Board Meeting - February 15th, 2022

001calling the meter the meeting to order at pm welcome to the el money city school district's board of education meeting today february 15th 2022 we hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend we know that it was a weekend of celebrations of a beautiful holiday and hoping that everyone enjoyed the celebrations and in company of your of your families safely so with that we'll continue and move on to roll call beginning with ms mendez present mrs rivas present mr secrets present mrs kobian is absent today and with us present and now we will continue with our flag salute and we will have mr secrets uh getting on our flagship today everyone please stand right hand over your heart if you're a veteran you may salute with a hand salute ready begin i pledge allegiance to the

002flag 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 you may be seated you mr siegrist you're welcome and we will continue with our section c of today's agenda items of interest beginning with item number one el monte city school district's mid-year l-cap update for the 2021-2022 with miss virginia castro and mr roberto lopez thank you president drive us so before we begin i just wanted to give a brief um just a brief background on what the supplemental el cap is so yearly you're asked to approve our lcap plan and we have our goals and actions that we share with you our budget overview so this year because of all of the covet happenings we were allocated

0033.7 million a little over in what is referred to as the supplemental lcap so this is to supplement what is already allocated for us in the lcat plan so what we were asked to do is write additional goals and actions to help with specific needs that have arisen because of the covid pandemic and allocate resources to those needs so this was part of section 124e of assembly bill 130 and it requires all lease or all district district offices to create um to present an update on our annual lcap a budget overview for parents uh before february 28th and also uh the supplemental annual update and the supplemental plan for the lcap so today we're going to be sharing what we're planning on doing with the 3.7 million giving you an overview of uh some of

004the goals and actions that are already written and allocated in the lcap and some data and actions that we've identified so the first slide um and you're you're going to be receiving a copy you know mr lopez mena is on his way um so when we first adopted the lcap and the budget um the state budget was not complete so we are including additional funds in our plan um the budget overview for parents is as follows so as you can see the total lcff funds that we have received are 92 million 960 1117 and we had an increase of three million seven hundred forty thousand thirty two dollars so part of the l cap which we consider the supplemental and concentration grant was a total of 25 million 181 478 this is a plan that

005you approve yearly we share the goals in action with you so the increase was in addition to what's already been allocated in the eldcat plan it's working yeah yeah oh okay did you just click it so the supplement has five prompts a description of how and when the lea engaged or plans to engage our educational partners we had to give an overview of that a description of how these plans are used additional concentration the add-on funding how we're planning to increase the services direct services to our students at our school campuses with a specific focus on our low-income english learners and foster youth a description of how and when our district engages educational partners for the use of these one-time federal funds a description of how we're going to implement the federal american rescue plan

006act and how these plans coexist with the other plans the essers um the the e-log and all the other plans that we promised we'd bring you this year and finally how our district is using its fiscal resources um in a matter that is already consistent with the lcap that we've shared so i'm going to hand the presentation over to mr lopez mena and he's going to continue thank you ms castro good evening it's raining outside it's hailing so prompt one uh ms castro covered the five prompts so there are actually three components to tonight there's a supplement to the lcap which are the five prompts there is the uh budget overview which discusses how we've done through uh mid-year point with respects to our actions our goals and our expenditures and then the parent budget

007overview those are the three components we'll be sharing with you tonight so prompt one as ms castro indicated earlier asks about um engagement with our educational partners previously known as stakeholders so this past november uh california department of education changed that term from stakeholders to educational partners and so they want to know how is the monte city school district engaging all of our educational partners the individuals that we engage with are the same just the the term changed and so they want to they want to know how did we engage with respect to the following three plans the educational education educator effectiveness block grant which was two million dollars and that's a plan that we presented to you earlier this school year we also have the expanded learning opportunities program which is still being developed

008and also the pre-k planning and implementation grant which is also being developed as well so they want to know how do we engage and in short we engage like we always have through the same process similar to the lcap where we meet with different stakeholders our key communicators we meet with our unions we meet with administrators we send out surveys and this is how we do business in the montana city school district to not only seek feedback but also based on that feedback make changes that are instrumental in our plans prompt 2 speaks to the ad additional concentration monies that we received these monies are critical in that they have to be used for direct services to students and so what you'll see here are three areas that we plan to do that in so

009hire additional teachers to personalize small group instruction we also are using additional funds to hire hopefully an additional eight counselors there's no greater time or need than now with respect to mental health and so this is a critical area for us and then finally we want to continue our enrichment process and hire additional teachers that we're calling enrichment teachers that can help support areas like stem physical education and the arts this is roughly 3.8 million dollars and it was i think the second slide this evening prompt 3 speaks to educational partner engagement once again but for the one-time funds or use of funds with respect to the esser and so this plan came forth to you earlier this school year and we use the same process for this plan we were able to use other

010plans to gather feedback information and direction to write this plan and what you're going to see here is that not only did we use previous plans for that but we also conducted specific surveys so we did an all open survey on the 27th of september we then had a survey for csca the executive board on the 11th of october we then consulted with the san gabriel valley selpa and that is our local agency with respect to special education and then we also consulted with our emeta executive board on october 14th prompt four is the implementation of the sr3 so previously prompt three is how did you engage and gather information to drive your planning and prompt four is what are you using these monies for and so uh this is a plan as i mentioned

011earlier that we had shared with you earlier in the school year and just to recap the three main areas are strategies for continuous and safe and school learning addressing impact of lost instructional time which by the way the plan requires that a minimum of 20 percent of these funds be used for that and then use of any additional remaining funds some of them were used for facilities uh what have you but that is a plan that was presented to you earlier this school year and all of these are to mitigate the impacts of covet 19. that brings us to prompt number five and this is using fiscal resources consistent with the lcap so here what they want to know is all these millions of dollars you see listed there 25 and change how are you

012using that to support what you already have in place how are you supplementing your lcap and the other plans and so a good example of that is our health services department we have uh monies in the lcap to hire and continue to support our schools with health services but in addition to that our esser plan for example allows us to expand on that especially now because of kovid we've had to resort to contracting services out to different agencies as a result of there being a shortage of the workforce and so this gives us the flexibility and shows how we're using not only our lcap but the other funds that are coming our way to supplement and to continue to support the needs of our students and community so here's part two first one was the

013supplement the five prompts here's part two which is an update on our metrics this is coming straight from our lcap and so what you'll see here are three buckets one one indicates outcomes that are unavailable at this time please remember that today's presentation informational presentation is to give you an update as to where we are today this can change a week out this can change next month and it'll definitely be different by the time the 21 22 school year closes and so you have outcomes that are unavailable you have outcomes that are pending and you have outcomes that are known and i'll go into a little uh more detail as we go through the presentation the next area and the third area for tonight is the mid-year update on the lcap expenditures and the implementation

014of such expenditures here you will see that there is information that is pending implementation there is information that is partially implemented and you'll see information or actions that are fully implemented so for goal one our goal one is to increase student achievement and here we're looking at growth and achievement being our center stone right of what we do in the milwaukee city school district we're talking about the whole child and being able to support their needs specifically our mission our vision and our core values and our goals need to address the growth of every student and their academic success as well so goal one metrics these are the areas that we have identified in our all cap that we will grade ourselves by okay so for example the first row speaks to the s back

015in ela and as you know we have not administered the s back in two years and so the last result we've had if you continue down that row is back in 19 2019 and we had a 51.5 of our students that performed or met met or exceeded standards today which is the next column outcome is unavailable because we did not administer the s back last school year but by 2324 we expect to be back on track and we are aiming for a 57 percent of our students in ela to either meet or exceed standards okay so that's an example of a metric that has no available data at the moment because we didn't administer the s back let me move down to um english language arts 2021 i ready diagnostic window what you'll see is

016that the our baseline was that 41 percent of our students would be on grade level or above as of now based on our last administration so this would be window 2 in december we are at 35 percent we hope to be at 61 by 23.24 next slide please here the metrics continue and you'll see that we have the el monte city school district reclassification rate in 19 in 2019 2020 we were at 10 that was our baseline today the end of december we we are at seven percent and we have another window this spring for reclassification uh we definitely hope to meet or exceed uh where we were last year as our baseline and our goal our target by 2324 is to be at 16 next slide please so here we're now going into the

017actions goal 1 happens to have 20 actions and you're going to see them listed as we go through these slides once again i won't go through every single slide i'm just going to highlight a few uh so for example our first one there improved tier one instruction we have a budgeted expenditure of almost one million dollars and as of our mid-year report we have fully implemented this action and are at 269 121. so this is based on uh the supports the staffing that that are involved with respect to tier one instruction okay i'm going to move down to professional development to strengthen and support instruction to meet different differentiated needs of students to ensure that they are successful here we have a budget expenditure of 831 201 and as a as of the end of

018december or at the end of the first interim we have expended 392 492 dollars next slide please as i mentioned we have 20 actions here let me call your attention to the third row so i can explain and give you an example of what a partially implemented action is so support long-term english learners and students at risk of becoming ltel's we budgeted ten thousand dollars for this action it is partially implemented and you see that no money has been expended at this point and that's because we've used other funding remember that the goal is for our lcap to be the base and then use other funding to help support those actions that's exactly what you're seeing there so it's fully implemented this is on its way we have uh students being supported however at this

019time or use we've used other funds outside of the lcap to support that okay next slide please let me call your attention to the third row once again and this is provide supplemental intervention and instructional materials here once again you see ten thousand dollars that has been allocated and you see zero as expended here we've also used other funds to help support and secure our sips program which was intended to be used out of this account however we have funding that is to support our needs and that's why there's a zero there so it's important for you to see not only the progression of the funding in other all the other areas that actually have a number but also to know that although there may not be anything expended at the moment services are being

020rendered and this is our last one for no it's not 20. all right extended school year i think i've lost myself here for a second just a second okay so we have extended school year there so we have extended school year this is for our special education students we've started that process so it's fully implemented in that we have the supports that will be in place but our extended school year hasn't taken place this is during the summer it aligns with our summer school program and this is esy okay for special ed students if we go down to the last row there provide additional library books we've allocated a hundred thousand dollars it's fully implemented in that we've allocated these funds and to date we've expended 11 268 dollars for this action and this i

021promise is our last one for goal one uh so we have promote literacy here you're seeing that there is zero uh expenditure or uh money's expended to date uh and this is uh pending implementation what we're doing is we're looking at a final book selection uh that is still pending and so you should see by the time we come back and report our outcomes for the year you should see those those dollars expended any questions regarding goal one i do have a question yes um it's one of the first that you highlighted so it's the very first page of um of the grid that you've been showing us for goal one yeah for gold one english language arts the iready diagnostic window three yes ma'am results so are are you are did we just what

022window are we in right now it's really my question we just completed window two okay and in the spring we'll have window three okay and so the way it's written is at the end of the year where we expect to be but this presentation today is a dipstick at this point in time or are we and that's why we're reporting on window two at this too i figured it was like we're in progress yes but i i wondered because of the you know pretty significant difference there in percentage that's correct and our metric should be based on where we end at the end of the year right okay thank you you're welcome next slide please so this is now goal two this is with respect to attendance and school climate next slide please and here

023we use the dashboard as one of our indicators for absenteeism uh and as you uh also know we have not had the dashboard in place uh because of the pandemic and so what we do have though is through data quest we were able to pull some attendance numbers at this time and we have an 8.8 percent identified as having chronically chronic absences and that is below the state average at this point where we would like to be in 2324 is at three percent now we can uh ascertain that uh the this number from last school year 2021 uh has a little something to do with the pandemic and so uh it's important that we always take uh that lens into account as we look at all of these metrics because some of them have a

024are as a result of things going on at home things going on at school and just things going out going on in the community as a whole as a result of whether we can be at school whether we can measure these metrics or uh matrices or not so it's important to keep that in mind okay our third row there is a middle school dropout rate and that really hasn't changed we've been really consistent um it it was at a zero percent we would like it for it to continue at a zero percent and at this point in time it still is a zero percent okay our last one there is the california dashboard with respect to suspensions um and uh we would like to be at uh a 0.4 right just under a half a

025percent by 23.24 and at this time we are at zero based on data quest from 2021 and that's the most recent information that we were able to pull for this report next slide please i have a question about that how do you determine a student dropout they disappear or what happens how do you decide that they're a dropout yeah so when a student leaves our district great question we are able through calpads to determine if a student enrolls somewhere else even if it's out of state what if they go to out of state is that across state lines too it would be within uh california in california yes thank you that's right yes so we we are able to ascertain whether a student enrolled or not and through child find we need to make sure

026that if we don't see activity so when someone checks the student out they usually let us know we're going to x school we're going to x district and then we follow up by sending records uh and and we then can also follow up if we see that a student has not enrolled in another district with them because through child find if they're living in their area now they're responsible to ensure that they engage with that family but they could be home schooled too correct that is correct yes thank you okay so here we have a continuation of goal two and we have the california healthy kid survey and you see percentage of fifth and seventh graders so these are the students that uh are administered the healthy kids survey this is done typically every other

027year is the requirement but in almighty city school district our practice has been to administer this annually with the exception of last year because of distance learning so this year we did administer the healthy kids survey once again uh our baseline was that uh of our fifth graders 82 percent in 2021 felt that they were at a safe on a safe campus and felt safe at school uh in seventh graders 79 felt the same way in december of this school year based on the results 75 percent of our students feel safe at school whereas 61 percent of our students reported feeling safe at school once again uh covet 19 uh i'm sure has something to do with this metric and it's important that we keep that in mind but if we go to the next

028row you'll see this is very interesting even though we're in a pandemic even though kids are uh coming in and out of school you'll see that for that metric do whether they feel connected and know that someone cares about them at school you'll see that our baseline last year 68 of our fifth graders indicated that they felt connected to school in december 72 of those of our students felt feel uh felt connected at the time of the administration uh 61 of our seventh graders last year felt connected and this december 63. so we're seeing that progression in the right direction uh where we would like to be we've actually met or exceeded our metric and so when we rewrite this specific action in the spring we need to increase those percentages because we've actually already

029met those okay next slide please here we have the california school staff survey which is still pending but you can see what it's asking and that's about staff feeling safe and connected at school what you'll see is that our baseline of 2021 94 of our staff felt safe at school and our goal is to reach 95 by 23.24 okay we don't have current data at the time that is still pending and so is the parent survey our parent surveys actually administered paper pencil because we get a better return on that survey and that's been the practice so we're expecting over 4 000 surveys to be processed and we'll have that data for you at a future meeting next slide please okay so now we're going into the actions of um goal two and there are

03014 actions here for this goal let me highlight just a few if i may if we go to the last row and i mentioned this earlier regarding how we support our health services department through the lcap but also through sr3 funds here you'll see what i was referring to we've uh allocated almost 2 million dollars to help hire retain and support our health department and to date we've expended uh 604 749 and we're also using esser funds to help contract services like lvns or even registered nurses through our agencies next slide please i'd like to call your attention here to the first row supplemental instructional support for students with short and long-term absences uh here we're talking about supporting uh through staff and we've allocated 196 almost 197 000 and to date we've expended 41

031000 almost 42 thousand dollars okay this last row here speaks to counselors and if you recall earlier i mentioned that one of the things that we're looking to do uh with our added concentration monies is to secure additional counselors and so that's a way that we're going to support outside of the lcap with concentration monies next slide please uh last row here the jeff seymour family center we've allocated 19474 and we've expended almost 10 000 to date and once again this is just a snapshot as to where we are at the moment we expect to be fully expended on these uh expenditures by the end of the school year if not really close or you'll see a combination of different funds goal three i have a question excuse me uh back on a previous slide

032you have uh implement attendance incentive system what kind of incentives would be involved in that so we [Music] conduct many different types of incentive systems uh or supports one of them happens to be with our outreach consultants one of the second one is through our independent studies program we also ensure that students are able to return their packets and we engage with them and we have support staff that is able to keep track and support kids as they need do they get some reward or anything like that as a matter of fact i just delivered a box of uh some incentives to the just jeff seymour family center last week thank you yes okay goal three so this is this speaks to a strong school to home collaboration which as you know is an important

033piece of who el monte city school district is i'd like to move on to the next slide this is unfortunately those hand those paper pencil surveys really drive our goal 3 because it's about parent support parent engagement and so those results are still pending and i hope to come back soon and provide you an update as to where we are in these metrics because it really does take up the entire goal 3 metrics but we can look at you can take a look at those areas that this speaks to for example we talk about being able to support kids from home we talk about parent training um we also speak to whether families feel connected to their school as well and so i'd like to come back at some point and present not only the

034parent outcomes of our survey but give you an update on our staff survey as well and then cover any other areas with respect to our student survey that is goal three they're all still pending these are the actions so i could definitely speak to those we have ten actions for goal three let me touch on the fourth one here which is provide parent square access so as you know we use communication as a way to stay informed and to seek support and to collaborate with families and parent square has served us very well in this area so we've allocated 31 000 for that support and we've expanded that already and it's critical uh that we have these communication uh aspects in place just recently we've communicated with our uh gate students uh because of uh

035needing to postpone some uh sessions but also with saturday learn academy and so one of the ways we do that is through parent square and we keep families informed so a very good tool to have the last one there is provide learning at home focused workshops so we're pending uh uh implementation of this because of topics and dates in which um our district community liaison will be providing these supports to our families next slide please okay here you'll see um because this is parent focus family focus you'll see areas that are still pending uh and that is with respect to topics with respect to consult securing our contracts with our consultants and i anticipate these uh opportunities for families to take place this spring last one here is actually something i'm really excited about and

036glad to share with you how successful this has been and this is the opportunity to provide vietnamese and chinese community liaisons in our district which were of very high need and udan and anne are tremendous in the work they do not only are they available for any need we have with translating but they're heavily involved with mtss in that process they attend our community liaison meetings and they also attend um evening and weekend functions as well uh and it's a great way to reach out to our community goal four this is maintaining foundational supports so this really speaks to making sure that we have appropriate credentialed teachers making sure that we have the appropriate instructional supplies for our students through the williams act and also through the williams act we have to ensure that we

037have appropriate facilities and so this goal speaks to that next slide please here are the metrics so as i mentioned we have the hrs report and calpads that speaks to credentialing we have the williams standards aligned materials that speaks to our visits from laco and williams and then we also have our facilities repair process and and williams also is involved in that process as well so these are our metrics for goal four next slide please we also have master schedule we have to ensure that we provide our students with access to the arts with access to ela with access to math specifically when we're talking about our middle school students to ensure that they have access to their core subjects and that's where the master schedule comes into play and then we have the healthy

038kids survey again this is a repeat of a previous slide here we have another action with respect to attracting quality certificated staff we've invested 32 million plus in that area and we've expended just north of 11 million next slide please so here an area that we know not only as a result of our current situation with the pandemic but something that the district has been working on over the years is expanding our visual and performing arts program and you can see a sizable investment in that of 1.7 million and to date we've expended even though we're in a pandemic 525 402 in that area so here first row speaks to uh study trips and i like to be the first one on that bus when we go on our first study trip because i think

039we're all ready to get out and and uh move on with uh our life as students as employees and so unfortunately because of our pandemic situation kova 19 that's still pending and that's why you see a zero as far as expenditure there in closing the purpose of this process is to give you once again an update as to where we are and how our different plans that we are continuing to write remember we still have the universal pre-k plan that we're working on we're also working on the expanded learning opportunities grant which is in excess of 6 million as of today but may go north of that very soon how they need to work together in supporting the whole child so the alcap is our base and the other funding streams or funding sources that

040we receive should be to supplement expand and support the needs of the whole child that's the presentation i think i went over by two hours [Music] thank you very much mr lopez and with that i will like to open it up to my colleagues if they have any further questions i have no questions at this time the presentation is very thorough so thank you so much for your time in doing this thank you it's it's a group effort i'd like to thank ed services or fiscal department personnel because all this information it really speaks to us as a district and its collaborative approach yeah very clear and easy to understand thank you and and if you uh have time to read uh part of our update today and you have two attachments you'll see both

041lengthy reports with respect to the five props and also our uh expenditures and implementation plan are both attached there yeah thank you i agree really really helpful and you were actually very efficient way you share the information but i think it's really timely for us as we're going through our equity conversations to have a lot of good reading material so thank you for that thank you i would like to congratulate you on the thoroughness and the work that went into this report it's really well done thank you thank you absolutely thank you mr lopez and sharing the same uh echoing on the same uh comments thank you for all of the work that you do and we're definitely looking forward to to the future of this so thank you very much perfect and with that

042we'll move on to our item number two on our section c of items of interest facilities bond program update with mr jose herrera thank you board president i'm going to be giving the board an update this evening on our general obligation bond program or facilities program updating you all on where we currently are and where we hope to go in the near future uh you can see some of the pictures up there are beautiful facilities right we've uh had a lot of support from the community over the past 20 plus years or so passing four bonds and we've spent about 160 million dollars of that bond funding and it's not even including some of the state matching funds that we've been able to access as well so as we take a closer look at what

043the next steps are with our facilities bond program i want to first take a uh update the board on just what the different type of bond measures are out there we've passed both of these types of bonds our bond i believe it will measure k and and i'll put the slide up there later on the slide in the presentation uh measure k was a traditional authority bond passed in 1999 and in a few years later came about prop 39 which introduced some changes to the bond program and legislation the main difference between these types of bonds is that the prop 39 bonds as far as general obligation bonds can be passed with a 55 percent voter approver threshold so although you have more flexibility with the traditional bond it requires a two-thirds voter approval and

044you have much more flexibility in how the funds can be spent many school districts always move forward with the prop 39 funds because it's a lower threshold as far as border approval the the item down there that talks about the debt limitations it's the same for both uh bond programs you are restricted to two and a half percent of your assessed evaluation if you if you are a unified school district since we're in elementary school district and we share the attendance boundary with the high school district they cut that in half and and we are restricted to a 1.25 percent uh debt limitation as a percentage of our total asset valuation so think of that as our as our credit card limit right we're constrained with by those two numbers the debt limitation 1.25 percent

045and the total assessed valuation now that is something that is an education code and via waivers we can get that debt limitation uh amended or or temporarily waived we have done that in the past back in 2009 and 2015 we had bond waivers approved by the state board of education at the october board meeting we brought forward a resolution and the board authorized district administration to move forward with submitting a a bond waiver application to state board of education we went through the process of submitting that up to state board of education and at their board meeting in january they approved the bond waiver so i'll talk about what the impact is for our district going forward as we look at reviving and restarting up our bond program uh something that we should also focus

046on is the tax rate limitations so when we look at the traditional bonds the the geo bonds general obligation bonds they do require a two-thirds voter approval threshold which is higher however there's no limitation right so whatever tax rate it is that we're proposing to the voters if the voters are proven and it's above two-thirds voter threshold the district can implement up to that limit so when we passed our bond back in 1999 measure k we had an 84 dollar maximum tax rate per 100 000 of assessed valuation every bond passed since then we've had three more bonds passed uh measure j measure kc and measure m and 2004 2008 2014. those are all prop 39 bonds right so a lower lower voter threshold the 55 percent but we're constrained to the thirty dollars per

047hundred thousand dollars of assessed valuation as far as the tax rate now because we have multiple bonds out there um the aggregate is obviously more than thirty dollars with thirty dollars per bond issuance um and you know something that's that's is a difference with prop 39 bonds uh compared to traditional authority bonds which is a good thing i feel in my eyes is that it um requires the establishment of a citizens oversight committee and financial audits annually right and so um it's always good that we we keep uh school districts and public funds accountable right and we have a citizens oversight committee that's made up of i believe six or seven different members in the community and so that's a key variation between the two different bonds so now as we look at el monte

048city school district and i talked about some of these bond measures we have passed four of these bond measures uh in the past 20 plus years or so a lot of support from the community it's very evident when you look at our schools right they're in very good condition and it's as a result of the four bond measures that the school district has been able to to pass with the support of the voters over the past 20 years they've authorized 243 million dollars of voter debt we have spent about 160 million dollars of that so far and there's about 82 million dollars left so we've spent about two thirds of uh of the money that they've authorized us for now you can see down below um whenever they we pull out money from the bond

049it's called the series um series a series b whatever you want to refer to as and so we have all these different debt issuances that we've done over the years dating back to 1999 and you can see the breakdown there between the different bond measures the district has done a great job over the years of refinancing our debt to lower the cost to the taxpayer understand that when we take out a general obligation bond or when the voters approve one the district is not necessarily paying uh that debt it's the voters who are are paying that debt um on their property tax bill right so we have a fiduciary responsibility to lower the cost of borrowing um and when there never there's an opportunity to to refinance our existing debt we take advantage of that

050there's a slide that i'll touch on later in the presentation but the district has saved the the voters millions of dollars over the course of our bond program and something that we're recommending that you'll see at the march board meeting is to move forward with a our largest refinancing yet with the interest rates being what they are it would be a 28 million refinance that would save the voters about a million and a half so i'll talk on that touch on that a little bit later in the presentation and for your reference you can see there the approval percentage the four bond measures that we passed over the the past 20 years or so and you can see the uh the voter approval percentage there right so we've had a couple in the 75 76

051percent range and and the last two bonds were in the 72 67 range now there are different type of bond securities out there available for school project financing it's one thing to get uh the bonds approved and then there's different mechanisms on how we actually go about issuing that debt current interest bonds are the most common uh they function very similarly to a mortgage right you take out a loan you pay interest every month or every so often with a combination of principal the first few payments are um a lot of interest a little bit of principal and as you get towards the end of the repayment cycle you have a lot of principal payments and and a smaller amount of interest right um so those are always what's best for the for um uh

052for the for the voters as far as the taxpayers that that keeps the cost of borrowing uh low you have capital appreciation bonds which are securities that defer uh the payment of interest uh i'm sorry the principal so it's almost like you start with interest-only payments and you have a balloon payment towards the end right sometimes school districts utilize that but does increase the cost of borrowing to to your voters and then lastly is the bond anticipation notes that think of that as a as a loan where you almost take a cash advance on your in anticipation of an upcoming bond issuance so this facility actually was constructed utilizing a bond anticipation note we took out a bond anticipation note in the amount of 10 million dollars back in the spring of and bond anticipation

053notes cannot run more than five years and so we have to pay back that bond anticipation note in the spring of 2023 um and we will do that by issuing more debt from our existing bond it's a way to access funds more quickly because we know that there's a cost of of inflation and construction rises by by the minute by the day it seems like if you look at the cost of what it took to modernize columbia school versus the cost of what it took to modernize durfee school right uh two beautiful schools right uh modernized at different times right about 10 years apart or so but there was a huge difference in the cost there just because the cost of construction goes up it seems like with every year that passes so as we

054move on to the next slide here i talked about our debt limitation and the 1.25 percent of your current assessed value is the limitation that districts face such as elementary school districts when taking out debt that's what we're constrained um restricted to we submitted a waiver to the state board of education and we're glad to report that they approve the waiver um all three of our bond measures um the waivers were approved and we have a um a bond capacity threshold that's been increased to now 1.93 and so you can see their total assessed valuation in el monte is 9.2 billion dollars so if you were to look up and add up all your residential commercial properties in our attendance boundaries um the the total assessed value the taxable assessed value is 9.2 billion dollars

055and now that we have this new uh bonding capacity of 1.93 as opposed to 1.25 percent uh you can see that we have about 72 million dollars of remaining debt that we can access and if you recall on the earlier slide i presented that we have about 82 million dollars of available authorized voter debt that we haven't accessed now with any bond program facilitates program you want to make sure that you have a steady program so by no means are we recommending that we access you know as much money as we can right now we're going to have a steady program where we ease back into it and our recommendation is to move forward with taking out initially eight and a half million dollars uh in our first issuance um and then every year or

056two thereafter we pull out additional bond funds um as we develop our facilities master plan which i'll talk about that later in the in the presentation so this gives a breakdown of the the district's remaining bonding capacity as you can see there uh it now stands at 177 million dollars we back out all of our existing debt and that's a remaining capacity this gives you a breakdown of the district's uh debt that they've taken out over the past 20 plus years or so and when it becomes due a lot of this debt has been refinanced and i'll talk about that in in a further slide later in the presentation as we look at our assessed valuation it bounces around from year to year now the good thing when assessed valuation increases and property values increase

057is that we can access our bond funds more quickly um i guess you can say the the bad thing about that right for um you know the cost of living in the community does increase so we've seen both both sides of that story where uh it helps us as far as our bond program and being able to access the funds for facility improvements more quickly however we have seen the other side of it too where a lot of our families have been forced out of the community to the high cost of living as housing prices have gone up and up last year we had a close to four percent increase year over year but that was uh followed or preceded by multiple years of six percent um year-over-year increases in in the assessed valuation now

058we are using an assumption of four percent year-over-year assessed valuation growth uh which we think is very conservative if you look at the five 10 15 and 20-year averages we're well above that rate and when looking at these scenarios going forward we're assuming a four percent assessed valuation growth as we move forward so now we look at measure kc right we have three bond measures out there that we can still access funding from but some of them are a little bit more constricted than others as far as the the funds that we can access so our proposal as we as we move forward is to refinance about 28 million dollars of debt right which is going to save the voters a good chunk of change and concurrently while the interest rates are low uh we

059are looking to proceed to access funds from measure casey in the amount of eight and a half million dollars currently as you can see there there's about 37 38 million dollars of remaining bond authorization there and that red line represents the maximum tax rate per 100 000 of assessed valuation you can see we're at about 25 per 100 000 of av and we have about four or five dollars of of wiggle room there uh in the short term as more of the debt gets paid off you see in the future years we can access more funds so on the next slide you'll see this is what we are recommending to the board we'll be bringing forward at the march board meeting a some financing documents and some resolutions so that the the district can move

060forward with uh issuing approximately eight and a half million dollars of uh current interest bonds which are uh the debt securities that come at the lowest cost of borrowing uh to our to our voters uh it would be a 16-year repayment term uh we're assuming a four percent year-over-year assessed valuation growth and you can see what the uh what the true interest cost is there of about three percent um and and i'll talk about the facilities master plan later because it's one thing to access the funding that's critical as far as the facilities master plan but it's also very important that we prioritize projects and we assess what the true need is out there um but with these waivers being approved it really sets the district up so that we can through the end of

061the decade they did put an end date on on the waivers they expire at the end of the decade but it sets us up so that over the next few years we can uh pull out or access about eight to ten million dollars roughly uh per per year so so it sets us up nicely where we can spend the remaining bond funds that we have over the next eight to ten years i mean at that point then the the board can always evaluate the district and evaluate what the need is um in our facilities and whether there's a need to put additional uh bonds on the ballot later in the decade so that's the new money now as we move forward and look at the the refunding opportunities with the interest rates being as low

062as they are we are proposing to refinance uh close to 28 million dollars of existing debt that is out there um voter approve them and this will generate approximately one and a half million dollars of savings to uh to the taxpayers uh if we equate that to a present value percentage it comes out to a six percent uh uh present value savings in relation to the bonds that we would be taking out now the district has been very busy over the years as far as um you know making sure that we take our fiduciary responsibility very seriously and any opportunity we have to save the taxpayer taxpayer uh funds we we we look at every refinancing opportunity you can see they're all the different um on the next slide there the different refinancings we've done

063over the years um as i mentioned this refinancing would be uh 28 million dollars roughly of debt that we're refinancing so it's by far the largest amounts that we've ever refinanced and it's very comparable when you look at the the present value savings it's going to come in at about six percent present value savings is going to save us about one and a half million dollars excuse me it's going to save the voters about one and a half million dollars so we're taking advantage of the fact that the interest rates are low um and um and and and taking that fiduciary responsibility uh to heart uh and saving the taxpayers um as much funding as much funds as as we can so the next steps uh obviously you're getting the the update today on the

064financing timeline we are going to be setting up a meeting with smp to request that we get an updated rating as far as our credit is concerned we want to make sure that we can have the strongest credit rating possible at the moment in time that we go out and issue this step at the march 7th board meeting we plan on bringing forward some resolution and financing documents that would allow the the district administration to then execute the uh the refinancing of 28 million dollars and the issuance of eight and a half million dollars of of new day out of measure kc and uh with um with this type of transaction it will take some time so we would estimate sometime in april and may that refinancing will close and we'll get the funds um

065deposited um into the district's uh treasury account uh sometime in april or may so we can be prepared to begin restarting up our our facilities construction program so i talked a lot about the funding part of it but uh what we're most excited about is uh re-uh revisiting our facilities master plan our last master plan was updated back in july of 2008 and we've had a lot of building and modernization that has happened since then the needs of our of our school community have changed uh um significantly uh in the past 14 years or so and so uh that's something that we're really going to focus on um to update our facilities master plan one of the components or actually the three major components that we look at when we look at a facility master

066plan is the student enrollment what will our needs be in our schools not only currently but in 5 20 30 40 years down the road right when you think about the construction the modernization that were that that we're doing and not only to meet our needs today but it needs to meet our needs as a district 10 20 30 40 years down the road the the most exciting part of it is identifying what the necessary facility improvements are and then going through an exercise of prioritizing which projects we're going to be moving forward uh with first right and uh and i kind of talked a lot about the funding part of it so the waivers if these waivers were not approved by the state board of education uh we would have had 82 million dollars

067of bond funds just sitting there that you know we wouldn't have been able to access for many many more years now that the waivers have been approved by the state board of education and everything's official we can now access those funds uh we're gonna start back into the facilities modernization program slowly um as we begin to heat things up and we hope that we're gonna hit our stride with you know um fully spending those funds by the end of the decade um and and at that point the board can revisit uh what the true need is out um in our community at that time um and and start the process all over again it sounds like uh um it's almost as if whenever you start with the facilities uh program right uh that new building

068that you constructed maybe 20 years ago is not so new and it's time to maybe start looking at modernizations right so it's always the best practice for for every few years maybe every 10 years or so for a district to go out and consider putting a bond on the ballot now what's unique in that month is we put four bonds on the ballot in a very short amount of time so we set ourselves up very nicely so we don't have to worry about that for the next 10 15 years or so but nonetheless we've done a good job of putting the funds to use as evidenced in our schools and and every opportunity we can to save the voters money we we we do everything in our power to do so now when we talk

069about a facilities master plan what's included in the facilities master plan everything under the sun right uh what are the needs in our facilities right i put a plethora of of different areas of interest in there and we're going to be sure that we get a lot of broad input from various stakeholders the board the administration our labor partners our staff our parents our community because we want to make sure that our that our facilities uh meet the needs of of of of those that will be utilizing them right um and with so many changes coming about right with the expansion of kindergarten for all four-year-olds and things like that i mean and with the pandemic and technology in the classroom what is a modernized classroom look like now is the right time for us

070to really look at updating our facilities master plan before we start spending those bond dollars that we're going to be accessing in the next month or two so the next steps at the march 7th board meeting we'll be bringing forward some financing documents and resolutions that will authorize the boards or the districts who move forward with refinancing 20 million dollars of debt which will save the voters about a million and a half of dollars and at the same time also issuing uh eight to eight and a half million dollars of of new uh bond funds via measure kc uh via current interest bonds uh most importantly though we're going to be putting in a request for proposal out to get some architects consultants engaged in the process to assist us in developing a facilities master

071plan and as part of that facilities master plan like i said we're going to solicit broad input from all stakeholders so that we make sure that it's reflective of what the needs are in our school community and make sure that we have a very comprehensive plan now the the fun and exciting part of it is at the end of this process um you know the most the facilities master plan may say el monte city school district has 200 million dollars of needs out there or whatever the number is well we only have 80 million dollars of bond funds available right so at that point you go through the process of prioritizing uh which projects get initiated first and what that timeline looks like um and so that's um that that's exciting and and and we'll

072we'll uh develop a budget and identify which projects we feel uh should move forward quickly the process will take a couple months we want to make sure that we spend a lot of time getting a lot of in the planning phase of it right so that when we do initiate that project so we can just hit the ground running right what we don't want to be doing is modernizing a facility and while the walls are open making up our mind oh let's run some cabling or let's do this or let's do that right so we want to make sure that we spend a lot of time on the front end planning right uh what it is we want our facilities to look like so that when we initiate these projects a lot of that design

073and planning has been done in advance and we can just bid out the projects and move quickly on them now the community outreach will be very important as well we want to make sure that we keep our public well aware of the the need to modernize our school facilities and the plans and actions that we have going forward so that also it serves two purposes right they're the ones that authorize the funds for us they're the ones that are paying the debt so they need to be aware of it right we need to show that we're good stewards of the funds and also we build the trust with them so in the future down the road 5 10 15 years from now if the board decides to put another bond on the ballot right the

074community is well aware of what we've done with the funds right sometimes they may not see when we you know run plumbing underground or or put a new roof on the facility right they may see a new building that's constructed and that's that's something they're aware of but we got to make sure that we always keep them apprised of of all the dollars that we're spending because sometimes those dollars are underground um they're up on the roof they're inside the walls and and the um the community is not aware of of how that money was spent so and and then you know we'll continue to regularly review and update the facility master plan every so often as our needs change in the community so with that we're very excited about what the next steps are

075we were a little dormant there for the past couple years but that's because the district did a wonderful job of maximizing accessing all the funds they could we had to take a little bit of a break while the debt was being paid off and now with this waiver that was approved now we can get back into our bond program slowly and and and easily right with a couple million dollars a year of spending bond funds and things will begin to heat up down down the road as we begin to have more and more opportunities to access funding from measure m and measure j so with that that's the last slide that i have and and um just want to update the board so that they're aware of of um the items that they would be

076seeing at the march meeting and i'll i'm happy to answer any questions thank you mr herrera for your presentation for your update any questions on behalf of the board no questions at this time thank you for this presentation and it was helpful also to see next steps because like anything we're always trying to model right all of us in every department in terms of we're always carefully planning you know being aware of our finances and then the follow-up steps having that community outreach because we want to be transparent with the community so thank you anyone else thank you very much mr herrera and with that we'll continue on with our section d of to this evening's agenda communications beginning with public comments is there any public comments at this time no public comments at this

077time thank you item number two written communications no written communication has come forward thank you dr garcia and on uh item number three board members beginning with ms mendez no communications at this time thank you ms mendes mrs rivas nothing at this time thank you mrs rivas mr siegrist yes okay you'll bear with me a little bit but uh i'm having to defend something again it seems like every board meeting i have to defend something this time i'm defending what people are saying out there a lady from the the daughters of american revolution people that i know are veterans boy scouts girl scouts they want to know why there was no resolution this month respecting presidents george washington and abraham lincoln after all washington is known as the father of this country he deserves recognition

078some people say oh well we can lump him in with president's day well that's not the same there's no human being in the history of this country that ever gave so much to this country i invite all of you to get the book called 1776 and read the sacrifices of george washington so anyway what message are we sending to our kids these presidents don't count george washington doesn't matter abraham lincoln doesn't he kept the country together that's one area here's another one march again without even one single word coming up mentioning irish american heritage month a reminder 20 u.s presidents were irish americans they built the railroads along with the chinese they fought in the union army in the confederate army president george uh president john f cheryl kennedy was the first irish american catholic

079president father mcginty came to el monte to build nativity church nuns irish nuns came from ireland and northern ireland to come and build nativity school there's a heritage of irish in this country how many of you know who how many of you have ever heard of emma de valera the first president of ireland born and raised in new york an irish american it's time to recognize all ethnicities unfortunately we have people looking at us saying you only respect four ethnicities and you say you believe in diversity well diversity is more than four i'm sorry people but four ethnicities is not enough we have to do more than that we have children that are going to be wearing green and they don't even have any reason to explain why they do it the families don't even

080understand it either okay the third point all we've done in just a second we are really losing talent for our kids and i'll put the mask back if you can hear me we have retired teachers totally certificated who want to go back into our classrooms and help with our kids especially now remember we have children and as liz mendes always talks about the impact on these kids of covid we have people that will go back into the classroom as volunteers they're not going to even charge anything so i think we should look at a policy to say any retired teacher certificated can be allowed to go back in the classroom and if parents and other people say why are they so special because they're trained experienced so we're losing people that were ready to go

081back and help in the classroom so i will end with that let's look at a policy to say if you're going to go back in the classroom as a retired teacher fine please come and do it thank you thank you mr siegrist as for me i attended the cal poly pomona department of educational leadership with uh dr robin avella an amazing presentation and uh meeting uh as we know here on the floor dr robin avella happens to be the author of shattering inequities which has been very key and instrumental to our discussion as we are in having this equity conversations she presented on issues of equity and social justice from specifically from research to advocacy and action so that really was what she highlighted on that during that presentation actions right for equity and excellence

082specific highlights during that presentation were uh we we know that in school district we acknowledge equity right those inequities that may exist but but the key questions there during our presentations with or what are we doing about it right wha what are we going to do next so these were very special and key questions uh she definitely was a motivation to uh to be people of action right if we're looking if we're seeing anything to definitely be a person of action other highlights during that presentations was were the practices of school districts beliefs ideas including some choke points but more from this specific meeting during our upcoming equity subcommittee uh conversation that we will be having soon and during our equity conversation next month with mrs nicole anderson also i shared with dr garcia a

083specific toolkit on managing wellness we know that these are trying times and have been for all of us so the a the maec an education non-profit organization put together this specific toolkit on on how to manage wellness with specific strategies to manage mental wellness at a personal level and at a context of school it also uh brings forward methods to assist families and uh with their well-being and learning so i definitely hope that dr garcia i know that she'll share that with you all and that is it for me moving on so now we'll move on to our section e of this evening's agenda closed session with a item concerning labor negotiations discussed pursuing to government code 549 57.6 thank you okay and now we will resume our open meeting so during closed session we

084discussed item concerning labor negotiations pursuant to government code 549 57.6 no action was taken now for a section g public hearing item number one hearing and adoption of district's initial proposal to reopen negotiations with csca and his chapter 10 for the 2021-22 school year the educational the educational employment relations act eera specifically government code section requires that all initial proposals of the exclusive representative and the district which relate to matters within the scope of representation be presented at a public meeting of the governing board in large part the purpose of this sunshining requirement is to inform the public about the issues to be negotiated to afford the public a full opportunity to express their views on the issues and for the public to know the positions of their elected representatives the district has presented their

085initial proposals for the 2021 2022 reopener negotiations with csca and his chapter 10. is there anyone who wishes to comment on the district's initial proposal here and then is there a motion to adopt the district's initial proposal for negotiations with csea and it's chapter 10. i'll make the motion thank you mr secrets was there a second i'll second thank you mrs rivas any discussion here or none all those in favor please say aye aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number two for public hearing hearing and adoption of districts initial proposal to reopen negotiations with csea and is chapter 356 for the 2021-22 school year the educational employment relations act eera specifically government code section 3547 requires that all initial proposals of the exclusive representative and the district which relate to matters within the

086scope of representation be presented at a public meeting of the governing board in large part the purpose of this sunshining requirement is to inform the public about the issues to be negotiated to afford the public of full opportunity to express their views on the issues and for the public to know the positions of their elected representatives the district has presented their initial proposals for the 2021 2022 reopener negotiations with csea and its chapter 356. is there anyone who wishes to comment on the district's initial proposal at this time okay hearing none is there a motion to adopt the district's initial proposal for negotiations with csea and it's chapter 356 i'll make the motion thank you miss mendes is there a second i'll second thank you mrs rivas any discussion all those in favor please say

087aye aye any oppose hearing none motion carries continuing with our section h of this evening's agenda approval of minutes item number one consideration of approval of minutes for the january 18th 2022 meeting is there a motion i'll make the motion thank you miss mendez is there a second i'll second thank you mrs frivas any discussion all those in favor say aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number two consideration of approval of minutes for the january 31st 2022 study session meeting is there a motion i'll make the motion thank you miss mendes is there a second i'll second that thank you mr siegrist any discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye any oppose hearing none motion carries now moving uh to our action consent agenda so before we do that do we

088have any board members that have any items that would like to pull at this time number nine any others okay is there a motion to approve the action consent agenda minus item number nine i'll make the motion thank you miss mendes is there a second oh second thank you mrs rivas any discussion all those in favor say aye aye many opposed hearing none motion carries now going back to item number nine yes the reason i'm asking what is a long-term substitute versus substitute so a long-term substitute is going to be anyone that's fulfilling a contract or in a specific assignment for 16 plus days okay yeah so usually covered for various leaves of absence and so that's they have a separate contact contract with a higher rate of pay all right thank you mr sullenbach

089thank you mr secrets do we have a motion to approve item number nine i'll make the motion thank you mr secrets is there a second i'll second thank you mrs rivas any discussion all those in favor say aye aye any oppose hearing none motion carries moving on to our section j of this evening's agenda actions beginning with item number one consideration of approval of the 2022 california school board association delegate assembly election sub-region 23-b president radisson governing board members this evening before you you have a nomination [Music] mendes to represent our district in subregion 23b as a delegate uh through csba as you know mrs rivas has served in this capacity um and so it's been wonderful to have you know our voice specifically shared with csba and be part of the discourse that takes

090place to really identify what the priorities are for lobbying and advocacy and changes that need to make take place throughout the education platform and so this evening it is our pleasure to make this recommendation for this item um ms mendez is uh the only person on the ballot which i think is is wonderful but nonetheless we still have to take action so we can formally send our vote uh to the california school boards association thank you dr garcia so do we have a motion i will make the motion with pleasure thank you mr siegrist is there a second i'll second thank you mrs rivas any discussion i just like to thank my team here and board members for your confidence in me congratulations all those in favor feliz say aye any oppose hearing done of

091course motion carries congratulations ms mendes thank you and uh also thank you very much to mrs rivas for representing the el monte city school district in this capacity thank you and we'll move on to item number two consideration of approval of purchase orders and members of the governing board before you is the january purchase order report i would like to highlight one of the purchases on their 25 000 purchase order with panda restaurant group starting the month of february we are bringing panda express onto our supper menu and we've gotten a lot of positive feedback from the kids that participate in the after school program um that um uh speak very highly of that so we hope to continue to bring in new offerings um into the menu and and and nutritious meals and especially

092things that the kids really enjoy and get excited about eating thank you mr herrera do we have a motion for item number two i'll make the motion thank you miss mendes is there a second i'll second that thank you mr secrets to any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye i abstain and you oppose what abstained by mrs rivas thank you 31 motion carries item number three consideration of approval to adopt resolution 21-22-13 proclaiming march 2022 as arts education month mrs castro president uh drives and members of the governing board the armani city school district believes that arts education which includes dance theater music and the visual arts is an indispensable part of basic education for all students it helps children develop initiative creative ability self-expression self-reflection critical thinking skills discipline and a

093heightened appreciation of beauty and cross-cultural understanding so we ask that you approve to adopt resolution proclaiming march 2022 as arts education month thank you mrs castro do we have a motion for item number three i so move thank you mrs rivas is there a second i'll second thank you miss mendes any discussion all those in favor please say aye any oppose hearing none motion carries continuing with item number four consideration of approval to adopt resolution 21-22-14 proclaiming march 31st 2022 as cesar chavez's day thank you president as members of the governing board cesar chavez day is intended to honor the life and work of cesar chavez who was recognized as a leader who fought injustice and created a coalition of civil rights that was unprecedented in california's history students will have the opportunity to celebrate

094the values of service sacrifice tolerance determination and non-violence that guided the way in which cesar chavez lived his life so we ask that you approve to adopt resolution proclaiming march 31st 2022 as cesar chavez day thank you mrs castor do we have a motion for item number four i move to approve item four thank you mrs rivas oh do we have a second miss mendez thank you for the second any discussion yes i'm proud to say that we recognize his service in the united states navy thank you for putting that in there thank you mr siegrist all those in favor please say aye aye aye any oppose hearing none motion carries continuing with item number five consideration of approval to adopt resolution 21-22-15 proclaiming march 21st 2022 as international day mrs castro thank you president

095revised members of the governing board the armani city school district houses children from all over the world who identify as different races ethnicities and belong to different cultures to honor and celebrate and empower each unique ethnic group we honor different cultures and nationalities on international day where we promote peace tolerance respect for national sovereignty and the protection and promotion of all nationalities thank you miss castro do we have a motion for item number five i move to prove item five thank you mrs rivas is there a second i will second thank you miss mendes any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye and you oppose hearing none motion carries item number six consideration of approval to adopt resolution 21-22-16 proclaiming march 2nd 2022 as read across america day this man miss castro thank

096you president read across america day is a national celebration which promotes reading and adult involvement and the education of our community and students reading broadens our perspective and introduces us to new worlds languages and cultures and cultivates our sense of empathy for other people's experiences and celebrates the joy of reading to all children so we ask the board to prove and adopt resolution proclaiming march 2nd as read across america day thank you miss castro do we have a motion for item number six i'll make the motion thank you mr seacrest is there a second i'll i'll second thank you mrs rivas any discussion uh yes uh i think we're at a crisis in this country when people are saying we should pull certain books from the curriculum little house on the prairie they want to

097take that out they want to take dr seuss out they some of the universities are removing shakespeare which i don't understand why but so really be careful when you start removing books for example one of the most famous ones was huckleberry finn and earnest timing he said it's the greatest american novel ever written i just feel that let people read what they want to read if you don't like what someone's reading let them read it but it's not your choice to tell them what they can or cannot read it's called freedom of freedom of choice thank you mr sucrest all those in favor please say aye aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number seven consideration of approval to adopt resolution 21-22-17 proclaiming march 2022 as women's history month this is castro thank you

098president the role of women throughout history has been overlooked and undervalued women of every race and ethnic background have contributed and continue to contribute to our country's triumphs and accomplishments in countless ways and continue to play critical roles in the economic cultural and social spheres of our nation's life women's history month celebrates women of diverse backgrounds who have served as leaders in the forefront of progressive social change not only to secure their own right of suffrage and equal opportunity but also to abolish slavery promote fairness equality and safety in the workplace and advance the modern civil rights movement so we asked the board to prove march 2022 as women's history month thank you mrs castro do we have a motion for uh to approve item number seven i move to prove item seven thank you

099mrs revis is there a second i'll second thank you miss mendez any discussion yes to add something that has been definitely proven that had women not entered the labor market the labor force in world war ii we would have lost world war ii my grandmother worked in a steel plant my gran my mother was a parachute packer and my aunt was a rosie the riveter in lockheed during the war so those women made this country succeed and against the it looked like we were not going to win the war but the women did it so god bless them all for that thank you thank you mr euchrist all those in favor please say aye aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number eight consideration of approval of second reading of revised board policy 1312.3

100administrative regulation 1312.3 and exhibit 1312.3 uniform complained procedures i move to approve this item is there a second i'll second thank you miss mendez any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number nine consideration of approval of second reading of revised administrative regulation 3515.6 criminal background check for contractors i move to approve this item is there a second i'll second thank you mrs rivas any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number 10 consideration of approval of second reading of revised administrative regulation ar 4217.3 layoff rehire i move to approve this item is there a second hold second thank you mr seacrest any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye any oppose hearing none motion

101carries item number eleven consideration of approval of second reading of revised administrative regulation five one two five student records i move to approve this item is there a second a second thank you ms mendes at a discussion all those in favor say aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number 12 consideration of approval of second reading of revised administrative regulation 5145.3 non-discrimination harassment i move to approve this item is there a second oh second thank you mrs rebas any discussion all those in favor say aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number 13 consideration of approval of second reading of revised board policy 5148 and administrative regulation 5148 child care and development i move to approve this item is there a second i'll second thank you miss mendez any discussion all those in

102favor say aye aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number 14 consideration of approval of second reading of revised board policy 5148.2 and administrative regulation 5148.2 before after school programs i moved to approve this item is there a second i'll second that thank you mr seucrest any discussion all those in favor say aye aye all right any oppose hearing none motion carries item number 15 consideration of approval of second reading of revised board policy 5148.3 and administrative regulation 5148.3 preschool early childhood education i move to approve this item is there a second second thank you miss mendes any discussion all those in favor please say aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number 16 consideration of approval of second reading of revised board policy 6112 and administrative regulation 6112 school day i moved

103to approve this item is there a second a second thank you mrs rivas any discussion all those in favor please say aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number 17 consideration of approval of second reading of revised board policy 6143 and administrative regulation 6143 courses of study i moved to approve this item is there a second i'll second thank you miss mendes any discussion all those in favor please say hi any opposed hearing none motion carries item number 18 consideration of approval of second reading of revised sport policy 6158 and administrative regulation 6158 independent study i moved to approve this item is there a second oh second thank you mrs rivas any discussion all those in favor please say aye any oppose hearing none motion carries item number 19 consideration of approval of second

104reading of revised sport policy 6170.1 transitional kindergarten i move to approve this item is there a second i'll second thank you ms mendez any discussion all those in favor say aye aye any oppose hearing none motion carries last item item number 20 consideration of approval of second reading of revised board bylaw 9320 meetings and notices i move to approve this item is there a second i will second it thank you mr siegrist any discussion all those in favor say aye any oppose hearing none motion carries and now moving to our uh k sect to the uh section k in this evening's agenda discussion session beginning with item number one cabinet reports i have nothing to report this time thank you mr herrera mrs castro nothing at this time thank you thank you mrs castro mr

105solembo it sounds like they are giving me all their time so i can expand right nothing at this time thank you mr sullenbach dr garcia thank you president with us uh i just want to acknowledge the work of the board um you know approving staying up to date with these board policies is so important and i know that it's a lot of reading and a lot of attention to detail and i just want to acknowledge your time uh to making sure that these policies are always up to date um you know i actually didn't have too much to report but this evening just before the board meeting uh got started we received an email from los angeles department of public health and as well as a department of education letting us know that there is

106a change in the mask mandate for k-12 schools and so we're going to be looking at that information and communicating with our school families any updates um our approach continues to be the same we're a little bit more conservative than than you know than not and we believe that it's been the right approach for our school community and and we believe that you know if we're going to make some changes we want to be slow to get to those changes so that we're not going back and forth so we understand that we're almost in this post surge uh winter surge for covet cases and i think that's really good news for just the community at large we want to make sure that when we say that you know we want to be able to take

107off our masks outdoors and indoors and remove barriers it's the right time for our local school community so i'm going to ask our community to stay tuned as we continue to review this latest update and then work with our team here to make sure that our guidance is appropriate and at the same time that it's you know something that we can sustain um through the course of the next few weeks and months as we end the school year in a few months thank you very much dr garcia and now we'll move on to our item number two for discussion discussion session and that is uh csba coast to coast uh federal advocacy and the follow-up i know that we all expressed much interest and this is the first time csba uh is uh doing this

108coast to coast to d.c advocacy um but we do have uh an update yes uh so at our last board meeting we discussed the possibility of attending this federal advocacy group with csva as of today it is sold out i was in contact with some folks over at csba they actually planned for a small group given in that it was an inaugural visit an inaugural opportunity and also knowing that there's some coveted restrictions you know they wanted to keep i think this advocacy group to a small number all that to say that um you know there is an opportunity for a wait list but the way they will be selecting districts to come forward will be equal representation they want to make sure that there's enough uh representation um [Music] for for all types of

109districts that represent california rural suburban you know urban so it's not to say that we get on a wait list and then that we would automatically be the next person in line if somebody were to drop out i was able to connect with staff in terms of the issues that will be csba will be discussing with federal agencies and elected officials there's going to be a focus on special education focus on early childhood on broadband access mental health and then the idea was to create some meetings with agency heads specifically fcc to focus on e-rate and broadband as well as the department of education from what i was told is they think they're going to continue to do this type of trip but they're going to continue to plan something at the federal level because

110it was very well received by board members here in california and they think that it's something that they won't be able to repeat in the years to come thank you dr garcia anyone wants to add to to this item are we are we taking um are we taking vote on this or what's the next step or we just no it was just an update uh yeah this is as mentioned this is the first time csva is doing this so we really didn't know what uh their focus was as far as how many how many did how many school districts or just really how they wanted to narrow everything down but um and and that is going to going to uh continue our conversation as we go on to item number three but no no vote

111okay so item number three is once again going on to csva so we have another opportunity right to for advocacy and this time we have the virtual legislative week as you know this is an annual legislative legislative action day that usually happens at the state capitol building but this time around and it happened last year because of the covet 19 pandemic so this time around it's it's uh we're going virtual they're going virtual again so another opportunity to engage with our state uh um officials uh representatives in sacramento right for this conversation again uh the csba what what they do uh they schedule these virtual zoo meetings with our state legislators they discussed the most pressing issues facing schools programs and students so uh what we do know is that they will provide a training

112for tips on tips for this specific meeting early next month and with that we're thinking maybe you have the interest right of being part of this i know i attended last year and it was very unique we all of us many districts surrounding districts we were on the call with our state legislators on a zoom meeting right so um definitely they're going to come forward with some key they're going to go over suggested topics and talking points which i know that's going to be key for effective meetings with our state legislators so definitely they're going to go over best practices for meetings with legislators and their staff as you know we're being very mindful also that our legislators also have a busy agenda but also having and building those relationships and that those connections with

113their staff with those members of with their members of staff is very important and also they also go over the logistics and what to expect during that virtual advocacy event so i mean at this point i would like to open the floor and see what your interest is in being part of this conversation and part of this event yeah i signed up for it already okay perfect submitted that perfect great great okay so then um i guess we'll share those details as far as that um training right or for early next month yes so the options are as a board members you can click on the link i think you were all sent an email you're feel free to sign up we're also happy to sign you up if that's something that we can assist

114you with um if you want to let me know that you're participating then we keep track of that um and then we'll see csba staff will coordinate a training so they'll push out some information regarding that upcoming training they'll talk about the legislative talking points that they want us to make as a collective and then lastly they'll schedule all of the appointments and they're very mindful of you know limiting the number of board members that participate in those meetings but also giving us the opportunity to all have different experiences all that to say that the schedule you know we'll get it pretty much i think the week the right before that week of march 15th that's when we'll confirm the schedules and you'll receive an information via email from csba regarding what meetings you're invited

115to participate in thank you dr garcia okay we know that um also before we conclude this uh item as so this virtual legislative week will be uh march 15th through the 17th perfect moving on to item number four our equity follow-up so as you know we met on the 31st last month to have a discussion on equity so part of our homework assignment was to generate come up with some questions or any thoughts that we have you know after our discussion so based on that is there anything that the board wishes to add um i would say that i have to confess that when we began our training with equity training that i have the uh i reacted immediately with the presenter i did communicate with her later i thought it was totally inappropriate for

116her to give us a negative comment by thomas jefferson the author of the declaration of independence the co-author i did communicate with her and i said is that all there was to this man one negative comment and then to give us frederick douglass i don't think you can have those two people and say they contributed equally so i have attained i had began with a tainted vision of her equity and then she said that it doesn't include equality well for me equality is significant in life you have to have equal opportunity i think our um don't we actually have on the constitutional equality before the law so as far as equity i began thinking about what we do in equity we've been doing this for a long time we re we have special resources for

117special ed ieps we offer extra help to english language learners head start summer school we have a whole list of things that i believe qualify for equity we've been doing it for a long time we don't have to apologize and say well we aren't doing equity i think we've done it for a very long time we've left nobody out every district i ever worked in we we always address the needs of those kids we didn't consider their ethnicity language whatever everybody got treated that way so i will i will conclude by saying that that my introduction equity was very poorly done by this lady and she never bothered to respond back to me about my complaint that you don't begin by attacking thomas jefferson one negative comment and then tear the nothing positive after that

118anyway i will rest with that but as far as equity yes we've been doing it for a very long time and we have to we have to give everybody opportunities and i still say you can't say equity is apart from equality of opportunity you have to make things equal to people look at the sports program and sports in itself equality people compete on an equal basis they're not giving any special consideration for one person or another anyway i will rest with that thank you thank you mr speakers for your comments for for your thoughts mrs rivas yeah i really appreciated the conversation that we had at our study session and i did do a lot more reflecting and i don't want to read any comments right now probably not be really fruitful to what we

119our business tonight but um i'm really open to different ways of moving forward as a equity committee and as a board but some thoughts that i have right now about ways that we can continue to move forward after that conversation would be for the committee to review uh the notes that we took um from that meeting and to distill it a bit into okay these are the big picture ideas that we we discussed this is what success and equity means to us bring that back to the board and see if if the board would like to refine that in any way further before we meet again with um with nicole anderson um and uh so those would be my my thoughts i'm open to other ideas if if people have other ideas of ways that

120we'd like uh to move forward but um that's something that i can see as stewing and it just seems like it could um could actually uh work into what how nicole anderson is actually trying to to assist us yes thank you thank you mrs rivas anything else i'd like to add you know it was great opportunity for us to really talk about um the definition of equity for us right and we were what i really remember very vividly from our meeting was we really talked about we first need to really define what success looks like for the omani city school district because and that ties into our our vision and our purpose and then from there we can then align our different initiatives on supporting what that success looks like right um so there was

121that work that we did and within the with miss anderson she was working with us towards really clear uh defining and updating our equity statement our equity policy so that definitely goes hand in hand so i'm glad that we had that opportunity so now we're able to then bring come back to the table saying okay these are all our ideas we really want to focus on what does success success look like um how that ties into equity and then now when we work in our equity statement we have a really clear picture of what direction we're going thank you miss mendes and yes definitely all please know that all of your suggestions your thoughts your ideas are definitely helpful as uh you know you're mentioning you know we're working towards that equity policy and equity

122statement so definitely uh to review those notes i think will be very much helpful and come back right before we uh continuing our conversation with the business nicole anderson perfect so we have those thoughts down and um are we dr garcia are we meeting as far as mrs uh rivas and i and of course you uh prior to uh yes we can set up a time to meet um and i'm thinking um i think it's a great recommendation our next board meeting is going to be here very quickly it will be march 7th and we were moved it up because we had to fulfill financial obligations and so it does give us two weeks after that uh before our next study session with mrs anderson on the 28th and so i think that's an opportunity

123for us to meet as a subcommittee review the notes develop an agenda and then perhaps on the 7th of march bring back an additional study session date um whether it's the 14th or the 21st uh to prepare for our meeting with um miss anderson how does that sound perfect sounds very good thank you just an idea if because that time is limited right between that next meeting is there any way so say once if i know we have our march meetings anyway do you think it would take a 30 minutes or an hour if we can maybe i'm just thinking about other ideas to host a study session before the board meeting that's also another viable option just because i know that time is limited and we may not all be available within that short

124time frame for an additional meeting so i don't know if we want to just maybe um because i know before we would have a quick hour study session before um or maybe we can do it after or just expand so are you suggesting um perhaps before the march 7th like as part of the march 7th meeting or before i'm thinking for me it's going to be a little hard to do those i don't know if we could do it after just expand that like say we have our board meeting and then just stay an extra 30 or 45 minutes for the study session piece is that something that the board wishes to do doesn't stay after if we if we struggle to find a date then maybe that can be an option so can we

125because we would have to set that today okay um yeah and i'm there's there's probably you know spring break for different people and stuff built in there so um it would it would work fine for me i i think that probably the next one wouldn't have to be quite as lengthy as the one that we just had so right i would think 30 to 45 minutes at the end of the march 7th meeting would be fine before after works for me mr siegrist mr secrets how about you okay you're you're fine before after the meeting okay and miss mendes if i heard you correctly you would your preference would be that we do it after the board meeting so start the meeting at five yeah if we're able to do that if not like i

126said i just i would just you know we have if not within we would if we came back it would be either about the 14th or the 21st to just have a meeting and i know like we said it wouldn't be as lengthy as the last one i think it's just more really defining and refining what our ideas were yeah we will be back with all of those uh the reviewing all already reviewed the ninja notes and just narrowed it narrow it down yeah but yeah that would just be my preference since we already have two schedule board meetings in march and so then that way we can just calendar and rather than having three that's a good idea okay all right so what we'll do is we will agendize the march 7th meeting um

127with a special study session or an expanded discussion session at the end of the meeting perfect thank you thank you everyone for your uh feedback and your input greatly appreciated okay continue on with our item number five advocacy subcommittee and unfortunately mrs kobian is not here but i know that uh ms mendez had expressed interest on this and uh of course this is kobeyon to be part of the advocacy subcommittee as well so if you want to go ahead and elaborate on this yeah i know we both showed interest members called beyond so maybe we can table it until the next meeting can we do that and just wait until mrs kobian and we're not taking any action the discussion session is just an opportunity to give feedback on a topic and share some thoughts

128absolutely let's wait then for mrs kobian to get a little bit of our input too and just as an update um i did contact yvette kim from csba and she will be in touch or she has been in touch uh with dr garcia because that was a request from okay from the proposed subcommittee so okay wonderful perfect so that will be part of our uh will table that and part of our next meetings agenda okay continuing with uh item number six future discussion items anyone would like to come forward with the any discussion items for the future not at this time for me mr seacrest yes i have all i'll defer to okay well i was just saying done at this time for me so thank you miss mendes mr secretary um i think that

129we should agendize a policy for allowing people to be tutors and mentors in the classroom i can't imagine any teacher in this district that would not welcome a retired teacher totally qualified having been vaccinated tested for kovit i think we really need to look at that because our children are missing that one-on-one from a or a group a small group of children they learn so much from people who are experienced and i know if parents or someone have to object to that and say well how come they're well they're qualified people they've taught in the classroom they have that experience they have so much to offer number two i think we really should be looking at declining enrollment and finding ways to address that i i uncovered or encountered a district in northern california they're

130taking one of their schools that's been closed they're working with the developer to to to build apartments on that facility and allowing local you know low low rent for people who are going to have children that come into the district another one is that i think we're behind other districts for redistricting and trustee areas the high school district has concluded their mapping of their trusty areas rio hondo redistricted already pasadena city college did i think garvey did also we really need to do that i want us to avoid a cvra complaint it'll cost us around 30 000 as soon as the attorney files it they're going to come up and say well we owe the money so we really should be looking into redistricting i know it's a painful thing to do because i know

131it's a headache for the high school district they had so many meetings but they finally did it and it eventually it's done the county commissioner redistricting decides what the maps are but we really should start looking into that just to avoid those problems because i'm being asked by people in doherty they divided into seven council districts i don't know why but they did thank you mr siegrist any other future discussion items perfect okay with that we are ready to adjourn our meeting this evening thank you very much for those of you who are here today and those of you who are watching thank you very much so have a wonderful rest of your week thank you very much now we will adjourn at 7 23 pm thank you