001Good evening everyone. We are ready to start our our regular meeting. If anyone in the audience required a headset for Spanish translation, please raise your hands and a device will be provided to you. Welcome to the Pan Spring Unified School District regular meeting at the board of education. Today is a Tuesday, December 9, 2025 and we are so glad to you are here with us whether you are joining us in person or watching along on YouTube. Thank you for being part of tonight meeting and I will now call the meeting to order. Can I get a roll call, please? >> Urban, member Cornet >> here. >> Member Gerardi >> here. >> Board clerk Jerel. Board president here. >> Board member here. >> It 6B is the pledge of the allegiance. The pledge of the allegiance
002will be lead by Charlie, board member Charlie. Item 6D, land acknowledgement. Our land acknowledgement will be read by board member Yerardi. >> Thank you. The Palm Springs Unified School District and acknowledges the Kawia as the original stewards of the land on which the Palm Springs Unified School District facilities now sit. We are grateful to have this opportunity to work with the indigenous people in this place. We pay our respects to the Kawia people, past, present, and emerging, who have been here since time immortal. memorial. >> I'm sorry and apologize for jumping the 6C. That is a our mission statement and that one is item 6C. Our mission statement will be read by Rancho Mirat High School student board member Olivia Parisio in English and me in Spanish. Go ahead, Olivia. >> All members of Palm
003Springs Unified School District are united and are committed to equity. We create deep meaningful learning opportunities, build professionalism, and engage parents and community to ensure success for all students. All students graduate with the skills, capacities, and confidence needed to succeed in a rapidly changing world. >> Thank you. I will read. Professionalis. And then I move to iron seven report at close session action. Uh, cla are are there any close session action to report? >> President is petta. There are no items to report. >> Thank you. Iron A is approval of agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda as presented? >> Move for approval. >> Second. >> Any any comments? Please vote. All in favor? I I motion pass. Item nine, board consent items. Item nine, approval at meeting minutes for November 18,
0042025. Can I get a motion to approve those minutes, please? >> So move. >> Second. >> Please. Both. All in favor? >> I motion pass. Item 10, a special recognition. Uh 10A, the governing board wish to recognize and commence the following employees at the moment for December 2025. We had a few short uh videos produced by our digital media interns. So, Miss Susana Sano or Miss Susie as she's more commonly known here is a wonderful um supervision aid here at Awoken. She is here from morning till night. Um, she's got a a a wealth of knowledge of all of our [clears throat] >> So, Miss Susana Sano or Miss Susie as she's more commonly known here is a wonderful um supervision aid here at Awaken. She is here from morning till night. Um, she's got
005a a a wealth of knowledge of all of our students, but really just works with the team, supports all the students. She's kind of like an octopus all over the school here. Um, just an amazing support for all of our students and teachers. Uh, so Miss Susie really comes at it with a problem-solving mentality. She has that can do attitude. She supports all the uh supervision staff. Um, and then just if she sees a need, she just asks like, "Can we try this? Can we do this?" Um, she's really adopted the playworks piece here at AC that PD and really has run with it. >> Miss Susie, you are an amazing person. Thank you so much for being here. Um, I cannot imagine AC without you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all that
006you do for all of our kiddos. All right. So, Miss Jamie Langika is our par professional three. She supports all of our students in special ed here on campus here at AC as well as any other students that might have some behavioral needs and challenges here at AC. So, Miss Janie is just an all-around team player. She is on the radio almost every minute of the day. Um, her name is being called or she's supporting someone. We need a a help with a student with a a need, she's there. She's like, I got it. I'm there. Um, yeah. So, Miss Janie is here every day just supporting our kiddos again from before the bell to way after. Has that can do attitude that we really have come to love here at AC and she just
007is always there when you need her. Um, you know, Miss Janie, thank you so much for everything that you do. Uh, you are an amazing person. Um, and supporting our students and and really reminding me that all kids are trying to communicate in the way that they know how. and that's our job to be patient. So, thank you for teaching me that patience. Um, so we're recognizing Loretta Flores, our school psychologist here at Awok and uh just so happy to have her nominated as our employee of the month. She is an amazing school psychologist that works with all of the staff here at AC. She's has a can do attitude, provides that support to all staff, families, students, and really comes at um any any problem with just like let's let's get to this, let's
008get to this work and and see how we can uh support all of our students. She's just an all-around great person. her knowledge and really understanding um students needs um helping me to understand the IEP process and supporting our families is really it's it's remarkable. Loretta, thank you for everything that you do. You are uh just a light here at AC. I'm so thankful I get to work with you and um hope for us to be able to work for years to come. >> [applause] >> At this time will the board of education executive cabinet student board member Aarisio and Mr. Antona make your way to the front. >> Thank you. We'd like to welcome up our first classified employee of the month, Susana Srano. [applause] Susanna, is there anyone in the room you'd like
009to recognize or acknowledge? My family and staff. [applause] Okay. Congratulations. >> Thank you, Susanna. >> [applause] >> At this time, we'd like to welcome up our next classified employee of the month, Mrs. Jamie Langarika. [applause] Jamie, is there anyone in the audience who you'd like to recognize or acknowledge? >> Um, my husband, my family, and everybody and the family at a Caliente. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Jamie. [applause] Up next, we'd like to invite our certificated employee of the month, Loretta Flores, to the front. [applause and cheering] Loretta, is there anyone in the audience who you'd like to acknowledge or recognize? >> Um, I'd like to acknowledge my family and the staff at Awaken and Mr. for leading by example and making Allah a great place to be. [applause] >> Thank you, Loretta. [applause] The
010governing board now wishes to recognize and commend the following PSUSD students for academic excellence. Can we please have Angelo Lorico to the front, please. [applause] Can we please have Genesis Rosales Ramirez to the front, please? [applause] Congratulations, >> Mr. Antuna. Do you have a couple words you'd like to say? >> Absolutely. So, Genesis is a wonderful third grader. She's always got that smile on her, and she is just an overall wonderful student. She's kind, and she really embodies Awaken's uh values of being fair, responsible, and kind. And so she really deserves this honor. So congratulations to you, my friend. [applause] >> You want to say say hi to your mom? >> Hi, mom. [laughter] >> Thank you, Genesis. [applause] Up next, the governing board would like to recognize and commend the following parent for their
011involvement in Aua Taliente activities and events. Can we please have Esmealda Soraniano to the front? [applause] Mr. Antuna, would you like to share a couple words about Esmeralda? >> Absolutely. U Miss Esmeralda, as long as as well as Miss Elsa right here, make up our really wonderful small but mighty Elac team and we work really well together. Miss Esmeralda is like, "All right, I've got this." She's always there. So, we're so thankful to have her part of the AC team. Much gracias. Felicia. [applause] Thank you, Esmeralda. And this concludes our special recognitions for the evening. Next uh we move to item 11 public comments. Claire Jerel, have we received any electronic comments? >> President Queta, we have not received any electronic comments. In person comments, all comments are to be directed to the board, be
012under three minutes, and shall be the boy of any personal attacks. Members of the public are expected to maintain a professional courtesum during public comments. Board members do not respond to public comments. Do we have any members of the public who wish to address the board of education? Okay, I see none. Thank you. And then uh we move to iron 12 public comment uh public hearing. Sorry. Uh the board now open the public hearing on the annual and fiveyear reportable fe report for fiscal year 2024 2025. Have any comments being received by the district as that as to the an annual and five year reportable fee report for fiscal year 20 24 2025? Mad we receive any >> we have not at this time. Thank you. Um is there anyone present uh who wish to
013provide verb comments on the annual and five year reportable fe for the fiscal year 2025? don't have any. Okay. Um later in the agenda, the board will consider adopting resolution number 2025-2026 that uh 18 approval of the annual and 5-year reportable fee report for fiscal year 2024 2025 in compliance with government code section 6606 and 66. 6 0 01 and seeing no oral comments I now declare the public hearing closed. Item 13, a student board member report. Our student board member report will be presented by Olivia Aparicia. And we have Olivia Aparicio from Rancho Mirat High School. testing testing okay good evening board and Palm Springs community my name is Olivia Apricio and I'm excited to present this month's Ranch Mirage High School presentation. First, I'd like to start off with wishing Leslie Aguilar, our
014other student board member, who could not be here tonight. Um, good luck. Tonight is her game against Ranch Mirage High School. So, I'm a little biased tonight, but I do wish a good luck. Our December focus is special education day and also athletic administrations day. First off with special education. In honor of special education month, Rancher High School proudly launched the Best Buddies Club. The purpose of this club is simple but powerful. They promote awareness of students with special needs, foster inclusive friendships, create a community built on kindness, positivity, and acceptance. Best Buddies gives students the chance to connect with peers they may not usually meet and it helps us build a campus culture grounded in inclusivity. We are very excited to see this club grow. Now, moving forward with our athletic administration appreciation this
015month, we would also like to recognize our athletic administration team, Mr. Martinez, our athletic director, Miss Sonia Choa, our athletic secretary, and of course, Miss Kendrick Caldero. I've had the privilege of working with all three of these wonderful people. They work so incredibly hard to schedule buses for each team, making sure that each team arrives arrives to their games according to plan. They coordinate many um schedules of games and make sure that each student is taken care of both academically and personally. These are great stu great staff members and I'm very very thankful to work with all of them. They are very hardworking people, very kind, and they definitely make a great environment for our students. We are extremely grateful for everything they do, and Mr. Martinez is in the CL in the crowd. for
016our December recap. December has been a very busy and exciting month filled with athletics, theater performances, choir and band events, adopt a rattler, Palm Springs light parade, our outdoor pep rally, and academic opportunities. Moving on with athletics, our boys soccer team is currently 2-2, while our girls soccer team is 0 and one. Our boys basketball's record is 3-1. Girls basketball's record is 0 and4. These teams are very young, so we are very excited to see where they are going to take off in the coming year. Our girls wrestling team, their dual meets are zero and one so far and so are the boys. Again, these teams are very young and they're all new to these sports. So, we're really excited to see the growth that they are going to have. Our girls water polo zero
017and four. And moving on with our theater and performing arts, we would love to invite the board to the coming theater performance. It's called Radium Girls on December 12th and 13th at 7 p.m. This show is based on a true story about young women who worked in a factory where they painted clocks with um a material with radium and it affected their health later on. So this show is really just about to promote awareness of these young women who dedicated their lives and eventually created awareness and our performing arts team is very excited to show this. They also have an upcoming spring show auditions for Once Upon a Mattress and our honors and band and choir performance had their performance which was very very beautiful. They played many Christmas songs and we were really excited
018for their dedication and growth. our Palm Springs Light Parade. Our color guard team and our band also performed in this wonderful parade. They had much fun with tons of laughter, food, creativity, and inclusivity. We are really proud of their great work. Next, we have our adopt a rattler where staff collaboration works with ASB to give back to the community, promote kindness, generosity to our Rattler families. This is a very exciting program and we cannot wait to give back to our community. Next, we have our academics and opportunities. Our seniors have just finished their civic seal engagement which will be on their diploma when they graduate. This is a very big achievement for our seniors and we are very very proud of them. Additionally, the BSU MSI College Career and Culture Tour applications have been submitted
019and accepted. Tons of our Rattlers have been accepted and are very, very excited to go on this trip. It is a very exciting trip filled with many opportunities with certain colleges and all the things that they have to offer. Moving on with our college applications, our seniors have also just finished their college applications with UC's and the CSUs, additionally their private schools. We are super proud of our seniors and all of the hard work that they have achieved over the past four years and we cannot wait to see where they go. And our counseling team has worked very hard to provide many scholarship opportunities. Miss Henderson in the career center has offered her time during fourth period to all seniors and juniors to help them with college applications, scholarship opportunities, and many other college support.
020Next, we have our aviation career exploration program. This is new. It is created for students who are interested in the aviation center and is going to be held at the Palm Springs Air Museum. We are very excited about this program and we are excited to see where our rattlers go. And finally, we have our finals, the best part of the semester. We are excited to end the year with a with a great hardworking academic final week. We promote much support to our rattlers and we are very excited to see where they come out on top. And that is it. Thank you. Thank you, Olivia. Item 14, presentation. Item 14, A, educational services update, OE10. >> Thank you. This evening, I'm very pleased to introduce our coordinator of early childhood education, Mrs. Linda Rodriguez. She will
021be providing our educational services update this evening and the focus is on our Early Head Start program with our toddlers. So, you're in for a treat. Afternoon everyone. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share a little bit about our program um our early head start program. Am I changing the so I just wanted to share a little bit about our program. Um most of you may know our early head start our head start programs but this is a part of our ECE program which is our early head start program. Last year in 2425 we opened our first time two toddler classrooms. Um so we opened up a total of we serving we are serving 16 students um at Desert Highland um center. So we opened two classrooms um in 2425 and it was
022a great success. We were filled quickly and we knew that the upcoming year we needed to expand on that. So we did have the opportunity in 2526 to add three additional classrooms um bringing us to 40 students that we are serving as toddlers. So we are now serving 40 toddlers. Um like I said in 2425 we had 16 students. So we expanded that with additional classrooms. Today our early head start program serves a total of 40 children creating strong foundations for lifetime learners. So it's it was super exciting. These are a couple of pictures from Desert Highland. Um we have our teaching staff. We have all of them that have one teaching sta one teacher and a paraprofessional as well as a floater that helps and assist during our lunches and breaks um and supports.
023So we have students around that classroom just exploring, having fun, um enjoying all the activities that we have set for them. Desert Highland in 2425. Of course, it was brand new to our sites. So, we had to um do a renovation of our playground to ensure that we had an age appropriate playground. Um so, we do have um some of that expansion on there. Um, as you see that picture on the corner in the right hand corner at the bottom, um, that's when all the tractors were in there and the kids just loved when they were outside in the playground watching those tractors move around and start that renovation. Um, so in 2526 they have had they're just starting to have that opportunity to play in that side of the playground. Um, so that's been
024a great expansion. Um, we did that in collaboration with the city of Palm Springs. um and Riverside County Office of Education as well, of course, Palm Springs Unified School District. So, it's been a great project. Um as I said, we expanded the three additional classrooms. Um two at Coyote Run, which would be classroom number three and four, and then at a Royal Deas out in Desert um Desert Hot Springs was our classroom number five. This is our classroom at Coyote Run. Um the picture right at the bottom with the yellow shirt, the yellow guy, he is brushing his teeth. So he's got his little toothbrush, brushing his teeth. Um I'll share in a little bit um just the slides of what our daily schedule looks like. Um and all the opportunities that they have throughout
025the day. Um so parents come in and they're like, they line up, they pick up their trash, they do this. Yes, they do. So they learn a lot of those social skills and working with one another. So sharing some of those activities with with their peers and as you may know many you may know two year olds that's not an easy task. It's not an easy task sometimes for adults but even it's even harder for toddlers. Um Coyote Run 25 26 we those are the new classrooms that we expanded. The little guy laying down is um actually laying down in one of our areas that we call our calming zones. Um so there is opportunity for students to use social skills that or task or uh gadgets that we have for them to just do
026some calming breathing um techniques different things to help them just uh regulate their um their social emotional skills. Oh, let me just And then of course you guys all pump gas every morning, right? Well, we do too. We do too. So, our little toddlers also do have their little pumping gas of their little trikes and bikes and make sure that they make those happen as well. That's another picture of Coyote Run. They just really enjoy the literature. So, they're always reading. They're always bringing some books and this is some some tasks that they do on their own. So, it's not like an opportunity for a small group. They really bring those books out and they enjoy them. So, just rotating those books to make it exciting for the students. This is a royo deas at
027a royo deas. As you see again reading on there um part of our um program is making sure that we have those first 15 minutes when they do drop off. It's not your regular drop off of like our kids classrooms. This one they have to have some parent interaction with their students. So they stay for the first 15 minutes and help them comingo into the classroom and make themselves comfortable in there. So they The teachers set up an activity that they can do with their child and they use that as in kind opportunities. So that's at all. So our program p purpose is to provide a safe nurturing environment to support their development milestones and foster language and social emotional and motor skills. our classroom environment, ensuring that we have a warm child centered space,
028safe exploration ages, and of course, age appropriate materials and routines that we have provide for our students. The curriculum that we use in our classroom is high scope. Um, this is a very flexible um curriculum to help us and support the students. So, we do that by observations, schedules, and routines. So they're learning on just what to what's that next step. So when they're their school readiness to go into our Head Start classrooms. Um adult child interaction also how to cope with other adults. So making sure that we make help them throughout those skills. Our social emotional curriculum is conscious discipline in this classroom. So a lot of the things is really working with those students to ensure that they have those social emotional skills. um it's a tough age, two years old. It's it's
029it's challenging for them. So, they're just learning those skills. Some of them are more successful than others, but that's why we provide those skills for some of those students that help their peers. Um so, even at a young age of two, there's there's opportunity for grow. We also do provide um we do a screening tools assessments um with our students. Every student that enrolls in our program within the first 45 days, we ensure that we complete a screening tool that helps us identify any areas that might be of need. So, we support them in those areas. So, for our ASQs, there's a ages and stages questionnaire. This is a parent um tool that is used um in our program and the parents complete this t this questionnaire. So, they're answering those questions. Are they able
030to do this? Are they able to do that? do they need assistance with this? So those help us identify if there's areas of need. For example, in the ASQ number three, um those are areas that we identify if there needs to be Oops, did I press? Oh, it came back. Okay. [laughter] Um it it helps us to identify if we need to do any referrals. Um so to the right hand side is the IRC which is inland regional um center. So we do those referrals directly with them and then they do an assessment to see if there's any other support that's needed for ASQSC. Those are just that those qu that questionnaire is really focused on the social emotional component. So if there are areas of need that is when we identify and we provide
031mental health referrals and we provide those support for those students. Um sometimes it might be for the students or sometimes it might be for the parents. So it is open for all in the family. our desired results um assessment tool that we use. This is the tool that we utilize to understand where students are at at what levels. So we identify, we review, we do anecdotal observations for students throughout the day. We take parent inputs, we do observations, anybody walking into the classroom. So we take those observations as well. um and those help us identify where those students are at and plan accordingly to really give that support to students. Our daily schedule similar like this, we do arrival, greeting, family engagement at the beginning, um group time with music, um breakfast, handwashing, toothbrushing, um
032outside time, group time with materials, a lot of handwashing, a lot of making sure we're going to the restrooms and getting those cares taken care of. Um providing snack planning time, outdoor play and family communication. So really important when our parent when the childs are dropped off in with in our care, we make sure that we provide a a daily report to every parent in regards to what happened in that day. So what meals they ate, what if they use the restroom, anything that needs that is important for them. They're still growing. So, we want to ensure that parents are aware of what's happening throughout the day. So, that's key for us. Here's a couple another pictures. We have some more toothbrushing. They're doing their classrooms um some toys and um playing in the dramatic
033play. So, um it's really odd. Sometimes you don't really see a lot of students um playing together. You'll see them parallel play where they're playing in one side and in the other one. Close by, but not close, not that close yet. But as you see in that picture on the right hand side on the top, they've made their friendships. So they've created that um opportunity to play with one another and play in the in the same setting. So that's that's key for us. We love to see that family engage. We like I said, we do do our daily parent communication, family activities and events. So we do ongoing activities with the parents. We provide them workshops, trainings that they um may require or request um or sometimes in their surveys they might let us know
034this is some of the interest that they have. We do that at enrollment as well where they share some of the things like I want to know about the ages and stages of my ch my child or I want to know a little bit more about the teaching staff. What education background do they have? So we really listen to what those um parent input um they share with us and we bring it back to the classroom. So in our parent meetings, parent communication, our daily communication that we provide, our staff ratios, um we do have all our teaching staff, highqualified toddler teachers with specialized EC training and toddler units. So anybody in our early Head Start programs have their early childhood program um units, but in addition, they are required to have um um infant
035and toddler units. So those are required. So an additional six units of those to ensure they're specialized in the area with the toddlers. We also and their ratio is a little lower. So they do have a one to four. So one teacher for students. So that's maximum on there. So that's why we have three sta practically three staff members in those classrooms to support those students. Um and ongoing professional development. So whether it does artosas or riverside county office of education or providing workshops throughout. So we provide those trainings as well. The program impacts strong social development growth, smooth transitions to preschool classrooms and ongoing positive um family feedback. So last year, like I shared with you guys, was our first year that we had our toddler classrooms. It's been really neat to go out
036to the classrooms to our Headstart classrooms and see those toddlers when I saw them when they just walked in and they were crying and not wanting to stay and then you w see them in the Head Start classrooms all grown up just doing their thing. Hi, Miss Linda. you know, it's just so cute to just see them so grown up, you know, and they're just um with limited um some of them had very um limited um language, but now in Head Start, they've just really grown with that. So, it's just those all those interactions. So, they went from a classroom of one to eight, I mean, eight students in their classroom and now they're in a classroom of 17 peers. So, they're really being and they're successful. They're being very successful. Um, just want to
037end with just a couple additional pictures that we have here. This is that coyote run. Um, but thank you. Thank you for your time. Any questions or anything? Oh, thank you. >> What What is the age rank for these students? >> So, the early Head Start program, they do have to be two years old. Yeah. So, our program is two to three and then once they hit three years old, then they they go into our Head Start classroom. >> Do they have to be potty trained? >> No, they don't. >> No, there's some requirements for many preschool. >> None [clears throat] of our programs require that they're um potty trained. Um but they like in our Head Start classrooms, as soon as they start the program, takes about two, three weeks and they're done. they're
038ready to go to the restroom [clears throat] because they watch their peers and they see, you know, so they really work um on getting a toileting plan and help. So the teaching staff work with the parents. >> Question is um is the uh facilities full? I mean are the facilities full or are there space available for more students? >> Sometimes we do have drops especially um during the winter breaks. Sometimes we do have some drops. Right now we are full. Um but there are opportunities. So I always encourage or if you have somebody always encourage them to come and go on our wait list because we may have a drop and we go on to that next list. >> Is there any type of um program that you guys have available for um actually how
039much is it for the the parents to have >> to come in our program? >> Yes. So we um we are actually there is not a cost to come into our programs but they do have to have an income requirement. >> Oh okay. >> I I just wanted to add >> Oh sorry >> I want to thank our ECE team and the leaders there. I got I had an opportunity to go and visit some of our campuses and where our young scholars are and I would ask anyone in this room to go and visit and the work that they're doing there is amazing. Uh no time wasted. They have a strong ethic of care for our young people over there and excellence starts at two years old. So thank you very much for your work.
040>> Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Next uh we move to item 15 board members comments. Do we have any comment from the board? >> Can this time can we start that way and come back? >> Yeah. Is it clear? >> All right. I have to bring that up. That's okay. I'm ready. U just recently I attended a conference and I'm giving my report uh just a little brief about my u report as a delegate assembly member for our region area 18 and I was elected to this delegate assembly and It's an honor to serve in this special group of approximately 280 members and we meet twice a year and we discuss uh many many different topics and we vote on policies that we see would help to support children across the state. Um
041we are a very dedicated group of educators. We stay together two days and we break up into sessions and talk about so many different important subjects and topics. Uh I did uh have a chance to be up at the assembly meeting and I sent notes to our board and superintendent so that I can get some details from the conference meetings to our our um members here. Uh I have a chance to be there at the conference for a little bit in the afternoon, but actually in the morning to see our assistant superintendent and meet with our board as well. And that's always great to reconnect and meet each other uh in a different spot. The other important event that I attended was just last night and it was an attend uh an event that was
042sponsored by the Boys and Girls Club of Cathedral City and we were honored to be uh part of this special extravaganza that was there to honor our children in the Cathedral City area and in the Coachella Valley and the work that's being done by the many many volunteers donors, uh, community members here in the Coachella Valley. My own daughters attended the Boys and Girls Club at Ranch Mrage Elementary, and without that club, I wouldn't have had child care before and after school. They are very, very dedicated to keeping our students safe and helping parents who are needing extra child help. And they also what I learned is that there are many programs they put on to develop students interest technology, sports, uh arts. And so this was a great um actually uh event last night
043with Scott Robinson, the chief executive officer, uh Craig Bruce, the event chairman. Um there were so many different um sponsors, but Patrick Evans, auctioneer Dan Lernno, Dan's carpet cleaning, and Awa Kente Resort uh also underwrote this great fundraiser last night. So for me, um I just I'll put my phone down and I'll get to say uh some sincere words that this year has passed so very quickly. Uh if this uh is in a blink, in December and this would be our last board meeting uh this year and we are actually um making a change to a new year and we're going to actually see school just go even faster. The days fly by and um with with just a few more things to say. Appreciation to all of our staff, families, parents, anyone community members,
044everyone that helps to keep Springs unified as one of the top districts in the state. And so with that, I wish everyone out there a happy holidays and we'll see you in 2026. So, thank you. Real quick, um I was supposed to present at the Desert Round Table Breakfast and I was late. So, I want to thank Dr. for carrying the baton on that one. You did a great job. I really appreciate it. But later that day, I did get to present to the Palm Springs New Rotary Club. What a great club, great turnout, very supportive of Palm Springs Unified. It was a real pleasure speaking in front of those people. Um, as board clerk Jerel said, we attended the California School Board Association conference. Uh, I got to say, I've been to several and
045this was one of the better ones. Um, I think because of we got to have camaraderie amongst all of us there. And I went to a couple of lunchons, the black uh school board association and the Latino school board association, and quite honestly, those keynote speakers were better than the general sessions. They were very well done. I really enjoyed that part of them. Thanks to uh the Desert Hot Springs Historical Society this last Saturday, they put on a a program of the history of the education in Desert Hot Springs. They brought in community members that have been going to school there ever since it first started. The first school was a hole in the ground and uh and from there big shout out to my wife who was one of the presenters. She did a
046great job. Mary, thank you so much. And Dr. Funus closed the show that day. It was really quite educational how education has developed in Desert Hot Springs. And then later that night, we went to the Desert Hot Springs Women's Club annual gayla. And thanks to them, they have raised probably now 700 800,000 in scholarships for our students at Desert Hot Springs High School. They're very uh involved organization. So big shout out to them. I also was at the Cathedral City Boys uh and Girls Club Gala last night. What an important role they play in our community for our for our young people and we have a great partnership with them and I want to thank their executive director and their board for that partnership. Um Olivia, great job. Oh, she left. I was going to
047say, you know, anybody who thinks finals is fun is a real academic scholar. So hopefully you'll this Olivia and she was at the Boys and Girls Club last night donating her time. So, she's very involved in her community. Um, and so let me close with however you celebrate, I hope you all have a healthy, happy, and safe holiday with those that you hold most close and dear. So, thank you all very much. Uh I I wanted to say thank you to Olivia too and and for her work last night at the Boys and Girls Club of Cathedral City to their extravaganza. Uh raised lots of money for our students in Cathedral City and Cathedral uh the Boys and Girls Club of Cathedral City is one of two in our district. Uh there's the Palm Springs
048uh Boys and Girls Club, which is separate from the Cathedral City Boys and Girls Club. I happen to be a board member of the Cathedral City uh Boys and Girls Club. Very proud to be there. We have a great CEO, Scott Robinson, that has really um brought the club into its own, providing many many uh opportunities for our students besides just uh daycare and babysitting. They do a lot of uh extra things for the kids in reading and in sports and in academics and um technology. They have a wonderful garden uh uh area too that kids work with uh master gardeners. So it's it's a wonderful club and I really appreciate the board coming out and supporting that. Uh also I was able to attend the do do the right thing in November. They're going
049to have one again on Thursday I think instead of Wednesday this this uh week. So hopefully people will come out to that wonderful organization and a big shout out to Terry Kover for that. Uh I also was fortunate enough to attend the California School Boards Association conference uh with my other board members and also with Dr. Fanches and our cabinet. It is a great opportunity for us to interact with uh there's a thousand over a thousand school districts in the state of California. So you really get to meet other uh board members and other superintendents from all over California. So it is a great opportunity for us. Um also thank you to uh Linda Rodriguez for your wonderful support. What a fabulous program. Uh the sooner we uh are introduced our kids to actually education
050and learning and all the opportunities that you provide them. That's thank you so much for doing that and your whole uh program and all of your employees. Thank you. And also just to everybody else, I hope all everyone has a very restful and happy uh holiday season. be safe and we'll see you back in January. >> All right. Thank you. So, uh my comments, um I attended the um uh BMC conference um 2025 in Philadelphia on November the 20th. Um that was over a thousand African-American male teachers. Um it was more than just males there. It was just a a great atmosphere. um education was on display. Um unfortunately one uh.3% African males are teachers over the United States. So I think we need to do a little bit better with reaching out to our
051males and and getting uh more male teachers and more educators. Um the conference was really good. They spoke about AI and a couple of different other things. But um with AI it was quite interesting. and they brought up a topic that there's biases in AI. Um, and so they have tools that are put in place to catch biases that AI might actually have put in place. And um, I want to see the district um, look at some of that. Um they were saying that they had some of the students who were committing suicide because of the responses that they were getting from the AI prompts and it was it was showing that the African-American males and African-Americans in general um had biases in how the response was responded from AI. So I know that we're
052moving forward with a lot of the AI here in the district. Um, and I would like to see some of these tools put in place to make sure that we don't, um, allow bias to slide in as we move forward with AI. And next, um, I went December the 3, I went to a conference as well with the other board members, um, with the school board. Um, and the most interesting thing out of the school board was the debate that they had actually with some of the candidates who are running for governor. So that was really interested to see the different comments and the different um topics that some of the uh candidates were speaking about and uh so it it's always good to be with the board members and and the superintendent as well
053and cabinet also came a little bit which was pretty cool to have dinner with them as well. We missed the children but um maybe next time we'll catch the children out in uh Sacramento. And uh December the 16th, I went to Festival of Lights downtown Palm Springs. And I think that was probably like my second time ever going in my life. And the parade lasted so long. Like there was so many different floats. There was so many different uh organizations and groups in there. I was so surprised they had a um a ladies I think it was like a cheerleading squad um of mature adults and they came all the way in from Seattle to come down and be in our parade. So it was really good to see those ladies out there performing and
054and and dancing in the parade and we had a lot of our different schools here perform as well in the parade. And so good job to the the Palm Springs uh uh Festival of Lights because it was really amazing to be there and and it was so crowded I couldn't even move the lines were it was like rows of people all the way down the street as far as you can see. You had to park probably about a couple um probably about a mile away to get there because it was so crowded. But great jump to the festival lights. I went to the boys and girls um extravaganza as well with the other board members. Um and that is always to see our children, the children from the Boys and uh um Boys and Girls
055Club of Cathedral City. They performed, did an excellent job of performing there. Um one of the key highlights for me was watching the uh gentleman do the bidding. So, he was he was exciting and energetic going give me one, two, three, three. He was doing all that and it was just really cool to see how he was able to get money. And so, um Karen did a wonderful job with um getting a company to provide scholarship. I mean, um, some funds that were available for the kids and I believe that they made like about $1,000 off of that um the, um, what she, um, donated. So, that was great to be there as well. I went to the Apac meeting. So, I was kind of a double agent on that day. So, I snuck out
056for probably about 30, 40 minutes. Um, and I sat in the lobby and, uh, went to the Apac meeting. Uh, really great uh, Apac meeting, general session. They spoke about um we had Jim Feffer come out and speak about the um uh numbers for academics for the African-American students. And to the district's um approval and great job of the district, I've seen that some of the students for the African-American classes for ELA as well as math have improved a little bit. We haven't seen the numbers exactly where we want to see them, but our African-American students are moving a little bit out of the red into the orange, which is great. And so that concludes my comments. >> Thank you. >> Okay, I'm next. I will try to be very briefly um in November 19,
057I attend one as good event that happen every every month. Do the right things. And this is uh they recognize a student from the whole three school district uh three from this school district and also it's opportunity to interact with the other school district and I found that we are only one one coachella ballet we are all together um also um in the same day and attending to the ranch high school um the antom night uh 2025 fall dance show and that was a two days event in the Helen Gallen performing center. Uh the dance team that was the dance team the dance classes and the per performer two times almost through uh the two hours they perform in different category or different song. Uh I can mention some the say crazy laba conga and
058shake the room and what very interesting event uh in November 20 I attended thousand pounds community concert with uh claire presented the state at the district and the superintendent Dr. and Joan Boy there and these all the time is a good opportunity to maintain and increase our relationship with the community a thousand pounds and the county riverside and in Tuesday December 2nd is when we start um flying or driving to to the trip to Sacramento that was three days and the CSBA annual education conference and trade show. Um, and as Shie mentioned, we start with the session with the Google Natural Candidate Forum was very interesting and we attending the California Latino School Board Association and the California Association of Black School Educator launch lunchon with very very excellent speaker and can mention Dr. Ilana
059Perez and Aean Ra. Ra very e excellent speakers. Uh also um yes to mention the session that they include was income more than 100 options to attend. uh is uh board member decide to attend the one that we thinking that will be beneficial for our school district because they cover different needs that the school district around uh uh California. Um also um in Saturday with u board members I attended the shat women club annual gala. Yeah, they was very uh supportive uh uh club for our student in the school district and yesterday I attended with all board members the boys and girls club in Cathedral City extravaganza event and I see the flyer that I have here is a 40 year old u uh boys and girls club that I can relate that with the
060all connection with the all sponsor support and the good program that they uh provide to the student at the school district. Thank you to to the voice and recruit cater and to close I want to wish everyone um to have a uh safe and enjoyed the the the coming holiday. Thank you. Uh next item uh is a item 17 uh superintendent >> and we will skip the student board member because she she already >> Thank you board presidenta. I wanted to make a few comments just as we continue to uh develop our understanding and our shared uh our shared understanding if you will of PSUSD excellence. And so next slide please. I wanted to thank our board members, our executive cabinet and our student board members for time well spent at CSBA, California Board Association.
061had an opportunity to visit uh presentations and but more importantly spend time with one another, respecting each other's leadership and and getting to know each other more, connecting more on a deeper level. And a few of the things that you might hear about coming out of some of the key learnings was expanding our STEM and STEAM program so that we continue to push forward equitable outcomes for our scholars. So, thank you board. Thank you, executive cabinet and our student board members for a time well spent at CSBA. Next slide. And at the RCE Greater Coachella Valley student of the month awards, I must say PSUSD represents well. Our scholars are smart, they are intelligent, and they are full of greatness. And I wanted to call out Joseph Bueno, CCHS. Uh Janet Ramirez, DLA, Joel Ruiz,
062sorry, DHS. Uh Katia Martinez, MSJ, Elena Vega, Palm Springs High School, and Janelle Pauly, uh Rancho Mirage. These are future leaders and difference makers, and they are right here in Palm Springs, Palm Springs Unified School District. Job well done to our scholars. Next slide, please. And this is something that uh Palm Springs has been considering for quite some time. Our board has discussed it. our our executive cabinet, our ED service team. Shout out to uh Karen Demick. Uh we began to really put some teeth to it and starting now aviation pathway, right? uh starting with a pilot this year at Rancho Mirage to get 10 of our scholars going on a six-w weekek uh career awareness program uh with the thoughts of not the thoughts the plans to go ahead and expand to all high
063schools next year uh and make it a an aviation pathway. So what will our scholars get out of that? Uh hands-on exposure to real world aviation careers inspire long-term interest in STEM and aviation fields. It will gain job shadowing experience and aircraft mechanics, understanding of air traffic control, aviation pilots, right? And then our future vision to increase access to our scholars, diverse scholars going into the field of a aviation and growing a partnership with the Palm Springs Air Museum and our uh airport right across the way. So, shout out to our ED services team, uh, our our museum across the across the way and every leader who's spoken on having a pathway here. So, it's coming. It's good stuff, right? Um, next slide, please. And then I'll wind down the last two slides. Frankie, the
064food truck. The reason I wanted to point it out, point this out because uh Tara Lazar, one of our our parents at Katherine Finchy uh of a what of a parent of a kindergarten scholar, owned several restaurants. And once the SNAP benefits were uh compromised, she took it upon herself to provide 2,000 meals to identify scholars and families in Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs. And through that nonprofit, we uh fed a lot of our scholars and their families. Job well done to Tara Lazar. Frankie the food truck. We are grateful for your service. Thank you very much. And final slide here. I I know tonight here shortly we'll be looking at u elections for board president and board clerk. Um and I just want to say thank you. I wanted to thank uh Sergio
065Spirit Queta for job well done being the board president uh for the last year. Thank you for your service and your advocacy, tireless advocacy for our community. Right. I also want to thank uh board clerk Madonna Derel for her year of service as well, her tireless advocacy for our scholars who receive special education services. So, thank you very much. And to our PSUSD family, friends, co-workers, have a great holiday break. Take care of yourself and enjoy it. Thank you very much. Um we move to to item 18 is the annual board organization meeting. This uh the had to happen every every year in December is when the the entitled uh governing board uh decide who will be the president the declare of the board for the year starting from this December and the next December
066in 2026. Um the item 18A is the election of the president at the governing board. And at this time we will open nomination for board president. Do we have any nomination? >> I'd like to nominate Karen Cornet for president. >> I would second that. Okay. Okay. Please vote. All in favor? I >> I >> Okay. Resation K. And board member Cornet. Um I I had a proposal. You want to start the meeting or want me to finish this meeting? [laughter] Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. And and you know I want to say something slide was a a truly honor to me to to to serve the community the school district the student in this role is not is not it's not easy but at the same time was a good opportunity for me to grow
067out good opportunity to understand more and more about how uh the the local agencies York and again congratulation Karen I know that you will do good good job and thank you all board member for giving me this opportunity. Thank you. Okay and next item will be this next item is the item 18B election at CL at a board. I'd like to nominate Charlie Irvin. >> I second that. >> Good. Please vote or or in favor to vote. >> I I [laughter] [applause] >> will board president Cornette and board clerk Irvin please go to the front to take a photo. Will board president Cornette and board clerk Irvin please go to the front to take a photo. Thank you. Yeah, officially we had the board president the board clear but I will continue the this meeting
068for tonight and I still the former board president. [laughter] Okay. Okay. Let me go to next item. That item 18C is the election at representative for the annual county committee at the school district organization. >> I'll nominate Madonna >> and second. Okay. Or please vote or I I Okay, Madonna. Congratulations, Madonna. and the item 18D ether election as representative for the Paris spring unified school district board committees leison do we have any nomination for the for the following position would be the first one is legislative network leison we have who is now >> I am that right Now, so um if someone else would like to do that, >> I would like to um just see if the board would work with this idea. We did this um that we stay in the same committees
069as liaison and in the future workday look over those committees and decide you know which ones need to be um exited or you know combined. If that is a good idea for the motion. >> Is that a motion? >> If it's a motion, I'll second it >> to to >> then we need >> to do this in another >> keep the committees the same >> the same and then >> and then we'll revisit it next board. >> Make sure that the committees are still pertinent. >> Okay, >> you're with he was the second. >> I'll go ahead and read those out. The legislative network liaison is Karen Cornet. The Head Start parent policy committee is Sergio Espereta. The bond committee is John Gerardi and Charlie Irvin. Sponsored naming facilities committee is John Gerardi and Karen
070Cornet. Naming committee Sergio Espereta and Madonna Jerel. Foundation for the PSUSD committee is John Gerardi and Karen Cornett. Equity committee Sergio Espered Queta and Charlie Irvin. And the audit committee is Charlie Irvin and John Gerardi. >> Okay. Okay. Please vote. All in favor? >> I motion pass. Thank you. Mhm. That's good. Item 18E selection of day time and place at regular meetings. Regular meeting at the board will be heard at the second and fourth Tuesday of the month except where noted at 6:00 pm in the boardroom at the Paris Spring Unifi School District Administration Center located at 150 District Center Drive, Paris Spring, California 92234. Can I get a a motion to approve item 18e? >> Move for approval. question. Please vote. All in favor? I >> I motion pass. >> Item 18F, approval of
071calendar update for regular meetings. Can I get a motion to approve item 18F? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? I >> I motion pass. Item 18G approval of certification of authorization signature. Can I get a motion to approve item 18G? >> So moved. >> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? I >> I motion on pass. >> Yes, I did. Okay. Item 19, uh, board action item. Item 19A approval as positive certification at ser first entering for fiscal year 2025 2026 OEI Simmons. Uh can I have a motion >> move for approval? >> Approve 198. >> Okay. Thank you so much this evening. We'll try to make this as quick as possible for everybody. It's been a kind of a long day and we still have a lot
072of work to still be done. Correct. So, appreciate your time here this evening uh and the opportunity to kind of present our first interim report. [clears throat] First, I'd like to really thank the board and the cabinet and Tony Curo, our director of fiscal and his team. um all of the business services division, human resources, educational services, everybody's involved in this budget. Um particularly, you know, from human resources and all they do and the business services teams um in order to make this uh this budget work and uh in order to close out our books, you know, effectively each year. The budget process, this is kind of the uh second part of the budget process. We adopt the uh budget in June and then we kind of work through um you know what we've adopted
073and do some revisions um through uh kind of freeze it on October 31st and that's what first interim is and then we work do it again on January 31st for second interim we present that in March and then we get to our estimated actuals and our new budget and then we do our final unodudited actuals and there's usually quite a bit of differences between um between those as we move forward. a little bit on the uh state of the um state and US economies at this particular point. I heard a report from the LAO's office. Um not too sure if you guys got an opportunity to see that at CSBA, but this was at the CBO conference just a week prior. Um some of these, you know, charts show some pretty good news here. Um
074in particular, the um state income tax uh is about 2.4 4 billion higher, 7.3% ahead of budget projections for this particular year. Uh the revenues estimated for California are up 11 billion for the prior year and 2526. All that's kind of shown in that top graphic there. Um that is actually what that's going to mean to us because we're getting money in from the prior year and better money in from this year. As we move to 2627 in their budget, usually that means a pretty good chunk of one-time money. um what they're talking about is about $7.4 billion dollars in one-time money. But again, we really won't know that until January, more particularly May. Um some of these other ones on the right side there, you see the stock market prices are are up. Um
075they're up about 50% since November of 2023. Um and are at a historic high. That's being led by AI, which is a very strong market at this particular point. Um the LAO's office projects moderate revenue growth after 2627. Um and as a result of that, Proposition 98 is still in test one, which means we do not have to lower our fund balance, our um our reserves down to that 10% mark. We can keep our reserves where we need to keep them um in order to keep us stabilized the way we see fit. Uh Prop 98 guarantee is expected to rise about $7 million over the next couple years. However, we'll see if it's fully funded or not um through the cola because the reserves um you know there's kind of that good news bad news
076sort of thing. The reserves have been spent completely down at this particular point by 26 27 or at least they're estimated to to be. Um you can see that graph in the lower left. There's a big wide range of where the LAO kind of projects you know the revenues versus the expenditures in the millions there. There is some volatility to this and I kind of listed that up at the top right there. Um price earning ratios that suggest that we have a high risk in the stock market downturn. That's in comparison to um some things that have happened in the past that the LAO was concerned about that is kind of happening right now. Um may or may not happen. Of course, uh 10% of California entire tax is from four main companies. So those
077are the big tech companies like Google and Apple and Meta. I forget the fourth one. Um but uh you know that's you know that's that makes it kind of volatile when 10% of your thing is coming from just four companies uh you know in general. So as long as where they go we go basically. Uh job growth has remained flat but at least hasn't gone you know um at least it hasn't gone down. So consumer spending is declining. uh the state is facing a deficit of $18 billion dollars. So just a few years ago we were facing a surplus of 300 billion and now all of a sudden the projection for 2627 is an $18 billion deficit. Um over the next couple years it was projected to be about a $ 35 billion deficit. So
078it's kind of a tale of two stories here that's go that's going on. All right. As we move forward through our own district uh assumptions here in our own district budget, there is a couple of things here on this slide that I'd like to point out. You can see that the projected uh ADA and the funded ADA, I've kind of shown you graphs and charts in the past, but those are getting tighter and tighter. We're still on what's called the three-year average of our funding, but once we get to that point where we stop declining enrollment and we get to that current year, that'll be the point where we begin to, you know, climb back up in our revenues. and uh but you can see it getting tighter and tighter and tighter. So, it's leading
079us to believe that the declining enrollment is coming to kind of that uh plateau, negative plateau, if you will. Um as far as the unduplicated percentage, an interesting phenomenon has kind of happened this year in this regards. We'll have to see how it ultimately turns out. Normally, for um uh income qualifications, income verifications, we get about 72% that qualify for free and reduced lunch. So far this year, and it's pretty much at the end of it, we've gotten about 68.7. So that's about a 3% difference. And what I'm hearing is uh which is actually a good thing for the uh for the families and stuff is more and more folks just aren't qualifying for the free and reduced lunch, which is good, but not so great for us as how we do our supplemental concentration
080dollars here. But it is an unduplicated percentage, so we hope to make it up through our EL students uh and homeless and foster youth. the other areas in which you can have students qualify for this particular thing. At this point, COLA was qualifi uh was projected to be 2.3 uh for this year and as we get into the budget here, it's projected to be 3.02 and 3.42 the year after that. Um it's already begun to change. We we're hearing that um we're looking at about a.5 less of a cola this next year as we move into January. The LAO's office was projecting 2.5 instead of 3.02. 2. However, we did, you know, at the time we did this budget, which again, October 31st is where we kind of ended. That's where we were we were
081sitting at. But as we move forward, it could be about 0.5 less. Um, but 2728 is actually projected a little bit higher at 3.7 and then as we get into 2829 at 4%. So, constant changes there in cola until you get really to the May revise. Um, you continue to go through those changes. Let's talk about our stabilization plan a little bit. You may have recognized if you looked at this uh ahead of time um that this used to say $30 million over over a fiveyear period. Actually, I think in the very beginning we were actually at a four-year period and we kind of stretched it to five and now we've said, "Okay, we've done a $25 million um uh reduction over a fiveyear period." And we've kind of held that we're kind of holding
082that other five million um in place and as part of the plan, but we it's kind of just a wait and see. Um we're actually looking pretty good in all of our estimations at this particular point and we don't want to reduce any more than what we absolutely have to uh take away services from students that we don't that we don't need to. So there's really two parts to the stabilization plan. One is the reduction of you know any programs that we felt deemed that were were not working necessarily and then any positions that came up we have been you know removing those positions as they've come through cabinet if we felt like they um you know they become vacant and we felt the need that they were part of the stabilization plan to eliminate
083that position. Um, and then the second part is really taking the some of the one-time monies that have come through like ESER and the in-person U grant and ELOP, some of the ELOP funds, shifting those funds to from um shifting funds from the general fund to those uh grants in order to be able to save this particular money into the fund balance and making our fund balance uh much stronger than originally anticipated. So, there's two sides to that story. make your strong your fund balance stronger, reduce your um expenditures down to match closer to your revenues, so your budget's much more manageable and um you know showing the stabilization plan is working effectively. So, as we look at the unrestricted budget at this particular point in time, um you can see there's a slight changes
084here and there and I've kind of added to those yellow highlighted areas about a million dollars more estimated than what we originally estimated in LCF dollars. That's really they gave out additional money um for additional TK funding. So, that's a factor in there that uh we were able to add in my first interim here. And then you'll notice there's an additional million dollars in certificated uh and also in services. Um originally when money gets carried over, we don't exactly know where it's where it's going to be budgeted u from the particular departments like a onetime grant or something. So we put it in services and then it gets transferred to the certificate in this particular point for their additional duties and stuff. But then also for services that actually went down but then it also
085went back up as a result of higher utility cost uh estimations. So uh where we plan to make that money back though is in indirect cost for the board. If the board doesn't know indirect we get we get to claim a certain percentage of every single grant that uh for administrative costs. So we get to pull that into the general fund from the restricted side or even the unrestricted side from grants that you know we get we can pull in a certain percentage based on what the grant rules are. So we're estimating a you know a little bit under $2 million in additional um indirect uh money there. We did have to raise our contributions a little bit by a couple hundred thousand that was in the special ed department. We um we did have
086uh some more attorney fees than anticipated. Uh, so that's where that extra 200,000 came from there. I wanted to show the board, this is a little bit different and it might be a little confusing. I wanted to show the board just how the stabilization plan was working. So what I did was I I brought in where 2526 was estimated to be at this time last year when I did first interim. So remember I was doing first inter 24 25 and we have to estimate forward where we think 2526 is going to be and as you can see the budget's fairly you know fairly normal and as far as revenues and expenditures and stuff but the big difference became where the ending balance ended at we were anticipating ending balance this at the end of this
087year at 50.6 million and we actually um are starting our beginning balance at 73 million. So, we're projecting now um an ending balance of $61 million. So, that's just a big difference of, you know, um things like um uh resignations, for example, not filling those positions, um fallout from LCAP and special ed that we discussed at unaudited actuals. Again, one-time grants going into our fund balance, shifting those expenditures um that we've talked about. So through that stabilization plan practice um we're actually in a better spot than where we assumed we would be at this particular time last year. Does that make sense? Okay. I I I was hoping that it wasn't that I can kind of draw that out for you. And that includes um even in fund 17 because in fund 17 you can
088see that we were estimated at 16.7 million but we are actually now estimating at the end of this year uh 21.8 8 million and then uh as we move forward 19 and then 7 million. Well, those numbers were actually uh last year was 9.9 million where that 19 million is. So, you know, that's an additional 10 million in fund 17 uh as well. So, it just shows we have a very strong position in our fund balance and our budget our budgeting between expenditures and and uh revenues are um in a good spot right now to be maintained. So, as we look at this slide, this is just a graphic representation of what I already presented to you. Um, but these are these you can see the deficit spending here, um, which is pretty typical. It's
089deficit budgeting, I guess, is what we would probably call it. That's pretty typical, but these numbers are very manageable. I mean, 11.7 million um, in that first in this year, 14 million. And remember, the budget gets tighter and tighter and tighter. So right now we're saying 11.7 million but by second interum it should be tighter and then by unauorter actual is even tighter. So um as fallout comes from the different departments not spending their money elcap maybe not spent some positions not not getting filled you know in a time in a necessarily timely manner but the more the longer those weight and so forth. So all those begin to cause you know fallout from the budget. So these are very manageable uh numbers here for our unrestricted general fund. And I usually show this graph
090each time. This is kind of where our expenditures go. Again, mostly on personnel. Uh the unrestricted side, 86% on personnel, so it's much less for services and so forth. Whereas the restricted side has uh some additional money for uh services and supplies. Uh the personnel mainly comes from maintenance and special ed. And I know the board has asked before about uh what's happening with federal revenues. We are beginning to budget less and less. Um, you know, just kind of as a percentage, you can see our revenues, uh, instead of budgeting higher each year, we're actually budgeting less each year as a as a projection. We still don't really know where the federal government's going with this. We know that they've broken up uh, the Department of Education and put um, you know, Title One through
091Title 4 and a different department. They're still not too sure what they're going to do with um, believe that those went to Department of Labor. They're not too sure what they're doing with the special ed at this particular point. So, you know, in in our anticipation, we usually would keep this number the same or maybe even budget a little bit higher, but in anticipation of, you know, potential reductions, we have begun to reduce that. Uh, again, we'll work closely with educational services, federal programs as the need arises. One-time grants from the state and potentially offset, you know, these, like I said, we're going to get 7 point some billion dollars that'll be divided up amongst amongst us for, you know, that may help if there's positions to be reduced that may offset for a little
092while anyway until we can u you know figure out those positions and what to do with them. Uh the second interim may show a further decrease as we learn a little bit more about the final numbers. Um and I already talked about that free and reduced lunch situation. So and then as we look at the combined general fund, this is just a graphic of again what was already discussed. It is deficit budgeting. That's to be expected. um the revenues will always be less than the expenditures in the uh as long as we have onetime grants anyway in the restricted side because as you spend down you know you have to budget um all the expenditures for those one-time grants and spend those down. So, it's naturally going to be you didn't receive new revenue from
093onetime grants in this year. You might have received it two or three years ago, but you're spending it down in the current year, for example. So, it's always going to be a little bit uh more. And then this was a little bit of an experiment for the board. It's just kind of a dashboard that I thought maybe if you wanted to print out and hold on to it. This is our combined general fund um showing you, you know, where our expenses are being paid for personnel, you know, just in case you get in a conversation. the revenue. Um, you can sort of see that olive color that would be the federal government. You can see that decreasing as I talked about a little bit earlier and you can kind of see the the burgundy color,
094the transfers in increasing a little bit. So, we're having to bring in money from say fund 17 to support the um reduction in money from the federal government. Uh, and and then the state one's kind of holding steady and so is the local one. And then you the bottom left there is just the expense expenditures versus revenues we just talked about um that deficit budgeting but it is manageable. And then where enrollment versus ADA are. So I if this is a help great if not let me know and you know can take it out. I just thought it was a nice experiment. And then I usually show this chart to the board. I'm not really going to cover much any of this. Um it's just all the rest of the funds that that we have.
095As you can see, a lot of them are deficit spending, which is to be expected. Uh, as we, you know, pull money from fund 17 or fund 21 facilities, that money gets spent down. There's no additional revenue in those funds. It's just we're spending or spending down the money. Same with the capital facilities and fund 40 and so forth. Uh, the charter schools doing all right here. Um, estimated, you know, 1.8 deficit budgeting, but they still are looking at a $5.6 million uh ending balance. So all is well there with the charter schools. And then as we move forward, I did show this chart the last time I kind of just want to, you know, let the board know that, you know, we are in a position here that we are doing, you know, pretty
096well here um with with our budget. I think we, you know, we've kind of laid that out here. We're doing much better than what we anticipated this past year. So what I what I'm looking at here as far as a yes strategy is kind of that addition by strategic subtraction. So further spending reductions may be necessary, but um you know, we're got over the next few over this year, we're going to be developing a multi-year vision that's going to develop our priorities so we'll know exactly where we want to spend money. Um analyze district initiatives with district outcomes, determine successful and unsuccessful initiatives, collaborate with educational partners to offset those new initiatives with unsuccessful ones. So again, that offset that strategic subtraction, if you will, uh, and then have the ability to say yes to
097creative and new initiatives and build successful initiatives with data and fiscal responsibility. And I believe we're coming up on our new LCAP year two, which is a perfect time for um, this type of thing to determine what's working, what's not. So all in all, I'm basically saying it's a positive certification. Um, it's always with the assumption of stabilization plan that's been worked through here pretty well. Um and then this last one is just a thank you. Uh we um and with a bunch of pictures of it's not just always about the major facilities projects. These projects are part of our MCP um uh process and uh also just general maintenance um you know projects. So you can see that we did some turf work at a couple different schools um Desert Hot Springs High School
098and Raymond Cree recently. We painted the Raymond Cree there. Uh, Ranch Mirage High School got a couple of murals, new softball back stop at Cathedral City High School. The Richard Center was repainted. Um, the end of this past year, we redid the bathrooms at the Palm Springs High School. Just a few other things. We've been installing a lot of turf. We've been installing a lot of um, retrofit drinking fountains or water bottle fillers and stuff like that. So, so that's what we've kind of been doing with our money besides the major stuff. All right. Listen, >> thank thank you. >> Just a comment. Um, great job, Jeff. I just want to tell you that you're doing a wonderful job, man. Thank you. I love all of the numbers. You know, I'm big on that. I
099always ask for it. I love to see all of the different things, the colors, and different schemes that you came up with. Great job. >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay, we have second. Please vote. All in favor? >> I Question. Well done. Item 19 B approval of monitoring report governing policy operational expectation personnel administration OE4. >> Thank you board presidenta. It's my pleasure to to go through OE4 personnel administration. Um the board in the Friday report was provided the entire OE4 and so what I'll do here is highlight uh some of some aspects of that but certainly answer any questions you may have relative to all items within that report. >> Um I'd like to start with >> Mr. Hill give me a second they will move the motion and second to be on the
100floor. >> Yeah absolutely motion >> motion and second >> move for approval. >> Second. Sorry about that. Thank you. So, I'm going to begin here with the um OE 4.2, which is the superintendent will conduct thorough background inquiries and checks prior to hiring any paid personnel. Um and and again, just as a reminder, this is based on 2024 2025 um the the report. And so, for that given school year, we did conduct thorough background checks on newly hired. We had 137 certificated employees, 140 classified employees. uh that also includes management folks. Um so this re has a requirement to review all of our mandatory live uh scanned clearances and background checks. So we're pleased to report that we've met that expectation uh in compliance, but nonetheless we we're certainly not complacent in this as safety
101is our top priority as we continue that. Um item number three uh OE4.3 the superintendent will assure that no volunteer has unsupervised contact with students is permitted to serve without first having cleared reasonable background checks. And again for the 2425 school year we processed 1,690 volunteer applications. Uh that's up by 361 applications from the prior uh school year. Um, this also and in addition to that, we had 32 walk-on coaches. So, a lot of work in in getting those folks cleared. Uh, to support our volunteers, the district uh, per the board's initiative has invested just over $30,000 um, with again the focus and goal and priority of making sure that we are bringing volunteers into our school. Um I will note that the district now has u clearance and we do or we have certification
102and we conduct our own uh fingerprints uh in house and so next year when I do the 2526 OE um I'll I'll be highlighting that more but I thought it's worth mentioning. Um and now moving to OE 4.5 the superintendent will administer clear personnel rules and procedures for employees. Um this is an important one I think to highlight. uh because we want to make sure all of the folks that work with us and work with our students know not only the essential functions of their job but are are are supported in helping our students be successful. Um to measure this effectiveness and this component, we create, communicate, and implement internal systems to make sure we're in compliance with both edode and obviously our collective bargaining agreements relative to fair and legal working environments. But the
103important part to this in my opinion isn't isn't so much about systems and processes and compliance, but it really is about a relationship which I think is unique to Palm Springs Unified. Um, and that is the relationship we have with our labor partners uh PSTA and Teamsters. Uh, and thanks to their collaboration and professionalism, we're able to work through uh work extremely well um together to resolve different matters and concerns. Um and so as a metric to to articulate that we've had zero grievances in the 2425 school year uh from PSTA and zero grievances from teamsters. Again that just um goes hand inhand with the strong partnership with our labor partners. So I just want to thank them. Um and then the last thing I'll highlight and certainly take again any questions the board has
104is OE uh 4.9. The superintendent will develop and maintain compensation and benefit plans to attract and retain the highest quality employees within available resources. Um there's a couple aspects of this that we look at. Uh when it comes first, when it comes to both salary and benefits, uh we continue to be highly uh competitive. We're second on the entry level teacher salary. Uh we're $86 behind him at Unifi. Uh we are fifth in the top level teacher salary. uh separated by um a couple hundred from the first uh or second through fourth um sort of place within that and then we're second in health benefit cap. Uh we are first as it relates to salary step and range. What that means is teachers can move down the salary schedule faster than other districts. Uh our
105range has 16 uh steps. Um obviously pol uh this part particular policy OE4.9 is a top priority for us um and as we recruit and retain highly qualified folks and and in discussing sort of that retention to give you a frame as it relates to retaining and attrition prior to the pandemic we hovered right around 7 to 9% in terms of uh attrition for the 2425 school year we were at 5.5% uh attrition That's a total of 69 folks. So, um what that means uh and and in short is that we've people are uh staying here with us. Those who do leave, we have a survey and exit survey and I I'm making an effort and opportunity to invite voluntarily. For those who complete the survey to come and meet with me if they have
106any critical insight they think is going to help us to continue growing. But those are good attrition numbers. Um, in addition to this, the final thing I note is um, our leadership academy. Um, as you know, we we have actually two different modules in a leadership academy to help train prospective and new leaders within our district. Um, and also along that same line, we have a residency program, as you know, the Alder uh, Graduate School of Education. We're currently in our second cohort of the Grow Your Own residency program. Uh last year within the 24-25 school year, we hired 15 alder uh residents into our uh onto our staff. Uh others who didn't get hired with us did get hired uh from a neighboring district. U but so that that program I think it speaks
107to the efficacy of that and the the success of that program. Um and in closing, I just want to thank uh everybody in my department for their contributions uh in providing this information specifically Martha Haro, Olivia Castayanos, Abby Bion, Eileen Aguilar, Rosario Malone Maloney, I'm sorry, Jessica Agamawa, and Crystal Rachio for their contributions in gathering all this information for us this evening, as well as the entire HR team. They're amazing professionals, um, strong work ethic, and I appreciate all their help. With that, I'll pause to see if the board has any questions relative to OE4. Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we have first in second and ready to vote. Please vote. All in favor? >> I motion pass. Thank you. Item 19 C approval of certificated and classified employee transaction OE 4.4.
108Can I get a motion to approve item 19 Z? Move >> for approval. Please vote. All in favor? I >> I motion >> item 19D adoption a resolution number slash2026-18 approval of the annual and fiveyear reportable feed report for fiscal year 2024 2025 in compliance with government code sections 66 06 and 66 01 OE 12.1. Can I get a motion to approve 19D? >> Second. >> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? >> I motion pass. Item 19E, approval of train order number one with MMJ construction incorporation for the Paris Spring High School HBAC upgrade project agreement number C 75 OE 123. Can I get a motion to approve item 19E? Any questions? Please vote. All in favor? I >> I motion passed. Item 19F, approval at Paris Spring Unifi School District income agreement number
109RCE agreement number Z101 with the Riverside County Superintendent at the school for participation in the 2026 Head Start Early Head Start Federal program oe 10.8. Can I get a motion to approve item 19F? >> Move for approval. >> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? >> I. Motion. >> Item 19G. Approval of provided services agreement number Z C000000565A with the Padros LLC for expanded learning winter camp field trip OE 6.2. Can I get a motion to approve 19G? >> Move for approval. >> Second. >> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? >> I I four I and one no. Okay. Item 19H, approval as product purchases agreement number P009 5024 with Aces Farm Incorporation for expanded learning winter camp cooking class supplies OE 6.2. Can I get a motion to approve item 19H? >> Second.
110>> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? >> I >> no >> oppose one. Okay. 4 I1 iron 19 I approval and compromise and release agreement number 25/26-09 between parent and district dated November 2020 2022 OE 6.1 Can I get a motion to approve item 19 Okay. >> Second. >> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? >> I motion pass. And la the faran item will be approved in one vote. Uh would anyone like to pull any item for discussion or review from 198 to 190? No. Can I get a motion to approve item 19A to 190? >> Move for approval. >> Second. >> Question. Please vote. All in favor? >> I motion. Item 20, the superintendent consent item. The one will be also in one. Uh superintendent consent item from 20 to 20. Would
111anyone like to put an item for discussion or review? Can I get a motion to approve superintendent consent item 20 from 28 to 20 F? >> Move for approval. >> 20 F or 20 year to 20. >> Second, >> please vote. All in favor? I motion item 21 is the information item. We had 21 A, 21 B and 21 Z. Um as reminder this item are strictlyformational. No action is required for items submitted as information. Uh the board have received and reviewed this information and item 22 is um suggestion for future agenda. Do any board member have suggestion for future agenda? >> Yes. Okay. My suggestion for a future agenda would be for the board to discuss a future meeting day for a workday and come up with an agenda to uh help us reconnect
112um all of the topics that we want to cover. And part of maybe that day we would have some training on on bias um training that we we haven't had or have requested in the past. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And I have another suggestion for um for the next uh meeting. um it's about the AB and that is not new conversation because that's is that um um was um was proposed in February 21st and then continue the process to be in the assembly and then the the um the uh Senate the California and in October 11 the the governor signed the the to be love and to start in January 1st, 2026. And one thing that I see the AB29 modern size the monthly stipen for a school board members and is is strictly related
113to education code 351 120 that is 40 year old when when I see where is our that's information for us is in our board policy manual by law and that explain the compensation for for board members. uh is the the agency have to and my point of view is to update that uh that policy and when I see the policy the policy was reviewed in in 1128 2006 this policy is a 19 year old and it's a it's a good to start and and now will be only our school district this conversation will be maybe something that we happen in in old California. >> Board clerk Terrell, we do have unconscious bias training on this work plan scheduled for February 2nd. >> Uh um it's a board work day. You're going to do an informal
114evaluation of Dr. Funus and then also do unconscious. You do have an invitation. should be on your calendar hopefully, but if not, I can send it to you. Okay. >> Okay. No more. We're good. Now we move to uh item 23 setting at the next board meeting. Our next board meeting will be here on January 13, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. Item 24 or the brief. Any debrief? >> Good night. Good night. Okay. Item 25 adjournment. Can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> Uh board president is Freddy Queta, you're adjourning to closed session or are you guys >> Okay, we are Yeah, we are adjouring and we continue with close session. Thank you. Thank you. And we [laughter]