001I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is the Monday, December 15th meeting of the Almani City School District Board of Education, and I call the meeting to order at 5:03. Thank you for being here this evening. We'll begin with roll call. We do have a few board members missing right now, but they are on their way. Um so um Mr. Paralta is absent and so is Mrs. Kobian. Um Mrs. Menddees Garcia >> present. >> Mr. Seagrist >> present. >> And Rivas present as well. We'll begin with the flag salute. And as is our custom, we have a student here to lead us. I'd like to invite Andrew Morales Robles from Frank Wright School to please come to the mic and lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Hello, my name is Andrew Morales
002Robas and I'll be leading the flag salute. Please stand. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all. You may be seated. >> Thank you, Andrew, and we look forward to hearing more from you in a few minutes. Uh we'll begin with the district administration update. Dr. Garcia, >> thank you, Mrs. Rivas. Uh good evening, everyone. It is a pleasure to kick off uh this month's update uh framed around our strategic plan. Uh this we're going to kick it off with the priority area number one, ensuring academic excellence for all students. and I'll turn it over to Dr. Pedto. >> Good evening. So, um
003we just completed our second diagnostic of the year, our I Ready Diagnostic. And with that data, our teachers are engaged this week in um our PD days. and they are using that data um in their professional learning communities, their PLC's um to really analyze the data and see what their next steps are going to be using the four questions of the PLC's which is what do we want students to learn which are the district's essential standards and defining success criteria how will we how will we know that they learned it um they're looking at various data sources including MClass data which is our literacy screener um the the I Ready data that we just received and then our CFA math data and then um what do we do if students have not learned it? And
004so they are going to design their instruction um to include strategic classroom interventions and um provide small group support and really breaking it down by skill and standard to be able to meet the needs of the students. And then what will we do for students who have already mastered it? And so teachers will be identifying enrichment tasks that elevate the depth of knowledge levels um application and cross-disciplinary thinking. So that's for for most of our teachers. For our seventh and eighth grade science, social studies and PE teachers, they are working on um continuing to their work in um integrated EL to support our English learners in the content areas. Thank you. And as we move on towards um priority area number two, delivering diverse experiences and opportunities that prepare students for future success, I do
005want to add that I I know that it's it's we we ask a lot of our school community to accommodate our school schedules, especially when we do professional development. So, I just want to express my gratitude to our parents, guardians, families, because professional development is really important. I know it disrupts the schedule and we're very appreciative that we're partners in this endeavor. So I'll turn it over to once again um Dr. Pedto. >> So for priority area two um a focus goal to point to ensuring that every student participates in at least one elective enrichment program, athletic opportunity or club annually to support personalized engagement. I just wanted to showcase some of the things that have been taking place throughout the district this past month. um our wonderful cheer squad um from the representatives from
006um all of our schools throughout the district participated in the city of El Montes parade of the first one um for the treelighting ceremony and we had a lot of students representing um the our our district and making us very proud. Um last week our real Honda choir sang beautifully for the PTA council holiday lunchon. Um, our soccer students from Colombia are are practicing in the hopes of defending their title. Um, and Peturro students um are engaged in their CTE elective. Paxton Patterson and these students here are modeling um their learning of cosmetology. >> Thank you. Moving on to priority area number three, preparing students to thrive in an interconnected world. It's me again. So, um, you know, all of this, all of the work we're doing with our strategic plan and every day, um,
007wouldn't be possible without partnerships, um, with our families and our our parents specifically. And so, part of the strategies that we, um, identified in our strategic plan was to host ongoing multilingual family learning sessions focused on social emotional development, healthy technology use, and overall well-being. And so our community liaison have been presenting um the seven habits family workshops by the leader NB and they're doing this um in their feeder patterns um within their schools. And then our social workers in the district are providing mental health workshops throughout the year. Um really touching on a variety of very important topics such as overcoming anxiety, um stigma, stigma and mental health, self-esteem, social media and mental health and then you know middle school challenges and how to support students in middle school. And continuing with that, we
008also have our health program education specialists and our community liaison really supporting and providing education for parents around um just social media and cell phones and how to use parental controls within the in the cell phones, managing screen time and content. Um and really helping parents to understand the impact that those devices have on our students, especially our youngest ones. Uh an exciting update to share with the board. We started an initiative earlier this calendar year. We've been rolling it out school by school and earlier this month we officially have our soap for all program fully launched at all EMCSD schools. And this is a program that offers an afterchool or a meal now to students uh after the bell regardless of their participation in the afterchool program or not. Right. So, uh, a good
009percentage of our students do participate in after school programming. Um, and for the rest of our students that don't, they now have the opportunity and the families to swing by the cafeteria after the bell, uh, at dismissal time, right, to consume a nutritious meal uh, before going home for the day. Uh, I imagine that many parents have been in a situation where they pick up their kids, they take them home, and the first thing the child says is, "I'm hungry." Right? So now uh the opportunity is there for the child to consume another meal at school uh after the bell regardless of their participation in the after school program. So we're excited to launch that. Um and it's something that also the timing of it um it's coincides with some adjustments or some new guidance
010from the federal level regarding SNAP benefits and who qualifies and things like that. Locally our data shows that 2400 students uh qualify. It's about 35% of our students. So, it's an added um benefit that families uh may partake in now. Um and it's not contingent on the child's participation after school program. So, we're excited to to uh uh to roll that program out. >> Thank you. And moving on to priority area number four, aligning leadership, staffing, and resources to student centered priorities. Turn it over to Mr. Sullenbuk. >> Good evening. Um every year Los Angeles County Office of Education does salary comparisons. Um and so at the end of the school year, they did a salary comparison based on um all uh 78 reporting districts within Los Angeles County. And um they share those results
011with districts um and we utilize them um as part of our strategic planning and so on as we look at um where we compare to our our neighbors and so on. Um, and so I'm pleased to share that uh in the for the uh 2425 uh school year, we actually rank seventh among um all 78 reporting districts. Um and that's um the maximum salary. And because every district might have a little, you know, variance in terms of what their salary schedule looks like, they use a 25 year mark. Um our salary schedule only goes up to 22. Um, and so that's technically 22 for us where others actually go up 225 or additional bonuses kick in for longevity. And that's all factored in at the 25-year mark for them. So all that said, um you
012know, we still sit at seventh uh district-wide in terms of um all districts, and that would be our unified districts along with the high school districts and then the elementary districts. Uh when we look at our comparables, which would be elementary districts, because that's really what you want to compare yourself to because our budgets are similar and uh and resources and so on, uh we actually uh still rank number one in terms of salary at the max level out of all 26 elementary school districts. And as I shared with you, just kind of an idea of of the districts that um are around us. Um you have uh Elmani Union, that's is just above us. uh we're right behind them in in seventh overall. Uh Mountain View is a few below and then you have
013Roseme that's sitting 12th uh overall in the county as well. We're pleased to report the board will receive at the January board meeting as they do every year the audit report and we just recently received news from our auditor the preliminary audit report which will be a final draft taken to the January board meeting that we closed out the last fiscal year um with the highest opinion that the auditor can issue and no audit findings um on the past um fiscal year when that financial audit was completed. So, thank you to our business office team and everyone else. Uh, it's not just something that lies in business office. Actually, our entire uh district and schools play a part in making sure that we remain in compliance uh to make sure that uh we can have
014a successful audit report every year. Uh we uh value the trust that the families place in us, the fiscal stewardship that we have to make sure that we are investing in the funds appropriately and uh making sure that we are maximizing our resources. Right. And this um also is welcome news. I know we have some um um some financial um tough times ahead, right, with the structural deficit. We'll hear more about that later in the presentation in the board meeting. We'll hear the first interimm update. Uh so it's uh thankful that there's no audit findings and there's no funds that need to be returned back to the state or federal government. >> Thank you, Mr. and I echo your sentiments. Congratulations to the business team. And just in closing, um although this is a slide
015that represents uh you know one of our prior several of our priorities within the strategic plan, I want to take this opportunity to wish our entire school community district community happy holidays on behalf of Almani City School District. And I think the best way of doing it is by showcasing all the wonderful things that are happening throughout the district. Very proud of all of the investments that we make as a community, investing in children, investing in music and art and education and family. Uh it truly is what brings community together. Thank you. >> Thank you very much uh for the wonderful report and um your your words your sentiments at the end there Dr. Garcia. Um so it's time now for board reports and um a lot of us did attend CSBA. We'll save that
016for our discussion session at the end and um so we'll have plenty of time at that point to share any of the highlights that we'd like to. Um but for now um Mrs. Kobon, would you like to start us off with the board reports? >> Yes, thank you. And again, happy holidays to everyone. Um just wanted to share I love this time of year because we get so many opportunities to come together as a community. Um I was able to attend the um the PTA lunchon last week and it was just a really neat opportunity for parents and educators to get together and um kind of celebrate the year. Um also was a part of the holiday mixer and the tomalada and I know we'll be um continuing to celebrate that tonight. And I think
017other than that just really excited of all the the performances. I love seeing I'll just say you know one of our words is elevate and how elevated we have become as a district in terms of the the programs and opportunities that we offer our students and so I will conclude with that and say happy holidays again to everyone. >> Thank you Mrs. Mendes Garcia. >> Hi thank you good evening everyone. Yeah, one of the things that we had discussed, right, is how can we go about with connecting more with um with attending more school functions and district events, but also also still engaging with our community because as we saw with our tree lighting ceremony, a lot of our students participate in events like that, the children's day parades. I was able to attend the
018tree lighting ceremony along with Dr. Pedo and Mr. Solenach for a little bit and something that they changed this year is that it was on Main Street this year. So for years it was it's been in front of the community center and so that was done by city counciloman Longoria who said you know a lot of a lot of other cities hold their tree lighting in their main um in their main street hub right so that was a change that was done this year and so yeah it definitely provided that same opportunity to provide that parade-l like environment and I wasn't able to stay the whole time and I miss Santa but there was a lot of families there so again that just speaks to um how much our parents enjoy coming out to see
019their children not only not only with the holiday performances at their schools but also in their community right and they also had it was the high school I think or one of the high school orchestras also performed did the opening number so again just another great way um that our students are enjoying and connecting with the city events and were able to also as a district go and support them and um al along with all of us I also attended the mixture so again it's always great to then connect with staff um in a more casual environment and always we always love our annual tamalada where we can honor um someone from our district along with someone from Madame View School District and hear their stories. Almani Union High School and Rio Hondo College. So,
020it's great that that's a great way that we're all there together to really honor and and show such the great the great people that are working in the various district uh in the various districts that are so focused and giving above and beyond to support our students in our community. >> Yeah. So, thank you, >> Mr. I'll be as brief as possible. I'm so delighted to see those wonderful reports tonight. I would recommend that we promote those in the media, especially through the Sang Gabriel Valley Tribune, Mid Valley News, and other media because a lot of people keep asking, "What are they doing in the school?" If we don't tell them what we're doing in the schools, they're not going to know and not to understand and appreciate the wonderful things being done. Um, I
021would recommend that our district do something for the first time, and that's have every school apply for the Carson scholarship. Last year, for the first time, Rosemeat High School had one girl who applied, and she got it. It's a fourth It's from fourth grade to 11th grade. It's $1,000, one per school. If you don't apply, you can't get it. But if you do apply, you have a great chance. And in closing, um, attending the annual California Schoolboard Association, um, conference was amazing. I made them, well, I wasn't able to fly up there. I drove my car. That's the last time I'm ever going to do that. Never again drive to Sacramento. But, um, again, in closing, I'm so proud of what our district does and I think we need to promote it even more. And
022uh I attended a wonderful event last night at Nativity Church and the choir from Mountain View High School was there and some of the performers were graduates from some of our local schools, our own district. So again, congratulations to all of our staff in our district and our wonderful teachers. And I'm so impressed with the training that's going on. I know teachers in other districts and I tell them about what goes on here and they say, "How come we're not doing that over there?" Because they need to. So, in closing, I'm proud to be a member of this board and to know that all the wonderful things we care so much about the kids, especially the mental health and how they feel. That's so important. And if you find the media right now, you'll see
023how many horrible tragic things are happening. And I say it's because the schools and the families forgot to take care of that when the children were little. It starts there. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Seagrist. Um I also was able to attend the holiday mixer and the tamalada um at the mixer was really happy to uh run into several retirees and as well as uh current staff and it really is a wonderful event. Um so thank you to everyone who um organized that and put that on. Still enjoying the decor that was created by each of the different programs. Um and at the Tamala that really has be I mean I think we we all know this but it really has become just um just such a central part of the way we celebrate
024the holidays in this community and um so to be able to come together and celebrate local educators that that would be our purpose for coming together is really something special and was wonderful to be a part of that again this year. Um, I also was able to go to the district 1 PTA meeting and holiday breakfast where we were able to mix with PTA members from um our district, from the neighboring high school district, from other districts, you know, in the local area as well. Um, so like Mrs. as Kobian was saying to um have district staff and u parents together celebrating the holidays and just sharing this is what PTA does and this is what we're about. It's a great opportunity. So, thank you all for sharing. We'll move on to items of interest.
025And first up, we have our school presentation. Again, I'd like to invite Andrew forward to share with us about Frank Wright School. Thank you for having me here again. My name is Andrew Morales Robas and I am a seventh grade student at Frank Wright and I'll be talking about my our school Frank Wright. At Frank Wright, we lead with aloha and learn with heart and achieve beyond our limits. Kickstarting the new school year, our school had a welcome back barbecue, a back to school breakfast with the parents and partners in learning community family engagement, trunk or treat, Halloween parade, children days, children day parade, Thanksgiving festival, winter concerts for seventh and eighth grade, winter programs for kinder through sixth, and a camp bonus that we will have in January, and math night and open house.
026Student life, Playworks 1 through 6, recess, wellness center, the giving every moments club, which is a club where students are welcome to come into room 10 and make crafts for their loved ones or teachers or noon supervisors. Spirit themed days and weeks are special days where students can come in and wear special um clothes for the occasion. ELOP cheerleading, soccer for success, youth cinema projects, culinary, musical, esports and clubs and yearbooks and right on the move and so on. Student leadership, middle school ASB, I am actually a part of the ASB program. I am a home room rep and the lighthouse team, the fourth through sixth grade lighthouse team, playworks, junior coaches, peer mediation is something where students figure out a problem with uh no adults, student led conferences, student led assemblies, community service opportunities,
027too. Student achievement celebrations at Frank. We are committed to celebrate celebrating student success throughout the year. Leaders of the month celebrating leaders of the seven habits. Monthly ST math recognition incentives, ESBback achievement celebrations, ready diagnostic growth celebrations and incentives, the Carolano Award and attendance recognition and incentives. The Paxton Patterson Exploratory Lab, career and technical education, middle school semester elective courses, graphic design, 3D printing, rocket design, culinary, and so on. And these are some pictures of our special events. Again, thank you for having me here. I am honored to talk about our school in front of all of you. And thank you, >> great job. Thank you for sharing the information and the pictures. That was great. Um, number two under items of interest, we have Dr. Teresa Pinedto sharing about the California dashboard. >> Good
028evening, President Rivas, governing board, and community members. Um, so this evening, I'm going to be presenting uh how Amani City School District um is progressing on the California dashboard. So the dashboard is a tool that parents and educators um can use to see how districts and schools are performing in comparison to others. And it compares um last year's scores with growth. So how how we're doing over time. Did we improve? The data identifies strengths and opportunities for growth. and it uses data to inform the development of things such as local our LCAP our local control accountability plan um the site plan this uh SIPAS we call them and then also our progress on our strategic plan it's updated every year in it's actually in um November now so they're getting better and better at getting
029it to us sooner um and performance is calculated using the previous year's data for example This year's dashboard is using last year's 2425 school data and it measures performance at five levels. Um levels are determined using the current year 2425 and the prior year 23 24. Um and they're represented by a color ranging from red being the lowest performance to blue being the highest performance. And so the goal is to be scoring in the um green or blue areas. This is a state measure academic performance. Um and we compare ourselves to where the state landed. So on the left you'll see where the state um uh came out in terms of um the the smarter balanced um summit of assessments, the ESBACK um which is the state assessment that we take at the end of
030the school year and also the California alternative alternative assessment which is a assessment that our um some of our special education students take. And this is given um to all third through 8th grade students each spring. And so you'll see that the district um is in the yellow for language arts. We did increase from last year. We were in the orange and so we went up by 4.7 points. Um and we are 8.2 points below the standard. So they call this distance from standard and that standard would put us in the green area. So we're 8.2 points below that standard. In math we remain the same exactly the same as last year. says.1 and so because we did not have growth in that area, it actually pushed us from yellow to orange um for this
031school year. The English learner progress indicator um really shows us how um we're doing in terms of our students and their language proficiency. every year in the spring they take the LPAC um and um this is used to calculate English learner pro um English learner proficiency and the percentage of students who are progressing on this on the alpac assessment and so this year um 53% of our students are making progress and this is an increase from last from the year before um by 9% so we are in the green in terms of chronic absentee ISM we don't want to see an increase in this area. We want to see a decrease. And so students um who are absent for 10% or more of our instructional days um would be considered chronically absent. And so um
0328.1% of our students were chronically absent last year. That's a decline of 1.9%. And so we we scored in the green. And another area is our suspension rate. And so this measures a percentage of students who were suspended for at least one full day during the school year. A student is counted as suspended in the suspension rate only one time regardless of the multiple suspensions or multiple days of suspension. And this is another area that we want to see a decline, not an increase. And so 1.2% of our students were suspended at least one day last year. And that's a decline of.3%. So, we scored in the green for our science assessment, the California science um test. Uh this measure shows us how our students in grades five and eight are are performing on the
033science assessment. This is for performance uh for per umformational purposes only. Um it is not measured into our accountability. Um and so we scored at 50.9% um science points. That's a m we maintained at 7% and so we are in the orange there. We also measure local measures. So everything before this were state measures. These are local measures and districts receive one of three ratings for each of these measures. We either met it, we did not meet it and or we did not meet it for two years or more. So for basic conditions, this is saying that we have appropriately assigned teachers, uh students have curriculum aligned instructional materials and students have access to safe, clean and functional school facilities. We met this measure. implementation of academic standards is that we are implementing state adopted
034um content and performance standards um and that our English learner students um we enable English learner students to improve their understanding of academic course content and their expertise in using the English language and we met that standard as well. Parent involvement and family engagement is another local measure and this is related to how we are doing and promoting parental participation in programs including building relationships between school staff and families. And then our school climate surveys um are related to student, parent and teacher perceptions of school safety and connectedness and we met this measure as well. And finally, access to courses is um uh the extent to which students have access to a broad course of study including English, math, social science, science and visual and performing arts, health and PE and we met that as
035well. Any questions regarding our progress on the dashboard? Any questions? Thank you so much, Dr. Pinedto. >> Thank you. >> And um last under items of interest, um it's our privilege tonight to recognize Marita Dwen who was recognized at the Tamalada. And I'll turn it over to Dr. Garcia. But beforehand, I'll just say that I heard so many people at the Mixer reference how they were looking forward to going to celebrate uh to celebrate you at the Tamalada. and um was a wonderful wonderful time for the um our district community to to celebrate together. Dr. Garcia, >> thank you, President Rivas, and you're spot on. I think uh everybody here knows and loves Marita Das in the El Monte City School District. Um and last Thursday, we had the opportunity to gather as uh as
036a community to celebrate educators, and it was a privilege and an honor to highlight um Marita representing El Monte City School District. I'll tell you a really fun fact. As I was walking in, I always uh greet the laurels. It's an honorary service club from Almani High School as a former laurel. You know, I make that connection and I I said to the young ladies, I said, "Oh, I love the laurels." And they're like, "A laurel is being celebrated tonight." And I said, "Oh, really?" And they said, "Mrs. Marita is a laurel." And so apparently they talked about it at their meeting that one of their own was being celebrated. And so they all signed up to be there and recognized all >> which speaks volumes of the work that um Marita continues to do
037in this community. She started as a young student and then has always given back to this community and I do want to highlight that she's here with her son once again who's who's in finals this week and is here to celebrate his mom. So so impressive. Um Marita is just an extraordinary classroom teacher and I shared a little bit about her at Tamalada. She started as a teacher at New Lexington. Um and then um she became a dual language teacher at Dery and has just touched so many lives and has been such just a leader when it comes to the dual language program. In her role currently as a teacher on special assignment, she's become a cornerstone of the dual language immersion program. She has led in as a teacher and as a leader with
038empathy, clarity, cultural pride, supporting currently our Spanish and our Mandarin programs across the district. And she's just a constant presence in classrooms, in community events, and all things we do. She's so thoughtful when it comes to data. She's so thoughtful and curious and just such an inspiration when it comes to just doing things differently to really meet the need for kids. And as I shared, her impact extends beyond the dual language program. She's also serves as our gate lead teacher, supporting just all of the wonderful gate programs that this that the district offers. She's also uh cultivated a summer steam program specifically for the dual language program. And and she does so so much. I mean, we could be here all evening, but I do want to take this opportunity to invite Marita to come
039up so we can once again thank her and highlight her for uh giving so much to others for always always um making classrooms a priority and and I do want to say that she works so quietly but powerfully on behalf of students and community and that's noted. So, please join me in congratulating Marita Dues, our 2025 Bobby Saledo Esperansa Award recipient. And I'd like to invite the board to come up so we can take a picture. One, two, three. All right. It's time now for communication. ations. I see that we have no public comm comment and Dr. Garcia, do we have any written communications? >> No written communication has come forward. >> Okay. Well, at this time it's time for the annual reorganization of the board. So, I'll hand the meeting over to Dr. Garcia
040who will lead us through the reorganization. Thank you, President Rivas. uh this is an annual um job responsibility of the board to reorganize and so at this point I will lead um the actions into uh selecting a new president vice president clerk LAXA representative and then finally we will approve our meeting schedule for the 2026 school year. So I'll begin with item number one consideration of approval of the Almani City School District board president. Is there a nomination? I would like to nominate Mrs. Menddees Garcia for board president. >> I'll second. >> Mrs. Mendes, do you accept? >> I accept. >> Wonderful. Um, we have a first by Mrs. Reva, second by Mr. Peralta. Discussion. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Motion approved. 5-0. Congratulations, Mrs. Mendes. Moving on to consideration
041of approval of the Almani City School District Board Vice President. >> I'll nominate Mr. Peralta. >> Mr. Peralta, do you accept the nomination? >> Yes. >> Wonderful. Do we have a second? >> I'll second. A first and a second. Is there any discussion? >> All in favor? I >> I motion carries 5-0. Congratulations, Mr. Peralta. Next item, consideration of approval of the Almani City School District Board Clerk. I'll nominate Mrs. Koban. >> Mrs. Koban, do you accept? Wonderful. >> I will second. >> We have a first and a second. Is there any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries. 5-0. Uh, next item, consideration of approval of the selection of representative to the Los Angeles County School Trustee Association, Lexa. >> I'll nominate Mr. Seagris. >> Mr. Seagris, you accept? >> Mhm.
042>> Wonderful. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> First and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries. 5-0. And lastly, consideration of approval of the Almani City School District Board of Education annual meeting schedule. >> I move to approve. I'll second. >> First and second. Any discussion? >> If we can be provided a hard copy of the schedule. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries 5-0. Congratulations to our reorganization of the board. can >> before moving on to um breaking uh excuse me to close session I would like to invite uh Mrs. Dwes to come up and say a few words. I am so sorry because we came up and we took the picture but it was our intent to
043bring you up and and just allow you to say a few words. Mrs. Wes, would you like to approach the microphone? >> Yes, please. You're also very much so humbled that I was considered for this award. Um it means a lot to me to uh represent someone uh such as Bobby Salceto. I read about his history and how much he devoted to this community and I think I shared that I feel like uh as someone who receives so much from this community, it's my turn to give back to it and it's one of the reasons I decided to become an educator here at the Alto City School District. I owe so much to this community. My family owes so much to it. So, it's our turn to give back and um what better way to
044give back than to um uh help be that village for our future, right? So, thank you so much. I'm so humbled by this. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Thank you. At this time, uh the board will be going into close session. During close session, um the board will be discussing uh pursuant to government code 54957.6 6 conference with labor negotiators ema CSEA 10 and CSSEA 356. Uh we will also uh conference with legal council anticipated litigation initiation of litigation pursuant to subdivision D2 of section 54956.9 one potential case. Thank you. Good evening. We are resuming open session at 5:59 p.m. This is your new board president, Lette Mendes Garcia. During um close session on item one and two, no action was taken. I do want to take the time before we start with our agenda
045thanking uh Mrs. Beth Ravas for your two years of service. I wanted to acknowledge that. So, as we're president and just to kind of let everyone know there like any board member, right, we always it's time out of our whether it's work or personal to make sure that we're reading up on before our meetings and all the different policies. But as a board president, you're also doing the extra duty of meeting with the superintendent to meet to set the agenda every month, right? Any type of email that comes from different community members, right? That may be directed to the board that is the board president that responds to those emails in collaboration with the superintendent. And so and then just being cognizant of being that face of the board, right? If there's different events that
046weren't able to attend, the board president attends on behalf of us. So, thank you so much for taking on the extra duty of being board president for two years. >> Thank you. >> All right. Okay. Perfect. All right. Okay, we will now move on with the rest of our agenda, starting with approval of minutes. It's recommended um that the board of education approve the November 17th board meeting minutes. Is there a motion? >> Motion. >> Do we have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Are there any questions or discussion? Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> I abstain. and I abstain. >> Okay, we have two abstinations. So, the motion carries. It's going to be three three with two um abstains. We will now move on to our action
047and consent agenda at this time. Are there any items that a board member would like to pull separately to vote on and discuss separately? Okay. If that's the case, then we will uh is there a motion to approve our action and consent agenda? >> I'll make the motion. Okay. >> Is there a second? Second. >> Any questions or discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> The motion carries 5. Okay. Moving on to our actions. Letter M. The first item being consideration of approval of certification of signatures. President Mendes Garcia, governing board members, this evening you have the annual certification of signatures that reflect um the reorganization of the board. >> Thank you. >> Is there a motion? >> I'll make the motion. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >>
048Any questions or discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> The motion carries 5-0. All right. Second item is consideration of approval of the 2526 first interim financial report. >> Thank you board of education. Tonight we have our director of fiscal services, Miss Jamats, that will be providing the the board and the community an update of our first interim financial report that we're required to bring uh to the board by December 15th each year as we're getting the presentation up and she's getting ready. One thing that I'm sure you all heard at the CSBA conference uh in the earlier this month uh was some updated financial tax revenue projections from the legislative analyst office. Tax revenues in the current fiscal year are tracking slightly ahead of where the projections are, which is
049welcome news. Something that we look forward to next month in January when the governor comes out with his final budget proposal uh during his uh governorship term uh for the upcoming fiscal year. um is some hopefully some potential one-time funds that are coming to education. Um there is some deferrals that are currently in effect. So we hope that the funding if it does materialize is utilized to pay off some of the deferrals. Those are IUS at the state uh plays around with at the state level with some accounting gimmicks. Um and so we hope that there's some excess funding still left over. Um and it we'll have some more details in January uh when the state of the districts provide. Hopefully by then we'll have the the governor's update and hopefully we'll have some um
050uh update and news, right? Um that at the moment we don't have projections, but we think there may be some um a few million dollars of onetime dollars that are coming uh to Monte City School District uh in the upcoming budget year. So with that, I'll turn over to Miss Ptos to give an update on the district's first interim. >> Yes. Good evening board members, Dr. Garcia, cabinet members and members of the public, tonight I'll be presenting the 2526 first NRM financial report, which is a required midyear checkpoint used to determine whether the district can meet its final obligations for the current fiscal year and the subsequent two fiscal years. Before we get into the numbers, I want to briefly show you where we are at in the annual budget cycle. Each year begins with
051the governor's state budget proposal in January, followed by the May revision, which updates funding assumptions based on the state's economic outlook. In June, the board adopts the district's LCAP and budget after the state budget is finalized. In September, the board reviews the prior year's unodited actuals, which officially closes the previous fiscal year. And then tonight's presentation represents the first interim report which provides an updated snapshot of the district's financial condition midway through the year. The next formal checkpoint will be the second interim report in March followed by adoption of the 2627 LCAP and budget in June. With that context in mind, I'll start by providing a highlevel overview of the district's financial position across all funds. This slide summarizes the district's financial position across all funds. For 2526, total revenues are projected at million. 230.1
052million. Total expenditures are projected at 231.4 4 million which results in an all funds deficit of approximately 1.28 million. This total includes restricted funds such as grants and bond proceeds which are legally limited to specific purposes and cannot be used for general operating cost. To understand what is driving the general fund results, I'll first walk through where our funding comes from. This slide shows the district's major revenue sources. We have the LCFF revenues total approximately 104.6 million, federal revenues 28.8 million primarily from Head Start, child nutrition titles 1 through 4, and special education. And we have state revenues of um 36.2 2 million including e- lobsters on behalf community schools prop arts prop 28 and then um the student support. We have local revenues totaling 47.1 million primarily from special education interest income developer fees
053and bond proceeds. LCF remains our largest revenue source because it is driven by enrollment and attendance. Next, I'll wa walk through how those resources are being spent to support students in operations. This slide show how the district's resources are allocated across all funds for the 2526 school year. As you can see, salaries and benefits make up about 65% of the total expenditures. Contracted services which include items such as utilities, transportation, special education services represent approximately 15% of the total spending and the remaining expenditures include books and supplies and capital outlay which support instructional materials, technology and facility related needs. Overall, this slide reinforces that the district's budget is primarily driven by people and core instructional services. This slide highlights the general fund which reflects the district's core operating budget. The general fund shows that ongoing
054expenditures continue to exceed ongoing revenues resulting in a projected deficit of 20 42526. While the district began the year with a strong fund balance, we are using a portion of those reserves to cover the shortfall, which reduces the ending balance. This chart visually reinforces the structural deficit discussed earlier and highlights why continued monitoring and long-term planning remain critical. Because LCFF ma makes up the largest share of our revenue, I want to briefly explain how the funding is generated. This slide provides a highlevel overview of the LCFF which is the district's primary funding source. Under LCFF, we receive a base grant which is generated by all students and considered unrestricted. In addition, the district receives supplemental and concentration grants which are generated by English learners, lowincome students, and foster youth. These supplemental and concentration funds are
055required to be used to improve or increase services for the students who generate them and play a critical role in supporting targeted programs and services across the district. This slide shows how our LCFF is calculated and funded for the 2526 school year. LCFF revenue comes from three primary sources: state aid, local property taxes, and EPA. When broken down by component, our LCFF fundings include the base grant, supplemental and concentration grants, as well as several add-ons such as class size reduction, TK transportation, and TIG fund funding. Together, these components total approximately 104.6 6 million in LCFF revenue for 2526 making it the district's largest ongoing revenue source. >> Uh, one thing I'd like to point out, if you go back to that slide, U, Miss Ptos, is the education protection account funding is quite significant there.
056It's almost $24 million that we receive as a school district. Uh, back in 2012, I believe it was Prop 30 and then it got reauthorized in 2016 if I'm remembering correctly as Prop 55. temporary taxes on the highest income earners, the top 1%. There's a sales tax component component. When it got reauthorized, it was just the higher income tax. Um, it's set to expire in 2030. Um, there is a ballot initiative that's in the works. That will be on the November of 2026 ballot if there's enough signatures that get certified. Uh, very critical to public education. um $23 million would be the the loss of funding um for Mont City School District and it would be uh an equal amount for you know every district every district uh receives that amount. So that's something that
057we're closely monitoring um and we will share more information with the board um as more details come out regarding that. But that's a big amount of funding that we have baked into uh the Proposition 98 guarantee and we're projecting that we're going to guarantee or rely on that funding going forward. Uh what would happen if that ballot initiative doesn't pass? Well, then the state aid portion would have to then backfill what the EPA amount generates. Um and unlikely that the state aid portion, which is proper um excuse me, income taxes, right? Mainly personal income tax would be able to to fill that. So, um they would reduce the uh the funding considerably for schools. That would be uh that's about 25% of our LCFF funding there. So, we're closely monitoring that. Currently, under law, the
058funding is there um through 2030. Um so, I'm glad to see that there's proactive stakeholders out there that have pushed forward about initiative uh for the upcoming calendar year. Um and if it doesn't pass for whatever reason, well, we have another crack at it in 2028 uh and 2030 if if needed. So, that's something we're monitoring closely. I know it's a few years away, but if if it doesn't get extended, it's going to be very um uh uh impactful to school districts across the state of California. While the current year budget is important, the state also requires us to look ahead and evaluate our financial position over multiple years. This slide shows the district's multi-year financial projections through 2728 fiscal year. Based on the first interim projections, the district is meeting its financial obligations for
059the current year and the subsequent two fiscal years which satisfy state fiscal certification requirements. The state requires a minimum unrestricted reserve of 3% and the district is projected to remain above that minimum in all three years. However, the projections also reflect ongoing general fund deficits, meaning reserves are being used to support operations. While the district remains fiscally solvent, continued deficit spending is not sustainable long-term and will require ongoing adjustments. Another major factor affecting the district's long-term fiscal health is student enrollment. Since 20145, the district has experienced a steady decline in enrollment. Enrollment is projected to continue decreasing through 2728, representing a loss of more than 2500 or approximately 31%. Because LCFF funding is tied directly to enrollment and attendance, declining enrollment remains one of the most significant fiscal challenges facing the district. Key planning assumptions
060included funded cola estimates, a high duplicate high unduplicate unduplicated pupil percentage, required stirs and purse contribution rates and annual step and column increases and staffing adjustments align with the enrollment declines. Given these enrollment trends, the next slide outlines the key planning assumptions we use to build our multi-year projections and account for both revenue and cost pressures. This slide summarizes the key assumptions behind our projections, including cola estimates and um staffing adjustments tied to declining enrollment. These assumptions reflect known cost pressures and help ensure our projections remain realistic and conservative. While the district is meeting its financial obligations for the current year and the subsequent two fiscal years, this slide highlights the key factors contributing to longer term budget pressure. First, the district is facing the expiration of approximately 11.2 2 million in onetime grant funding
061at the end of 2526 school year. Um some of these funds have supported programs and staffing and continuing these supports would require ongoing general fund resources. Second, we have the special education expenditures continue to grow faster than revenues driven by staffing needs contracted services. This trend increases the lever level of general fund contribution required each year. And finally, continued enrollment declines increase long-term revenue volatility. Because LCFF funding is directly tied to enrollment in attendance, even modest declines can have a meaningful impact on the ongoing revenue. Together, these factors help explain the structural pressures reflected in the district's multi-year projections. As we close, I want to briefly outline what comes next in the budget process. Next steps in next steps include board certification of the 2526 first interim report and then the release of 2627 proposed
062state budget in January and then the presentation of the 2627 LCAP and adopted budget in June. In closing, the first interim confirms that the district remains fiscally solvent and is mi meeting its financial obligations. At the same time, it highlights ongoing structural challenges driven by declining enrollment, rising costs, and expiration of one-time funding sources. We will continue to closely monitor the budget and bring updates to the board at future reporting periods. Thank you so much for the presentation. >> Are there any questions from the board at this time? >> And thank you again for always reminding us of the various factors that are contributing, right? We always know about decline Roman, but also highlighting just like increased cost, staffing, all of that. Um those various areas at the those last slides. Thank you. >> Right.
063Do we have um an approval for the report? We have a motion. >> I'll make the motion. >> Okay, we have a motion. Is there second? Any questions or discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> The motion carries. 5-0. Item number three, consideration for approval of certificated personnel matters. >> Thank you. Uh this is normally a routine item that uh falls within our action consent, but tonight we wanted to bring it separately and just kind of highlight um a few individuals that have submitted their retirements. Uh but with that, I also want to highlight um in the action consent on our uh classified routine. Uh we had Martha Espinosa um who is a current nutrition service lead at Clemenson um who will be retiring uh at the end of this
064month with 32 years. And then if we look back to November, we had um Paige Davenport, who's uh one of our clinic assistants over at the Jeff Seymour Family Center, who's going to be retiring at 23 years. And then Adriana Larios, who is an ISS over at Lagore, was my ISS when I first started there at Lagor, a sixth grade teacher, um who's going to be retiring at the end of this month at uh with 39 years. Um so we have some incredible dedicated employees on our classified side as well who are going on to the the exciting part of their lives right where they can enjoy some time. Um but with that um on our certificated side we have four teachers that have submitted their retirements effective obviously at the end of the school
065year. Um Adriana Torres from Petro has 30 years of service. Um Corine Wilson at Clemenson is going to have 25 years of service at the end of the year. Uh Gloria Herrera, teacher at Sherpure, is going to have 36 years. And then L. Gri is going to have uh she's also at Sherure is going to have 37 years as well uh at the end of this school year. And so that's why we wanted to pull it and just do it kind of separately just to kind of highlight um our certificate of staff, but then also uh weave in our incredible classified staff as well that will be uh leaving us at the end of this month. >> Thank you. And on behalf of the board, congratulations and thank you to all of the retirees. Okay.
066Do we have a motion for item three? >> Motion to approve. >> Okay. Do we have a second? I'll second. Any other questions or discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. The motion carries. 5-0. Next, we have our board policy updates. And these are regularly updated to align with any local, state, or federal laws. Um, we are going to be voting on them as a whole. Okay. Do I have a motion for the board policy updates items 1 through 21? >> I'll make the motion. >> Do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> Okay. Do we have any questions or discussion on any of the items? >> All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? The motion carries 5. Thank you so much. >> Right. Next we have
067item O, our discussion session. Starting with item one on CSPA discussion. Um I was unable to attend this year's but I will um let the rest of my board members share their takeaways from the great conference that they attended. >> I'll start we'll go from one end to the other. Um >> so uh this time I focused a lot on AI because I know it's going to be a big issue for us as it is for all school districts. Um so I went to several uh workshops related to that in different ways. got to hear things going on in different school districts. Um kind of big takeaways. Uh one is that everybody's figuring it out. I don't think anybody, you know, went in they're presenting like, oh, we have all the answers. It definitely isn't
068that. And that things are evolving so quickly that it's challenging to keep up. Um but CSBA um has had a task force for the last two years I believe that has been um both with educators and board members and people in the field um and has come up with um uh board policies um ARS things like that that uh they will be pushing out or that we can use as a resource to um make sure that we are current with our policies. A lot of them are are sort of broad, not specific to AI but but general good practices in terms of technology use and education policies and things like that. Um the department of education also has a task force um but there's is not coming out with some things specific to what we
069are what we would want to implement and things like that. Um the other really big takeaway is that we really can't afford to wait I think is is kind of the big message I heard from everybody um to make sure that we are keeping this front and center that we are um taking the lead with it not letting um you know the students get involved with something that that may quickly get out of control. Um making sure that we are setting the policy and the guidelines for what it looks like in schools rather than being reactive to it. um there is not any consistent curriculum yet in terms of providing um education or support for teachers on how to use this kind of technology. There's a lot of different programs and things out there. Um
070so there there really isn't a recommended oh this is the training you should have nor is there specific training for students that's sort of the recommended curriculum there. Um so again everyone's kind of figuring it out but there are a lot of resources. Um, one of the important things they said is when you do have professional development for your staff that you include all staff. Um, not just certificated and that sort of thing. Um, also making sure that parents are included. Um, that the board is included because it's it's just something that that's going to transform. They they kind of talk about it's tr, you know, completely transformative of what school and education is going to be like. Um and uh let's see. So talking about that um everyone needs to use know how to
071use the technology um and not specific to a particular program or thing like that because they said this is sort of the the wild west right now and that there's going to be you know if you learn a specific program and how to use that and then that goes out of business you want to make sure that the skills are transferable. um making sure that we keep human interactions at the center. So um you know it's it's easy to kind of let AI just take over things, but making sure that it's it's you're people centered with what you're doing. Um another key thing to keep in mind is making sure we don't create a tech divide even within schools. um where you have one teacher who's very comfortable with the programs and things that students
072can use and another teacher maybe who isn't yet so that you may have kids may be getting very very different classroom experiences as a result. Um and so making sure that that we are consistent with what students are being exposed to or the way they're allowed to use the technology. um their their general recommendation was to be permissive with with sort of restrictions on specific things as opposed to we block everything and only allow a couple of of things. So they said it's it's just it's easier and it also benefits everybody um more when that's taken into account. Um let's see the there's also again so many um opportunities that it offers in terms of special education being helping students to access and communicate in ways that they might not otherwise. Um not letting language
073be a barrier, not letting um someone's ability to write be a barrier. if the if the task is to communicate that you've learned something, you know, the ability to write, you know, may prevent someone from being able to share what they actually know. And so this, you know, there's a lot of opportunities there. Um, and let's see. So, I think there's there's just a lot of um looking at the ways that it can be used and then the ways that it should be used. And I think really being specific about what we want to do with that. And I think so as as a board member, I think the things I would be looking for is is that we're as a district, we're moving um quickly to address trainings. I know we I think there
074was a a PD related to that earlier in the year. Um but I think it's going to be an ongoing thing. Um you know, as a board, I think we should educate ourselves about it. And then I think um you know making sure that we are keeping up with the board policies and understanding what that means for our students and for our teachers and and as much as somebody was saying this as much as the pandemic was such a a you know a big shift in education in terms of the way we use technology and the kinds of technologies that are out there this is they were saying this is much bigger than that is. So it's it's there. It's um it's something that students already have access to. It's something parents already have access
075to and I think it's it will fall to us as a school district to make sure everyone understands. Um, and then kind of the final thing I wanted to bring up is, um, as we look at what this looks like for us as a district, um, I would really be interested in maybe convening or communicating with our partner districts, um, so that, you know, with the high school district for instance, you know, our students will be going there and we want to make sure that our policies align with their expectations as well, so that students don't get to high school and are either unprepared or, you know, have a very different mindset about it than um, um that's will be expected when they get to high school. So that's kind of my quick overview. Happy
076to have, you know, continue conversations about it, but I think um I think this is the time to start start dealing with these kinds of things. Um and again, there's there's a lot of really neat, amazing things that can happen. It can save time. it can allow things to be more creative because you have to bring, you know, your skills and knowledge to let the AI know what it is that you want to do. And then there's also a lot of um really interesting programs and systems that at at just the district operational level. Um one of the examples they had was they had fed all of their health um policies into the system. And so when a new um opportunity came up, it was able to quickly analyze everything and then create a this
077is what we have, this is what the new thing offers, this is the cost benefit. And so it's able to do things that they said saved, you know, hundreds of hour of staff hours um because it's able to just do those kinds of um you know, simple kinds of analysis for us. So anyway, I'll I'll stop there. That was that was kind of my big takeaway from CSBA. Um, I'm really excited about it and I think I think it's a good opportunity for us to take the lead um, as well with our district. So, thank you. >> So, I kind of spread myself out a little bit. I focused on three different topics. The first one I was really excited for was the uh, gubernatorial um, uh, forum. Um, and that was eye opening in
078in a few in a few ways as far as the candidates and the support for certain candidates. Um, was surprising considering the audience that was there. Um, one candidate was in support of um, the school voucher system. So, that's going to be something that we're going to have to keep an eye on just to uh considering our our budget uh problems that we're going to be possibly seeing in the future. So, it's it it was very, like I said, eye opening. I I was kind of surprised by by some of the things that were being said in in that room. Um the second area then you know moving on from there was I I went to a few of the uh budget type of sessions where we were able to discuss um how to prepare
079for the future and I see a lot of the a lot of the things that they were discussing in in those u in those sessions were things that we're already doing now. So um it was good to see that we are implementing these best practices that they have already uh been using from before. The last one that that I was interested in was the um was how districts should prepare and respond to uh immigration enforcement activity around and on school campus. Um, and I think a lot of the audience was hoping to hear from the lawyers that it was okay for them as school staff or to for them to tell school staff that they can uh that they can get physically involved in preventing some of that activity. And that's not what the lawyers
080were were were were saying at all. Um there were some very specific uh things that that we as a school district can do and there's very specific things as a school district that we cannot do. Um and again these are items again that that I believe were already being implemented here. So I wasn't too concerned about how our response is going to be but um just seeing that there's obviously a lot of school districts, a lot of school board members who are have the same concerns that we do and nobody really has an answer. Nobody really knows what the proper response should be. We all know we want what we want to do. Uh but at the same time, what is the correct way to to go about it is is something that's still kind
081of in flux. But yep, those are the areas and like like like uh like Miss Copian said, um you know, if we want to discuss further, we're always open for that. Uh yeah, I really appreciated being able to go to CSBA again. It's really uh such a great training uh thing for all board members across the state and um you know you can be trained as many times and just you know you still need it right um because the needs like you're sharing Mr. Pala they change um from year to year and the things that um different districts are working on um shift as well. So, it's a really great um training session and like you shared um what what we hear is is so similar to what's happening here, right? Like, oh, okay, that's
082that sounds familiar. That sounds like something that we're our administration's already doing. So, that's always great as well. I'll just mention um four different workshops that I attended. Um the first was on career readiness for our students. They were focusing on CTE opportunities like you mentioned um in your presentation Dr. Pedo um talked quite a bit about um just promoting CTE options and clarifying pathways um starting in the middle school years so that by the time they're in high school they're really ready to engage in a certification program and also to clarify those different options that there are as students are looking ahead to career paths. Um, the second was a child safety and well-being session and it was really just an encouragement for board members to continue working on practices that promote child well-being.
083They focused on two areas in particular, discipline. Um, which they actually said instead of using discipline, let's use effective practices and appropriate responses to behaviors, right? Instead of just focusing on that particular word. So um the idea was continue to explore more effective practices um that that would be appropriate responses to student behaviors and then for other needs that students come to school with to continue to develop MTSS systems. Uh so the session overall really highlighted the importance of establishing and maintaining trusting relationships with adults uh for all of our students. The third session was on teacher well-being and educator thriving. Um very interesting one that was actually co-hosted by an organization that does surveys of teachers and educators. And uh one of my takeaways there was they really emphasized that in doing this study
084across many districts they found that the largest factor uh that contributes to the thriving of educators is responsive leadership and supportive culture. And there are other factors as well. But um that one that one particular factor explained um half of the variation of the data and the other factors um were important of course as well. Um but overall the takeaway there was that um you know continuing to remember teacher well-being and thriving um as board members is key and that there are resources out there uh to support in that. And then lastly, the last session I'll share about was had to do with ARFEP students and the importance of continuing to track their success throughout um throughout their schooling so that gaps do not emerge. Um, you know, it was highlighted today in our California
085dashboard that our students uh we do pretty well in that area and uh they encouraged um some sort of coordination so that we can continue to track their progress through high school and even college. And uh also reference that there are districts that do really really well in this area and really should be highlighted and celebrated because of that. That's all for me. >> Uh I would like to thank Cesar for reminding me about the forums. I did go to both of the forums and I was impressed with certain candidates and their knowledge for superintendent public instruction and governor. Uh one out and I was watching the techniques. One of the presenters had this wonderful outfit that sparkled and she would stand up. everybody else was sitting down and that in itself was a great
086attention getter and the knowledge was there from from most people and their their willingness to get involved in educating the public and talking about the schools. Uh I came away um with a um different approach on AI artificial instruction. I used to be so enthusiastic about it. After careful reflection reflection, I've been thinking um it it will tend to destroy creativity. Um people who buy into AI are too into well it's got to be perfect and it's not. A lot of false information could be in that in that. The question is if you produce something in AI, how much of it is actually yours? And there's a great debate there and some districts already have policies for AI which we need to work on and get that done. And one of the um cautionaries that
087came out of the contact with the attorneys at the legal seminar was updating our policies, making sure that we have them updated because if certain things happen and we have nothing in the policy to say this was something that um happened and we had no reaction back, it can cause us major problems. One reminder was about behavior of board members. If any of us post something on Facebook uh Facebook or any of the social media, we should not as board members refle contact or respond to what's up there because then it will look as if we're having a board meeting. And one attorney said it would be a wise thing whenever we appear in public to have somebody sitting beside us who's not a board member and avoid the three people together because people do
088take pictures and there are unscrupulous people who invent things as we all know in the media and again about artificial intelligence. We really have to do some work on that. Some districts are way ahead of us but I think one of the advantages tap into what they've already done. There's a national headquarters on that. And um also about parent involvement. They really said we should really work more in that. Get more parents coming to our meetings. Let them know that we are open to hearing from them because they are our constituents. And overall, I was impressed with the CSBA, the the the the value that they place on keeping current issues in mind and reacting back and um having something to say. And they did encourage us to appear in more events around the community
089because we are serving the community and we need to let people know that we're out there. And since I have a lot of contact with Vietnamese in our community, a very large number, they keep asking me not if we're going to have dual immersion. They want to know when. And I need to I was thinking seriously, I don't know if as a board member if I could do it. Contact the billionaire uh owner of the Sicha company over in Bowwin Park and say, would you be willing to fund a project? And nothing ventured, nothing gained. But overall, I think the CSB had so many offerings that were at the same time. And I did come away with a um reminder to them that they keep forgetting. They need to have seminars present presentations on what's
090available out there for scholarships. I couldn't find anything about that. And I'm running across a number of them. Like I keep harping and I'll use the word on the Carson scholarship. No one in our district has ever applied for it. It's one per school. It's $1,000. And last year, Rosemeat High School finally got one person who did. And even like the PTA, uh that was brought up also. We need to activate our PTAs because PTAs have a lot to say to us and that we can say back to them. Uh there's a scholarship every year for PTA in high school. Kids need to know about it. But overall, I think CSBA this year was very, very good. I was very impressed and I and again I was disappointed in the number of sessions that were
091at the same time and you can't be in too many and I would recommend that they record some of those so we can go back and see them. So I would go on forever but I won't. I'll let you rest your ears and your minds but again CSB has a lot of offering for everybody. Thank you >> Mr. Crist. Right. Thank you so much for everyone for sharing um their takeaways from the CSBA conference. Are there any future discussion items any would like to uh add to a future agenda? One thing I know that me and MCON are going to be working on to present at the January board meeting is an update to our governance um handbook. Yes. And then with that um about a month ago, one of the board members from Glendale
092Unified, I was going through my emails, I remember, but he had sent I think it was Miss Rivas and myself and including Dr. Garcia Glendo Unified School District. I'm pulling it up here. They passed it, right? And it's on their district website, but they created a code of ethics for board of education specifically. They created a whole ethics complaint procedure. Um, and so in looking knowing that we're going to be updating our board procedures, maybe that's something that me and Miss Cobian can kind of look at. >> Um, and what did they what it has? And it's a board bylaw for them. And then and it's on their district website. And then there's a whole stepby-step process on an ethics complaint form um really focusing on ensuring um accountability for board if there's any violations
093on board bylaws, >> right, or conflicts of interest, misuse of official position violation, gifts in um gratuitities violation, brown act violation. There's an actual procedure. Um, and so that's just thinking thinking um, you know, especially with we're having elections in another year and we don't know year to year things can change, right? So I was just thinking maybe this could be something that we could possibly look at and consider of of including for the city school district as well. >> Okay. All right. So we will be bringing that back to the board um, in January. If there's no any other items, I will adjourn tonight's meeting at 6:43 p.m. Thank you.