that would frustrate good faith, that is prohibited under the law. So I just did kind of like a broad brush. Now we're going to talk about the sunshine process. And my son actually heard me talking about the sunshine process one time. He was listening and he wasn't listening in on any protected attorney-client privilege. I want to assure the superintendent it was in general. He's like, why do you have
107to sunshine? What does that mean? Who's bringing the sun in? And I was like, that's actually a better way of looking at it. And the idea is we sunshine because we want to show the public from both sides with our labor partners. and with the management what it is that we intend to negotiate and that's where that cool term comes from. And then in terms of how we initiate the initial proposal, the board's role, as we're all familiar with, which is a reminder, is to present the proposal to the governing board for review, input, ownership, and official adoption. Those are all things that you have been doing as a board, maybe not even realizing it, that that is part of. part of the law that you go through and you evaluate what has been sunshined
108in the proposal, that you give input actively in terms of what you do and intentionally want to negotiate. You take ownership with it in terms of making sure that your labor team stays on that path until you finally adopt the CBA terms that you would like to reach. And then in terms of the sunshine process, there's a lot of legalese here, but basically it sets out how, as parties, you go through the process. You do have to bring it to an official meeting, show the proposals to the public. The public has a right to look at it, to talk about it, and you have a hearing so that the public can actually ask questions about what is being sunshined. In terms of board action, what takes place is the board officially receives the union's initial
109proposal. So what happens is the union will write a letter, generally, and in the letter it will state what they intend, what terms of the collective bargaining agreement they would like to negotiate, and then the board on its side adopts the district's initial proposal. So what you'll see at board meetings when we sunshine is you'll see both of those. being reflected on the agenda and then also then what is discussed and received by the board and then also presented by the the Union Impasse process now we're getting into some real fun areas here. I was gonna get some laughter there Jason smiled he did Thank you So the impasse process, I want to say, sounds dark and scary and bad, and it really doesn't have to be. Actually, it can be looked at as a
110way to, as part of the labor negotiation process, try to figure out where our differences are. And a lot of my mentors over the years have told me that sometimes we just can't agree. But guess what? The law has created a way for us to figure out how to get through our differences. And so the impasse process just really means that you're an impasse, you engage, and then you still try to figure out how to get along. Because in the end, all of us in this room, except for a few of us in the room, you're all still going to be together, right? And so through the impasse process, you can figure out how to get through it. So in PASS, you see the definition there, but it's basically the idea that within the scope
111of representation that you can't really get along anymore, you can't reach agreement, and that you've basically decided that in future meetings and continuing through the negotiating process, it's futile, right? It just won't work, and so you have to move on. So then what happens is that the parties can either jointly agree, separately unilaterally can file with per that's a public employee relation board which by the way was originally set up as an educational agency to help with enforcement of rules and laws for school districts County Office of Education now it's greatly expanded another good fun place to go have discussions with people as well so in terms of a request form it's it's a pleading form it's filed And then when it's filed, there's a statement in there about what it means, why you're at
112impasse, you state your facts, and then hopefully it gets certified. And then in terms of the impasse process itself, the whole thing is overseen by the – did I skip a slide? I should be there. Yeah, I'll go back. There we go, yeah. In terms of impasse, so just remember what I just covered on the last slide. PERB is the agency that oversees impasse. So all of these things that are taking place are still with them as the oversight agency. So mediation, fact-finding, and then post-fact-finding, all of that is overseen by PERB. They're kind of the boss, so to speak, right? And they're not judges per se. They are appointed attorneys, but they oversee everything that happens during the impasse process. Mediation, bigger slide. Mediation is the step within impasse where you have somebody coming
113in, a state mediator that's assigned by PERB, and then they help you to try to negotiate. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. And again, it's okay if it doesn't work out. Sometimes it'll take two rounds of being an impasse. Sometimes it will take 15 rounds. But the goal is to finally get to some type of deal. The mediator has absolute authority over the parties. They have the absolute right to say you have to stay here and you have to get this done until I'm satisfied as the mediator that you just can't get it resolved. If you can't get it resolved, then you move on to fact-finding, which is the last line there. If you see that punch your ticket, a mediator that I've worked with for a... I've worked with for a long time.
114My partners have. They, in essence, will say, I'm not going to punch your ticket to move on to fact-finding until I believe there's no other way that you can get things resolved. So the last step, if we still are at impasse, is to go to fact-finding. At fact-finding, there's a three-panel member board that is set up. There's an impartial fact-finder that's appointed by PERB who serves as like a quasi-judge. And then each party who is in disagreement appoints their own individual on the board. And then each side presents. And then there's findings of fact that are developed. And then those findings of fact are sent back to the board. During that process, though, even though you're at impasse and even if you're still in fact finding, you still can negotiate. you still can mediate, you
115still can have one-to-ones with your local to try to resolve things. So just because you're at that point doesn't mean that you still can't try to resolve things. So that's it. A training that sometimes it takes about three hours to do. We just did in, I don't know, it was pretty quick, right? So anyway, thank you. Thank you. I'll bring it to the board for questions. Mr. Bell. I have a question, Matt. I'm new to this game. And so this whole notion of this tentative agreement, what is the obligation for a school board to, is there an obligation if there's a tentative agreement for the school board to accept that? Or is it still at that point negotiable? So when a tentative agreement is reached between the parties, the parties then take that to their
116respective, either the agency or the group that they represent. And so when the TAs go out for the union, it can be ratified or not ratified, or it can be taken to the board, and the board can either approve it or not approve it. Are there other options other than approve or not approve? When you're in impasse and you're in mediation, yes, what can happen is under that protected place of mediation, there can be ongoing mediation negotiations. And in that time, because you're protected by confidentiality, the idea is that maybe you can think outside the box as our mediator. I've heard mediators say in the past, right? And the idea is, can you be creative within that time because it's protected by that confidentiality? So, yes, there are definitely other options. Any other questions? Trustee
117Ching? So somebody made a statement that said something about when mediation is over. Can you, like? I don't know if you picked up on it, but I think I wrote down that mediation ends when a TA is developed. Could you comment on that? When does mediation... When is it terminated? I suppose is there a legal definition? So it on the slide that that's with us That it that if you go to the last two dashes there technically the law says a mediator has quote Within 15 days after his appointment to resolve and pass or release the parties to fact-finding But the California State Mediation Services Department equates us to be about 15 times by 24 hours, which is 360 hours, right? So, and that's codified under law, but it can go way beyond that in
118terms of how long you're in mediation. I mean, I've been in mediations that have lasted multiple months until you can finally get to a deal, and you are not out of mediation until the mediator... Punches your ticket, which is an informal term, right? But they they literally will state Now the parties are released. So until it says that you are not out of mediation Any other questions? All right at this time. I think I'm gonna open it up to public comment if there's public comment in the room on this item Please come to the podium Okay, so I'm Laura Hoban co-president of the VMTA so it says that technically the law says the mediator has been days to resolve the impasse and what a signed tentative agreement does is resolve the impasse we've agreed to
119everything we were trying to negotiate and then the lawyer and the chief negotiator, although I'm confused because under Ugrin's, I believe, job description, she should be the chief negotiator, but I heard that was switched. I mean, I know it was Raina. So Raina's signature, Matt's signature, our lead negotiator's signature. It says resolve the impasse. A TA tentatively resolves it. What's there left to talk about? We signed off on everything. And like he said, you take it to the board. The board can vote to approve or not approve. Our membership can vote to approve or not approve. It's a fail safe, right? We're representing 200. almost 200 teachers and they're representing the five of you so we need to have the communication with our membership to know that they would approve what I've been negotiating for
120them not I what their bargaining teams have been negotiating so what happens basically is you aren't released from mediation usually if you sign a tentative agreement you're released from mediation when you cannot come to a tentative agreement so then you should vote publicly according to your board policies and then we move on in the process and that it's as simple as that and that has been communicated to the board members via email over and over again that has been communicated to the board members by the community the staff with our signs vote on the October 1st TA we're not would I love you to approve the October 1st TA yes because I'm we have to go into another round of media or another round of negotiations after this but It's up to the board, right?
121I don't want you to close schools, but you know what? I'd love you to vote not close schools, but I want you to vote. That's what I want. I want you to take your vote so we can move forward. And that's what I'd like. Thank you. I would just like to say again based on that issue I think that is where we have had a breakdown in communication trust and feeling supported in this community as for teachers staff students everybody because all we needed you to do was to vote I believe that in your heart of hearts you obviously took this job because you care I think everybody in this room cares about the kids in Sonoma Valley there is no doubt Okay, but the problem that we're having is not feeling that we are
122being respected and being treated in a fair way It feels underhanded whether or not that was the intention that is the result and something we now have to deal with So what I'm asking for all of you is feeling like running on Press releases that make it sound like the VMTA is responsible for this particular situation is really unkind to us and makes us who actually in a situation truly have less power in this moment look even worse and like we have no way to combat that. We're not even we have to come to these meetings. We had to go out and make demonstrations. We had to take time away from prepping and planning for our students so that we could tell the community it's not our fault. We are not responsible for the challenges
123that are happening. And that takes time away from us doing our job and making sure that our kids become the focus of what we do. And that means that we've been here, I don't know how many times this year already to go over this. How many meetings? That's how many time, how much time we're not being able to dedicate to our own self-care, to our own kids, to our own families, and to our students. So whatever happens moving forward, we're asking you to please be transparent. Please be honest and whatever it can be done. I understand that there's closed sessions But at the same time like the thing about the time today if you had published ahead of time We had to make a time change because of this particular thing There would have been
124a lot less mistrust between the whole situation So I understand that there are some legalities but figure out a way to tell the community what you're really thinking in a better way so that we can see how much you care about our students and care about us in a way that we can feel that and know that. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, Ronette Weston again. In that same vein of trust and letting us know what's going on. I when we were this last meeting and you guys said that you know you pat you voted and you approved the TA what was that I'm confused because I had Debbie Bacher come up here and thank you guys for on my behalf because I hadn't done it when I came up to spoke before and I feel
125like a total idiot that I said thank you because it wasn't even the thing it wasn't even our October 1st agreement that's what I thought you guys had passed So I know all of our community is super confused and we want to know what was going on behind the scenes, who was talking to who, and what was it that you guys were trying to say that you passed that we didn't all vote on or agree upon? It seems dirty. Thank you. Regina Miller, I just want to piggyback on that. I was here and I screamed in the hallway because I was so excited. Same as Ronette. Would love to know what a tentative agreement was because we all thought it was the October 1st one. So we have no idea what you guys voted yes
126on. No idea. And I just want to say that TA that Laura Hoban held up, that's 11 hours of work that we were in that room. So I'm going to say I feel really disrespected too. I worked so hard in that room. I'm on the negotiation team. We put in so much effort for that. We have a signed document by both parties. And like Laura Hoban said, all we're doing is asking you to vote on that. vote no go for it vote yes but you need to vote on that signed tentative agreement anything else not signed it's not by either parties you have a signed tentative agreement from both parties that needs to be voted on thank you thank you Hi there, Shelly Ryan. We've been to MPAS almost three years in a row, and
127so this is not a new process, and I'm not understanding why you guys aren't following the process. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Hi my name is Maggie Marvel and I'm here to express my deep frustration and disappointment with the way the Sonoma Valley Unified School District has handled contract negotiations with the Valley of Moon Association. The district's actions during this process have shown a shocking lack of transparency and respect in the way they have chosen to blame teachers while avoiding responsibilities both misleading and harmful. The district claims an agreement was reached with the VMTA on October 1st, but the board didn't approve a vote on it until the November meeting, causing unnecessary delays. VMTA had signed the agreement in good faith, believing it was final. However, the district chose to hold off on voting
128until later and never informed the VMTA of any counteroffer. Instead of continuing productive talks, the district presented the non-approved contract to the board and criticized the VMTA for their actions, a move that has not only fueled unnecessary conflict, but caused a lot of mayhem in our community. What is most concerning is the district's failure to address critical issues facing our teachers. While the district did offer a 3% raise, an improvement over the original 2% raise, this does little to address the real and urgent concerns teachers are facing in the classroom, specifically the lack of compensation for overcrowded classrooms, a major issue that teachers have repeatedly raised and was completely ignored in the offer. Teachers are doing their best to support their students in this increasingly difficult and overburdened environments, and yet the district has chosen
129not to address this at all. Meanwhile, the district continues to spend taxpayer money on things like hotels and meals for board members and staff, while teachers who are struggling with overcrowded classrooms and rising costs are offered a raise that barely keeps pace with inflation. To make matters worse, administrative leaders, including the superintendent, received a 4% raise, while the educators, the backbone of our school system, are left with an offer that doesn't even cover the basic cost of living increases. Even more troubling, the district continues to blame teachers for the contract dispute, despite the fact that the real issue lies with the district's refusal to negotiate fairly and its poor communication through the process. Teachers have worked tirelessly and yet they are being vilified by the district leadership for trying to secure better conditions for themselves
130and their students. We as a community need to stand with our teachers. The Sonoma Valley United District must recognize that its priorities are out of alignment. It is time for transparency, accountability, and a fair resolution to this dispute. Teachers deserve better compensation, better working conditions, and above all, respect, including a vote. Come on. For the critical role they play in shaping our students futures We call on the Sonoma Valley Unified District to put the needs of the students and teachers above political games and administrative luxuries It's time to come together and resolve this issue in a way that benefits all especially those who work day in and out for Educate and support our children Thank you Hello come beast aside transparency, I'm a community member, I'm not a teacher, but just kind of sitting here,
131I've had the privilege as a citizen to sit here with Mr. Layman before you became a trustee, listening to all of this, and yeah, I thought I heard there was a tentative agreement. That's what I thought. And I thought, wow, that's great. Now you can really focus on the consolidation. But just watching every topic come up, you know, I just... One thing that's missing for me is with a reasonable person, right now I'm just kind of going back to like, okay, we had a multi-year general projection. You said, Mr. Bell, that don't look at these numbers. These numbers are not real. These don't include increases. And right now we're talking about a TA that could have been settled. You know, you're just dragging this out. It just feels like a hostage negotiation going on here.
132You want to close the schools before you settle the contracts, but you know I mean to me I feel like Pick your battles. You know you had plenty of time to take care of this Meanwhile, there's stuff in the horizon that's coming up for you in terms of the portrait of the graduate There's a lot of stuff that you guys want to spend money on and I think at this point you might want to do an audit You might not want to spend any money because I agree with you, Trustee Ching. There is a huge problem of structural issues with this district. And again, I don't have the power. I'm not a teacher. I'm not a board. I can't make a decision. But I have ears, and there's something in between those two. It just
133doesn't pass that part of would a reasonable person think this is the way you want to do the right thing after you close Dunbar. And now you're going to close two more schools, potentially. And if you don't change, this is going to happen. Start with this change. You have an agreement. You want to explain the rules, sir? That's great. Stick to the rules. It just doesn't pass. Would a reasonable person think this is insane? We are here every month. This is not the best forum. We're standing in hallways. This is not a community. You call for a community, you come out for a meeting, you don't take questions. Please have some respect for us. Thank you. I only have three minutes of fame. Thank you Thank you Is there any other public comment in the
134room on this item? Okay, seeing none. We'll go to Online I see two hands raised online. We'll start with El Monterosso Laura, can you hear us? Laura if you can hear us, I think your mic is not on we cannot hear you Can you hear me now cat? Yes Okay, great. This is Laura Monterosso, a teacher. We have a signed tentative agreement. It's dated October 1st. It has Matt's signature, who's sitting there in the room with you. It has Rena's signature. She's there also. And it has our union rep's signature. The board needs to vote. You should have voted in October. You should have voted in November. And now you can vote today. There is board policy. Please follow it. We would like the board to vote on the only TA that is in existence
135right now so that we can move forward and we can continue negotiations. To quote Can Bees, stick to the rules. Happy holidays, everyone. Thank you. Mr. Hausman, if you can hear us. Good evening. Dennis Hausman, co-president. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Thank you. I just, again, want to thank Matt for his kind of brief description of negotiations. And then, again, I want to point out that board policy, I believe, I don't want to misquote it, but I believe it's 4143 states when the board receives a tentative agreement that they will vote on that. In addition to that, I see nowhere in board policy do they make a counter offer before voting on that. So again, as I did earlier today, I implore you to please vote on this tentative agreement that was
136signed on October 1st. All due respect to Ms. and her great efforts, but it was way more than 11 hours to get to this tentative agreement. It took several days, several, several hours, and I want to thank the negotiations team for all of their efforts in coming up with a good agreement, and hopefully the board can vote positively on that. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Thank you, Mr. Hausman. Jessica, Ms. Fudum, you have the mic. Hello, thank you. My name is Jessica Feudem and I am the parent of two Altamira school students. I was so excited back when I heard that the tentative agreement had been reached and I was really upset to receive that press release in my email from the district that I felt from my understanding was blaming the teachers association. for
137extending the process. And that's to reflect my perception of that communication. I really urge you, please vote on the signed tentative agreement. I want our teachers to feel respected and lifted up and trusted, and I want them to feel that they can trust the whole organism of our school environment. So thank you, and I'll look forward to hearing that you all have voted on the signed tentative agreement. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Fudum. Are there any other public comments online? I'm seeing none, so I will bring it back to the board for discussion. or any further questions for legal? Mr. Bell? Matt, is there any requirement in the board policy for us that, is there a prohibition for us to counter a tentative agreement? Well, during, and this slide's applicable to your question, during mediation,
138there's a process where, similar to being at formal negotiations where you're at the table, Mediation has its own process whereby... counter offers can be made and can go back and forth. So hypothetically, a TA could be offered to either side and a TA could either be ratified or not ratified. A TA could be approved or not approved as part of the mediation process as an ongoing way to negotiate. And certainly a counter offer is also permitted to be offered as a way to resolve the matter. And what can I say as a trustee as it relates to what we agreed on in the last meeting relative to the agreement? Can I talk about that or not? Well, I'm going to not give legal advice in open session, so I'm going to talk about in general.
139The mediation process is confidential. So terms that are exchanged during the mediation process should not be revealed or talked about by the parties. If they are, then it is per se an unfair labor practice. Anyone else? uh mr leeman yeah i just i think there's i understand the community's confusion um in the last session in november that was um that took place i was not an active board member so i was not in closed session i i don't have any information to share nor nor should i if i did um but i i think there was some confusion that i think we should acknowledge that something was voted on and then announced and um and that there clearly wasn't alignment there and I don't know what else can be shared to help with the community
140with that misalignment but there was a vote that took place again I wasn't there I wasn't a part of it and I think that was that's causing obviously some confusion here throughout the process thank you trustee Ching so since the board did take a vote approved ATA are you still saying that we cannot make the terms of that public And if you have to answer that in a different way, because if this is legal advice, you know, generically. So just generically, because this is an informational item. So it's more of an educational piece of why the superintendent has asked me to be here this evening on this issue. But just in general, in terms of when an offer is made during impasse and then what can be disclosed, you can't disclose. the specific numbers, the
141specific terms. There is room for negotiations, though, to continue on an ongoing basis. It doesn't have to stop. And it can continue well into even the fact-finding process. It doesn't need to end there. But in terms of when there is a TA reached, whether when it is in the mediation process itself, Those terms do not have to be formally voted upon. It can be brought to the board. Boarding closed session can approve or not approve. And then in the process of then with good labor relations working with the state mediator to continue in an ongoing basis to negotiate. Okay. I'm going to ask you a question also. Actually, I'm going to just make a statement. I'm surprised that not everyone knows, at least those who are represented by VMTA, what was voted on. And what
142I know I can tell you is you can ask your VMTA representation about the TA. Is that correct? Yes. Matt, can we offer some clarity? This has not been agendized in this matter to get into this type of back and forth. But I will say this. that in general under the rules of negotiations, right, labor partners and management at any time can meet in person together to work out their differences like tonight at 10 p.m. Again, I will just say We voted on a tentative agreement. We voted on a tentative agreement, and it was announced to the public. I highly recommend those of you who are represented by VMTA, excuse me, point of order, I am speaking, thank you, to please reach out to your representation. There was a vote that happened by this board.
143Please reach out to your representation. Is there any other questions or comments? Ms. Clemmons, do you have any questions? No? Okay, thank you, Mr. Joel Drowington. At this time, I am going to ask that we take like a five-minute recess. No, no. So we will take a five-minute recess. We'll come back here at 630. One-minute warning, and we'll be back to the meeting. Before we move on, just because this is an extremely sensitive topic within our community, just for clarity. Oh, excuse me. I apologize. We are in open session. Coming back to open session. For clarity, for everyone in this room, for our community, for everyone watching, I just want to make this statement just so it's clear. And this is to provide clarity, and I know for some this may offer questions. Unfortunately, at
144this time, we do not have public comment on this item any longer. If there are questions, feel free to email the board, but I am really hopeful that this offers a sense of clarity. This board or the board voted on a tentative agreement that was presented by a VMTA negotiating member therefore VMTA and the district can now enter into negotiations our Negotiating team is prepared and ready to meet on Monday at the earliest to continue negotiations So let me just be clear Although it is not the October 1st tentative agreement that you all would like to see us vote on, that is not necessary for reasons that were explained. We did vote on a tentative agreement. That tentative agreement, again, was brought to us by a VMTA negotiating member. I am not at liberty to
145speak of that. So at this point in time, I just want to make it clear because there was a board vote, VMTA can enter into negotiations at this time. Thank you. We are going to, okay. Yeah, point of order. We're not going to answer questions. I just want to, again, clarify. So we are going to move on to 16.3. Point of order I would appreciate if you send your questions via email at this point in time We're going to move on 16.3 action approval of resolution 25-10 approving school consolidation. I'm going to turn this over to our superintendent. Dr. Chin I'm just going to quickly read the abstract here in the issue paper. The district has been engaged in a process since 2022 to investigate and implement school consolidation in order to address declining enrollment
146and budgetary issues. The district school consolidation committee held nine public meetings commencing in January 2024 and concluding in October 2024, resulting in a report that was submitted by the committee to the board. At its study session on October 29th, 2024, the board received the committee report and discussed school consolidation options. The board continued discussions at the November 14th regular board meeting, November 18th study session, and may take action today, December 13th, at a regular board meeting. So I'm going to introduce or reintroduce. legal counsel who's been helping facilitate this process, Harold Freeman. He put together a draft resolution that we're going to ask the board today to adopt. In that resolution, it has four, I believe it's four different items in terms of how we are going to follow the discussion so that we're not
147kind of going into rabbit holes and kind of spinning our wheels. So we want to make sure that we follow the order that's in the resolution. So I'm going to hand it over to Mr. Freeman. Thank you. Good evening board members What I wanted to do this evening is we're not we don't have a PowerPoint for you We're not going to take you back through lots of data that we've seen I have my visual aid with me Which is our committee report that was put together and all of the backup for it We have to go out and get an extra large binder for that Really the purpose for tonight is to take you through this resolution that is before you and I want to say at the outset This is your resolution Ultimately, this
148is the board's decision to make. What we tried to do was listen to what the board had to say through a study session, a regular meeting, and then a special meeting. take your input and put it back into the resolution to put in front of you and hopefully we've caught what we've heard. So what the resolution does, and I'm again not going to take you through it in detail, it gives the background really of the process that the abstract you just heard from the superintendent very briefly stated. It talks about some of the data, the one that obviously jumps out as always when we look at this is that your Enrollment over the course of the last nine years has gone down by about 27.5%, roughly speaking, which is really what brings us here. And
149I also just wanted to note, you know, one of the things that we have thought about throughout this process is that this is not just an issue of budget, this is an issue of program. and of trying to achieve the best program possible for your students. So with this, what we did in the resolution was we took you through some of the background. And again, I'm not going to go through any of that in detail. You heard just a little bit about it and the meetings that were held. But if you go to the second page of the resolution, when you get down to the last whereas clause, what we heard from the board last time and what we included, and again, no action has been taken yet. That's really the purpose of tonight is
150that Adele Harrison Middle School was identified as a school potentially to be closed for the 2024-25 school year and consolidated with Altamira Middle School. So that's the takeaway we had from those meetings. There's then a discussion about the California Environmental Quality Act and put a pin in that because I'm going to circle back to that after we go through some more of the substance. A lot of technical issues there and we'll explain what that's doing there. But then if you go to the bottom of the fourth page, you really get to the therefore clauses of the proposals before you. The first one, just that the recitals above are correct. They're true and correct. The second is really getting at the decision points. And you'll see there's an A, a B, and a C there on
151page number five. The A of conclusions is, again, at the end of the 24-25 school year that Adele Harrison Middle School would close and consolidate with Altamira for the 25-26 school year. And that's, again, coming out of what we heard, no decision made yet, but a direction or leaning from the board in the prior meetings. Second for B, that at the conclusion of the 25-26 school year, one elementary school would close. What we heard from the board at the last meeting is that there was not a feeling of readiness to make the decision around elementary school at this time. To remind the board when you gave direction when the board gave direction to the committee originally one of the things that the board wanted to be looked at was a what was called a 3-1-1
152model which would be a model where there would be three elementary schools one middle school and we say one high school it's really two high schools including Creekside but but we think of that as you know separately as the high school so that 3-1-1 model through the process and the discussion we still heard board interest in a 3-1-1 model which is what we've included here so this resolution would have a decision a commitment that you're going to close an elementary school but not yet a decision yet on which that elementary school will be and then you'll see in the very next thing on C we put before you a blank for a date for the board to consider choosing a deadline if you'd like to set one for yourself by which a board decision would
153be made around the elementary school. And part of the purpose of that is really this has been a process that has been going on throughout the 2024 calendar year, but really goes back to 22-23 to get to the point where there is a decision that can be made in part to give as much advance notice to families as possible on the elementary school decision. You'll also see as you go through the rest of the therefore clauses, that the CEQA exemption, which again I'm going to circle back to, I'll do that last, a little bit more about CEQA and then we have another blank in this section number five which is about a transition plan. And we have certainly heard from the public through the committee process and also at your board meetings, the public would
154like to know what that transition plan is. It is something that staff has been getting ready for and working on in the background. And what this would do is set forth not just a commitment that there will be a transition plan that outlines. the process and the outreach to families. We also have given an option here if the board so chooses to put in a deadline for staff to bring back what that transition plan would be to the board for review in public. The last thing that I wanted to mention is the CEQA piece, the California Environmental Quality Act. And CEQA is a... It's a complex technical law in California about the environment. And I always have to say you think of the environment as bugs and bunnies. CEQA goes beyond that. It's about people.
155It's about traffic. It's about noise. And it's very broad. And where CEQA is concerned around a school consolidation or closure, there's complex case law. There's a lot of different language. And the confusion is that what CEQA says in it, in the statute, is that the decision to close the school is exempt from CEQA. It is not something that you have to do CEQA analysis on unless there is a physical effect from that closure that is not otherwise exempt from CEQA. So you're both exempt and not exempt. And what we've done is we've had an outside consultant, CEQA consultant, come in and look to see if there are exemptions that apply to these circumstances. And in the resolution that is all included of all the different exemptions that would apply. The biggest of the exemptions is
156that there is a categorical exemption. There's different categories laid out in the CEQA guidelines that the state has adopted. There's a category 14 exemption, which is, I know, sounding really lawyerly and technical. Basically what it says is that as a result of this decision, you're not increasing the original capacity of a school. by more than 10 classrooms or 25 percent of enrollment. What the courts have said when you look at original, you can either look at when the school was built or when it was in its high enrollment. And what the CEQA consultant EMC did was they looked at the point of high enrollment and compared to the point of high enrollment at Altamira, you're still well below that. Additionally, as noted in the resolution, so that's the 25% enrollment piece of it that you
157are below increasing to 25% over what that original number was or that high point of enrollment. The other piece of it is are you going to be adding more than 10 classrooms and as stated in the resolution the expectation is likely that there will be no portables added even if there were to be portables added there's it's not expected that it would be over 10 classrooms and also the recognition that woodland star classrooms are also available there if needed or and if that's a decision of the board so for that and a number of other reasons This resolution would also exempt you from CEQA. What would next happen if the board takes action and approves this tonight is that your CEQA consultant, again, EMC, files what's known as a notice of exemption that gets filed
158with the state and with the county to say that you've made that decision that this project is exempt. It's basically a very simple form. So I wanted you to understand why there's page after page of this explanation of CEQA. It's a... lot of technical stuff that boils down to you are exempt from further review under CEQA. So that is a brief summary of what we heard, what we included in the resolution, and we're happy to take questions or provide clarification. Wonderful. Thank you. I'll turn it over to my fellow trustees. Are there any questions? Trustee Bell, do you have any questions? I've got more questions. It's about the two dates in here that we need to kind of figure out. CHRISTIE WOODARD- OK. So let's just get our questions out for Harold. If there's none,
159then maybe, well, let's go to public comment, and then we'll bring it back for discussion. OK. Great. Is there public comment in the room? Just take a nice look. before we get going um but jamie laster special education adele harrison adult teachers would like to express our concerns regarding the proposed closure of adele harrison middle school and the subsequent combination of altamira and adele middle schools in fall 2025. we continue to assert that you are closing the wrong site and physical location for what will become our Valley's sole middle school. Based on the projected budget and multi-year forecast, the district office has concluded it can meet all of its financial obligations for the next three years while maintaining the reserve. In light of this analysis, we strongly urge a reconsideration of the proposed timeline. And
160there has been no presentation of a student-centered plan as of yet for support and no discussion of the intricate staffing implications that will inevitably arise. Transformed, transitioning a middle school is far more challenging than transitioning an elementary school due to the complexity of the middle school structure, master schedule, credentialing, and the developmental needs of its students. Unlike elementary schools where students typically stay with one teacher. Middle schoolers have several teachers, multiple teachers, more complex schedules, and a greater reliance on extracurricular activities. These changes require careful planning to ensure that academic programs, electives, sports, clubs are seamlessly integrated. and opportunities are not lost during the transition. Additionally, middle school students place a much higher emphasis on peer relationships, which can really be disrupted when two student populations merge, leading to anxiety and feelings of isolation. It
161appears maybe that some... that some members of the board and district may be under the impression that combining schools is simply a logistical operation. The act of moving teachers from one classroom to another, packing their belongings and planning a rally or two. This is simply not the case. To illustrate the scope of work that must be addressed before August of next year, we present the following considerations. Will the combined school still be called Altamira? Changing a school? name and mascot is a politically sensitive process as seen in Katahdi Ronert Park. What will the new school colors be? How will the socio-emotional needs of students be addressed as they transition to a new environment, possibly losing friends who choose other schools? How are the needs of... and now it's personal, needs and supports of students with
162disabilities going to be maintained in the consolidation process. Are we prepared to hold numerous transition IEP meetings while minimizing the loss of instructional time? Amy Lucchetti, teacher at Adele. We have many, many more points to make. There will be fewer opportunities for students to play sports since the North Bay League limits the numbers of teams per school. How will this be managed? How will teaching assignments be decided? Which teachers will teach which subjects? How will the school be organized by department, grade level, teams? The last time Altamira had this many students, it was organized into small learning communities. Are you prepared to recognize existing Altamira teachers while also moving Adele's staff to Altamira? Who will be responsible for moving physical items between campuses? What professional development and team building activities will be provided to ensure
163staff cohesion? Are the locker rooms equipped to handle the increased number of students needing to change for PE? How will the Altamira neighborhood handle increased traffic flow? Will fewer leadership opportunities available through ASB excuse me, with fewer leadership opportunities available through ASB, how will the two programs be blended? When will teachers move into their new classrooms and what compensation or assistance will they receive for the transition? What will happen to Adele's awards, banners, and plaques? Has anyone reached out to the Adele Harrison families to discuss the closure? When will the administration communicate and train staff? on new discipline protocols and policies? Have new bus routes been planned and finalized? Are lunch and break schedules adequate for all students to have safe and manageable experiences? How are current middle school students being informed of these changes?
164Will a fifth grade visit to the middle school still take place this spring? How will site-specific programs such as Adele's outdoor education trips be preserved? What do the PTO bylaws state about merging funds and organizations? Adele has a strong math acceleration program, whereas Altamira does not. Will Adele's program continue? The two sites use different adopted curricula, which pace and introduce concepts at different rates. Which curriculum will be used? What will happen to the unused materials? And how will gaps be bridged for student adjusting to a new system? Experience suggests district level administrators tasked with managing these transitions often feel often leave by year's end who will ensure this process is carried out and the care and consistency students deserve English learner and newcomer programs differ widely between two the two schools who will address these
165discrepancies Who is responsible for bringing families and students together in a way that minimizes disruption to instructional time? seeks their input and ensures ensures they feel supported enough to stay within the district rather than transferring to a private or charter school. There's more. Eric Wanus, Adele Harrison. Who will manage these concerns along with any unintended consequences that will arise and impact safety or learning? Parent-teacher conferences are conducted very differently at each site. Which approach will be adopted? Since the Dallas inception, Altamira's campus has undergone construction, reducing available space. For example, the garden now occupies a large portion of the field and blacktop. Will there be enough space for PE classes, which are likely to exceed 40 students? How will the student population be accommodated during seismic upgrades? Will temporary classrooms or alternative spaces be provided
166to ensure minimal disruption to learning? What safety measures will be in place to protect students and staff while construction is ongoing? How will classrooms be assigned equitably to the new and old staff? Are we using the Woodland Star classrooms slash buildings? Will special ed teachers get to keep their current caseloads where they already have established relationships with students and their families? Will necessary space for clinical special education programs be provided? How will reduced administration and classified staff manage the much larger population? How will different course offerings be consolidated equitably? Who will maintain the safety of students transitioning between Woodland Star Campus and the regular campus? How will the visual and performing arts group be supported? How will that be facilitated? And how will the connections with the high school be supported? Will there be a
167program and will it be incorporated? Concerns also about film editing between the high school and the puppeteering of the middle schools. Currently, middle schoolers walk to the high school for these programs. Will there be adequate supervision to maintain campus safety? What staff will be considered when making administrative staff reductions? Is there a plan for addressing inadequate staff parking? And how will you smoothly transition the dual immersion program? Will there be bilingual support? We urge the district to postpone this decision by at least a year to allow for proper planning, stakeholder engagement, and thoughtful solutions to these issues. The budget shows this decision does not need to be rushed. Middle school students are at a pivotal stage in their academic and social development, and rushing this transition without adequate preparation risks long-term harm. As the saying
168goes, measure twice, cut once. This process demands the careful consideration of all factors impacting learning, safety, and the overall student experience, not just financial goals or the path of least resistance. Our students deserve a transition plan that reflects their needs and the community's high expectations for their future. Thank you. for considering these options these concerns we look forward to your response and seeing a commitment involving teachers families and other stakeholders in this important process from the dale harrison teachers thank you My name is Nadia Manriquez, and I go to Flowery Elementary, and I just want to say that what you guys are doing is going to tear apart the community. Have you guys ever imagined the future if you guys did this? Because I have. I've imagined that many people that wanted to enter Flowery
169because they want to have a future there, and they want to have a life at a dual-emergence school would not be able to do that because you guys are closing down the schools, and I think that I'm going to next. that middle school next year won't have the same education with the dual immersion program that has been offered and has for decades at Adele. My primary language is Spanish and I had a vision of continuing my Spanish education through the schools you want to close down. My future will never be the same. You know, instead of, you know, instead of taking teachers and schools, reduce the salary amount of employees in the school district and find ways to save money, but not putting our education in risk. After all that this happened, I was already
170planning what to do, but now my plans are over. I feel overwhelmed. This is your choice. Have you ever think about how many kids would be stuffed in one room if there's already like 20 something kids in one class and you have to add more kids because you're closing down schools and you need somewhere to put them? There would be like 50 kids now in one classroom with one teacher. How do you expect them to get a good education with one teacher and 50 kids that the teacher needs to go through? All of them having to do extra work just because you guys are closing down schools. It's either you guys stop this or you have to pay them twice as much because of how much work. Thank you. Thank you, Nadia. Hi, it's Haley
171again. I just wanted to add that it's not okay that you're closing dual immersion schools. It's not fair. I go to a dual immersion school and there's a kid in my class that only speaks Spanish and there's no school for her to go to. And if you're saying, just go back to Mexico, no. She has friends and family here. And my first language is English. And ever since I went to Flowery, I've been learning Spanish. Also, ever since you've been closing down the schools, I've been struggling and other kids too. If you close down a dual immersion school, if you close down Flowery, there would probably be 50 kids in your class. How would you feel about that? Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon to everyone present. My name is Fatima Lopez. I
172was born in this country, but when I was five years old, I moved to Mexico. And three years ago, I returned to California. When I arrived here from Mexico, I didn't know how to speak any English. But my mother took me to Adele Harrison Middle School. I attended eighth grade, and being a bilingual school, I was able to finish the school year without any problems. I am sure that if I had to attend a different school, things would be very different for me today. But thanks to the programs that Adele offers, I was able to learn English because this school is unique. Since it offers double investment, just like Flaglery, and I do not believe it anymore. I am sure that these two schools are necessary in Sonoma Valley because they are the only ones.
173in which both languages, English and Spanish, are present, opening the doors to many children just like me. Bilingualism offers high achievement academic as well as social cultural competence. Since it is already known that a person who speaks two languages finds it easier to relate to people from another countries and has the possibility of living or working outside or within the country. But a person who only speaks one language does not even earn the same money as a person who speaks two languages. I have two older brothers who also attend Adele and Flowery. They learn English and Spanish. I have a little brother who is currently in fifth grade. and he's about to attend middle school, but this situation is completely alarming. You guys are putting the money above the education. Education is a right and
174not a product. And I can assure you that instead of fixing things, we will go from bad to worse. Closing the double investment schools will be one of the worst things that you guys, the district, could do. because it will take away opportunities for students. Us as students, we feel like this is racism, and it is not only my personal opinion, because you guys don't close on other schools where only English is present instead of closing schools. You guys should cut the salary of the people that work for the district. I personally ask you with all my heart to please think twice before making your final decision. Think about those children who, like me, will arrive in a completely new place without speaking the language. Maybe you have children. Think about those parents who do
175not speak English and who will not be able to help their children with their homework when that will be necessary. Our infants will be our future. And as Federico Fellini said, a different language is a different vision of life. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, Mariana Madrigal. I am an alumni at Altamira and Sonoma Valley High School. Currently, I am the community liaison for Adele Harrison Middle School. First of all, thank you for everything you all do. I have been working at Adele nine years, and it has been a pleasure and honor to work with an amazing staff whom I consider my Adele family. I had always pictured myself retiring from Adele. I guess sometimes things don't play on us you want to. That's why I want to be a role model for our students to
176let them know that they can overcome whatever changes can happen in life. My son tells me, mom, you are so capable of getting a better job with a better pay. But he says, I know your answer. People who knows me. and know how much I love my job. I enjoy helping parents, interacting with students, and helping any staff. It is sad to come to work and not knowing the school you picture yourself retiring from is no longer going to happen. And it's quite sad. But at the same time, be strong for our students. I would like to make a request. I and other staff members do not know where we would work if Adele closes. If the decision is made today to combine our middle schools, please tell us as soon as possible about our
177staffing assignments. Otherwise, it will be very stressful to wait until March or later to find out if we have a job. On another note, I would like to talk about empathy. I know it's difficult to make the decision you have to make and you have to put your emotions aside. However, we are a community and we are people and the decision you are discussing us. heart on us. I personally have not felt or seen any empathy for all of you from the families, for our families, students, and staff members. Please know, please show empathy by acknowledging and showing care for the hardship this decision will have on our community. Thank you. Hello, my name is Jenna Coffey. I am a parent of an Adele student and a Preston student. And first, I would just like
178to offer a personal anecdote. Adele Harrison has been an incredible environment for my daughter. Small middle schools are so... supportive to a very difficult time period in a child's life. My daughter is known as an individual, she's treated as a real person, and she is held and supported by everyone at Adele Harrison and I just want to say how grateful I am to all of you. But you guys are not here for each individual student, you're here for the greater good of our community and I recognize that. In order to serve the greater good of our community, you, most of you, formed a school consolidation committee made up of a wonderful array of people from our community that needed to have a say in this process. And they did so over the last year. I
179have been sitting quietly through board meetings for the last year and I've been listening to the study sessions. And this school consolidation committee did a lot of work and they donated a lot of their time to make these recommendations for you. My concern today is that the school consolidation committee made a very specific proposal regarding middle school. The school consolidation committee said, The committee recommends that the seismic upgrades be undertaken at Altamira as soon as feasible and that to minimize disruption, this work be completed before consolidating the middle schools. If the board decides to close more than one school in a phased approach, the committee recommends that the middle school close in the second phase. There are concerns about the logistics and impacts of combining two middle schools by fall of 2025. It's very unclear
180to me as a parent why the board would stray from the recommendation of a committee that spent the better part of a year studying this issue and why the board would prioritize the closing and consolidation of middle schools when that is clearly not what the school consolidation committee recommended. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, Shoshana Signer. I was a parent member of the consolidation committee, so. That's good. I'm coming right after Jenna Coffey. That was sort of just thought I would read that, but she read it. One of the reasons that we did propose that being in a phased process with the middle school coming second was that the superintendent at our meetings had said that that was the more complicated step. So that's why we set it up the way we did. And I know
181how hard it's been for the board to figure out. How to approach the elementary school issue I know you've we had the same issue and I can see it reflected in the board as well So I just think that in this teachers did such a good job of laying out all the Various small things that need to happen for the middle schools to consolidate properly So I think all I could really add is that from where I stand in the public some I've been hearing of families who have decided that they would not continue and take their children to a different school if that occurred and I feel like by delaying a year you have time to create a very good comprehensive transition plan and try to generate more public buy-in because I think that's
182going to be super key for this so yeah everything else has been said so that's the end of my comments thank you thank you Hi, my name is Maggie Marvel. For months, we've presented facts that detail the significant expenses tied to closing Adele and adding up to 10 portables, retrofitting woodland charter for middle school use, paying teacher overages if you ever ratify a contract for overworked teachers, and moving costs for our transitioning schools. We've outlined the impact this decision has had on our students' emotional health, the well-being of our community, the increased transportation burdens, and the risk of losing even more students due to the inadequate educational resources. enrollment would lead to reduced funding and additional expenses including hundreds and thousands in tuition and transportation costs for display students we've asked for critical questions the
183sonoma valley district must address before moving forward how does the district justify school closures when annual costs for portables teachers over just combination class stipends and increased transportation exceeding 840 384 000 of what could be perceived savings why are reserve funds above required three percent minimum not being utilized to offset financial challenge as intended. Has the district conducted a comprehensive analysis of alternative solutions such as partnerships with us or districts, targeted programs to attract students pursuing new funding, address enrollment. And by the way, Napa, Petaluma, and Santa Rosa are not basic needs. They're completely different from us. Please stop comparing us to things that are apples and oranges. What specific measures will the district take to ensure that larger class sizes, increased transportation needs, and the disruption of nearly 300 students' education do not harm
184their well-being or emotional health? And how will the board restore community trust and address concerns about financial mis-management? You've dismissed lawsuits and petitions. The vague threat of state takeover was disproven when the lawsuit in the district was overthrown out because of the financial status did not qualify you as a threat requiring state intervention. I'm tired. I won't repeat the financial facts any further. Now I'll speak directly to you, the decision makers. This is you. This is your decision. It belongs to you individually. Katerina Landry, this is your vote, not a collective one, but yours. You will be remembered in Sonoma as the one who voted to close a Dell in an elementary school against the wishes of your constituents. David Bell, as a business, this decision will follow you. Endorsing a plan with unsustainable costs,
185portables, teachers, overdures, and relocation reflects on your professional judgment. This will stay with your reputation long after you stay on this board. Ann Ching, your name will be associated with ignoring the community and failing to answer the questions. This is the legacy you are creating for yourself. yourself. One of the statistics over the people. Celeste Wenders, you once called me a squeaky wheel for advocating for families during COVID. You've admitted to shopping out of town to avoid your constituents. Well, if you think I was a squeaky wheel then, I am definitely going to be a squeaky wheel now. You're admitted to shopping out of town to avoid constituents, yet the reason they're upset is clear. People feel unheard and unrepresented. Every time we see a tuition or transportation expense in the hundreds of thousands for
186students this district fails to serve, we will think of you. Each of you will have your own decision this consequence every displaced family every law student every unnecessary Necessary expense will be tied to your name. This is your legacy and Sonoma will remember it according to newspaper articles from 1990 to the early 2000s building Adele was a critical response to the severe challenges facing Altamira school in the 1990s including overcrowding and discipline issues Excuse me. I'm so sorry to interrupt you, but your time is up. Thank you At its peak, Altamira housed more than 1,200 students in a facility designed for 750, creating a strained environment that amplified behavioral problems, especially among adolescents entering puberty. These issues, such as considering a year-round schedule, underscore the dire need for additional middle school capacity, overcrowding not only
187compromised educational quality, but also contributed to a challenging campus culture. This was evident in the broader community trends of rising juvenile arrests, increased vandalism, and even suicide, reflecting the heightened pressures of Sonoma Valley schools at the time. Although it took over a decade to alleviate the overcrowding, the established two schools provided much-needed relief, created a safer, more focused learning environment for students. Closing the Dell now would risk a return to similar challenges, exacerbating class sizes, discipline issues, and transportation costs, while undermining the decades of progress. Undoing decades of work to a couple of years of decline after COVID is short-sighted and dangerous. Thank you. Jessica Coffey here as a teacher and a parent. here urging the reconsideration of the timeline there are many amazing students and teachers at both adele and altamira in fact the
188combined winter dance was just held tonight showing middle school unity yes consolidation enclosures will happen and will continue to happen all over however we are here in sonoma choosing to live here teach here and send our kids to school here the upset happens because of how things are being handled i recently attended an adele versus altamira volleyball match and basketball game and was saddened to know that if this goes through several students will not be able to play next year what options we put in place for sports the arts and many other programs to ensure everyone has the opportunity the secrecy the rush and the unwillingness to really hear the community is causing numbers to decline even more because of the how these think decisions are being made we are losing more students and more
189teachers and will continue if this goes through there were committees created however they did not have representation such as a teacher and a parent representative from each school shouldn't we have at least had that Please do not just listen tonight, instead really hear what we are asking. Please do not rush this consolidation. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, my name is Christopher Hernandez and I'll be speaking for my mother. My name, hello, my name is Angelica Vargas and I'm a proud parent of two middle schoolers who attend Adele Harrison right now during the moment and two other students at Flarey. My first language is Spanish, but we decided we wanted our kids to be fluent bilingual. and we do not regret this decision at all. My oldest kid, Christopher Hernandez, who is in middle, Adele Harrison
190right now, is proud to be able to help newcomers by translating and helping them be one with the community. Saying this, all my kids are on the dual immersion program working hard as well. If you take the time, you will see non-Spanish speakers at kindergarten communicating with signals at the end of fifth grade will become fluent Spanish speakers. Not only that, but to say that. Where is this? Being witness of all work and passion behind these students, it worries me about the decisions of school consolidations, not only middle schoolers, but also elementary. And yet to this day, there's still no answers on how dual immersion will be implemented on the school consolidations. To mention more, what will happen to cafeterias, sports, restrooms, and will campuses be closed? I'm sorry if I'm stuttering a lot and
191all that. You're doing great. It's not only seismic safety, also how kids will blend in and keep themselves safe from preventing fights in more delicate situations. How are you planning to expand? all the money to close schools but not find more solutions or ideas instead of going on with expenses guessing it will not work and having to be implemented. As a translator for my mom, she was told that we shouldn't worry because the district supposedly knows everything. But in this case, she worries that as a present parent, she worries that... Her education for kids and staying more active is just failing, and she has no hope when it comes to those cases. In this case, she fears that one of these days, her kid, my second-to-younger brother, will be bullied at a different school and
192not being able to fit in. His grades will drastically fail, and I feel like just hearing this, I could agree as well. Prior to this thing, I feel like people here at the district, should go by their word, and that word would be that you guys should really listen to the word from the community, and not only that, but you guys should also just focus on more of our kids, like me, and more into, to say, I can't, it's in the tip of my tongue, but you guys should focus on more, you guys should focus on us kids, and not only that, but just still immersion children as well, because almost everybody here could help us out. Thank you. Thank you so much. I have two children who have graduated from Sonoma State. One of
193them is a graduate and the other is studying psychology at Sonoma State. And I have another one who is in fifth grade at Flowery. At this moment, because of the decisions you are making, he is being emotionally affected. Because he had a plan in his mind that he was going to continue with his education, double investment, going to Delano. Adel Harrison. Muchos cambios que creo que el mejor regalo que nosotros le podemos dar, aparte de ser un regalo, es un derecho que nuestros niños tienen. Más que un regalo, es un derecho que les pertenece, es darles educación. Tenemos que ser conscientes que hay muchas maneras de ahorrar. sin perjudicar la educacion de nuestros ninos, sin quitar maestros, sin cerrar mas escuelas. Quitar la doble inversion es un golpe muy duro para nuestra comunidad y para
194nuestros estudiantes. Tienen que tener en cuenta las desventajas que van a tener sus decisiones al hacer la consideracion de la middle school. No creo que la Altamira este lista para tener mas estudiantes en el plantel. Es una escuela muy vieja que no ha sido remodelada desde hace muchos anos, con muchas irregularidades como algunos de los baños que ni siquiera se abren. for setting seguros entre muchos otras cosas que no voy a mention are for no perder tiempo tenemos que tener en cuenta que van a ser afectados porque si aún aún teniendo dos middle school I much is to more ninos que no puede hacer deportes porque no sales a la oportunidad porque son muchos en las escuelas al tener una sola middle school pass and peor si antes participara en una escuela por ejemplo para
195el voleibol 25 30 ninos quanto van a participar con una middle school 10 kids? Ridiculous. The students at Flowery will lose their double investment. Think of other options. Reduce... I Thank you very much. Good evening. My name is Richard Price. I'm a resident of Sonoma. I'm not here to comment on the resolution that's before the board this evening, but I am here to voice my support of the consolidation that is the closing of one middle school and one elementary school. I was a principal and vice president of a planning and real estate consulting firm in New York City and Hoboken, New Jersey. between 1980 and 2021, and I was involved in master plans. and school facility planning for communities that were both large and small. And from my vantage point, I see that enrollments have
196been declining for years and will likely continue into the foreseeable future. Consolidation should have been undertaken many years ago, but was not done most likely because it is unpopular and difficult, as we have seen this evening. So the board and supervisor must be given an enormous amount of credit. for tackling this difficult and controversial decision. But ultimately, the board and district have a fiduciary responsibility of putting their financial house in order. Failure to do so would result in abysmal and potentially irreversible impacts. As a planner, I've had experience with this. I wrote the master plan for the city of Newark, New Jersey, right after the state took over. occurred in 1994 and worked on their master plan including their educational facilities plan in the late 19... again in 2007 and 2012. I learned that the
197city's school district, when it's taken over by the state, they lose all autonomy. Decisions about the school district education are made by bean-counting bureaucrats whose concern is money, not by parents, teachers, local administrators who have local knowledge and a vested interest in seeing their kids get the best education possible. After the takeover, charter schools took about one-third of the district's school children away from the public schools. Moreover, in Newark and in many cases, the people who are disadvantaged most are those who are minority students and lower-income students who already are at a disadvantage. Finally, the Newark takeover lasted from 1994 to 2020, so it was a very long process in restoring local autonomy. Additional recent developments have made the consolidation even more pressing. The incoming Trump administration has indicated they intend to focus on school
198choice, which means diverting funds away from the public schools towards charter schools, religious schools, and even private schools. There's also a real possibility that with the fear, threat, and actual deportation of people from our community that there will be fewer kids in our schools. Both factors, less funding and fewer students, are going to exert even more financial pressure on the school district. Finally, one factor which has not really been at the forefront and needs to be kept in mind is the surplus school property reuse or sale. While this should not occur directly after consolidation, because you always want to make sure that the school does not need to reopen, The ability to reuse or repurpose closed schools and the value that is generated, whether it be future educational purpose or generate income to help balance
199current and future shortfalls is also an important consideration. While this might not happen immediately, the ability to realize a large financial benefit at some point in the future is significant. Thank you very much. Thank you. Michelle, you have a question. Hold on. We can if it's the wish of the board. It sounds like they went outside and spoke to the translator. We can put a transcript together for the board. Or if you'd like for the translation to happen verbally, it's up to the board. Transcript is great. Thank you. Hi. My name is Diego Smith-Luciano. I'm a sixth grader at Adele. And I disagree with most of this plan. But what I want to talk about is the transition. Because I don't think it's fair to only give us eight months to, like, try to either
200prepare, I guess, prepare ourselves for this new massive school, which we'll be thrust into. And I'm lucky because I... I speak both Spanish and English, but I know quite a few kids who have come over to America either in fifth grade or in sixth grade, and they don't have that privilege, and they only speak Spanish. And thanks to our bilingual teachers, they're starting to learn. days ago, a kid I knew who I thought only spoke Spanish talked to me in English, but I just, I don't know if they'll have that same opportunity at that new school, and are they going to have to, like, learn most of the English language in 10 months before they get to that school, or what's going to happen to them? I know there's kind of, I know some people
201in this room kind of want to shrug this fact aside, but there's a lot of animosity between Adele and Altamira, and I know that's not anyone's first concern, but... There have been in the past kids who were beat up by Altamira kids just for going to Adele or Adele kids who beat up Altamira kids just for going to Altamira. And if those two parties are forced together in the same school with so little notice, I think it's guaranteed that there's going to be a lot of fights and there's going to be a lot of bullying. No one wants that in their school. So I don't know, to our board members, if any of you have kids or had kids or all of you were kids, did you ever want to live in, like, a school
202where these two parties that mostly don't like each other have to force, like, are forced together so suddenly? And there's fights and bullying and harassment and all these other things. I don't know if we can stop Adele from being consolidated, but what I ask is we give it more time, so more time for the teachers to try to figure things out and more time for students to try to, like... try to bring adele and altamira a little closer and more time for kids for who only speak spanish to try to learn at least enough english to not fail their courses just because they don't understand not because they're not smart so all i ask for is more time maybe two school years or at least another thank you thank you thank you diego does somebody
203else want to go next i don't want to follow diego No, that was amazing. Thanks. I just wanted to suggest that since the budget item came out that said that, you know, the next three years were. okay, then perhaps those three years can buy us time to maybe postpone a year for anything so that way you have more time to address all those things that came out from Adele and certainly look more at what's happening at the elementary schools and the enrollments of the elementary schools because they do appear to be going up and not down and there's more kids than Perkins Eastman said we were going to have. So that's just my ask is maybe that three years can do a little something. Thanks. Thank you. Laura Hoban, I just want to reiterate the
204more time because when Adele teachers have had meetings and came up with our concerns, they're like just more and more. Well, what about this? What about this? What about this? How's this going to happen? How's this going to happen? And it's just a it's a lot to get done. in eight months as well as disrespectful i think to the school consolidation committee once again which i gave up a lot of my time on that committee time with my family time preparing for school um and our our one really strong recommendation was to to have the middle school be in the second phase so i'm just hoping that you respect that and take that into consideration because we want If this is going to have to happen, we want a smooth transition. We want plans in
205place for the children to come together and build better relations so that when they come together, we don't have as many issues as we're going to potentially have. That we take a look at the safety. A lot of the kids and the... teachers and the staff, the classified staff, are concerned about the management of that size campus. Not that it can't be done, but just that what's the plan going forward for making sure that we have a safe campus, not aside from the seismic, just a safe campus in terms of students getting along, processes in place. That are followed so that the discipline doesn't become a huge issue So I just think we need the time to plan so that it goes the best that it can possibly go. The different departments, we've talked about
206the different departments coming together. We might have different philosophies. There might be a little bit of different curriculum, which would be good to align, in my opinion, actually, but that still takes time. And so, again, I just want the time to do it right and make those relationships between the kids and the staff going forward. So if you consider that, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Holman. Hello again. Thank you, trustees. My name is Kambiz Dazad. I'm a community member, and I really appreciate the opportunity to follow Diego that represents to me, I'm the middle of Diego and the previous speaker, generational gap of like I'm also bilingual. I sometimes feel so blessed to be an American because I wasn't born here. But I'm here now for a reason and it's happening
207for me. For me, it's just wonderful to see that. I have four grandkids. Consolidation has to happen. I understand that. At the same time, it's got to be for the right reasons. Now, it really feels like this is happening like a hostile takeover by a board, but this is public education right here. And I know you have to make a decision. There's a resolution number 25-10 that you will be discussing. For all the therefore clauses that are expressed by Lawyer Harold through the lawyerly and technical aspects of it, you know, both exempt and not exempt on CEQA. Well, CEQA, you know, I got to say, I still owe my rights because of old laws that are still in existence. If I have to rely on new laws, they're changing all the time. CEQA was created
208in 1970. And one of its main purposes is to disclose the public. why a project was approved if that project has significant environmental impacts that cannot be mitigated to a less than significant level. You're not ready to make this decision. We've had, in this, let's talk about my objection. I object to this resolution because if you look at page one, the committee convened nine public meetings. Those public meetings, the data didn't come out. The school consolation. Did not get any data till September. Recommendation was not on par. But that self-ful prophecy you started out with 311, if you wish for something, it's going to happen. You've been focusing on 311. And now because of the, I'm still paying for bond money on the property taxes. But this is a credit card bill. that you're trying
209to pay off. I mean, I got fields and I have a pool, but I don't have any classrooms. I have portables. So my grandkids are going to go to portables. Take your time. Figure out how this is going to happen. Look at page number three on the CEQA. Last paragraph. Whereas, given the current excess student capacity that exists at Altamira, Altamira is expected to have existing facility capacity to absorb all of the students from Adela Harrison without the need for any increase in capacity through construction or addition of new classrooms. And in any event, if needed, addition of classrooms would not exceed the 10 classrooms, as you say. But then if you go up four. Pair four four spots there on the one two three dotted line. I'm so sorry. There's an earthquake. What is
210that done? Yeah Think about the earthquake you got to pay for that. Thank you. Thank you for your comments Thank you. Is there any other public comment? Yeah It's me again. I'm Regina Mellinger. This comment is really for the Dell Harrison teachers and staff here tonight. I attended a Dell from 2006 to 2009. I always joke that I peaked because it was actually the best three years of my entire life. And I just, your school is a gem. And I work at Presswood and I still think it's... probably the best school in this entire district. I was lucky to be part of the projects program, which is no longer, but it was the most amazing program. And I just want to give a shout out to Teresa Gerhart and Kathy Esch and Gary Green. They
211formed that program. And it's just an incredible school. And I just love the connections. I get to see Teresa Gerhart still. Kathy Esch comes and works in my class. So I know the connections that Adele builds. And I know. Jenna said too it is the most supportive loving community and I always hear that middle schools like the worst years of people's lives and I always like they're the best years of my life so I don't know where you guys went to middle school but I just want to give a shout out to all of you because you make that school you make that school all these staff names here Camera, can you cut to it? No. I just want to say thank you. You really, really are. We as a town are so lucky to
212have you, and it breaks my heart to think that this is even a possibility. So thank you. Thank you. Is there any other public comment in the room? Yep. Mustering up enough strength to stand up here. Tiffany Briggs. I am a parent, a staff member at Altamira. Elephant in the room. And just a classified staff. I don't want to say just, but peons compared to what everybody does here. I just, I agree. I think it's Mr. Price that this consolidation needs to happen and should have happened years ago. I've worked with multiple adult staff, whether it was summer school or whatnot or different locations, but I think if the greater good here is that if people can, adults can come together, this would be an amazing opportunity for all of our. middle school kids and
213you know coming coming forth you know our fifth graders that are coming in I just I know it's hard it's easier for me to stand up here and say that this doesn't affect me I do have a sixth grader that attends Altamira one thing that's alarming that I've heard the staff say is that like the different curriculum and that these staff members meet with our staff teachers collaborate I'd actually like to know what they're collaborating about if we're doing different things I I hope this can happen sooner than later for the benefit of all the kids thank you guys thank you Okay, let's see. Is there any other public comment in the room? If not, we'll go to public comment online. So if you are online and you would like to speak on this item,
214please raise your hand. Right now I see four hands online. We're going to start with Laura Monterosso. You are muted, Laura. On your end, not ours. Laura, we can't hear you if you can hear us. And her hand just went down. Okay, Laura, we're going to skip to the next one. If you'd still like to speak, let me know. Megan, Bame, can you hear us? Hi, yes, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Okay, thank you. Hi, my name is Megan Bame. I'm a proud alumnus of Sonoma Valley School District, having attended Sasserini, Altamira, and the high school. I currently have two children enrolled at Adele Harrison. As a member of the first cohort of sixth graders to attend Altamira when it transitioned to the sixth through eighth grade model in the 90s,
215I can personally attest to the challenges we faced. Many students, including myself, were not adequately prepared for the significant shift to a larger school environment, which made the adjustment difficult for many of us. Middle school is a crucial period in our children's lives, often shaping the paths they take in the future. I believe that implementing a smaller middle school program or keeping a smaller middle school program would provide significant benefits for our children, fostering a more supportive and nurturing environment during this pivotal time. Given the uncertain costs associated with making Altamira schools safe for our students, how can we be confident that the district has the necessary resources to fund the required renovations? I also have concerns about moving the kids to such a large campus. How will their safety be ensured? Will there be
216security guards present? And what measures will be in place to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing the large campus? It's been mentioned that a larger school will also enable bigger and better programs, but how can these programs realistically be implemented by the fall? Will the students transferring to the new campus face disruptions setback similar to what they experienced during COVID? Keep in mind, these are the same kids that were, you know, really affected by COVID as well. In light of our ongoing discussions about supporting our children's growth and keeping them young for as long as possible, I'd like for us to reconsider converting back to the K-6 model for elementary schools and maintaining Adele Harrison as the sole middle school, capitalizing on its status as the newest facility in our district. Thank you for considering this
217important discussion and the benefit of our children's education. Thank you, Ms. Boehm. Our next speaker will be Heather's iPhone. Heather, if you can hear us, you have the mic. Hi. Yes, we can hear you. So I just want to address, I want to address Trustee Bell's use of Nelson Mandela's quote, you will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution. I just thought it was an odd way to start the meeting. It almost assumed that there would be some kind of retribution for decisions made tonight. And I'm asking, you know, are you comparing these decisions to atrocities akin to apartheid? Are you asking that we show mercy for your decision-making? Is your livelihood at stake? Is your child's future being challenged? Those are the things I think
218that people, I'm hearing people show concern for. I'm not sure if that's a good question. Um, there's no question that there's a deficit problem to solve, and teachers have been working without job security, uh, or signed contract or a clear plan that reassures them that facilitating the consolidation in a reasonable way with a reasonable timeline will happen. Um, I was surprised to read the statement put out that kind of spun that teachers are holding up the and that your collective focus has been on listening to students and community concerns. And although we've all been at these meetings, if you've been listening, perhaps you would know that the teachers are really connected to students' needs, and they're pretty wonderful at problem solving. And I think they all, Adele and Altamira, want if this is to happen,
219for it to happen well, and so that we can all reassure the students that they're going to be okay. There's a lot of tension in this room. I can feel it. And words really matter. There's been consistent flippant responses about teacher input and concern and maybe strong arming or. Those kind of practices work in real estate or big business, but education is much more complex because it involves the health and well-being of children who will create our society. They need transparency, front-loading, clarity, safety, and structure to thrive. And these decisions and the language used around them affect us and our children. When an adult's livelihood is at stake, it definitely... the kids can feel it. So I asked, what are you doing to support the teachers who are meant to undergo the challenges of an
220unreasonable timeline if this consolidation is to happen? And do you believe that it's our job to make the decision work, even if it's not a decision that we're behind right now? I've heard a lot of things, you know, it could be gossip like, oh, they want older teachers to quit so that they can pay for cheaper, less expensive, less experienced new teachers who may or may not be able to afford to live in Sonoma. You know, I was listening to the concerns of the children about wanting more time and a lack of transparency. And I find that to be profound. I listen to my students. And also gossip about someone asked beyond seniority that teachers are going to have to duke it out for space. I'm sorry, Heather, your time is up. Thank you so
221much for your comments. I just wanted to say that I felt that the joke tonight about also be sarcasm and that it's ill. I'm sorry, Heather. Thank you so much for your comments. Your time is up. Our next speaker online is Sydney Smith. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Go ahead. Hi, I just want to echo my fellow consolidation committee members who spoke to the recommendation that we made. I really, really honor the time and commitment that we put in and what we said, and we meant it when we said that we thought that the middle school consolidation should happen in the second phase. You can't make these decisions in isolation. This is a unified school district. They all affect each other. My last point is a fully informed decision without
222even hearing a draft of a plan to transition this process. I understand how hard this decision is, but it needs more time. Thanks. Thank you, Ms. Smith. Our next speaker is Mrs. Castellan. I believe you are muted, Mrs. Castellan. If you can hear us, can you unmute yourself? Hello. Hi. Hi. I'm just going to say something, a short thing. I work in Adele. I am the instructional assistant with the kids in the program of newcomers. I'm very afraid of this consolidation because the kids that I have are going to need a lot of support that is very different than the other kids. And I just want to know if you guys are going to keep that program. And if you're going to keep that program, are you going to have people? who can support these
223kids because I am I've been working with them for probably nine years, eight years. I started with one kid nine years ago and last year we have we started with six kids on the beginning of the year. Now we have 29 kids and 30 kids or something like that. So These kids are coming from situations that they are very different than the kids that they are here, that they are bilingual or they were born here. These kids are very special for me. They are like the world to me. And I just want to make sure that they really are going to have support there because I really want to. know if you guys are going to keep those those Programs open for these kids. I really appreciate if you guys Consider this thing very seriously
224Thank you. Thank you our next speaker online is Riggs 707 if you can hear us And they just went away. Okay our next speaker Oh So RIG 707, can you hear us? All right, we will come back to you. Seems like maybe some technical difficulty. Our next speaker is iPhone 2 guest. You are muted. If you can unmute yourself. There we go. iPhone 2 guest. All right, we are unable to hear you. Okay, you are muted. Can you unmute yourself? You are unmuted and you have the mic. iPhone 2. All right. Unfortunately, we're not able to hear you. And at this time, there's no other. Oh, and I just want to say, Heather's iPhone, your hand is still raised. Unfortunately, your three minutes are up. I'm so sorry. If there is someone else in your
225household who is interested in making public comment, we can give you that opportunity to let us know right now. OK. All right, then we have one other speaker, Rachel Harrison. You are elevated to speak. Hi, my name is Rachel. I emailed, I think one person or a few people on the board sort of know my story. I'm not going to make it public right now. But I do also want to say that this week, I've had more students from Altamira. Actually, I've only had students from Altamira send letters and cards to my son. I've had staff from Altamira reach out. So this fear. of this divide between Adele and Altamira. I just want to say I don't think it needs to be as strong as it is, but I do think we need our teachers
226to get back to being able to teach and protect our children because I feel we have lost that through all the fighting, constant fighting for what they need and what they're asking for. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Harrison. All right, at this time, there is no more public comment. So I will bring it back to my fellow trustees for board discussion. Anybody? OK, all right. I hear from my fellow trustees that they would like a five minute break. We will reconvene for board discussion at 8.05. From our break into open session, I'll just ask for all the trustees to please come back. We will continue board discussion in regards to 16.3, action approval of resolution 25-10, approving school consolidation. Do any trustees have anything that they would like to discuss? Trustee Chang. I have a
227couple of things I'd like to discuss and understand where my fellow trustees stand, but I do feel a strong need to clarify the record on a couple of things that I feel, is misinformation that's being propagated. One is... We support bilingual education the dual immersion program. We're not closing. We're not ending that program either in elementary or middle school I just feel the need to state that I think we value it I also just want to reiterate that we have a financial crisis even though we've met our 3% minimum reserves that is Insufficient there is a fiscal cliff that we are facing if everything stays the same We are going to hit this fiscal cliff pretty quickly In the next like five years if we don't do anything about it So I just want to
228be clear that we all understand this right and that we're not simply taking two schools and Taking these existing classes and putting and doubling up all the kids. That's not what's going to happen. We have We have a contract with our labor partners and we have class size limits, right? So I just want people to be aware of that because there seems to be some some misconception about that and you know, listen we had We've had a you know decline in our enrollment of 40% We've we've lost 40% of our students from the peak enrollment And we have not shrunk our footprint to match that. So I just want to make sure that we all get that. I just wanted to get that out into the public. And then I just was curious, where are
229we in terms of at the last board meeting, I had proposed. the closure of two schools, both an elementary and a middle school. And I'm just curious, have we made any progress? Is there going to be a willingness of the board tonight to put forward an elementary school? So I'd be interested in that, in hearing what people have to say. Is there still consensus on the middle school? So I'd also would be interested to hear what my fellow trustees have to say. And then one other thing I'm what I'm hearing from the public is a desire to delay implementation of a middle school merger. And I'm just curious, is anyone willing to entertain that? Because. I mean, I want to think outside of the box and be creative about this, but I realize that without
230a middle school merger or by delaying implementation of a merger, we've got to come up with a million dollars of cuts. Like, there's no way around it, I don't believe. And I can go back to all the cuts that were considered back in 2011. I have the board agenda right here for all the things that we had to consider, which was eliminating core replacement teachers, getting rid of middle school sports, which we actually did. All the teachers took five furlough days. I mean, we'd have to cut stuff like that. We got rid of our libraries. We closed our libraries. Anyway, I'm just curious, where do people stand on some of these topics? It would really help me in my decisions. Yeah, look, I haven't sort of changed from the last meeting. I think that, unfortunately,
231the reality is undefeated. The budget issues haven't changed. I mean, unfortunately, the numbers that you guys have seen on the interim... doesn't have salary increases taken into consideration because we don't have a contract with each of our labor partners. So they haven't been modeled. So they haven't been projected. So those numbers are not reflective of reality. So if our labour partners want to take no salary increase for the next three years, then we're in great shape. We don't have to close the school. But if our labour partners are looking for raises over the next three years per this, then that's the absolute reality of those numbers on the screen. And so, you know, all of us here desire to pay our teachers more. and pay our staff more, everybody more, and that's the goal. And
232the reality is we have too much real estate for the number of kids we've got. So you've got to balance those realities. So I haven't changed my thinking on the middle school consolidation. On the elementary school consolidation, I'm still with my original thought from a month of last meeting, whereas if I was to gun to the head right now, I would say let's move Flowery to Sasserini. and that would be my vote today if I had to vote. And I haven't been convinced of a better alternative. I haven't thought of a better alternative, and I've studied it subsequently, and to me that makes the most sense for the district in the long term. I think it's obviously going to be tough for families on the consolidation, but that's just the unfortunate reality of the financial
233situation. So that's kind of where I am at this point, and I think we should probably pick a date on the elementary school as soon as we can and then start planning. And if we went with the option for Flowery to Sasserini, it's going to impact significantly more of the students than the consolidation of the middle school. right and so I get the desire middle school consolidation is probably more complicated than just closing you know one single elementary school but if you're factoring in moving a school and then distributing the kids from Sasserini to those other schools it impacts significantly more students so so the the recommendation of the committee doesn't didn't really take that factor into consult into consideration when when they were looking at it was that the larger impact if you move
234flowery into sasserini and I'm not saying that's the vote I'm just saying that's my personal thinking right now thank you trustee layman yeah I want to answer trustee Ching's question before I do I just we orient around again how we got here I think it's always important We don't want to cut programs. That was one of our North Stars. We want to continue to have the educational offerings that we do today and the validity, and that includes dual immersion. So 100% this board is behind the dual immersion program K-8. The other large components here, so you've got programs, you have salaries, you have headcount, and Ann, Trustee Ching just mentioned, those are all the things we could consider. Consolidating the middle school in the way the math pencils out is our best opportunity to maintain
235the highest quality education we can. in in the district today and that includes keeping all programs open that we can now i'm saying this without the recommendation from staff coming and say we are capable of doing that the the assumption is that what we're making is that we will keep pretty much all programs open sports uh you know extracurriculars educational offerings and again we're in survival mode I believe doing this will get us to a point where we can start to reconsider new programs. We're not there today. And we need to get to a point financially where we can consider expansion of offerings. And we're not going to do that without making major change. The second point I'll bring up here, which is a lot of people have said we haven't considered math. And we
236have. You can cut the numbers any way you want. But the capacity at Altamira. the peak capacity numbers we have and again this is not an ideal state was just under 1200 students in the school year of 98 99 i think that was the year before adele opened we do not want to get to that point but we're not even close if we consolidated the middle schools today we would only be at 55 percent of that peak capacity so just over half if we fit 1200 schools there 25 1200 students there excuse me 25 years ago i'm certain we have bright enough people in this district to figure out how to have half of that student body on the same campus. Now, maybe I'm overconfident in the staff. I would say I am confident because
237I see the direction that we're going, particularly financially. I think they've done a lot of work. Today, the current campus is only at 27% of the peak. So the current... The current student enrollment at Altamira is 27% of what the peak was 25 years ago. So to me, that tells me that this is the best opportunity we have from a space standpoint to make a decision on this. To answer the question around timing, I would be good to tonight debating whether we should look at delaying one year or not. So I think that to me is up for conversation, whether we should do this in the fall of next year or whether we should delay one year. I think we should discuss that. And then my last point, I'll turn the mic over, is... I
238don't think I'm at a point tonight where I could vote on any of the elementary schools. In my purview, the community has made it very clear that that is their top priority is to maintain. the current elementary schools offering and slow that process down. Again, that's my purview from the feedback that I've heard, that we really want to take a lot of consideration before we make that decision. The other thing that's influencing me on delaying any decision for elementary school is the financial gain is not as large as the financial gain of consolidating the two middle schools. So that's where I stand. Trustee Winders? Yeah. So... Regarding the elementary school, the resolution that's set before us isn't to name an elementary school. It's for us to set a date by the end, the conclusion of
239this on or before a date, this in 2025, to make that decision. So I don't... think that it's on the table right now for us to choose an elementary school nor do I think that we are ready to do so. There were some things that came up with elementary that created some different moving parts that need to be considered. In particular, we have one school we have preschool tenants and there was some adjustments to those facilities to accommodate that and then at another site we have multiple ESN classes for moderate severe students that have bathroom facilities to be considered no tea rooms because and lots of different things to consider. And then there were some other facility and logistical questions, quandaries, discussions that still need to be had at an elementary level, which led to
240the resolution being written the way that we as a board determined it to be written at the last meeting. So that's what we're tasked to do tonight is to just choose the date for us to make the decision. I am prepared to consolidate the middle schools tonight. I am not in support of delaying it because I saw what happened when we delayed Dunbar and we kicked that can down the road and we didn't do some of the things that we could have done and in my opinion that we should have done and as a result of that. I'm also... very, very concerned of our fiscal responsibilities here. Just because we're at 3% doesn't make us okay. We're not okay. And I can see what's coming down the road financially in public education and programmatically in
241public education. And there's also a lot of uncertainty. And the point of reserves is to ensure that we have the reserves to weather. a big storm. There is nothing out of the realm of possibility of things that could happen. We have had a pandemic. We have had multiple wildfires. We have had floods. We have, I mean, we have, you know, we have had it. And we need to ensure that we have sufficient reserves should we have something significant happen to sustain our students and their programs and their education. I'm also ready to move forward with this and without delay on the consolidation of middle school because there are some things programmatically that can happen to Trustee Lehman's point. that we can expand offerings, in particular middle school band and music and some of our other
242elective offerings. And so while school consolidation in so many ways feels really sad, and it does, whenever we close the school, there's nothing about that that feels good. It's a really sad reality that we're facing, but it is a reality. I have worked on housing issues in this valley for over a decade. And our declining enrollment is not changing. It's not going to get better. It's going to continue to decline. The birth rate has declined. That is a national thing that is happening. California has not only the declining birth rate, but there are just... fewer families and fewer larger families that are living in California. So California's declining enrollment at a higher rate than some other states. Sonoma County has another layer to that and that we lack affordable housing. In an incredibly significant way.
243And there are certain school districts in Sonoma County that are over capacity and are bursting at the seams. And they happen to be in places where there is low income and affordable housing. And then we have other districts that are in the situation that we're in. And they happen to be the places where there is a lack of affordable and low income housing. Those are just facts. And so. I am prepared to do the hard thing tonight. And it's not going to feel good. And I'm not going to go home and feel happy. I'm going to go home and feel sad. But it is the hard thing that I have to do. I feel prepared to make that decision. I have spent. over two years on school consolidation. I have stacks of data, stacks of
244reports, stacks of emails with questions that I had that were answered for me. I have binders and binders. I have read and I re-read them over and over and over again. And I have the information that I feel that I need to make the hard decision. And so I do feel prepared to move forward with that. And I would just, I think really what we're tasked with in the resolution is we do need to choose a date in 2025 to make a decision about elementary so that we can begin to do the work necessary to make that decision. I think I might feel differently if we were the only place this was happening. I look and go, what have we done wrong, right? But we're not. We're not the only place. We were kind of
245one of the first ones on the dance floor in it, but we are by far. And we're actually not having to do it to the degree that a lot of other districts are having to do it. It doesn't make it less sad for us, and it doesn't make it less hard for us. But, I mean, Santa Rosa's looking at closing five by fall. Alamrock, Oakland, Hayward. I mean, there are a lot of districts, both urban and rural, that are facing this issue because of the declining enrollment that is a result of the fewer number of children that reside in the areas. And that is... It's just a statistical fact. It is a reality we are all facing and we have to face it. And we cannot like it and we can be upset and sad
246about it. And we can feel these things because they're real feelings, but it doesn't change what's in front of us. And so we are tasked with making the hard decision. And, you know, I have spent. 13 years at school board meetings, I have been very passionate about many issues. And I have used my public comment and I have written to the board. I've met with trustees. I've asked questions. I've done those things for 13 years. There's been many decisions that were made that wouldn't be the decision that I wanted and wasn't the outcome I wanted, but it was the outcome and it was the decision the board made. And I did my best as a parent to support my students and other students through that decision. But I'll tell you something that I haven't done.
247I have never yelled at somebody in a grocery store because I didn't like their decision. And I want to address something that was said to me about this because it is about this. I don't avoid my constituents. I actually spend about 30 hours a week as a school board trustee on top of my job and on top of raising my family. And when somebody emails me and wants to meet, if they can't make my office hours, I make time for them. And I meet with them, sometimes for hours, to hear them out. But I think I have a right to not get yelled at in a grocery store. I think I have a right to go. and buy tampons and not have somebody yell at me or be angry with me. But you know what's
248interesting when those moments happen? As I say, it sounds like you really would like to talk, but I'm in the grocery store right now and I kind of just need to get some tampons. Do you want to make an appointment and talk? Because I can do that. And I will make time for people. And so that's not avoiding my constituents at all. That's just wanting to go to the grocery store. And those are not the same thing. Because I do make time for people and I will always make time to meet with people, always to hear them out. And I do. So I do feel ready to make this decision. It is a hard decision. And I know that when I make it, there's going to be people who are going to be. very upset,
249who are going to disagree, who know all these things, and I am there to hear them out. But I think any human being has the right to not be yelled at. I just think that that's a fundamental belief and a fundamental right that everybody gets to have. And I don't think it's something that we should model for our children in how we treat one another. Thank you, Trustee Winders. I have a suggestion. Well, I'm going to ask a question of Harold for some clarification because I think you'll hear where I'm maybe potentially going with this because I feel like I have heard from a few of my trustees that they'd be willing to entertain. the closure with a delay and then I've also heard that that we're prepared to close with no delay given this
250resolution so Harold my question for you is On page five of the resolution, following the adoption of this resolution, district staff are directed to prepare a transition plan that outlines the district's anticipated community outreach efforts to assist students and their families with the transition of students to Altamira Middle School for the 25-26 school year. The transition plan shall be presented to the board for review and approval no later than blank. So can you give some clarity on And I wholeheartedly believe staff can do this, and it's going to present something that is going to actually help relieve our community. But let's just say in an instance where we don't have agreement amongst the board to approve this transition plan, if we approve this resolution without seeing a transition plan, is that an issue? Do you
251get where I'm going with this? Yeah, I understand the question. You know, one of the great catch-22s that you deal with with school consolidation is there's only two ways to do it. One is you come up with a transition plan for every possible opportunity, which is a huge burden. And the other is that the board makes the hard decision on which schools to consolidate and tasks staff with carrying that out. And that's really what the resolution is intended to do. So I will tell you, because we're working with a lot of those other school districts, ones that have been named and plenty of others, this is just the nature of a decision gets made and then staff has to hit the ground running and make those transition plans. I know in this instance, like with
252all the other districts we work with, staff has, behind the scenes, they've been thinking about scenarios, they've been running numbers, they've been... trying to figure this out so it's not as if this is just a go and they're starting from scratch and that may be a question more for staff but it is feasible if a decision is made now i will also tell you there are districts that are going to be making this decision in february and in march because they started later than you did and their staff is going to have to do all the same things but in you know three fewer months so this can be done it is feasible And I really, you know, I would refer you back to staff on the task at hand. Okay. So then my question
253for staff, and I do want to acknowledge that I am kind of putting you on the spot, so I don't expect an exact answer, but is there a realistic timeline that you have that you could? give guidance to the board to expect a transition plan? I mean, would we sit here and vote on a January 16th date? I mean, I'm just not sure what is realistic. So we actually like Carol said have already started tackling a lot of this a lot of the concerns that the teachers raised we've already have on the logistical planning kind of format that we're looking at and kind of chipping away at there's some things I think that the teachers brought up that we hadn't included and I think are really great things that we need to work on so
254I'm going to take I'm actually going to ask the teachers to give me that list so we can do that but i mean in terms of the way i'm looking at this is a kind of a two-phase approach if you wanted to have a plan that that talks about in general like these are the things we're going to do for students these are the things we're going to do for teachers this is what we need to do for facilities this is what we need to do operationally like like naming like renaming the facility or renaming the school like we can do that in general and give you something like in january but if you wanted something with like timelines and who's responsible and exact like details around all of those things it's going to take
255a little bit longer because what we'd like to do is get input from the community and get input from the teachers and the students around like what kinds of events they would like to have that kind of thing not that we wouldn't already have some things planned but i think having their voice in it is really important so that would take longer so we can do a kind of a more generic plan and then a more detailed plan That's kind of my first initial thinking around it. But like I said, and I think actually I've shared with the board some of the work that the staff and I had already been doing around the logistical planning. Thank you. My last question for Harold is if, as a board, after reviewing the presentation presented by staff
256in terms of the consolidation and the plan, if we as a board feel at that time that it would be best for our community to have one extra year. I'm just hypothetically speaking, are we, do we have the authority to then postpone or are we bound by this because we are, this is a resolution and we're voting on it tonight. So just from a procedural standpoint when you adopt a resolution generally speaking you can adopt a resolution that changes that resolution This is not getting put into law in that sense. So you still have the discretion to do it You'd obviously have to think about expectations and disruption and all of those other components, but from just a purely procedural standpoint You could revisit this the one of the rules of governance for a board
257is that these are really where you take your position. You will be committing resources by adopting this. And so there again, there's consequences if you come back and change it, but I can't say it's absolutely binding. I really appreciate that. And I, I asked that question for clarity for myself and the community so that. everyone understands that it is a process and in order to get to these next steps we have to have a process right and so we we don't have the opportunity to see what this looks like for the transition if we don't move forward with the resolution and so in order to to see that and direct give direction to staff this is this is the next step so I am prepared to vote tonight on proceeding forward with the consolidation of
258schools, knowing that staff is going to provide us with information in a step one, step two process. Step one being a more generalized list, and then the step two being a more specific list after getting community and parent involvement and teacher involvement. And so then... That raises my last question. Can we include that in the resolution? Or what does that look like? And would my fellow trustees be willing to entertain that? Right. So what I am hearing from Dr. Chin is that come January, she believes that her staff would be able to give us a very general list, a top level. And then so that would be what I would assume would go into this resolution as the first timeline with an understanding that it is top level. And then. Do we have a discussion
259in January at that time to see how staff is doing, where they are, community involvement? We're coming back from Christmas break, a holiday break. What the timeline looks like. Is it a March deadline? So that's just my thought process on just number five. So I'm just wondering if anyone is prepared to enter. date in there as January 16th which would be our next board meeting for a top-level list from staff. Can I follow up question? I still want to have a debate around the the delay in implementation and whether that we can even entertain that as being feasible if we get to a point where you know we just need what I worry about is not so much the sort of logistical issues that are involved this is not just a logistical exercise right this
260is very emotional it's like the blending of cultures So what I'm interested also though is understanding what kind of financial leeway do we actually have in even entertaining delaying implementation by a year. I'm ready to make a resolution tonight and a decision actually on both school elementary and middle school but I was wondering if staff could you know, talk about what the consequences would be financially in terms of delaying the implementation of a middle school merger. Like, how are we going to, how could we survive that? Or what would the board, what other action will the board have to take? Because we've already agreed to a resolution that we are going to find, you know, $940,000 worth of reductions for next year. I don't know if anyone can address that. I'll let Associate Su Prasites
261address the financial. I do want to point something out because I mentioned this before and I think the teachers and the staff pointed this out earlier as well is that if we're going to actually implement for next year we really have to do this like no later we said in December right because they need to know this the staff needs to know if they're going to be impacted and they can't we can't wait until march or april to have that's a lot of stress on them and that's a lot of stress on like just the logistical procedural stuff right i'm prepared to like make to pass a resolution tonight i'm just wondering if staff think it thinks it's a good idea board thinks it's a good idea to delay implementation. So if we were to
262announce tonight, okay, we are going to move forward on the merger, that now you have a whole extra year of planning. That's what I want to understand. Yeah, and that's what I would recommend is if we're talking about extending that, that would be a year. It can't be months. No, no, no. It would be a year. I mean, that just seems more realistic. David, you're saying that you're thinking it's going to end up being more than a million? Well, I mean, if you're factoring in what we're kind of negotiating with the two. contracts and then you know the million dollars of say you know like I don't I don't just I don't see how it's feasible you know in the numbers that were provided we get to break even because there's no increases and I
263just you know because the the raises are retroactive through from from this school year right so you're paying money that for labor that's already been performed So there's the raise bait on that plus next year in the future year. So I don't see how the numbers, based on what I'm seeing here, how you get there and say, let's put this consolidation off a year. Because the 970 is then in the future. And the only way then you're going to get those savings is by cutting programming and staff. Because I doubt we're going to get agreement for across the board salary cuts from all staff. Then it's going to be programmatic and it's going to be the wellness center or it's going to be the pick the type of cuts that you need to make to
264get to achieve that million plus dollars. It's not a million dollars. It's going to be more than that. So I just don't see how you do it financially to delay the decision. So anyway. You'll have to go back to those cuts like in 2011 where you close the libraries you cut athletics I mean you cut everything down to the I mean cut a million dollars out of the budget is gonna be It's gonna hurt. It's gonna be cutting it down to the bone. I don't think anybody here wants that I would say if we should we should definitely move to passing this motion and aiming for implementation for the fall of 25. And unless something drastic comes up during staff's research and they present it in January that there is something terribly wrong with that
265plan or flawed, that's why I think the January readout, I would ask staff to gauge your confidence on that implementation, knowing what the alternative is if we don't. So yeah, I would say We should aim for a January presentation on that. Yeah, 16. Okay. So the next part of this that we need to discuss before we pass the resolution, because I assume we'll need to read it in its entirety, would be on page 5 to C would be on or before blank date 2025, the board will select the elementary school that will close at the conclusion of the 25-26 school year. Do any trustees have any recommendations on a time or date date or time line? I mean I would probably just pick the February regular meeting and have that as a placeholder and then
266let's try to have a special meeting to talk about consolidation on the elementary school level. Trustee Winders. February does seem too soon because I think we need to allow at least, you know, some study session time in there. And we have study sessions on the books already for January for some other items that I don't think it would be appropriate to bump those items. So, um, nor would it be reasonable to have an additional study session in January or the beginning of February. February feels very soon. Um, I, My thought process was actually more towards the middle to end of spring. Give us till May. Mayor June. Trustee Lehman. The only question I have is in here it says that at the conclusion of the school year, one elementary school shall close. If we give
267ourselves, maybe it's a question for our legal team, is if we get to a decision where we don't believe we need to close one elementary school, does this bind us to that or can we have some language in there? Yeah, and vote and say that we're not. Okay. So I just want to be clear with the public then if we pass this resolution and we set a date that says we are going to aim to consolidate one elementary school by this date, one of the choices could be that we don't consolidate elementary school. That is our decision that we'll make on that timeline. Okay. Yeah, we would still have that option. And then... Kind of one of my just my thought process on why I'm thinking that we decide in spring because if the conclusion
268of the 25-26 school year an elementary school closed if we decide in the spring of 2025 that gives us implementation a pretty decent implementation time. Dr. Chen. I would agree with that because again I'd like for you to consider also the amount of work that the staff would be engaged in with actually doing the implementation of the middle school and then I'm pretty positive that you're all gonna request some kind of data and analyses and to do that at the same time is it's quite a lot so to do it by February I think is way too soon too So I don't have the May, well we haven't agreed upon any days in May, but would my fellow trustees be willing to agree upon the May regular meeting, which is May 8th? I think, I
269feel like picking the date is a little bit premature at this moment, just because I think that One is that we should think about, okay, what is the additional information that we need to make this decision? Like, I feel like I have all of the sort of facts that I need actually to make this decision, but what does everybody else need? What should be done? Like, what are the unanswered questions? We should think about that. And I also want the staff to focus on implementation. I don't want them to be... trying to do these two things at once like what's really what I'm very concerned about which is why I wanted just to have the entertain the idea of delaying implementation is you know we've heard about the fears from the teachers and students and
270families who want to get implementation right I just feel like you know that's a huge risk to us so I just want to recognize that staff needs to be completely focused and not having their attention diverted away from it. I'm happy to look at it in the fall and if we could have a list of things or come back at the next meeting about, okay, really seriously, what other information do we need that's going to help crystallize our decision making? And, I mean, maybe we strike it. Maybe we strike it for now in the resolution. It could be its own resolution. Trustee Lehman? I was just going to say, I support that. To me, there's kind of three clear options. One, we strike it and come back and revisit it. Two, we consider delaying implementation
271of the middle school, give ourselves time to make this decision. So that would be staff and everyone focused on getting the information we need to make the decisions on both. Or three. you actually wait to make the elementary school decision until the fall of next year, at which point you've given staff the focus this year to work on implementation. We come back and revisit it once implementation for the middle school is already fully baked. And at that point, we make a decision in September, October on the elementary school, and it gives them almost a whole year worth of implementation for that. So in my mind, I guess there's three options. Trustee Bell? You know, the reality is until we have direction on our labor contracts for 24-25 and then we're starting negotiations for the 25-26,
272until we have resolution on that, it's going to be very difficult to understand, you know, what the scope of the, you know, what the real budget is going to be looking like and, you know, from that perspective. So I get... I'm a little bit torn because it would be better to give our community notice and everybody can get used to the idea of this is what we're doing. right, to process it and to plan and things like that, versus waiting, waiting and waiting, and then everybody's uncertain. Should I send my child to this school? Should I go to private school? Should I go to, what should I do, right? You know, the boundary maps have to be drawn, things like that. So dragging the elementary decision out is going to create, my fear is it's
273going to create more uncertainty in the community. So I'm not a huge fan of that. But then I don't want to rush the decision without understanding what our financial commitments are for our labor contracts, right? So that's a little bit of the chicken or the egg, right? Trustee Winders? I actually like your third suggestion. I don't think that we, I mean, I just don't see that we can delay the implementation of the middle school. Not facing, not looking at the budget the way that we have it and the continued decline in enrollment. It's not just the budget, it's also the continued decline in enrollment. Although I really do like what you've suggested in your third option that we actually bring the elementary into the fall which um and giving staff the bandwidth the space and
274taking a little bit of something off of their plate so that they can wholly focus on implementing a transition plan to make the consolidation of the middle school um the main focus i i really like that suggestion and i would actually i would support that completely trust teaching So one other thing I wanted just to entertain, sorry, I'm just like on the fly, all these ideas are coming up. But what I also fear now with my original recommendation of striking it is I worry about us backtracking too. And I wonder if we could have aspirationally put in what our target date is for coming up with this decision. Because if we strike it in way, I mean, I guess your option is to put it in all, to do both. Yeah. Yeah, okay. It would
275be to put it in, but. But it would be but but of a future date that's further out than say February it would be I do like the idea of giving staff the bandwidth in time to focus on implementation I think that makes sense for the kids and community and then I think we would decide on it actually it's interesting we could make a decision without Actually saying you have to start on implementation so we could wait to make a decision i mean we can make the decision say in may or what and then say but staff you don't need to work on this until the fall because it's not for until the following year the one thing that david that uh trustee bell brought up which is you know there may be more clarity
276on our our budget as you know as the future goes on we get more realistic numbers on what's happening so i guess i guess the only difference between may versus say september is what we have better kind of budgetary clarity for the next school year and you've been you've done this longer than i have so i don't know if they're if they'll change that much it'll be the same numbers because you adopt the budget in june and you don't do the first interim until december so then after that uh we don't have it we don't typically have a meeting in july so then the next meeting would be august and at that point there would be implementation so that would be the next regular meeting that we could come together and I got a suggestion
277on this why don't we agree on the January 16th date for the planning and why don't we agree that we think about the date for the selection and then table it until the January meeting and so we all come back in 30 days with a better sense as to the thinking about the upside and downside of picking a date in August versus a date in May versus a date whenever. I think 30 days is going to give us all a bit of perspective on the select. We don't have to select the date today because I don't think it matters because we're not going to start working on it, right? And so if we just give ourselves 30 days to sort of... think about the consequences of going to August or doing it in May or
278whenever it is. It'll just give us time for perspective. That would be my suggestion. I just fear, well, I just don't know that there's... I'm comfortable putting August down as a date because I don't know that anything's going to happen for me personally between now and January. I agree with a lot of what Trustee Ching said in terms of what more information do we need. And so I feel like we've all gone through a lot of information. It's more or less what the process is going to look like that's what we're hearing from the community so on one hand I'm hearing we don't want to close an elementary school and then on and then with that if it's going to happen You know, what are we gonna do? And I think if we set a
279date for August. It provides some clarity for our community and for staff. It does give staff the ability to not focus on that until we make an actual decision in August. We have the opportunity to revisit it. It still keeps it on the agenda and on our mind. So if there is more information that we're looking for or if there is more If there's just anything else that we need, we have time to ask, and it also gives staff time to provide it to us after all of these other implementation things have gone through. And so I don't want to just not vote on it. I think we need to put something on this resolution so it feels important, because it's very important, with the idea and knowing that we can change it. Trustee Bell?
280So, Mike, I get the logic on that, but I'm then thinking about the August date. And so if you've got a family that has a child that's going to enroll in a school, right, they're going to have to enroll before August. CHRISTIE WOODARD, So the point of clarification, it would be that we would make an announcement of the elementary school closure on the, what is the date of our August meeting? During the August regular meeting, we would then per this resolution, make the announcement as a board, come to an agreement as a board on an elementary school closure, if that is the will of the board at the time. And that would be implemented the following school year. I get it. I'm just saying that if I'm a family and I've got a child who's
281going to, I'm going to enroll them in Sasserini, like let's just say we implement the flowery move to Sasserini and we, and enrollment, you're going to have to make a decision to enroll the child. at Sasserini before August of that year because then the following year if we're going to change Sasserini, families are going to have an issue with then, oh, now you're going to close my school, right? And so my child is going to go here for one year and then have to go somewhere else, whereas they may make an alternative decision as to what school their child goes to. So I don't see the August date as being great from that perspective. Trustee Winders? That would happen no matter what year it was because there's always going to be a kindergarten class. So
282like that's, I don't think that that's going to change it. But I feel really strongly that. I really agree with you, President Landry. I feel really strongly that part of the accountability that we hold to ourselves is by choosing a date. Because that holds us accountable to ourselves to make the hard decision. Because if we don't do that, what we're saying to the community is, well, we're going to make a hard decision. We might make it, but we're not really going to tell you when. And that creates an enormous amount of anxiety for people. Whereas if we say, look, we're going to make a hard decision and we're going to make it on this date, then the community knows, like, yes, it's going to be hard. Yes, we're going to have these feelings again, but
283at least we know when it is. And it holds us accountable to our responsibility to do the hard thing and to not kick the can down the road. And we're writing it in a resolution and we're saying this is when we're going to do it and we're going to make a decision. It's going to be hard, but we're going to do it on this month and we're being clear to the community. So I feel very, very strongly about that, that we need to choose. We have to do the hard work and we need to choose the date. Trustee Ching. So I mean, I would be prepared. I'm prepared to make this decision tonight, but I see that my colleagues are not prepared to do this. I would. kind of retract my original suggestion of waiting
284till the fall and giving people, allowing staff to just focus on implementation of the middle school merger. I think those two things can be independent. We can make the decision and they can still focus only on implementation. But I feel like if we let this thing drag out. I it should only drag out if you if there's consensus on this board that they don't have the information to actually make the decision so I would prefer a date that's on or before April May before the end of the school year is what I think would be more appropriate if we get to that point and it's like no we need like X amount of other things that we can extend that date but I would put in something earlier it's just i have a just a
285question um i would support that it's just do we know staff um by when we would have a cost savings number a more accurate finite cost savings number on the middle school consolidation. I know when we've spoken about it there are some variables at play that we that won't we won't have clarity on until we get into the planning phase. Do we know if by May we would have pretty good clarity or I say March was it March or do we know. Do you have an estimate. No, I'm saying I'm saying we have the cost estimate but I my understanding was that there were still Variables at play that we wouldn't have clarity on until the decision was made and we got in to start Right. Maybe another the number that was sent was an
286estimate. I think what what trustee Lehman is saying is one Right. I think it was okay. So in previous meetings I was told that there were some personnel variabilities that we wouldn't know but we're saying okay When you'll know like the exact cost savings actually would be when implementation actually happens. So for now, we're only going to have the number that we have today. Okay. So I would say at this point we've spent a lot of time on this and there seems to be a consensus and I don't think that that there's any reason not to put an earlier date. We can always move it back as Trustee Ching has mentioned. So I am if someone would like to make a motion I would support a May date knowing that if we need to give
287staff more time we can. We can also you know give ourselves more time at the May 8th meeting. So would someone like to make a motion um okay uh trustee ching okay so i may have to say it twice but i'll try it um i would like to make a resolution i mean i would like to make a motion to approve the res resolution 25-10 for school consolidation with the modification of um modifying with the modification on item 2.2-C that we would fill in on or before May 8, 2025. The board will select an elementary school that will close at the conclusion of the 25-26 school year. and then with the following modification on item number five that the transition plan shall be presented to the board for review and approval oh no that the
288a top level transition plan will be presented to the board for review no later than January 16th 2025. is there a second second Roll call vote. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. OK. Thank you. So moving on to 16.4, action approval of AB 300 construction management proposal for Altamira Middle School. Rena Sipes? Yes, members of the board. When the bond measure was passed, we had bids for construction managers for the bond projects, and CounterPoint was selected to be the project manager for the bond project, so we're asking to approve this contract to allow them to manage the AB300 project. Okay, thank you. Are there any questions from the board at this time? Trustee Bell? It seems like we were hiring these guys at the same time as the architect. Yes. Do we need to
289do that? Does it make any difference? I would suggest that you do because the construction manager will work very closely with the architect. Okay. Any other questions from the board? Okay. And so no further questions. We'll go to the public in the room for public comment. Seeing none, we'll go to online. If you are online and would like to make public comment on item 16.4. Okay, we have Katie. You have the floor, Katie. Katie, you are muted. Can you unmute yourself on your end, please? There we go. Can you hear me? Yes. Hi, my name is Katie Margreiter. I'm the farm-to-table teacher at Adele. I know in past meetings there was some mention of... removing the old cafeteria from Altamira. And I'd just like to put out there that that could possibly make a great
290space for a kitchen area as it would have all the old plumbing and gas lines for a farm to table space. So in that construction management, maybe you guys could take a look at that rather than just demolishing that space. Thank you, Katie. Our next speaker online is Michaela Lucchetti. Oh, Michaela, you are. Oh, there you go. Okay, hi. So I have a question. I may have missed this idea in the past, but I was just wondering, has it ever been considered if we do have to lose Adele as our only Eastside middle school, turning Presswood into a K-8 with potentially offset? Oh, can you hear me? Yes, I can, Michaela. I'm so sorry. So we are on item 16.4. Unfortunately, your question is, I believe, pertaining to something that we've already moved on from.
291So if- I was talking about also the costs of working. Yeah, so I was thinking if Preston were to become a K through 8, would that offset the potential construction costs of improving Adele to accommodate more students? I mean, Altamira, I mean, Altamira. OK. Thank you, Mikayla. We unfortunately are not able to answer this question. We are able to listen to your public comment. But what I would suggest is if you'd like to email the board your question, we are able to then individually respond. OK. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other public comment online? OK. Seeing none, we'll take it back to the board. This is an action item. I'm asked to consider approval of the construction management proposal as presented. Seeing no further discussion. I'm ready to make a motion. I'd like
292to make a motion to approve the construction management proposal for Altamira Middle School with counterpoint. Second. All right. There's a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay, we'll move on to 16.5, action approval of AB 300, architect proposal for Altamira Middle School. Can you help me? What is the proper pronunciation of their name? QKA. Oh, well. Yeah. Oh, I saw. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it's very. We'll stick with the QKA. Okay. QKA has submitted a proposal for the architectural services of the Altamira Middle School Voluntary Seismic Upgrade Project in accordance with their Measure E agreement dated February 15, 2017. The first phase is to occur over the summer of 2025. The second phase would occur over the summer of 2026 and will address the remaining buildings. Again, when we did the bid, we also
293bid architects for the bond projects, and there were two architects that were selected. We requested bids from both of them, and the one said they were too busy and didn't have time to bid. the bid submitted from QK a is Is reasonable in line with? Architect going rates. So we're recommending approval of QK a's As the architect for the a B 300 retrofit. Okay. Thank you. I'll bring it back to the board for questions Just about so I asked district staff about you know, what's the sort of requirements of this seismic work and Rina, do you want to sort of talk about the response that, you know, essentially what I understand it is if we do nothing as a board on the seismic work, then potentially the district has liability. You know, while we're on
294a list of buildings that, you know, there's no requirement right now being on the AB 300 list, right? It's not you're on there and you have to complete the work on a certain date. We've just been notified of the seismic issue. So my question was do we really need to do the seismic work now? Could we do it in a year? Could we do it in three years? Or whatever it is. And so the advice that Rena got from, was it Matt? Was that we potentially as a district as well as trustees have liability if we don't complete the work and an earthquake happens and someone is injured. killed, right? So then the next part of the question is, well, what level of improvement on the seismic work do we then perform? Because there's levels
295based on different, you know, expense, you know, different costs. So I think, you know, we need to, as a board, really need to understand how much money we're spending and what we're getting for it in terms of the seismic level and the $11 million of budget that we've got left. And so I just think everybody needs to be aware of that because I was informed of it and I wasn't aware that I potentially have personal liability if I say we don't do the seismic work, right? So that's that. And then my next question is, are we hiring these guys for phase one and phase two and what's encompassed in phase one and what's encompassed in phase two in terms of the scope of work? Is there, I mean... So they would be removing the canopies
296I think initially I think that's the the focus of phase one is to go through and and remove the canopies I do have a meeting scheduled with them for next week where I can get more details and share that information with you and Then I can also talk to him about the different levels and does the work board want to go With the highest level or do they want to go with the level that gets us off the a B 300? I think that's a important decision to be made at what point will we have that information to make that decision do we estimate I can I mean they're gonna have to draw up the plans based on the decision that you make so if we want to be the top level then they're gonna
297have to make sure that the plans that they submit to DSA covers everything to put us at the highest level trustee Ching So we were presented with the maybe the five tiers of safety and so we had my understanding was that Not all of the buildings needed to be brought to the highest tier and that, you know, a level three was sufficient for some buildings, but we may want to consider different tiers for different buildings. Will we get back a plan that, I mean, we had initial estimates of what it would cost to take it to a level one, a level two, a level three. Will the architects also provide the same kind of estimates? If you were to do, bring all buildings, you know, A, B, C, and F to level one, here's what
298it costs. If you bring it to level three, here's what it costs. The only problem is that if we, we can do that, but then you're not going to get the work done this summer because we're going to be very close getting this through DSA as it is. So. Yeah, could you just explain that a little bit about, so the architects, they do the drawings and the plans, and then what happens? Then they submit it to DSA, the Division of State Architecture, and because it's a voluntary retrofit, they usually push those through faster, but DSA can take anywhere between three to... three months to a year to approve plans. The good thing with this is because it's a voluntary retrofit, it isn't considered a remodel, and so we don't have to do the ADA requirements
299because on most projects, I think it's a 15%. Any project that you do, you have to add additional 15% to upgrade your ADA. So they're... They're telling me that the retrofits are going through fairly quickly, but by the time it gets through DSA and we bid the contractors, you're cutting it really short. Well, my only concern is, though, how do we know if we ask them to provide plans for bringing every single building? not just the A, B, and C wings, to the highest level of safety that we have enough money to do it. That's what I'm concerned about. Yeah, he'll have to cost that out. He should be able to give us a fairly accurate cost estimate. I can hopefully update you in January. But is it the desire to go to the highest
300level, or is it just to go to the level that gets us off the AB300? I mean, it's a function of cost, you know, and what would be the cost? And so I don't, you know, that's a tough one, right? I can talk to him next week and see if he can give us an estimate going on the two or somewhere in between. Any further questions from the board? I just want to make a comment, which is that. I feel a strong obligation to bring it to the highest level of safety. And only because when the bond was issued, I mean when the bond was approved by voters, there was a big sort of campaign to. to the public that the purpose of the bond funds were to keep our schools safe, warm, and dry.
301And I feel like this was negligence on the part of whoever made all these decisions that Altamira's AB 300 buildings were not on the highest priority. I mean, I feel like this is something we have to make right to our community because I feel like that was, it wasn't just an oversight. they knew I mean I it's in the master plan that they recognized that we had these issues so I feel very strongly about this that that should have been the top thing that all of our schools should have addressed in terms of because we had other schools that were on that that were on that AB 300 list Trustee Lehman I would just I would echo what Trustee Ching said and I would I would also state that the decision that we just made
302to consolidate our children at one middle school, I think it's no one's here at the moment, unfortunately, but hopefully they'll listen to the recording later, which is we want the community to know that we're making the investment. And while it may deplete all of our bond money, and it very likely could based on the estimates, I do think that's probably the decision we need to make to signal to our community that we're serious about making the investment at that school, making it work on both facilities and then obviously action plans and everything else that will go into making this a wonderful middle school for Sonoma Valley. Trustee Bell? I have a question for Matt. If we did level one, which is the lowest level to get us off the list, versus level three, which gets
303you the highest level and there's a seismic event, what's the liability for the board from that perspective, right? Share the podium. In the conversation with Rena, what we were talking about is not just liability for board members, but for the district in general. Right, right. So and what I was saying is is that it could be imputed liability as to board members, right? So if there if an action was brought it's not it's not for a for sure action And I think you at least have to meet the minimal standard to then have an affirmative defensive Worst case scenario takes place Right trustee Ching so all the buildings that we're talking about. I mean I Not what I remember from the discussion and because I don't have the actual architectural renderings in front of me
304not all the buildings that are on the D on the AB 300 list are for children right there are some that are There are classrooms, so I definitely want to prioritize obviously classrooms there were other buildings that aren't currently not being used and are for like storage like I don't I don't want to spend money bringing those up to a tier one because nobody's inside of them should we go to public comment at the okay public comment in the room Hi, Kimberly Smith, former employee at Altamira for 26 years. So the boiler room, which did used to heat the classrooms, the boiler room had exploded. And that... went away and we had updated heating system. So that boiler room is empty as a boiler, but it is used for storage. There's a large stage. They
305use that space for the risers, which is shared throughout the community schools. four performances and a few extra desks and chairs and stuff and then there's the old kitchen which Katie Mark Reiter had mentioned and that also is divided so half is used for district storage and the other half is used for the school site storage also there's some PTO stuff in there and eighth grade dance stuff in there so Anyway, just wanted to say that. Thank you. Is there any other public comment in the room? Seeing none, we'll go online. Ms. Brashler? Oh, you are muted. Can you hear me? Yes. Hi, I'm just wondering, I know the hesitation on wanting to update all of the rooms, but if we are consolidating these schools, will we not need that room to accommodate more students?
306Thank you for your question. If you would like to email that question to the board, we're happy to answer it. Was that your only question? Because you still have time. I know you just... Okay. All right. Next person is Ms. Castellan. You're muted. Hello. Hi. Hi. I just have a quick comment. If you're going to use any of the classrooms for kids, maybe those are the priority to put the safety places. So if you're not going to use it and it's not a good place for kids, never try to put kids in there. So just fix the ones you're going to use. That's it. Thank you, Ms. Castellan. Is there any other public comment online? Seeing none, we'll bring it back to the board. This is an action item. And I know we have gone
307a little bit further into discussion, but I think it's clear to Ms. Seif that we've kind of given her direction in terms of what we want to see. So I would recommend, just for the sake of time, that someone make a motion so we can move on. So I requested to meet with the architect and to walk around Altamira. to kind of discuss the scope and look at the buildings and look at the overhangs and all that sort of stuff. But because of some conflict, I couldn't. I just think that given the amount of money that we're going to spend on this, I think that one of us needs to go with the architect and walk around and ask questions and be involved in it. And I don't know how we do that, but I
308would like to do that because I think it's important given the amount of money to be spent. I think typically the architect would make a presentation to the board and then that... they can be open for questions at that point that's typically the way it works on construction projects like that okay so if that's the case then great we'd a presentation would be really useful okay so is there a motion on the floor I'll move to approve the architectural proposal for Altamira Middle School by QKA is there a second second all in favor aye aye Dr. Chin has a request of the board at this time due to a presenter that's been waiting so we have a informational presentation around the California school dashboard we do have a guest from the Sonoma County Office of
309Education who's on zoom so I was wondering if it would be okay we moved item number eight to Now item number six before the approval of the significant disproportionality plan. Does anybody have any reserves about that? Okay. So we are now going to move forward with 16.8. This is an informational presentation on the 2024 California Dashboard release. The California School Dashboard for 2024 was released to the public on November 21, 2024. This California School Dashboard is an outline tool that shows how local educational agencies and schools perform on state and local indicators included in California. school accountability systems. Each area reflects the priorities of California's local control funding formula, the LCFF, and the metrics required by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA. The metrics include English language arts, mathematics, English learner progress, chronic absenteeism,
310graduation rate, suspension rate, and college and career readiness. Local indicators include basic implementation of academic standards, parent and family engagement local climate survey and access to a broad course of study new for 2024 long term english ltel as a new student group science indicator informational purposes college and career color metric has returned so we'll turn it over to miss williams Good evening members of the board Superintendent Chen President Landry and the community that is still listening My name is Amber Williams, and I'm the coordinator of ed services. I'm going to present this on behalf of Christina Casillas dr Casillas She is home not feeling well, and so I'm gonna read her her presentation for us today All right and slide one the dashboard the dashboard was released last month online I'm not going to read
311the whole at the CaliforniaSchoolsDashboard.org. It includes data from all public schools, charters, and county offices. And tonight I'm going to share with you our Sonoma Valley's 2024 dashboard performance. The dashboard was created to give parents and the public a complete picture of what is happening in our schools and districts and identify those that need extra support. In 2013, the LCFF law was passed that outlined how schools were funded and the new accountability requirements, including what we call the dashboard reflecting different priority areas, which are the state and local indicators to fulfill LCF. Oh my goodness, LCFF, which is the state, as well as ESSA, which is federal. As a reminder, in the previous presentation shared with you, data is just one piece of the puzzle and doesn't represent our entire story. We need to examine
312multiple measures and get approximate to the data to really understand the true picture as every data point has a heartbeat and all the stories behind them. Next slide. I think there was one before you. We're still on what's new. Sorry. Thank you There are a few elements of the dashboard for 2024 starting this year long-term English learners, which are called LTELs Is added and as the 14th student group which is defined as a student who has not attained English proficiency within seven years of initial classification as an EL The science indicator is now on the dashboard for the first time. So it is included for informational purposes only and not for accountability And finally, color is back for the college and career indicator. Last year was the purple bars. Now that we have two years
313of data, we can report out growth and the color dial has returned. As I mentioned, the dashboard includes state and local indicators required per LCFF and ESSA. There are 12 in total. On the right are the five local indicators. These are based on self-reported data and a narrative reported as met, not met, or not met for two years. This information was previously presented at the June 8th board meeting as an informational item. On the left are the seven state indicators, which I will go into more detail this evening. Each area is marked by a color on the dial from red, the lowest, to blue, which is the highest. The color is determined by status, which is the current year's performance, and growth, which is the difference between current year and prior year performance. Let's take
314a look at our performance for each of the state indicators. All right, here's the dashboard data you see on the main dashboard webpage for Sonoma Valley Unified. You can see the state indicators represented by the colored dial and the local indicators all marked standard met in blue blocks. Next slide. For context, I wanted to share with you comparison data from the last two dashboards in 2019, as we know, as pre-COVID, and last year, 2023, when the dashboard returned in color form. Next slide. So let's recognize the schools that increased on the color dial from 2023 last year. Every school across our valley increased in at least one indicator. So to note these, Sassarini moved from green to blue for their suspension rate. So they celebrate yay, there you go. You're still here with me. All
315right The high school maintained their blue status from graduation rate with Creekside moving from orange to green. Let's cheer for everyone. There we go. Let's go Let's go Creekside in the high school. So no, my god. Sonoma Valley High School moved from orange to green in ELA and red to yellow and math celebrate We got to celebrate all the wins you guys all right flowery move from red to green in the English loader progress indicator It's a big one all right. Thank you for participating out there all right next slide All right the dashboard organizes the data under three categories academic performance academic engagement conditions and climate Academic state indicators include ELA and math measured by Smarter Balanced, English learner progress measured by ELPAC, college and career. The college career measure shows how many students
316graduated from high school, prepared for college or a career. It uses many different measures such as completion of coursework and academic performance in terms of distance from standard, as well as local indicators implementation of academic standards. For each indicator you have the color dial the current performance related to the distance from standards the growth from last year increased decreased maintained and an equity report Indicates the number of student groups at each level Below the yellow line we add comparison data to the state for example in English language large Oh my goodness in English language arts district performance is at yellow Our average student performance is 30.1 points below standard, which is an increase of seven points from 2023. Compared to the state, California is orange with 13.2 points below standard, and they fairly maintain their
317performance as far as the equity report for us. So as far as the equity for us, two student groups are in the red. We'll go into detail on this in the next few slides. One orange, two yellow, one green, and zero in blue. All right. Academic engagement comprises of chronic absenteeism and graduation rate, as well as local indicators of access to a broad course of study. Chronic absenteeism includes students grade TK through 8 absent 10% or more of the days they were enrolled. The goal is to reduce this number, obviously, right? For reference, in 2019, we had 12.8% of our students chronically absent. In 2022, 39.4%, and in 23, 25.4%. So we're starting to trend right into the right direction here. For graduation rate, we're in the green with 92.9% graduating slightly. Higher than the
318state as a reminder. This was the last class eligible for the kovat graduation requirements of 180 credits Next slide. All right conditions and climate includes suspension rate as well as local indicators of basic services parent and family engagement and local climate survey For suspension we went from orange to green with 3.2 students Grades TK through 12 suspended at least one day in the school year. This is a this is great progress something also to celebrate There we go, I didn't pay these guys to clap I promise Next slide. All right. This is the first year we are seeing the science indicator on the dashboard This is for informational purposes only This measure is based on student performance on the cast Taken by students in grades fifth eighth and once in high school While there's no
319color we can see that an average that on average students are 17.3 points below standard compared to the state at 13.5 points. We anticipate science will include a color in the 25 dashboard. The state looks at the data through a lens of equity. Next slide. All right the equity report. The dashboard identifies performance gaps among student groups through its equity report, which is available for each state measure. The dashboard reports performance for 14 student groups. When we shared the indicators in the earlier slides, I highlighted the number of student groups in each color. This slide represents which student groups fall within each performance level within each state measure. So let's take a look at English language arts. Overall, it is yellow, specifically for our student... Specifically in our student groups, ELs is orange, LTELs and
320students with disabilities are red, socioeconomically disadvantaged and Hispanic are yellow, and students identified as white perform at the green level. There are no performance colors for African American, American Indian, foster youth, homeless, and Pacific Islander. Student groups need to have a minimum amount of students to report out of color. I highlighted three student groups, EL, LTELs, and students with disabilities as they are within the red for two or more indicators. Next slide. All right. So what do all the colors mean as it relates to accountability and a continuous improvement system? California has a system of support to support districts in meeting the needs of their students. Under LCFF assistance, there are three tiers of support, general, differentiated, and intensive intervention. The level of assistance is determined by the student group performance data. Based on the
32124 dashboard Sonoma Valley Unified School District is eligible for differentiated assistance for three student groups our LTELs our ELs and our students with disabilities So we have Jen Larson from SCO online and she's going to talk to us at the end of the presentation So just want you to know that she's here with us next slide In terms of federal assistance, students are identified under ESSA as CSI, ATSI, or TSI, depending on performance level and or student groups. CSI and ATSI eligibility are determined every three years, starting with the 23 dashboard. In 2023, we did not have any schools identified as CSI. Adele Harrison was determined as ATSI, but we learned today that Adele Harrison has exited from ATSI status based on their progress of the 2024 dashboard. Also celebration time there good job Adele
322TSI is determined in the non CSI a TSI eligibility years starting with 24 2024 the state published a list of eligible schools today for TSI and no Sonoma Valley Unified School District was on the list for TSI It's also good news next slide Okay, so our focus moving forward. Yes, there are bright spots And there are a lot of opportunities to get this right for our kids. Moving forward, we are putting in systems to support our educators in improving best first instruction and strengthening our tier one classroom strategies and approaches to support students to meet the needs of our learners through continuous job embedded professional learning at all levels. For our multi-level learners, we're looking at strengthening our teachers' expertise to meet the needs of our diverse learners and really analyzing data in our new
323platform of elevation to support students with language acquisition. At the high school, we're partnering with the San Jose Junior College to offer two CCAP dual enrollment college and career access pathways in medical terminology and food and nutrition course in the fall. And we continue to be comfortable with looking at the data and making informed decisions based on what data is saying. Our school sites recently updated their single plan for student achievement to align with recent CASP and dashboard data. We know we have more work to do, and we are striving to put in systems to improve the outcomes and experiences for our students. We also have had an urgent call with our site leaders and act like we need to rethink how to best support our students and our staff across all of our all
324of our sites. Our kids are counting on us to get this right. So Jen Larson, I'm gonna hand it over to Dr. Chen. Thank you. Thank you Amber for being able to report on behalf of Dr. Casillas. So the dashboard results as Amber went through them are really quick. I think I just wanted to mention and highlight the differentiated assistance status. I think it's really important that we as a governing board and also the public and our staff recognizes where we're headed in terms of our academic performance. As you saw today, there's some a lot of things to celebrate because there have been improvements there have been things that the teachers are implementing in their classrooms through professional development which i think is helping with that continuous improvement However, we have been identified by the
325state as a school district that needs differentiated assistance, which is that level two of intervention. So I asked Deputy Superintendent Larson from the County Office of Education to come in and talk to a little bit about what is differentiated assistance, what do we have to, or what can we expect from the county office in terms of their technical assistance for intervention with our district. So Jen, welcome. Thank you so much. And thank you for having me, trustees. It's wonderful to be here. As you heard, what a wonderful overview. And yes, lots of celebrations. But also I love hearing the idea of like, how are we going to rethink and move forward to ensure that we are really targeting what are the strategies that are going to most improve outcomes for those students that aren't making
326the progress that perhaps you have hoped for? So I'm here tonight. I just want to be able to give you an overview of what you. can expect with differentiated assistance. Some specifics about what the involvement and engagement from Sonoma Valley will look like and what they can expect to have in terms of support moving forward from Sonoma County Office of Education. A little bit about responsibilities and also partnership and then being here in case there's any questions. So with that... As you heard, differentiated assistance is technical assistance for a district. It's an accountability system that's really designed for all California public schools. It's based on the 2018 Budget Act, which was put in place to ensure that there was technical support. for students that were not making progress as the markers would intend and making
327sure that county offices and also the California Department of Education have a responsibility to both support school districts with their part, you know, partnering in what are the strategies that we're going to move forward with, making sure they have the tools and resources they need, but also giving them an opportunity to have accountability check-ins along the way. As you heard, you are currently eligible for differentiated assistance in two specific areas for your English language learners, your LTEL students and your students with disabilities. Those areas are academic achievement and so in English language arts and math and also college and career readiness as defined by the indicator. The college and career readiness indicator is typically the one that is most challenging to identify because there are so many components and ways that students are measured for
328college and career readiness. The indicator is really a metric that is the number of students who you graduated versus the number that were graduated prepared based on their cast data. their AP achievement, whether or not they're getting college and career or pardon me college credits, are they earning their seal of biliteracy. So there's eight different ways a student can check that box for college and career ready. And so at this point we are looking to see how can we do ensure that there are something in place to make sure our English language learners, our LTEL students, and our students with disabilities are having the same outcomes as our other students. All right. When we look at what's coming up, there are three ways that you can be identified for differentiated assistance. And in your case,
329it was through method one, which is where you have at least one group of students who has identified in two or more areas. And so that's where those groups came. It doesn't mean that that's the only groups of students that you may want to look at and you may want to dive in deeper. But those are the three students groups that are specifically the reason that you were identified to receive this support. So what does that look like from here on out? What it means is differentiated assistance is a two year cycle. The County Office of Education has a responsibility to support your team in making sure that we have a strategic plan that is very explicit for improving the outcomes of the student groups that were mentioned earlier. And so the opportunity is for
330your district to put together a team of district leaders and really looking at those student groups. Who are those staff members? Who are the community members that are most aligned to the work of those of improving outcomes for those groups, bringing them together with a team and engaging in a partnership with the Sonoma County Office of Education? leadership team as well. That happens in several ways. It happens at a county wide level with our continuous improvement model. And so we do meet as an entire county on a quarterly basis where the entire county has teams coming together and we work as one unit to not just look at the strategies and the impact for community, pardon me, continuous improvement in your own district, but really have thought partners from other districts in Sonoma County that
331may be having the same and so there's a lot of thought partnering, a lot of opportunity to talk through what's happening in other districts. The second way is for the team to continue to meet with your district leader from the County Office of Education and bring that team together for some check-ins, data processing, and looking at how you are monitoring the actual progress on your strategic plans. So as you enter into this differentiated assistant cycle, Even though you're identified for 2024, it will be a two-year cycle. It's possible that in 2025 you are no longer identified, but you will still have those services and we will still follow through with that process to make sure that even those improvements that are happening continue and become really ingrained in the culture of your school district. If
332and when we don't see that progress happening or we aren't seeing the metrics move in the direction that we're all hoping for, there's actually that third level of support and that's when we bring CDE in and we have the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence and they join the County Office of Education team to then work even more intensely with your group. So right now you're in that level two area of support. Step one is going to be to put together that team of experts in your district and then we'll begin engaging in the months to come after the winter break. Our next continuous improvement collaborative is actually February 12th and so ideally we'd have that team in place or at least the beginning of that team in place for us to start moving the work
333forward. And with that I am happy to answer any questions or if there's anything Dr. Chen that you wanted me to speak to that maybe I didn't. I'm happy to do so. Thank you very much for that information. I'll bring it back to the board for questions. Trustee Ching. I have a couple of questions that were on the slides previously because I didn't really know the difference. It made it seem like whatever there was an acronym TSI and it seemed like that was the same thing as differentiated assistance. I don't know. That's the way I kind of read it. Is there a difference or does it matter? Yeah, I can speak to that. So differentiated assistance is specific to your overall outcomes for the district, whereas certain schools can also be getting targeted support. And
334that's where you are no longer have any individual schools on those lists. But now what we really want to focus in on as an entire district, how can we help put some systems and plans in place to get all of your student groups moving in that same direction? And this is not the first time we've been in differentiated assistance, isn't that correct? Like I do you know like how long we've been in differentiated assistance? The last time you were in differentiated assistance was 2022. You came out of it in 2023, and so we've moved back. As you can see, you've ebbed and flowed in some of those specific areas. And so that's where that two-year commitment really comes in, is we really want to start engaging, not just for this year, because we're right here
335in it, but we want to look at... What is what is happening to create that roller coaster of outcomes for students? So that there's a higher level of predictability and you're seeing all of those gains for students Not just one year because of the work went in but that it's continuous and and we're really the beauty of Differentiated assistance and the fact that it really is an ongoing process is that it focused on continuous improvement We really want to make sure you have ongoing support. Is there any other questions from trustees? No questions. Okay, we'll take it to public comment. Is there any public comment in the room on this item? Kimberly Smith CSE a chapter president two items that I saw one was chronic absenteeism and I I just know from a previous district
336directors, no one now at the table, but previous directors repeatedly said, because we were basic aid, it didn't matter if kids came to school or not. And that was just so disrespectful. And I would like to hear the district stress how important it is for students to come to school. And I know that the school district adopted the A2A program, which was helping generate the absentee letters on a regular basis across the board because we're a unified school district. But I will say, as the chapter president for the classified employees, you can send 1,000 letters home, but if you don't pay someone to go to the door and knock on the door and say, why isn't your child in school today? I think that's really important. That gives a strong message that education is important
337for every student. And then the other portion is, Classified employees are so the instructional assistants in the classrooms are such a great asset and they work parallel with the teachers and I think it's really important to honor them with additional professional development so they can help increase those numbers for those special ed students. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Smith. Laura Hoban, I just want to piggyback off the instructional assistants. They are invaluable, not only with the special ed students, but also with the bilingual instructional assistants and helping out with our newcomers, even if they're not, if the instructional assistant isn't a bilingual instructional assistant, they make a huge difference for the kids, not only academically, I think, but like social, emotionally. We heard from Sylvia Castellon a couple times in the comments, and she is
338our bilingual instructional assistant, and the relationship she has with those kids, I think probably, I mean, I don't have any, obviously any hard data, but impacts them wanting to come to school and how they feel about being at school. So they make a big difference. Thank you. Is there any other public comment in the room? Okay, we'll go to public comment online. I see one hand raised. Mr. Lucchetti? You have the mic. You are muted. There you go. Sounds like we're going to get tier two support. Do you know what those programs might be? Okay, I'm going to go ahead and let Dr. Chin answer that for you. Thank you. So technically, I can't answer the public comment, but I will address intervention in terms of differentiated assistance. Don't know the new board members, but
339this was my work my previous in my previous role Was to support districts through differentiated assistance so the reason why I asked Jen to come in and have a conversation about what this is is because we do have to partner together to Define what that looks like so we have to go through a data analysis looking at the specific subgroups that we that were that qualified us to get into differentiated assistance and then we have to develop an action plan with strategies and very detailed actions to implement so that we can Not just improve for a short amount of time but like she mentioned sustainability that we have that action plan over time so that we have Very clear direction about where we need to improve our academic programs. So it's not necessarily a program
340and it's not a Person it's a comprehensive plan. So it could include professional development and it could include It could include additional cultural kinds of things like data and like reviewing data on a frequent basis with our staffs. It could include a lot of different things. And I want to address what Kimberly talked about. The other part of this is that when we're talking about differentiated assistance and improvement, it shouldn't be focused on technical changes where it's like we're going to send letters home and we're going to expect that you're going to have better attendance. the focus is on adaptive changes like what do we do in the classrooms to engage kids to keep them motivated like like um laura was talking about like what are those things that connect kids and build relationships so
341it's really focused on the adaptive change and not the technical change and i'll add to that if you're okay that um really our first step in working with a district is that root cause analysis is really trying to come down to what what What is at the core of why? these groups of students are not progressing in the same way as their peers and so what it's going to look like is a hard question to answer because it's so unique to every district you're taking into account your individual community your your community partners the culture of each individual school the st the student needs that we're addressing and so there is no one-size-fits-all um the beauty of differentiated assistance is that it really is um completely specialized to your district and that's why it's so
342important that we have that team and partnership to move forward so that we know that that we're providing the supports and that we are gathering the resources that we need to be able to support you and make sure that you can actually move forward with that strategic plan successfully. Thank you. Is there any other trustee Ching? This is really for Dr. Chen. So presumably when we are in differentiated assistance in 2022, we developed a comprehensive plan or strategy to address it. I mean, is there a need to reinvent the wheel here? I mean, I'm just curious. And it does raise the question, right, which is we had assistance, we had a plan, and then suddenly. But I thought that was the whole point of why the county works with us So if I, because I
343know Jen is new to her position, so she might know some details and I can fill in some others. So my understanding was initially when the district was identified, there wasn't a plan that was put in place. The team, there was interactions and a relationship. What the county did at the time was, and again, Jen, you can correct me if I'm wrong, they had established, again, just the relationship piece. So prior to me coming, that was what was happening. And then when I came on board, what I asked the county at that time was for them to give us some additional funding for us to be able to create this vision and the strategic plan. So if you recall, part of the funding for the portrait work was funded by the county office of ed
344because we need to have a vision. And then the next phase of this is the strategic plan. In that strategic plan, we're going to have to have goals and actions. So it's almost like we start it, and then we exit it, and now we're back. So we're going to continue what we started. CHRISTIE WOODARD- Any other questions or comments from trustees? Oh, do you have a comment, Trustee Winders? CHRISTIE WOODARD- Yeah, usually because we go questions, comment, discussion. That's why. So I was a little confused on the process. I've watched this presentation of the dashboard and then prior to us having the dashboard, the incarnation of what we had before that, year after year after year, and I feel like I sit with the same frustration every year. And because I get the presentation, it's
345sort of just like overall this is where we're at. But then I pop into the dashboard and I break it down by group. And I see the same thing that frustrates me. And I'm just going to be really honest. It makes me angry because I say the same thing every year. So the massive levels of inequity that exist, and this is why the equity work is so important. I look at this and the only students who are in green in English language are white. The only students, not in red in mathematics are white. The only students who are not in red or orange in college and career are white. And then I see, and by white I want to be specific, and don't have disabilities. Because when I look at students with disabilities, our Latinx
346students, our socioeconomically disadvantaged students, our English learners and now our long-term English learners, they continue to land as significantly at the other end. And this is not a new thing. This has been happening year after year after year after year for the 13 years that I've been sitting in these meetings, never missing a meeting. This has been my experience. And so I get frustrated. Because I feel like we have this presentation, we talk about the thing, and then I get up and say the uncomfortable thing, and then we go home, and then we do it again a year later. And so the fact that there's going to be a strategic plan, because this is the first time in this conversation I've heard it brought up, and then we're going to have a strategic plan, and
347we're going to follow it. Because prior to right now, that has not been the case. And I've not heard that. It's been like, okay, let's just stop talking about it and let's move on to the next item. So I feel hopeful because I hear strategic plan, but I want us to hold ourselves as a district accountable to the massive level of inequity that is glaring at us. on this dashboard and to actually have a conversation about it and to sit in the discomfort and to make a strategic plan and to do some really intense equity work because that's what this is. And I'm frustrated because it's so wrong. It's just so wrong. And especially when I look at college and career because I have sat in meetings with my own children. And I have sat
348in meetings prior to being a trustee when I was working as an advocate and had clients in this district. I have sat in meetings where students with disabilities, in particular non-white students with disabilities, get tracked in a certain degree. in eighth grade in their transition meeting where families get told your child has to be in these classes and they don't get to be in those classes just because they have a disability. And they have to give up electives. And they have to, they can't, oh, your child can't be, they can't be an AP. They can't be in honors. They can't be in these things. They have to go to the resource class. And it tracks them away from the college and career. At eighth grade, before they even get to high school, they're already getting
349funneled. into this category where you belong over there so i don't think that this data under college and career is particularly shocking or surprising to me because for years in this district we've been tracking students this direction and I know that we've made some changes to develop more equity we've changed the master schedule to ensure that our students with disabilities and our English language learners are accessing the same electives and not having a longer school day than everybody else in order to have an elective we've done that work and that's really important for STEP because that was like a herculean effort and we've been doing work around not funneling kids to resource classes we've been doing some of that work but for years there's been this sort of de facto you go over there even
350in the ways in which we talk about our students right that they're special ed kids they're not the kids who receive special education services right so just even changing our language and how we see our students and talk about you know they're students who receive english language services they're not English language learners, right? Like we have to start shifting the words that we use and how we see the children and the directions we are sticking them in. If we will actually want to long-term change this outcome versus like, let's just get out of DA and like hope we can get through the process because we're just going to land back in DA a year later again. just like we have because we're not actually dealing with the root causes of what is landing us here
351in the first place and the root causes is our lack of equity that we have done that we've built into our actual systems that determine the outcomes for our students and their ability to access the things that make them successful so i'm sorry like i just have to say it because i've been I seriously feel like I've been saying this for 13 years, but I am feeling hopeful and feeling better and that I'm hearing the word strategic plan, but I want us to hold ourselves accountable to that strategic plan and not just check the box to get out of differentiated assistance. And that's what I'm asking us to do as a board and that's what I'm asking us to do as an entire school district community. I want us to stay out. I want us
352to stay out of differentiated assistance because if we're out of differentiated assistance, then I'll know that we've done that equity work. Because this is just glaring. It's just glaring. Thank you, Trustee Winders. Anyone else? No? Okay. With that, Trustee Bell, I'm sorry, did you have anything? Oh, no? Okay. This was an informational presentation. Thank you so much for being here with us tonight. I know it's late and it's Friday. We do appreciate you. You provided a lot of light and information, and so thank you for staying on and staying with us. Thank you. And thank you, Ms. Williams, for your presentation as well. And Ms. Casillas, we hope you feel better. Okay, so we're going to go back now to item 6, 16.6, which is approval of, well, before I read this, I just want
353to just take a quick. time check with the board. We still have a few items to get through and I think we can likely do it. Can we agree on a 25 to 30 minute timeline? Just keeping being mindful of our discussions and getting us out of here maybe by 1030 tonight? Yeah. Sounds like a great goal. Okay. Fantastic. So then we are well Two more and then I know we have some reports Right Right, okay, so Right. Well, let me just get myself situated here sixteen point six good evening members of the board President Landry, Superintendent Chen, my name is Troy Knox, I'm the Director of Special Education. I'm happy to present this information tonight. It's a perfect segue based on what we just were talking about. We're gonna talk now about significant disproportionality,
354which is another mandate that the state is working with us on currently, and I'm gonna talk about what that all entails, and we're gonna talk about equity, we're gonna talk about support, that is going to be needed for next steps for our students. I'm going to start my presentation by reading the definition of disproportionality. It kind of sets, frames the conversation. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires states and local education agencies to take steps to address disproportionality. Disproportionality refers to the over-representation of a particular racial or ethnic group in one of four areas. Special education in general, special education within a specific disability category, disciplinary action, i.e. suspensions and expulsion, and a more restrictive learning environment. Every year, LEAs with disproportionate student outcomes for three sequential years for the same racial or ethnic group
355in the same element or indicator are identified as significantly disproportionate by the CDE. And that's where Sonoma Valley Unified finds ourselves. We are significantly disproportionate with white students in a more restrictive learning environment. So we're going to talk about... what steps we're going to take and it's actually going to be activities that support general education students because all students are general education students first so going on to the next slide just as a kind of a reminder this is Some of the slides I've already shared, but I kind of want to bring everyone up to speed in terms of where we've been and where we're at currently. So this is an annual determination report. This is the actual letter that's sent to Superintendent Chen every year. This was dated March 18th of this current year.
356It stated that we are four times. at the rate of four times having students with disabilities, white students in particular, placed in a more restrictive learning environment. And so it is our task, and this has happened now for more than three years in a row, so we are now working with a technical advisor to come up with a plan to determine how we can address the root causes of this. So in step one at the next slide, please. Last spring, there was a committee that convened and did some file reviews. They looked at existing policies. They looked at kind of practices that are already in place. And this is what was determined, is that there is a... kind of a lack of consistency throughout the system. In other words, sites were kind of, depending on
357the site, their programming was gonna, is different in terms of how are we gonna support kids who don't get the Tier 1 program. So for example, all students are gonna get the same curriculum in Tier 1. For students that are struggling and not making grade level and they're needing extra support. what does that support look like and that varies from classroom to classroom from school to school and because of that there's been inequities and so that is one of the root causes for why we find ourselves in the situation that we're currently in in addition to that we've also The committee also found that there is inconsistent application of our MTSS program, multi-tiered system of supports. So again, I'm going to get to a slide, but when students are struggling in Tier 1, the universal,
358what all students get in a classroom, if they aren't getting that level of support, it's going to go on to Tier 2. It's a little more strategic. It's a little more intensive. and if that is still not working after about six to eight weeks, then we're going to move into a Tier 3. It's before we recommend an assessment for special education, but it's going through the steps, all of the processes to ensure that students are getting everything that they can receive at the general education level. Let's go on to the next slide. Let's see, oh, I'm a little off here. Let's go to slide four. Okay, so step two. Again, I was talking about root causes, and a lot of this I've already addressed already. In addition to a lack of systematic MTSS as a
359system, we've also saw communication gaps. So, for example, Maybe teachers had different understanding of when students can be referred for an assessment. Maybe administrators did. It was not clear. And part of that is because we've had a lack of consistent leadership. at the site level and at the district level. And so that's gonna be one of the things that we have to address is that we have to establish some systems so whomever is in the leadership position, that system is gonna continue. And so that's something that we are gonna be working on in the months to come. Next slide, please. Okay, step three is currently where we are right now. And so last Friday we submitted a draft plan to the CDE because we've been working closely with them. And when you get to the
360most intensive... level of need with significant disproportionality, the CDE is going to be very prescriptive in terms of what they want us to be doing, what they recommend. So while we have some latitude in terms of how we are going to present our plan, it's going to be monitored very closely and multiple times throughout the year. So one of the activities that we did recently is that we asked principals to work with their staffs to talk about where are they at with MTSS. What is it that you're doing? What are you doing in Tier 1? What are you doing in Tier 2? And what are you doing in Tier 3? And we collected all that data back, and we saw some bright spots, but we saw some pretty glaring gaps. And it pretty much aligns
361to what has already been presented with the dashboard and differentiated assistance. So one of the bright spots is that at the elementary level, we're seeing some really good work happening with our English language arts, with our reading program, specifically Walk to Read. There's alignment. We're seeing that across the sites. We're seeing principals and cost teams working together on a regular basis and collecting that data. And they're doing a really good job. And we're starting to see some results on that. Math, not so much. We've got a lot of work to do with math. We really don't have a formal tier two or tier three math program. And you could argue that tier one math, our adopted curriculum, has not been properly implemented with fidelity. And so we have to address math for sure. It's interesting
362because at the high school it's a little bit flipped from what I've learned. Whereas some of the, I guess what's lacking in tier two and tier three is reading intervention support. We're addressing that with just words. But in math, they have the algebra lab, which is supporting students to help them pass algebra. So it's interesting. It's a it was a good exercise, but it kind of Shown a light on terms of what we need to do next and that's where we come up with this plan next slide, please Okay, so just a reminder of our theory of action. I'll read it quickly. If we develop and implement a consistent and comprehensive MTSS framework with a well-defined continuum of supports in general education, then educators will be better equipped to identify and address student needs early,
363reducing referrals to special education, resulting in more accurate identification of students who genuinely require special education services. fewer placements in non-public schools, and improved overall student outcomes. So that is our theory of action that we developed as part of step two in the process, and we are carrying that forward. Next slide. This is just a graphic that explains what MTSS looks like in Tier 1, 2, and 3. You can see that everyone, all students, participate and engage in Tier 1. Think of it as the general education classroom where all students are exposed and access the general education program. For students who are struggling, we would move them to Tier 2 based on referral data from teachers. And that's the other thing, is that we have to do a better job of monitoring our data. That
364is a big piece that's lacking, and we really need to address that. And then tier three is again the most restrictive or I guess you could say the most intensive need of support when students need that extra really one-on-one help. And so we have to have those clearly defined and in place. Next slide. So we do have a plan in place and there's two high leverage actions that we need to do. We need to first develop, make sure that our policies are current and up to date. There's a list of related policies regarding significant disproportionality that we need to review and update. One of which is equity, board policy 0415. It was last approved in October of 2018. We do need to revisit that and update that. So it's reflective of the work that we're
365doing now. We also have policies regarding English learner students. We also have to make sure that we have policies regarding SST process and identification and evaluation for special education. So this is going to be a lot of our work is reviewing all these applicable policies, making sure they're current, up to date, and adhering to them. The other action that we need to do is update our MTSS handbook. I think since COVID, we've done a marvelous job as a district supporting this social emotional learning and the development of the wellness centers has been phenomenal. The same is not true for academics though. The academic side of the pyramid. That is something that we need to focus on. Next slide, please. High leverage action number two is to then implement tier two and tier three academic and
366behavioral interventions. So what we want to see and part of this plan is that we have a target group of students. So think about our disproportionality. Students with IEPs who are white. So we have to take a target group of students. And that target group is going to be comprised of over half of the students are white. Some of the group of students might have IEPs, but the bulk of them do not. And they're in grades kindergarten, first, and second grade. And these students are at Presswood. And why is that? It's because Presswood has over 55% of the student population is white. that is a requirement for your target group now even though our target group is students at Presswood this is something that we need to implement across the district because again a gap
367for us is the fact that we don't have systems across the district so as we work to implement this plan for all of our students at all of our sites CDE is going to be making sure that our target group is making progress. Now this plan is going to be in place tonight until December of 2026 and there is a budget that is involved with this plan and more than likely in the next month or two we're going to get another letter. just like this one that says we're continuing in significant disproportionality. So that is going to require additional funding from our current allocation. So it's not that we're going to be needing funding from our general fund. This is already coming from our restricted funding through special education. A portion of that is going
368to be applied to general education. So we can implement these activities and these activities are going to be closely monitored on a quarterly basis. We are going to have to give updates on our implementation and our progress and it's going to require all of us to work together to ensure that these systems are in place. Next slide please. And so these are the outcomes and it says June 26, but it's going to, it's actually December. The plan runs through December. We're going to fully implement a comprehensive MTSS program offering academic and behavioral supports at all tiers one through two and three. We are going to have a gleaming, beautiful MTSS handbook. and a special education handbook that has the related policies to ensure that they are implemented effectively. And we are going to ultimately reduce
369our risk ratio of white students with IEPs placed in a separate school setting from 4.65 to under 3. And that is our work. Now, that's the slide presentation. There is an accompanying plan. That's still being reviewed by CDE. Now, we could take a look at that. I believe trustees have received it. I will tell you that the allocation of $141,000 is a firm number. However, the amounts that are currently assigned to the different activities can fluctuate. They can change. I'll pause. Thank you so much for that presentation. I feel like I have great clarity and a lot of confidence right now. I'm going to turn it over to trustee questions, just keeping in mind it is an action item. It is almost 1025. So we'll go to questions. We'll take it to public comment. And
370then maybe we can keep, if we feel the need to have a discussion, if we could just keep it to like. I don't want to put restrictions on everyone, but just a minute or two each, and then we can proceed forward with the rest of our items. So are there any trustee questions? Trustee Winders? Yes, I have two questions. Are we utilizing, or do we have plans to utilize Just Words for our tier two for fourth grade and up? Because it's actually a tier two. curriculum. Wilson's designated for tier two. So are we doing it there? Not currently, but I would love to entertain that. Okay. Cause that's literally, it's a tier two for how it's designed. So if we could look into doing that. I believe they have a program called foundations. Yeah. That's
371for our littles, our K through three, they have foundations and then fourth and up, they have just words as a tier two. Cause I think that that could make, impact in here and then so are we looking at building capacity to start utilizing FBAs for students who do not have IEPs in alignment with the OSERS letter that came out? So we, yes, however, what you see there in terms of the budget for the activities is specific to students in the target group. So we have to make some tough choices, right? We have to decide if we are going to expand, how far are we going to expand, because the C-STATE funds that are there are, again, specific to the target group. We can go... For the moon it didn't have a complete thorough MTSS program
372It's just we have to be willing to make that investment I guess I think I'm just thinking long term when we look at the referrals to special education and That if we're bringing those two things in particular to the tier two Level before students are referred to special education if we can do the interventions and have those interventions work right um in particular like i'm thinking with with just words if we can remediate children's reading and get them to grade level at a tier two utilizing a structured program like just words then those students wouldn't get referred to they would never get to the iep and then the same with our students who have um behavioral needs if utilizing an fba that can allow us to identify the function of their behavior they would up
373in with an IEP with behavioral related disability if we could manage them through like a 504 plan and a strong FBA and a bit I guess that's why I'm that's why I'm asking these questions as I'm thinking more long-term and like keeping us out of these things absolutely please yes I think we have to look at this as a comprehensive approach as well so if this plan is it's written to comply with significant disproportionality but when you look at it's a general education plan so we're having to look at this as not Troy and his team implementing the plan I mean they're ultimately responsible because they're connecting with the Department of Education but it's really an educational services plan so the entire team Jillian Amber, all of the team is really responsible for this plan
374because it's a general education plan. So some of the things that you're bringing forward can be purchased through other funds that are connected with Ed Services Department. So one of the things that's coming up is a dyslexia screener that is not part of this plan but can be used as part of the plan. Are there any other trustee questions? No. Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and take it to public comment. Is there a public comment in the room for this item? Laura Hoban, I really appreciated your presentation. I think it's very easily understandable and I'm really happy that the target is K2 because I've always been a proponent of we need to catch them earlier so that they don't get so far behind. So I'm happy that's the target and look forward to the results.
375Thank you. Is there any other public comment in the room? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to go to public comment online. Mr. Lucchetti, your hand is raised. We give you the mic. You're currently muted. Sorry, I wasn't previously. I'll unraise my hand. Oh, okay. Thank you. I don't have it. Wonderful. Thank you. Is there any other public comment online? Okay, seeing none, we'll bring it back to the board for discussion. And this is an action item. So if someone would like to make a motion, if there's no discussion. I will make the motion. I'd like to move that we approve the CIM plan. Is it a CIM plan? Simplicitas, yes. For significant disproportionality as presented. And is there a second? I'll make a second. All right. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. Thank you,
376Mr. Knox. Okay. We are going to move on to item 7, 16.7. This is an action item, approval of BPNAR 5145.9, hate-motivated behavior. And Ms. Seif. Good evening board of trustees president Landry dr. Chin superintendent audience Directors, thank you for being here and I'm asking that you look at this is our second read and Look over a policy five one four five point nine hate motivated behavior. We do currently have five one four five point nine So this is an update and then adding in an administrative regulation five one four five point nine uh... hate motivated behavior and uh... Both this BP and AR are tied into two federal laws, Title VI and Title IX. In Title VI, prohibits discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin by any program that receives federal funding. And
377then we have Title IX, which is tied into our sex. sexual sex discrimination and sex-based harassment so any questions that you might have or thank you is there any questions right now from the board from trustees Trustee Bell so on page two it's it talks about of the of the board policy page 293 sorry I get these confused if it's the it's the BP So it talks about on page 294 at the top, it says the district shall provide students with age-appropriate instruction and all of these different things. So what's the concept of how much instruction, who's teaching it, when are they teaching it? What's the commitment of the district of this? So that's really a good question to be addressed with our Ed Services Department. built into our district plan our vision strategic planning
378you know the educational program I do want to say our goal here is really to be proactive with both these BP's and AR's we want to be purposeful about being inclusive that comes from you know adults being role models of that but also that being part of social emotional learning established promote clear values about respect in regard for others teaching students about stereotypes and differences and biases and not blame and shame so that these don't turn into discriminatory behaviors providing our training for our staff around implicit bias and we have started this with our leadership teams directors principals so that is happening even at our site base with our teaching staff and then we don't want to really just be neutral we really do want to you know this is part of who we are
379and what we want to be and what we want for kids to encourage a climate of respect any other questions and so then you know on the on the AR and then it talks about the complaint procedures and investigations right so it says when a staff member first hears hate speech or bias speech so I've got a kind of a general concept of bias speech right and and so I'm trying to figuring out like and we met and talked about this I'm like I'm trying to figure out who determines which bias is good and which bias is bad And so once you sort of open this can of worms of speech, and well, that's biased speech and... is it bias in a, you know, one person might think it's bias in a bad way and
380another person doesn't think it's biased, right? So it's open to interpretation. And so part of my sort of understanding of this policy was as a result of we're trying to get kids to stop using the N-word generally on campus. And now we've got this very broad-ranging policy that's gone more from trying to focus on hate speech to then talk about bias speech, which... And I just don't know who decides, who's the arbiter of the bias. Yeah. So if you look at the AR as drafted, it provides the scope of this. And really, it's... I know, I think I know you're asking which is who decides, but it's really, it starts from the superintendent and the superintendent's designee and then to the Department of Ed Services, then it matriculates to the site administrators, then to their
381designees. Because it's a full, you know, holistic way of trying to infuse this through the whole educational programming system that you're supporting as a board. So it's everybody's responsibility. So that's why there's training as part of this so that we identify, for example, what does implicit bias mean, right? And we all know that we have them. And for those of us that have been through multiple layers of implicit bias training, it's really not who, it's how, right? It's like one approach. And it takes a lot of work. which to my understanding there has been a lot of work put into not just this new regulation but also the revisions to the BP to have them have a nexus in terms of implementing. So it's a partnership effort and I am. not an expert in implicit
382bias by any means, but I also know that in terms of creating a supportive environment for all that like this is the step in doing that. The other thing too, right, from a legal liability standpoint, if you don't do these type of things, and this isn't the only way to do it, but if you don't do these type of things, then you can open yourself up for liability because then when students are engaging in these behaviors and it goes unchecked, it can create an environment where you can have Title VI or Title IX violations. So it's probably a longer answer than you wanted, but yeah. Trustee Ching. Trustee Bell, can you just point to the actual language that you are questioning because I'm not sure if I'm finding it. On page 297, it says the
383complaint procedures and investigation. And so when a staff member first hears hate speech or bias speech, right, and so I just, I'm having a hard time because, you know, we've got kids at the high school. who drive pickup trucks with Trump flags in there, you know, flying Trump flags, right? And then we've got kids on the, you know, who are on the complete opposite end of that spectrum, right? And those two kids can have different biases if there's a kid who's Latino and is, you know, here, who's undocumented, right? So you've got two different philosophies on, you know, say immigration, right? And who determines which bias is good and bad in that case? Is that, is his example an example of biased speech? Because maybe we need to actually define it. Like I'm not. It's
384not defined anyway. So that, you know, so. I'm even, anyway. So there's. words of discipline also infused within this BPN the AR so who decides so you know hypothetically it could be the site administrator or their designee and they see that a student is engaging in certain behaviors that are creating that environment where hate speech happens. It's always a case-by-case basis. It's generally not as broad as somebody has a Confederate flag, for example, then that leads to somebody having, you know, the opposite. We're talking about students actually engaging in certain behaviors that are prohibited by the Education Code. And what this is doing is putting this into policy and into an AR. So then this backs up your administration in terms of making sure that you have environments that aren't filled with hate-motivated behaviors. So
385it's a philosophical approach to back up a legal liability that you must comply with. Yeah, I understand. I'm having a hard time understanding the difference between hate and bias, right? And so that's one of the challenges here, and I'm just trying to figure out who decides on bias speech, which is unacceptable, and what's acceptable, right? That's the challenge. So hate speech is pretty clear, right? We're talking about racial slurs. We're talking about homophobic and transphobic slurs. Like those are really cut and dry. So. Bias speech though is when we have disparaging remarks, for example, being made to a student based upon stereotypes or assumptions about them, based upon either their race, ethnicity, perceived ethnicity, their gender, gender identity. or a perceived gender identity, right? So when you start and then you call it out, right?
386And they're like, well, I didn't call them the N-word. I just said they like to eat fried chicken. That would be biased speech. They didn't call them the N-word, but they made a crack about fried chicken. That's bias. And it starts to tread and dip its toes. into hate speech, but it makes that student who's on the receiving end feel unsafe and unwelcome on their school campus and it also opens this district up for a Title VI violation with the OCR. And so I do want to call attention to something. If you go to the Federal Department of Education's page for Title VI, there's a link to a PDF on that page called Confronting Racial Discrimination in School Discipline. And in that page, there's some links to case law and some case studies where districts
387have been found out of compliance by the OCR for bias treatment and discipline as well so the bias piece also comes into place when we look at how discipline is handed out and which groups of students are receiving more discipline infractions that is causing them to be suspended or causing them to be expelled than other groups of students and we have to examine that and there have been several districts that have been found out of compliance for that so the bias piece becomes really important when we talk about being proactive and developing community and campus culture that prevents those biased speech prevents biased actions and keeps not only us compliant with federal law, but also creates a healthy environment for our students. And then in addition, I kind of want to call out, there was
388a, I mentioned it earlier in Director Knox's presentation, it's a letter from the from OSERS regarding FBAs. And I'm calling it out because there's actually a really important piece that speaks to this. And it specifically states that it's critically important to note that research demonstrates that one's perceptions about student behavior can be the result of implicit bias rather than the student's actual behavior. Therefore, addressing any implicit bias in how student behavior might be perceived and classified should be part of state and local efforts to create inclusive and supportive learning environments. And so a lot of what's actually in the AR for this, as well as the BP, but I'd lean more heavily into the AR for that particular piece, is us being proactive in ensuring that we're following letters like this dear colleague letter, which
389is a guidance from OSERS, which is Federal Department of Ed. When I read this, the bias piece is really, really important. It's a really key word because it's part of what keeps us proactive in ensuring that not only are we compliant, but that we're making sure that not only are our students safe, but that all of our students also feel welcome on campus, which... also has a lot to do with attendance. Because when students don't feel safe, when students don't feel welcome, we see a significant impact in their attendance as well. Thank you. Anyone else? Just see. We haven't. Do we take? I'm sorry. It's late. No, it's the second rate. Did we take public comment on this yet? I'm sorry. No, we haven't. So I feel like we've all got our questions answered. I'd
390like to go to public comment. Is there public comment in the room on this item? I'm seeing none. We do have a public comment online. So Lisa Stormett, you're elevated to speak and you are muted. Can you hear me? We can hear you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. We live in very divided times and we as a community must be extremely vigilant to protect human and civil rights. I can only hope and actually demand that this school bird school board in its totality support diversity and inclusion without hesitation. Policies that enforce this ideology are incredibly important now and going forward into the next four years as we push back against the implementation of Project 2025 that promises to strip human and civil rights from each and every community in our nation. We are not immune
391here. We cannot sleepwalk into racism, bigotry, and otherism. But when we have a school board member that does not understand what hate speech bias is, that worries me. Some of the most vulnerable amongst us are children who are perceived as different by others. For example, the LGBTQ youth who goes to school every day, either closeted or out, but either way are at risk for the harmful effects of hate speech. Those are closeted. remain so out of fear of bullying and harassment. And when they see hate speech go unaddressed, this pushes them further back into the closet and they deal with the consequences of this privately and with long-term devastating consequences. The children of immigrants who provide our community with vital resources to keep our community functioning should feel welcomed and valued, but instead they are
392often teased and left out with teasing as illegal aliens. This is only two examples. I have read the policy as written by Area Board Trustee Celeste Winders, and it is written exceptionally well. A policy won't completely correct the presence of hate speech. in our schools, but it provides consistency and legal backing as to how to handle hate speech if it occurs, how to prevent it, and how to create an environment of acceptance, not just tolerance. I see no reason to revise it unless you're trying to create gaps open for interpretation as pointed out, which I believe is wrong, bureaucratic and tone deaf. Finally, as much as I have admired what it takes to be a school board district member and what a hard job this really is. You took that responsibility on with good faith.
393I'm very disappointed in this board for the steps taken today to remove Ms. Winders as board president. She has done an exceptional job leading this board. She is a tireless advocate for those left unheard, and she goes above and beyond to promote equity. She is the one pursuing these policies to provide equity in the schools. This was done without transparency. a theme that seems to be of the night and I find myself questioning exactly what is going on here I request that the board provide some answers as to the reason for this move thank you um miss yeah her hand is still raised Josette we're giving you the mic okay yes Joseph Roseiker um um Sorry, my headset was kind of goofed up. Sorry. Okay, so can you hear me pretty well? We can hear
394you, thank you. Okay, good. Okay, so I heard two things before I read what I've prepared. I heard the words, a climate of respect and training and work. And I think that is the key. While I do not have grandkids in the Sonoma Valley School District, I would like to speak in favor of you adopting BP and AR 5145.9, hate motivated behavior. We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go to address bullying and hate in our schools. In the 50s and 60s, no one addressed this and kids suffered for it. Yes, we had a few young progressive teachers back then that offered support, guidance, and someone to talk to, but the school administration and our parents most certainly did not help or even understand what was happening to
395those considered different in schools. Even after 57 years, I can remember how I felt and how the gay kids and my group of friends felt. We were harassed and hated while the school administration stood by and labeled us as troublemakers, hippies, weirdos, and deviants. And instead of helping us, suspended us from school for speaking up and fighting back against our harassers. I was very impressed by the thoroughness of reading the draft that you provided online in the agenda. There is still work to do today and I urge this board to do it and take this step in the right direction. Thank you. Thank you, Josette. Is there any other public comment online for this item? Seeing none, we'll bring it back to the board for discussion. Being mindful that we are now 10 minutes before
39611 PM. Is there any discussion? I actually have something I'd like to say. I didn't ask any questions. I think what is concerning to me, and I'm willing to support this, I don't disagree with this, but I think what we need to remember as adults, and I think as people in this room, we oftentimes talk about the same groups of students. However, it's all of our students. And I just want to make sure that the adults who are implementing all of these procedures and in terms of... determining biases and things like that, that we also are aware of our own biases, right? So we have students, and I had an email about two weeks ago from a parent of a high school parent whose sons, she has two sons at the high school. She's actually
397a staff member of this district. They wear boots and jeans to school all the time. They're part of the ag department, and they're oftentimes called inbred by other students. So we just, I know oftentimes we talk about certain groups of students and you hear us talk about them a lot, but I just want us to be mindful as a district and as a board, if we are going to pass this hate motivated behavior, AR and BP, we need to be mindful that we have a duty to ensure that all of our students are protected under this, not just certain groups of students. And that is what I would hope that we can set the standard for. So that's that's all I have to say. Do you want to make a comment? Mr. Lehman? I think
398that's actually the direction I was sitting here listening and digesting and I am open to making a motion and supporting this as well. I think of, I know we use the term equity a lot, in my mind this is equality. We should be thinking about all of our students and children equally as we approach hate speech and biased language. So I don't think this... I don't see language in here that would lead me to believe otherwise, but this is just language. I think it will end up being on staff and training and implementation will actually be the most important part of this on how we coach and teach our leaders. And in here, there's going to be a lot of onus on HR and our principals that are going to be the kind of front
399line of the implementation on this. And I think we just need to be very clear that that it's a quality like we are looking at this as as leveling the kind of the the playing field around what language is used used equally amongst all of our students and if that's the case and that's the spirit of this then then i can definitely be behind it trustee landry may yes so i want to push back on that a little bit and here's why so title six and title nine and as well as the IDEA and Section 504 of the Civil War Act, they specifically protect protected classes of people. And the reason they do it is because those protected classes of people have been historically subjected to discrimination. and racism and homophobia and trans, they've been
400targeted because of who they are. And they've been historically targeted as a group and they've been denied opportunities and they've been denied equal access. And that's why Title VI exists and that's why Title IX exists. So yes, as a school culture, we want to ensure that all students feel safe and welcome and on campus and that nobody is bullied. But we have an additional responsibility to students under Title VI and Title IX, and we have an additional legal responsibility under Title VI and Title IX, and it's a federal obligation. It's also a state obligation, but it's a federal obligation, and it's a mandate. And so when we don't do those things and when we don't protect those protected classes of students by taking steps through policy and the implementation of policy, we one cause harm
401to those students but two we also open our district up for OCR complaints as well as civil litigation so there's multiple layers to this and that's why I do want to push back a little bit and say this is about specific groups of students because they're protected under federal and state statutes and we have mandates and legal mandates to them and it's because they have been historic historically targeted and continue to be historically targeted for their identity or their perceived identity belonging to a racial group or gender identity. So that's why it's written this way and it is very intentional. And so I'll just leave it at that. But again, as a school community of course we don't want any students targeted and bullied ever and we want to make sure everybody feels welcome but
402we have an additional duty to protect its classes of students any uh trustee i would just say that i appreciate the clarification on that and i do understand I do understand that. That provides me clarity on the approach to this document. I wasn't here for the beginning of this, so getting up to speed, excuse me. I would hope that our district takes into account what is needed here locally and understanding that there are requirements at the federal level that were written 60 years ago and being able to take those requirements and apply them to what's applicable in our district today. And I think that's what I think our community is looking for is for us to interpret and follow that guidance and ensure that it is applicable to the environment we're living in. in our
403community today that's all i would say uh trustee bill yeah you know so part of my you know concern here is that there needs to be inclusion but there's got to be inclusion of opinions or you know beliefs that we don't agree with Right? And so part of that is, you know, we've got people who are, you know, religious or they have different political philosophies or whatever it is, and those are absolutely biases. But who is the arbiter of, who is the arbiter in our school district to say that person's religious beliefs are not? that's biased because of their religious beliefs. There's a lot of different examples that you could use of biases. And so who's the arbiter of deciding which one's acceptable and which one's unacceptable? That's my concern here is because it doesn't
404define what a positive bias is or a negative bias, and it's just bias and then who's the arbiter of that. That's my only concern. Well, we get to have our, our personal beliefs and we get to have our, we get to say whatever we want at our house. But we don't get to do that in public school. It's that simple. And that's how it's decided. So we allow in public school and we support and we create access always to children being able to have places to go pray, to meet the requirements of their faith. For example, I'm Muslim. we pray five times a day so we would provide a space in school for students who need to go make salah five times a day at certain times a day we would provide that to them
405that's different than if you have certain beliefs about certain groups of people that perhaps may be rooted in your faith or may perhaps be rooted in just your family's personal beliefs. You get to have those beliefs, but what you don't get to do is come to school and make others the target of your personal beliefs feel unwelcome and unsafe in school because this is public education and that's where that line. is separated. Nobody's telling people what to believe. They get to, you could say whatever you want at your house. You can believe whatever you want in your house, rock on. But there's things, there's ways that we behave at school that are expected. And there's things that we cannot do and say in school because we are a public education institution. And that's where the,
406that's where the line is. Okay. This is, is there any other comment? All right. So with that, This is an action item, I believe. This is the second read. So the board is asked to approve BP and AR 5145.9 on heat-motivated behavior. Is there a motion on the board? Make a motion to approve. Is there a second? I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. No. We are going to move on to trustee reports. it's 11 o'clock guys does anybody have a report oh but dr chin did want to um okay i'm just recognizing um what i want the board to especially because we have two new board members what i what i'd like for us to recognize is we have a lot of challenges as a district on our plate We know that we
407have budget, we have school consolidation, we have our negotiations with our labor partners. And then today you got to hear a lot about our instructional situation and challenges. So there's a lot of things on our plate. And I think the... the important part is that we have to recognize that they're not isolated pieces. When we have these conversations and when we present things to you, they look like they're in silos and they're in isolation, but we have to look at these challenges in a comprehensive manner. And I think one of the things that has been... kind of lingering in my in not just in my head but in my in my heart and in my gut is that the only way that we're going to be able to address these challenges as a board as
408a community and as staff members is if we work together and As much as we talk about, like, we can all have different belief systems and different philosophies, and we don't always have to agree, but I'm just feeling like we're at a place where we have to come together and we have to have a spirit of cooperation in order to get this work done. And so I'm just... urging not and i know there's not a lot of people on on the line at 11 o'clock at night so hopefully they hear me in the recording but i urge our community and i urge us as a governance team and as a staff that in if we're going to be able to overcome these challenges that we're going to have to do this together and not have
409opposition and have this approach of adverse of adversity because um There's just a lot right and so if you look at all of the things that we have to get accomplished even on our agenda Every month we have tons of things and we're leaving at this time pretty much every single time because we're having these conversations Which are important, but if we don't come to a place where we're looking at things in a way where we're ideating solutions instead of always coming at things where we're you know, at odds with each other. I don't know that the challenges that we have in front of us are going to be able to be solved. And I think what worries me quite a bit is like we're hearing, we're in significant disproportionality. That's the most intensive level.
410CDE is monitoring us. We have now differentiated assistance because of our academic status. The county now is going to help intervene. And we know that with the budget, if we don't fix that fairly soon, the state will come in and take over. And I know there's a lot of conversation that that won't happen, but I urge people to do their research and see how many districts have had that happen. And there are current state administrators in districts right now. And so I think we're at a pivotal point in our district that if we do work together as a team, we can make a, we, you know, we. we can make a positive change and we can move in the right direction. But if we don't do that, I'm just very, I just want to be
411very transparent and put it out to everyone that there's very clear signals of us not having the decision-making authority and power in the near future if we don't come together. So that's... Thank you, Dr. Chen. I don't think there's any other reports. Trustees have agreed to email reports to staff. Future agenda items proposed. Board members may propose agenda items for future board meetings for board consideration. Does anyone have anything? Or can we also email those? OK. Fantastic. OK. So with that we are going to adjourn this meeting at what time is that say 1103 p.m. Recording