001Crazy. >> Thank you. Okay. >> We'll do it. No. >> Okay. All right. We are be beginning tonight's meeting for the Monty City School District Board of Education on March 9th, 2026 starting at 5:03 p.m. Thank you everyone for being here today. I see some staff members, parents, and some students in the back. So, thank you everyone for being here. We will now begin roll call starting with Mr. Peralta >> present. >> Miss Rivas >> present. >> Mr. Seagrist >> present. >> Mendes Garcia present and Miss Cobian is not present today. Next we will do our flag salute. We have Genesis Martinez from Gitly School who will be leading us today. Thank you for being here. Everybody please stand and join me in today's slack salute. Put your right hands over your heart. Ready? Begin.
002I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. And we look forward to Gly School um presenting today on their school report. And I think there may it may be an interactive presentation based on what I'm seeing. Okay. So, next on our agenda is our strategic plan update by our district administration. >> Good evening, U President Mendes Garcia and board members and community members. Um, as is with every meeting, we uh share an update on the strategic plan um based around the four priorities and all the wonderful things that we're doing across the district to align to the strategic plan. I'll just start off there. Uh we're going to talk
003a little bit about our musical theater program, but we're definitely in the thick of it. Um there's been a few performances throughout the district, and we'll once again share the calendar with the board and the community so that if you haven't had a chance to visit one of our musical theater performances, you um definitely make it a point because you will be in for a treat. And then we'll kick it off with priority area number one, ensuring academic excellence for all. And I'll turn it over to Dr. Pinedto. Good evening everybody. Um very excited to share that our kindergarten teachers just completed 30 hours of training in Orton Gillingham. Um which is a a really great approach structured literacy approach to teaching reading um spelling and writing that explicitly teaches the relationships between letters and
004sounds. Um the great thing about Orton Gillingham is it's multiensory. So it's visual, auditory and um kinesthetic. Um it's explicit systematic phonics instruction. It's sequential and um there's di it's diagnostic and so there's individualized teaching. So every couple of weeks there's an assessment that goes with it to be able to monitor student progress and it connects directly with the research um of the science of reading um because it's structured, it's explicit, and it's multiensory uh to really ensure that our students gain those foundational reading skills in the kinder through second grade levels. And um building on that uh this year our um our department of instruction uh provided professional development to our third through 8th grade teachers in um GLAD strategies project GLAD guided language acquisition design to support all of our students in accessing
005grade level curriculum. Um, and so this takes the um the work of providing support for our English learners just within EL time to actually spreading it out and integrating it throughout all of our um subject areas. And so all of our teachers in third through 8th grade were um were provided with this training in three areas. Um there's a notice and wonder which is a great way to um start off a new topic um by providing image or text or data. Um it encourages observation and questioning and um academic discussion by our students. Um there's also inquiry charts or eye charts um and we use this during either the start of research or actually even before we start reading um to help students organize information from multiple sources and build understanding of a topic. And
006the last thing is a cooperative strip paragraph or collaborative writing. students work together to construct a paragraph about new learning um helping to develop academic vocabulary, sentence structure, and content understanding. And so, um all throughout classes in third through 8th grade, um it it's evident all over the walls and the that these glad strategies are being utilized, uh and supporting language acquisition not only of our English learners, but of all of our students. I think uh we can both take turn. We can I I'm happy to take the lead on this. Um you know uh something that we've shared uh many times with the board and with our community is the collaborative administrative leadership series that we have formed with Almani City School District, Almani Union High School District, Mountain View School District, Roseme and
007Valley Lindo. So, the five districts have come together for over 10 years to discuss a variety of topics. Um, for the last two years, we have been focusing specifically on math. And I'll turn it over to Dr. Penedo to really speak to the work that we're doing. But I just want to take this opportunity to just give a big shout out kudos to our math teachers on special assignment who have been instrumental in a lot of the professional development and the work that we're doing in our cal sessions. >> Thank you, Dr. Garcia. Yes. So, the goal amongst all of our districts is that we increase the um percentage of Latino students enrolled in advanced mathematic courses beyond integrated math 3 by 25%. We really want to ensure that students are graduating with their A
008throughJ requirements and competitive as they enter college. Um so this cross district articulation so far um there's been articulation and alignment um of mathematics path pathways sorry um in grades five through IM3 um we have identified and aligned priority standards uh that will build upon each other um as as students um progress through the grade levels and then we calibrated um our instructional walkthroughs with a focus on the standards for mathematical practices and mathematical teaching practices as Well, our administrators have received professional development provided by our TOSAs here who have been fabulous um in understanding the new uh California mathematics framework um and the instruction through there is student centered. It's equitydriven and they've also provided professional development and and supporting English learners in mathematics. So the impact that we've felt it's really strengthened our
009relationships and our collaboration across all of our districts. Um it's really great to have that be able to have those conversations with our colleagues and to plan together. Um it's increased coherence in our math pathways and expectations and the ongoing work to expand access to advanced mathematical uh mathematic um opportunities. It continues. We're we're not done. We're still working together, but this is the work that we've accomplished so far. That brings us to priority area number two, delivering diverse experiences and opportunities that prepare students for future success. And I think it goes right back to you, Dr. Benedo. >> It it's a busy time of year and I love it. Um, so our our next enrichment day is coming up um on this Friday, March 13th, and we will be focusing on art and music.
010Uh students will be able to participate in hands-on project-based learning that will be provided by Professor Egghehead, Comic, Ventriloquist, Puppet Masters, a lot of fun, a lot of fun um uh vendors and providers for this. The music center will be here and Seagerstrom um center for the arts as well. Our first grade students are taking a study trip to the Discovery Cube in Los Angeles. Um and all of our enrichment days are hosted at our TK to 8 sites uh with transportation being provided for our TK to through six students to get there. Um these experiences take learning beyond the classroom and you know really provide students with a a creative opportunity an engaging opportunity to explore their interests. >> Thank you. And that brings us back to musical theater. As promised, there is the
011schedule for the remaining uh shows that will take place throughout the district. And this is an opportunity for me to also just acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our staff who puts in so much time to make sure that these performances are just truly a wonderful experience for kids and for community. And so I think we are going to have a little h sneak peek of Gidley's upcoming performance. So that'll just give you an insight. It'll make my words come to life to see how amazing this experience is for kids. And this past weekend, we celebrated the end of our um our Viet Vietnamese culture club. Um this has been two years that it has been taking place and hopefully it continues for years to come. Takes place at Gidley. Um and there's it's
012every Saturday for 14 weeks and students are learning about Vietnamese culture through lessons in history, art, reading, and writing. Um this past weekend they were able to showcase their knowledge um in their final presentations to their families. Uh with the celebration um that consisted of having a family meal. There were student performances and a gallery walk of of uh student art. And then, as I've mentioned in in a previous um update, we have this wonderful partnership with um uh Kaiser in Baldwin Park um and it's called the Hypocrates Circle Program. Uh this last weekend, our students from seventh and eighth grade were able to um take a field trip over to KEK uh School of Medicine at UCL USC. Oo, sorry. At USC might get some people upset with me. um and uh their um
013their primary focus is to really introduce students to careers in medicine um especially um in becoming a doctor. Uh they really want our students to know um that no matter where you come from um you are it's accessible for you to become a physician. It's within reach. A lot of our um doctors shared with them that they um came from our communities. One of them actually came from our community. Went to New Lexington. went to Colombia, went to Amani High School and um really believes in this program to help students to see themselves in the physicians that are there as part as mentors in this program. So students were able to meet um with uh medical students that were in years 1 through 4 of medical school. Um, they had an interactive Q&A panel and
014then they got an anatomy lesson on the human heart which then took them into a dissection of a a pig heart in a medical lab that the medical students actually led and and demonstrated for them. So, their next experience will be on March 26 and they'll be touring the Kaiser uh Baldwin Park Medical Center and get a behind-the-scenes tour, um, a CPR demonstration and some hands-on practice with medical instruments. Thank you. And that brings us to priority area number three, preparing students to thrive in an interconnected world. It's me again. And so um we have we're excited to have our parent involvement academy this uh Friday. Um and the academy will take place at the Pacific Palms Resort. Um topics will cover mental health, social media, um helping students prepare for college, helping parents prepare
015their children for for college, uh drug awareness, safety awareness, um how to communicate with your child, um and exam preparation, and a lot more topics than that. It's actually a very um robust uh catalog of experiences, but these are some of the areas that they'll cover. Last week we celebrated ReadAcross America and I know that there are still a few events that are going to be taking place throughout the district, but I just want to take this opportunity to thank our community for coming out to read to our students and highlighting the importance of literacy. Um that the idea that our village comes together to promote all things kids and to promote literacy is just really wonderful. Uh shout out to all of our community that came out, elected officials, police department, uh community heroes,
016community neighbors. So many wonderful, wonderful celebrations across the district. Another invitation uh for the community and for the board. Um, Cortada will be hosting their open house on March 31st, and we're taking that opportunity to invite everyone not only to join us to see all the wonderful things happening at Cortada, but to kick off our living schoolyard. Um, this is a Cal this is a the work that we've done with the CalFire grant. And so, Cortada is one of the first schools to have the majority of the work completed. And so, we'll have the opportunity to visit the space um that we've created through this wonderful opportunity and grant. Um and so I invite the community to join us on March 31st. >> Last week our schools had the uh pleasure of celebrating National School
017Breakfast Week. Uh we serve over close to a million breakfast meals to our students each year. Um and the uh it was a great opportunity to highlight the importance of a nutritious breakfast and how that can impact uh a student's uh uh mind as far as uh receiving learning and being ready to uh kick off the instructional day. Um the the students received bookmarks. There was a lot of discussion regarding the importance of healthy nutrition uh the importance of breakfast. A few years ago, we transitioned into a program called Community Eligibility Provision Program, which allows us to receive reimbursements from the federal government at the highest rate. And so with that, we're able to secure uh funding of just under $3 per per meal for every breakfast served, right? Um and so that allows us
018to uh put the our best foot forward as it pertains to healthy, nutritious meals for our students. And we've been providing breakfast in the classroom for our students going back 101 15 years I think at this point. Uh we're one of the pioneers uh in introducing breakfast into the classroom. And so celebrating the importance of of breakfast comes very natural to EMCSD because we're the pioneers uh one of the first districts to to uh to move forward with that initiative many many many years ago. And lastly, priority are at number four, aligning leadership, staffing, and resources to student centered priorities. >> Thank you, Dr. Garcia. I wasn't sure if Dr. uh Penedto should take this one, too, because she seems to be doing all the other slides. So, um this is kind of a slide.
019It's a compilation of of information that we usually bring at various points of the year. Um and we also, uh try to bring uh this once a year just to kind of show where we're at. Um it it's a showing a trend of our student enrollment over the course of approximately um you know 10 plus years and our uh staffing uh that is aligned with those years. And so as we've talked about uh numerous times before our continued decrease in enrollment from uh back in 1315 um at 9275 to our current enrollment which is at 6670. Um our demographers continue to show a trend of uh enrollment going down to the point where potentially over the next 6 years we could see another reduction of a thousand uh plus students. And so with that um
020looking at our um our staffing enrollment uh 1315 was the year uh two years prior to LCFF funding uh coming in and we had a staffing of a little over a thousand students or a thousand employees I'm sorry. Um, and these numbers for staffing do not count our substitutes. Those are our our what we would consider our permanent uh employees. Uh, looking to 2526 our current enrollment uh or staffing of 1,29. And so uh with the LCFF and and other uh various funds that have come in over the course of the years, um we're pleased to to share that uh we've maintained a a very um high level of staff. Um, and even in spite of a decline in enrollment, uh, we've we've prioritized in terms of ensuring that we were able to provide services
021to all of our students. And with that, um, we've previously talked about our certificated staff adjustments. Um, and I've shared this slide in the past and just have just recently updated it. Um over the course of that same time frame from the previous slide, we've probably seen a reduction of at least 71 uh general education uh positions. Now that would be um your non-sped, your non um counselor, psychologist, so on your true TK through 8th grade general education teaching positions. And and those 71 positions are tied to primarily just our continued decline in enrollment. So every year when we start doing our staffing projections uh which was at one point in January every year we actually start in October every year preparing for the following year just to give us an idea of what we're
022looking at. Um and so um if you look at over the course of time um in 2122 we actually saw an increase because that's when we came back from COVID and we were required to offer both in-person and online um classes. And so we did uh see an increase in our general education, but then from there we we continue to see just a decrease. Um last our current school year, we we see ourselves with 11 uh fewer general education teaching positions and we project um 15 fewer certificated general education teaching positions uh for the coming school year. Um what we have been able to do for all of these years is we've been able to absorb those reductions just through natural attrition which is retirements usually along with maybe some um individuals that choose to
023maybe transfer to other districts closer to home and so on. So we have been fortunate in that aspect where where those uh decrease in positions have been absorbed in that manner. Um along with that, you know, while while we're looking at 15 um less positions overall in terms of general education, we've also increased in our dual um immersion programs. And so really that the the 15 isn't a true reflection um because we're adding other dual immersion classes as our as our Mandarin programs continue to expand next year being sixth grade. And also with opening up the dual program at Colombia, we're adding a first grade class there as well. Um so uh looking at at the the positions for the coming year um as mentioned the the the incre the decrease of 71 plus positions
024over the course of that time frame. Um but you know we're we're at least pleased that we're able to absorb that through attrition and not have to go to other measures. Uh as we move on to an update regarding our bond funds, uh we recently closed um as the board is aware right the past few board meetings we brought some information forward to the board starting with the state board of education approving our bonding capacity waiver that allows us to access future bond funds through measure me and other bond funds. Our uh issuance recently closed. It was the first issuance where we tap into bond measure me funds our voter approved initiative from November of 2024. So, the first third of funds, $35 million were sold um and those uh funds have been deposited into
025our building bond fund um in the past few days. Uh we secured a a low cost of borrowing on that. Uh the interest rate was 4.26%. Um the timing of when we hit the market worked well. We were the largest uh issuance in the state of California on that day. Um we brought the de uh the supply and there was quite a bit of demand. uh we took the opportunity to also refinance other debt from past issuances from measure J from 2004 measure M of 2014. So we paired the $35 million measure ME sale of new funds with uh $32 million of refinancing of existing debt and we're able to save the voters $5 million of uh funds. Right. when accounted for present value in uh today's dollars it equates to $4 million since that
026savings will happen uh in total over the course of the next few years it's $5 million but yeah taking into account present value calculations is about $4 million in today's dollars so we're very pleased with that there was a lot of uh confidence in the market and at Mont City School District and the bonds that we put forward uh and everything seemed to work out there was strong um demand we provided the supply and we secured a low cost of borrowing for the voters s um and also hopefully able to reduce the um the repayment terms on the past debt that was out there. So, we're pleased to report that sale u and that will fund future initiatives as we go into 2027 and beyond with more facility improvements. Uh later today at the board
027meeting, you'll receive a report with more details uh regarding the cost of issuance and everything related to this bond issuance. >> Thank you. And that concludes our update for this evening. Thank you so much cabinet and Dr. Garcia. All right. Next on our agenda is our board reports. Um if we can start with Mr. Peralta. >> I had the pleasure of uh attending the ELF junior presentation. Um and it was a I I I look forward to seeing more of these. I I my oldest my youngest daughter was in the one at Colombia and now I I've seen a couple of them now. So I'm looking forward to seeing a few more. Thank you, >> Miss Rivas. >> Yeah, I'm so excited to have Gidley School represented today. Um, I attended Gidley School kindergarten through
0288th grade. So, it's just so fun for me to see the t-shirts and and everything that Gidley has a holds a special place in my heart. And I did musical theater there. It wasn't really called that, but um there was just a marvelous teacher, a music teacher there at the time. Um, but it's really a a really proud thing for our district to be able to really systematically offer musical theater districtwide and make sure all of our students have the opportunity to participate. Um, we've continued our school visits um some board members um participating with Dr. Garcia in the school visit. So I was able to visit Sherpser within this last month and yes we definitely saw the glad strategies in action and up on the bulletin boards and really even just the students actively
029participating in it. So u it's great visiting the schools everything's looking so good. >> That's it for me. >> Thank you Mr. Seagrist. Uh, yes. I'd like to report that parents and families who had children that went to Sacramento from Dery School are delighted with the experience that those kids had going to to uh Sacramento. Also, this morning I was able to go over to Wilkerson School and do a readaloud in second grade. A lot of memories back. I did a little bit different. I would walk around the classroom, pick a book from each one of the children and read at least a couple of lines from the book and the kids were write taking notes that were saying I'm going to get that book. I'm going to get that book. It was a great
030experience and I was delighted to see that four students came from Amani High School and uh one of the staff members came also one of the coaches and it was a wonderful experience reading with our kids. The third item I would like to address for everybody dual immersion. I have a lot of contact with local Vietnamese families who keep saying, "When are we going to have dual immersion?" And I look upon dual immersion as an answer for the declining enrollment. If we could bring more kids in to a dual immersion Vietnamese English program, it will help. I believe Glendale already offers seven. They also have um Armenian, Russian, Japanese, and I think we should look into that seriously. And I think I may be be able to find some funding for that outside the district.
031Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Secret. Okay. One second. Okay. So, um, one of our goals as a board has been to participate in school visits because we want to make sure that we're observing firsthand the new strategic plan and action so we know as a board how we can support and implement. So, as I've been going around on my school visits, I kind of took notes on some things I just wanted to highlight because we're all kind of taking turns based on availability to go do these school visits. So at Clemenson, we actually had two students escort us around campus to observe the priorities and action. We went to a kindergarten classroom engaging in fondness instruction, a second grade classroom where students were working in partners to determine and share aloud to their partner
032the math strategy that they used to solve the problem. And in fourth grade classroom, students were working in small groups to create a math chart to support their learning of equivalent fractions. So there was a lot of use of academic vocabulary and the teachers were facilitating that rather than rather than the teachers giving the lesson right, the students are really engaging in that cooperative learning. So, great job um Clemenson for that visit. At Colombia, we then um again, they're taking us around to observe classrooms and also the different priority areas. And so for our priority area too, which how are we ensuring we're delivering diverse experiences to our students and opportunities, we had a panel of students from the various activities from mariachi, cheerleading, musical theater, sauté, cooking, soccer for success, aerobics, and yearbook. And
033they were all just sharing the impact. All of them mentioned an adult mentor in the program that has really motivated them to stay in the program and how it sparked their interest to continue pursuing that activity in high school and also as a career. Um, one student shared um who's in mariachi that he's the first in his family to learn an instrument and he wants to pursue a career in mariachi in the future. A little girl in your book said that she learned um about photography and she wants to possibly pursue photography in the future. So this is something as a board that we wished for to make sure that um this is what that priority area was really focused on. Next at New Lexington we're able to observe and learn more about the dual
034immersion mandarum program. And again for that priority one academic excellence we're able to see firsthand those glad strategies the CJ math and also small groupoup instruction. And again, our visit ended with students from various activities sharing with us their experiences with all the different clubs and opportunities they have. And one of them is coding where students are actually creating their own virtual video game. And so I was able to try on the virtual headset to see the video game that they're creating um as part of this um program. And lastly at Wilkerson, once again, we visited various classrooms to see those glass strategies in action. So again, we're seeing everything that you're presenting to us. We're seeing it in the classroom embedded um by our teachers and our students are really enjoying these opportunities. And
035just lastly, great job Rio Vista for your ReadAcross America and also Dery for your production of Shrek Jr. So very busy last few weeks. Thank you. Okay, I know what everyone's waiting for. Next, we have our items of interest starting with our Gitly school presentation report. Yay. Good evening board. Good evening cabinet. I'm more than happy to present our present u our um student presenters today from Gidley School. So, thank you for this opportunity um to share a little bit about uh what's been happening on our campus. So, Mr. Doari, I'm like I'm clicking the So you can click there. >> Awesome. >> All right. So we have Manuel Marquez. He's a seventh grade um student and he's been our first semester ASB vice president. He is currently our um superintendent student council advisory committee
036member, a representative of Gidley school. We have Mackenzie Lopea who is our second semester ASB president. And we have Genesis Martinez, our first semester ASB president and also our uh superintendent student council representative for Gidley school. All right. So first off we have um Manny uh who Manuel who is going to be presenting about his experience because he is uh he was one of the students um for the Kaiser Permanente uh hypocratic uh circle program. Hello members of the board, Dr. Garcia. My name is Manuel Marquez um at Gidley 7th grader. So this past Saturday I got the opportunity to go to um the Kaiser Permanente the >> Hypocrates circle program. Sorry. Um I got to go with one of my friends Genesis Martinez and some more of my friends. Um personally to me I
037feel that this program is like I'm trying to look for the word. I find this program very good for students who want to be doctors. Um it's very inclusive for them. I feel that a lot of students got to since they got to see the um pig heart and got to see and learn about like the human body, the human heart, they were very excited. I seen lots of students from different schools. Me um many of them were very excited to learn about all this stuff. And personally for me, I find that this is very good towards students, very it it makes them kind of prepared for the future. Um let's see. So again, this past Saturday, March 7th, students were again picked up around 8:00 a.m. and taken to the KEK Medical School. We
038firstly sat in a two-hour lecture and they were given information about what to expect in the program as well as they were given information about the pig and the human heart. After the lecture, we had the opportunity to watch a pig heart get dissected. We also had we also had the opportunity to hold the pig heart and get kind of a close view. And um we were split up into about seven groups. Each group had 10 15 students and from our school about 14 students went. So once again I feel like this program is very good for students who would like to go into the medical field in the future and I can't wait for all the next days that we get to go. Thank you. All right. So, um we are Gidley school is
039also one of the recipients of the green schoolyard grant. Um just like with uh Cortata and Sherpser school um our construction is a little bit um we're the next phase um so not quite completed but the second phase that has been completed is our um walking path that is changing our our field. So there is now a walking path all throughout um connecting the uh primary um field area all the way around to where our fitness center um is. And so you can see our we have a a few students um from our earth club from our um two electives from our art and our media class who helped us uh as we put in um these like 36 40gallon trees. And I cannot wait for our opening to show you uh what it looks
040like because it has completely changed um what that blank green field looks like um and created visual interest um in the field. And so there's our students who are planting and um they had a and we had a good time uh doing that. So, this is phase two and we're waiting for phase three um and phase four to have the complete uh schoolyard. Okay. And now we have our Wizard of Oz preview and we have McKenzie. Good evening everyone. Members of the school board, Dr. Garcia and cabinet. Thank you for this opportunity to share our experience with musical theater. Sorry, with musical theater. We've been practicing for the musical since December 1st and have made amazing progress with our students and our amazing directors, Mr. Dasas and Missinky. Tonight, Gibli's musical theater department will be
041showcasing a quick sneak peek of our musical, The Wizard of Oz, with the song The Jitterbug. Here are a few facts about the song. It was originally cut from the movie because of time. The song would have made the movie too long. However, there is a video from the original scene where you can see the original actors performing the song. Lastly, that this song also included background characters flying, running, and dancing throughout the song. So, now be prepared to be transported to the Wizard of Oz to the world of Oz. Oh, and always remember to follow the yellow brick road. Our students are asking if the board could maybe come onto this side if that's okay. It's going to be a little better visually and for space. I'll just jump over. Perfect. Right behind you.
042I got to see this. I think you see a shadow. But I think I lost my heart. I saw the jitterbug catching you away from the bees and the bats and trees have a terrible horm. the trees. That's right. You are you doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo in the tree. Terrible. Horrible. Do what the dear does. Look up. How wonderful was that? NOW, >> now that was just a little snippet of what you would see at Gilly School in a matter of just two weeks. Gilly's Wizard of Oz performance will be on Thursday, March 26th in the evening at 600 p.m. or on Friday, March 27 at 9:00 a.m. There
043is no seating chart or RSVP as well. So, be sure to get there earlier for a perfect view. Thank you and have a good evening. We hope to see you walking down the yellow brick road. >> Thank you so much, Gilly. That was such a great presentation. Thank you to our presenters, Genesis, Mackenzie, and Manuel. Thank you again, and we look forward to uh seeing your performance and all the other ones in the Almani City School District in the months to come. Right. Next, we have a presentation from by Doris Trann and Rose Lazo, our parent engagement. It's my pleasure to um introduce our director of student support services, Mrs. Doris Trann, and our district community liaison, uh Mrs. Rose Lazo and they will be presenting um on our district's parent engagement efforts and ways
044that we continue to strengthen and support involvement in our schools. And they're going to sing through it. No, I'm kidding. Sorry, you have to perform. Tough act to follow, ladies. >> One second here. Sorry. >> Thank you. >> Wow. How can we top that, Rose? Okay. Good evening. Good evening board members. Miss Rivas, Mr. Seagris, Miss Mendes Garcia, Mr. Peralta, District Administration Superintendent Dr. Garcia, Deputy Superintendent Personnel, Mr. Salenbach, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Dr. Pinedo, and Assistant Superintendent Business Services, Mr. Herrera. I'm Doris Tran, the director of student support services. And and my name is Rose Lazo. I'm the district community liaison. We will be presenting the family and parent caregiver engagement um updates for tonight. Okay, we're going to start off with our vision, our EMCSD district vision, which is nurturing young minds
045to achieve beyond limits. And our mission is we empower generations through learning, leadership, and community. Along with that, we're we're under student support services. And our motto this year is finding your path to purpose. So we're really focusing on the purpose that we have not only for our students but also for our families. Uh family engagement, it's empowering families, building community throughout the the district. So this is uh supporting community needs. Our workshops are designed to empower families, providing support and resources tailored to diverse cultural backgrounds, enhancing engagement and fostering collaboration within our school community. Parents play an integral role in their child's learning and are encouraged to actively be involved in their child's education. So this is the big number for us. So, our family workshops are engaging families through diverse educational opportunities. To
046date, we have a total of 384 workshops offered throughout all our 14 schools. Um, they're being completed this year and they provide families with valuable resource and support for student success. Currently, we have our ESL classes that's offered at seven school sites and those have have totaled of 330 classes to date and they're aimed at empowering non-English-speaking families to improve the language skills. So, we have a total whopping of 714 total family engagement opportunities throughout the district. Yeah, you know, thank you. And it's fostering collaboration and support for student success. So, that's a pretty big number. So, our ESL classes, our English learner workshops focus on enhancing language skills and supporting students throughout the reclassification process to achieve academic su success. And as Miss Tran said, our ESL classes are at seven schools and it
047helps improve their language skills with community schools advis the advisory committees that empowers our families to actively participate in decision making at all 14 sites strengthening community ties. We also have nutrition workshops. So what they're doing is they're sharing recipes for healthy eating on a budget. And the final uh workshop is with Chef Alonzo for a cooking demo. The Latino literacy. These are classes that we have at uh various sites right now. And uh it encourages parents to develop and support a family reading routine. This program improves English language skills, improves Spanish literacy skills, and strengthens parent child interactions. It's a colorful, well-written books. They the parents read together. Uh they take it they then they then take it home and read throughout the week with their children. The book is all in English and
048then in Spanish. These books are um created they and and and after we read the book, they actually bring photos and they get to make a photo family album throughout the few weeks that we're together. It's a very fun program actually. And we have um family workshops uh continuation which engaging families through collaborative learning opportunities. So we have Canva for families which is a graphic arts program. And here the parents have learned how to create invitations and flyers uh very colorful very very very nice uh flyers and invitations they they've made. We have CAB which is California Association for Bilingual Education. It navigates families through the California education system. Uh they learn things such as what is why do we have school site council? What is ELAC? Why do we have board members? So those
049are the the things that they learn in the GAV classes. We have PEPSAF. We call it PEPSAP but is parent education bridge for student achievement foundation. These are family workshops tailored to specific interests of our school community. We also have active SGV where we have the ebikes that are being offered right now. Uh they also teach us how to ride a bike. Um and and then they have the seclus where they shut down the streets and you could bike ride and uh walk and use your skateboards on the streets in a safe uh manner. We just started, well, we didn't just start, but we have Loving Solutions uh parent project, and it's uh geared for uh parents that have children with uh with the ages between five and 10 year olds that are specializing in
050working with strong willed children. Um it's a nice program. And we have parent square, which is our communication platform. And what we do with the parents is we we kind of help them navigate through the the parent square like change the language so they can understand the the things that are coming in the all the information coming in and how to navigate through it. Uh it really really helps the parents it keeps them connected to the school and know what is going on. We're going to start uh Kaiser Permanentes mothers and daughters uh which is um it is six sessions. It's uh they have different um themes u different topics dreaming of the future college information career awareness and then they will get a college tour to one of the colleges and then uh celebrate
051good times and this is to connect uh sixth grade children uh daughters with their mothers because that's the time when they start to uh kind of separate from from their mom. So, this is a uh something new that we're going to begin in in April. Next, we have is our district social workers are empowering families through monthly learning and wellness workshops. So, our our two social workers, Miss Cruz and Mr. Cabayto actually go through the school sites and they deliver content on this. For instance, September was overcome anxiety. October was thriving at every age. November, December stigma and mental health. January trauma informed care, February self-esteem, March was depression, April social media mental health, and May our last one is middle school year challenges incorporating college readiness. Um, those are very well attended workshops from
052our families. And those are the accolades that we actually get from our parents that they want to see more of these type of workshops. And next, we have our parent ambassador program, which we call PALS. Um so the purpose of PELs uh is the parent ambassador leader programs. It fosters strong partnerships between families and schools enhancing student success through active involvement and community support. Parents actually go through a online training. It's about 20 hours. Um and then they're able to um share that information with with other parents. Uh this year uh the program has uh seen significant growth. They went from five parents in the spring of 2025 to 39 parents across 11 schools uh by spring of 2026 showcasing its impact. Uh the uh we did celebrate those that completed the first session and
053you could see a picture there of the celebration we had. The PALS program empowers our school community by providing essential knowledge critical to student health and academics. Parents and caregivers receive online training like I said and they share what they have learned with other uh parents and caregivers. Continuing on, we have parent caregiver educ education initiatives supporting family wellness through targeted workshops and programs. Our first one we have is specific clinics workshops which develop emotional skills and building confidence in families. We also have our conscious discipline training which focuses on our pre-K through second families with social emotional learning tools and routines that strengthen the homeschool connections and enhance a child's well-being. Emotional regulation focus which emphasizes on emotional regulation helps families align their strategies at home and school efforts fostering a supportive environment for
054children's growth. And we have our digital literacy enhancing language skills and technology access for families. Um our programs focus on expanding family access to communication tools ensuring all families can engage in their children's education effectively. We we've completed an everyone on workshops and that was it's for beginners beginners that uh don't have any um just it's just basic skills for with computers with Chromebook. Uh it covered uh the use of a computer using an email exploring the internet and accessing online resources. At the end of the I think I believe it was the sixth um session they were gifted a a Chromebook. So they were really excited about that so they can continue um practicing and learning at home. We have connected and protected which is successions and this has been presented by Ruben Kintana
055our health program specialist and he's created six workshops to empower parent leaders for digital safety. Parent parent caregivers parent and caregivers learn about cyber bullying social media and mental health positive dis digital use and cell phone control. cell phone controls. The goal is to create ambassadors. This aligns with the PEL's program. Our parent ambassadors have the training to teach our school community how to take control of their children's use of the phone and social media, etc. So, this leads us to our MC's family and parent engagement policy. Currently, it's currently in its draft form. affects our commitment to building meaningful partnerships with families to support student learning, well-being, and success. Family engage the participation of parents, caregivers, and family members in an authentic two-way and meaningful communication involving student learning and related school activities. Our
056committee was composed of um about two parents per school site, and we conducted four sessions running from November to January. We actually came up with six family and parent engagement policies that we're going to introduce now. So accessibility and equity, the district will provide equal availability and accessibility to families to ensure equitable participation for all. So we provide virtual andor pre-recorded workshops in various language languages and provide families with with training and support to navigate school and district communication platforms. Our second one is community partners. The district will collaborate with community partners to enhance family learning and support district programs. Strengthening schoolto family resource connections by ensuring schools provide referrals for every identified need. After identifying family needs, connecting families to the appropriate resource providers. Capacity building for families. We provide engaging and relevant workshops
057that brought in family support in a clear and accessible manner. We offer learning opportunities that build practical, empowering, and useful life skills that families can apply immediately to support their children and strengthen homeschool partnerships. We also provide workshops at different times using multiple formats. Our next one is staff capacity and participation. We will build school personnel capacity by fostering diversity, ensuring accessibility, and creating opportunities for relationship building with parents. Also, continuing to strengthen relationship building through open communication, ensuring staff work together to support family engagement across all school sites and communication. Elman school, Elmani City School District will provide clear, consistent, and welcoming communication by training families and staff on district platforms, utilizing multiple visual and digital communication methods, and ensuring all interactions with families are respectful, accessible, and inclusive. We will provide families and
058caregivers with support and learning how to use the district communication platforms with the help of the liaison. And our final one is engagement opportunities. We will work continuously, review family participation, feedback, and work to remove barriers. So engagement opportunities are equitable, welcoming, and consistent across all school sites. Increasing flexibility in family engagement opportunities for all grade levels by offering events and meetings at varied times, including night nights. providing virtual and pre-recorded opportunities that families can participate. In addition, increasing invitations and outreach to families so they feel welcomed, allowing families to understand what is available and how to get involved. That's our last one. So, one thing that we wanted to do is really take an opportunity to really thank our boots on the grounds, our community liaison, and they're they're here and I'll let Rose
059take over. So, Thank you. I'm I'm going to introduce them. I know they're not all here, but if you're here, please stand. Cherry Lee, Marcela, Castro, Guzman, Clemenson, Jessica Moreno, stay standing. Colombia, Angelina Pedes, Portala, Carla Perez, Derpy, Hannah Huen, Gidley, Sylvia, Rubio, Lor Mua, Zhao, New Lexington Isabelle Martinezo Daisy Cruz Robles Rio Hondo Araceli Morales Rio Vista Jimmy Lamb Sherpure Dana Marquez Wilkerson Irma Centenno and right school Isamar Zamora and and we also have you Dan you'll stand please she's our Mandarin uh liaison she's she's at the district and I just want to thank you all personally because you you've done a fabulous job >> thank you thank you thank you board members any questions >> thank you so much I did have a question but you answered it was about how what have
060you been what have you found has been really key to have more we have those opportunities but ensure that our parents are able to participate because I do know sometimes it tends to be like the same parents over and over again right but you just shared like how you're really making sure that you're providing various opportunities so that more parents who typically wouldn't participate can participate in all these different um opportunities >> exactly so thank you >> board Mr. Uh yeah, I would suggest some resources you might in incorporate. One is the dual enrollment program with Pasadena City College and Rio Hondo also online from Mexico. It's totally safe. It's a complete curriculum from pre kindergarten all the way to the university. It's called a friend puntoorg. And also the con academy is available in
061English and also visits to the libraries. You might incorporate that also. the the Norwood Library, which is now under construction again, and the Almani Library. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, board. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Moving on to our communications. Um, starting with public comments. Um, our first one being Maria Morgan. Good evening, esteemed board members, superintendent Dr. Garcia, Deputy Superintendent Mr. Solenach, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Pedo, and Mr. Herrera. My name is Maria Morgan, a proud classified employee of over 20 years, and current CSEA Chapter 10 president. and I'm here today to speak about the proposed layoffs of classified staff. First, I want to start by thanking each of you board members for your leadership and ongoing support to our superintendent and cabinet and bringing the vision of our district to fruition.
062Having sat in your position before, I know how difficult it is when needing to make tough decisions that will affect the district. I understand that the trend of declining enrollment and lower birth rates affect ADA and less money means trying to do as much as possible with less. On today's agenda, you are asked to consider the list of classified positions to be laid off. Last Friday, we met with Deputy Superintendent Mr. Sbach and HR operations supervisor Mrs. Kasanova to be brought into the fold about layoff notices. We had a rich conversation and expressed to us was the commitment to do everything possible to find ways to keep positions by looking for creative solutions. We are committed but to um working together with our district by representing um our classified staff and keeping the lines of
063communication open so that solutions can be brought to the table. Classified employees are essential to the district and to the daily functioning of our schools. They are the people who keep campuses clean and safe, support students in classrooms, prepare meals, assist in the office, and so much more. While they may not always be the most visible part of the education system, their impact on students and staff is undeniable. We know layoffs of classified staff do not just affect employees, they affect the entire school community. When these positions are cut, the workload increases for remaining staff, services to students are reduced, and the overall quality of the learning environment can suffer. I am humbly asking the board to carefully consider exploring every possible alternative available. Thank you for your time and consideration and support for the
064voices of those who work every day and support our schools. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have uh Queen Win. >> Good evening uh President Lisette Garcia and distinguished board member and Dr. Mariel Garcia and the cabinet. My name is Queen Wen from Almani Union High School District Trustee Area 3. Uh I'm here to present you the look like a progress report for all the freshman our freshman uh last semester and how they did in math and first I want to kudos to the district that shaping the mindset of the student into the medical field and the technical field but you know we also need to provide the skill set and the tool set for them to access those field and math is is the foundation to those Bill no matter you go for you
065know career or for um or for college and that's the basic foundation for success and the first the first report is from the freshman who took the math academy real Honda math academy dur the summer not only they advanced one year math ahead and and they did perform very well and my fellow board member we were in detail about you know how you know about all the eth ethnicity how they perform as a freshman and like I say we are not a unified school district we have four different school district and Almani city is one of them and you know kudos to uh Dr. Garcia for the cow meeting. They work very closely together with our district so we can you know work together you know to provide a better outcome for our student and
066that's very critical you know without your collaboration from the aid school district it's almost impossible for us to do the job. So I just just present the progress report for you know twice a year so she can see how the kid performing because 60% of our student is coming from Elman City School District and last year when when we run the um district-wide assessment and you know about 50 60% our kid is below grade level in math. So you know the the work that going on is wonderful and I you know I just want to keep you um you know up to date on how kid perform and thank you very much for your attention and you have a good evening. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I apologize I can't write the first name
067but it's ei >> Yeah. Erin. >> Okay. >> Hi. Um, I'm not as formal as everyone else. I think uh, Maria Morgan said it really well, but I'm here to talk to you guys about the proposed cuts that um, we are hearing about. And you guys are going to have to bear with me. My audience is usually seven. So, I apologize. Um, our librarian and all the support staff, we just cannot function without them as a teacher. Um, take Marilyn, our librarian. She orders books. She shelves the books, makes the library look neat and welcoming. She makes sure each classroom has two or more library days each week. She even keeps the library open during recess and lunch and the kids are allowed to come in and take AR tests. And um she organizes the
068book fairs. She uh read across America and student readers for the lower grade classes. She orders all teacher curriculum and make sure they are in the classrooms by the start of the school year. That's just, you know, what she does. Um, she orders all the prizes for AR assemblies, the make certificates, orders t-shirts for STMath, the school t-shirts, and she distributes them all. Um, but beyond her job, she takes pictures at each assembly. She and she takes pictures at spirit days. She paints and displays them on the bulletin boards in the cafeteria. She updates the boards monthly and also does the bulletin boards at the district office every year. On her own time, she comes in at 7:30 and watches the TK and kinder. After school, she also takes up a duty so that our
069burden is less as teachers. Uh she organizes and plans and runs the jogathon. Most most of our nighttime events, all of our community outreach stuff. She's with there. She's at movie nights, game nights, art nights, pumpkin night. She's in charge of field day. Our support staff is so important to us. And we they're the glue. We will would fall apart without them as teachers. Our students love them. We love them. And I'm just trying to pull at your heartstrings on this because we need them so much. And the the cuts could just be devastating. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. >> Next we have Ricardo Padilla, senior board member for Almani Union High School District. Good evening. Good evening, President Lisette Mendes Garcia, uh president of Almani City School uh District, uh board
070members, uh superintendent, Dr. Garcia, cabinet, and community watching. I'm Ricardo Padia, senior board member of the Almonte Union High School District. And it's a pleasure for me to be here uh this evening. Uh but before I I'm here to talk to you guys about the Rio Hondo College Math Academy that happens during the summer. But before I do that, I would be remiss if I wouldn't ask for another round of applause for my alma mater, Gidley. Go Gidley Trojans. So, uh, the reason that I'm here is that, uh, 91, the number 91 is a very special number for me. I graduated from Roseme High School in 1991. I'm pretty old now. Uh, I'm approaching 35 34 years in the Almonte City School District. So, I have a 30 plus year career in this district. But
071that's not the reason why 91 uh is important to me today. I'm here to tell you that 91% of our Latino students that participated in the Rio Hondo College Math Academy during the summer uh passed their class. Um in the past, yeah, that totally deserves rounds of applause. In the past, what I would see is that our Asian test scores would be here and our Latino test scores would be here. And uh I I'm just tired of that. and so is my Asian counterpart here, uh, who's Vietnamese American. And we talk about race and ethnicity and achievement very openly. But for the very first time, our Asian students scored at 91% in the summer school program and our Latino students scored at the 91%. that is important to me and that as a a Latino
072elected official, I can't just sit there and continue to watch that huge disparity and stay quiet and pretend like everything's, you know, la dah and we're all happy. We're not. It's uncomfortable to talk about that, but as Bnee Brown said, sometimes you need to lean into that discomfort. And we do get 60% of our students from your district. But I want to thank Dr. Garcia for continuing to uh run the the CALS which is the collaborative administrative leadership series and our districts collaborating with each other. I think that um it's only going to strengthen uh mathematics and I want to thank you also for diving into vocabulary. Vocabulary is very important and uh many of those word problems our kids continues to struggle with that particularly our English language learners. I struggle with that. I
073don't think I've ever been reclassified. I think I'm still a an altel. But uh I really want to thank you for having that discussion about vocabulary to help our students with math. Thank you for the work that that you guys do in this district. There's so many things. Congratulations to this board. Good evening. >> Then lastly, we have Veronica Pena. Ready, Steve? >> Good evening, board members, Dr. Garcia, administrators, and all those in attendance. My name is Veronica Pñena. I work with the child development program, but I'm also the chapter president um representing the child development teachers. Have some exciting news, so I hope you guys are ready to put your boots on the ground. Um this year, our chapter has been selected to participate in the ACE program and it's appreciating classified employees. Even
074though we're not classified, we're certificated, we're under CSEA, um this program is is designed to build understanding within the district and recognize the hard work that teachers contribute every day. Um a key component of this program is the job shadow experience. So, you get to come to our site um to the Head Start, early Head Start or to a home visit um and shadow one of our teachers. the opportunity to join um whether it be a home visitor, early head start, our blended or head start classrooms. Um this opportunity um I hope you guys are all open to it. It's the week uh during classified week which is May 18th to the 22nd. Um I shared a little bit about the programs that we do. So additional information will be shared and you guys will
075be receiving emails. So I really hope um that we get your participation. Um I already talked to Robert. hopefully you can be our our photographer but Steve um I talked to Steve he's going to be in charge of diaper duty that day. So um so we hope to get uh we hope we hope to get your participation and after that um there is a round table for um everyone to come together and just kind of share um your feedback and what you saw in our child development classroom. So thank you have a good evening. >> Thank you. >> Any written communications? No written communications have come forward. >> Okay. Um next we're going to proceed into close session. We have two items. We have close session item pursuant to government code 54957.6 conference labor negotiators
076EMETA CSCA 10 and CSCA 356 and conference of legal counsel on existing litigation government code 45956.9 subdivision D1 um with the following case. Thank you. Hey, good evening everyone. We are back at 6:51 p.m. for the Moni City School District Board of Education meeting. Resuming open meeting during closed session. No actions were taken. Next we have item I, approval of minutes. Do I have an um a motion for consideration approval for the February 17th, 2026 board meeting minutes? >> Move to approve. >> I'll second. >> Motion by Miss Barta, second by Miss Rivas. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? The motion carries 4. Okay, next we have a report uh EMCSD general obligation bond post issuance and refinancing summary report. Governing board members uh as required under ED code uh
077before you is the final numbers figures um related to the cost of issuance related to our most recent bond issuance and refinancing. Uh costa issuance was $886,000 which is about 1% of the total funds issued and refinanced. Uh we were able to issue the first $35 million of measure ME funds that will fund projects as we go into 2027 and beyond. And we're able to refinance $32 million of existing debt from prior issuances. Um as seen in the report, the total interest cost was uh 3.9%. The new funds had a cost of borrowing of 4.26%. Uh we had the refinancing that was broken into two steps. Uh uh there was a portion of funds $23 million that was refinanced at 2.7% cost of borrowing. Um another $8.5 million at 4.23%. The reason for the refinancing
078being split apart was because um there was a portion of the debt, the $8 million that was not able to be refinanced until August 1st. Um and under the regulations, you cannot refinance debt uh more than 90 days before that date. So we did a forward delivery method which allowed us to lock in rates um a few months earlier than the call date and because of that the rate cost of borrowing went up a little bit but it's a hedge on who knows what will happen in the coming days with the bond markets with some of the geopolitical tension. So looking back on the transaction the sale I think it was overall um the best um uh decision for for the school district and you don't have to replicate the cost of doing two refinancing
079so we pair it up in one. So overall a good uh refinancing save $5 million for the voters u the local taxpayers and at the same time issuing out $35 million of new funds. So report presented for your acceptance. >> Thank you Mr. Eda. Any questions from the board? Okay I move on. Okay. Next we have item K public hearing. We have public hearing regarding CSCA and its chapter 10 sunshine proposal for negotiations for the 2526 school year. The Educational Employment Relations Act ER specifically government code section 3547 requires that all initial proposals of the exclusive representative and the district which relate to matters within the scope of representation be presented at a public meeting of the governing board. In large part, the purpose of the sunshining requirement is to form the public about the
080issues to be negotiated, to afford the public a full opportunity to express their views on the issues, and for the public to know the positions of their elected representatives. CSCA chapter 10 has presented their initial proposals for the 2526 reopening negotiations with the Almani City School District. Is there anyone who wishes to comment on the CSA 10's initial proposal? Now is the time. Let the minutes reflect the Monty City School District has received the sunshine proposal for CSA in his chapter 10. Next, we have our action and consent agenda. Are there any items that a board member would like to pull to vote on separately? Okay. Do we have a motion for the action and consent agenda? >> I'll make a motion. >> Okay. We have a motion by Mr. Seagris. Is there a second?
081>> I'll second. >> Second by um Mr. Bara. Okay. Any discussion? I would just like to point out that um thank you to our schools um for putting together their comprehensive school safety plans. Um they provide a lot of information on various aspects of safety from prevention of bullying prevention, how to respond to various emergency procedures from an aircraft crash to a pandemic and our plan if we were to have to be closed again for a pandemic and those steps and and and including right um how we deal how schools support discipline both prevention and then also the reactive strategy. So again, thank you to the committees, the committee that also put this together. It included staff, it included parents, and also included students that were part of the safety plans. Okay. All right. So
082all in favor for the action and consent agenda, say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The motion carries 40. >> Next, we have our actions item starting with number one, consideration of approval of certification of signatures. President Mendes and governing board members, before you this evening is a certification of signatures. It reflects the updated um director of fiscal services position. >> Thank you. Is there a motion? >> I move to approve item one. >> Okay. Motion by Mr. Rivas. Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> Second by Mr. Seager. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The motion carries 40. Next we have consideration of approval of resolution for the 2526 school year number 32 on reduction of classified services. >> Good evening. Before you for consideration is
083resolution 252632. Um is precautionary step in response to the current fiscal uncertainties and programmatic changes within our Head Start program. Uh the district remains hopeful and believes that it has a plan in place to avoid eliminating classified position. Uh, taking this action now allows the district to meet the required timelines while continuing to work towards solutions that support employees and preserve services. >> Thank you. Do we have a motion for item two? >> I'll make the motion to approve. >> Okay, Mr. A motion by Miss Bara. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Second, Miss Rivas. Any discussion? Well, on behalf of the board, I know that we always want to make sure that as best as possible, we're maintaining our staffing. And thank you for showing that graph about even though we've had
084declutting enrollment, our staffing has been very consistent. But we do know we have to just meet those legal obligations of timelines with March 15th notices that include classified staff as well. So, we know this just a a precautionary thing that we need to do and we're always going to do our best to maintain maintain our staff because yes, our classified staff do so much for our students. When we're doing our school visits, we're not just seeing our teachers. We're seeing our supervision aid supporting with playworks and um all the different and our nutrition staff you know always know they are hustling early in the morning to get our breakfast to students. So we definitely appreciate our classified staff and we know that you work very hard as well Mr. Sullenback to ensure that we're maintaining
085our staffing and working things um behind the scenes. >> All right. All right. Um all in um is there all in favor for uh motion for the item two? I >> I >> Any opposed? The motion carries 40. >> Next, we have consideration approval of the vote on the candidate for the 2026 CSBA delegate assembly, sub region 23B. President Mendes and governing board members, before you this evening is the opportunity to select a CSBA delegate um representative at the delegate assembly uh for our sub region here in the district. Before you you have three candidates and um I the board has had the opportunity to review their bios and make a recommendation this evening for representation. >> I'd like to nominate again Erin um Smatella from Bassy Unified School District. He's currently serving. >> I'll
086second the nomination. >> Okay. Is there a second? Thank you. We have a second by Miss Bara. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> The vote carries. The motion carries or zero. Right. Next for item four, we have consideration approval to adopt resolution for the 2526 school year. Number 28, proclaiming April 2026 as Autism Awareness Month. Thank you for your consideration this evening. This is a resolution proclaiming April 2026 as autism awareness month, recognizing the impact of autism spectrum disorder and emphasizing the importance of early identification, intervention, and ongoing support for individuals with autism and their families. >> Thank you so much. Um, I'll make a motion for the resolution. Is there a second? I'll second. >> Second by Miss Rivas. Any discussion? All in favor say I.
087>> I. Any opposed? The motion carries 40 Z. >> Next we have item five, consideration of approval to adopt resolution for the 2526 school year 29 proclaiming April 30th, 2026 as Elia de los Ninos celebrating young Americans. Thank you for your consideration. This evening is a resolution recognizing April 30th, 2026 is elia de los ninos celebrating the contributions and importance of Latino children within their families, communities, and our schools. Is there a motion? >> I move to approve item five. >> Motion by Miss Rivas. Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> Second by Mr. Seagris. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The motion carries for a zero. Next item six, we have a consideration of approval to adopt resolution for the 2526 school year number 31 proclaiming
088April 2026 as public schools month. For your consideration is a resolution proclaiming April 2026 as public schools month recognizing the essential role that public schools play in promoting learning, civic values, and opportunities for all students. >> You is there a motion? >> I'll make the motion. Motion by Miss Balta. Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> Second by Mr. Seagris. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? The motion carries for zero. And number seven, consideration for approval to adopt resolution for the 2526 school year number 30 proclaiming April 20th through 24th. There you go. For this school year as public school volunteers week. >> Thank you for your consideration. This evening is a resolution proclaiming April 20th through the 24th, 2026 as public school volunteer week, recognizing the valuable
089contribution of volunteers who support students, staff, and school programs. >> I move to approve. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Second by Miss Rivas. Any discussion? >> I do have a question about this. When we get volunteers, do we ever try to encourage them to become teachers or or instructional assistants? It might be a a methodology. >> Yeah, we actually do. Um we have some great parent volunteers um and a lot of times they are at the school um and we try to bring them in as volunteers and um some of our actual um members or CSEA members, our former volunteers and parents. Zulema, who is our receptionist, was one of my parents at Frank Wright >> and I brought her in um as a volunteer and then brought her in to um
090work as a supervision assistant and then she's kind of moved her way up as well. So, >> thank you. >> All right. All in favor say I. >> I. I. Any opposed? The motion carries for zero. All right. Next, we have consideration for approval for the 2526 second interim financial report. Governing board members, I'll present a u a summary of the 100page document that's presented before you. We bring our interimm report uh twice a year. In December is our first interim as required under ED code. March is our second interimm reporting process. There are um three certification options. You can certify as negative and you never want to be in that territory because that means the state will come in um bail you out. uh the board members still have the ability to vote on
091things like public volunteer week, school volunteer week, but they cannot uh vote on anything that has a fiscal impact, right? So, um those districts that certify as negative are in hot water. They require a loan from the state. They go into receiverhip and it takes many, many years to get out of receiverhip. Qualified means that you can you most likely may not meet your obligations in the current or the next two out years. Um, typically that happens in some school districts where there's some challenges, some dysfunction and being able to make some decisions to make sure that the district doesn't go into insolveny. Um, and positive is where you want to be. So tonight, what we have presented before you is a positive certification for the interim report means we'll meet our uh financial obligations
092for the current year and the two out years. That doesn't mean that there is not a deficit that there's not work ahead u for us. Um there are some challenging times ahead and we are implementing some uh creative ways to deal with the deficit uh as we move forward. Um but for the time being as we look at the current year and the next two years out we can sufficiently meet our obligations. Um as we move on to the next slide I'll provide an update as to where we're at in the budget cycle. We're in March board receives an interimm report. The budget cycle really kicks off in January every year uh when the governor comes out with the proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. The fiscal year runs July 1st through June 30th. Um
093that also marks the close of the past fiscal year when the board accepts an audit report to close out the last fiscal year. Um as we move into March, we get the second intern report for the current fiscal year. Uh tax day comes in April and the governor and state of California look at the finances that came in, update the projections for the upcoming fiscal year. That's known as a May revision. uh we take those assumptions and incorporate them into the uh budget and LCAP that we take to the board meeting in June uh for adoption. The LCAP and the budget are living documents. That's why you see throughout the year you see an interim process where we update it. We see annual updates brought on the LCAP. Uh we close the books over the
094summer and provide an update on our unaudited actuals uh for the fiscal year in September. uh we continue with that process in December with the first interim and then we're back there again closing out the year in January officially with the audit report and opening up the next fiscal year. So we're always in three or four different fiscal years at the same time it seems like. Um and so uh currently we'll be uh looking at 2526 fiscal year and as required under ED code looking at the multi-year projection for the next two fiscal years 2026 27 and 2728. As we move on to our next slide, uh a snapshot of or a summary of our second interim finances. As you can see there, uh we have a $230 million budget. We're spending a little bit
095more than the funds that we're bringing in. Um at a high level, it looks as if a $1.2 million deficit. Doesn't seem too bad, but I would point you to fund 21. Um as you know, we just closed a issuance for bond measure ME, which brought in $35 million of funding. Without that, obviously, that deficit would be much larger. I would point you to the general fund where you can see there we have a $20 million deficit. Um, so across all funds, we want to be transparent and show where we're at. Um, the deficit is only $1.2 million, but a lot of that is as a result of uh $35 million of revenue, onetime revenue that came in through bond measure mess issuance. what you'll see in the following year and following years uh you'll
096see large deficits in fund 21 because we brought in funding right in the issuance and we're going to be spending that money in future years with no money coming in um until our next issuance probably later in the decade um as we take a closer look at our revenues on the next slide um breaking down our revenue the funds that come in right we have four different categories our LCFF funding which all shows up in the general fund federal revenues which uh most of it shows up in either fund 12, which is your head start fund, fund 13, which is your child nutrition fund, where we uh use the funds to feed our students, breakfast and lunch and supper. Um, and then the small sliver shows up in the general fund, special ed, and title
097one through title four funding. Now, the federal revenue category was much larger in years past as a result of pandemic relief funds. You what you've seen there is a federal revenue allocation that has stabilized uh in the current year. Now, with the sunsetting of all this one-time uh revenue, um as we move past the pandemic, um state revenue, you see there, $43 million, right? There is quite a bit of one-time revenue activity in there. I'll point you to the CalFire grant. Community schools is a one-time grant over five years. We're in year two of that five-year grant. Student support, Calshape grant, literacy coach grant. So there's a few million dollars in the state revenue category that are onetime in nature and those will go away as we go into the following year. Our local revenue
098typically is not that large but you can see there measure me brought in $35 million with the issuance. And so the four different categories of where we bring uh funding into the school district. As we look at how we spend money in the school district across all operate all funds in in the school district about twothirds of our funding is um on staff salary and benefits right and the other third is a mix of contracted services books and supplies and capital outlay. Um this is across all operating funds. So it includes your building fund your nutrition fund your head start fund. As we move into the next slide, you'll see that although twothirds of our spending across all funds is on staff, in the general fund, it's closer to 80% of our financial expenditures are
099on staff. Um, so we look at the information here. You can see that the various uh uh revenue categories, the expenditures. Um, we have a $20 million deficit in the current year. Thankfully, we have strong reserves um as a result of um you know, great fiscal management from the governance team. Um and so we're able to weather the deficit spending for the current year. Um but we'll need to make some adjustments as we go into future years. Um, something of note, although LCFF revenue comes in as unrestricted funds, about 30 million $30 million of that funding we restrict and send over via a contribution to the restricted side of our general fund budget. Um so we can uh locally restrict and track the supplemental concentration grant funds. Funds that are generated by unduplicated pupils which
100are students that qualify in a low-inccome category or English learner, foster youth or homeless. Um and as we move on to the next slide, a big portion of the funds that come into our school district, I would say 50% of our funds uh in the entire uh across all funds and a much larger percentage in the general fund is LCFF, right? We've now are uh hitting 13 years I believe of when LCFF was first introduced, right? Um back in the 70s or the 80s revenue limit was introduced. Um, and it evolved over time where you had a lot of restricted funds and categorical funds. The state uh over time gave funds to school districts, but they told them how to use the funds. And the intent with LCFF, although it's kind of getting away from
101the state in recent years, was uh subsidiary, have decisions made at the local level, right? We'll give you the funds and local school boards and communities can make uh investments as they see fit to um ser service the students, right? In recent years, we've seen more and more um uh strings attached to funds that are coming into school districts. Um and so the uh intent behind LCFF with local control is being chipped away uh with every year, right? You have um you know funds that are being delivered to school districts with more strings attached and the state telling us here's the funds, but here's we're going to tell you how to spend it, right? So um there's a breakdown of LCFF, base grant, supplemental concentration grant. Um, and so as we move on to the
102next slide, we can see a breakdown of how that money is calculated. We bring in about $15 million a year of LCFF funding. Um, about 30 million of that is non-base grant funding, right? Supplemental concentration, some additional funding to lower class sizes and TK, kinder through third grade. Some added funding for transportation. Um, and about 70 some million of that is base grant, unrestricted funding. Now, where does that money come from? You can see they're off to the left, right? Most of it comes, well, all of it comes from taxes. 20 million of that comes from local property taxes. Um, and the remaining $85 million or so comes from state uh collected taxes. So, the state aid is property um, excuse me, uh, income taxes, personal income taxes is the bulk of it. Some corporate
103tax, some sales tax. Education Protection Account funding um is also income tax, but it's income taxes on the highest income earners in the state of California. If you recall back to 2012 when Prop 30 was introduced, right, and then reauthorized in 2016 under Prop 55, uh it introduced education protection account. Now, that funding is set to expire later this decade. In the next few years, it will expire. Uh I believe in 2028 29 or in the next few years, it will be expiring. and we're closely monitoring an initiative that um our friends in CTA and other education advocacy groups have put on the ballot and hopefully uh if all goes well it will qualify for the November 2026 ballot. Um and that's a big chunk of funds that school districts would lose out on um
104if that initiative is not passed in November. Now, we would still be entitled to the funding, but in all likelihood, the state would not be able to increase their portion of the state aid to backfill the loss of um of revenue. So, that's something we're closely monitoring as it could have some um dire impact on just public school funding in general if that initiative is not uh passed later this calendar year. As we move on to the next slide, you can see our multi-year projections under ED code in the interimm process and we bring the adopted budget. We look at the current fiscal year and the next two fiscal years. In a few months, we'll adopt the budget in June, which will then look at the 2627 adopted budget, 2728, and also now look at
1052829. But not to get ahead of myself, we're not there yet. So, we're looking at 2526 and next two fiscal years. As you can see there, our revenue drops off by a few million dollars in the general fund next year. Why is that? The expiration of some one-time grants that uh we're receiving in the current year. It drops off by a few more million dollars in 2728. Why is that? Because there's some onetime funding that's proposed in Governor Nome's budget for next year. We're set to receive about uh $3.2 million in one pot of money, $1.5 million in another pot of money. So close to about $5 million of onetime funds are proposed in the upcoming 26 27 year. Um and nothing beyond that, right? So that's where you see the drop off in revenue.
106Um, you see the LCFF revenue is pretty stable. Although we have a cost of living increase, yes, we're getting two or 3% more funds per student. But if you have a decline in enrollment of two or 3% each year, right? Um, your revenue will stay flat for the most part. Uh, more students, but you have, excuse me, more funding per student, but you have less students. So, uh, the COLA is offset um by the loss of students. And our expenditures obviously we're adjusting them as we go from 2526 into 2627 and 2728. Uh reducing our certificated staffing levels by an equivalent of 15 uh full-time positions in the upcoming year due to declining enrollment an additional 12 positions a year after next. Also, as we are uh moving forward with our furniture uh refresh initiative,
107right, you'll see in the books and supplies category, uh it winds down a bit in 2627 and concludes in 2627 and then it goes back down to uh a uh it declines further as we wrap up all of our furniture refresh initiatives in the upcoming year. So 2728 uh it's a more normal budget in the area of books and supplies. our capital expenditures decreased dramatically uh from this year to next. Um that's because our green schoolyards grant um is coming into the general fund, right? And so we hope to wrap all that up in the current fiscal year. Not to say that we won't have capital improvements with infrastructure and facility improvements, but that will show up in your bond fund and other funds. Here we're just looking at the general fund, right? The deficit
108still continues, right, as you can see, but um it does decrease significantly from $20 million down to $10 million in the upcoming year. We're monitoring that closely to make sure that uh we can continue to remain solvent as a school district um as we move forward into future years. As we move on to the next slide, um you know, what's driving uh some of the fiscal uh pressures in our school district and just in school districts across state of California? Well, it's declining enrollment. Um, you all have heard some of the reasons behind that. Uh, demographic shifts, uh, migration, um, is really impacting school districts, right? Where we used to just have to deal with, uh, declining birth rates. Now we're dealing with, uh, an impact as far as, uh, inflow and outflow of migration,
109right? Folks moving out of state and this, u migration happening into the state. So, that's something that we're monitoring very closely. Uh we had a year there where uh we stabilized enrollment back in 2023. Um but uh that was um uh good for a year and then the decline continued and we uh continue to expect a decline going forward over the next few years. Um the numbers continue to track what our demographer had shared with us a few years ago when we updated our master plan. Uh we do plan to go under 6,000 students um before the end of the decade. um in a few years um after the end of the decade we plan to approach uh 5,000 students if these trends continue as we look to the next slide just some of the
110planning factors that we have included you can see there we're using the the cost of living projections provided by the state of California right um our unduplicated pupil percentage actually um has increased a bit right so then percentage of students that qualify in a low income category um uh increased for the first time in many years. Um, and so that is a positive news uh as it pertains to our LCFF funding. Um, not necessarily as far as income mobility for our families, but the way our LCFF formula is devised in California, it's very equity driven. So, they provide funding where the most need is, right? And as you can see there, just a history of uh some of the salary increases across the different employee classifications over the years. um for 2526 and going forward.
111We don't have any compensation increases assumed in the budget. Negotiations is still underway and as soon as that is wrapped up, we'll make sure to update that um uh planning factor in our projections. Um and adjustments that we're making this year, as Mr. Solomon shared earlier in the board meeting, we went down 11 certificated staff members due to declining enrollment. We're projected to go down 15 certificated staff members next year. um and projecting 12 the year after next steps um the board will accept this uh positive certification of the second interim report tonight. Uh we will look for the May revision. Um at the state level revenues are tracking um higher than anticipated. So that's something that could be some potential positive news, right? Um and we're tracking that very closely. Most likely it won't
112translate into more funding for schools next year. But I'm hopeful that the state, the governor will use that added funding if it continues to track the ways tracking to um cut out the Prop 98 shenanigans. Um there's some gimmicks, there's some maneuvers that they're trying to do um to defer some of our funds due to public schools. Um, so we're hopeful that that funding comes in and um the advocacy from CSBA um is able to uh with the added funding uh put a rest to some of those um maneuvers that are happening at the state level. And in June, we'll bring the LCAP and the budget to the board for approval. Um shortly after we approve it, the governor typically by June 30th signs the budget into law. And so we'll look at how that
113compares to the May revision and bring that forward to the board um sometime in August. and we'll close the books over the summer and bring the unodit actuals report to the board in September. Um, and we're really proud of our financial team. Our fiscal department wrapped up this last fiscal year with no audit findings. So, that's always um uh you know a win for us when uh we have finances that are presented to the board to the community. We close the books. We have an independent third party that comes in and they uh validate the work that's happening um with zero audit findings. So, that's the the update for tonight and um I'll be happy to answer any questions that the board may have. >> Thank you, Missa. Any questions? No. None at this time.
114Okay. Is there a motion for the interim second interim report? >> Move to approve the report. >> Okay. Miss Rivas, is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> Second by Malta first. Sorry. All right. Any discussion? The motion carries. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> The motion carries 4 Z. >> Next we have our board policy updates. >> President Mendes Garcia and governing board members, we are pulling those items for this evening and we will bring them back at the following board meeting. >> Yes, we understand. Okay. Next, um for discussion session, are there any future discussion items the board members would like us to consider for a future agenda >> or meeting? >> None at this time. Right. Then that adjourns our meeting at 7:22 p.m.