001Good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the board of education. The meeting is called to order at 4:31 p.m. Roll call, please. Miss Armstrong, present. Miss Cron, present. Mr. Critchfield. Mrs. Garza, present. Miss Stewart, present. Tonight, we do not have requests addressing close session items. At this time, the board will recess to close session. Open session will resume at approximately 6 pm. Welcome back everyone. Tonight's meeting of the board of education was called to order at 4:31 in open session. The board then adjourned to close session at 4:31 p.m. And we will now reconvene the meeting into open session at 6:19 p.m. Board Clerk Critzfield would will update us on close session topics. Thank you, Madam President. The board will be reconvening in close session after the meeting. Report to follow. All right. Tonight
002we have our amazing Renee Arcus doing our pledge of allegiance. Will everyone please rise? Place your hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nation. All right, we do have amendments to the agenda. General counsel, can you please report those out for us? Yes, Madam President. Uh due to the need to reconvene to close session, the order of items on the agenda will be amended. The board will reconvene into close session after item 15.1formational items to discuss conference with labor negotiators. In addition, item 12.2 will be moved to after the board reconvenes into open session from the close session. Um and at that time, the report will also be provided on close session items. Thank you, Mr. Sura. All right. So,
003moving on to employee representative reports. Tonight, we do not have reports from BTA, but we do from CSCA. Can Anthony come on up, Mr. Anthony Ramirez from CSA. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you for that introduction, I guess. Board President Stewart, uh, board members, Deputy Superintendent Smith, Cabinet, uh, BTA and PTA leadership, members of the public, those that are here, good evening. I'm here to give you a brief update on recent CSEA classified activities. We're happy to see that uh, the CSEA successor agreement is on your agenda this evening. Uh, I would like to thank Dr. Smith and his team. The negotiating sessions were both productive and successful due to the open discussion and dialogue from him and his team. We appreciate the honest approach and look forward to this new era of negotiation interaction.
004So, thank you for that. Now that the two now that the 2024 2025 school year is ending, I want to recognize all the classified staff that worked on every graduation and promotion across all school sites. maintenance and operations staff, food service workers, technology technicians, security and custodial staff from across the entire district all worked hard to ensure each ceremony represented a successful job of preparing and educating Belflower Unified School District students uh to their families and to the Belfowers and Lakewood communities. Even today, secretaries, clerks, and administrative staff are still working to close out the the documentation of the past year and prepare to be ready for the beginning of the next school year. I also want to acknowledge the continuing work of all of our tw all of our 12-month employees. That I want
005to acknowledge the continuing work all our 12-month employees are doing. What most people think of as empty schools are actually filled with workers making repairs, cleaning the grounds, offices, and classrooms. Uh CSEA is proud to be a critical element in the mission of this district. And thank you for giving me a time to give you a brief update on CSEA activity. Thank you so much. and thank you for reminding us about so many things that we don't see all the time but are behind the scenes. So, we really appreciate you guys. All right, Dr. Ryan Smith, do you have a superintendent report tonight? I do. Good evening. And before I do so, there is one correction that I do need to point out to the agenda. It was a correction to item 13.26, contract listings
006and agreements uh for the 202526 fiscal year. The length of the agreement for Effective School Solutions LLC is listed as a renewal. However, this is a new contract, not a renewal. Thank you. I would I'm very pleased to share with the board that summer learning is in full swing. I'm proud to share that approximately 2,000 students are participating across a wide range of programs in our schools and across our district from preschool through high school. Students are engaged in targeted academic support, enrichment opportunities, and extended learning time. Our extended school year program is serving over 230 students supported by 24 teachers and 60 pair of professionals. Elementary summermies are helping 500 students strengthen their foundational skills in both reading and math. At the middle school level, we've launched new AVID summer bridge courses as well
007as a high school 101 program to help students transition successfully to high school. Our partnership with Think Together is providing nearly 900 elementary and middle school students with full day enrichment including STEM, robotics, and field trips. And at the high school level, we have about 900 students who are working on credit recovery A throughG requirements in dual enrollment with Cerritos College. This robust summer program wouldn't be possible without the dedication of our teachers, support staff, and site and district leaders, and I sincerely want to thank all of them for their incredible effort and commitment to our students. In addition, for the last two days, our entire leadership team recently participated in capturing kids hearts leadership blueprint training. A powerful two-day experience focused on building strong self-managing teams through authentic communication and relational leadership. It gave
008us the tool to strengthen trust, lead with purpose, and model the kind of connections we want to see throughout our schools. This learning experience is especially timely as all BUSD teachers and staff will participate in capturing kids hearts part one training this August. This shared foundation will help us start the new school year rooted in care, connection and a culture of belonging and I am grateful to our board for supporting that work. So this concludes my report for this evening. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm excited about capturing kids hearts. It's really cool program. Um Carrie, do we have cards tonight? So, we do not have requests addressing open session agenda items. Is there anybody else that would like to speak tonight? All right. Hearing none, we're moving on to committee updates. Um, all
009right. So, going through our updates, we have not had an alliance meeting. We finished that. I know we had a sped ad hoc committee. Board member Cron, would you like to report out on that? Yes, thank you. Um, so we met for our last meeting of the year. Um the committee will not be meeting again. Um and we reviewed um 26 goals with 21 completed. Five are recommend five of the recommendations um are continuous. So we'll it's there's no way of going around this goal. It's continuous. it's ongoing um for for the goals that were um established in the beginning. Um but there has been large um collaboration with the district, the schools and with our cabinet leaders. Um and oh before I forget and one of the biggest items that have or two biggest
010items that have not only come out from um the goals of that committee um one is growing together families educators and communities which is set for October 11th of this year. It is open to all community uh community members even ones and parents um and educators even if it they are not in our district it's opening to all anyone who wants to come as long as they sign up they um will be uh participating in workshops all day key um key spokespeople lunch will be provided one of the things is um with the registration Uh care will also be provided for parents that need care for their um uh children and there will be giveaways. So child care giveaways, all the great stuff all day. This is our first or their first um conference day
011conference and so we hope to kick it off on October 11th. This has been one of uh a very hard but goaloriented lift and so we're looking forward to that. And then we also want to um continue spreading the word of the special education parent academy which is designed specifically for parents of students with exceptional needs. Um, and basically it's a workshop uh almost every month or every other month um that parents can sign up for. They're one hour and all information will be put on our social media and our websites and things like that for um parents to register. So we hope that people will um again they're onehour sessions and it's another resource for um whoever would like to participate. So that's for the wrap-up that was really really good uh meeting and
012we'll continue if needed we will ramp up or ask to ramp up the um the committee again but as of right now we're in a really good space. Thank you, board member Centron. I have two questions. One, is it possible for the board to get sent the final 26 items and so they can see what we've accomplished with that Figma report? Absolutely. And then second, for general counsel with an ad hoc, do we need to close that out? Do we just Is there anything we need to do in order to close that committee since that committee is ending? Uh, no. It just self-terminates once it's completed. And same with subcommittees? Yes. Okay. Awesome. Okay. Um, so we didn't have anything on the foundation. Um, declining enrollment in facilities subcommittees. Vice President Carza, Cler Krish, did
013you guys have that? No, nothing to report at this moment. We will, um, have a upcoming meeting once the school year starts. Um, what about safety committee? No. Uh, no report. Okay. Athletic committee, we have pretty much finished that. um what we've been working on. We are going to have another meeting um come September. And then culture and climate committee. Um I'm on that committee. We met and we went over some basic things. I just wanted to kind of go over the things that we went through. It was a really awesome, super awesome meeting. We were able to look at a lot of data. We looked at attendance data. We looked at discipline data. We looked at the healthy kids survey. We looked at the LCAP feedback. We looked at the panorama survey. And we
014looked at the teacher survey. So, we had three groups and we kind of divided up and we went through all this different data and there was just a lot of um I don't know if Miss Ouyo would like to add into it, but I just felt like it was everyone there was really excited about the data. It was things that we hadn't seen. It was things that we felt we could build on to improve um with our culture and climate and just in general. Um one thing that we saw was in elementary there's a very high sense of belonging, but when you get to secondary schools it dropped a lot like a lot. So those were things that we looked at. We looked at communication on our platforms and how we could improve um getting
015more parent feedback. So it was just a really nice core group of people. And so um I think it's a really great committee. So thank you so much. Is there anything else that you would like to add? No. Um you pretty much summed it up really well. We have the right people in that group to look at that data with the right lens and the right frame to move us forward in establishing some goals and some next steps. So, I'm excited for that work as well. Yes. Thank you for everything that you're doing with that committee. Um, legislative action committee. Did you guys meet? No. No. Okay. Um, and I think that's all. Do you have anything from Laxa? Oh, and then we will report on Calabs after. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. The only thing
016with with with locka we had our last our last meeting uh of the year in May um in which I think I reported on that we had our election. So, we have some new officers and uh the only thing that we were really we've been you know just bombarded with is the um you know what's going on right now with schools and immigration and so we've been rallying together and LEO actually hosted a meeting a meeting yesterday. So we were really trying to partner with them to get information uh so that we can make sure that we get information to our parents and our students. So um I this was just yesterday. So I have um um what they did they spoke on the challenges uh and early barriers to immigrant students in accessing education
017and and how in 1994 California voters adopted Proposition 187 so that undocumented immigrants children cannot be denied access to public administr uh public education and teachers were not required to contact immigration authorities and that states cannot create barriers barriers to the enrollment process. So, Leel also shared a list of specific ways uh we can defend ourselves and I have le a link to a preparedness plan. Um and uh and I also have links to solidarity signs that can be posted. So, I just got all this information yesterday though. Okay. So, that's it with with locka. Thank you so much board member Armstrong. Um Apps President Brad Crutchfield. Um he can report out on Kallpops for us, please. Thank you, Madam President. Um so Calyps is doing great work and we're now offering summer dual enrollment
018courses with Critos College, including culinary arts, medical lab skills, electroc cardiography. Yeah, I think that's how you say that. In psychology, giving our BSD students the chance to earn both high school credit and college. We're also offering an EMT course this summer for our B USD graduates who completed the EMT prep and turn 18 by the end of the session uh preparing them for the national exam. I do want to say thank you to Miss Arleene Whitney for all the amazing work that her and her team are doing and for participating in the college and career week at Ramona Ernie Pile uh and uh connecting early with our Bellflower Unified students. Uh, and that's something that we've had a lot of conversations about is how to get our younger students in BUSD uh interested and
019uh and uh passionate about uh some of these trades so when they do get the opportunity to enroll, they're excited to do so. So, thank you, Madam President. Awesome. Thank you so much. All right, moving on to discussion items. We have one discussion item this evening, 11.1 local indicator presentation. Dr. Smith. Thank you, Madam President. Yes, we do have one discussion item. At this point, I'm going to turn it over to Mrs. Carter, who will present information to the board about our local indicators. Okay. Tonight, I'll be sharing with you information regarding the LCAP local indicators. As I share this information, please keep in mind that um you've reviewed this information already as metrics included in the LCAP uh the drafts that were provided to you earlier and that you've reviewed previously. Tonight, we're completing
020the requirement of the LCAP process to present the local indicators to the board at the same meeting that the LCAP is approved. Um the final requirement includes the posting of the information to the California school dashboard. So to give a little background, the state requires certain metrics to be collected and measured annually. The indicators are meant to measure the performance of the districts with addressing the eight state priorities that are listed here on this slide. Some of the indicators collected are collected by the state and other indicators are collected uh locally at the district level. These indicators measure performance and academic achievement, engagement and school conditions and climate. So tonight I'm sharing with you the local indicators. For the areas of school conditions, 95% of our teachers are fully credentialed, which is an increase from
021last year's percent of 92. The basic conditions of school sites is measured through the performance of the fit inspection tool, which is a tool used by a reviewer to rate school conditions such as roofs, playgrounds, restrooms, um, hazards. the conditions have maintained since last year. In the area of academic performance locally, we measured an increase in the percent of second grade students meeting foundational reading skills, which was an increase from last year and the perception of implementation of state standards. There's a slight increase to this percentage which suggests that the increase in professional learning and vertical alignment time teachers have received has resulted in improved alignment and instruction to the standards. Although all courses are available and students have access to courses, when reviewing enrollment information, we notice uh that all student groups are accessing
022a variety of courses. However, English learner student groups um access uh advanced ELA courses less um due to their current level of development of English language. These students are required to take two classes, an ELA class or an English class and an EL class at the secondary level, which does hinder the electives that they can take. Um, last year we did implement a course that had English and EL together for um, we had one class for each grade and next year our multilingual coordinator and our director of secondary are looking to see if this is a possibility to be expanded for um, our students next year. Based on LCAP survey data, we have maintained or slightly decreased in the area of building uh, parent relationships. There is a high level of agreement that we communicate
023with parents, we make them feel welcome to participate in school and that we treat them with respect. However, an area of focus is prioritizing the strengths, cultures, and languages of our families and students. The LCAP data also shows that we have maintained or slightly decreased our engagement with parents as partners. There is a high percentage of families that feel that they understand how to advocate for their children. That staff partner with families to support student success and discuss progress with parents. However, an area of focus is providing families with resources to support student learning at home. The LCAP and California Healthy Kids survey data shows that a high percentage of parents feel that school encourages them to actively partner, that they plan parent engagement activities for the school site, and they seek input from parents
024to make important decisions. However, there was a decline in English learner parents feeling like they know how to participate in the English learner advisory committees at our school sites. This data shows that parents feel welcome at school and staff feel a responsibility to improve school. However, as mentioned earlier, a little over 50% of students feel connected to school. Parents and teachers agree that school is a safe place for students. However, the perception of students feeling safe at school is below 50% at the secondary level and has slightly increased at the elementary level. The information shared here tonight is information that was shared, as I said, during the development of the LCAP with the board uh during pre-review. However, tonight's presentation at the completion of it, we have completed one of the requirements for uh uh
025meeting our local indicators, the final requirement is going to be to post this information to our California school dashboard. And we're projecting that that dashboard will be out to the public. The state is projecting that it will be out in November 2025. And that's the conclusion of the presentation. Thank you so much. Um, Vice President Garza, thank you. Um, thank you for the presentation. I just want to follow up um, circle back with you about the information that is going to be posted on the dual immersion website. Is that going to be also giving some type of information similar to this? Remember we had spoken about the Oh, you're talking about the SIRC information. Yes. Okay. This is different than the circ information and that should already be posted on our website. Okay. And I
026can show you later where that would be. Absolutely. Thank you, Clerk Critfield. Thank you, Madam President. Uh on slide five where we talk about school conditions. Um I appreciate you sharing the information of like because I had asked like what the actual fit inspection is. So, it's kind of uh yeah, it's it's not what what I was expecting, but I think it um you know, hearing from uh and I think our our CSA and I think they work with what they have um with our facilities, but I think it's no secret that we have a lot of work to do. So, I don't I think above and beyond a fit inspection. Um I I would like to, you know, use this uh item as a to bring up again uh the facility's master plan. I
027know that uh I think last board meeting we had talked about uh going in that direction. I was wondering have we is there any movement on that? I'll defer to Miss Arcus. We can both take it. Uh yes, there has been some movement on that. We have a meeting actually set up next week with uh a particular service that conducts those plans. That will be a good initial meeting for us. And then I know Miss Arcus is in the process of obtaining some other um firms that we can also look at as well so we can pick the best one. Great. And and hearing from uh seeing from myself and hear from the community as well uh in that conversation if we can get a a complete rundown on the ADA compliance issues so we
028can start tackling those as well because I don't know if they do that like you know standard with uh a facilities master plan but making sure that that's uh uh especially pointed out in that plan. They are included in that plan. That's a mandatory part of the requirement for an FMP. Was it in the last one? I believe so. I believe there were pieces components of that reflected in that plan. Could we because I I have that blank. Could we uh get an update on their findings on that of what we've addressed so far and what's still pending? I know again it wasn't a great plan, but uh if they did go through that, it would be interesting to see, of course. And uh again, I'm going to use this as a moment to plug.
029I I know this board has expressed some interest overall in uh going for a bond, which I believe I believe our our district really does need. Um and I just I hate getting to the point where we're like up against the uh the clock on certain things. Uh if I could ask, is there a a time frame where we if because I know the first step is making a resolution to even go for a bond, like is that something that could be done like well ahead of time? So staff understands like that is the direction of the board. So we're not you know uh guessing up until I think you know last time it was kind of like near the uh the deadline maybe uh Mr. Sura sorry can you repeat the playing Candy Crush
030over there? Uh is there a a window in which if the board were to uh make a resolution to uh indicate going out for a bond and giving staff like that uh notice is does it have to be within a window of when that would be or could that be anytime? You can do it anytime as long as you provide enough time to complete it because there are certain statutory requirements. So actually sooner is better. Okay, great. Thank you. Um and then on page I I will say on Paige it it's hard because I know so much work has gone into parent engagement and I know like I mean everything from I know social media isn't everything but like you know just you know the the the captioning YouTube the the social media presence all
031these things that that we're doing to uh this one kind of hurt a little bit uh when I saw it uh and even like uh like the special education parent academy which all Thank you for the work on that. Like I think we're doing great work. So I mean, you know, this one this one hurts a little bit, but I know that we're doing the work. So whatever we need to do to fill that gap, I mean I think And then last one. Uh quick question. Are your pages numbered? There's like a little one. Oh, I see. Thank you. Um, and then also just a comment on on the safety one. I think it it said that, you know, another 5% don't feel safe at our secondary. So, again, that's a conversation I hope continues
032uh with this board in future. So, those are my comments and questions. Thank you, Madam President. Um, really quickly, I wanted to just kind of piggyback off that. I know we're addressing that in our culture and climate because we talked about that. Where else are we addressing that um the students feeling connected to schools? How else are we trying to improve that? Al, I'm happy to start and then our team can kind of fill in. I I think one thing that is going to be really helpful for us is the work that the board has committed to in the form of capturing kids arts for climate and culture across the district. I think that will build upon the foundation that we already have in place and take that part to the next level. I'm really
033really pleased that both certific and classified employees at each of our school sites will go through that together. And I think that's a great great way for us to start with improving upon that climate and culture. Outside of that, I know my colleagues have some ideas and some work that's in progress or has already been done to address that as well. Dr. Smith, that's going to be during the professional development at the beginning of the year. It will. Yes. So, the two days that um we arranged with with uh BTA. Okay. That will be the focus of those two days. Thank you. So, we are looking at a couple of different things. I mean, obviously, we continue with PBIS. Um, we're also looking into safe and civil schools, but that's also part of our conversations
034with um with our uh culture and climate committee as well to part of the work there is looking at our existing data, which is why we looked at that data and then as a team develop some additional next steps considering what we're already working on and then what additional next steps we can do to bring the work uh move us forward in that area. Okay. Thank you so much. Um, Vice President Garza, thank you. Um, looking at page five with the fully credential and appropriate place certificated staff. Um, we have 95% fully credential and 5% uh, what is that 5% reason for why we don't have those teachers credentialed fully yet? Well, it's not necessarily that they aren't credentialed. um it potentially is a credential mismatch for one reason or the other, which typically can
035happen with long-term substitute teachers that are placed in a particular class to fill. Um it also could come down to certain teachers under certain circumstances that have been working with either um a science class that they might not have been had the full credentiing for or in some cases a special education course that they might not have the full credential for yet. It's in progress. So technically some of those things would report back as mismatches. The other thing that I would point out is this also runs in the rears. So essentially that data is done a year prior. So for example, this wouldn't reflect current year data. Um we go through a pretty thorough process where we go through all the potential credential mismatch um report. there's a report we get and we go through
036each and every teacher and basically indicate no this actually wasn't a mismatch and here's why it's through the cals process that's something that I jumped into at the very beginning of this year um and we got as much of that straightened out as possible and now Dr. is has the pleasure of going through that report this year. The good news is we'll have fewer and fewer as we go, but they do happen from some from time to time. And while it's certainly not ideal, there are certain circumstances that put us in a position where we sometimes have to have a teacher that's with a certain group or a certain course because we don't have any other choice. Thank you. Any other questions? No. Thank you so much for your presentation. We appreciate it. All right,
037moving to major action. We have one major action item that we're going to be covering right now, and that's approval of successor agreement between Belf Unified School District and the CSEA employees. Um, do we have any questions or comments? All right, hearing none, can I get a motion to approve item 12.2? You have that motion to approve. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you, Vice President Garza. Roll call, please. Miss Armstrong. Um, yay. Miss Cron, I. Mr. Critchfield, I. Mrs. Garza, I. Miss Stewart, I. All right, moving to the consent agenda. Do we have any items to withhold from the consent agenda this evening? Yes, I would like to withhold the uh budget 13.29. Are there any others? That was mine as well. Any others? All right. Can I get a motion to approve
038the consent agenda and withhold items 13.29? You have that motion. Can I get a second? Seconded. Thank you, board members and Sean. Um, roll call, please. Miss Armstrong, I. Miss Cron, I. Mr. Crrenfield, I. Mrs. Garza, I. Miss Stewart, I. All right. So, item 13.29, adoption of budget for the 202526 fiscal year resolution for designating certain general funds as committed fund balance. Clerk Critfield. Thank you, Madam President. Um, so I I do have a question because I I brought it up at the last board meeting and we said it was a it was a typo, but it's still on this one, so I don't feel comfortable with it. So it'd be page nine subscription asset. If we could explain that one because Sure. It's uh $45,000 for a subscription service for a board meetings for
039um the Spanish uh version of that. It's one of the first things that we're putting into that category. So, I thought it might be a typo because we've used different objects in the past, but what we're trying to do is there's a new Gazsby rel uh regulation regarding subscriptions where we have to lay them out in the audit um contract. And so, we are looking towards actually adding value to our audit contract and putting um things in the uh proper place. So, we're utilizing 6740 for subscription services that um are and there uh likely will be more that we'll identify as we move along. Okay. Um so to be clear, it's 40,000, right? Not 45. I'm sorry. 40,000. Um Okay, that that is confusing just because I when I asked last time, so thank you
040for the explanation. Uh now, so so that'll be for subscriptions that we get. Yeah, it's certain kinds of subscriptions. It is confusing because last time I said what we could do is amend the budget. We weren't probably going to amend the adopted budget, but we can amend the budget later on. Those are some of the things like in the consent item that we do when we move things between objects and stuff like that, right? So, that is um probably the confusing part of what I said is that we um would look to amend it if we decided that's not the place that we wanted to u maintain it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for asking, Vice President Garza. Thank you. Um, my questions are actually at the towards the back of the document and they
041start on let me grab my page 109 page 109. Yes, thank you. So there are um several not mets or nos indicated on the following pages. 109 under budget year 2025 2026 um status not met. Can you talk about that a little bit please? Sure. So, one thing that might help the audience is there's a section at the back of the budget called criterion standards. And what it looks at is metrics that we've included in the budget such as um in past history. So, for the example, the one on page nine is in past history, your salaries and benefits have usually been about 86% of your total cost in your budget. So if you create a line item item in the budget that kind of differs from that or changes in some way, this criterion
042standards actually gives you an opportunity to explain what's going on. So in 2526 um our uh salaries and benefits uh in comparison to our total budget are only 72% of it. It's not because we've changed our salary and benefits. As a matter of fact, um you know, at the last couple board meetings ago, we approved a raise for our employees. So the salary and benefits have gone up. However, our other expenditures have gone up and in this case um we've included in the 2526 budget that um the cost of the Mayfair field renovation that we're anticipating and so it caused the total amount of the budget to go up there for the salaries and benefits in relation to that total are different. Okay, thank you for that explanation. on page 110 under object range fiscal
043year I believe it's 6B there's also a a note so in this area um under 6B it talks about the revenues and the history of the revenues in the district our revenues are broken out into three parts federal other state and other local revenues and it looks at the history of what we as a district um have provided and how much we're changing them by. So in the case of the federal and the state revenues, um it says that there is a change that is kind of outside the normal realm. And what that tells us um to look at is that we did have uh prior year COVID funds and one-time funds that brought up those revenues. And so therefore, as we're coming back down to a more um average or normal state and federal
044revenues, it shows that it's outside the acceptable range. And therefore, we had to explain it. In regards to the local revenue, um, at in I believe it was our October meeting, the board approved and we got a grant for the Calshape plumbing grant. And so we approved a vendor. Well, that grant revenue comes in through a local source because it's Calshape and it's not a state or federal mandated um funding. So it comes in through a local source and therefore our local revenue kind of bumps up in 2526 as we get that grant and then goes back down in the following years. Okay. Thank you for that explanation. On the back page there's also three nos under um books and supplies funds. That's um so those are within acceptable range. You're looking for yeses. So
045in the case of books and supplies and services, nos is a good thing. That's a good thing. Okay. Um, and then I think if we go to page 114, there's also a not met for fiscal year 20 2425 under um 8B. So this particular um section of the criterion standards looks at our deficit spend. So a deficit spend for a district is when our expenditures exceed the revenues that we're taking in that year. So the history has shown in the last couple years we've been really close in our spending. Uh this year I think I've talked about it several times as we went through our interims uh reporting and now again at the budget presentation last week. Um the state reduced our revenue by quite a clip. So uh 2425 was affected by um a
046$9 million reduction in revenue and um it takes a while to start changing expenditures to kind of match that kind of big change in our world. Was that state or federal? That was state state went down. Okay. Our our local control funding formula, our state revenue was a big reduction of $9 million. Okay. Thanks for asking. federal uh federal esser dollars have gone away. That might be what you're thinking of. Those were the COVID dollars as many people refer to them. So they were onetime dollars that kind of came in but weren't there for the long haul. Okay. Thank you. Um so this particular criterion standard looks at our deficit spend and it says it's um outside of the acceptable range. I liken that on page 115 to the loss of LCFF revenue as well
047as our one-time fire and alarm system replacement projects that we completed at sites this year. So, that's a great thing for the district to have those um fire and alarm systems replaced. And the other portion is um uh most of it is related to the Mayfair fields as well. We're using some of our our um unrestricted dollars to pay for those fields. Okay. Thank you. And I believe that's it for now. Thank you so much. Thank you, Clerk Critzfield. Thank you, Madam President. Um, last meeting we had talked about the cafeteria spendown plan and I couldn't find the the plan and I believe we were going to send that out to the board so we could see it. Could we get that? Yes. Thank you. And then uh transportation uh budget. It you said it's
048going to be a similar expense. So it shouldn't change the budget too much. It's be similar within a range. That's correct. It'll change it in the categories because right now it's in our um 5,000 objects which is like contractor and it'll become a majority of it in salaries and benefits. Okay. Um, and uh, so, uh, so I was in Sacramento today and I actually had a really good conversation about uh, some some grant some state funding for uh, electrified buses. Is that something that we've explored as far as uh, getting that that funding? I I can pass along some information, but it it seemed really promising. I would be highly interested in passing along that information. We do have a new um transportation manager that has been working with our FMOT director and they are
049definitely on the hunt for those kind of funds to support our district. I'll shoot you the email. I appreciate it. Any other questions? All right. Um if there are no further questions, can I get a motion to approve item 13.29? Motion to approve uh 13.29. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you. Roll call, please. Miss Armstrong, I. Miss Cron, I. Mr. Critchfield, I. Mrs. Garza, I. Miss Stewart, I. All right, we're on to board communications. Um, board member Armstrong. Thank you, President Stewart. Well, good evening everyone. Um, I missed you at the last meeting and it's probably a good thing because I was so hyped about the graduations. I was so excited. I seen a lot of the children that I used to actually watch, you know, before school and after school um because,
050you know, we we live in the community and my children were friends with a lot of them. So, um, but I I just have to tell you I'm so proud of our students. Uh all in all, we we we have hardworking students that appreciate the support that they receive from the staff uh across the board and and they they have they have very promising futures. Uh if you attended the graduation ceremonies or viewed any of the footage, you all seen how much fun we have uh as we especially as we congratulated our students. Um Junth is tomorrow which is also called freedom day. Uh this day commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans and celebrates African culture. I'm happy to have this day set aside for all to celebrate. Um I know we're not going to
051be in school, so I hope that you know everyone really takes time to really delve into uh our African culture. Uh, this month is also Alzheimer's Alzheimer's Awareness Month. And so wearing purple. I see a purple. I don't know if you did that on purpose, Miss Alma, but wearing purple during this time serves as a reminder for us to take charge of our brain health. More than 55 million people live with Alzheimer or another dementia, and twothirds of Americans have at least one major potential risk factors. So with a commitment to adopt healthy healthy habits, exercise and getting good sleep, we can reduce the risk of cognitive decline. So let's remember to take care of of uh of ourselves. I'm actually talking to myself on this one. So So um and also um June 15th
052um I I don't know if anyone mentioned it uh but June 15th was Elder Abuse Awareness Day. you know, we have our children that we love so much, but we also have our our elders and uh and some some of which we take care of. I take care of my mom. I'm sure some of my other colleagues and friends, they're in that position now. So, it's really important that we honor and take care of our elders. Um and um that's it. I just thank you guys for committing your time to come here to you know witness us trying to do our best up here on this DAS. So thank you. Thank you board member Amstrong board member son. Um wow the graduation seems so long ago to be honest. Um but this was the first
053year that I got to um participate on the other side from the stage looking out to the audience and it was beautiful. It was wonderful for all three nights. Um I want to give it up to all the staff that have to like figure it out and maneuver all schools parents and you know there's a new found appreciation for sure. Um, so thank you for everybody who came out and all the parents and families who really made it a great spectacle. I loved hearing all the families scream at the top of their lungs and having bandas play after the ceremony and the fireworks. It was just a good experience all around. I enjoyed all three nights. So, thank you so much and congratulations to all those who graduated. Um, with that, uh, I'm gonna take
054a point of privilege to to make a statement to our families in our community. And this time I actually wrote it out. Um, so bear with me, please. Uh, as a school board member and a fellow parent, I want you to know that I see you and I hear you and I stand with you in this time of uncertainty. In light of the recent immigration actions affecting families across Los Angeles, I know many of you are feeling fear and uncertainty. No one should have to worry about their safety or fear being separated from their families. Excuse me. I know I cry a lot, but this is angry tears. Um, so Excuse me. And I know I speak for a lot of us, teachers and staff um that share these same sentiments, parents that have called
055me. Our schools must remain safe and welcoming spaces where all our children can learn, grow, thrive without fear. And I just want to reiterate that I am committed to protecting that promise. And no King's Day, I went out and I marched and I protested and I have been and I have been receiving a lot of calls and text messages from those that are in fear. And I just want to let you all know, and I'm speaking for myself, I do not want to pressure anyone to stand with me in this, but I will continue to advocate fiercely to ensure that our district upholds our dignity, our safety, and our humanity for every family. And to reiterate that we have resources on our website. If there are concerns, please reach out to our cabinet, to our
056teachers, to our staff. They are also well informed of resources or should be well informed with resources for parents and for students regardless of immigration status with I want to also reiterate we do not collect so there's absolutely no fear um and to let you know that you are not alone in this and for those who have the privilege message because as we know not all of us do and I again I speak for myself I am not going to stay silent and feel free to keep calling me, emailing me, texting me. I am more than happy to give you resources. Make sure you have red cards that is also accessible on our on our website. Um, but I just want you to know that you do not stand alone in any of this. Thank
057you, board member Centron. Clerk Critzfield. Thank you, Madam President. Um, as I alluded to or said it earlier, uh, it's been a long day. I'm a little bit tired, so I I apologize. But uh we flew up to uh Sacramento today uh in support of uh Joseé Salace's uh bill 1390. Um I think it's really important the uh relationships we make up and down the state. You know, uh our board, you know, speaks about it and uh I'm proud of this this board in particular um for really leaning into making relationships that are going to create opportunity for this district. And uh I think we're already starting to see that a lot. You know, whether it's finding funding for uh things like transportation uh or other things that could be funded. Um the advocacy at
058the state I think is really important and it really is um it really is a part of what we do, but you know, it really takes uh you know, a really engaged board to really go that extra mile and and so I'm proud of this board uh in general, all of us uh for doing that. Um uh also happy Junth and also shout out to my man uh Carl Kemp. He throws a huge uh Junth. It was last weekend uh celebration down in Long Beach at uh what's it called? Rainbow Lagoon. Uh and um yeah, let's see. Again, I'm going to plug I we talk about a lot, but uh I appreciate the conversations and I know I try to find ways to like bring it up whether it's like in the LCAP or the
059budget, but you know, there are things that I think that I I believe staff is uh doing that uh you know, in the past maybe like we we waited too long, but you know, resolution for bond facilities master plan. uh getting very strategic on how we spend our dollars is going to be very important uh right now and over the next few years. So uh that's something I'm really excited about the work that we're doing here and just being very strategic uh going into the next few years. Um other than that, thank you all for being here. Thank you Clerk Critzfield. Vice President Garza, thank you. Um I want to kind of piggyback on what board member Critfield was saying. um we do need to make sure we have all those pieces in place for
060the bond and the um know what we're looking into uh going into this really difficult budget season. Uh but I also want to say thank you um to our support staff, our classified, you do you are still out there. So thank you Anthony for reminding us that you guys do the work during the time that our families are away and that we are down you know resting. Um so we appreciate all that support and that sacrifice during this time. Um I also wanted to say thank you um for um happy Junth. Thank you. And um also thank you to our staff because you are also here. Thank you cabinet. Um and you also continue the very tedious work to get our schools district ready for when our school uh reopens back in the fall. Um
061other than that, I don't have any other updates. Thank you. Thank you, Vice President Garza. Good evening. Um, I wanted to start my board report again by congratulating all of our retirees. We are thankful for all the years of service for our students, families, and community. I am especially thankful to Miss Lorie Restra. She was my high school basketball coach and mentor, and the connection she made with not just myself, but many of my friends and our community has been priceless. So, thank you again, Miss Restra, for helping me become a better athlete in person. and I really appreciate you. Also, I would like to again thank Mrs. Lisa Oavdo. I am so blessed to have been able to work with you and to learn from you and to learn so much and we will
062miss you so much as well. I attended the elementary ensemble concert at the Civic Center. I cannot believe how amazing the students are. They were just so good. They were almost like high school kids. I've I've never seen a group of elementary kids do such a great performance. Um I was in awe of them and I really appreciate Mr. Ron Williams, he's also a BHS alumni, for all the hard work and dedication he puts into our children. It was a beautiful event. I attended all three graduations. I would like to say that I really liked having Somerset in the gym. I thought it was a great experience. I heard a lot of positive feedback and I hope that we will continue to do that in the future. Bellflower is always a great experience and I'm
063excited to welcome the class of 2025 to our alumni family. And Mayfair was a beautiful ceremony as well. And I thank Mr. Diaz. he had the most kids and how quickly and efficiently he got through that ceremony. It was so organized. It was just well done. So, we appreciate him so much and look forward to working with him in our student services next year. Um, and talking about Buffalo High School, I have never been more excited for our new Buffalo High School principal, Miss Jessica Cummings, who just randomly happens to be here tonight. Perfect. Um, I just think that you are a breath of fresh air for that campus. teachers have shared with me their excitement about you leading them and I look forward to the positive changes that I know you're going to bring
064to that campus. So, thank you so much for doing that. I attended the district breakfast. This year was a great year in BUSD and I just want to say how much I appreciate Dr. Smith, Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Arcus, Mrs. Aua, Dr. Knox, Dr. Almos, and just all of our exe executive cabinet, our um assistants Carrie and Elaine. I just want to thank you guys for everything you do. We're very blessed to have you guys all on our team and um we took on the superintendent interviews. So I'm very thankful to Dr. Verdugo, Sandy Thor Thorensson and their team for their guidance and assistance. I would like to thank Dr. Smith for taking on the role as our interim superintendent. He has brought so many great things and so many great programs to BUSD and I
065just appreciate everything that you contribute on a daily basis to our district. So thank you so much. Um, the board did vote to appoint him and he will be our interimm until our superintendent arrives. I had a positive text this week regarding summer school that I wanted to share. Mrs. Laura Cumins, um, she's at Lindstöm. She just wanted us to know that the summer school is going really well at Lindstöm and the model that BUSD has set up is super helpful and positive for the kids and teachers. So, thank you to Mrs. Cummins for taking that responsibility and role of teaching summer school and to Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Reyes for creating that program with your staff. Um, I'm getting a lot of great feedback on that and it's it's nice to get nice text.
066So, if anyone wants to send nice text, please do. Um, I wanted to wish everyone a happy Father's Day. And lastly, I wanted to thank Clerk Critzfield for spending his time today advocating for equity among the board members of California. I appreciate you so much for that. So, thank you for taking your time to fly out there. Appreciate that. All right. Do we have any questions on any of the information items? Um, I'm sorry. Uh, Mr. Sura, uh, just real quick clarification. Um, Dr. Ryan Smith will be acting superintendent until the new superintendent arrives. Not not interim. Oh, okay. Thank you. Sorry, my wording was wrong. Um, any questions on information items? All right, hearing none, we are going to reconvene back into close session and we will be back. Thank you. At this time,
067the board will reconvene to open session. Um, Clerk Critzfield will be reporting out. Andrew, was I supposed to report out? No. I'm sorry. Just we we state all the close session items that we've done tonight. Just there was two, correct? Or three. Okay. Uh in close session, we discussed student matters, pending litigation. Uh no, anticipated litigation and and labor negotiations. And then the other part too. No action was taken by the board. All right. So, can I get a motion to continue item 12.1 to the next meeting on July 10th, 2025? You have that motion. Can I get a second? Second. Roll call, please. Board member Centron, I. Board member Armstrong, I. Board Clerk Critfield. I, Vice President Garza, I. President Stewart, I. If there is no objection, this meeting is adjourned at 9:01 p.m.
068until the regular board meeting to be held on July 10th, 2025.