001Ready? >> Good evening everyone. Um before to start the meeting, if anyone in the audience required a headset for a Spanish translation, please raise your hands and a device will be provided to you. And Uh, welcome to the Pal Spring Unifi School District regular meeting at the board of education. Today is Tuesday, November 18, 2025 and we are so glad you are here with us whether you are joining us in person or watching along on YouTube channel. Thank you for being part uh tonight meeting. I will not call the meeting to order. Can I get a roll call, Monica? >> Member Irvin >> here. >> Member Cornette >> here. Member Gerardi >> here. >> Board clerk Jerel here. >> Board President Espereta >> here. >> Student board member Singh >> here. Student board member ining
002>> here. >> Thank you ma. Item 5, the pledge of the allegiancy. The pledge of the allegiancy will be lead by the SSL interpreter. Okay. Please stand. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Item 5C, our mission statement. Our mission statement will be read by pan pan spring high school student board member Tracy Ted Hinton in English and Simon Kovat in Spanish. Okay, she need one. All members of Palm Springs Unified School District are united in our commitment to equity. We create deep meaningful learning opportunities um 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
003in a rapidly changing world. >> Thank you. significant. Thank you. Item 5D leng acknowledgement. Our lang acknowledgement will be read by Mr. Clayton Hill. Thank you. >> The Palm Springs Unified School District 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 the opportunity to work with the indigenous people of this place. We pay our respect to the Kua people, past, present, and emerging, who have been here since time and memorial. Thank you, Mr. H. Item six is report of close session action. Report a close session action. Claire Gerel, are there any close session action to report tonight? >> Or president is Betty Queta. There are no closed action. Closed session actions to report. >> Thank you. Item seven
004is approver of agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda as presented? Move for approval. >> Second. >> Please vote. All in favor? I I motion pass. >> Item A, board consent items. Approval at the meeting for October 28, 2025. Can I get a motion to approve those minutes? >> I'll move it. Second. >> Second. Please vote. All in favor? I >> I abstain. >> Abstain. >> Thank you. Item nine is a special recognition. Uh 9A, the governing board wishes to recognize and commence the following employees at the moment for November 2025. We had few short videos produced by our digital media intense. Yeah. So, we nominated Coach D, our campus security officer, for his amazing care for students. And and I have to share, I've worked along alongside Coach D for the
005last few months, and what we've really focused in on is trying to teach students how to make better decisions on a daily basis, momentby-moment basis, and he really knows that he's having an impact on our scholars. >> So, D is uh a fantastic employee. He's um he has great rapport with kids. He is one of our football coaches and Basco head basketball coach. Um the kids love him and they respect him and whenever um he is needed he is always there for us. >> I know that coach D through his own experiences and life experiences is carrying forward what he feels would be best for students and it really shines through in his in his care here at Painted Hills. Coach D, I really appreciate you. I can't say enough about all that you do
006and thank you for leading the way. We wanted to recognize Ashley Robas, our front office specialist, for all the great things that she does. She welcomes our parents and students on a daily basis with a smile and shows great care and consideration. She really tries to uh encourage and and recognize everybody and take them take a moment to listen to them so that she can help them help them out the best she possibly can. So Ashley is a uh just an a fabulous employee who um is has a calm demeanor, but she you don't have to tell her to do anything. She does things before you even know that they need to be done. Ashley is a very hard worker and for example, she also supports us on Saturday school and she takes the time
007to really get to know every single student on Saturdays and it really has an impact on our attendance. I would just say Ashley, we really appreciate you. Can't say enough about all that you do here and so thank you for being here at Painted Hills Middle School. So, amongst all the wonderful staff that we have here at Painted Hills Middle School, I wanted to recognize or we wanted to recognize Marlene Brooks for all the things that she does here. As a 15-year veteran, she's very compassionate, dedicated, and inspiring to our students. and she cares deeply about having them make academic progress so that they could be plugged in and doing really well as they continue through their their career here as a Panther. And she knows that she's going to have a positive impact that's
008everlasting for our scholars. So, Miss Brooks is a uh again a really good employee. She is somebody that um cares about her kids each and every day. She is prepared. The kids love going to her and uh they just want to be they want to do well for her and it shows in her classroom. >> Marlene, thank you so much for being so inspiring, positive, and helping our Panthers get plugged in. At this time, we'd like to ask the board and executive cabinet to please make their way to the front of the room along with our student board members. What's that? >> Okay. >> Good job, Sean. >> You'll give it to Sergio after she's shaking everybody's hand. We'd like to ask our first classified employee of the month, Ashley Robles, to come to the
009front, please. and then you'll take it to surgery. >> Thank you. Ashley, is there anyone who you'd like to recognize or acknowledge today? >> Um, well, I'm a little shy. It's my first time here. Um, I just wanted to say thank you to all of the Painted Hills um, teachers, staff, um, principles, admin, everybody. We all work as a team and I really appreciate the the team that we do have here. Thank you. >> Thank you. Congratulations. Good. Okay. >> Thank you, Ashley. At this time, we'd like to ask our next classified employee of the month, DeAndre Gory, to please join us at the front. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. Thank you. Thankful that you I appreciate you. Thank you. It's my pleasure. Thank you. >> DeAndre, is there anyone
010in the room who you'd like to acknowledge or recognize? >> Definitely. Uh first off, I want to say thank you to Pendergraph and Loen. I appreciate y'all, man, for everything y'all let me do and allowed me to be myself throughout the whole uh school year. Also the front staff I would like man the front desk ladies man y'all help me out with all the names of the kids also man even the pictures that helps me out a lot to even get to know all of the students my team man I know one thing about it you can't be great without the greatness of others and my team is great I have a good time with them I'm happy to believe with them every day and I'm hoping to keep this on going for a long
011time I'm sorry but uh thank you everybody appreciate Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, DeAndre. At this time, we'd like to call our certificated employee of the month up, Marlene Brooks. Thank you. >> Marlene, is there anyone in the audience who you'd like to recognize or acknowledge? Um, yes. Thank you. >> Um, let's see. First of all to administrative staff because we have a lot going on every day and they always come through. So, Mr. Loen, Mr. Pendergraph, and Miss Hen Henchcliffe and um, the office staff. I think there's a hundred emails a day that go back and forth, more than that, between all of us. And so, they're always there to help and support and thank you. And my daughter and my mom. So much time gets taken from them. So, Thank you.
012Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Marlene. At this time, the governing board wishes to recognize and commend the following PSUSD students for their academic excellence. Can we please have Aaron Daniel from Painted Hills Middle School up to the front? On behalf of Aaron, I wanted to share that he has worked really hard to make improvements this year and we really appreciate all the hard work and perseverance that he's put into becoming the person that he is. >> Thank you, Mr. Pendigraph. We'd like to ask Richard Kohler from Painted Hills Middle School to come to the front, please. >> Okay. And on behalf of Richard's family, I wanted to share Richard has really made huge improvements and great strides towards trying to achieve excellence as a young man and we appreciate all of his efforts
013in doing so and and just really want to thank him. >> Thank you, Mr. Pandigraph. >> Thank you. Next up, the governing board wishes to recognize and commend the following parent for being involved in school site activities at Painted Hills Middle School. Matthew Writtenhouse, please join the board at the front. >> And so I wanted to share Mr. Rittenhouse is solid as a rock and we couldn't do it without him. It's all about the teamwork between the parents and the school and we re really do appreciate him. Thank you. >> And that concludes our recognitions for this evening. Thank you. Next we move to item 10, public comments. Uh, Claire Ger, have we received any electronic comments tonight? >> Board President Esperi Queta, we have not received any electronic comments. >> Thank you, Clar. In
014person comments, all comments are to be directed to the board, be under three minutes, and shall be devoid of any personal attacks. Member at the public are expected to maintain a professional courtesum during public comments. Board members do not respond to public comments. Do we have any member at the pool who wish to address the board of education? No. Thank you. Item 11, a student board member report. Our student board member report will be presented by Sara Sink and Tracy Ted In. Um up first we have Sara Singh from Desert Haz High School. Good evening everyone. This is my district board report for the month of October and November. So first off is my agenda. This is what I'll be covering today. And we're beginning with general updates which goes over new merchandise, homecoming spirit
015week, homecoming dance, and our homecoming parade. Our Desert Hot Springs High School has new Golden Eagle merch to show off our Eagle pride. We designed new hoodies and sweats perfect for the winter season. These have been extremely popular being worn everywhere on our campus. With the help of some amazing students on campus, our USB organized a photo shoot to showcase the new merch. Students are able to purchase these in the student store. Transitioning to our homecoming spirit week themed Star Wars. In the photos displayed, you can see students and staff dressed as Star Wars characters. The the creativity was incredible with the costumes on campus. Students also had the opportunity to participate in a costume contest during lunch with the best dressed winner receiving a Star Wars themed gift basket. Adding on to our homecoming
016spirit week to hype up the much anticipated homecoming dance, parade, and football game, USB held a tugofwar lunchtime activity during lunch. Starting off with the Golden Eagle football team versus our outstanding cheer team. The competition gathered many together and brought the hype for homecoming. Now, the most anticipated night. Let me play the video. Our homecoming dance with an amazing DJ, free desserts, and a free photo booth. Students made unforgettable memories. Local food trucks were invited to sell at the dance. It was amazing night with tons of good feedback. Leading up to homecoming, we had our first ever homecoming city parade. Our classes created floats that were displayed in the parade. The freshman theme was Star Wars mutant/an animals. The sophomores were Star Wars droids. The juniors were the Star Wars light side. And the seniors
017were the Star Wars dark side. They worked extremely hard to make the floats and they all came out amazing. Our neighboring elementary and middle schools participated as well and our amazing clubs on campus. Once again, thank you to the board for participating in our parade and we hope to expand it more in the future. Moving on to our sports updates, our homecoming football game was packed with the stands filled and so much spirit in the crowd. To follow our Star Wars theme, our USB made Yoda ear headbands for people in the crowd to wear. We also passed out glow sticks as lightsabers. During our halftime show, the queen was announced. Our MCJ ROTC guides the nominees and aids them with the performance. Congratulations to our winner, Destiny Leau. This is Destiny Lew the homecoming queen
018winner. Moving on to our moving on to our fall sports. With our fall sports coming to a close, these amazing Golden Eagles were selected as athletes of the month. Athletes of the month were rewarded with a certificate for their excellence in their sport. Our homecoming senior night highlighted all the seniors, having them walk out with family and friends and sharing their plans after high school. It was an emotional night for football yet exciting as the stands were filled with spirit and cheers. Following this game, our football team continued to CIF playing against Woodbridge High School. Although our team did not advance to the next round, they still fought with their all, keeping a close game until the end. Moving on to our events on campus. Our Friday night live group attended a conference that was
019held on our campus, inviting all FNL groups throughout California to participate in workshops to learn more about the importance of advocating against drug and alcohol abuse. Going on to our fall play, our awardwinning Desert Hot Springs High School theater program presented the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime play. having three extremely successful shows. As the fall play is now completed, they are working on the next play, which is Disney's Newsies. Auditions are being held this week, open to DHSHs students and elementary and middle school students. Our MCJ ROTC celebrated the Marine Corps 250th birthday celebration. The celebration held in the gym was open to family and friends to attend, showing the traditional cake cutting ceremony and other traditions. DHSHs club the espanol hosted a celebration for the loss muertos during lunchtime with performances
020by our ble focorico and a musical performance by some of our amazing golden eagles. Students were able to play lotia and other games during lunch as well as purchase many of items to celebrate day of the dead. Our public safety academy practiced their CER training, CERT training to learn about what to do in natural disasters. The CERT team responds to emergencies in Riverside County. The team trained our DHSHS cadetses on how to handle major disasters and search and rescue our surrounding schools. Bella Vista Elementary School held its fall festival which included trunk or treats and giving out candy. Many vendors were present selling food, desserts, jewelry, and much more. Our Desert Hot Springs High School USB students volunteered at the fall festival and helped run the carnival games. Cabat York Elementary School also held a
021fall festival with the trunker treat style, encouraging students to dress up and have fun in the Halloween season. Two Palms Elementary students with perfect attendance were recognized and rewarded with brand new water bottles to show off and stay cool in the desert heat, promoting attendance and excellence in the early years of school. And our Eagles that are taking flight, our Golden Eagles have been traveling to new places to learn new things to bring back to our campus. Our Desert Hot Springs High School barber class students traveled to Coachella Valley Barberf Fest and learned new valuable skills and tips on cutting hair. Continuing to travel, students visited the Inland Empire Trade Convention where they learned the different trade programs that are available to apply to. We are extremely proud of these former students who enlisted in
022the Marines. We can't wait to see the amazing work that they do for our country. And lastly, the upcoming events. Our USB leadership class travels to Disneyland for their annual KATA conference where they participate in various workshops to learn about what other schools are doing and what they can take away and apply to our campus. And that is my district report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sarah. And up next we have Tracy Ted In from Panis Spring High School. Hello. Um, hope you guys are having a wonderful night. Um, we were definitely really busy this month and there's a lot to get to. So, um, here's my presentation for the month of November and a little bit of October. So on uh the agenda today uh we have our homecoming recap, our fall sports conclusions,
023uh our college and career preparation, our theater productions, and the upcoming events that we have planned with ASB. Uh yeah, so first of all, I I wanted to thank all of you guys for the amazing homecoming week experience that we had. Um you guys were there for the parade and I really appreciated that. We had a lot of uh a lot of participation from all of our clubs, our sports and um other schools as well. Just a few of the schools that schools that came and some of the sports that came, our volleyball team came, our Spanish honor society came, uh Raymond Creek came, uh Shella Vista came, and many more that participated. And overall, it was a really great event. Uh I hope you guys noticed that we had banners on both sides of
024the cars. So that was something really fun. And uh it was really it really made for a great time. Uh I hope that was the same for you guys. And uh yeah, our homecoming uh game that was great. We won that and our dance was electric as well. Uh we had around 700 to 800 tickets bought and that was really great. Um we had a lot of participation for our homecoming week. Up next is our fall sports. Uh our tennis team, our girls tennis team specifically, they finished up their season with matches in Indian Wells at DEAL finals. Uh I was able to attend their senior night and that was amazing. I'm so proud of the progress that they made throughout the whole season. Um our golf team also enjoyed their senior night and our
025volley volleyball team also had a great playoff game. Uh they came up short. They were short one to three in a division five playoff game, but they played their hearts out and they did great as well. Um, our water polo team is also finished with their season for fall and they had a great season as well. Uh, congratulations to all of those boys and uh, congratulations to all of these uh, sports. They had great great years. Um, I saved football for last because that one was very fun. Um, it was very interesting. Uh, Olivia might say something different, but for me uh, we had a great time. Our we finally brought the trophy back home. We defeated Rancho in the Ramon Road rivalry. Um, let's go. And Olivia was there and she handed off the
026trophy to us. But all jokes aside, it was really a great time. Uh, it was great to see Olivia again. Um, yeah, and there was sportsmanship from both sides. Um, even though I make a little bit of jokes, we still had fun and it was really just a good time and yeah, it was great. Uh I also wanted to highlight the amazing job that our school is doing to prepare me and our seniors for the next stage in our lives. Uh it's coming up soon and our school is definitely acknowledging that. Um our AVID class, they are just one example of the things that they do. They've already gone on a trip to two colleges just to help our students kind of see what to expect at colleges and they're really preparing our students for
027the next step as they transition on. Uh, additionally, our counselors, our counselors are amazing. So, our counselors are constantly offering support and they're helping us for our applications to college and that's great because even for me, you know, it's uh it's coming up. I'm applying as well and it's just good to have the counseling on our side too as we go on and move to um the next stage in our lives. And I wanted to highlight that. Next up is our own theater company and the work that they've been up to. uh they participated in our homecoming parade. Uh they worked jointly with Buddha Bullying. They worked with them to produce a play that was uh shown to all of our students throughout the different periods. And um recently they al they've also put on
028a show encompassing all of their theater classes and it was uh about mimes. They lip synced, they uh they acted without speaking and it was really something great too. Uh and I'm certain they'll keep it up. They'll have another play coming up soon in but it'll it'll be later in the year but they're doing some really great stuff. And um I also wanted to highlight to the students that we have that are enrolled in our MTU uh or not our but uh MTU the musical theater university. They are doing really well there too. They've been in some shows I think you might recognize. They've been in Little Woman as well as Little Shop of Horrors. They're doing great too. And yeah, our theater company is doing amazing. Uh, last but certainly certainly not least, um,
029me and my ASB have been busy with a lot of events as well. So, we hosted a costume contest on Halloween and we've been doing our best to host some fun activities. Uh, we're we're banking on a win this week for our football team. Um, if you don't already know, our previous two games were at home, so they play away this week. And hopefully if they win this week, we might be able to host the championship game at our school, which would be overall just electric, and that would be really fun. Um, I saw Lesie at our football game, so I included that on there. And um, we have a movie night planned for December 5th, as well as our our big event, which is in uh, January, is uh, our wonder formal, which is
030at the tram. Um, I won't be presenting until January until then. So, it's around we're having it on the 24th of January and that'll be something really fun that we're planning for and yeah, that's good. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next item is item 12, presentation. Item 12A, educational services update 010. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Uh this evening our educational services update will be provided by our director of mental health services Danielle ESL and she will be presenting information and data from our universal mental health screener as well as some updates around our wellness centers. >> Good evening. Thank you. Um so in October uh we administered our universal mental health screener to our secondary sites. Um and so I wanted to uh provide some updates on that
031and then what our next steps are uh after that. Um we we started with the mental health screener uh several years ago um as as our services grew um as our um as we expanded our services um because we we wanted our students to not uh we wanted to make sure that our students are um that that we're we are identifying the students that have needs. um statistically um 50% of lifetime mental health um diagnoses begin to present symptoms before the age of 14. And so we want to make sure um that we're addressing those needs of our students. Uh we want to target the support to those students with the right services at the right time. Um and we want to prioritize our our resources within the district. We want to ensure that those
032resources are used efficiently um and that we're prioritizing them based on our student need. And then we also want to track the data um that we're that we're gathering. Uh we want to be able to compare um from year to year. We want to be able to uh look at what our students are the progress that they are making um so that we can uh better prioritize those needs. Um so we administered this brief confidential survey about feelings and behavior uh for our secondary sites grades 6 to 12 in October. We also piloted um a um an elementary version at Dela Lindley Elementary um this year as well and we're still working on some of that data. Um the survey for our secondary sites covered eight different topic areas which are mood, anxiety, trauma, um
033ADHD or executive functioning skills, relationships, anger management, development, and stress. Um and each one of our scholars was given an overall score um for the um for the screener and then um also a category score for each of the categories. Um in general the higher scores were associated with higher need for uh for mental health needs. Um and then they were divided each of the scores were divided into a need for um either no intervention, lightweight intervention or uh therapeutic intervention. These are some of the uh sample questions from each of the different categories. Um and you can just kind of see where where some of those are addressed. Um and um so stress, is it hard to ask for help from others? Do they know where to find um help? Relationships um addresses relationships
034with um peers and with family relationships. Development targets some of the developmental stages or some of some of the developmental needs of adolesccents. Um we had a total of 6,650 responses um from all of our sites. Um 79% of students um scored um could benefit from some sort of lightweight intervention. Um and 20% of our students uh show signs of needing some sort of therapeutic intervention. And that is a score in at least one category. It's not across the board. It's that they scored in those scores in at least one of those eight categories. Um this is pretty consistent with overall national statistics for mental health needs as well. Um and some students scored lightweight in some categories and therapeutic in other categories. So they might benefit from intervention on different topics um in different
035ways. Um but the total students with intervention needs in at least one area. So one of the eight scores um was about 74% of our respondents. The most prevalent need area that we saw was in relationships. That 50% over 50% of our students scored in one of those cate in in a lightweight or therapeutic need category um for relationships. Um and then female students were presenting with higher needs, slightly higher needs than male students. These are our different topic scores um and uh where our student population fell within that. our top needs. Um again, relationships, um anxiety and stress were our top three needs. Um and if you in this uh in this graph, um our dark blue is our students that scored in that therapeutic need area. The light the middle middle blue is
036uh the students that scored in the lightweight needs area and then the teal color is the students that scored with no intervention needs. Um we have seen some successes. However, our top three needs were the same top three needs that we saw last year. Um, but our relationship numbers uh decreased about 2% from 58% of our students having some sort of need um in relationships uh to 56% this year. Our anxiety needs um decreased fairly significantly. Um last year our anxiety needs were at 41% of our respondents. This year 34% of our respondents had some sort of need in anxiety. And then our stress needs again have decreased about 5% um from from 57 to 52%. So we have seen some success in some of our interventions. Yes. Thank you. I'm just curious uh anger
037management therapeutic is 1% and lightweight is 9%. Does that correlate at all to some of the violence we're seeing on our campuses? um you know when we have these discussions on campuses um one of the things that I do point out is that the questions in anger management um tend to uh these are self-reported scores. So these are the students need to identify some of their own needs and so with anger management needs I think sometimes there is some insight that's necessary to be able to self-identify that um and so um so a lot of times our anger management scores are not always correlated with some of the behavior needs that we see on campus yeah >> I have another quick question um all all services provided by the school district the student have to
038follow up is the prebate >> um in terms of in terms of the information from here. Yes, we follow up with all of the students. >> But no, if they have extra support from outside from their Did they have it? >> Um yeah, we we we'll coordinate with those if necessary. Absolutely. Yeah. >> Okay. >> I got another question for you too. Um it looks like there was what around 6,600 um students. Um do you have the numbers from last year? >> Um I don't have them uh offhand but I can absolutely provide the numbers from last year. >> Okay. And and so are are we kind of going to monitor how many students we are getting to participate in in the surveys? >> Yes. Yeah. We actually have a target uh typically our target
039is about 75% of a a response rate um which we we hit that target this year. So >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> One more question. Oh, sure. Absolutely. >> So, so what um what age level are these students that you guys are asking? >> Um they are grades 6 to 12. So, roughly from about uh age 11 or 12 to 18. So, h >> have we thought at all about um getting students who are a little bit younger. >> Yes, we actually piloted an elementary version of of the screener um with a campus this year. It was just rolling out. So, it was just really a pilot to see kind of how it would work, what kinds of results we would see, those kinds of things. Um, the the screener that we use for
040our secondary sites is it utilizes clinical measures that have been clinically validated for this age range. And so, we're working with uh Daybreak to be able to use measures that are validated with the younger age age range as well. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, so these are our therapeutic needs by campus. Um, and you can just kind of take a look at what some of our campuses um are presenting. Um, again, the lighter blue is those students that have uh lightweight intervention needs and then the darker blue um is students with um with some of those therapeutic intervention needs. Um, our middle schools tended to have higher therapeutic intervention needs and our our um high schools are tending to have kind of a higher proportion of um lightweight intervention needs. We do
041have one middle school that uh that had some technical issues and so we weren't able to administer during the window. They administered about two weeks later and so we're still waiting for their data as well. Um so our next steps um for what we do with some of this data um we meet with each of these campuses and review the individual campus data um with the counselors and with the administration um and we look at the individual student level results and then we also look at the school level results um and we utilize that data for planning for uh tier 1, tier 2 and tier three interventions. So when we look at some of these overall trends, we are considering what kinds of tier one interventions would be useful to address um some of the
042higher needs that we see. Um again, when we have 50 50% of a student population experiencing um you know, issues with stress or with relationships, we want to ensure that we are um making that accessible to all of our students um so that they're able um to gain some of those skills. Um we also do things like cross reference this data with some of their academic data so that our scholars um can also see so that we can also make sure that our scholars are getting that support for their learning needs as well so that those two um are congruent. Um the teams meet with the individual scholars who are um showing some therapeutic intervention needs and meet with them about what um you know what the results are, what they feel like their needs
043might be and then make plans um for those services as well. And then again, we continue to actively engage our scholars and our families through community events, communication, um, and supporting knowledge and access to services, um, and really working on breaking down some of the stigma, um, surrounding some of these kinds of needs. >> I I have a question. How are parents notified of the survey results? >> Um, we usually we meet with the students and uh, work with them through what their uh, service needs might be and then work with the families at that point. And then are parents are they involved in any of of the interventions or are do they have to approve it or how does that work? >> Um so students over 12 are actually able to consent for services
044themselves but we always encourage families and students to be involved in the services together clinically. Um you know it's it's helpful to have that home support and that school support. Um and so even when students are a little bit hesitant to involve um parents, the uh the clinicians will work with them um to ensure that um that that we're meeting their needs um in in both ways. >> And are most of the services provided during the school hours? >> I'm sorry, what was that? >> Are most of the services provided during the school hours? Yes, most of them are provided during school hours, but we do um we we do have family sessions um and those kinds of things that are conducted, you know, outside of the school campus and sometimes out outside of school
045hours as well. >> Okay. Thank you. depending on the need. We also um are able to provide um through our uh partnership with Daybreak Health, we're able to provide teleaalth services um for students who may not um be able to take that time out of the school day or may need some uh some additional assistance outside of school as well. >> Do we have very many students in teleaalth services receiving counseling or >> We do. We do. Yes, a lot of students prefer in-person services. Um but um but there are students who maybe their schedule um doesn't quite uh fit and we also are able to provide uh space on campus um if that's something that they prefer as well. >> Thank you. All right. Um one of our tasks has been um to really
046uh make sure that we are able to sustain uh the services that we're providing. um as we've grown um we've uh seen the need to blend a lot of our different funding sources so that we can maintain uh the level of service that we're providing for our students. So um to be able to provide these services across all three tiers um we have multiple grants and billing systems um throughout all of our different uh services. Uh we've been working with the school-based incentive uh school-based health incentive program uh which provided $5.2 $2 million of support uh for wellness centers and drug and alcohol counseling um for our students. Um the Department of Health Care Access Grant um which is $540,000 uh supports our certificated wellness coaches which is a new certification through the state um
047and that's providing six positions as well as uh supervision for those positions. our school-based mental health grant um has provided $400,000 of support for three school-based mental health therapists as well as to expand our our intern uh program and supervision for those interns. Uh we also received a capacity grant of $785,000 supporting uh wellness coaches, billing specialists and insurance specialist, the mental health screener, um our new electronic health record system, uh wellness center supplies and technologies. Um, and then our specialty mental health contract with Riverside UN University Health supports six of our mental health therapists. Um, and we bill about a million dollars in services annually through that contract as well. Our wellness centers have grown significantly as our pro program has um has grown. They really serve as a hub for our mental health
048needs on campus. Um, our scholars can visit a wellness center for any variety of reasons, whether they need emotional support or they have academic or behavioral concerns, social challenges, or for crisis or safety concerns. Um, they're all staffed with wellness coaches, uh, counselors and mental health therapists who can provide interventions at the appropriate level for that particular student's needs. Um, visits to these wellness centers are tracked, and our scholars receive follow-up and coordination from those teams as well when they visit the the the wellness center. Um, we currently have wellness centers on 12 campuses and then we have uh wellness centers planned in 2026 for Rio Vista Elementary School, uh, Painted Hills Middle School, and Cathedral City High School. Our existing ones are Nelly Kaufman Middle School, Desert Hot Springs High, Rancho Mirage High, Palm
049Springs High, Raymond Creek Middle School, Siola Vista, uh, Dela Lindley, Bubbling Wells Elementary, Vista Delante Elementary, Desert Springs Middle School, Katherine Finchy Elementary, and, uh, Mount Sanento High School. Um, as our services have grown and as our wellness centers have grown, uh, we've seen the need to really coordinate a lot of the services that our students are provided. We want to ensure that they're receiving the right services at the right time. And so we have developed what we call our cost teams, which is our coordination of services teams. Um we're developing them on campuses to coordinate those student needs and services. Uh there the teams are made up of administrators, counselors, teachers, mental health staff, attendance me team members, and other student support staff um who come together to ensure that every student has what
050they need to succeed in and out of the classroom. Uh this the teams will review and discuss uh student referrals. They assess the student needs and identify their strengths and challenges um and develop and implement support plans for students. And then once those things are in place, we coordinate the services amongst school staffs and if needed a community partner. Um we connect students and families to the appropriate resources. And then we also uh work to monitor uh the student progress and adjust the supports that they're receiving as needed. Um and we track the data um within these teams um to inform our decision- making and to um to improve our outcomes. So our tier one interventions are focused on universal prevention um and promotion of well-being for all of our all of our scholars. Uh
051some of those interventions include our peer mentoring groups that promote social support and positive peer connections. uh such as on our on several of our campuses, we have wellness ambassadors uh who work with our wellness coaches and our therapists to promote uh well-being on campus uh attention to mental health issues um and provide uh support to their peers that have additional needs. Uh we also provide classroom guidance lessons with social emotional learning integrating integrated into all lessons. um early identification and screening, uh mental health awareness education such as schoolwide campaigns for suicide prevention, substance misuse prevention, and mental health awareness month, and then uh staff profess professional development and awareness. Our tier 2 interventions um are more targeted interventions and they include uh short-term individual counseling, short-term skill buildinging groups such as anger management, social
052skills, healthy relationships, family dynamics to address some of those lightweight needs that we're seeing on some of those surveys. Uh we also provide crisis response and intervention and uh psychoeducation workshops such as our wellness Wednesdays that a lot of our campuses do through uh the wellness centers. They provide time for students to come during lunch, uh during breaks to come and learn about different topics, have different activities, um just to promote some of the um some of the education around wellness. And then of course our peer counseling and mentoring programs. Tier three interventions are more intensive individualized supports offered to our scholars. Um that includes individual therapy, case management, and coordination. Uh small groupoup therapy on topics such as anxiety, grief, and trauma. uh crisis assessment and intervention and then collaboration with specialized services such
053as psychiatric services or if needed referrals to higher levels of care. So that is an overview of where we are at and some of the data that we have. Thank you. Um are there any additional questions >> Danielle in counseling and providing services and I heard the word services a lot. the documentation that is uh scribed or taken by the counselors or intake or whatever teams, >> how does that work? Is there a database or how I've just wonder about this nuts and bolts behind the scenes? >> Sure. That's actually been one of our uh one of our really big projects this year is uh we have a new electronic health record system um that all of our therapists, our wellness coaches, our counselors, uh school psychologists are all documenting these services within this electronic
054health record system. It's a part of our bigger child and youth behavioral health initiative where we are able to receive reimbursement from um from insurance companies for the services that we're providing. Um, and so we have launched that with with all of our uh service providers. And so it's it's a great system because it allows us not only to document but also to collaborate within that system so that we can see the flow of of what our scholars needs are and who's providing what services. >> A that's excellent. And I'm a parent and I want to see my child's progress or uh see some of those records. Is that possible for a parent to request that? Do they have to request it 24 hours in advance in writing? >> Um, they would need to request
055it through student services. Um, there are some caveats to that. Some of the more clinical information does have um some legal protections built into that and usually that's a little bit of um, you know, a conversation with the parent and a conversation with the student um, about what can be disclosed and um, and also clinical judgment on the part of the therapist too. Yeah. No, >> if a parent um wants services for their child and they weren't identified through the survey, how would they go about requesting services? Um they can either uh talk with their student school counselor who can submit a referral or they can also submit a referral themselves through the mental health department website. There's a parent referral tab on the mental health department website where they can fill out the request.
056it comes to our office and then we reach out to gather some more information and uh direct the student to the right resource. H >> how would parents know about that that that process? >> Um so we uh we talk with our all of our scholars, all of our counselors. Um we're also partnering with um with other departments within the district, the family engagement center. We attend um a number of back- to-school events and family engagement center events um to be able to um reach out to parents and families um so that they know about um what uh what resources we have available. >> I just think we have so many great services and hopefully our parents know about them. >> So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> More question? No, I'm good. Thank you.
057Next item is a item 12B, repro reporic warehouse department update OE2. >> Mr. Simmons. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Esperetto. Uh, first I would like to thank Danielle. That was an excellent presentation. And I'd also like to thank Laura Mucil and her uh department um for their we have, like you said, we have a wide array of mental health services. And that's all because of their blended system of funding um and getting the grants and the medical billing and so forth. So she's doing an excellent job. In fact, I encourage her current encouraged her to apply for uh to do a presentation at Caspoon and she did apply and she was accepted to do a presentation there. So that's uh look forward to seeing that in April. So great job to the mental health team
058uh and Laura Mucil's team. Now I'd like to introduce uh director of purchasing Selene Aumarata to give uh an update on a couple of her departments. Anyway, warehouse and riper graphics. They're doing an amazing job and I think you'll enjoy this presentation. >> Hello everybody. So as you mentioned I'm the director of warehouse and reporaphics. Um and what I hope to accomplish with this meeting or with this uh presentation is to give you a little peak behind the scenes at what each department does. kind of get you um into the nitty-gritty of of how we get from point A to point B. And it's not all just magic. Um our one of our big things is our goals and our mission. These two departments specifically, we have three main goals. Um and we approach all
059of our problems with this. Um our first goal is to ensure that students have access to essential materials and supplies exactly when they are needed. Does us no good to have everything we have and then it arrives late. Um the second is to maximize the value of the district resources um through responsible management. We have a lot of resources that we want to get the most out of and so that is going to be our approach whenever we see any kind of issue popping up in our in our vicinity. Uh and third is to build effective partnerships through clear consistent communication with all of our district sites. We want to have want to be a good partner to all of our sites and to all of our departments. So with that, I'll go ahead and
060start with warehouse. So we have our department overview. Um we have Jonathan Bowman as our warehouse supervisor. We have Hector Mataramos as the warehouse assistant 2. We have Matt Sloan as our warehouse assistant too as well. Raymond Magna also warehouse assistant 2 and Jose Raina as our warehouse assistant one. One of these is new. So, our everyday, our day-to-day receiving and delivery, what we do is um we check in the product to clear it for payment. Um if we ordered something, we want to make sure that we get it and we're not going to pay the vendor until we are ver we have verified that the item is here. Second is we inspect it for any damaged or missing pieces. We flag potentially hazardous items. We understand that a lot of the items that we
061buy come from a warehouse. The boxes may all look the same and perhaps we it has happened. We order toys and we get shrapnel. We don't want to do that. So that's that's one of the main things that warehouse does is if we see something that doesn't look right, we flag it as a potential hazard. Um and we also deliver. So once everything has been cleared, uh we deliver the items to our sites and to our departments. And we also serve as the district's logistics hub. We have big pieces that need to be moved around. More than likely our warehouse team is going to be involved. So, additional service offered, uh, we have staff moves to other campuses. Sometimes during the summer, our teachers move from, uh, middle school and elementary. And so, our warehouse
062team does that. We do furniture and equipment relocation. Uh, we also do uh, secure document shredding. We do metal recycling, um, e-waste disposal, and at the end of the year when you have archived records, we pick those up and we put them in storage. So, furniture and equipment surplus. You will probably see this pop up in the agenda items. We will bring something to the board that says these need to be surplus. What does this mean? Well, when equipment or furniture is no longer needed at a site, the first thing we're going to do is look at opportunities to reuse it internally. Um, if the items are still under warranty, we give it to the manufacturer so they get refurbished and then, um, we offer it to other district sites. Uh maybe the elementary school
063doesn't need it, but maybe a middle school could use it. So after repairs, the items are listed in our PSUSD's furniture depot site that is accessible only to district staff and it looks like this. It's at psusd.usarehouse. I usually send out a bulletin whenever we get new items in to the principles to let them know we have new items in. Is there anything at your site that you would like to use? And when they click on this button, this is as of a week ago, this is what we currently had available. I checked this morning, we only had the chairs available. So, people are using it, which is very good. Um, and it works just like eBay or Amazon. You click on what whichever one of these you like. Um, you put in put it
064in your cart, you hit submit, it goes through approvals. The principal is going to be the one to say yes, you can have that. Um and then it'll generate a work order and our warehouse will just look at the work order, pack it into the truck and go and deliver it. It is free, it is easy. We try to make this as streamlined as possible so that we can get more use out of our resources. Now surplus and discard, there are some things that can't be used internally. We have tried to to offer some items and maybe they'll just sit there and nobody really likes them or nobody really wants them. So, we're not just going to throw those away. We're going to do the best of our, you know, use our resources as best
065we can. So, we're going to be auctioning those into our PSUSD gov deals account. Um, before we do that, we will come and take it to the board and say we we would like to discard these. And you will probably get a list from us and it'll specify what we're getting rid of. Once we get approval from you, they will be populated into this account and it works same as eBay. Anybody from any member from the public is able to go in there and bid. um once the bid is done, they're able to come and pick up the items and the district gets some money back from those uh discarded items that would have otherwise been taken to the dump. Now, there are cases when even then people will look at what we have and
066say, "No, thank you. We do not discard those. We do not throw those away quite yet. If it's made of metal, it can be recycled. We will recycle it." If it's technology, our ETIS team more than likely already flagged it for destruction and our e-waste recycler will buy it from us. And then anything else that we cannot get any more pennies out of, we will um be discarded per ED code. And that could mean destruction or that could be mean being taken to the dump. So when we talk about um saving the district money, we look at our warehouse stores as a way to do that. Um all of our required PPP items are available through the warehouse store. We have vetted these items. We have complied the list of what's required. um working with
067our PSUSD health services department. Um they look at the quality, they look at the requirements, and they make sure that we have exactly what we need. This is provided free to our staff via the stores. Um we also purchase uh paper in bulk for Reaper Graapics and as you can imagine, the price of paper for a truck is a lot cheaper than buying five reams from Office Depot. So what we do, we don't just purchase for reproapics. We also act, you know, we we request a couple more boxes and we make that price available to our school sites through our stores page. So they are paying the repro barebones truckload price even if they're just buying a box. So we figure that this is a good way for us to use our resources, use a
068little bit of our leverage to ease some of the burden on our school sites. >> Pardon me. You say they are paying. Are you referring to the teachers are paying, the site budgets paying? Who's who's paying? >> Well, the site budgets are paying. Um, a lot of the times they would buy these through Office Depot, Southwest. Um, and they would buy them retail. And so what we're trying to do is make that cost a little less extreme. >> And we do that by, you know, buying in bulk essentially and using the contracts in our disposal. So, if I'm a high school teacher and I'm working with 170 students every day and I need more paper, can I buy it from you, the warehouse, or you know, that would be an interesting thing because this is
069mostly done by our school sites through their funding, >> right? >> Um, and the school sites are the ones who determine how much paper each the each uh student or each uh teacher gets, >> right? So what they would do is they would go and talk to um their admin and say I need additional paper and the admin would purchase it that way. >> We don't make this available to the public because this is a contract for the school sites >> andor staff. It's staff is considered public. Okay. >> So speaking of repro we have our three repro team. Uh we have Michael Slo as our interim reporographic supervisor and I'm happy to announce that these last couple days we did interviews and he is now our permanent reporaphic super supervisor. We also have David
070Monaet that's the male reporaphics technician and we have Seth Tuentes who has been our longtime sub um doing male and reproaphics technition as well. So a big thing that our repro team does is curriculum and consumable books. Repro has worked with ed services to acquire printing licenses as part of the book adoptions. That is a very big thing because that means that we are allowed now to print our own curriculum books versus purchasing them off the shelf from the manufacturer. It makes a big difference. So this is an adoption done in 20 22 23 um and we have the final numbers for those so we can make a comparison. If we had actually purchased the adoption as listed by the manufacturer, by the by the publisher, it would have cost us $424,865. If instead we
071print all of those items here, we are only paying for the ink and the paper and that cost is $6,599.50. So the license was provided at zero additional cost. So that means that we were actually saving $418,265.50. That is a big chunk of money. And not only that, but print on demand provides us flexibility. There's no upfront cost. We don't have to pay a vendor. Um the materials are printed as needed. So let's just say maybe the curriculum shifted a little bit and certain, you know, school sites aren't going to be using it. We're not in the hole having bought those items already. So it saves on storage. So we don't need to warehouse it. It reduces waste because we don't order more than what we need and we don't have to go through the
072process of maybe we can get a refund or maybe we're locked in. Um or if anything is um obsolete, maybe we are kind of having to, you know, be stuck with the price of of what we have spent already. Um it ensures customization. So let's just say some some kids need uh thicker pages, we can do that. Um and is a faster turnaround. So, we're not waiting on a warehouse in Chicago to send us the or print out the pallets and send them to us. Um, and last but not least, it also it's environmentally friendly. So, it cuts on the waste and on the emissions for that. Talking about flexibility again, this is very important because going back the final cost of the consumables for the eight-year adoption after adopt um attaining this adoption and
073doing some analysis, it was determined that that second line was not needed at all that the digital portion was fine. Meaning that not only did we save money, we essentially the adoption for eight years cost 1,59 which is an amazing savings. Even if we had purchased this and we had received it, we would have still had to gone through the process of returning the items that we don't need, possibly getting hit with a restocking fee. We completely eliminated that by just printing all these items in house. So, we're really excited about what we're going to do in 2026. We have new upgrades coming. We have new state-of-the-art equipment that's going to be delivered beginning December. Um, we're streamlining costs through competitive bidding. So, we're getting more people involved and in a conversation of um, who
074would like to do business with us. The price of the equipment lease has been reduced from 5 million to 2.5 million, which is a 50% reduction. And we're getting faster, more efficient machines that have autom automation tech improvements. So, we're really excited how we can use uh all this to help PSUSD. >> Thank you. >> With you questions, >> just to verify that the reprinting license is included in the price of the adoption. We don't have to pay extra for that. >> The ones that we have listed, I actually went through a couple. They were they've all been included. Um, we are still kind of looking at the budget of what would happen if we had to pay. But at the same time, it, as you can see, the even if we pay 10% 5%
075of what printing would cost, it's still a huge savings from us having to go out and buy it. >> Even if I just have a comment. We go to the schools and we get to see the printed materials, the books in the kids' hands and we get to see all the all the stories lined up and it's all leveled work. It's just such a great um I gift and resource that you and all of the repo uh uh group does. And we had the chance to take the tour Dr. Funes to their department. It was really uh informative and >> and and really really helped us understand how the district operates from that perspective. Thank you so much Seline. >> Thank you Seline. >> Thank you. Next item is that item 13 board members comments.
076Do we have any comments from the board, Shellyley? Yes. >> Yeah, sure. I'll start. Um, so, uh, bear with me. I did quite a bit. So, um, it's going to be a little bit. So, I'll start out October 30th. I went to the Palm Springs High School football game as well. Um, Palm Springs won 33-21 was the score. Uh, by the way, Palm Springs is 11-1. And also, uh, DEL champions. And so, like you said, they're going to the semi-finals. So, just wanted to mention that. Um, October 31st, I went to Cathedral City High School homecoming football game as well. Um, unfortunately, Cathedral City lost 30-22 to Desert Hot Springs, but a really good game. It went down to the last second. Um, Desert I mean, Cathedral City was driving to score with about uh
07720 seconds left. They got a turnover on downs and so they ended up losing the game, but very good game and entertaining. Uh the principles were very sad and excited after the game as you could imagine. Um so November the 1st uh I went to the Kiwi uh national I mean the Native American Learning Day and Market at uh Palm Springs High School and um it's always great to go to that event. Um unfortunately um we had a couple events going on that day, so the turnout wasn't as much as we usually normally expect, but um nevertheless always great to see the different Native American uh things that they have to offer, the art, the different um type of culture dances and different things that they have available there. Um that same day I went
078to the multicultural uh um equity conference at the uh convention center in Palm Springs. Um always a great event. Our students uh run a panel and have a panel of discussions. So it's always great to hear what our students are thinking. This year we had a keynote speaker uh Miss Betts and uh she's a chief of equity and access at um San Bino um county. Um, so she did a a very good job and one of the things that she talked about that I thought was amazing was she spoke a lot about community and about how it takes more than just one um different approach or one group to support our students and we all have to be a community and we all have to be supportive and everybody has a important role that they
079play in um building our students. And so next I went on November the 9th I went to the pride parade. Walked in the pride parade with other board members as well. Um that event uh was exciting but it was really hot. So we we walked quite a while and it was I think it was maybe 200 entries into the parade. So, we were standing out there for quite a while just waiting to walk and and it wasn't too favorable with the weather. Um, our Nelli and Kaufman um gay and straight alliance, we walk with them and so it was always great to see the kids. They were really excited. There was a young gentleman who was walking around and working the crowd like crazy. He was all over screaming and yelling and he had so
080much energy and I wish he would have been able to give us some of his energy. Um, and November the 11th, I also went to the Veterans Day parade. Um, we didn't participate in the Veterans Day parade, but me and uh, board member uh, Esped Queta was there. Um, always great to represent our veterans and be there to support that at Palm Springs. And November 13th, I went with um, the other uh, Miss board member, Miss Jerel, and also the superintendent. We went to WNPS and presented um WNPS happens to be a neighborhood organization in Palm Springs. I believe it's 53 or maybe more uh community organizations. And so they have monthly meetings where they discuss what's going on in the community in the city of Palm Springs. And so it was really great to
081be there. Um I used to be an alternate for my community uh there at the group. So it was good to see some of the old friends uh there at the meeting. And today, November 18th, I stopped by Painted Hills uh middle school with Mr. Pendigraph and was able to walk around and see all of the students. And that was my first time being out there at the school. It was different because everything was kind of inside and it just felt a little loud. So, you know, usually when you're you're outside, it doesn't sound so loud, but when you're inside of a classroom or a place where kids are just running around yelling, it was really really loud. So, um, that concludes my comments. Thank you for the board members, the student board members. The
082presentations are wonderful. You guys always do a great job and thank you. >> Thank you. >> Oh, you've covered about everything. I just want to say thank you to our student board members for your great reports tonight. And also, I think we had two really good uh presentations tonight by Danielle for on mental health and also from Seline on um reporaphics and what they do for our district. So, I appreciate that and uh I look forward to hearing uh the PAR report also further. I think that's next after we talk. So, that's it. >> Thank you. >> Uh just real brief. Um Charlie was pretty thorough. Um, thank you to Sarah and Tracy. Very good presentations, very informative. We always learn a lot when you guys present to us. We appreciate it. Um, I just
083a couple of things I just want to congratulate the district on there. Diversity and equity conference was incredibly good. Uh, the keynote speaker was excellent. She drove home the point of community as board member Irvin talked about. And, you know, I I just walked away from that revitalized about the importance of the work we do here. And sometimes you got to recharge your batteries like that. So, thank you for the staff for putting that on. That was really, really good. Um, I also uh got to participate or witness the superintendent's parent advisory council. I got to tell you, the presentations were excellent and the parents seemed pretty well engaged in that meeting. So, congratulations again to you guys for well done. Um, and I want to congratulate the uh city of Desert Hot Springs for
084their very first homecoming parade uh for the very first one. And I'm pretty familiar with Desert Hot Springs. It came out really well and they're to be congratulated and thanks for doing that. And Palm Springs High School homecoming parade is always a kick. Um, every time I participate that I come home to my wife and said, "Y I got want to buy a Corvette." And she tells me, "You are nuts, dude." You know, so anyways, that was a lot of fun. and my regrets to Cathedral City High School. Um, I was in LA that day. I thought I was going to get back in time. I was late, so I couldn't attend, but I'm sure it went off very well. So, thank you all very much. Thank you. >> Um, sorry, there we go. Um,
085the equity conference is our fourth annual and I have to say each year it just gets better. Uh, special gratitude to Dr. Antonia Hunt and her team and the student board members I'm they're starting or excuse me the panel were starting to get to know them and Caleb Alanise mentioned his past experiences in an interview with Mary and Buché and he was nervous. However, once he was up there he he was just himself. And so we got to see the true colors and hear the words from the kids that were there on the stage. An amazing uh organization and gosh joining together in the convention center uh all over the entire lobby inside as well. I was with um special education zoom. I did a state of the district um presentation to parents on the
086CPAC committee. Um I'm not sure the numbers of how many parents attended but it was on Zoom and I had about maybe 20 minutes to just give an overview of the district and and I also mentioned and I tell my board members and other people that we still should um I think promote our free tutoring services that are available. And so in this the comments now I am writing the free tutoring services number and who to contact uh at the district because we know parents need to know. So um we'll continue to do that. Uh at the same time that night was the Coachella Valley Dust Summit with um Emanuel Perez and UC Riverside. He had a chance to be on Zoom for the beginning of that. Um, we were in the pride parade, some
087of us, but some of us could only make it to the breakfast. And the breakfast was before, and this for me was new. And meeting parents, having kids put on tattoos, be painted, uh, get flags and and dressed up with with flags um, ready to go on the parade route was really a great um, way to start the morning. So, if you cannot walk in the parade, I recommend going to the to the breakfast. Um, on the 10th of November, uh, I was out in Desert Hot Springs, and I really have it in my heart to go to the Marine Corps ceremonies or, um, some of their special events at least once a year. This was special. This was big. The 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps. And so 102 cadetses or more uh were
088out into the gymnasium with all of the fanfare, the cake, the cutting of the cake honoring um uh Sergeant uh honoring Chief Warrant Officer Barbara Schovin for her 21 years of service. And for me being with the um Marine ROC in DHS is just like a a wonderful reunion. So I would encourage people to go and participate in some of their special events. It was amazing. A special thanks to Sergeant Johnny. He's our newest sergeant there. I'm not sure if it's Bradman or Chapman, but also Sergeant Terrence Simmons who has been there for a while. We thank you for all that hard work. Uh I did join the Apac Zoom on the 10th and Charlie was there with me and I did also put in our free tutoring ad in that chat as well. Um
089and then with um our presentation to one PS, the volunteers from I think you said the 53 neighborhoods are official neighborhoods and meeting with them at the Palm Springs Police Department was uh something different and new for us. to be able to meet residents, many of whom have no children in schools, asking how do we get involved and and listening to our greatest uh leader here talk about the the wondrous things we're doing in our district. Um, so, uh, this evening I do want to also, uh, reach out and say, uh, great that gratitude and thank you to all of our staff, school custodians, bus drivers, office teams, food services, workers, teachers, administrators. And I give you this thanks because the break is coming up for you, for me, for many of us. And this
090is a a time for you to refresh, rejuvenate, and recharge. And I just am excited that this is that time of year. And to wish you all a wonderful uh season of thanks and be safe this upcoming holiday. Thank you. >> Thank you, Claire. I don't know. And I will be very briefed. And first I want to congratulate the student board members Sarah and Tracy for the great presentation and keeping us updated not only from your high school but from the whole uh from different school site and this was the season of the homecoming parade. I was in the cathedral city and that is traditional home parade. uh is good opportunity to to have uh interaction with the community at Catira City and all other cities around and also I was in the panel spring
091uh unified school annual diversity conference and the board members say that included a student panel with a dialogue dialogue about equity and dynamic workshops keynote great keynote speaker and a student a exhibit and a lot of uh resources um in the in the lobby at the convention center. Uh in November 9th there were with the pan spring print parade pride parade and November 11 the better and day parade. Um seeing like the old parade but we uh see a specific in the better and they parade if we it is possible to have more uh um participation from the school district something something former um we can invite veteran from in our school district and and the honor their service and also So in November 12, I stopped in the um Cello Vista Charter elementary the
092steam night and that one was um uh activities that the student had with their parents related to esteemed uh robotic and different uh activities. Um and in the same day I stop in the I like to to be the most I can in the lac meetings because I know how important is the the the English learning committee and that's was the the meeting where they elect their their uh the president vice president and secretary and seeing The bio from all um members that run for those position is impressive. They have a uh all member of the committee have a long uh participation history. Um and with that I end my my pres my uh comments. Thank you. and and we move to next item, the item 14, uh, student board member comments. And do we
093have any comment from the student members? >> Uh, yeah, I I'll go first. So, um, I'm I would say I'm I'm pretty busy for our my school. U, something I just wanted to note is that I'm really I really appreciate you guys being there for so many of our events. uh like for the Veterans Day parade, I was walking with the with the banner and you know, I was just really happy to see you guys at the at the parade. Um same thing with the homecoming parade. I'm I was really glad with your support there as well. Um I hope I'm glad you enjoy the Corvettes. That's all thanks to the Corvette club. And uh other than that, yeah, just the support is really great. Uh, I've seen you around at on our campus when
094I've been walking to class. I just, you know, it's it's like it's good that I get to see you guys really often and just outside of this this space that we have here. It's good to see you guys outside and just having, you know, knowing that you guys have our backs as well. It's it's good to know that as well. Um, just in general. Um, and besides that, yeah, thank you. >> Thank you. So, um, continuing on to what Tracy said, I want to once again express all my gratitude to all of you for participating in our first homecoming parade. It was a super big event. Sorry for my voice. It's a long weekend. Um, it was a super big event and it was just very heartwarming to see all of your support and our
095community. uh coming together. There was a lot more people than I expected. It was packed on those streets. So, as somebody who did a major part in planning the parade, it's very heartwarming to see all the hard work come together. And then um moving on to our KATA convention that I mentioned in my presentation which actually was yesterday which is why my voice is like this. Uh, our USB visited Disneyland and we spent the day at Disneyland and then the day after they have a convention in the Disney hotel where all the ASBs, USBs from California are able to uh go through workshops and learn new things. And there was a um a speaker there who said some really good points which um kind of ties into us all being here. Um it made me
096look at my class like I'm so grateful for them. I'm so proud of them and I'm extremely grateful to you all for giving us students the ability to do that to giving me the ability to lead that class and feel so accomplished when we go and do activities like that because we all work really hard and I'm so glad that you all see our efforts. Um, and then moving to what I've previously mentioned a couple meetings ago, um, where I go to our city meetings now, um, every Thursday. It's the future leaders program. Tomorrow is actually my last meeting and we are doing our, um, the students are running the city meeting and everything I learn here, I apply over there. So, it's an amazing resource to be here and all the things I learned
097at school to be a step ahead of everyone and already know exactly what they're talking about and seeing how hard our city and our district works. It's amazing with all the things that you guys do as well as our city for our students, our youth and really uh pushing to connect the youth and the elderly as well so that we keep those traditions going on. Well, yeah. Thank you so much for all that you do. >> Thank you, Sarah Tracy. >> And next item is item 15, superintendent report. >> Thank you, board president, if you can just cue that up for me quickly. And and while that's coming up, I wanted to say and just remind our two scholars over there, Sarah and Tracy, you are definitely difference makers and future leaders. So every time
098you hear I want to remind you of that. So I'm very proud of you and I thank you for your example. I also want to thank our presenters tonight uh Miss Danielle Esavl, Miss Selene Amala Terorado and coming up Dr. Terresa Hega as well. Thank you for your timely and thoughtful and um excellent presentations. Much appreciated. Um, as we continue as a district to focus on uh what excellence is for us, I want to make sure I was able to highlight a few leaders this week as I round out a few things that I was able to do with our board and and some of you in the room. Next slide, please. And the first one is is is a leader that we all uh know and love and near and dear to our hearts.
099That's Dr. Amber Gasone. and uh she was awarded the innovative leadership award uh from the California expanded learning uh committee uh if you will. uh her leadership speaks to being very selfless and I I bet she's somewhere right now at a school site if if you think about it or or if you know some of the things that she does and I just wanted to point out that she has displayed district leadership excellence and that's why she was awarded that and I'm very grateful. Next slide please. Also wanted to take take time to point out Dr. Julio Amir as well. He was awarded the Angel Light Academy uh honore and that's his lovely wife there. And that award is based on being very self or serviceoriented rather and looking out for other people and doing
100what's in the best interest of community and I term that tonight service excellence and I want to thank Dr. Omir. Uh next slide please. Also want to point out uh one of our own uh excellent hire by the way, our 2025 AXA continuation educational options administrator of the year, Dr. Jose Ramirez. He's now our classified director. That is state leadership excellence. Not everyone gets that. Uh if you know anything about AXA, you're up against a lot of high highly talented people. And I want to thank uh Dr. Ramirez for his leadership in looking out for our classified workforce, but before he came here, making sure that young people who sometimes have been discounted had the best possible chance of being successful. Dr. Ramirez, next slide, please. And I had an opportunity as well to be
101out in the warm, hot air, the pride parade. That's one of my pictures right there with No, I was with the board right there, but I was with my wife Celeste. And uh I wanted to point out just our scholars and our staff who are committed to making sure that our young people, whether you're gay, straight, or whatever you are are affiliated with or associated with, you felt valued, seen, heard, and we were out there supporting uh that effort. And hats off to our scholars that were there. Hats off to our staff. H hats off to our board that was able to attend the breakfast and the parade. Job well done. That's what I call pride excellence. Right. And then uh last slide u our fourth annual multicultural equity and education conference which you've heard
102about. Uh, one thing that I wanted to point out here is that our scholars that you see there with the mics in their hands and on that panel, they stood out to us and they stood out because they use their they use their voices to speak up not only for themselves but for others that are in our systems. Thank you. Uh, speak up for others that are in our system and that are in need of our support and our advocacy. So, hats off to them and hats off to our ed services team that put that on. And as I round out my uh comments today and as we get prepared for the holidays, I did want to make a a a statement that I think we all need to hear. When you see someone doing
103well and you see someone doing excellent things, don't just think about it being excellent. Make sure that you tell them. Make sure that you tell them that you appreciate the work that they do. Make sure that you state their name and you say what it is that you appreciate about them. Research shows that when someone hears their name followed by something positive about what they're doing, it does something very special to the heart and the mind. And that's what we need more of in this world. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you, Marcos. We we move to item 16 uh board action items. Item 16A approval of the final induction and per report for 2024 2025 OE4.4 M is here. >> All right. Thank you board president. I'd like to um welcome and
104bring Dr. Hega, director of certificate of human resources. Uh long it's a long title. Let me finish the title. Recruitment, retention, leadership, development to the microphone. Um, she's going to provide the annual PAR report for the board's consideration for approval. And so, we'll turn it over to to Dr. Hagen. >> Good evening. Um, we're going to go ahead and get started with um really the team that does the work for our new teacher induction program and u to support our teachers that are in PAR. And that those are our reflective coaches and they are a very dedicated team of teachers. um who come from our district. They've been with our district for at least three years. They're exceptional teachers in the classroom and they go through an interview process with the PAR council and then
105a a member from the district and from PSTA actually go out and do classroom observations for the final selection of those teachers. And this year's team um they're in the back row. Um we have six reflective coaches. Aaron Graham, Norma Flores, Holly Reid, Nicole Chavez, Angelina Palmer, and Nicole Stacull. And underneath their names are um sort of their backgrounds and specialties. And those are typically the uh group of teachers that they support, but they will also support other teachers at different grade levels. And our special education teachers will also support um general education teachers as well. and our reflective coaches. We work with RCOE's Center for Teacher Innovation and they have um I guess the program for the induction process and these six um standards are what our reflective coaches use to guide their work
106with our new teachers through the induction program. And so each week they focus on a different one of these standards and they share best practices with each other of how it's working um on a daily basis with the uh induction candidates that they're supporting. As I mentioned, we work with um partner with Riverside County Office of Education, Center for Teacher Innovation, and the purpose is to help our teachers that have a preliminary credential go through the process of clearing their credential during the first two years and helping them to build capacity, which then will build teacher retention um in the future. And what they focus on are reflective practices. They want to make sure that the teachers are looking at what's working in their classroom, what's not working, and how they can support them in
107continued growth. It's a two-year program and they um focus on uh cycles of inquiry and the California standards for teacher prof uh the teacher profession. At the end of the year, um we have a great celebration for all of the teachers who've completed their first and second year of induction. And throughout the year, our reflective coaches are supporting the teachers with a minimum of three classroom observations that are non-evaluative, but really it's just a an opportunity to provide feedback and to help them continue to grow. The reflective coaches meet on a weekly basis with each of their candidates at a specific set time, but then they're also available whenever needed um in terms of phone calls, emails, text messages, and they're that kind of what I need support on the go. These are some of
108the different areas that our reflective coaches provide guidance and support to our teachers that are in the induction program. And um they also provide professional development workshops. They provide seven workshops throughout the year. and our special education uh reflective coaches provide seven IEP writing workshops to help support with changes in the law, how to write an IEP, and how to um hold IEPs and help staff um implement those IEPs. They are also partnering with the special education department and educational services to make sure that they're current with all of the district initiatives and that they're helping support their candidates in the classroom with these um practices. Um so this chart here shows you uh three years the the current year is on the top of how many candidates we have that are being supported by
109our reflective coaches. So we have a total of 128 teachers that are currently being supported through uh by our reflective coaches. Not all of them are um part of the induction process. If we're focusing just on new teacher induction, this year we have 97 new teachers that are being supported with by our reflective coaches. 51 of those are in their first year of the induction program and 46 are in the second year. It's pretty much evenly split between multiple subject and single subject. And we have 12 candidates that are in um special education. Our reflective coaches also work with 20 interns, 11 of whom are uh credentials or getting their credentials in special education and nine are general education teachers. We have eight teachers who are participating in the STEP program which we'll talk about
110in just a minute. We have one teacher on an emergency credential and we have two certificated staff who are participating in the PAR program this year. So first of all, STEPPP is a voluntary program that our uh fully credentialed teachers can participate in and possibly they received partially meets on their most recent evaluation and so they want to continue to grow and improve. So they reach out to have a reflective coach meet with them on a weekly basis. other teachers, maybe they've been teaching for a really long time and curriculum's changed, instruction has changed, or students have changed, and so they want some additional support. And so, it's an optional program. They can uh join the program at any time and leave the program whenever they would like. And again, our reflective coaches meet with
111them on a weekly basis to provide them whatever support they're asking for. The PAR program stands for peer assistance and review. And this is a mandatory program for any teacher whose scores does not meet standard on their last evaluation. Um and so um the goal is to help build their capacity to help address those areas where they need to have improvement. And again, our coaches will meet with the candidates on a weekly basis to help them with whatever areas they need to. And then on a monthly basis they will meet with the park council. And the park council is composed of three members from the district and four members from PSTA. And what we do is we look at um the progress that the per person participating in PAR has made based on what their
112goals are. And over the past three years um the in 23 24 we had one person who was participating in PAR. um 2425 there were two people participating in the first year of the PAR program and this year we have one person who is participating in their first year of PAR and one person who is in their second year of the PAR program. The PAR program is a two-year program. Circling back to the main work that our reflective coaches do is the induction program for our new teachers. And um CTI has 212 different um agencies that are participating in um the induction program. And so at the end of the year, they give a survey to all of the candidates who are participating just to see what they thought of the year. Um and so
113the first question that they asked is how well matched um are you? Oh, excuse me. First question is um do you spend enough time with your coach? Is that weekly meeting enough? And 100% of our candidates last year said that they were meeting on a weekly basis with their coaches. And 82% of them said that that was an adequate amount of time. And that's compared to programwide where only 69% of their candidates said that that was an adequate amount of time. Um so again, relationships is really important in order for our new teachers to continue to grow. And um we had um 87 excuse me 86% of our candidates who said that they felt they were very well matched with their induction coaches. Again we try to match our candidates with a coach who taught
114in the same um grade span or area in which they did. We were looking at um the cycles of inquiry. There's four cycles of inquiry that our teachers selected throughout the year. Again, it's a reflective process that they go through with their coaches. And the data shows that the teachers did feel that the induction program and the cycles of inquiry did have a positive impact on their classroom teaching practices. Again, this was a four-point scale and with four having a strong um impact. And you can see that all of our data there is above a three, which is a moderate to strong impact on all of their areas of teaching. the cycles of inquiry. Um here our data shows that those reflective cycles did have a uh help them to expand and improve in their
115professional skills in several different areas. And again, this is the the different cycles are um teacher selected and they can select from any of the areas um which were on one of the previous slides. And this um photo here is from a recent workshop that our coaches provided to our teachers. And this one was on um different classroom management strategies. And so here's some quotes from the end of the year survey to sort of highlight how the candidates feel about the induction program. And I've gone through and just highlighted a few um key phrases from each of those. Uh those weekly meetings are a nice time for them to mentally debrief. They're they genu genuinely feel heard, supported, and challenged. Um, they appreciate the resources that their coaches give them to help work on diversity
116and meet the needs of all of their students in their classrooms. Helps them to grow both personally and professionally and also helps them to navigate workplace culture and expectations because schools are different than the business world. Um some final comments. They've never felt or support or they always felt uh supported and never alone. They the work that they were doing, the suggestions were tailored to the teaching style of the individual teachers and help them to engage their students in lessons. And again, um the whole purpose is to help them clarify their thinking and move forward with more confidence. Uh as I mentioned earlier, that helps with teacher retention. And I know in a future board meeting, Mr. Mr. Hill is going to be presenting on OE4 which relates to teacher retention and he he'll be
117able to show how um our induction program helps to build strong teachers and help them to stay in the district. >> Thank you. Are there any questions? >> Thank you. Any comments question? >> I I just got a quick question. Can you go back to slide seven? >> I'm not sure which one's seven, so you'll have to stop me when I get there. >> Okay. right there. Can you go back? >> So, um I've noticed that the total numbers have kind of went down a little bit. Um do you know what that is attributed to? >> Um well, as you know, our district is in declining enrollment. And so that means um as we're declining in enrollment um we hire fewer teachers. Um and that's really what that's attributed to. >> Okay. All right. This
118is my question. >> No more question. Okay. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> I also want to thank the the well again Dr. Haga but also the reflective coaches as pointed out in the presentation. They're there to sort of fill up the cup of all the people they serve and and sometimes their cup doesn't get filled up. But I just want them to know they're valued, appreciated, and we do um recognize all the work that you guys provide to our teachers. So, thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Can I get a motion to approve item 16A? >> Move for approval. >> Second. >> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? >> I. Motion pass. Item 16V approver certificated and classify employees transession. Can I get a motion to approve 16V? >> So move >> second. >>
119Any question? Please vote. All in favor? I I >> motion pass and abstain from >> item 16 C approval of the 2025 2026 school plan for student achievement SPSA OE 10.5 and 10.7. Can I get a motion to approve 16C? >> Move for approval. Second. >> Second. Any question? Please vote. All in favor? >> I. Motion passes. It 16D, approval of amendment number one to frontier communication rate Y area network one services agreement for RFP number 23-01 to exercise the first one year contract extension and authorize future second extension OE 6.3. Can I get a motion to approve 16D? >> I'll move it. >> Second. >> Any any question? >> Please vote. All in favor? >> I. Motion pass. Item 16E, approval of modification one and two to PSUSD income agreement number I in N
12000222 RCE agreement number C1 with the Riverside County Superintendent at schools for participation in the 2020 24 2025 Head Start early Head Start sub award agreement OE 10.8. Can I get a motion to approve item 16E? >> Move for approval. >> Second. >> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? >> I motion pass. Item 16F, approval of rejection at claim number 2025- 2026-06 AA versus PSUD OEE7. Can I get a motion to approve item 16F? >> Move for approval. Any sec? >> Second. Any question? >> No. Please vote. All in favor? I. Motion pass. >> It 16G. Approval of rejection as claim number 2025- 2026-05 Crosby versus PSUSD 6628947. Can I get a motion to approve 16G? >> Move for approval. >> Second. >> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion
121pass. Item 16H, approval of compromise and release agreement number 25 slash 26-08 between parent and district dated October 14, 2025 OE 6.1. Can I get a motion to approve item 16H? >> Move for approval. >> Second. >> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? I >> I motion pass. >> Uh the following item will be approved in one vote. Would anyone like to pull the item for discussion or review? No. Okay. The can I get a motion to approve item 16 I to 16K. >> Move for approval. >> Second. >> Any question? Please vote. All in favor? I. Motion pass. Item six. Item 17 is the superintendent consent item and we're voting one vote. So uh superintendent consents item from 17A to 17G. Would anyone like to put an item for discussion or review? No.
122Okay. Can I get a motion to approve? >> You want something? >> Yeah. There was one item on here for the um I guess we're redoing the boys locker in athletic out in Desert Hot Springs High School. >> I forgot which words. Is it the very first one? >> $10,000 or more? Yeah, >> it's the architectural agreement and modernization. It's the very first one for almost a million dollars. Is it possible that at some point you can just tell us what exactly is going to be uh redone out there? it would that be after the architect goes in and makes his I guess recommendations to us? >> Uh yes, if you remember it was part of the study session in June where we were talking about the training and athletic room being so small >>
123uh that we were looking for some extra space in there. So, um, yeah, we're just looking at design right now. And, yeah, once we get the design and maybe a couple different ideas, we'll bring it back at probably a study session or or some point, uh, to you to kind of help us decide on what um, you know, if it's a priority and what we want to do with it. >> Okay. Are we also kind of looking at like all new equipment and I would he would the architect help us with that or is that another process? >> I think that depends on which way they think we should go. So either we either we expand the um training room into the weight room and and find a different place for the weight room in
124which case yes we probably would go for all new equipment and whatnot. There's also consideration of moving the weight room to the wrestling room and then the wrestling room somewhere else. So there's several different options including a couple restrooms as well for the baseball field and the softball fields because of the distance they have to walk for the restroom. So it's it's an extend it's just it extends beyond um just the training room. It's the whole athletic uh system there that you know we're trying to um upgrade to the point where it's similar to the other schools. I >> I think it's an important project. So I just was wondering when we could actually look at some renderings and what's going to actually be done out there so it's comparable to other schools. >> Absolutely.
125>> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. It's not we don't have to pull any item out. Yes. More information in the future. Okay. Uh, can I get a motion to approve superintendent consents item from 17A to 17G? >> Move for approval. >> Second. >> Okay. No more question. Please vote. All in favor? >> I. Motion pass. Thank you. >> Item 18 information. We don't have any information this night. Item 19, uh, suggestion for future agendas. Do any board member have suggestion for future agendas? >> Okay. Item 20 said, >> huh? >> Just the desert hot springs. >> Yeah, we were just talking about, >> right? >> Okay. >> And the parent center mention >> more information the update from the parent center. >> Yeah. At the study session, we'll um >> study session. That's >> yeah,
126we'll be talking about the um well, not just the parent engagement center, but the entire Ferrell building and the upgrades that we're going to be doing on on that. Um that's further. I mean, it's that's already in motion u to to start upgrading that. We've been talking about that for quite a bit longer. So, and we did have discussions with the family engagement center and um they, you know, they feel like the Ferrell building is is quite adequate and they uh they like the upgrades that we're going to do. They would like for us to really focus on uh Desert Hot Springs uh side for the parent engagement. And we've already begun to focus on that by getting a couple larger buildings up there, moving them to a better area that's more conducive for um
127events and uh and um I guess out of the kind of out of the sun more on the campus. So they'll be more involved there and it's just going to be in a better spot and look a lot better. So, we're putting most of our efforts in the family engagement center into the fereral building and then also uh into enlarging the u participation up at DHS. >> On what date will we be seeing that or discussing that? >> Uh December 9th, this next meeting we have a study session on facilities. Yeah. In fact, I'd like for the board to I know you had a very long Friday communication. Um, but there is a survey link in there that we would like for you to do as kind of a a homework assignment prior to Friday
128if you can so we can kind of have our priorities listed in order. Um, we've asked you to rank the priorities of of the projects uh in there. So, it's under the business section. It says survey link. So it would really help us as we move into that to move our discussion along as to what the priorities are going to be not only for the bond money um but for also other capital funds that we have. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And item 20 setting of the next board meeting regular board meeting. A regular board meeting will be heard on December 9, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. Items 21, debrief. Any debrief? >> Closing. >> You'll just miss each other. We'll be there Monday, Tuesday, and you guys get there Tuesday night. >> Madonna
129will see us. Yeah. >> Okay. No more. Item 22 adjournment. Can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> Move for approval. >> Second. There is vote. All in favor? I. Motion. Thank you.