001Welcome to the October 9th, 2025 regular board meeting of the Banning Unified School District Board of Trustees. The time is 5:30. Please be advised that a recording or broadcast of this meeting is being made at the direction of the board. Clerk Angiano, please take role. Trusty Martinez Lara >> present. >> Trusty Nales >> present. >> Trusty Troutman Clerk Angiano present and President Ruiz present. >> Please let the record reflect that we have a quorum. >> Item 1.2 pledge of allegiance. We now invite our cadet core to present the colors ahead of the pledge of allegiance. left right march. Guard. Oh, right. No, that's right. Lead face. >> Please place your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which
002it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. right for march left. More time. Item 1.3 adopt agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? Thank you. there are some changes to the agenda. We will be pulling item 6.2. Item 6.3 will also be pulled two minutes later. >> Are there any board requests to change the agenda? >> Do I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as posted? >> I just had a question for Mr. Davis. Um, was that one contract going to be pulled? >> Yes, we're going to do that when we get to the contract item. >> So, it's No. Okay. Thank you. Do I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as posted? Oh, with the amendments. >> I move. I
003second. >> Is that Lucy? Thank you. I have a motion from Trusty Yango and a second from Trusty Troutman. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say nay. The agenda is adopted with a 50-0 vote. Item 1.4, for board recognition. I would like to invite Dr. Cosy Bush to the podium for tonight's recognition. Good evening, President Ruiz, distinguished members of the board, Superintendent Davis, and the Banning community. It is my distinct pleasure this evening to recognize four of our elementary schools who have attained PBIS recognition. Um the process to be recognized as a PBIS school um is quite rigorous. Um it involves going through um what is called a tiered fidelity system um inventory if you will that looks at where you are in terms of interventions um in terms
004of behavior and discipline um and in terms of the school's overall package to demonstrate that they have in fact um demonstrated what it means um to be recognized either at the goal level at the platinum level um or at the silver level. And so I would like to call up as we have um emblems for each of our school sites um the principles to come up. And so um at this time for PBIS gold recognition is Hemerling Elementary School. And yes, if you would like to hold that and perhaps maybe just stay right there because I think we are going to take a picture at the end. Okay. All right. Let's continue. We have three schools who have made it to platinum status and so please come on up when you hear your name called
005for Central Elementary School. Um we'd like for you to come up. Do we have a representative from Central? Okay, let's give Central a round of applause. Miss Cole, are I looked right over you stepping in representing for Central, we also have Nichollet Middle School. Let's give them a round of applause. And last, we have New Horizons High School. Please come on up, Dr. Lou. Um, I'm going to turn it over to you, Mr. Me, for a picture. Yes. Um, yes. Thank you very much. PBIS stands for positive behavior and intervention services. And PBIS is in fact let me just say this in terms of the culture of what most of our schools are doing right now um to create a positive and safe environment and an engaging environment for our students. You'll hear everyone talk
006about having PBIS strategies and all of these strategies um to put it shortly or to put it succinctly have to do with behavior expectations. We want to see a decrease in office referrals. That's an example. We want to see that there adequate interventions for students who do perhaps have additional challenges. um we typically think of being able to provide services to every student that would be considered universal. Then we have um practices that we put into place to reduce those interventions if you will or to reduce the number of students getting those interventions to a small targeted number. So ultimately we want to see a reduction in the number of students who are essentially having difficulties and challenges so that we have a smaller group of students um at the tip of the pyramid. That
007is a short definition if you will of positive behavior and intervention. >> Would you like Okay. >> Where can I get one? What did you say? >> Oh. >> All right. One, two, three. One, two, three. I love the coordination right coordinated. Get it. Item 1.5, student presentations. I would like to invite Dr. Kosy, Dr. Kosy Bush back up to the podium to introduce this evening's student presentations. Good evening again. We have some exciting news from each of our secondary school sites and we'd like to first begin with um our Nicollet ASB presidenty Morales. Good evening. We're President Rus, distinguished members of the board, Superintendent Davis, and members of the Benning community. My name is Uditi Morales, and I'm proud to serve as Nicollet Middle School's ASB president. I'm excited to share a few highlights
008from this past month on our campus. We started the year with our first food day on September 18th. ASB sold mini pancakes and chips of cheese while clubs like Avid Web and Athletic Club joined in. Even with heavy rain, the event complete with a dirty soda truck, was a big success. That same day, we held our first spirit day, nothing but a backpack day. Students impressed us with their creativity, bringing items like a grill, a microwave, and even a baby stroller instead of backpacks. On September 29th, we celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month with student performances from Central and Loaria Games hosted by Web. It was a joyful celebration of culture and community. Our color run on September 26th hosted by Athletic Club and Cheer was another highlight. In athletics, softball wrapped up its season. Golf continues
009to practice and cheer training hard. Cross country completed in their first races. and football triyouts were held last week. Looking ahead, we're excited for our fun house of terror Halloween dance later this month. Spirit days will include soctober where students wear their favorite cozy socks and wear the missing piece, wear red, to show our support for a drug-free campus. Thank you for your time and continued support of Nichollet Middle School. We look forward to a fun and successful year ahead. Awesome. Next we have coming from Kum's Alternative Education, Jasmine Verdusco. Hello from Kum's October 9th, 2025 board presentation. Good evening, board president Ruiz, distinguished members of the board, Superintendent Davis, and members of the banning community. I am Jasmine Verdusco from New Horizons High School, a proud member of the 20 of the class of
01020 26. I am honored to be this year's KU student speaker, sharing our district's message and some of our highlights. Congratulations are in order of the October student of the month for BIS. Erica Vasquez Louise. Her grades and cont contributions to BIS truly remind us we are banning. Kum students were invited to the college and career fairs last Thursday October 2nd 2025 hosted by Banning High School. This event offered direct interaction with potential schools training programs and employers which could significantly boost our students confidence and career prospects. Special thank you to Banning High School theater instructor Mr. Puris and Miss Griffy at the Broncos drama department for inviting Kum's theater students to the final dress rehearsals of their upcoming fall play puffs or seven increasingly eventful years at the certain schools of magic and the
011magic. We also want to thank Jason Nutter and Miss Rose Pacheco for bringing their for bringing their music and art programs back to Kums this year. On October 28th, junior and senior students will take the ASVAB at Kums. This test this test predicts future academics and occup occupational success. The ASVAB career exploration program provides comprehensive data and personalized feedback to help students make informed decisions about their future, boosting confidence and improve motivational for their education. On October 27th through the 31st, Kums will celebrate Red Ribbon Week. This year's theme is life is a puzzle. Solve it drug-free. symbolizing how a drug-free lifestyle helps put the pieces of a successful future for our Kums community. Stop by to see our students dress up days. A se a celebrity graveyard a schoolwide ofrena and door decorating contest
012winners on October 31st. If you are brave enough and dare to chance it to New Horizon's third annual Dawn of Darkness haunted house. Kumb alternative education was awarded the safety leaders of the month trophy of our collective efforts around safety. This indicates completing safety trainings in our hour zero. participating in drills, emergency radio calls, and keeping classroom doors locked, and window coverings open. Dr. Lee um said, "Special thanks to everyone for doing a wonderful job keeping our campus safe. Your hard work is appreciated and recognized." This is perfect timing as we prepare for the great California Shakeout later this month. Thank you for allowing me to share Kum's alternative report with you and representing Banning High School. Um, Lillian Andres. Good evening, board president Ruiz, distinguished members of the board, Superintendent Davis, and members of
013the Banning community. I'm excited to share some updates from Banning High School, where the energy on campus has been nothing short of amazing. This week marks one of our most spirited times of the year, homecoming week, and the Bronco Pride is shining brighter than ever. Our spirit week has been a huge success with students and staff fully embracing each day's theme from dress as your type to sweet versus scary. The creativity, excitement, and participation across campus have been incredible. It's been wonderful to see students from every grade level come together, laugh, and enjoy the week's festivities. The joy and unity we've seen truly reminds us of the positive culture we continue to build here at Benning High. Tomorrow, we have two events that I'd like to personally invite you to attend. First, our homecoming pep
014rally will take place during the school day. This is always a highlight of the year, giving our students an opportunity to showcase their spirit, talents, and Bronco pride. We would love for you to join us and experience thirsand the energy that fills our gym during these moments. Later that evening, we'll host our homecoming football game where our Broncos will take the field in front of a packed crowd. We encourage everyone to come out, support the team, and celebrate the incredible students who make our school such a special place. As we enjoy this festive week, I am reminded of how grateful I am to be a student where the school where the student voice truly matters. Events like homecoming give our students more than just fun memories. They offer a chance to to debrief from the
015daily stress of academics, build connections, and feel part of something bigger. These shared experiences strengthen our community and empower students to take pride in who they are and where they come from. Thank you for your continued support and for helping Banning High School for helping make Banning High School a place where students can thrive, celebrate, and lead with spirit. Go Broncos. That concludes our student reports for the evening. Thank you. Item 1.6, student board member comments, Mary Adrito. You can go up there. Good morning, board member, board president Ruiz, distinguished members of the board, and superintendent Davis, and of course, members of the Bannon community. My name is Mary Adberto and I am a proud member of the associate student body, the senior class and so much more here at Banning High School. I am
016truly grateful for this opportunity to stand before you today and represent not only my senior class but the student body as a whole. Today I want to talk about something that isn't always visible but affects many students here at Banning High School. It is the difference between the mental health of top seniors and the rest of the student body. To better understand this issue, I conducted two surveys. one that was sent to the general student body and the other and which received 43 responses and the other that was sent to top seniors here at Banning High School which received 20 responses. Although these responses are not plenty, they show something that I believe is important for us to acknowledge. From the student body surveys, many students show a good mental health well-being. This shows that
017our school has made great progress between academics and their well-being. However, when it comes to top seniors, the survey tells tells a different story. Many reported feeling exhausted, unsupported while balancing AP and honors classes, leadership roles, and college applications. Among top seniors, 50% reported feeling burnt out, which is more than double the 20% 23% of the student body that reported feeling burnt out. These students lead clubs, take challenging classes, perform well in standardized testings like the CAST test and their burn and burnout at this level can affect their performance in the second semester and even at college. In addition, I also interviewed three students who are part of the top 10. Every single one of them reported that they feel burnt out and unsupported and believe the school should do survey check-ins throughout the year
018to check how their mental health is. Another concern that came up in both my survey and my interview was the lack of publicity when it comes to the wellness center. That means people that might be struggling are not aware there is a wellness center or are not aware that they can even go to the wellness center at any time. This suggests that students suggest a better approach when it comes to promoting the wellness center so that it can become a place where students feel welcome and able to visit and also ensures easier access. As a senior myself, I also have been feeling burnt out to the point where I had to drop an AP class to focus on my mental health and prioritize it. between school leadership roles, extracurriculars, and college applications. I often feel
019overwhelmed. I also feel like our school can do better in supporting students through the college application process as not every student is an AVID. So not every student is given the equal opportunity to work on college applications as many of us are involved in extracurricular activities or like a friend that I recently talked to um early on today said that she had work so she wasn't able to truly work on her applications as she was supposed to. I was talking with students and they said that they would really appreciate having a study hall period where they are able to discuss with their AP teachers about missing assignments or assignments they could catch up on and also speak with the college and career counselor as not everybody has that time during school to speak with a
020college and career counselor. I am sharing this so that the board can be aware of the issues and so that we can better support our students because every student deserves to have a well me a good well mental health being because if students feel burnt out they can't perform well academically and students shouldn't be burnt out in order to perform well. Thank you. Thank you, Mary. Item 1.7, opportunity for community comments, close session items. Did we receive any community comments? >> No comments were received. >> Item two, close session. The board will now go into close session. The time is 5:56. We are back from close session. The time is 7:38. Um, clerk Angiano needed to leave. So, Trusty Troutman, please take role. >> Uh, Trustee Angiano is not present. Trusty Martinez Lara >> present.
021>> Trusty Nollis >> present. >> President Ruiz >> present. >> And I Trusty Troutman and present. Please let the record reflect we have a quorum. >> Item 3.1 report from close session. Trusty Troutman please share. >> Item 2.1 in close session. The board received information and was updated. Item 2.2 in close session. The board received information and was updated. Item 2.3 in close session. The board received information and was updated. Item 3.2, opportunity for community comments, open session items. Have we received any community comments? >> No comments were received. >> Thank you. Item 3.3, BTA comments. I would like to welcome BTA President Anthony Garcia. Good evening everyone. Um just real quick I just wanted to say uh last month and uh I've been hearing a lot about uh the suspensions being down and um
022keeping kids in class and that is very important and we want to do the best we can to keep kids in class. Um but let's also not forget that um maintaining the learning environment for the 4300 under for the 43 otherund kids in this school district is more important. And so when that's jeopardized, we need to do what we need to do to make sure that the other kids are learning. Thank you. More important than the dashboard. Item 3.4, CSEA comments. I would like to welcome CSEA President Jennifer Serrano. Good evening. Um my name is Jennifer Serrano. I'm the president of uh chapter 147 um here in Banning. I just uh shared with um cabinet that I got my 610 letters back from our two our TA. So, we will schedule that for a vote
023and also on theou uh for the health and welfare and to let you know that theou for the transportation was approved on Tuesday. So, we're making headway and I'm excited to jump in and work with Kirk. Thank you very much. >> Item 4.1, superintendent's comments. >> Good evening, President Ree, members of the board, and our community. Just a few things to report. I want to start off with ASB. So, we had uh students speak to us this evening, our ASB president. And so, I was invited to a meeting on September 6th where I was able to observe how they work together, the students, and I was just blown away. I was blown away how how they advocate for things, how they uh engage with each other, and just their operational delivery and how they did
024things. I was really blown away. I was really proud of our students and how they how they talk. And so Mary Breto talked about the stress, right, of students. There were actually students talking about, I want to do more clubs. I want to be more involved. And the conversation was about just that. Well, if you want to do all of this stuff, aren't you putting more pressure on yourself? So, they had this open dialogue and it was just great to see and I was really proud of our students. So, shout out to our ASB students doing an outstanding job. Next, I want to talk a little bit about our instructional team. Uh, we really made a sharp shift to instruction. And it's great to see our instructional team, our coaches, our teachers, and it seems
025like people are looking forward to this engagement. We have teachers who are excited about getting the training that they feel that they need. And so we've uh been able to go to a couple nationwide um events, math curriculum. We're doing actually one with Angel on the uh community engagement initiative, which is another statewide initiative. We were on a call a couple um a week, I don't even know when it was, not that long ago, uh virtually. And it's uh school districts throughout the state. And so we're going to learn best practices. And so I'm just really excited about that shift and looking at what's going on and how we bring best practices to our district. Uh I want to talk briefly just about our data chats. So this is new in our district where the
026instructional team and myself are meeting with each principal to go over how are they looking at the data at the school sites, how are they working with their teachers and what is the plan. So after we meet with them, then we go to site visits to try to see what they're talking about. And that has actually gone really well. One of our principles, I'm not going to say their name, but they were so excited that they know where to go get the data. Here it is. We've identified the students who need assistance. And so that's the changing part when we know which students need assistance and we target those students to ensure that they are working towards their goals. I was in a classroom at one of our elementary sites and the teacher said, "Go
027on. I want you to see the walls." So in this one teacher's classroom, it had what the students goals were and then it had the steps to achieve the goal. And that's what we have to do. You cannot achieve a goal if you don't know the steps how to get there and you don't know what the goal is. So I think we're really moving in a direction to ensure we tackle the goals. Uh next I want to talk about the parent advisory. So on September 18th we had a parent advisory. was at uh Nicolet and uh it was a little bit different. We had I don't know how many Florida Street students perform. They were great. It was a great crowd. Uh so we had a lot of people there to talk about what we're
028doing in our district and a lot of engagement. And actually Miss Cole had the our TOSAs, our teachers on special assignment. I think there's three or four of them. Four of them. They all each took turns presenting to parents. So that was a change and that was really good. So, uh, kudos to you for that, for making that happen. Uh, I want to thank, uh, talking about fall sports, we have I know there's several and I don't want to miss any and Mr. P is not paying attention. So, um, we have, uh, flag football, we have football, we have volleyball, girls volleyball, and what else? And tennis. So, and golf. Okay, good. Thank you. Always need help. So, what I want to say about that is our students put in a lot of time, a
029lot of effort, but also the teachers and walk-on coaches who spend a lot of time, a lot of time to support students. So, I want to thank you for all your work with our fall sports. And finally, I want to give a shout out to Mr. and Graci and his team because when we go do those sidewalks, there's these little pretty hand sanitizers now throughout the district all over the place with a logo in it. And I will say that everyone that I've hit has sanitizer in it. So that's what we need to have. So thank you and the team and making sure those are are up todate and filled. So thank you so much for all the work that you do. Item five, consent calendar. The recommendation is to approve consent calendar agenda items
0305.2 through 5.5 as provided. All matters listed under the consent calendar agenda are considered to be routine and enacted by one motion and vote. There's no separate discussion of these items prior to the time the board of trustees considers the motion unless a member of the board or administrative staff requests that specific items be discussed and or removed. >> Do we have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar agenda as provided? >> I'll move. >> I'll second. >> I have a motion from Trusty Nollas and a second from Trusty Martinez Laura. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 40. Item 6.1, education services, Nicollet Middle School presentation. I would like to invite Dr. Thomas and team to share tonight's presentation. Good evening, board president
031Ruiz, distinguished members of the board, Superintendent Davis, dear colleagues in the banning community. I'm going to get everything set up, but unfortunately it is just me tonight. I do have Mrs. Williamson up in Sacramento at the PBIS conference and uh Dr. Williams sends his best regards. He is at a choir rehearsal this evening. Um but I'm very proud of my team and the work that we have done so far. So I can't wait to share it with all of you. And for those of you that don't know me, I am Dr. Thomas. I'm the very proud Palamino principal of Nicollet Middle School. I'm entering my fourth year in this district and my third as principal and I could not be more delighted about what I have to share with all of you this evening. But
032first and foremost, I want to make sure that we talk about our mission. And in terms of Nicolet, where do we mesh nicely with the mission of the district and at Nicollet, we foster academic growth and personal well-being through tradition, integrity, and a strong commitment to education. If you've been checking out our announcements and if you have students at my school, we put the announcements on their Google classroom every week and we tell the kids to straighten their tie, which is for tradition, integrity, and education. So, we're really tightening it up over at Nicolet to help support the district's mission of being a diverse community that collaborates to develop responsible, respectful, prepared students to achieve their full potential. We are definitely preparing, inspiring, and educating our kids. And our district goals over at Nicicolet this
033year, we are committed to having a 100% of our teachers using the AVID focus notes in the classroom to support the work of my elementary colleagues who are doing a wonderful job with all of the littles that will eventually funnel up into Nicolette. All of our teachers will be using at least one level two or level three inquiry strategy bi-weekly. Our teachers submit their lesson plans every week. We have our PLC's um in a very strategic order each month on how we look at data. And I'm very excited that everyone is on board with that mission, not just our leadership team. And we're going to have increased number of college and career experiences for students. In fact, I think there's a bus coming back or it might have already come back about an hour ago
034from USC. Our students went to the history museum and took a a college visit. So, we're really committed to our goals. A quick snapshot of the growth. I'm very excited to report that we had a really outstanding year last year. Our ADA was just under 93%. Our suspensions when I started here quite a few years ago was at 16.2. We went to 7% last year. And for expulsions, we are down to.1%. So, Nichollet is working real hard to make sure that our figures are looking great for the sake of our kids and for our community in a positive way. Um and as you can see in the three years time we've made a lot of improvements and we're going to continue to do that work together. But how we're going to do that is in
035four steps. And the first step is to change discipline to looking at it in terms of intervention. That we all have a shared responsibility for safety. This little um poster that you see here is in every single classroom. And we truly believe at our site that if you see something to say something. We have this poster not only in every class but in all of the students agendas and we want to make sure that everyone understands that we take every report seriously and there is seldom a day that we leave without something taken care of. We all know that we need to work together collectively as a community of Palaminos to keep the campus safe. We also take statements very seriously as well. As you can see, the Palaminos believe in the see something, say
036something as well. And not every statement that is reported means there's a fight or that there's bullying. Rather, what the data is showing us is that students know that they can make reports and we can work as a team and intervene to find solutions to issues. We also equip students with social skills through mediations. So mediations are something we use to help students talk out their problems calmly and under supervision of adults to help guide them. And we know that for sixth graders, the transition from elementary to middle school can be difficult. They are getting used to being around peers that they didn't know existed until they got to Nicolette. They went from four elementaryaries to one middle school. So they're navigating the challenges of growing up. So mediations um are a very common practice
037for us to help mitigate problems. And then unfortunately but fortunately we have alternative to suspension. We want to keep students in class. So when we do have students that break the California education code, they have some infractions. We want to keep the kids in school. So we encourage parents to take advantage of the alternative to suspension where they will learn coping skills, have group and individual counseling. They'll have check-ins with the ATS teacher um for at least two weeks after they've exited the program. And again, as you can see, the sixth graders are the ones that are utilizing this the most, but they are also the ones that are still getting used to middle school life. Off-campus suspensions are also very low in the beginning of the year here. As you can see, this only
038happens after a student has already exhausted the ATS option for an ED code infraction or if the parent does not want to enroll their student in the ATS. Some violations do necessitate an off-campus suspension, however, but this is definitely lower than in years past. But our second step is implementing as per PBIS, our positive behaviors, interventions, and supports is having a system in place. And our PACT track, which we've had for a couple of years now, is absolutely a gamecher at Nicollet. It's been one of our biggest successes because we raised the standards for everybody. Everybody is beholden to these standards and the students have risen to the occasion without a doubt. So the standards that we have in these three areas for attendance, academics, and citizenship have helped put the students on the right
039path to being accountable um for their tardies, for their behavior as well as for their academics. The ultimate goal is to prepare our Palaminos to go and be outstanding Broncos over at the high school. We want to make sure that the students understand that these high expectations are not just because Dr. Thomas is mean. It is because when they get to high school, they have five minutes to navigate a huge campus. That they have to have passing grades at the semester or they risk having to retake a class. And we want them to be citizens who show that they have integrity and that they want to be responsible citizens. So, by holding them to these standards, we not only have a safer and more engaged campus, but we have kids that feel safer to be
040there in the first place. I have lots of pictures for you. We've had lots of new traditions added. We have continued our rock, paper, scissors battle with our bracelets. Our ASB is kicking it up with different types of events like our band t-shirt day. Our counselors are also coming out at lunchtime to do seal activities. You see my counselor in the bottom picture. They're doing a spin the wheel activity, giving kids prizes. Uh we have our where everyone belongs program bringing a lot of joy and a lot of activity to sixth grade lunch. We have partnered up with different organizations like the um Freedom Writers who came in and we actually had Aaron Growell do a a great activity with our students who were hand selected by our teachers and of course our athletics program
041is just rocking it. Our students know that they have to be pack compliant to be a scholar athlete. So our kids are not only pack compliant to uh maintain their status to go to our cool pack events, but to also be scholar athletes. Again, in support of the mission of one day that they're going to be strong athletes over at Banning High School. We have a lot of community events to keep our kids engaged. We have monthly scholar of the month breakfasts that are followed by the coffee and tea with me. Our cadet corps, as you saw this evening, is helping to bring pride to not just our community, but to our neighboring community of Bulmont, who we often partner with for cadet core activities. And again, our sports, our our kids are really wonderful
042scholar athletes. And as you may already know because of our earlier presentation, we worked very hard to get our gold status for the 24 2024 school year, and we were elated to get that in the 25 school year. And we are actually currently awaiting to hear back from the schools to watch if we will be achieving that designation. We completed our site leadership team a survey at the end of last school year. The teachers were very honest. They gave their feedback on how we've improved as a site. Uh my assistant principles and I went to the Schools to Watch conference and we were really pleased to hear that this partnership with Schools to Watch can help us continue our mission of serving our students and bringing these great results. So I look forward to reporting
043back on if we get that award soon. The next step is education. That's why we're here. We talk about tradition being people of integrity, but education. We have a very close partnership with the AVID ARC that's with Riverside County Office of Education. And because our goal is that 100% of teachers are using the level two and three increase strategies and focus notes in the classroom, we're committed to making sure that our teachers are trained. Uh we're walking through classrooms often. And it has been so wonderful to see the change on Nichollet campus from four years ago to now. The kids are leading the show. The kids are the ones who are standing up and helping with instruction. We don't have sages on the stage. We have mentors. We have guidance. We have teachers that are
044giving the control and agency to students to do beautiful projects like the bridges in Mr. Ens's class to take control like in Miss Douglas's class to write the answers on the board and help guide the the lectures and the learning hands-on activities. Even our sixth graders are the ones controlling the microscopes, working with the slides, filling out the graphic organizers. And this is sitewide. Uh so it's a beautiful thing to see and we're very proud of the work that we have done. Uh we have this kind of engagement happening in all of our classrooms. The top left image is one of our life skills classrooms engaging in art. We have got in the middle picture our kids instead of the traditional science lab rules. They made t-shirts to go over it. So they had some
045creativity in a science class which for many they think of the scientific method. They don't usually think of art. So there's definitely cross-curricular action happening in our classes. Uh we had our focus on education in terms of literacy. We have three beautiful free book carts that the kids are still constantly excited about when we roll them out. Our extracurriculars like yearbook, web, ASB, Cadet Core, our kids are engaged in many ways and not just in their academics. Um, and our band and mariachi program is a gem to us and those of you that came to our Hispanic heritage celebration. It was a lot of fun to see the big kids mentoring the little ones. So, I look forward to seeing that connection with Central's DI program and ours grow in years to come, as well
046as creating little musicians to help keep up those programs. Again, in our classrooms, our kids are engaged. They're building, they're creating, they're doing. Uh, this picture was actually taken while I was doing an observation in English classroom. These are different stations and you can see the post-its on the Smartboard. The kids were rotating stations on editing their work and the teacher was just guiding the conversation, making sure they were using the rubric and it was a beautiful thing to see our students um handling business like future Broncos. They're going to be college and career ready, I'm sure. And we have had some excellent field trips so far. We had students already go to UCLA and see the campus. Like I said, we just had students come back from my favorite USC uh and have a
047great day at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History where, as you can see, they were doing work while they were there. We were not just there to miss a day of school. They had an assignment to do. They had expectations of them. They were wearing their lanyards. They were being excellent representatives of the Banning Unified School District while they were at USC. I was very proud of them for that. Um, and we also had, this is hot off the press from today. We are waiting to find out if our Mesa entries are going to earn any awards through UC Riverside. And our tech guru Steve is going to help me get you to the video clip that we want to show you uh, for the Lost in Space entry. That's our last one.
048>> So again, we're awaiting the results of that roller coaster competition with our students. We had four entries and we're up against, I think, 14 other middle schools. So, more to come on that endeavor, but we're very proud of our students. And if you get a chance to pop by Miss Douglas's class, we'll hand you a marble and you can test it out yourselves, but I definitely will not be riding that roller coaster should it ever become one. Uh, and the last step is increased engagement. If you have students that go to Nichollet Middle School, please ask to see your students agenda. We have three full pages that have all of the events that are already pres-scheduled for the 2025 2026 school year, including but not limited to tomorrow's makeup picture day in case if
049you forgot. Uh we have the parent teacher conference week on there. We've got all of the students of the month and the breakfast the um coffee and tea with Dr. Thomas. We have all of our school site council of dates and events. If you flip through that, you will see that we put a lot of heart and soul into preparing for this year to be one of our most successful years yet. So, please ask to see that. Um, and like I've said to families before that come to our site, please make sure you're checking Parent Square as we post every week. I have a Sunday uh evening weekly update that comes out. And I know through some data that we've compiled through our Parent Square app that we are one of the top schools that
050send out messages in the district. Uh and we know that parents are engaged in looking at what we do which is outstanding. And please be on the lookout. Speaking of parent square, look out for messages from our teachers to try and schedule a parent teacher conference with you in case if your student is one of our at risk. There's not very many, but we do have some students that have C and below grades. And we can always accommodate you if you request a meeting, email, you call and set up a parent teacher conference. It doesn't just have to be during the parent teacher conference week. And those of you that have my work cell phone number because my business cards, I need to order more. You can always send me a text message. I will
051answer you. You can set up an appointment whenever you need to talk about your kids because I too am a parent in this district. And one thing I love about our district is that it feels like in many cases family and we are accessible. We are not a huge district where it seems like you can't get a hold of anybody. Um so folks know that if you reach out to us, we will happily accommodate you if parent teacher conference week doesn't work. But message us on Parent Square, send us an email, we will be here for you because that's part of engagement. And again, we are here to serve you. The APs and I am sorry they couldn't be here this evening. Um but we definitely love our school. We love all things Nichollet. So,
052thank you for having me again for another year here at the Banning Unified School District. And if you have any questions, I'll happily take them. Thank you. >> I do have one question. >> Yes, ma'am. >> You and this is amazing. Thank you. It was a wonderful presentation. It does my heart good to see these things going on in Nichollet and I really appreciate it. looking forward to going by and seeing. Um I I did have one question about the parent teacher conferences. Um do you have student led conferences and you know making sure that the students are actually facilitating their own learning and I love the fact that your teachers are facilitators as opposed to dictators. You know I I like that part of it. But um carrying it up one step further, do
053you have student led conferences? I I think in the middle school it's just so exciting to see students taking that responsibility. So um that is a beautiful idea. We do have our eighth graders involved um not in leading their parent teacher conferences. However, through our bar model, when we do have meetings with our uh students for SSTs and in many cases the IEPs when they're in eighth grade, we include the students. We are definitely building that sense of agency so the kids know that if you need to have a parent teacher conference, you're part of the equation. Um we do say often to the kids that a closed mouth doesn't get fed. We need to know what you need. So, we do call kids in, but they're not the facilitators. But I love that idea
054and I'll be sharing that with my team. I will say that as I did that for 10 years in in middle school and we all did it and it was such an impactful um it was an impactful program for the students because they started planning their brochures started planning their files for their for their own partnership in education with their parents. They were partners in education with the teachers and with uh the parents and the parents came in knowing that those that their children were going to dis be discussing what they did well, what they could do better, how how their learning is impacting them and where they want to go in the future. So in I guess in keeping with your facilitating teachers being facilitators, I would love to see that program. >> That'd
055be great. That's a great suggestion. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. Item 7.1, Education Services, annual board resolution number 26-007 and continued funding CDE Child Development California State Preschool Program Agreement. This item is for the board to adopt board resolution number 26-00007 and approve the California State Preschool Program continued funding application for fiscal year 2026 27. >> Is there a motion and a second to open and discuss item 7.1? >> I move >> a second. >> Any discussion or questions? I have a motion from Trusty Chapman and a second from Trusty Nollis to approve item 7.1. All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 40. Item 7.2 Education Services District Quarterly Report on Williams uniform complaints. The item isformational only. Are there any questions or comments? Item
0568.1, business services, notice of completion, Nichollet Middle School Mural Renovation, labeled Inc. Design Company. >> This item is for the board to approve the notice of completion for the renovation of the Nicollet Middle School Mural by Labeled Inc. Design Company. >> Is there a motion and a second to open and discuss item 8.1? >> I move. >> I'll second. Any discussion or questions? I have a motion from Trusty Troutman and a second from Trusty Novales to approve item 8.1. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say nay. >> Motion passes 40. Item 8.2 business services revised certification of signatures. This item is for the board to approve the revised certification of signatures. Is there a motion in a second to open and discuss item 8.2? >> I'll move. I'll second.
057>> Any discussion or questions? >> I have a motion from Trusty Martinez Lara and a second from Trusty Troutman to approve item 8.2. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 40. Item 8.3, business services contractual agreements. >> This item is for the board to approve andor ratify contractual agreements as provided. Say it now. Um, we will be pulling the contracts, all five contracts for Ace Glass, just so the board is aware. Is there a motion and a second to open and discuss item 8.3? >> I'll move. I'll second. >> Any discussion or questions? >> Do you have one question? I I know we're pulling that item, but we're going to be discussing it further. >> Yes, we will discuss the because it also goes back
058to the Nicollette uh storefront or I don't know what you call it, but all of those together. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. I have a motion from Trusty Nollis and a second from Trusty Troutman to approve item 8.3. All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 40. Item 8.4 business services monthly fiscal services reports. This item is for the board to approve monthly fiscal services reports, bank reconciliations, purchase orders, warrant summary, and commercial warrant registers. Is there a motion and a second to open and discuss item 8.4? >> I'll move I'll second. >> Okay. >> She's first. >> Rock, paper, scissors, ladies. >> I have a motion from Oh, sorry. Any discussion or questions? I jumped. Okay. I have a motion from Trusty Navalis and a second from
059Trusty Troutman to approve item 8.4. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 40. Item 9.1, board member comments. Who would like to go first? >> Thank you, President Ruiz. Um, I I do want to say that I'm Congratulations to all the PBIS winners. You worked so hard and you certainly deserve the recognition. It's such an exciting um such an exciting um accomplishment and I really appreciate that. Um it was also a pleasure to see the golf. I live in Sunlakes Country Club and we were out the other night and saw the uh Banning High School golf team. It did my heart good to see them. We support them 100%. They were impeccable. They they behaved beautifully. And we're so honored to be able to be part of
060their experience there. And I spoke to the the coach. I'm going to go in and check out his language arts class as well. So, but it was very nice. So I mean they it was just so exciting. Um I love like I Dr. Thomas I love the teacher um facilitation and students as as part of part partnerships in in their education. And I look forward to seeing some project based learning and and um seeing what they're going to do as far as the DI you know doing it in both. I think that this is something that we can bring to our community and uh that's very exciting. Uh also I love the learning field trips. I think you guys are doing an amazing job making sure that their field trips are contentrich and and very
061meaningful. So I do appreciate that. I don't have a lot of time, but I do appreciate everything that you all are are all doing and um look forward to seeing many more things this year. Thank you. >> Um I would like to echo Trusty Noll's comments and congratulate all the PBIS uh winners. That's it is an amazing accomplishment and we are extremely proud and to have so many. It's amazing. It's amazing. And um I'm excited to I I'd like to go to the homecoming game this weekend or Friday, excuse me, tomorrow. Tomorrow. Oh my god. Yeah, that was fast. Um, so we hopefully we can do that and then um I I I think it's going to be a good year. I really think it's going to be a good year. I'm I'm hopeful. And
062as always, I'm extremely grateful to everyone for their hard work and dedication, everything they do for these kids to to make sure they succeed and grow. So, I hope everyone has a great night and thank you very much. >> One more congratulations to all of our schools that were awarded. I know how hard you guys have worked to turn it around when we first became board members. I know I've said this a bunch of times, but the data we received was heartbreaking. To see how much our schools are shining now, thanks to all of your guys's hard work is, like Miss Traman said, amazing. Thank you so much for everything you put into these babies. It means the world to your board. Um, a couple things that I got to go and see this month
063was senior night for our flag football for our girls. It was amazing to watch our girls play and give it it their all out on the field. These babies truly put their heart into whatever sport they're doing at the time. Um, I got to see our Hispanic heritage celebration over at Central. Then I followed the little ones over to Nichollet and watched it again at Nichollet. Absolutely love the fact that we have mariachi for these babies now. Can't wait to see them in their full get up in their suits. Um, call me when you need help with the fundraiser. I will be there. I would love to help. Learning field trips. Amazing. Thank you. Hands-on work at school where these babies get to learn and it actually processes and filters and stays there. Amazing. Um,
064thank you. Thank you. Thank you as always for coming to the meeting and for putting your heart into everything. Good night. >> I'll start with congratulating all the schools that got PBIS recognition as well. Um I just kept hearing something come up in the student comments. They kept saying exciting time of year and I agree with them. I feel like this is an exciting time of year. Um I have been able to attend a couple JV and football games. I got to attend the senior night for the flag football team. That was very exciting. Um, I just I really feel like there are a lot of great things happening in our district and I'm very proud of all of you and I thank all of you for your dedication to our students and I hope
065you all have a great night. Item 10.1, future board items. Anybody want to add any future board items? Okay, I'm just going to add that property again. You know which one I'm talking about. Anyone else? No. Lucy. All right. Item 13.1, adjourn meeting. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> I move. >> I'll second. >> I have a motion from Trusty Troutman and a second from Trusty Nollas to adjourn this meeting. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 40. This meeting is adjourned at 8:17 p.m.