Board Meeting May 12th 2025

001Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is the May 12th, 2025 meeting of the Elmani City School District Board of Education. And we call the meeting to order at 510. I'll begin with roll call. Mrs. Cobian, present. Mr. Peralta, present. Mrs. Menddees Garcia, present. Mr. Seagrist is absent and Rivas present. Uh to start our meeting, I would like to invite Ariana Pñena from Gidley School to please come um to the front to the microphone and lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Stand for the pledge of allegiance. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge of 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. Thank

002you, Ariana. Uh what a wonderful evening full of celebrations and uh thank you all for being here. It's wonderful to see the boardroom so so full of people from around our community. Um we'll begin with cabinet reports. Dr. Garcia, thank you President Rivas and I just want to echo your sentiments. It's wonderful to see our boardroom uh just filled and especially tonight. Uh tonight is a night of celebration. We're going to be celebrating all things EMCSD and many of our students. So thank you for being here. Uh we're going to kick off our board meeting this evening with a cabinet update and I just want to uh express my deepest gratitude to our school community. As you can see uh the image that we have before you is uh some students from Dery. We were

003able to send uh for the second year in a row all of our eighth graders uh to Washington DC free of charge to parents for five days as part of the experience and our commitment to the Elmani City School District and our students. So happy to be uh kicking off our cabinet reports with that wonderful image and I'll turn it over to Mr. Era for uh business service updates. Thank you Dr. Garcia. Uh one of the things we wanted to highlight, we saw the picture there on the first slide there, right? Our kids in DC, right? And so on top of providing student transportation to more than 500 students on daily basis, home to school, school back to home on a daily basis, um study trips are an important part of u the students learning

004experience, right? Um, as we had discussions last week as part of our strategic plan and updated goals, right? Um, providing real world life experiences outside the classroom is something that, uh, we hold in high regard here in the Mont City School District. And as you can see there, right, uh, we go back a few years, the number of study trips that, uh, we've completed that required busing, transportation requests um, has increased significantly. We have 340 field trips so far um, this year that were slated to deliver. Um, obviously the pandemic disrupted some operations, Ryan. there was no field trips for a few years. So, we're happy to see that the numbers increase. Um, and we hope that it increases increases further as we go into next year and beyond. Uh, something that I wanted to

005highlight was the average right times for our students um that ride the bus on a daily basis, right? Um, so as listed there, we have 500 students that we transport on a daily basis. Uh, so the great majority of our students don't actually ride a bus to school. So, these study trips are a good opportunity for them to get their first experience on a yellow school bus. For those that do ride the bus on a daily basis, uh we really try to limit the ride time as much as possible. Uh none of our ride times uh exceed 50 minutes. Uh and the average ride time is just over um 25 minutes at 26 minutes. And that's across 35 bus routes, right? So um you'll see a lot of buses and vans out there on the

006roads uh in the morning and at pickup and dismissal time. So thank you to our transportation office for recording all those um important activities. As we move on to the next slide and look at the state's finances. Uh they may revision will be coming out on Wednesday and we'll be providing updates to the school community and the and the board of education. We'll take that information uh into account as we adopt the budget. At our June board meeting, uh we have two board meetings in June. The first one will be hearing a public hearing on the adopted budget and the LCAP. And at the following board meeting, we'll be adopting the budget and the LCAP. And so the May revision comes out in a few days. Um, obviously that will kick off a flurry of

007negotiations between the governor and the state legislature as they sign the fully enacted final state budget. Um, hopefully uh by June 30th. That's when they typically sign it. What we know so far is the statutory cola that has uh been released as of a few days ago and that stands at 2.3% for next year. U now the state does not have to fully fund that statutory cola but that what is what is in law and so we hope and we fully expect for them to fully fund it. Now, the projections have changed slightly. You can see there back in July of 2024, they were telling school districts um to project a 2.93% cola. Uh when they gave out came out with an update November, in January, now in April, the number has been declining uh

008due to a slowing economy. So, doesn't seem like much, but a 2.93% cola versus a 2.3% cola where we currently stand, that's uh over a million dollars of revenue for Monte City School District. So, we're tracking that very closely. On the positive side of it, uh, April tax revenues meant um the mark uh from what we're hearing from the state controllers's office. And so that takes into account also the delayed tax day for LA County um taxpayers, right? That was delayed due to the the the wildfires. So that that's some good news. U and we'll continue to to monitor that and incorporate the may revision assumptions into our budget that he brings to the board in June for adoption. Thank you. Good evening. Um, President Rivas, governing board, and community members, I'm happy to provide

009an update for educational services. Um, starting with our extended school year uh, waiver that we applied for. It did get approved at the last um, board of education meeting for the state. And so, um, we our extended school year will occur from uh, June 12th to July 3rd, which is a shorter period of time, but for longer um, days uh, longer during the day. And so 8 to 2:30 is our main program with uh shortened schedules for our preK and our TK and kinder programs. And as Dr. Garcia shared earlier, um our wonderful eighth graders were able to take this fabulous trip to Washington DC. Um and they had a wonderful time exploring DC, visiting the White House, the Kennedy Center, the Supreme Court. Um they went to various museums um including the Holocaust Museum,

010the Natural History Museum, National Museum of African-American History and Culture and more. And they also visited um many memorials including a couple of my favorites, World War II Memorial, where they actually went and laid uh flowers down um and the um Arlington National Cemetery and Ewima as well. So 75% of our eighth graders actually were in attendance for our DC trip. For musical theater, uh we are rounding out our year. We just have a few um schools left with their schedule there. Real Vista, Cherry Lee, Real Hondo, and Clemenson in the coming weeks, but we had a wonderful um showcase on the first Friday of this month on May 2nd. And um all of the students that performed, all of the ensembles, uh they chose one uh song to perform uh for the showcase. And

011then there was actually an all-star group of students who um had representation from each of our schools. And they sang uh one short day in Almani City, which comes from Wicked, and one short day in Emerald City. And we even had a surprise cameo um appearance by Dr. Garcia. And uh big uh good luck uh congratulations and and good luck to Lor and Sherper schools who will be representing Almani City School District this Wednesday at the Conga Kids finale. Our fifth grade students have been have gone through about 20 weeks of instruction in various dances um hiphop and jazz and lambda and um and a couple of other salsa in there as well. And so they were per they will perform um and against other schools uh Pomona Unified, Mountain View, some other schools locally,

012Hassienda Laente, Roseme um over at the Novo in LA live um this Wednesday at 5 o'clock. Yes, Lor is here right now. Congratulations to Lor. Yes. Good evening everyone. just going to give you a few updates from personnel department. First off, while it may not seem like personnel, it's uh been something that we've been kind of running uh since I came to this office. Uh our 21st annual Run for Your Heart event is scheduled for Friday, May 30th. So, I'll invite uh our board of education if you can make it uh to some of the races that day or awards presentation. Um and those in the audience, you're also welcome uh to attend as well. It's it's a wonderful tradition um that highlights our seventh and eighth grade students over a 1.5 mile course um

013as we prepare them for high school. I want to thank our board of education and then also a Royal High School cross country because uh at the day of the event uh our our Royal Cross country u participants are actually the ones who run the event. They pace the students, they do the timing for us and so on and so forth. So, uh, this event actually could not take place without the support of a Royal High School, uh, and their cross country and track team as well. So, um, pleased to finally have a date, uh, so we can, uh, get this event, uh, settled for this year and see which school is going to come out on top in terms of the sweep stakes trophy trophies. And finally, I wanted to give the board of

014uh, education an update regarding a uh, certificated positions. Um just some background over the course of the last 10 years we've actually reduced um our general education positions by over 71 positions. Um and all this had become uh have come because of a decline in enrollment and we've been able to absorb these positions just through natural attrition uh resignations retirements and so on. So we've never had to experience anything like we did this year with the idea of the potential of layoffs of of individuals right. Uh so when we started looking at next year's projections back in November, we identified that um we were going to be 19 positions um over of what our needs are. Um and looking at our our list of uh potential retirees and so on, we identified the fact that

015there's a good chance we wouldn't be able to meet that 19 just through natural attrition. U we offered some incentives and so on just to try to uh motivate individuals to maybe turn in their their notices early to help us with that planning and and so on. Um and so at the March um board meeting, we had brought a resolution identifying the need to reduce at least 10 positions. Um and that was due to the fact that we uh still needed the 19, but we had identified nine individuals or nine ways in which we could save some positions or people. Um and so that resolution was b uh brought forward because of the potential of layoffs at the end of the school year for the for the next year. Um and as I mentioned the

016attrition had already taken care of nine of those. Uh at this board meeting we should have been bringing a resolution to identify the actual number of positions um that we would need to reduce and potentially the employees impacted by that. Um I'm pleased to say that while we still are reducing by 19 positions, we actually have been able to um resend all of our layoff notices um due to attrition um and then some some last minute enrollment adjustments where we've been getting some students coming in enrolling for this year and for next year and it required us to make some uh adjustments at at uh some school sites. So um we're pleased that um you know we we are able to rescend everything. We're not having to go through any formal layoff process. Um, but

017we also know that uh in the coming school year, we actually will still see that probably 19 at least less positions than our current school year. Thank you. And I'm going to round out our presentations this evening or our updates, I should say, with just sharing some information uh for the community to keep on your calendar. Uh, one of them that's not on here, but uh we will be celebrating all of our retirees. We did have uh some retirement notices come in uh late last week and so we're gonna celebrate every single one of our employees that has been with us through the years that has contributed so much to our school district and that'll be coming up shortly. Um wellness festival recap. On May 3rd, we held our annual wellness festival at the Jeff

018Seymour Family Center. The Jeff Seymour Family Center is a designated space that we have dedicated to our community to create all types of supports and just create a familial atmosphere uh for our school community. This particular event has been uh a yearly event that takes place that is able to provide families with a lot of different resources tied to wellness. My favorite is the children's farmers market as they go around and get to pick fruits and vegetables and get to shop the farmers market on their own. So, I want to acknowledge all of the partnerships and all of the families that have come out. Um, we're able to do health screenings. Uh, we offer school supplies, a variety of other supplies to support families, financial literacy workshops from the Almani Promise Foundation, and many, many

019others. So, this is going to become just an ongoing annual event to support all things wellness for Almani City School District. All right, time to add dates to the calendar. uh 2025 steam summer registration is open. Um I believe we have quite a list of students that are already signed up ready to go for summer school. Um our focus will be all things steam. Summer programs will run from June 16th through July the 3rd and they'll take place at Colombia Dery Potero Real Hondo Real Vista and Frank Wright School. Looking forward to just a wonderful summer offering for our students. We um we we we kicked off a wonderful cheer and dance program this year and so it's time for that showcase to take place. Uh that'll be on May 31st. It's on a Saturday.

020It'll take place at Columbia School. Um we're dividing up our schools into three different cohorts to make sure that we can um accommodate all of our guests who want to see our youngest cheerleaders and dance teams perform. Uh so please add that date to your calendar. May 31st. This is our first year of cheer and dance and we're looking forward to just a fantastic event. And then lastly, um the countdown is on. Um the end of the school year is just right around the corner. And just as we're getting ready to say goodbye and thank you to our retirees, we're also uh going to take this opportunity to thank our eighth graders and wish them all the best uh for the next step, which is the high school. And I'm happy to see Dr. Zuniga

021representing the high school district here today. Dr. Zuniga, you're getting the best of the best. Almani City School District eighth graders are ready for you. Um, but just to make sure that uh we celebrate them, we have our promotion schedules up uh there for everyone to see and to join us in celebrating our eighth grade students as we say farewell and bid them all the best. And that um is our cabinet update for this evening. Thank you very much. Thank you Dr. Garcia and cabinet for the wonderful updates. It's time now for board reports. Mrs. Kovian, thank you. Um, and again, welcome to everyone here. Uh, this is definitely the season of celebration and showcasing. Um, I was really excited to see the um the musical theater showcase and some of the programs we've had

022before and I know there's a few more performances coming up. Um and just wonderful to see everyone come together as a community to um see all the wonderful things that our students are doing. Um and then I also got to um attend the day of the teacher event that happened last week. It was really nice to see um many familiar and new faces coming together to celebrate um our wonderful educators that support our district. Uh and that's it for me for tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Peralta. Hi. Uh welcome everybody again. And yes, I was also at the uh district showcase for for the musical theater. Uh wonderful event. If you haven't been, um you should really try to make it out to at least that one or if not the one at your

023school. Um and I was also uh in attendance at the Monte Philly's girls softball closing ceremony. Uh unfortunately, it was super hot that day, but otherwise it was it was a wonderful event as well to see the families come out in the community come out and and support their girls as they finish up the softball season. Thank you, Mrs. Mendes Garcia. Yeah, I just want to um wish all of our staff and our parents and our students uh just good energy as we finish the end of the school year. I know we're almost there. State testing's already wrapping up, so I know everyone's on that countdown clock and I know we're all excited about all the great um items of interest that we have. So, Otto wanted to delay that any further. Thank you. And

024yes, best wishes as we wrap up another great school year. It is time now for items of interest. Dr. Garcia, first up is our mariachi program. Well, we are celebrating many, many things today. So, we thought how appropriate to invite our own district mariachi to kick off the celebration. So, we're excited to kick off this meeting with our all-star mariachi. Our investment in music and the arts is visible throughout all EMCSD and one of our shining stars has been the mariachi program. This has been continuous at all of our TK through 8 schools since 232 24 school year. As we continue to grow the mariachi program across the district, we have introduced the mariachi allstars comprised of the top mariachi students from all of our middle schools. They're sixth through eighth graders. In April, they

025performed for the very first time at the mariachi music festival in Downey. We are honored to have them perform tonight to showcase their talents and highlight EMCSD's commitment to the arts and culture. Please help me welcome our mariachi allstars who will be conducted by their teachers from our partners at Nandez Productions, Orpheus Guerrera and Luis Aparicia. Are you ready for some mariachi? [Applause] I know. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Bravo. Bravo. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the door. [Music] I know your name. What I saw yesterday [Music] God. [Music] I know your [Music] for Bravo. Bravo. One, two, three. [Music] [Applause] They love [Music] Your [Music] Yeah. bless. [Applause] [Music] highlight. [Music] So close your [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] Wow. Wow. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I need [Music] Happy birthday morning. [Music] We hear you.

026We are for you. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I [Music] know there [Music] for any of us glory. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] We [Music] Everywhere. When the man is [Music] This [Music] [Applause] might one group photo everybody. Okay, let's get our board. If you can step into the picture, please. How amazing is our mariachi? I think they're ready for we'll be ready for this community. There we go. Fantastic. Thank you so much. [Applause] As they're walking out, I just want to acknowledge our afterchool team. I I thought I saw them over there in the corner. They're just doing a phenomenal job of coordinating all the things that we offer after school, including our wonderful mariachi program. Let's give them one more big round of applause. Amazing performance by our mariachi allstars. Thank you. Uh next on

027our agenda, Dr. Garcia, we have community schools. Yes. Another wonderful thing to celebrate our community schools initiative. Um so we are pleased tonight to share an update with our district community on our community schools initiative. a vital effort that's we're focusing on strengthening strengthening the connection between our schools, families, and our community. Uh the community schools model is built on the belief that all schools thrive when they address not only the academic needs but also the social, emotional, and physical well-being of students and their families. By bringing together resources, partnerships, and services, we aim to create a more supportive and equitable learning environment for every student. This evening we have a presentation and our newly hired community school leads are all here with us. So, let me just acknowledge them straight ahead. Really excited to

028get to know each and every one of them in this capacity. They will be providing an overview of our progress so far, highlighting our key priorities and share how we are engaging with our school community to assess needs and develop solutions together. The presentation will also outline the work ahead as we continue to build a strong foundation for long-term success. So, at this point, it's my pleasure to introduce Mr. Francisco Aoyo, who's going to kick us off um and tell us uh how all things community schools are happening across Almani City School District. Wonderful. Thank you very much, Superintendent Dr. Garcia. Um hello everyone. My name is Francisco Royo. It's a wonderful pleasure to be here on behalf of the community school leads. I would like to thank board president Mrs. Rivas um as well

029as the Amani City School District Board of Education, uh Mrs. Kovian, Mr. Parata, Mr. Seagris, um and Mrs. U Mendes Garcia. Um it is it is truly truly a privilege to be here and we would also like to thank cabinet as well. And again, Superintendent Dr. Garcia for um giving us this time to present to you uh updates regarding um the work of community schools with Almani City School District. So we will move forward. Um just to give you an overview of today's presentation, um we're going to introduce our team who was very recently hired. Um we're in the process of onboarding. It's um we're very excited to move forward with the work for community schools. We're going to um go over a brief recap on uh what what is community schools, what does that

030look like um at different capacities, and we'll provide an overview of the site level um progress report, as well as highlight um one of our community school sites that um is is currently in progress to to meet um you know, their the development um as they progress forward with community schools. But with that said, uh we're going to introduce our wonderful team. Um and they'll step up to the mic. Uh good evening everyone. My name is Sarah Selera. Oh, thank you. Good evening everyone. My name is Saraseli Carera. Nice to meet you all. Good evening. My name is Joanna, a proud former parent of El Monte City School District. Good evening. My name is Marcela Himenez and I'm a proud student of Mani City School District uh schools and I'm one of the new community

031school leads. Good evening everyone. My name is Marcela Estrada. I'm proud to be here. And then as I introduced myself earlier today, my name is Francisco Royo. Um I'm a product of the school district. I grew I was born and raised here. Um it is a tremendous privilege to be here with all of you today. Um we we all have served as you can see on the slides in our respective capacities. I myself have served uh with the Almani Promise Foundation for 10 years. Uh Marcella Himenez has served Almani City School District from the Head Start program for how long? 19 19 years. Um and our wonderful members have also been deeply 29 years. 29 years. So our team has members deeply rooted um in supporting our students from as early as early head start

032through even in their high school years with with the with you know as generation upon generation have have grown up together. Um but we're going to go into what are community schools and our uh executive administrator Christina Dila um will present on this via a pre-recorded video. I'm Christina. I'm the executive administrator of the Jessemore family center. Community schools is a opportunity for us to work together with parents, with students, with staff and faculty, with admin, and with community partners to really work together to support our student. We're working on the whole child. So, not just academics, but social emotional well-being, physical health and well-being, uh enrichment activities, and really trying to bridge the connection between the school and the community. So I feel like community schools is directly aligned with Almani City School District

033core values. There's evidence to show that, right? Our investments in things like the Jessemore family center or in the 80s when um we opened up community health clinics at some of our school sites. Um we've always served with our community first in mind. And so, um, anything that we do, we really do to try to improve not only academic outcomes, but really the experience of students and the community as a whole. So, I'm really excited about being able to work together with all of our school sites to bring what we've done at the center, what we've done in the past, uh, directly to our students and families where they are at their schools. When you think community schools at the school level, what does that look like? Well, right now our sites are all engaging

034in committee work to figure out what that looks like because each school is unique and each community is unique. So, uh, every school site is uplifting community school advisory committees that consist of parents, students, teachers, uh, support staff, admin, and community partners. and they're all looking at data and they're trying to figure out how they want to use this investment to improve their school community. This can be different for every school. So, some schools are going to look at more health services, some schools are looking at more mental health, some schools are looking at more enrichment activities, some schools are looking it might look different. So, the folks that are meeting together, they're digging into the data to really think about how they can make the most impact with the investment. So, I'm really excited

035about our ability to bring community together uh and enga the engagement work in particular. Um there's going to be different ways to do it. So, you can participate in surveys, you can attend town halls, you can attend meetings and focus groups, but really our intention is to listen and learn. I'm really excited. We're going to get to work together and put everything in a plan to be able to support students to reach their full potential. So that was a video with our executive administrator at the Jeff Seamer Family Center, Christina Davila. Um, but uh some of the points I really wanted to emphasize and highlight with within the video is, you know, the beauty of community schools and the work that it entails is the students, the parents, the administrators, the teachers. They're they're all

036stakeholders. Community partners as well. they're all stakeholders in identifying the needs and also dreaming big um thinking about the opportunities um and what sorts of supports our students can benefit from. So looking at where we are currently with community schools, we're in year one of implementation for the community schools uh grant from the state of California. This is a five-year um opportunity. We've been working with um a district level advisory committee that meets on a monthly basis to discuss um the ongoing developments with community schools. Um as you can see here, we're joined by our five community school lead staff who are uh tasked with being um on site um at the 14 sites. We're very excited too because we have two incoming staff as well to join our team to complete our team of

037seven. Um and we'll we'll proceed to move forward with with uh community school works into the summer and the academic the upcoming academic year as well. And really um what's wonderful about the type of work that we're doing too is um our staff are well supported from the regional techn technical assistance centers from the Los Angeles county as well as the at the level of the state to provide um ongoing trainings and opportunities to also engage and and build relationships with other other entities, other school districts, other organizations that are involved in community schools work too. So we have a lot of opportunities to see models that are that are operating um in the scope of community schools to also bring the ideas to our school district. Yes. And going over community schools, what's what's

038really wonderful is, you know, there's there's a state level definition as far as structurally what a community school looks like. But what I what I truly truly appreciated when I came on board as as as your community schools lead staff is the Amani City School District also defined the community schools uh for themselves saying that at the heart of the community Amani city schools build on the collective assets of the students families and the wider community through education collaboration and and inclusivity we foster engagement that empowers academic, physical, social and emotional growth for all. Our schools are working and doing and providing safe collaborative spaces that n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n

039n n n n n n n n n n n nurture the holistic needs of each child guided by a systematic approached and informed by datadriven decisionmaking. Our community schools continually adapt to ensure our efforts are sustainable and effectively meet the evolving needs of the community because at the forefront the biggest beneficiary are our students. They are our future. we we're all working together in um in the community schools to identify their ongoing needs and support them through and through. So with that said um we're going to describe the nature of you know effectively on boarding and rolling out the work of community schools at at the level of the sites and I'm going to pass it to uh Mrs. Marcela Himenez for this portion. Okay. Good evening. Um so we're going to go over

040um some of the stuff that we've been doing with community schools at the level site uh with the some of the uh committee members. Um so we're going to uh talk about the we're actually been meeting in a phase of three meetings. Uh we've been uh covering building uh share understanding what community school is. So sharing with the committee members what is a community school? Uh we're looking at data and we're also helping identify priorities for their school. Okay. So, uh in our first meeting, our objective is um to build a collective understanding of community schools. Like I said, um let them understand share with them our vision of what is uh the um the mission statement for the district and then we also review um why is it important for the schools. Uh we

041review the purpose of the committee, how them together they all have a voice including the staff, the the administrators, the students. um and committee members and parents. Uh we also work with them in establishing a decision-making protocol uh bill on consensus. So that's our first um we ensure that we establish the making decision protocol because this is what's going to help them make um the best decisions because their um their school is attached to a budget. So they will be making fiscal uh informed decisions based on the needs of the school. So that's why it's important at the beginning to ensure that these protocols are in place that they know that um that everybody's in agreement and that everybody is being heard including the student and it's amazing how we see students really voice their

042concerns. you know, I worked for child development for so many years, but now that I'm here, I'm like, you know, amazed how some of these students, you know, really like they have a lot of important things to share, you know, and how they're voicing uh their concerns and also they're being part of this decision making. Um they're actually very excited because they feel they're being heard. So that is I don't know that's just, you know, it gets me very emotional, you know, when I hear them talk. We also go through the four pillars of community school with them which is the integrating student support, the family and community engagement also the collaborative of um educators and staff and then the um the let me see give me a second it's the um no collaborative leadership

043and practices and administering extended learning opportunities which is that's the after school before after school programs. So we go um the committee gets to see all these pillars individually and access access their school where they're at the I um what kind of services they're currently serve they're currently having in their school and what are some of the gaps that they would like to address or that they what are we always ask them to dream dream big what is it that you want your school to have that you don't have already and that you want to have. So um that's what's happening within the first um meeting that we have with the committee. So now I'm going to go ahead and pass it back to Mr. Francisco Royal. Thank you. Yes. So what's what's very exciting

044about the work is um these folks are coming together in this space and as Mars Himenez mentioned we have students and there's something wonderful about having students in a position where they're they're helping make decisions. They're helping build ideas. Um in the second in the second meeting um what we do is we bring data to these committees they they review their their um school site level data uh with respect to um student mental well-being um state level you know uh metrics as well as school site surveys. And it's all for the purpose to start to help the families, the admin, the the certificated, the classified, the teachers, the students start to identify what are the opportunities at at your site. What are dream, you know, start dreaming big, start thinking about, okay, so we're seeing

045needs here, here, and there. So, how can we address these needs at at your respective sites? So over time what we anticipate is you know and through the nature of community schools work each school site is going to develop their own their own own set of needs and opportunities for them to build on. So that's the second meeting and um I can take over this one because um going into the third meeting is um really where a lot of the dreaming and the planning goes as far as identifying okay you know in the prior meeting we were reviewing data and now we need to we need to be strategic about making sure we honor you know what a community school is and it's the and it's figuring out how to how to strategically and effectively

046engage our student population, our parent population, our are our certificate certificated are our classified and our our respective admin at the sites because you can't have a community school in in a in an enclosed space. We need to make sure we're tapping all of our stakeholders at our respective sites to make sure that, you know, everything everything's above board and we're on the right track. And really it's also an opportunity so that each respective um committee can can reflect on the process of of identifying the needs for their site um as they continue to develop their own community school. And with that we would like to highlight uh Frank Wright um Frank Wright's advisory uh committee for community schools. My name is Ker Gibb. I go to Frank Wright as a seventh grader. My name

047is Elizabeth Torres and I am the interventionist for kinder through 8th grade students. Hi, my name is Valerie Mo and I'm a parent here at Frank Wright. My name is Rosemary Garcia Dwaynez. I'm the assistant principal at Frank Wright School. Have you been at Frank Wright since kindergarten? Yes, kindergarten. This is my eighth year at Frank Right. That's great. So, so far you've been participating in the community schools process. Can you kind of just speak to that a little bit? The process is very eyeopening. It's really showing me things I didn't understand and it's bringing new ideas to the table. They're showing me things that I didn't know was possible. Really helping me understand what is possible. I'm helping change things for the school for the better. Just a really good experience. So, how long

048have you been connected to Frank Wright? Uh I personally have been here since my son started kindergarten so three years now. Um my husband has attended Lore Frank Wright and the Royals. So um and his brother and his cousins all attended Elmont City School District. So we have we have I feel connected through my family. Oh, that's great. Okay, that's awesome. So now that you have that connection through the family, now you're participating in community schools. Can you kind of just discuss how you felt throughout this process? So, at the beginning of the process, I actually felt very lost because I'm not an educator. Um, there's a lot of acronyms that were being thrown around that I wasn't familiar with. Um at the beginning of each meeting and every meeting since our lead usually goes

049over our community agreement which is um you know what the team agrees to do, respect each other and um just keep it student focused and that actually helped me to be feel safe enough and comfortable to ask all the questions and to be more informed. Um so I feel like we have good uh dialogue in these meetings. You wanted to be involved. Um, how's it been so far? Kind of give me the the teacher perspective. Um, it's been it's been great. It's been a nice uh platform for everyone to, you know, share their voice about the needs for school. We have parents, we have teachers and students. So, it's been nice to hear the perspective of the parents more than anything because um, you know, we want to know what is it that they need,

050right? And how do we help? We always talk about making changes for a school and it's always teachers, right, administrators involved. But when we have parents and we know what they need, then we can support them and say, "All right, this is what we need to do and this is what they want." Not so much from our lens, right? We want to know, okay, you need this type of service after school, before school, even during school. So, just make having the ability or having just that platform for everyone's voice, it has been nice. It's been a really positive, engaging learning experience. Um, what really has come to light to me is like, you know, our district's a good model of a community school district, right? And and I see that, you know, when we're looking

051at the needs of the whole child and trying to address um all the challenges that students face and we already have a a really strong foothold in the door and and I think the Jeff Seymour Family Center really speaks to that, all the services and resources and supports that are there. So in my learning, what what it means to me is that we kind of bring those things home to our school site, right? And build our own capacity in the school site to meet our specific school needs. I enjoy sticking to this group and really focusing on changing things for the better. really helping students feel supported, helping the community feel closer together, helping everyone feel welcomed. Anybody who comes to our school can relax, feel safe, and help them find their inner circle. I'm

052hoping we can accomplish for Frank Wright a community where students, their families, and the school can support each other and have the tools and resources to overcome obstacles so um so that the students can learn at their best. It's my experience that when children feel safe, they're able to learn more. So, one of the things that has stood out for us, I think, as we've gone through the learning process and building our understanding is really creating a strong bridge to parent involvement and parent engagement. It's one thing to, you know, have a family event and bring our parents on campus and that that's really important because that's building those relationships. But what we're looking for and what's really come to light is like how do we build like true partnerships with parents where they're really

053collaborative in the process and the learning process and helping us um identify needs and overcome challenges. So this is the why. Um our school district at our school district we have many systems in place. And so I was thinking community schools may be the group where we can bring all the systems and make sure that we make them stronger. And maybe it's a possibility where we can just say you know what we have all these systems in place and they all look very similar. We're addressing everyone's needs differently. But it's possibly a place where we can just say, "Let's streamline everything. Let's make it all the same." Right? So that was my mentality. I was thinking like, okay, I love to see what the community has to say and also involve them in all the

054things that we have. We have um so many programs that we are bringing in and so how do we make them all communicate with each other? And I thought community schools may be it. It may be that that area where we can bring everything together. So with that, we're we're very very thankful to be given the opportunity to work with for the Omani City School District to bring this to your respective sites because the experts are the students. They're the parents. They're the certificated, the admin, the classified, the teachers. They all have a lived experience and wisdom that of they know how their school works. So, we're bringing them and pulling them in a space where they can dream big, think about the opportunities there are to continue refining our supports and bringing our students

055to the next level to also get them ready for their next step, especially for our eighth graders who are promoting very soon. But on behalf again of the community school leads team, we're we're very thankful for your time today. Um, and we look forward to what the next 5 years hold in store for us. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Aoyo, and all our community school leads for being here this evening, introducing yourselves, and presenting to us. We've been looking forward to a community schools presentation for quite some time and that was a wonderful overview. Thank you. Uh next we have um another wonderful celebration our teacher of the year presentation Dr. Garcia. Yes. Well, in the spirit of celebrations, uh, last week we celebrated teacher appreciation week and we took the opportunity to announce the

0562025 Elmani City School District Teacher of the Year, Mr. Victor [Applause] Williams. I knew Potto would bring it. I knew it in my heart. Victor started his career at EMCSD in 2013 and has been removing barriers for our students ever since, especially during his time at Bottoredo. As Potto's music teacher, he is revered for ensuring his students truly understand musical concepts, coaching them to confidently navigate complicated sections, and empowering them to de develop their musical strengths. Potto's musical prowess has grown significantly due to Victor's ability to remain patient with his students. mentoring with care and selflessness daily. As teachers, we always wonder how our work resonates with our kids. But in the case of Mr. Victor Williams at Potredo, the magnitude of his impact is felt throughout the campus. If he is not in his

057music room, he organizes events for families. He leads the Washington DC trip or attends and volunteers at district-wide events to support his friends and his colleagues. When we surprised Mr. Williams at Potredo. Uh we coordinated with the school principal and he was having a lighthouse meeting with his students. And so we slowly walked in, but I guess it was a little too obvious that the district administration team walked in and he had this look on his face like what's going on? So I had this speech prepared ready to go to share all the wonder thing wonderful things about Mr. Williams. But I thought let me just cut to the chase and tell him why we're here to announce that he was teacher of the year. So, we did that and then as I was preparing

058my speech, the kids were so excited. They said it for me. They started to say impromptu why Mr. Williams is the best teacher ever. So, I put my speech away and I just let them take the floor. And every one of those students describe Mr. Williams to perfection. He is someone that goes above and beyond. He's all heart. He's all about kids. And he's all about community. and I can't think of a better person to represent Almani City School District teacher of the year 2025, Mr. Victor Williams. Please join me in celebrating and [Applause] acknowledging. I love it. So, we do have a plaque that we'll be presenting to Mr. Williams on behalf of the board and we're going to have him come up and say a few words, but we'd like to take a

059few pictures with him as well. Please join me again in just celebrating. [Applause] Right on. [Applause] One more time. [Applause] Thank you. I I want to begin by saying that I told Mr. Wilson, "Mr. Trader has been pretty quiet for the past few days. What's going on?" And sure enough, there comes a nickname that I thought was retired long ago. Um, but thank you so much everyone for this incredible honor. It's it's difficult to find words. Um, I appreciate you all so much. I I can't think of a a district and and particularly school I'd rather come to every day to work. Uh, so many of you uh my colleagues uh uh and and students inspire me every day to do better. So, uh, all I can say now is is thank you so much

060to my wonderful community administration, uh, and and second home. Thank you so much, everybody. [Applause] [Music] We're all enjoying your fan club. Congratulations. And next up, um, we have a California Distinguished School presentation. Dr. Garcia, thank you. Another wonderful celebration this evening. We are proud to recognize a remarkable achievement by one of our schools. Lor has been named California Distinguished School for the second time. This is one of the highest honors awarded by the California Department of Education. It recognizes schools that excel in closing achievement gaps, delivering high academic performance and creating safe, supportive learning environments where every student can thrive. Earning this recognition once is an outstanding accomplishment. Receiving it a second time is an impressive achievement. It reflects years of hard work, innovation, and a steadfast commitment to students and their success. At

061the heart of LGOR success is a dedicated team of educators and staff who believe in every student's potential. Families who partner in the learning process and students who rise to high expectations every day. Lor school serves as a model for excellence not just in academics but in building a school culture that nurtures growth, equity, and opportunity for all. On behalf of the district, we are proud to congratulate Mrs. is Adriana Garcia, the school t the school principal, the entire Lore community staff for this extraordinary accomplishment. Please join me in celebrating Lor School for once again being named California Distinguished School. And we do have Lor staff uh here at the meeting. So, I'm going to ask you to all come on up for a picture with that wonderful announcement. The the state puts on a

062wonderful celebration which we'll be participating in at the end of May. They're going to be receiving banners and many accolades in the weeks to come. So, this is one of many. And the board, if I can ask you to please join us so we can take a picture with awardwinning Lor School. [Applause] You guys can use your little uh for them, too. That's awesome. Come to the back. All right. Sorry. And One more [Applause] time. Congratulations to Lor. What an amazing accomplishment. Um, it'd be wonderful. I know you all get to celebrate throughout the month and uh, as Dr. Garcia mentioned, we have our superintendent from the high school district here as well as several board members. Um, because in a great show of how we have a shared commitment to all of the students

063across Elmonte, um, the high school district would like to present the school with, um, some certificates as well. So, I would like to give the floor to board president uh Bionis. Good evening, Madame President, uh members of the board, Madam Superintendent, members of the cabinet, community members, the Almani City School District. My name is Florencio Briones and I have the pleasure of serving as the board president of the Almani Union High School District Board of Trustees. So, we're here tonight to celebrate alongside you uh to celebrate Lor School and Principal Garcia for this very well-deserved recognition. Um I always share with our partner districts, we have four elementary school districts that feed into the Almani Union High School District, that every one of your successes is our successes because we are one community. We we

064serve the same families. we serve the same students. So when your schools are recognized, we want to make sure that we celebrate alongside with you as well. With me tonight, I have our superintendent, Dr. Zuniga, um our board member, Ricardo Padilla, who many of you may recognize, as well as our board member, Queen, um from the city of Rosemade. So on behalf of the Almani Union High School District Board of Trustees, I'd like to present two certificates. first to Lor School um for being recognized as a California distinguished school and the second certificate if I could invite Principal Garcia to come up and join us. We do have a certificate specifically for you celebrating your success. So join us here. I'm going to read the I'm going to read both certificates for uh for LGore

065and I'll present them to you. So this is a certificate of recognition presented to Lor School for being named a California distinguished school by the California Department of Education. This prestigious recognition reflects the dedication to fostering a culture of high achievement, equity, and innovation in public education. Your commitment to academic success, inclusive practices, and continuous improvement serves as an inspiring model for schools across the street, excuse me, across the state. Congratulations from the Almani Union High School District Board of Trustees. We may have to invite your whole staff up. Don't go yet. I have one more for you. Obviously, every school has a principal and that principal is the most inspiring leader uh on that campus. So, we wanted to recognize you for your leadership as well. Uh Mrs. Garcia. So, I have the certificate

066from the board of trustees that reads for guiding. This is a certificate of recognition presented to Adriana Garcia for guiding Lor School to be named a California Distinguished School by the California Department of Education. Your visionary leadership and ability to foster a culture of excellence have inspired your staff, students, and the school community. Through your dedication, Lor School stands as a shining example of what is possible when educators lead with heart, purpose, and most importantly, with high expectations. Congratulations again from the Almani Union High School District Board of Trustees. [Applause] This is two people. Just like the last one, except four more people. [Applause] person that was hard, right? Thank you so much, President Biones and Elante Union High School District board members, Dr. Zuniga for being here. It's an honor to have you with

067us and thank you for the recognitions. And last on our list of um festive item items of interest, we have American Legion Awards, Dr. Garcia. So, keeping in the theme of excellence, we have the honor to recognize a very special group of students, the American Legion Award recipients from each of our schools, uh, TK through 8th grade schools. I know you've been eagerly waiting for this moment and so, thank you for your patience and we're so, so excited to recognize our students. Before I begin, I'd like to take a moment to welcome and thank the veterans joining us from American Legion Post 8. We are privileged to have with us this evening, Alex Era, American Legion Post 8 adjunct and District 17 commander. Mr. Carlos Huarez, Squadron 8 [Applause] Chaplain, and Mr. Hugh Krooks, past

068Department Commander of the American Legion, board chair of the California Department of American, excuse me, Veteran Affairs and County of Los Angeles Veterans Advisory Commissioner. I want to express my gratitude to Postate. We've been This award has been one of the most prestigious awards that the Almani City School District gives our students every single year. And Postate has been a wonderful partner for many, many, many years from when I was a student. And trust me, that was a long time ago. And so I just want to thank Postate for coming out every single year to support our students and to award our students this wonderful honor. We're deep deeply grateful for your service to our country and for your continued dedication of our students. So thank you for being here. The American Legion Award is

069the most prestigious honor we present to our students every single year. It goes beyond recognizing academic excellence. It celebrates students who consistently demonstrate strong character, leadership, citizenship, and service to others. These are students who lead by example every single day, treat others with respect, and show a commitment to making their school and community a better place. This award reflects the values of the American Legion stands for and what we hope to instill in all of our students. courage, honor, leadership, patriotism, and service. To be selected is a significant honor, and it speaks volumes about each recipient's impact on their school. At this time, I'd like to invite our veterans from Postate to please come on up alongside our board members as we recognize each of our recipients. I'm going to read off the names. Students

070will come forward. You'll have the opportunity to shake hands with our veterans, our board members. We'll take lots of wonderful pictures and celebrate each and every one of you. So, I just want to say tonight you're meeting the best of the best in Elmani City School District. Are you ready to celebrate our wonderful students? [Applause] We begin with Columbia School. I'd like to call forward American Legion winner 2025 winners. First student, Ryan Nuen. [Applause] Genesis Rodriguez from Columbia Cool. Honorable mention from Columbia School, Sophia Lynn. [Applause] An honorable mention also from Columbia School, Hayden Pang. Congratulations. Our next school is Dery School. American Legion Award recipients for 2025, Railen Hong. [Applause] Cassandra Pettis, American Legion Award winner. Honorable mention, Ellie Morales. [Applause] and honorable mention Ethan Tran. Congratulations to Dery School. Moving on to Gidley

071School, American Legion Award winner for 2025, Ariana [Applause] Pñena. American Legion Award recipient Sharon [Applause] Yuan. Honorable mention Sitli Barahas. [Applause] and not in attendance this evening but all the while deserves the recognition Alma Alberto Reviga from Gidley School. Please join me in congratulating Gidley students. [Applause] Our next school is Potredo [Applause] School. American Legion award winners from Potredo are Evelyn Messa [Applause] and Danielle [Applause] Miraontes. Honorable mention, Eli Gonzalez. and Alisa Sebastian [Applause] Juanos. Congratulations to Potero students. [Applause] Our next school is Rio Hondo [Applause] School. American Legion Award recipients are Sophia [Applause] Sto and Noah Anto Reinos. [Applause] Honorable mention from Rio Hondo School, Valeria Via [Applause] Seenor and Gabrielle Meras. [Applause] Please join me in recognizing Rio Hondo American Legion Award winners and honorable mention. [Applause] and our next school is Frank

072Wright School. American Legion Award recipients, Hob [Applause] Estrada and Vanessa Fam. [Applause] Honorable mention Frank Wright School, Christopher Otamendi and Chloe Yang. There you have it. The students you see before you are trailblazers. They've done a phenomenal job at the Almani City School District and have received the highest honor that our district bestows on students. So once again, congratulations to all of our students. Thank you, American Legion Post 8 for being here with [Applause] us. And I think we're going to try to get one big group picture and we'll allow parents to join us and make sure that they they're able to take a picture as well. You got this, Mr. Desmati? I think so. Okay. where you are. Let's have a little bit shoulders thing. row. Everyone kind of goes to your left. Perfect.

073Take a picture of them. They're waiting for you. There you go. Very nice. All right. Congratulations. [Applause] We did prepare. We did space room for you to take pictures to enjoy and celebrate award winners and it's our way of saying thank you for the wonderful partnership. We're going to miss these fantastic students, but we wish them all the best. I want to take this opportunity very quickly to acknowledge our administrators. Can you please stand [Applause] acknled? Yeah. Okay. Good. as the senior when they say senior I've been doing this involved with school how many years many I'll just say I started Jeffy was the superintendent and so I have a certain real quick. I invited a person from American Legion. They had a veterans and he went back and he told them there's a in

074Los Angeles that knows how to take care of veterans and he's [Applause] still when I come here I'm home. So I thank you all and it's an honor to be here and honor to see the future. [Applause] We're good. All right. So, uh, families and students, I we can head into that side room for photos, snacks, orders, and celebrate. Yes. Time to celebrate. Have a good time. Time to celebrate. Lor, Mr. Williams, students, all of you. Also, my intern will be there taking photos so you can get, you know, your little portrait photo. Potero Predto, before you go, I'd like to do another group photo um with the school and Mr. Williams, please. Yes, of course. It would be my honor. [Music] I should announce I think so. Yeah, I think so. Enjoy and celebrate.

075Our our meeting will resume in five minutes. Okay, it's time to resume the open meeting. It's 7:37. We were previously in close session. During close session, the board discussed student discipline education code 48900 C, 48900D, and 48915C3, student expulsion hearing case number SE00003, 2023 to 2024. The district has recommended readmission for student in case number SE00003 2023 to 2024. Is there a motion to accept readmission for student in this case number? I'll make the motion. Motion made by Mrs. Kobian. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Peralta. And we'll go ahead and do a roll call vote. Mrs. Kobian I. Mrs. Mendes Garcia. I. Mr. Peralta. I. Rivas I. Motion carries 40. For close session items two and three, no action was taken. It's time for the approval of the minutes. Is there a motion

076to approve the April 14th, 2025 board meeting minutes? I'll make the motion. Motion made by Mr. Peralta. Is there a second? I'll second. Seconded by my by Mrs. Kobian. Any discussion? All those in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. 40. Item two, consideration of approval of the May 5th, 2025 board study session minutes. Do I hear a motion? I'll make the motion. Motion made by Mrs. Kobon. Is there a second? I'll second. Seconded by Mrs. Mendes Garcia. Any discussion? All those in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. 4 Z. Moving on to the consent agenda. Is there an item that a board member would like to pull for separate consideration? Hearing none. Do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll make the motion. Motion made by Mrs. Kobian. Is there a second?

077I'll second. Seconded by Mr. Peralta. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Motion carries. 40. Time for action items. Item one, consideration of approval of declaration of need for the fully qualified educators for the 202526 school year. Thank you, President Rivas. Uh, every year school districts are required to submit a declaration of needs to uh the commission on teacher credentiing. Um, we submit this regardless of our actual need at that time um in regards to credentiing or the hiring. But by submitting what it does, it it does allow a district to hire under a PIP or a STIP, which is the equivalent of emergency credentials from back in the day, um if they are unable to fill positions. And so, while we don't anticipate, um the need to hire under this, um we will always

078submit it just as we did last year as a precautionary measure in case something happens over summer or last minute and then it allows us that that ability to to respond in that manner. Do I hear a motion to approve item one? I'll make the motion. Motion made by Mrs. Kobian. Is there a second? I'll second. Seconded by Mrs. Menddees Garcia. Any discussion? All those in favor? I I oppose. Motion carries. 40. Item two, consideration of approval of the memorandum of understanding between CSEA Chapter 10 and EMCSD. Thank you. Um this memor memorandum of understanding is an agreement between CSEA and its chapter 10 which represents our classified employees and the Almani city school district. Uh this uh memorandum of understanding was designed with the idea that um we knew that we were going to

079have a reduction of staff um in our classified areas particularly in our head start which although um it was started in Head Start it did have bumping um impacts into other areas and so we've worked collaboratively with CSEA uh 10 in order to identify where those impacted individuals could potentially go the bumping the order the impact and so on And thisou was designed so that way we would not have to go down the layoff path. U that said this memorandum of understanding is set to be ratified uh by CSEA on its March 15th uh meeting which uh takes place after 4 p.m. which is after the close of business um or I'm sorry not March, May 15th. I apologize uh May 15th. And May 15th is the day in which districts must give final notice

080of layoffs. And so while we anticipate this um being passed um you know and ratified um you know it's for uh your approval today pending their ratification. Do I hear a motion to approve item two? I'll make the motion. Motion made by Mr. Peralta. Any any is there a second? I'll second. Seconded by Mrs. Kovian. Any discussion? More questions? All in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. 40. Item three, consideration of approval of res resolution 242536 regarding non-remployment of classified employees. Thank you. So this item is tied to our previous approved uh memorandum of understanding. Uh so as I mentioned, May 15th is the deadline to um notice employees officially of a layoff. Um and because the ratification of the memorandum of understanding takes place after the close of business that day, legal counsel has

081advised us to um still go forward with a layoff process as a precautionary measure. So we will notify employees tomorrow that um potentially they could be laid off in this manner with them already knowing that we have anou in place and that the process is taking place in a different way. Um but just in case precautionary our legal counsel has advised that we bring this uh resolution um if if and when again I anticipate that it will the memorandum of understanding is ratified then this whole layoff process that you're um approving tonight uh would just be considered null and void. Thank you. Do I hear a motion to approve item three? I'll make the motion. Motion made by Mrs. Kobian. Is there a second? I'll second. Seconded by Mrs. Mendes Garcia. Any discussion? All those

082in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. 40. And moving on to the board policy updates. Looks like we have 20 second readings. And um we can take a look at all of them together unless is there an item that a board member would like to pull for separate consideration? Okay. Then do I hear a motion to approve these 20 board um board policy updates? Motion to approve. Motion made by Mr. Peralta. Is there a second? I'll second. Seconded by Mrs. Kobian. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Four zero. Uh we've moved quickly through this last part of our agenda and um now it's time for a discussion regarding the strategic plan. Dr. Garcia. Thank you, Mrs. Rivas. And just uh want to acknowledge uh the board and reading through all of

083those board policies and um allowing us to stay current um with all the updates that take place. So, thank you for that. Um thank you also to Mrs. Rivas and Mrs. Kobian. We had the opportunity to meet last week as a subcommittee uh that was appointed by the board to continue uh fine-tuning some of the goals um that we had set forth at our last study session which was on May 5th. And so before you you see uh the latest draft of the goals that we have developed, excuse me, not developed but that we uh fine-tuned. Um so so in essence the spirit of the the the goal is still there. This is the wording that we um crafted in our time together. So goal number one, ensure academic excellence for all. The description is

084we will support all students in achieving or surpassing grade level standards across all subject areas through highquality instruction, equitable practices, and a commitment to continuous growth. Goal number two, deliver diverse experiences and realworld opportunities that prepare students for future success. We will engage all students in meaningful learning experiences that spark interest, promote growth, and build essential skills. Goal three, prepare students to thrive in an interconnected world. We will nurture the whole child by fostering inclusive, safe, and supportive communities that integrate social, emotional learning, embrace diversity, and meet the needs of all learners. And goal four, align leadership, staffing, and resources to student centered priorities. We will advance student success through purposeful goal-driven allocation of resources and assets. Any thoughts? I'll jump in and thank you again u co for for doing this and bringing to

085us a very polished final draft. Um no I I really I really do I really like it. Um, I think all of us could always be like, "Oh, maybe that word." But at the at the core of it, we're really paid attention to, um, is the goal hitting the purpose and the different things that we were really wanting to focus on as a board for goals. And they do. They really do hit all those areas. Do they connect to our our vision and our mission? Yes. So, thank you so much. But yeah, I really I really do like the wording of all the goals and again they they hit all the the various topics that we wanted to make sure our goals focused on for priority areas. I I will say that a recommendation and

086further reading the goals um that cabinet suggested is that we consider the world or the term real world and and maybe it's not something that we need to state in the goal um so that we're not held accountable to goals or excuse me opportunities tie into real world but really just diverse opportunities um with the understanding that we can bring back some metrics that are tied into some things that we feel like that we identified in our discussion financial literacy, cooking, I mean those are real world opportunities as you can see my it's a little tongue twister too to say real world many times um but that's not the reason but the idea is that that shouldn't just be we might be limited to sticking to opportunities that can be defined or connected to real

087world thoughts I can see that I I kind of I always like as as much as we can get rid of words and still keep the core meaning. I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on experiences versus opportunities as the the key word there because those are synonymous experiences and opportunities. They can be or because I feel like opportunities fit when we were adding variable opportunities, but now if we take that away, right, which again we're just making sure that our goals are broad, right, and just are hitting the the core of the meeting. So then it would just be deliver diverse experiences. Yeah, I'll make a note of that. Um there's there's still an opportunity. I I I'll make some suggestions for how the submitt the subcommittee can continue to meet to fine-tune the work

088of the board to continue bringing information to the board that is is to use your term polished. Any other thoughts on the goals descriptions? So maybe we can talk about what the next steps after this are. That would be good. Um so I I'd like to continue working with the subcommittee to look at the portrait of a learner. So we have the characteristics dispositions. We have the work that the subcommittee of the guiding coalition put together. And so the definitions are there, the descriptors are there. It's just a matter of doing something very similar like we did for the goals. is just fine-tuning um and polishing that up to bring to the board um to take a look at and then ideally um you know so so with consensus receiving on the goals and and

089the direction is set forth I think if we change a few words it doesn't necessarily change the meaning or the direction it now gives us the opportunity to really have those deep discussions on the metrics that we want to bring back as part of the strategic plan in its completion Yes, that's I don't want us to get hung up on like the word and right, you know, is this a better noun or adjective, right? It's all about really are we hitting that mark of what we're trying to accomplish for our students. I agree. So, if there's still an interest, uh, if if we could still meet as a subcommittee to look at the portrait of a learner, um, and polish that work up, that was some that would be one of our next immediate steps.

090Sounds good. Yeah, I would really look forward to doing that. And then the goal being we'll bring all of that back at the next meeting in June. Our next meeting is in June. Um and and so we'll have a draft of the strategic plan for the board to review and then the following week we can approve the final version of the strategic plan. It's exciting being at this point of it where now it's just kind of little little things around the edges. So right, you and Mr. Peralta started us off the Yeah. subcommittee that attended all of the Yes. the meetings with the guiding coalition. So yeah, very nice. Over I mean did this start in September? It did. Incredible. It did. It seems like a long time ago, but yet it hasn't been. I

091know. So yeah, very impressive just how how the momentum has continued since day one and and where we are in this process. Great. Thank you. Well, I'll look forward to working um you know as the subcommittee to bring the rest of it back to the board in June. That'll be great. Um moving on to future discussion items. Are there any items that you would like to consider future? One I wanted to ask is if maybe before the next meeting we can kind of do some calendar planning about the summer meeting because we're kind of you know I never started to think about their summer plan. So if we're going to do a board retreat in July versus August or how that's going to work. So maybe before the next meeting we can get that at

092least get some possible dates. Yeah. a possible consideration in order to have um all five board members participate is to think about moving our board retreat this year sometime in the fall. Um so that would be something that I would propose to the board, but I can definitely start identifying some dates to bring back. Sounds good. Thank you. Any other items? Then I will go ahead and adjourn the meeting at 7:53.