001Mhm. >> Good evening. If we could ask everybody to please take a seat so we can get the meeting started. I'd like everyone in a seat, please. Excuse me, I need everyone in a seat, please, so we can continue our meeting. Dr. Glass, can you please Thank you. If you're in the back, if you could please come forward and find a seat, we'd like everybody in a seat, please. Thank you. Good evening, and welcome to the March 12th meeting of the Laguna Beach Unified School District Board of Education. The meeting is called to order at 6:03 or reconvened at 6:03. Uh my name is Sherri Morgan. I have a few housekeeping items that I would like to make you aware of, especially if this is your first time in the board room. Uh first we
002we would like to ask that you please uphold board policy on decorum. There's no food or eating in the board room. There's no clapping, jeering, cheering, or booing. Thank you. Please do not uh please keep your comments to the items being discussed. Please have non- We have non-agenda public speaking options for those items that fall within the board's purview, but are not on the agenda. We are asking that you please do not disrupt the meeting with conversations or milling about. Feel free to step outside if you'd like to um chat if needed. Earlier this evening we made a motion I made a motion to move public comments on non-agenda items to the front and agreed to uphold the 20-minute timeline outlined in our policy. Should we need to extend that, we will address that at
003that time. Tonight this item is in front for students only. We will have another opportunity at the end of the meeting and this was actually a suggestion from one of our staff members at one of the positive listening sessions that were held in the last several weeks. If you are a student who wishes to speak on non-agenda items, meaning not on the agenda, please we will have you line up so that we can determine how many want to speak and we can adjust the time accordingly. If you've already filled out a card, you can go ahead and bring those forward, but we're going to have the students just line up so that we can move through those quickly. Any students that want to speak on any agenda agenda items, please write student at the Thank
004you. I appreciate all the teachers in the room and I understand in your classrooms the noise you would always stop and wait. So, I'm just um I appreciate that guidance. Um any if you're a student and want to speak on any agenda items, please write student at the top of the card and the item number and we will ensure that you are first in public comments on items on the agenda. Any public comments submitted online were distributed to the board prior to the meeting. Is that I Is that clear? Did I make sense then? Students will go first on non-agenda items. Then we're going to move into our agenda. There will be public comment opportunity on every item on the agenda. And at the end of the meeting we will have another non-agenda item opportunity.
005But the first session tonight because I know we have a lot of students here will be for the students. Okay. Logan, can you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay. We have one report out of closed session. Um upon the motion of um Upon the Upon a motion that I made, Trustee Morgan seconded by Trustee Kelly and a vote of five to zero the board took action in closed session pursuant to Education Code 44954B to release the following temporary certificated employees effective at the end of the current 25-26 school year. This is a typical action. It happens every year for
006temporary employees. This is not an unexpected or surprised action. Um employee numbers 7600002806, 3687, 3694, 3528, 1750, 3710, 3698, 3397, 3317, and 3701. The superintendent or his designation shall notify each employee of these actions in writing before the end of the school year. Thank you. Okay, so we're going to start the meeting with public comment on for students on items not on the agenda. If you would like to speak speak, thank you for getting lined up. Um and we can take the first speaker. Hi, my name is Samia Saldo. I'm a sophomore at LBHS and I'm reading this on behalf of senior Megan Mannion. Good evening, board members. I wish I could be here to speak in person, but I have a mandatory dance rehearsal at my studio, which I'm sure President Morgan can understand
007as I dance with her youngest daughter, whom I had the pleasure of watching graduate on the field last June. I'm the ASB co-executive officer at the high school and with my role on campus, it is my mission to represent my school's voice. I feel obligated to share my voice and stand up for my peers' opinions, especially at this time. Just shy of 90 days until graduation, I'm disappointed by the news that the vote change the graduation location to the Irvine Bowl has been made official. It fills me with deep frustration that my senior class is not being given a proper platform by our own school board to have a say in our graduation, an event only we, the class of 2026, get to experience. Honestly, our LBHS ASB and our student senate system on campus
008does a better job of voting on and making decisions based on student voice and representation. We curate our site events and activities to what the student body wants to experience. If they want a specific spirit week dress-up up we give it to them. If they want input on winter formal or prom location, well we listen. But why aren't we Why aren't we being listened to about our own graduation, which we all 213 of us will experience only once in our lives? Guyer Field is leaps and bounds more accessible for everyone attending. There's a reason people need binoculars at the bowl because it is difficult to see anything on stage. We are being robbed of seeing our entire family and friends sitting before us as they will just get to see the back of our heads
009in all maroon, and we will only have one fleeting moment to see our face as we walk down the stage for 5 seconds. I'm sure many senior families with elderly members planning to attend are now concerned on how they will manage all those steps at the bowl. It is 213 seniors against the board majority, and I feel at a loss. Regardless of this location situation, it seems as though student voices and wants are falling on deaf ears. I am not saying my opinion speaks for the entire senior class, but it is very telling that you choose to be persuaded by an outside petition rather than a survey directly taken by your commu- community students who are affected the most by this decision. Traditions change. You are showing us that. Even as times evolve in our
010school, what the adults in some of the community want to see is more important than what the students who are actually experiencing these once-in-a-lifetime events want. I would love to come full circle after being one of the first classes to graduate at Thurston to graduate in the same field 4 years later and celebrate and take photos at a place I hold dear to my heart. I don't want to walk the stage at a venue where I once saw the Pageant of the Masters. I want to walk the stage at the place the very place that impacted me as a student where I made unforgettable memories, bonded with the staff, and can celebrate with everyone in the entire community. I write this with all respect and genuine love for my high school and the integrity to
011stand up for my peers' voice because I represent my school's legacy on campus and will do so every day beyond graduation. Thank you. Excuse me, we are not clapping. Jazz hands are fine, but we are not clapping. Thank you. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. Um I'm Emily Williams. I'm a senior at LBHS and this is the beginning of an email that I wrote to the school board. Greetings. I'm a senior here at LBHS and I've lived in this town my whole life. I am on ASB and I'm heavily involved in the school's culture and activities. I work at a prominent historical business downtown and care deeply about the community. I feel it is my duty to speak out against the recent decisions regarding the class of 2026's graduation. Notice how I said the
012class of 2026, not the Laguna Beach communities, not the school boards, not the randomly not the random elderly person whose child graduated 50 years ago. This is our graduation. With the new changes to our event, it feels as if some people are forgetting that. So, part of your response, Ms. Morgan, was that um the community donates over $2 million in scholarships over the four years our students are at the high school, about 400k each year excluding any military scholarships, and those are five over 500k each typically. That is not district funds or school power, but the community alliances, alumni groups, and more. The community has deep is the community is the community is deeply committed to our students and has expressed grave concern that the district has siloed itself and isn't considering the many wonderful
013benefits the community has to offer. So, my problem with this statement is that these wonderful donors and taxpayers are not donating money for our graduation, they are rewarding us for our hard work and investing in our futures. Them generously giving the school and students money has no correlation with the location of an event. To my knowledge, the process to get this decision of moving to the Irvine Bowl started with concerned parents bringing the issue up and creating a petition that other adults signed, majority of which don't even live in Laguna. The then a poll was sent out to the seniors and majority voted for Guyer Field. Yes, it won by little, but it won regardless. It then came down to the superintendent in conversation with the schools, but in reality, it was the donors that
014were pressuring this decision and the vote was three to two in favor of the move to the Irvine Bowl. So, as I understand the situation, the seniors' opinions were ignored regarding their own graduation because some parents and donors felt that their opinions weren't being heard on an issue that doesn't concern them. This does not make sense to me at all. My classmates and I have spent 12 long years in this wonderful school district. We were the ones taking the AP classes, we did the homework, we read the books, and we studied for the tests. We earned those grades that got us the diplomas, and it wasn't easy. So, please listen when we say that we want to have the final location the final say in the location in the place in which we graduate. We
015We want to accept our diplomas, and this is where we will begin the next chapter of our lives. All we are asking for in return for our hard work is just one day that's about us. Thank you. Hey guys, we have a decorum policy. I would like you to respect it, please. Hey, this is a warning. Any If there's a second warning, then you we will be asked to go outside. You can use jazz hands to show your celebration. Please do not disrupt the meeting or the flow by clapping and everything else. We're trying to move through everyone quickly. Thank you. Hi, my name is Piper Halpern. >> I'm a senior at Laguna Beach High School. I'm here tonight to express my concern about the decision to move our graduation ceremony from Guyer Field to
016the Irvine Bowl. Graduation is one of the most important milestones of our lives, and where it where it takes place matters, not just the students, but the families who have supported us every step of the way. One of my biggest concerns is accessibility. For example, my grandpa plans to attend my graduation, but it's difficult for him to walk long flights of stairs, and he struggles with hearing. The Irvine Bowl has steep seating and is much farther away from the stage. Because of that distance, it may be difficult for him and many other grandparents and older family members to clearly see the moment we walk across the stage. Graduation should be a moment families can fully share in and the location matters. Guyer Field also holds deep-set sentimental value for our class. Over the past 4
017years, that field has been the center of our high school experience. It's where we watch football games, attend school events, and build memories together. Personally, I played lacrosse on that field, so it holds a deep value in my heart. For many of us, Guyer Field represents our time at Laguna. It's where we've grown up. Graduating there would bring our high school experience in a full circle. The Irvine Bowl, on the other hand, does not carry the same meaning for us. I also want to address the student survey that was sent out. Many students completed the survey believing it was to gather input, not that it would potentially determine where our graduation would move to. Even with that, the responses still show that students lean towards having graduation at Guyer Field. Despite this, the decision ultimately
018overruled the students' preferences and um was overruled. Because of that, many students feel like our voices were not heard. Graduation is meant to celebrate the graduating class, and we believe the students and administrators who work with us should have a meaningful role in deciding where it takes place. Right now, it feels like our voices in this process have been silenced, and that is deeply disappointing. I respectfully ask the board to reconsider this decision and take into account accessibility for families, the sentimental value of Guyer Field, and the voices of the class of 2026. Thank you. Good evening. It's an honor to speak today in front of this board, and I would like to first start off with the fact that this is one of my first board meetings, but I've I've kept up with a
019lot of the community parts within Laguna Beach. My name is Ariana Nica. I'm a senior this year and a graduating student of class of 2026, and I have moved all over the world globally. I've lived in many different countries, many different cities. However, I have never seen a community such as Laguna Beach. This is a community that holds a dear place in my heart with the students and staff creating such a lovely environment for us to live in. They do so much for us communally and one of these um aspects of the graduation is one of those that they work so hard on. The Laguna Beach staff have worked count- countless hours on working on a beautiful and lovely ceremony for our graduation. One that is organized and has been planned and has been um
020thought out for the last 6 years. This graduation has been one that I have attended many of my friends and seen this turning point and chapter in their lives. And to see it so blatantly disregarded for the amount of work that our um our administrators and our staff put into such a beautiful ceremony is frankly disrespectful. To see how their work is so undermined is one that is really shocking. Seeing so many different communities and how intertwined this um city is, to see such a blatant disregard for the people that do so much for our students and are the very people that influence us for the next 4 years. I come to you as a 4.1 GPA student, one that has studied countless hours and many years through AP classes, honors classes, and so much
021more. We as the students develop what is Laguna Beach. We are the next generation and we are the people that are creating what our city is founded off of. Students have jobs in Laguna Beach, volunteer hours, and do so much for our community. And to disrespect the beliefs and wants of our students is a little bit saddening. To see how one one small la- large Oh, sorry. One small loud group to influence such an impressive school board is a little bit shocking to see how many students want to have our graduation in a place that's truly meaningful. To end graduation where we start it and to have such a beautiful ceremony that is hosted by such lovely people to be completely disregarded. We put in so much work to creating a community in this school
022and this has been one of the main events to break it apart this year. We've seen friend groups arguing over what side to stand on. We've seen teachers upset through classes because we don't know what's going to happen with the graduation that we have worked so hard for. This has been a journey of four years creating memories and and education with so many students and peers and to see so many of us disrupted and upset our senior year because we're not able to have the graduation that is so meaningful to so many of us. It's a place for our families to gather and celebrate. It's a place for friends and family to come and see the accomplishments that their students have worked so hard on for the past four years completely disregarded for a venue
023that does not serve the school any purpose, disregards the work of our staff and truly just doesn't please what the students want, more so with the loud voices of a small petition signed by people who don't even live in this city. Thank you. Hello. My name is Ella Bolen. Gloria and I'm a senior at Laguna Beach High School. Um I just want to first start off by saying that my speech is not going to be as eloquent as those students who came before me. I came unprepared here. Um but I frankly just think it is disrespectful to the students that you claim to serve and the staff that you claim to support that you are moving this this late in the year, that this is even being considered on the whim of one parent's decision
024to start a petition and take this to the community. I just think it's preposterous that it has gotten this far and that you have allowed for this to happen and allowed for the small vocal minority to override the students' decision and I think it's um trying to think of a not offensive word to say here. Um I think it's uh I think it's frankly just stupid that that uh you are disrespecting student voices like this. We are We have come to you and we have said that this is what we want. The staff have come and said that this is way too late in the year to change. You've already changed one part of our graduation. We don't even get to choose our graduation colors anymore. Okay, well, either way. You've already changed things about
025our graduation and to change this venue this late in the year, it's absolutely insane. My grandfather has a very difficult time walking. He cannot climb stairs. He cannot really climb anything very steep. I doubt that there is going to be enough seating at the Irvine Bowl to facilitate the amount of grandparents that are going to be there that also have these types of difficulties. I've spoken to many students. They also are having these same issues where they don't know where they're going to park. They don't know how their grandparents are going to get there. You've offered up, "Oh, you can give them extra time." like boarding a plane. But, I just think I don't know. That's it's just so insanely difficult as opposed to how accessible the field is. And we've done this for several
026years. I understand that the Irvine Bowl is a long-held tradition, but that doesn't mean that we don't have to change it now. I think Laguna sure has always been about tradition, but it's also about change. This is an artist community. Art changes. Why don't we allow this change to happen in our community and in the Laguna society? I do not understand it. That's all I have to say. Hi everyone. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. Um my name is Kate Hennessy and I'm a senior here at LBHS. And first, I just wanted to thank Logan and Ivy for doing such an incredible job accurately representing the students. Um I want you to know that we all support you and truly appreciate the time and effort you're putting into this. Um regarding this year's
027graduation, to be honest, at first, I didn't feel particularly passionate about where it was held. However, I do feel strongly that this really isn't a board decision. And even even if it was, student voice should be central to that conversation. I understand the vote was narrow, but the majority of students still supported holding graduation at Guyer Field. I understand some community community members feel passionately about returning to the tradition of the Irvine Bowl. But to us to students, our tradition is graduating at the school we love, surrounded by the staff and teachers we love. And from the teachers I've talked to, there's not the same sense of school community at the Irvine Bowl. Also, I can say with confidence that I understand the time, effort, and even a few of the bylaws involved in this
028decision from my time last year as student representative. From what I understand, this should have been a site decision. I know the wonderful people in the office have been working incredibly hard to plan us an amazing graduation. And moving it less than 3 months before the event would create a significant amount of extra work for them. Because this is a site decision, students would have had plenty of opportunities to share input with administrators if the majority of us felt strongly about changing the location. It didn't need to be on the board agenda. Dr. Ullman is in the quad every day during break break and lunch, and students can easily speak to him or email him about concerns. Finally, I want to express my disappointment in the dysfunction I've seen from this board. As students, we
029support the teachers and admin, and it's sad to see it's sad to see that they don't feel seen or supported. I also feel that it's odd that students across campus are talking about the misconduct of this board. That's not something teenagers typically talk about, um let alone think about. As a senior who plans to study political science in college next year, it's incredibly disheartening. Please try to set a better example for the many young impressionable students in this district. Thank you. Yeah, is this good? Okay, hi. Sorry. My name is Teddy Hackett. I'm a senior at LBHS and I honestly had no I did not think I was going to be talking tonight, but I just felt inspired by my peers and I think there's strength in numbers. I just do not believe that this
030should have been a decision made by the board. I think this should have stayed at the high school. For me at the beginning like when this became a thing to talk about, I had no preference because I think the idea of tradition is cool, but I think going against the beliefs of the students is not very cool and I just think we've seen our older friends and our older siblings graduate at the field and we've held we've had we've made so many memories at the field and the Irvine Bowl, I don't think I've ever been there and it it holds no relevance to me or like I just don't understand why I'd want to graduate there. Um and I think just graduating at the high school would be a lot more meaningful to students and
031overall it's what the students want. I've been listening to students on campus and the idea is that everybody is against was against the decision. I don't want to speak for everyone, but that's just everyone that I've heard of and all my friends and all the people in my classes and I just think it's better at the field. Thank you. I am sorry to interrupt. This will be our last speaker at the 20-minute mark. It'll go just over 20 minutes. Thank you. Good evening members of the board. My name is Salia Spinella and I'm proud to represent the class of 2026 tonight. I'm involved at Laguna Beach High School through ASB, Model United Nations and varsity cheer and other sports like track and volleyball. The class of 2026 are students. We're not lawyers or council members
032yet. But this does not mean our voices matter any less because at the end of the day, this is our graduation. And while adults may be debating the details, we are students who actually will be walking across that stage. For many of us, Guyer Field has already become a part of our high school story. It's where many of our class first stepped onto campus when we graduated from Thurston Middle School in 2022. From our class, Guyer Field has become a tradition we know. I also like to share a few data points data points. One petition supporting the move to the Irvine Bowl gathered about 1,000 signatures over several months and included many votes from outside of Laguna Beach district. In comparison, one petition supporting graduation at the Guyer Field gathered over 1,000 signatures in less
033than a week from families within our school community. The student survey also supported keeping graduation at Guyer Field. So out So out of three surveys circulating in the community, one supports moving graduation to the Irvine Bowl and two support keeping graduation at the Guyer Field, which is clear point to consider. Some board members stated that voices in the community were not being heard. On that point, I agree. If you look around the room tonight, you see students, parents, and teachers, and community members dressed in black. It shows that many voices were not heard when the decision was made. And those were voices are here tonight asking the board to listen. Another concern for students is accessibility. Many students want to feel confident that every accommodation will be fully supported so that all members of class
034of 2020 26 can participate in graduation and celebrate this milestone together. Thank you. Okay. Are there any other students that would like to speak? Okay. Seeing none, before we move go ahead. Do you have cards for people students? >> Did Delilah want to speak? Oh, she just spoke. That's right. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I I believe I can make a clarification. Is that correct? Okay. So, um I am really disheartened to see how divisive this particular item has brought in our community. Um I know that there was a conversation in the fall that requested this uh I know it came to our attention as did the robes. We were in We were guided into not getting involved in the conversation. At that time, we asked no problem, please make sure the student voice is
035included. Fast forward to February 2nd, a survey was sent out to the students. Part of the information that was presented to the board. It was a narrow margin, you're right. It was 47% to 46% with about 7 and 1/2% not not with no preference. 107 people participated out of 213. It was sent out five times. That difference of percentage is one student. And I think it's really important for all of us to remember, we're not always going to agree. But we have to be nice. We have to be civil. And we have to respect the democratic process. And that was a democratic process. A presentation was made. There were guiding principles, including the an a principle called the future breaker effect. And graduating on the field of which you are moving into. So, that is
036the information that I know I made a decision on. I We had There were two change.org petitions out there. The difference there is probably the same. And I know people on both petitions, and some of them don't live in town on both petitions. So, I think it's really unfortunate, but this decision was brought to the board. A decision There was a presentation by staff. A decision was made, and it's being upheld, and it's It's recommended by the superintendent that it does not come back to the board. So, I appreciate everyone's time tonight on this issue but we are not bringing it back. Thank you. Okay, moving on to item five. Reports. First is a bargaining unit CSEA and La Bouffa. Thank you. Everyone loves our students. This is not a personal issue. Excuse me. So,
037constituents, there's constituent, stakeholders, and um community as well as audience. Community, stakeholders, and constituents all overlap. Audience is who is spoken to. It was an inclusive process based on the presentation at the site level. Thank you so much. La Bouffa and CSEA, please continue. Okay, on that note, we had our first day in negotiations and my two newest team members walked away pleasantly surprised. It was not what they expected negotiations to look like. They experienced thoughtful collaboration, meaningful discussion, and a genuine effort to problem solve and find consensus. That kind of approach builds trust and moves us forward together and we really hope we get to go to day two. I also want to sincerely thank the district for its continued support in sending classified staff to the paraeducator conference I attended this year with
038two of our paraeducators joining more than 2,500 paras from across California. The conference concluded today and offered an incredible range of professional learning opportunities. I myself attended sessions on effective and highly leveraged practices for our paraeducators, meeting the moment, AI in the future of teaching, and several others. Additional sessions included enhancing autism support through CAPTAIN, autism spectrum disorders, what every pair should know, anti-deficit thinking in special education, um IEP understanding education plans, and a really fun one, making a splash, watercolor strategies for the classroom, and supporting math effectively. This conference directly strengthens our ability to serve our students. The learning does not stop there. We bring the knowledge back to our PLCs and share meaningful strategies with our colleagues. We want to thank Dr. Mayberry and Dr. Glass for recognizing the value in investing in
039the classified staff and for supporting our continued professional growth because it makes a direct difference and a direct correlation to the students and the work we do with them every day. Okay. That's good. Good evening. In continuation of our dedication to highlighting the work happening across our district, our focus moving forward will remain on the meaningful work and programs taking place in our classrooms and school buildings. Our educators and staff deserve recognition, stability, and leadership that reflects the seriousness of their work and their deep commitment to our students. Tonight, we would like to highlight the high school. Marine biology students are excited to begin a hands-on project-based learning experience where they will raise juvenile white sea bass in a custom classroom tank and release them into local waters at the end of the semester. While
040caring for the fish, students will develop animal husbandry and STEM skills and gain exposure to careers in marine science. The program transforms the classroom into a true living lab and supports LBUSD sustainability goals and targets. Sea bass in the classroom is a program of the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute and is funded by School Power. Thank you, School Power. With the support of School Power, also, AP Human Geography students are participating in a theme park design project that connects course content to real-world application. Students are designing their own theme parks while applying concepts such as urban planning, land use, infrastructure, and sustainability. On March 12th, students will visit Disneyland to study first-hand how large-scale spaces are intentionally designed and managed. The workshop at Disneyland will allow the students to ask questions about connecting the content they're learning
041to real-world planning strategies. Um also, on March 17th, eight industry professionals, including the Laguna Beach city planners, sustainability experts, architects, and Disneyland designers, will work directly with students providing guidance and feedback on their designs. I don't know about you, but I kind of want to go back to high school now. Um never thought I'd say that. Also, a big shout-out to the high school staff for putting on a successful eighth-grade parent night. Um they had a great success with that, and it takes a lot of work to set those events up. And lastly, Laguna LULAC looks forward to beginning negotiations in good faith, as we always have, and we expect the district to uphold the same commitment to good faith bargaining that prioritizes our educators and our students. Thank you. I agree. I'd like to
042go back to school. Um okay. Um our SRO, please come up. Thank you. Sorry, I just missed my connecting flight to the back of the room. I apologize. Uh first and foremost, why I apologize for my voice, I think I might be coming down with something, so I apologize if I sound like the marble man from the commercials. For those of you don't remember my name, my name is Daniel Lopez, one of your two neighborhood friendly school resource officers. I don't have too much to report today, so I'll just dive right into it so we can get on with the rest of the evening. Recently, the SRO team participated in the Read Across America event over at El Morro, where I actually read one of my favorite books, Dragons Love Tacos. Uh ironically enough, one
043of our students dressed up as a dragon and also brought that same book. So that's always a warm thing to see one of the kids get light up when you read their favorite book. Fantastic event. I highly encourage the board members to maybe participate in the following years cuz it's an amazing time. We also participated in the industry spotlight over at the high school where it was a panel of three or excuse me four uh legal expert experts. Again, I apologize for my voice. Me being a police officer and an SRO also sat with two attorneys and as well as a judge uh who discussed different parts of our career, the different focus points, and we also had a great Q&A with a number of students about our careers, our past, and our journey long
044way to those careers. I'm also very excited to say that we now have 20 high school students who are interested in our newly founded explorer program. We're hoping to have our first meeting in 2 weeks. The day is still kind of fluid at the moment. We're just trying to organize personnel to make sure we have enough officers and support staff to be able to make sure that our first meeting starts off with a great kick. Uh and on March 26th coming up, we're doing a table top exercise with the fire department along with the district as well to prepare ourselves for any eventualities and emergency preparedness to make sure that we're ready to rock and roll. And last but not least, we're looking forward to continuing this amazing and important partnership with our district. I
045to this day still remember my SRO when I was in high school and I actually met that SRO as an officer as well. So I want to say we're very thankful and grateful for the opportunity to work with everybody and we look forward to continuing that fantastic relationship. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Is there any questions from anyone? No. The young explorer program is a program you did you say you're reinstating it? Cuz >> Correct. Yeah, cuz we had it a while ago, right? Before COVID. >> had to freeze it due to COVID and after that there was small to no interest. And that may or may not have to do with world events that we all saw witnessed throughout the years, but we're very excited to rekindle it
046and kick it off. And as I mentioned before, 20 students have come forward. >> That's wonderful. >> It's very exciting. It's a great program. I'm so glad that you guys brought that back. Thank you so much for your report. Thank you for your time. Okay. Uh I believe we have a presentation from Dr. Almond. So, we do have a new agenda system Sorry, Dr. Almond. We do have a new agenda system, and we have had some issues with it. Um just so that you know, if for whatever reason we cannot at any point of the meeting tonight or other nights, we cannot go um the meeting can't get back online, we would have to adjourn until the system came back up. So, just that's more of a housekeeping mention, not something that we're doing at
047this moment. Thank you, Dr. Almond. Good evening, everyone. I'm honored and excited to speak to you this evening about the opportunities and accomplishments of Laguna Beach High School and the greater school community. Thank you for all being here this evening. We'll be quick and painless, hopefully. Um obviously, we want to start at the heart of our work, recognizing the learner learning pro- the learner profile and the essential skills that we want to build in our young adults. These assets are built around our simple focus on our LCAP goals with a focus on college and career readiness, social-emotional supports, and skill buil- and skill building in a safe learning environment. When we look at the success indicators that contribute to options and opportunities for students beyond high school, we have to celebrate our 97% graduation rate,
048and although only 14% of last year's graduating class attended a UC or CSU, 87% of our students met those A-G requirements. Interestingly enough, you want to dive a little deeper into that, we had 8% of our graduating students attend UC schools and 6% attend Cal States. Nearly 70% of our students have passed at least one AP exam and 85% of our exiting seniors last year earned early college credit. 73% of those students engaged in CTE course offerings and we continue to being recognized by the College Board for open access for students in AP courses and you can see that number of 81% of our students are enrolled in an AP one or more AP courses. Speaking about access, I'd like to highlight a lot of the things that we talk about not only in the
049board setting, but on campus um and that's CTE, dual enrollment and the arts. Have some interesting information for you here on this. Nearly half of our students are actively engaged in structured career pathways. This year 44 This year 44% of students are enrolled in a CTE pathway spanning graphic design, medical fields, engineering, computer science and industry aligned art programs. That shows that CTE for us at LBHS is not a niche program. It's a core component of how we prepare students for college, career and more importantly life. When we talk about dual enrollment, nearly 30% of our students at the high school, that's 243, are enrolled in coursework that provides access to transferable college credit through either dual enrollment or formal articulation agreements. 71% I'm sorry, 71 students will be earning credit through enrollment in our
050community college partnership dual enrollment courses at IVC alone. This means that almost one in three of our students has a direct pathway through LBHS to earning college units while still in high school, strengthening again both college readiness and career preparation. When we talk about the arts, the high school currently offers 30 distinct visual and performing arts courses spanning introductory through AP and honors levels, and we're adding two more next year. 44% of our students participate in VAPA programs at LBHS. These are not just enrichment courses. These are programs that provide depth, rigor, and advanced opportunities across theater, dance, visual arts, music, and media arts. The arts are not an add-on at LBHS. They are a valuable part of our academic program and student identity, as you have seen in a variety of venues. For further
051context, I wanted to share a little bit about how we celebrate athletes because we have so many athletes that we always talk about our rate of 70% or above of our students are involved in athletics, and we might think that that's a competing factor when we talk about CTE, dual enrollment, or the arts. Um but 55% of our student athletes, 152 students, are involved in CTE pathway classes. 59% of student athletes are also involved in the arts. And 38 student athletes alone enrolled in dual enrollment courses this year. So, when we sum this up together along with a variety of civic education and vocational opportunities on our campus and out in the community, not to mention the fact that over 70% of our students that are also athletes support our school by representing our school
052in athletic events, this all reflects a strong culture of high school pride, career-connected learning, college readiness, all while promoting strong arts across our campus. When we're talking about school-specific goals, what we focused on really this year are three. We want to increase math achievement. Our goal is for 65% of 11th-grade students to achieve standard met or standard exceeded on the CAS math assessment. In 2024-25, 60% of our juniors met this benchmark, placing us within five percentage points of our goal. A continued focus on instructional alignment, targeted support, which I'll share a little bit about later, and data-informed teaching will help us close this gap. Another focus of ours was reducing chronic chronic absenteeism. We aim to reduce the rate of chronic absenteeism below 10% as measured through our Aeries Analytics attendance accounting. Our current rate
053is currently 12.6. We are 2.6 percentage away points away from our target, and ongoing efforts around student engagement, family communication, and early attendance interventions remain key strategies in reaching this goal. Another goal that we want to focus on is improving academic progress through grade recovery. Our goal is to achieve a 50% reduction in DF grades from the six-week progress support to the end of the semester. I'm happy to report that we're currently seeing a 43% reduction, placing us seven percentage points away from our goal. This project This progress reflects the impact and intervention systems, academic support, and increased monitoring of student performance, all working towards this goal. So, overall, the data suggests we're making meaningful progress towards all three goals as we reach the end of the second semester in, yes, 10 weeks. 10 weeks
054until the end of the second semester. I know. Pulling my hair out a little. With each area showing momentum towards our established benchmarks, continued collaboration among our amazing staff, targeted student supports, and consistent monitoring of outcomes all help us in closing those remaining gaps. Diving a little deeper into our multi-tiered systems of supports, I wanted to share a little bit about the targeted interventions that were taking uh place on our on our campus. We've supported no less than 763 individual students in targeted math tutorials addressing specific skills for success and academic achievement. And when we reflect and refine our support practices, we have an we have had an impact with 20% of our math intervention students and 38% of our English intervention students meeting their individualized standards and exiting that support. And with our new
055focus on tardies and working with students and families on a personal level towards the value of timely arrival and readiness to learn, we're able to reduce tardies from 40% to 20% during this first semester. We also talk a lot about tutorial and what it means to our students. So, I wanted to share some data points around this. From the first window of our of our spring semester, that's January 5th to February 27th, we see that the flex tutorial system at the high school is largely driven, and this is important, by student ownership and academic support. 71% of participation is student self-selected with most activities selected by them focusing on academic productivity, teacher to student connections, or what sometimes we call office hours, structured study time, and subject-specific help. 14% of tutorial participation reflects targeted academic
056priority support. This is This includes specific interventions, required course assistance, and performance-based classes. 13% supports enrichment and leadership opportunities, such as clubs, peer tutoring, wellness programming, and school-wide activities that strengthen community engagement. A very small portion of our flex time supports adaptive scheduling and accountability check-ins at 4.6%. While only about 1% reflects admin requirements, where we might drag students into the theater to cover expectations around winter formal dances or other um We do uh uh um presentation at the beginning of the year by grade level just to talk about legacies and expectations for students as they start their high school year. Overall, this tutorial data demonstrates that teachers are intentionally structuring flex opportunities to support academics, leadership, and student well-being, while maintaining a system that prioritizes student choice, responsiveness, and alignment with the school learning
057goals. Now, I'd like to share a little bit about a little more personalized approach in how we support our students. And you've heard me talk about this before. Our ongoing shift from indirect contacts from our counselors to students to more direct contacts. This has led to a specific focus on increasing the time and value of that time that students spend with their counselors. Bridging the gap between social-emotional supports has been done and been and been recognized by our amazing counselor and student support team among our four counselors and our school social worker. Uh when we look at our ratio of one counselor to every 205 students and we compare that to the state ratio of one counselor to 443 students, we are able to do some really remarkable work both on the personal student to
058counselor front, but also with students, their families, and the counselor in academic and socio-emotional advisement. Another big driver for the work that we do revolves around our student needs assessment. It's simple. It identifies student needs and priorities and it informs the programs that we develop and in and the improvement that we want to see in our students. Our counselors often do a pre and post test for every session they have, either small group, large group, sometimes individually, so that we can immediately evaluate and reflect on the work that we do. And you will see some examples of what our students are offered through grade level conferences, individual support through counselor check-ins, classroom lessons, specific grade counseling, small groups and tutorials, and other academic small groups and skill-building groups. Another specific example I'd like to provide
059is around our RAMP certification process. And that is a recognized ASCA ASCA model program that we're working towards certification on. And this is just a snapshot of one individual goal where we wanted to increase support among ninth graders in their transition to high school. And specifically, we wanted to target the students that were struggling on the front end with grades of a D or F. So, what that looks like for ninth grade students are tier one classroom lessons where we presented as a team in September email 101, just a proactive digital communication and teaching students how to navigate and God forbid check their inbox and respond to emails appropriately. An October lesson involved the use of time. How How can we really manage our time and be effective time managers? Organizing and using our time
060wisely. And November found us reviewing our strengths as learners and aligning those strengths to how we might study. That's a specific approach that we used for for the ninth grade students this year. And our student support doesn't end with our amazing counselors and school social work support. As you know, with our student support collective, students are a key part of that student support continuum. Peer-to-peer supports are very intentional and provided by our trained student support collective members for for students across campus. And that little graphic there shows you all just some of the activities that they do both formally and informally on our campus. And I'm very proud of the work that that group does. In addition, when we look at our uh school social work services and support on campus, um we provide emotional
061support to students throughout the year working closely with the counseling team. To this point, we have had about 67 referrals from the counseling team, parents, or students themselves. And that is an increase when we looked at last year's number of about 20%. So, it's great to see students accessing the supports, knowing where to go for those supports, and actually getting the help that they need. Significant work around this focuses on anxiety and depressive symptoms, the challenges of navigating peer and family relationship, and again, the yearly student needs assessment data has been invaluable in shaping targeted interventions to foster a positive school culture. Students have consistently reported struggling with sleep and peer relationships along with dealing with, like I said, symptoms of anxiety and depression. In response, a variety of services, school-wide workshops, and the connection
062on the connection between mental health and nutrition, sleep improvement strategies, test anxiety reduction, and healthy coping mechanisms have been offered. So, this general snapshot of a lot of great things happening on the high school campus, along with our amazing student leadership team, have really contributed to what I believe is a remarkable and engaging culture on the high school campus, campus-wide, but also in classrooms. And I appreciate the time this evening. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for that great presentation. Um I want to see if any board members have any questions for Dr. Almond. Thank you. Sorry. Dr. Um Dr. Kelly, do you have any questions? First, I want to compliment you on an excellent report. Uh the teachers are doing exceptional job. The kids are doing a great job of uh learning
063and uh behaving. Um I'm glad we have all the supports that we have. Um my one concern is that we um on your graduating 97%, but I'm going to leave that one alone, you know. Uh that 3% I don't know how many students it is, but I always want to know what's happening with those. But, the big thing is the 60% proficiency in math. Now, some people would say that 60% uh is a failing grade. And I wonder if you could tell us about how does that compare to other parts of uh the county, or is 60% a good number? What what what's going on here? Yeah, brief comparison of other like schools 60% is an honorable mark to hit. As you know, in 24 we were at 65%. And again, these are grouped these
064are junior groups, right? So it's not the same students over time. So we we think that the the mark that we set is a reasonable mark. And do you think that the new math program is going to help us here? Is going to affect in any way this outcome? I believe less it's not for me it's not necessarily about the new math program, but it's more of our math team's ability and willingness to be reflective and refine the work that they do. We've done a lot in our MTSS supports where we target supports for students that are struggling in math. We've had a pretty remarkable work and and impacts for our students around that and that's all due to our teachers really talking through the issues and challenges and coming up and creating time and
065systems for students to be supported. Thank you. And just Dr. Kelly in regards to where that is a comparison to other schools the high school at that mark is is in the top 10% of the state in math. Thank you Dr. Kelly. Those are great questions. Howard, do you have any questions for Dr. Holman? No, I have essentially the same questions. So you're looking at a you're looking at um one out of every three students is not at the math proficiency level. Um That would only include junior students, yeah. 11th grade. >> I understand that. And but juniors is kind of what I think we look look at because they're going to be seniors and they're going to be leaving the schools. The fact that it's juniors makes it more important, not less. Um and
066more of a concern. And um so, you know, you look at the uh you you look at say 10 or top 10% statewide um statewide we're what What is California nationwide? 47th? 46th? 27th. Or 27th? Yeah. So, if you say well depending on what you're which uh which rating you're looking at. But um the point is um I have really a deep concern about that one out of three students who leaves our school system and um there are schools that spend a lot less and have um one of every five students having that kind of problem. And uh so, I just want you to know that we really support the effort you're making here to address this. And um we're very supportive of it. We know what you're doing. We pay attention. And uh uh
067but our concern remains really deep about sending um sending our our young people out into the world um uh with with uh with that with that problem. And uh so whatever you need, whatever you want, whatever the teachers want and need, um come let us know and we'll be supportive of it. That's appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. Uh I'll jump over to the student board reps before I go to this side of the room. Ivy? Would that be acceptable? Typically, we like to have questions, but I know this board tends to deviate a little bit. So, I would if you could keep it focused, that would be great. Thank you. I just wanted to thank Dr. Ullman for a great presentation. Um I have been helped by our counseling staff so many times. Um Ms.
068Rosa is my counselor, and she has been an absolute godsend. Um between helping me pick what classes will be best for me or helping me set up my 504 plan. Um I have OCD anxiety, and she has been so helpful with my accommodations. Um and I just wanted to stress how important this counseling team is to our school and how great of a job our staff is doing. Thanks, Ivy, for sharing that. I agree with you. Logan, do you have any questions? Uh no questions. Well, I mean, I guess for for a brief comment, I just I totally agree with Ivy. Thank you so much for your presentation. It was really appreciated. And uh one of the things I really like about our counseling department is and my counselor is Mr. Mandujano. He I have
069a great relationship with him. He does a he does a fantastic job. But I also um Ms. Rosa is a dear a dear friend of mine, and she's helped me out with tons of stuff related to related to school and counseling. And yeah, help help me out in times when I needed help. So I I think the counseling department does a great job of just meeting kids' needs regardless of if they're actually, you know, that counselor's kid. So It's great to hear. Thank you, Logan. Um member Malchesky, do you have any questions or comments? But great job. Thank you for the report. And I'll say more about that amazing night last night. Thank you. When I get to my report. Thank you. Uh member uh Clerk Perry? Really appreciate fabulous report. So positive. And I
070have a little bit more positive for you. Great. Um when you talked about the number of students that are enrolled in CTE and you said 358, that's the number that are during the bell schedule. There's actually 52 more after the bell. So, you really have 410 kids. So, even better. Yeah, I was trying to keep it on campus, but yes, you're right. That's a great number. Yeah. Really good. >> Thanks. Thank you for sharing. Appreciate that. >> Thank you. Um I have just a couple. So, our our enrollment at the school is how much? Last I checked, 814. It's over half of our kids are doing CTE programs. That's awesome. That's amazing. Um I I love that program. I know we have participated in that and I I know they wish that there were more
071of those programs when my first kids were going through school, which um what brings me my first question or my first comment. Um I want to commend you on your counseling staff. We were one of the families that graduated in 2016 and the alphabet M had four different counselors all four years. So, it um is it delights me to know end to see the counselors, especially Mr. Banducci, because he was our counselor, um is still on board um and is as adored as we thought he was at the time. So, thank you very much for that. Um I have a question. So, the true about the truancy rate, because I know at one point we had a lot of concerns when we were just over 10. I know you said that the the goal was
072to get under 10. Do you know um do we have Is there data do you or do you recall what the the truancy rate was when we had a zero period? I do not recall that. Cuz I know I know we had there was a period where we were like in that 10% that was seen as too high, like in 2015-16. So, I'm just curious if that um if changing zero period or taking it away is helping or is is Overall, our tardies have been reduced to a significant click, which is really good. We have a we have a new approach on campus around student expectation and what triggers an intervention that happens a lot earlier than what we normally did. It's also more manageable for us as a team to be able to respond
073to, which was important because what we don't want to do when we're talking about attendance, timely arrival, and readiness to learn is miss anybody. So, we really had some support with not only our admin team, but also teaching staff in making connections with students and families to really, you know, make a personal connection and and help build the understanding around the importance of timely arrival and readiness to learn. It's part of our learner profile, right? You know, those soft skills and essential skills that we want everybody to carry out into the real world. So. I appreciate that. I know I spoke used to speak a lot when I was on that side about the human element when we looked at our data and for a while our data was a lot more data. And so,
074I really appreciate the human element being considered in in how we report out on our schools. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. I have one other question about the because it also ties into another question that I have on the SRO part later. But what is considered So, when we talk about total school contacts that counts in contacts 2,700, what is a What is contact? How does that What is What derives What contact? Is that meetings? Is it So, when we're talking about counselor and student contacts, that's everything from individual one-on-one student to counselor contacts, small group contacts, um often times classroom presentations. Uh we we have a counseling team that has focused and made a commitment to meeting with every single student and their family at least once throughout the year if
075not more. Um so, those meetings, depending on where you're at in your high school career, can take a lot of time. And um we have counselors going through the registration process right now by grade level up here at Thurston and later on on our campus to get students prepared for the course selection process but also getting ready for their next school year. We've done a lot of reflection and refinement on that too where we're educating students and counselors are spending time with them, teachers are spending time with them to explain if I'm an English nine this year, what what what are my potential English options next year? How much time commitment will that take and what will that look like as it relates to just kind of workload? We've also really included families in on
076that process. We want them to understand the time and balance that all those courses take. So if you ever reference our course catalog, you'll see in there an outline of a time commitment for that class on a week like so you you know, AP US history two hours of homework a week. And we have a worksheet that we have families you know, we encourage families to use to balance those activities both academic but also their extracurriculars cuz many of our students have life out outside of high school to really make sure that they're living a a well-balanced life right? So they can be fulfilled in the personal side and also on the school side. So a lot of those to answer your question a lot of those contacts are in that environment classrooms, small groups,
077individual. Thank you. I have one other question that I was coming back to you and it it actually is I'm going to ask the question because it came up in the arts committee and so I'm just curious. How is there any data on how many students are on campus before school like in the library milling around that are there for a variety of reasons all positive because it's a great place to be and it's a safe place to be and we do have working parents in the community that that rely on them their students get either get they are the transportation to get their kids to school and so they have to drop them on the way to work so they're there. Um has there been any discussion or looking into um if students would
078be interested in having another opportunity for a a program at the beginning of school like before school at a zero period again. Um I'm just curious cuz I know where the arts committee which I'll report on later also there's been conversations of in there about just opportunities and the students are bringing these up as well. Um of just more opportunities. So I'm just curious if there's any data on on the amount of population that's milling around. Yeah, while we haven't had any direct conversations around offerings prior to the 8:30 start time. Um what we have learned in our opus open campus concept because of the flexibility of our schedule. So often times students will have you know, a little bit of a lighter morning, a heavier afternoon or vice versa is that we have learned
079like as an example the library is a great hub for students and um we have some general data of who's in and out of the library at those times both before and after school. And um you know, anecdotally I go in and just kind of see what they're doing and what they're working on and it it's everything from you know, intense studying to just kind of some deep de-escalation and and relaxation in certain areas. We have some nice little learning pods that could students can kind of really just relax and kick back in. Um but um you know, as as we live our schedule a little bit more we we have been studying um trends and interests of students in their free time. Um and we are very protective because we don't want to be
080over prescriptive of opportunities that we already offer because we feel like we already offer a numerous opportunities for our students. So we want them to we want to foster them valuing some time to reflect and relax. But um we you know, we have done things with uh with our Makers Lab in in the after-school hours to get students in there and interested and and just explore. And we'll continue to have conversations around those type of opportunities. Thank you. I I know I I would be interested in in just that information of of what that looks like and and what is needed. And I appreciate that the library is a place I know and um PTA we helped fund a lot of the um the coloring and and puzzles and games and things for the students
081to do participate in that they want to relax and unwind. So, I I'm glad to hear that that is still going. So, thank you very much for that. We have a puzzle table going in there right now. >> I saw that. >> So, it's great. >> It's crazy. I'll donate a few. I have quite a lot. Um, I also want to thank you for um all of your efforts. You are always everywhere being in the library early, being after school, you're always everywhere. I know you have a great rapport with the students. Um, I know my students appreciated it. Um, and so thank you very much for your rapport. >> Thank you. Madam Chair. Yes. Thank you. Uh quick three uh quick things. Uh one, I appreciated the presentation especially the high outcomes that you
082and the team deliver in academics and uh in the arts and in athletics and in career technical education. Um, it's exemplary across the board and I'm grateful for that. I also am appreciative that you've um honed in on the high school math as a focus area. 60% puts Laguna Beach High School in a at a um high performing level by any national benchmark. But, this as you know, this is a high expectation community. Um and that is part of why this school district and Laguna Beach High School remain great is that we are a high expectation community and you and the team have focused in on that to push those results even higher. Uh and finally, uh along with member Malchesky, my wife Sarah and I uh attended the new student event at the high
083school last night. And as a superintendent, I want to express my appreciation to you and the staff for really putting on an exemplary event. Um, made me really proud as a superintendent the way you represented our organization and the right way that you represented the school. And as a parent with Nora attending, um, Laguna Beach High School next year, we're just so excited and grateful to have that opportunity as a family. Thank you for sharing that. We're looking forward to having Nora. It's going to be great. Appreciate it. Thank you very much, Dr. Almond. Appreciate that. Okay. All right. Moving on to on our agenda, the next item, um, is executive cabinet reports. Um, Mr. Colin. Thank you, President Morgan. Um, I wanted to begin by sharing our deepest condolences to the McConnell family for
084the passing of Kim McConnell earlier this week. Um, Kim worked for the district for 13 years retiring as a nutrition assistant, um, at here at TMS in the kitchen. He's survived by his wife, uh, Chantal, who spent 22 years, um, working in LBUSD as a kindergarten classroom aid at Top of the World. She also retired with Kim in June of 2024. Um, but the McConnell clan continues have a strong presence at with LBUSD with family members currently serving as the health clerk at the high school, um, to another as a paraeducator at TMS. And Chantal and Kim's sons had also held numerous roles in our school districts from supporting, um, working as a IA in in the classroom to helping out with the aquatics program. So, again, may, uh, Kim rest in peace and our
085thoughts and prayers are with the McConnell family at this time. Um, on a lighter note, uh, we held our first negotiation session, uh, with CSEA this past Wednesday, March 4th. Uh, we appreciate the collaborative approach utilizing the interest-based bargaining principles. And our first session is with La Bufa, uh, next week. We're looking forward to that as well. And I had the opportunity to attend the FLOW Talk event at LBHS. And it It inspiring to hear about the civic engagement projects from uh, students working to curb human trafficking to advocating to keep AI-created art out of Laguna Beach galleries to convincing local restaurants to label their menus to identify how their seafood items were sourced. So, again, the future is bright in the hands of our amazing students. So, thank you. That's all I have. Was
086that a flow report that was based from the beginning of the year when they in the library? Is that the last report? This was This happened today. Was it the last report? Or will they have another report? No, we >> The flow The flow The students flow presentation. >> Oh, it's the The presentations are ongoing. This was a new This was a new one today where they student The certain teacher selected students' projects and then they move forward. I believe there was 11 of them today that presented to an authentic audience. Thank you. Mr. Mr. Collins, do you have anything else? Mr. Mayberry, please continue. Thank you. Good evening. First of all, I just want to thank SchoolPower for hosting a wonderful gala and fundraiser this past weekend for our students. It was a lot
087a lot of fun to be there. Since our last board meeting, I presented at the National Green Schools Conference in San Diego with the California Department of Ed where I was able to highlight our system-wide work with environmental education sustainability, which led to the recognition of our district last year and the high school this year for those state-level awards. So, I want to give a special shout out to Gloria Hardwood who helps lead this work for the school at the school level and the district level. I also have a brief update on the implementation of our new elementary math curriculum. I was a panelist last week on a national webinar with the Center of Educational Market Market Dynamics. It's a non- It's a nonprofit that focuses on increasing access to high-quality instructional materials. And so,
088I was speaking around curriculum pilots and adoptions and how to improve implementation system-wide. And what I was one of the things I was able to share was based on our mid-year um assessments, the students that are utilizing the new curriculum, the teachers who have gone through the training, which has been a pretty extensive amount of training for those teachers, those students are achieving achieving 5% achieve 5% higher than the the average uh the the the school-wide average uh from the fall to the mid-year. And when comparing from mid-year to mid-year, so the same students from last year to the mid-year, it was actually 9% greater. So, uh the new curriculum along with the training that went with that, and like the Dr. Almond's uh point, like the curriculum helps, uh but ultimately, it's a lot
089of the work that the teachers are doing around the strategies and unpacking the unit and looking at specific assessments um that can help them. So, uh big shout-out to those teachers who have been piloting that all year long. Uh the the results are really promising, and we're excited we're excited to bring everybody on board next fall uh with that. Uh and then, I'm most excited tonight to share that we were notified just a uh believe it was 2 days ago, uh that Thurston Middle School will be recognized this year as a 2026 California Distinguished School for its work on closing achievement gaps for under- underachieving students. Uh it's a really special recognition. Uh I can tell you the California Department of Ed changed how uh districts are recognized a few uh probably about 4 or
0905 years ago. Uh it's especially difficult for higher-achieving districts like ours to be recognized now. Um so, this is a really special and well-deserved award for the Thurston team uh and their community. Uh there's truly a school-wide personalized approach to caring and and and sharing uh a collective approach to helping students that all the teachers and staff do uh in partnership with the families and and led by a Principal Vidal. So, special thank you for that. There'll be a lot more coming out of that soon. And then lastly, I just have a friendly reminder parents, there is no school tomorrow. Um the staff will be participating in a full day of professional development at school. Uh this is really a valued opportunity uh for our principals who lead and provide training on these days that's
091specific to each of their schools. So, this will be the staff will be together tomorrow, but no school for the students. Thank you. That's district wide, right? Thank you. Finish. Road generator. Thank you. Good evening, board members and superintendent members in the cabinet and the audience. So, from a business standpoint, first I want to detail what Dr. Mayberry said. Congratulations to Thurston Middle School. It's a distinguished honor to be a distinguished school. From a business services standpoint, we are on our fourth quarter for fiscal year 25-26. So, that means some of you may not like, we are starting to close our books. That means no more purchase orders. Purchase orders will be declined if we meet the dead we if we miss the deadlines because we have to close our books. What Dr. Mayberry also
092mentioned is we have the LCAP going on. So, that means we are also wrapping our budgets or preparing our budgets for the next year. So, in the last two months of the year we'll be working both on closing this year and preparing our budgets for the next fiscal year. Dr. Glass also shared something that is very pertinent couple of weeks back expressing gratitude for at least once every day and I'm trying to follow that. And today my gratitude goes to none other than Victoria Webber who sits in this meeting every board meeting and does a amazing job. I have worked in five school districts and I've seen how many folks does it take to get ready for one board meeting and she's the one that handles the board meeting. She called me reminded me on
093a Sunday evening that one of my presentation in one of my presentation there was a spelling error. So, that's very critical and I want to thank you Victoria for making sure all the deliverables to the board is at A level 100% not 60% but at a 100%. So, I want to thank my gratitude for Victoria tonight. Thank you with that I'll end my comment. Thank you Dr. Glass. Thank you Madam Chair and good evening board members and community. I'll keep my report brief and will highlight just a few areas of focus over the previous two weeks. Last week I had the privilege of last weekend I had the privilege of attending the school power gala with my wife Sarah. It was a meaningful event celebrating the communities investment in our schools in a number of
094ways. It was a fundraising success for school power and by extension a success for our students and I thank the school power staff for organizing and the incredible generosity on the on display with the attendees. It was also a fun social event. I got to dance with some of our staff and community members and listen to the band Yachty by Nature which is a combination of words that I never expected to utter in public. We had two of our very own staff members performing Carl Nelson and Steve Wade performed with a band. They were incredible and also very loud. There are some frequencies that I lost that evening that I will not hear again. I also attended the student power summit dinner in Los Angeles at Homeboy Industries and a nonprofit focused on turning around
095the lives of young people impacted by gang involvement. The event brought together students in and engaged educators focused on student voice something that I'll talk about in our context in just a minute. Um on that note, our student advisory group, uh of which Logan and Ivy are members, uh held a session uh yesterday exploring the theme of student voice and and power in our schools and what it means for our students to have real influence and not just symbolic participation. I'll note that uh this was a topic that the students chose. Um they have agency uh had agency to decide the agenda of what the student um advisory group worked on and this was one of their topics topic areas. Uh that conversation was substantive, meaningful, and students will continue to work in developing a
096student brief or recommendations for me as superintendent on actions our schools can take to authentically include student voice in our decisions. Um not to steal your thunder, um Madam Chair or uh Clerk Perry, uh I'll briefly touch on the ad hoc arts committee that held a productive half-day session on March 11th, also yesterday. Participants worked through the district's um midpoint learning, what we've learned so far studying our community, and generated early budget priority recommendations uh for this upcoming budget cycle. We really spent a lot of time on empathy, uh understanding the perspectives of our students, understanding the perspectives of our staff. That was an uh by design part of this process to make sure that we deeply understood uh the arts programs in our schools before we made any decisions going forward. We're now in
097the process of designing some budget recommendations, and next as a next step we'll be hearing from community groups uh on their perspectives uh on uh where where our strengths are and where we can improve. Uh looking ahead, we're preparing for our first LCAP community convening next week, March 17th. Uh we have a presentation that reflects our strong academic outcomes and across all performance areas across all data groups, and I look forward to to conversation, mostly with our community partners as part of an effort to broaden the input that we have into our LCAP process. A couple of other quick notes, I mentioned the LBHS parent night, terrific event. It's also been mentioned the LBHS flow event that took place today that Mike and I went over and listened to some of the student presentations. I
098was a mystery reader at Top of the World Elementary and not so much a mystery meter reader at El Morro. I read the book Oh No, George, which is a favorite of our family going back to when our kids were 1 and 2 years old, so I've read it many times. And also expressed the appreciation of the staff at Thurston Middle School in acknowledging their terrific accomplishment as a California Distinguished School. Finally, I want to address the graduation topic that our community has been wrestling with clearly and directly. As you know, March 26th, the Board of Education voted to hold the Laguna Beach High School graduation ceremony at the Irvine Bowl beginning with the class of '26, and that decision stands. It will remain in in effect until the Board directs otherwise. The Board's action
099provides clear direction to our administration and to our team at the high school, and we are going to work to deliver on that direction. I've heard from families, students, community members as I know you have on this topic, and I respect the depth of feelings that everybody has. I also note that we have two incredible options from which to choose. The district and school administration are now squarely focused on delivering a high-quality, meaningful graduation experience for our seniors and an equally meaningful continuation ceremony for the students here at Thurston Middle School. That work ahead is about honoring these students, and that is where we're going to put our energy. We're going to make you proud, Board, of what we were able to do for these kids cuz they deserve it. Thank you, board, for the
100opportunity to serve this wonderful community. And with that, Madam Chair, I will turn things back to you. Thank you very much. Um Okay. Moving on to uh item 6A, board member reports. I'm going to start with student board members. Um this is going to be a little bit different than my typical board report. Um starting off, eighth grade family night went great. Um a lot of There was a girl on my lacrosse team who went and spoke. A lot of students were um able to showcase how much they love the classes that they're taking or the activities that they're involved in um and really portray that to eighth grade students. Uh we had the flow talk where seniors went and um did speeches to a group of panelists. Um and the winner of the scholarship
101was Zoe Tran for $1,500, I believe. Um Dr. Allman and staff looked at the ball for graduation um as plans have changed and are beginning to see what that would look like. It's been brought to my attention that there are questions about the integrity of where our beliefs come from, specifically about Logan and I receiving messages from people in the audience directing us what to say or what not to say. This is untrue and it's sad to hear. Logan and I put immense amounts of effort into being here on this board. We go and we meet with Dr. Glass and Ms. Weber. We meet with teachers. We meet with staff. And we meet with students so that we can have a diverse opinion and so that we can represent the students as best as possible.
102This is not because we are told to. This is not because there is a student board member handbook. This is because we care about each and every one of our students. We are involved in a plethora of activities. And we we try our best to come and represent the students. I'm upset to hear these questions about our integrity, our creativity, and our originality. Our ideas are our own. They have always been our own, and they will continue to be our own. We spend a lot of time taking notes. We read the agendas in advance. We send out emails to board members. We talk to other teachers. We talk to each other, and we try to have We try to do the best that we can. And it really hurts to hear that there are beliefs
103that words are being fed to us from adults and from members of the audience. We are capable of coming up with our own ideas. And we are capable of expressing them eloquently without being told what to say or how to say it. Thank you. Thank you, Ivy. Ivy, thank you. Um it has similar similarly been brought to my attention the same things that Ivy is talking about. Although there's one clarification I want to make. As to my knowledge, it is not the entirety of the board who are making these accusations and I think it is completely unfair to other members of the board who have not said anything because President Morgan, from what I have heard, it is you who has insinuated that my ideas and Ivy's ideas that we expressed in the school board
104are not our own. This idea, as Ivy said, is not only completely false, but it is also incredibly diminutive and to be honest, just flat out insulting to our intelligence to imply that we've not be able to formulate our own thoughts and opinions. It has been brought to my attention that President Morgan has suggested that I am some kind of puppet of Fuel and the views I've advocated on the board are in reality the ideas of Fuel, who the board president evidently seems to believe has some kind of control over me to the point that I would represent their views instead of the views of the students who I was elected to represent. And I will not tolerate this narrative to continue. If you truly have questions about my ability to use my own agency
105from to formulate my own thoughts and opinions, I would ask you to go no further than the teachers who I have in attendance at these board meetings. I had Miss Hanson's class today. My job is to represent that of the ideas of the students. I was appointed to do that. If what the views of the students do not go along with your narrative, it doesn't mean that I'm being told what to say or that Ivy's being told what to say. It means the students don't like what the board is doing. And that's okay. The whole The whole fundamental basis of our democracy is that we can come together at these meetings and all represent our opinions without having to be obstructed or having to be moved across the room and the superintendent placed in front
106in between us. This childish attempt at at silencing the students' voice is not going unheard and it is not going unnoticed specifically by me. I have also heard that President Morgan has I was I was informed by Dr. Glass after our advisory council, as he said, that uh the President Morgan informed him that she feels I am disruptive during board meetings and inflammatory, uh which was her reasoning for moving uh Ivy and myself off the center of the dais and having the superintendent placed in between us. This crude attempt to disrupt the teamwork between me and my fellow board representative is a clear attempt to me to curtail the students' voice being heard, something that clearly goes along with the MO of some of the people on the board. Tons of students came and spoke
107about graduation, and the frustration is not that the graduation a lot of students have said to me, and a lot of students have said tonight that the frustration is not even about where the graduation is being held. The frustration is that there was a survey that where the students advocated for what they believed in, and it was disregarded by the board. I would like to remind you, President Morgan, that you work for us, the students. Every teacher, staff member, board member who works for the students in our district just the same way I You say that everyone here loves the students, but the difference is that some of the some people here actually choose to listen to us. And guess what? Despite the blatant disrespect that staff has faced, that members of the community who
108have spoken out against you have faced, and now the same disrespect that I am facing, the students' voice will not get softer, it will only get louder. No matter how hard you try to silence us with your petty bullying tactics, like moving Ivy and I away from the board members and placing Dr. Glass in between us, as though we're children, we will not give up, and I certainly will not give up. Trying to belittle my voice simply because I have disagreed with you on policy is exactly what this country was founded to protect against, and to abandon this moral in our own communities leads us down a dark path where those who have the power determine what gets to be said to them. And that is an ideal that is in direct opposition to the
109democracy that I led us as Americans in the pledge to defend at the start of this meeting and something I cannot stay quiet about. I love this district. I'm going to continue to fight for it. I believe Ivy loves this district. Actually, I know that Ivy loves this district and that Ivy is going to continue to fight for it. And if there is nothing else that you believe is my own original idea then I hope you believe this. There is nothing you will ever be able to do to intimidate me into stopping representing the voices of my peers. Okay. Sit down. Enough. Enough. Thank you. Um so I will address that. Um Logan, I'm really sorry if you've been misinformed but I did not report that it was Excuse me. It was reported to me.
110So the information that you were getting is something that I shared because it was reported to me. It was not my personal report. It was not my direct concern but it had been Excuse me. Hey, we can adjourn and go into We can adjourn into closed session to finish this meeting if you guys don't settle down and I have an attorney here that can help guide us through that. So please. So Logan, I just want to make sure it's real clear. What I reported was what was reported to me. It is not my opinion. It was not me saying, "Oh my goodness." It was reported to me by multiple community members that have watched actions. I just want to make sure it's real clear. This was not me specifically coming about to Dr. Glass about
111you but I appreciate you sharing the fact that the conversation that I had was shared with you. Thank you. Um I'm glad I'm I'm glad that the community got to see this. I'm glad that we're on the same page. >> need to move on to other reports, please. He was heard. He had the floor, and now I'm moving on. Thank you. It's not a discussion. It's a report. Excuse me. Can I get Can I get some guidance from the attorney here, please? Do we need to go into another room to finish this meeting cuz this is unruly and unacceptable. I would suggest a motion if that's what the board wants to see, and then the vote would would carry and decide what would continue. Can you repeat that? I suggest that a motion be made
112if a board member can make a motion to see if they would like to have additional comment from the student board member, or there could be a motion to suggest that we go into closed session. Uh either way, that would have to be something that brought up, seconded, and voted upon. Thank you. We do have a lot to get to including a very important budget, so I would like to move on. And Logan, I would be happy to meet with you at any time to discuss anything that you would like as I have with Ivy. And again, I am sorry if it was delivered to you as it was something I said specifically. It was a report. So, thank you. Okay, moving on to board member reports or continuing on, Dr. Jim Kelly, please. How
113much time is left? I'm sorry. Can We were So, we actually Victoria in the suggestions for this report for the board members suggested 3 minutes. I was going to actually offer five. It is 7:35, and we do have a very extensive budget to get through, and we are ending at 10:00. So, I have called on you. If you would like to report, please do. Um it's nice to follow that. It's hard to follow that. Um, I was really fortunate this summer to be involved with uh some flow students, some of Mrs. Harwood's students, and uh a wonderful faculty member from Louisiana State University who is a professor of environmental uh engineering. Uh that's there he is. Uh Uh we were doing a study for it started on Wood's Cove. I live on Wood's Cove and
114I don't know if you've noticed in town that there are an awful lot of tourists. Uh and one of the challenges that we have had is we are inundated with garbage. And so our little study was to see how much garbage uh was uh being accumulated by our visitors at Wood's Cove. So we did a little study from uh August 1st through September 31st where a group of us picked up every morning all the garbage that was uh collected collected and then we took pictures of it and it was sent to Louisiana State University and the graduate students here all sorted it out as far as what it was. And then another group did at night. So we had kind of uh a nice uh a a nice report on on numbers. And we we
115did this in conjunction with the city. The city had chosen to put up some signage uh at the at the top of the two entrances to Wood's Cove. Wood's Cove is a small pocket beach and it has two entrances ways to it. So it was pretty easy for us to conduct this small study. Uh it was the this the signs told what would happen to you if you did certain things uh uh down on the on the beach and so with garbage and other other types of things. So we collected the garbage and this we picked collected 1,383 pieces of trash uh during this period of time uh of which 734 plastic items, 150 were articles of clothing and shoes, and six were biohazard items, used sanitary napkins, urine bottles, and diapers. Uh, it was
116a a wonderful uh, study as far as working with the kids on this. Uh, it was also wonderful as far as working with the uh, doctoral students at Louisiana State University and Dr. Brand. Um, and in the uh, the Independent uh, about a week ago, uh, I have these for the board. Uh, and I have some extra copies if you want. They were in the Independent. Um, that we uh, we it was it got published as far as hoping that the City Council would do some additional suggestions that we had. Uh, Dr. Brand also spoke to the Flo Flo students by Zoom. And uh, he's also worked with some of the Mrs. Hardwood's students on a plan whereby the kids are collecting data as far as with a with an ESRI survey 123 mapping where
117they are logging in trash at Main Beach, the time, the conditions, the tides, the winds, and the crowd density. This is really exciting and it's it's really fun for the kids to as far as be working with this big researcher, an opportunity to get references for college, and an opportunity to be on some hands-on exploratory research. So, I just want to say I'm just so delighted to at this stage of my career to be working with an assistant professor. I'm excited to be working with these kids, and I'm excited to be into the garbage business at at at the lower at the end of my career. But, thank you all. Thank you, Dr. Kelly. That's amazing. I can't believe you >> extra ones if any of you want it. And then, This was in the
118Independent, correct? Yeah. Okay. All right, thank you. Uh, member Hills, what have you been What's What is your report, please? Um, Dr. Kelly thank you for that report. Um next topic here that you might want to take up is that the the outflow from the uh flood channel downtown is 1/80th of what it needs to be to prevent flooding. Every time we get a 5-year flood or a 10-year flood, the amount of plastics and petroleum products and chemicals that get washed out into the ocean uh is uh it's a holocaust. It's a marine holocaust. And um uh the the city needs to invest in uh enlarging that um that outflow down there because it's a uh it's a marine holocaust every time we have a flood. Yeah, well, I actually, when I was at Laguna
119Beach High School, I had a teacher in the science department who took me down there after a flood and explained to me what the problem was. So, I that's my way of saying what you're doing. I really appreciate it. >> Yeah. Um I uh also wanted to say, Logan, um I appreciate your comments. And um I'm glad that you and and um and Ms. Dev spoke up tonight and shared with us what you were thinking and what you're feeling about it. I really appreciate it. I just want to say to you, there's been a couple of times when you've really really um been uh very direct with me in the meetings about things that you didn't agree with. And every time you've ever spoken, uh I've always gone up to you afterwards and said, "Good
120job." Even if it it was at my expense, uh so to speak. Uh in other words, I always consider it a success when the student representatives speak up. And um uh I heard some of the same things. And uh so, you know, this board has uh had a lot of drama, and this board has had a lot of um uh atmospherics and histrionics. And um uh but I appreciate it whenever the students, both of you, speak up and let us know what you're what you're thinking and feeling so that we can respond to it. But as But I I one question. Aren't you supposed to be in New York? We We leave on Monday. Okay. Um but if I can respond for a second. I I I actually I I had that written down. I
121didn't mean I I didn't touch on it, but I I was going to say I 100% appreciated that every single time that we have had any kind of disagreement or anything policy-wise on the board that you've always come up to me and and you know, said we've exchanged ideas about it. So I've been very appreciative of that as well. It's been It's been very well received. I was involved in student government, so I'm a big fan of all the people that came tonight and talked about ASB and whatnot. And I'm a big fan of you all, so I like it when you speak up. Thank you. And thank you for arranging the meeting in New York as well. I'm really excited about that. >> I hope it goes well. Um I also wanted to say
122that um I was glad to hear the reports from the union representatives tonight. I guess they're they're gone now or or doing something else or um and yeah, the tone the tone of positivity about the negotiations. Uh I guess now that the bargaining has begun, I think that's one of the first times um since I've been here that um I've really heard uh something positive about the union relations. Uh it's been a lot about school board politics and everything for about a over a year. So I'm really glad that it's it's uh moving in a positive direction. And we're trying to everything we can to do to help that. I you know, I just remind the community and the and the board and the and the unions that under uh under our bylaw 4000, um
123it says uh as the legal representative of the district in negotiations with employee representatives, the board shall set goals and guidelines for the collective bargaining. That's a significant thing that the the the board is the legal representative of the district in the negotiations. And so um our job is to um basically um be the final decision makers about the uh the interest-based bargaining process and the outcome of it. And so um we're encouraged by the tone tonight and uh we're going to be working with the negotiators uh to do what our job is under the bylaw, which is to um set the goals and the guidelines. And so I appreciated the tone of tonight's um statements. Um and that's all I have. Thank you, Howard. Dr. Malchesky? With the recognition uh recognizing the hard work
124of our staff and Joe Vadal, it's really terrific. Um the School Power Gala was fantastic. Thank you to the school power staff, trustees, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Wade, and all the musicians who played the music, and for the substantial donations for our public schools. I also love the eighth grade night at the high school. The planning from staff and students was really something, and it was very exciting and also reassuring for the students and parents who are facing this transition. I It was terrific. Um so I want to talk briefly about the new communication plan that was shared with the board by Dr. Glass recently. The plan is titled Communication Plans Immediate Implementation, and it was developed by President Morgan, I believe, on behalf of the board majority. Dr. Glass did that. I'm sure So Dr.
125Glass, I I guess wrote it under the direction of President Morgan. I would like to remind my colleagues that no individual board member, including the president, can develop district strategy independently. Governance is a collective responsibility. But if I had been in on the discussion, I would have shared my concerns that it inappropriately focuses on the board, including advanced media notice and then next day summaries for all board decisions, rapid amplification and expanded press style distribution of board actions, development of board member profiles beginning with President Morgan, the possibility of a board focused publication with a separate publication focused on students and other district news. It specifically states that staff recommendations where staff recognition remains important and appropriate, but initial post meeting emphasis will prioritize board actions and student outcomes. The focus, even with language about
126student facing outcomes, is unmistakably on the board. A school district's communication function exists to support the educational mission, to inform families, support students, communicate operational realities, and build trust through transparency about the work happening in our classrooms and in our schools. It should start with a clear understanding of audience. Some constituents have what I would call an operational relationship to the district. Those are the students, the families, the parents, the educators. They interact with schools every day and the information they receive affects schedules, programs, curricula, family time, and the daily work of teaching and learning. Others have a civic relationship to the district. Those are the residents, taxpayers, and community members who care about the strength of our schools, and they elect the board. That relationship matters, but it's different in kind. I think a
127strong communication strategy prioritizes the needs of those directly engaged in the educational mission, and ensures the broader community can see our academic strengths. It focuses on classrooms, educators, student achievement. It's important to remember that board members come and go, but our classrooms and the teachers in them are where the real work happens, and a focus on that is what ensures the trust in our schools. This plan and recent email directives also expands communications outward to civic audiences as if they're operational partners. But our primary obligation is to provide timely relevant information to the operational partners. As a parent, I rely on that consistent information to support my child's learning. But if we use communications to elevate governance visibility governance visibility, we risk shifting resources toward what is, in effect, a political messaging infrastructure that prioritizes
128the visibility of the board to the detriment of the primary mission work of educating our students. And that can lead to decisions that reflect the loudest voices rather than decisions that address the needs of the people most directly affected by the outcomes. This concern is more significant when viewed alongside other recent governance changes that narrow the authority of the superintendent while expanding the operational reach of the board. Our fiduciary responsibility is to ensure that public resources, and that includes staff time, are directed toward the mission and used to directly benefit students. Communication should illuminate the work of the institution, the work of the classroom, not reposition the institution around governance. The purpose of the district is not to elevate the board. It is to educate the students, and I urge you to pay attention to
129these issues. I'm done. >> Thank you. I APPRECIATE THAT. ORDER, PLEASE. THANK YOU. UM UM Clerk Perry, please. Thank you. Good evening. Ivy and Logan, I so appreciate you and I've been an advocate for student voice forever and always want to hear from you. So, you should know that. I really wanted to see where our special ed students that go out of our district um what their classes were like cuz I've heard heard things about them. And so, last uh so, I went and spent a day in Saddleback. And there are high school students where we where where some of our students go have they get a marvelous education. They have a wonderful buddy program where students from the high school decide sign up that they want a buddy in one of our class in
130a special ed class and they partner together. They have classes together in PE and in art. They have different functions that they do together. And one of the stories I heard from that I was being taken around by the psychologist from the high school and he said one of the students he had when he was in a psychologist at the middle school that was just a really really difficult kid. When he transferred to the high school, he saw that kid with a lot of the special needs students around him and he thought, "Oh, no. What's he gotten into?" And he races over and this student just found themselves with these kids and became the biggest advocate for them, got all these other people on board. So, I was just blown away by what a good
131job they're doing. Just like our teachers here, fabulous, there's fabulous teachers there. I was able to see two of the elementary school classes, which included autism classes, all kinds of classes, and was very impressed. I think our students are getting a great education education there. I just wish it wasn't such a long bus ride for them. I don't know what we can do about that. I also had the opportunity to go to uh the Creative Edge lecture with board members from other districts and the education department from the Art Museum to hear Arthur Z, who is our poet laureate this year. He um is seeking to increase our national appreciation of literature and poetry and was absolutely amazing. Um the I attended the dedication of the names um on artwork at the Hall of Memories,
132Laguna Beach High School. The alumni from 1984 had portraits done by Megan Hart Jones that were full scale, had a lot of detail, but nobody even knew who these people were. And you I've walked by them and had no idea. Anyway, um very sadly, Megan Hart Jones, fabulous artist, wonderful person from everyone I talked to, um passed at the age of 20. Um her portraits were up in the library, which cafeteria, which got turned into a library, so they were put away and they were going to be thrown away. Her mom raised money and they hired a professional Italian preservation muralist to save them. And Mr. Whitcoff and his class, thankfully, added names to of uh two people who worked in our school district and one who still does, Angela Irish and Claudia Redfern, did
133all the mystery work and found who everyone was. And so, now there's names next to them and many of the people in the portraits came. So, that was great to see them they and talk to them they had a great time. Uh the arts committee Dr. Glass spoke about and I'll just say that we are really looking at our arts program, which is good, and the committee is making very thoughtful suggestions about how to make it even better. I attended our CCA board meeting and I'm always amazed how much they do with so little funding. Um everyone is invited to the Aliso Aliso Niguel job fair, March 23rd from 5:00 to 7:30. They are have are doing a new regional pathway at Union High School, which our kids can go to, in the construction field
134and it's going to open next fall. They significantly have expanded dual enrollment through strategic collaboration with Saddleback College. New dual after school classes are auto mechanics, architecture, advanced sports broadcasting, business analysis, song advanced songwriting, uh new lifeguarding class at San Clemente. They're doing internships through Western States Carpenters Union and youth apprentices through Simon Builders. For Laguna, we're looking to launch a venue to vocational. This will be a culinary and hospitality class. We don't have room here for for a kitchen, so we're looking for a restaurant that will let us use a kitchen maybe one day a week. And we're trying to build up we have an internship right now with Providence Mission Hospital in Laguna and we we have just a few students involved. We're trying to encourage more students to get involved. We have
135um good representative and good representation in the CTE classes. They've gone down a bit at Thurston, but I think our enrollment maybe has gone down, too. All over Capistrano district high school enrollment in CTE classes have gone up. Many more students are excited about trying out different careers. The middle school has gone down, but I think that's mostly because fewer students in the middle school. They were very concerned because they have to reduce their staff by 10% and some people even with 25 years experience are are being reduced. I also attended a Zoom for legislation legislative action week and I hope some of my fellow board members will also participate and speak up for public education in California. That's mine. Thank you, member Perry. I appreciate that. Um okay, I'll make it really brief because
136it's getting late and we've got a couple of really important topics to get to. Um I'm very grateful or first of all, congratulations to um Joe Vidal and Thurston. Um I saw that article that came to my attention very early this morning out of the Orange County Register, so congratulations. That's awesome. Uh I'm grateful for the hard work that our new committees are doing. Uh some of these committees were requested to be formed for many years and to no avail. So, I'm grateful that our leadership and this board has been able to bring those forward. Uh one of the first committees uh that we met a couple of times is the facilities committee. This committee is comprised of community members with expertise in construction, um architecture. I thought I saw them here earlier. Um energy,
137funding, real estate is got two board members as well as the CBO and the director of facilities. We have done four walk-arounds. We've done El Moro, the warehouse and bus yard, as well as the district office and the high school. So, we have two more to go and I think um member Hills will be joining us on those and I'm very grateful for the staff to be to make yourselves available and to guide this discussion. It's been very informative and very enlightening. Um I also attended the community uh coalition, which I um I believe I thought it was going to be spoken about tonight, so I apologize. Um but um it was a great presentation. They um talked a lot about ketamine and how there's an increase in um increase use and increase availability of
138ketamine. Um as and I do believe there's a presentation coming to the school um as well as um one of there was a presentation of students that went out and I can't remember exactly what it's called, but they went out and did a study of the community identifying what stores in our community and surrounding areas that had um easily accessible um vaping and such behind the counter and what their advertising looked like in an effort to um work to eliminate some of that as well as make sure all of these facilities are in compliance. It was a great presentation and I look forward to you all receiving that. Um I also attended the um dedication to the artwork, which is now housed behind the theater in the hallways. Um I think that's the two What
139is the hallways right behind the theater. The 200s? The 20s? The 20s. Um so they're located there around that whole hall. They wrap all the way around. They're out in front of Mr. Alvarez's room and then all around that whole quad there. So if you look in those hallways, they're beautiful black and white pictures. Um they were located in the library at one time when it was the kitchen or when it was the um cafeteria and when they went to remodel it, they cut them out of the wall and preserved them and they've been kind of floating around campus. And now they're they're reframed in beautiful plexiglass cases, identified. We had some of the people were there that were actually in the pictures which are from the from the '80s, '84, '85 I think is
140the years that they came from. And it was really terrific because I as I stood there and watched those, um it it was very clear to me that this that I what I hope that the students will get out of seeing these pictures on the halls every day is that there is a huge legacy that comes before you. And while you are in this moment here today and I totally understand and respect that and I have four kids of my own. There is a legacy that came before you and you will soon be joining that legacy as you graduate as seniors and join the new the other legacy that's very very strong in our community which is the Laguna Beach Unified School District Alumni group. So to the future alumni that are graduating at the
141end of the school year, um I do hope you take a look at those and see that you will now be joining the wonderful history of our school. Lastly, I went to the Arts Committee. Um we had which was a terrific meeting yesterday morning um all morning. I appreciate Dr. Glass in guiding this discussion. We had um staff and students come to the first two and this this meeting was where we started taking those ideas and starting to identify um the a direction of of where we want to go, not implementation but suggestions. It was a budget item discussion as well. Um it was a wonderful discussion because I think one of the things that was really obvious is that there's a very big passion for the arts in our community. That came through from
142the students that were that were there at one of the meetings. That came through from the staff that were at the the second meeting, as well as the staff that are on the committee itself. There was a lot of recognition that it's important that we continue to enhance that we continue to celebrate the arts program that we have in our schools, but that we also continue to enhance it and develop it and grow it and bring the arts into our curriculum in a lot of different unique and fun ways. Um Not that it's going to happen, but I think one of the suggestions was football players taking a dance class. So, if you're a football player, I'm just telling you it's a really good thing. So, anyway, there's that. The other thing that was very
143that was identified frequently in every meeting that we've had so far was that communication was a central theme to many of the pieces as committee members that all come from the art committee were actually unaware of all of the programs that we do have. And so, the question became how do we integrate more arts into the school day? How do we address students wanting to experience art for all of its benefits outside of academics to further and support their learning, but also their social emotional health. And how do we implement implement this without overburdening our teachers? So, I think it's a it's a really really terrific conversation. I think it identifies concerns and it identifies strengths and we've done that through the whole program. What what would be a What would be a success? What
144would be a fail? And some of those fails were overburdening overburdening staff. Some of those fails would be students to leave and not understand the art legacy that they have that they are graduating from. So, it's a huge plethora and I cannot wait for a report to come forward. And so, with that, I will leave it with that and move on to our next item. Which is item seven. It's an information item reviewing and discussion of the MOU between the LBUSD and the city of Laguna Beach and the SRO program. Dr. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair. This SRO MOU revision came about beginning under President Perry's leadership. President Perry requested that we work with the police force and the city to specifically add language around SRO support around sexual crimes and cyberbullying into areas that
145the SROs would provide instruction to students and staff on those issues. So that process started last fall. We've been working with the city since that time. On Monday they provided me the revision version that is that is before you that we have in the packet. It does include the requested sexual crimes and cyberbullying language and so I appreciate that. But it also brings forward two other significant changes that I want to underscore note. One is an increased cost over the current SRO program. It It includes a new lines around a 15% indirect cost and so those are for things like training, equipment. There is increased costs around paying for part of the supervision that's required for the SROs and there is an increased costs around the purchase of a new SRO vehicle. And so that
146brings the first year cost of this new SRO MOU to $394,759. That's 140% over the current first year cost. There are some increases related to inflationary pressures. Salaries go up for our SROs and police officers just like everyone else. Those are reflected here. But it is a significant cost increase over where we are currently with once past the purchase of the the vehicle, it's a roughly 58% increase going forward. Uh there's also in the addition of language around SRO conduct at board meetings. As you know, we have our SROs frequently attend to present and also to be part of the board meeting room. There's language that has been added around that the SROs retains sole discretion on when and how to respond to issues and the SROs will not take direction from the school board
147as it pertains to meeting management or crowd meeting crowd control. So those are additions that have been added to this as well. Um I recommend board. I'm happy to have a discussion with you on it. I would like to work with the city on discussing these changes that they have provided and some of the cost increases and bring back another revision for you to consider. We haven't had the chance to do that because again I just got it on Monday and was requested to be on this agenda so it has appeared but my recommendation is let us work with the city on modifying this and negotiate through that with them. Thank you. Great. Thank you for the information. Um we had it originally on the agenda I just wasn't sure if we were going to
148have it in time so thank you for bringing it forward so that we could discuss it. Are there any board questions? Member Kelly. I was going to do questions first and then go back through and do any discussion so that we can keep it separate and that way all the questions are out there before we discuss if we need to. Why why do you think it's increased as drastically? Um there are three areas and Ray Lee has put together a really nice table that's part of the board document that shows the current cost versus the proposed increase. One is just the increase in inflationary increases from now versus 2019 that was in the original. So, that's expected. Uh the second is the 15% indirect costs. And so, those are things related to training, equipment, um
149other supports that uh the SROs receive from the police force. The third is around this we're uh being asked to pay for the supervision. Uh so, we're paying part of the salary of the supervisor for the SRO program. The major cost increase is the is they're asking for us to pay for a vehicle for the SROs. That's $100 35,000 I think. Um that's a large increase. Uh one other element um Dr. Kelly that I didn't mention that it is a uh an optional increase cost is in discussions with when uh President Perry was working on this last fall that we talked about potentially adding a third SRO. So, that's included as an option for the board to consider. If the board chose to add a third SRO, the pricing around that is included, but it's
150not something that uh it's an option for the board. Is that in the 47% increase or not? It is not. Um that would be on top of that. So, I'd rather have the third uh SRO and not the vehicle and you know, some of this other uh supervision and overhead. But, I mean, I was the one who advocated for the second SRO and people thought it was too expensive and until I got the neighbors involved uh particularly down Morrow, we weren't going there. And so, uh uh I'm for a third one, but um the cost I'm just concerned about. Thank you. Thank you. Member Hills, any questions? Questions? Then we'll go back for discussion. These are questions. Student board reps, I'll go back to this side of the room. Thank you. Um so, my question
151was in regards to the sexual assault portion, um which was the main factor as to why this was brought up. Um I was a big advocate for this as our female SRO officer. Um her term had ended and I thought that it posed a threat for people to perhaps not report sexual assault um because it's scary to report that to a male officer. Um and to my understanding, this um will alleviate that because it will help. There's more training, so that's That's exactly right. So, one of the concerns last fall when we talked about this was uh we had a a tremendous uh female SRO that was rotating back into the uh the force and was being uh replaced with a male SRO and there was concern around that. Um the I I think the
152we in discussions with the chief in the force, they were um clear that um that rotation is something that is normal and uh sort of if you put someone in an SRO position permanently, you can actually harm their career opportunities and that's not something that they wanted to do. So, they really were firm on that we continue with this rotation process, but uh really was uh President Perry at that time was uh stressed the importance of putting in something to address the issues that you're raising, the reporting of um sexual crimes and and cyberbullying. And so, they've done that here. They've been responsive to that request here in the the language is around um explicitly adding sexual crimes and uh cyberbullying to SRO responsibilities with the requirement that that curriculum be created and reviewed and
153approved by the district. So, it's a partnership where we're working together. Thank you so much. I'm happy to hear that. Thank you, Ivy. Um Member Malchesky, any questions? I have no questions. Uh Member Perry? Um I would like to hear from Mrs. Zuziak cuz you had a lot of information about how many students felt comfortable going to our female SRO. Has that continued? I mean, where where are we with that? I thought it was really important. Um Okay, on the hot spot. Uh I don't see the same interaction. I mean, Danny and Spencer are great, but it isn't the same interaction. It isn't the same interaction at lunchtime in the quad that there was, and it is absolutely not trying to put them down at all cuz they're they're wonderful, but like I said before,
154a female brings a different perspective that we don't have, but when I was talking with Spencer and Danny, they also point out, you just like a school district can't say teachers can only be females. It's the same thing. So, it's we don't have a lot of female officers in Laguna, and they have to be willing to want to do it, and that's something that she has a passion for and wants to do. So, it was sad to lose her, but it it's not the same interaction, and Ivy can attest to that, and I'm sure there's a lot of other students here that can attest to it, but I don't know how you fix that cuz you can't mandate it. No. If the same number of crimes are being reported now, if students feel as comfortable
155with that, that's that's what I was really hoping that we would have. And um the chief said that that would involve more training, and there's nothing we can do about, you know, we can't say it has to be a female. I I don't know. I just would really like somebody like that at the high school. That students felt comfortable talking to about about sexual crimes and reporting them. Okay. So, we're going to keep it to questions and we'll come back to discussion. Remember Balchusky. Was a an arrangement worked out so that there is an opportunity for students to talk to a female if they feel that that's necessary. So, that is not something that's closed off to them. If you are if you feel like you can only talk to a female officer, they will
156make Ashley or another female officer available. So, they have addressed that and I I have some discomfort in part cuz my brother's an SRO. Um, with you know, sort of making decisions about what people are capable of doing based on whether they're male or female. I but I totally understand as a as a woman that they they might feel the need to to speak to a female officer, but I think that we've addressed that. Um, you know, they're not on campus all the time, but yeah. If I may speak to that very briefly. Yeah, yes. Yes, the the chief did commit to making female officers available when needed. That was an informal arrangement, something that he volunteered. So, and also just on score, this is a really positive partnership that we want to make sure
157we work through and maintain and keep this relationship strong. Thank you. I just have a couple of more procedural questions regarding the contract that I want to just make sure it comes to the attention as you go back to re- re-discuss this. Um, so, this is the first this is the first renewal of this contract, correct? Because the last one was in 2018 and then it was renewed in 2019. So, this is the first time in 7 years that it's being addressed? I think that's right. So, that would probably explain some of the increase in costs that many years. Okay. Um thank you. Is there um So, the you had mentioned that the third officer was optional, which uh member Kelly brought to our attention. But, in the opening um section four, it talks about
158shall assign three. So, are we set on three or are we try are we two trying to negotiate three? Cuz the contract states three. That might be an error. Um the first version that I got of this a few weeks ago included an assumption that there would be three officers and I I asked for it to be revised where there would be an option and cost proposals around a three around a third. So, that might be an error uh from the first draft of this. Again, I think we need to go back and work with the city on a processing through some of these changes and and um bring bring back a better proposal. Okay. Is there um So, thank you. Yeah, that's I just want to make sure that was caught so we're not
159signing something that says now we have three and then have to pay for them. Um There's some vague language that I think would be better to be specific, such as parent and faculty groups. I just I'm curious as to what those would be because I know um I questioned last year there was an event we had SROs at, but it was not a district event, but it did have students at it. So, I would like to see if there's a clarification that what what that means. What's a student group? What's a parent group? Are students present at any event in the community the SRO is there and the district is paying or is it specific to the school? Um I think that would be important to delineate cuz if we're tasked with funding every time
160students are at an event, um that's going to be a budget item that I'm not sure we can that that could be easily escalate if we don't um address it. Um so, I would appreciate that. Um And then I have a couple more. Okay, is there so in a in an effort to address the concern or the questioning about the female officer and again I I I understand not being able to define gender in hiring practices but I also understand as being a female the importance of having comfort in who you speak to if um the need occurs for unfortunately. Uh what is um so what is the um in this process of this contract was there any effort to reach out to students, families, or staff to find out if there is anything else
161they wanted to include in our SRO agreement. It's been a wonderful relationship so far. I mean Corn was I think our first one. I was at those meetings. I know there was concern at that time that having a police presence might increase or make people untrusting but I think that it's been wonderful to see that that concern that was expressed by some um was not true and that it they have been really fully embraced and I love seeing the programs that they do. But I'm just curious if there was any further conversation with the student staff senate at all the other schools of what else they would like to see in the SRO, maybe what's what is something that maybe with experience with other SROs that they might want to see forward just in general
162reaching out to the stakeholders in the community groups to find out what they would like. This process involved a request from President Perry around the items of sexual crimes and cyberbullying be revised and added in a cost proposal around the third SRO. So that was the scope of what this um uh conversation with the city city attorney and the police chief entailed. Okay, thank you. Okay, um and then I have just two more. So I think you asked the question of additional training. Do these Is there a difference in the training that our SROs have that our police force does not? There's specialized training that you take to become a school resource officer on top of what a regular police officer has. Was there increase in sexual assault training that I think which is one
163of the having it in the in the dialogue, but is that additional training that is being requested or is that already in their training? We have an SRO here who's gone through it. He will be far more qualified to answer that than I can. >> see him. Is he here? Officer um Danny, can you come up and um You're never going to get on The Price Is Right walking like that. I mean, come on. Nor am I going to win any marathons either. Again, I apologize for my voice. Uh first and foremost, I apologize there's only so much information I can give you because the MEU is far above my reach and uh pay grade as I like to say. Uh and also these decisions and um policies are made without consulting consulting myself and
164the other SRO staff. Uh that being said, I have attended a ICI core investigator course which focuses on all kinds of investigations. This is a a detective level investigations course more so than what our regular police officers attend to. We also uh attend multiple updates to the SRO crew throughout the entire county for specialized training specifically to juvenile law including not limited to sexual assault as well and battery and so on and so forth. So, we attend several courses in fact the training level that I have received is on par if not if not equivalent to a police detective but focusing on on the juvenile aspect. Perfect. Thank you. And I hope I I appreciate you volunteering and giving us the information. It is not about you personally. Um I've had wonderful interactions with you
165many times and I we are fortunate to have you. So, thank you so much and thank you for sharing the information that you have. Um and then I have just one last question. It's a budget question that so maybe it's a Manoj question that thank you that can get back. It doesn't if you don't have the answer, that's fine. I'm just really curious um about the cost of the SRO program and how that compares to our our our budget of the social emotional um uh health of our students, the social workers, counselors. Is the SRO portion of it included in that budget item? Is it a separate budget item? And then how do the two compare? So, the my understanding is the SRO program is outside that budget. The social emotional wellness is a different
166budget that sits under Dr. Mayberry. This goes more under Dr. Superintendent's. Thank you. Okay, I have no further questions. We can >> I have one more question. I was wondering if you could give us a comparative of other school districts of what the costs are for the SRO programs. I think that might be it would help alleviate my concern that we're being suckered. Um I would say uh the very unsatisfying answer is it depends. Um I in my experience, this sort of cost sharing model that Laguna Beach has is what I have experienced in the other districts where I have um been superintendent. Uh there's a uh a negotiated arrangement of what the school district is going to pay and what the uh police force is going to pay. That's that's uh true here. It's
167also a negotiation around are you paying for supervision? Are you paying for training and upkeep? Are you paying for equipment? paying for um the vehicle? All all of that is in play when you negotiate these things and it's all over the board as as far as what people end up doing. What we have here is is the what the city would like to have uh from us and so we think it reflects that. Um we now need to go back and say, "Here's what we like to have." Is there any further questions? If not, we can move on and there's any other discussion, this is not an action item, it's just an information item. And then we can do public comment. Or do you want public comment? Let's do public comment first and then discussion.
168Okay. Michelle Foster. We're taking public comment on the SRO MOU. Thank you. Sorry. Um Michelle Foster, I've been the health teacher and teacher at Looking to Be Tricky High School for 26 years. Um this might be my only chance to give a public comment, so I just have to shout out to the kids that that was one of my most proudest moments and you guys are awesome. So proud of you and uh that was amazing. Um So as far as the SRO goes, our SROs are amazing. Um and I again, I've I've lived it with SROs, I've lived it with all of them um in my health class. We talk about a lot of sensitive topics uh from things you probably don't want to talk about with kids and teenagers, but it's reality. Um from
169sexual assault to date rape to um sexting to extortion, uh there's a lot of intense um topics. And I can tell you that just being a teacher in that classroom, the females um doesn't matter really how much training you have, it's more about the relationship with the kids and feeling comfortable approaching an officer about such a sensitive topic. Um I've had many girls um come up to me and say that um they just don't feel comfortable talking to a male if a male just did something that violated him in the most personal way that you can ever be violated. So um again, nothing against any male officer or any male in the room, but um I just would advocate that um if we're going to be putting a lot more money into this program, that
170we try our best to make sure a female officer is at least available like once a week to come on campus and maybe a shared role. I know that I tried to get officer Ashley into my health class. She used to come in there all the time which again helped with that connection and I agree with Deza that it's just hasn't been the same. Nothing against these guys. I know they're super busy with senior assassin stuff which mad at you guys for but anyway it's it's it is different when that person is totally interacting in the classrooms. Um and and they're when you're talking about the subject matter. And when I've tried to reach out to officer Ashley she's just she's busy on other assignments. She's been on call. She's you know, arresting somebody and
171I can't have her I'm like sure you can't drop into health class real quick. Um so I just think it's something that we need to take a deeper dive in if you're not making any decisions tonight on it. Um just maybe having a shared role instead of a two full-time maybe just having that female present where they can establish that relationship with our female students. Um it's a very powerful thing that I just I would like to see come back for our girls to have that support. Thank you, Michelle. With the only comment? Okay. Is there any further discussion from the board? Sure. Oh. Heather Hanson. How many more cards do we have? And we have students? Yeah. Well, I mean when somebody just says concerns I don't know which What agenda item that is?
172>> would be. Is our student are there any students that wanted to speak on this item that we missed? Okay. Sorry, go ahead. Hi. Heather Hanson. I teach at the high school. I also wanted to shout out our student board representatives and all our students here for coming up and uh making their voices heard. Um I wanted to thank you, D, for bringing this up and the board for bringing this up. Um it's important that we talk about sexual assault and sexual harassment. These things matter. Um and as a teacher and as history teacher, too, I think it's really important that we show our students you know, that we don't give them the lesson that raising their voices and building collective movements doesn't go anywhere. We don't want them to take that lesson from high
173school. And we had a lot of students mobilize last year on behalf of Officer Crotene and on behalf of themselves because they wanted to keep her there. And they spoke so compellingly, uh many of our, you know, mostly young women. Um and it was a huge blow to lose Officer Crotene and it's really important for them to see that here, months later, that issue hasn't died. Their passion, their commitment, their collective organizing didn't go in vain. Um that you can have setbacks, but that movements can go forward. Um and your power can it might take a little bit longer than you're hoping, but it can still happen. And so, I think it's really important that we're imparting those kinds of lessons to our students as well. So, thank you for continuing this conversation. Thank you
174for that. We have kept trying. It has taken longer than we thought, but we're still trying. Are there any other cards? Is there anyone that wanted to speak on this topic that we might have missed? Okay. Is there any further discussion from the board? Member, uh Ivy. Um so, I was very invested in this last year, um and I still am. Um I understand there can't be gender specifications. I understand why there can't be gender specifications and um I do have a question for Dr. Glass. I know that questions have kind of passed, but I hope you'll answer it. Please. Um is there any kind of creative problem-solving that we can do to have maybe the mental health department coming and sitting in in Ms. Foster's classes. I know Ms. Humphreys is a great resource.
175Um if there's, you know, if we can have any of the counselors maybe sit in in conversations that that students if student is sexual sexually assaulted, perhaps we can have a guidance counselor sit in with them. Um and a lot of the guidance counselors just do so happen to be female, but that's not technically a gender specification. Um the MOU contemplates the creation of a curriculum that the SROs would work to deliver that would be developed in collaboration with the district. So, I think this is a terrific idea. Like, what could we do together? So, I've taken a note here that's something I think we can follow up on. Ms. Humphreys is the school social worker. So, and I thought that she yes, and I thought she was assigned to this is what I had
176when I had asked in the past with with Ashley leaving that Ms. Humphreys would be available as far as for the woman of the district. And she's she's she's well she's well trained. I know that as a school social worker. Thank you. I do recall while you're coming up, I do recall we had that conversation that if we couldn't drive if we couldn't select, but I do know that it says that in here in the contract that it would take input from and and consideration from the district. So, I think those are But we But at that time last year when we were talking about it, one of the other things that was emphasized is that we have wonderful um staff that is female that interacts with our students regularly. So, please. Yeah, and I
177would say I um I am often privy to those conversations and appreciate when students can come and share. Often they will come and share if they've experienced something and um I do have a close partnership with Danny and we've we've worked on cases together um quite often. And I would say in terms of if the student is interested and wants me to sit in, um that's absolutely an option for me to be able to do. Um but I will say too, having It's good for me to know that you can have the option for a female as well. I wasn't aware of that. And I think um well Yeah. He knows that I really appreciate him so much. Um but I will say it's not just a student disclosing, it's then a lot of follow-up
178explicit questions that are being asked by the male to the to the female. So, um I would just say it's it then gets really detailed and so having the option for a female is very helpful. Thank you. I appreciate the input on that. And I I I I think um speaking for myself, I I would love to see how much more we can work with this, especially if the price is going up, even though it's been 7 years um since this was last addressed. Uh whatever we can however we can do that. And then continue the continued partnership between um Megan and the SROs and any other support that they might need. So, are there any other discussions on this item? Yes. I was involved in the discussion when um Board President Perry raised this
179and we talked about it quite extensively. Um it deserves extensive conversation and it's um I don't think that what we're have the discussion we're having tonight is the end of it. It It's really the beginning of it. Um one of the things that we encountered last time around is that um you can take an officer who's got a gift or a passion for something like this and if you what hap- what happened is there was political pressure created on the police department to have her retained here and that's a good way to ruin her career. Um because the fact is um they anytime you are in um a commissioned officer position whether it's in the military or law enforcement um you need to rotate and go through the different career paths that are available to
180you. And uh so we we talked about that. We understood it. But in this case I think that um uh member Malchesky uh mentioned the fact that um there's been sort of an informal understanding that maybe if a female officer is needed um that that can be accessed. I think we should try to formalize that and that what we need to do um is recognize that I think one of the faculty members said there are there are real dangers and there are real issues um on our campuses. I you know um and uh you know I don't really want to get into it but um we've had situations where the loss the school districts has had to pay 8.5 million dollars in a lawsuit as a result of things going on on our campuses and
181um we don't want we want young women in particular who have an issue here. This is about power is what this is about. And if you're a young woman who's been put in a position of fear or put more than fear, um you don't want to go describe things to somebody and have somebody else refer you to somebody else. Um we have to have some place that's safe for a young woman to go and say, "I want to speak to a woman detective." And that should be the end of the discussion. And that woman should that young that female student um because this is about power and it's about I'm I'm not going to give a lecture. Everybody knows as much or more than I do about it, but um I know that I was
182very involved in the SRO program in the Washington D.C. public schools and I know that that's what they had there. They had a situation where if you were a young woman, a student, a female student, uh you didn't have to go to your counselor, you didn't have to go to the regular SRO you you had somebody that was assigned to you go and you say, "I want that special service." And that's the end of it and that the person is referred and it gets into a very safe place. I think we should try to formalize that kind of a mechanism. Um and it it and it and it can involve women officers on the police department making themselves available to be that person to whom that student is referred. And I I think the just
183my personal opinion. I I'd like to see us try to formalize this a little bit cuz it's a little bit mushy right now. Thank you, Howard. Are there any further comments? I think going along with that, I think um Michelle Foster's idea of maybe two uh part-time. So, one could be a woman and one a man. One of the positions be a half and half. Something like that maybe they would go for. Um I know you're you're going to be negotiating with them. >> we'll have to talk with them about that. I think there were concerns around um just that it would be discriminatory uh if you put um gender requirements around the role. But then it's not really meeting our needs. Uh understood. Um the um I'm merely relaying the concern that I heard
184back from the force was that they were they have have to create equal opportunity for the positions and that was the that was the basis of their concern with putting sort of it must be female or it must be male. Thank you, Member Perry, for bringing those points forward. Um okay, I'm going to last call. Can you turn your microphone off, Howard? Okay, um okay. Yes. Oh, there we go. Got it working. Um Member Hills, were you referring to the $8.5 million lawsuit in which um students were taken photos of and then made into false AI images of naked people? No, I'm not referring to that. I was referring to a situation uh that was reported in the Los Angeles Times uh of a case here where um uh there was a uh um you
185know, there's this there's this lawsuit um this the state legislature has authorized lawsuits uh for victims of sexual crimes many, many years ago and um one of those came forward and um you know, the thing about that is I get now that I referred to that, I'll just say this. Some people referred to that article in the LA Times as negative or negative publicity for our school system or adverse publicity. I don't see it that way at all. I think that article was justice for the victim. And I think if we start to view victims who who seek help as somehow the enemy, we're really really getting into a bad place. And so when I saw that article in the LA Times and somebody referred to it as adverse publicity for our schools, you know,
186when that happened the only statement the school district made when that 8.5 million was we're insured so it didn't have an impact on our budget. Well, it had an impact on that victim. And that victim should never be made the enemy of us and to that victim said in the article this article and what came out and was made public about this is the first justice I've gotten since this occurred. And so we got to be very careful that we're on the side of victims. That doesn't mean you just you know, it's there still has to be an adjudicatory process. There still has to be an a disciplined evaluation but once you know you've got a victim then you're on the side of the victim. You're not viewing the victim as giving us hurting our
187reputation or being or or the publicity of it being because one of the purposes of the state legislature in allowing these lawsuits for um cases that otherwise would be barred by the statute limitations is that it's very very healing for the victim to have it become public. You know, people want to think oh let's not make it public. No. They after what they've been through they want it to be public and they want it to be known that uh, school district paid for it. So we have to be on the sides of the victims. Thank you, Mark. >> the clarification, member Hills. Um, I appreciate it, and I think that uh, you being brave enough to speak about that and give your insight and opinion is exactly what we need on this board and in
188our community, and if we don't talk about things, then nothing ever happens. Thank you, member Hills. Thank you, thank you. Um, okay. We need to move on to, um, item eight, uh, action item business and services. This is the approval of the 2025-26 second interim financial report. Mr. Odaffer. Thank you. Good evening, but board president, members of the board, and members in the audience, and cabinet members. So, tonight we are, uh, mid-March at this point of time, uh, Raymond. Okay, thank you. Victoria. So, uh, this is, uh, at this point of the year, as I mentioned, uh, we are on the third quarter for fourth quarter for 25-26. We just closed, uh, the month of January, and this is a presentation till from July 1 of this year till last year till January 1 of
189this year. So, I have with me Mr. Raymond Lee, our budget administrator, who will come to the dais, and it'll be a tag team presentation between Raymond and myself. I want to thank thank Raymond, in addition to what I did for Victoria, uh, who has been busy, who's a single person budget, uh, person in the district, and he himself works tirelessly for the last, I would say, about a month to get this, uh, budget book. So, Raymond, if you want to come up to the dais, and, uh, I'll go over the first couple of slides, then Raymond will take the uh, next few heavy slides and then I'll come and close. So, this the first slide shows the cycle. It's a yearly cycle. The budget moves around LCAP. And my first ask is if any
190person comes and say, "Hey, if is there money for this or is there money for that?" And my first question is, is that on the LCAP? If it is not on the LCAP, it will not be funded. If a action item or a goal is not in the LCAP, we cannot fund it because starting 2013-14, state made sure that the budget follows the LCAP, not the other way around. So, once the LCAP is approved by the board sometime in July, we go through couple of milestones. One is the first milestone for the current fiscal year is in December. That's when we came to the board the last time, December of 2025, and we presented the fiscal situation for the school district. That was the first 3 months of the school year. Now, we have completed
191the 7th month and we are on the 9th month of the school district's, but the fiscal data that we are going to provide for this year is the first 7 month. Um and then as things progress for the next 2-3 months, as I said, we will be simultaneously working on two different item. One is we'll close the books. That's the accounting. That's another person in our fiscal department that handles the accounting. And Raymond, Mr. Lee, will be working on the budget for the next fiscal year along with Dr. Mayberry's team with the LCAP. So, uh the next slide. So, the first thing is uh our budget is very tied to the economic budget of the nation as well as the state. Because most of our funding comes through uh the federal government, through state government,
192personal income tax, and also through our property taxes. Being a basic aid school district, we get substantial amount of funding through our property taxes, but our property taxes is also in directly depending on what the economy is doing. So, from a national economy, um what I can say is the national economy is chugging along. Although I kind of created the slide last week, over the last 2 3 days, as you have seen, um there have been some substantial geopolitical events that have gone through, and that is impacting some of the tariffs and some of the prices, particularly in energy prices that we see across the nation. How will this pan out, whether it's short term or long term, we'll see. And we'll see how it impacts the school districts from an expenditure standpoint and also
193the personal income tax uh for folks that live in the state. Uh so, the governor presented the budget back in January, and what he does is he proposes the budget for 26-27, the budget year. He did promise that uh the California education will be fully funded at a 2.4% COLA, uh which is primarily for the non-basic aid school districts. Uh for the school basic aid school districts like us, we'll be funded basically on the property appraisals and the property appreciation that we see. We have seen a historic trend of about 4% increase, which is higher than the COLA. So, that's a good signature. Although, we recently had a forecast from our property consultant which said that for 25, 26, and 26, 27, they are looking at a 3% property appreciation property tax rate. So, that's
194not as high as 4% or 5%, but it's still enough to get us going. From a regional perspective, there are some significant events coming to the Los Angeles extended Los Angeles area, which will be significant economic events. The first will be the World Cup soccer cup. Although, we are not a powerhouse of soccer, but internationally, it's a great following. It brings in enough economic strength to the country that's hosting it. We are hosting it along with Mexico and Canada, and it will be an important event for Los Angeles and uh the the surrounding neighborhoods. Next year, LA will be hosting Super Bowl again, and then the following year, it will be Olympics. So, these three significant events are expected to bring bring in significant economic income to the area and also to the state of
195California. Uh UCLA hold held its meeting forecast meeting last week. Um they Jerry Nickelsburg is uh one of the trendsetter in the UCLA. And that economic forecast is followed throughout the country. Uh one of the forecast he mentioned that uh it's an interesting dynamics that he's seeing uh in the economy today as opposed to what he has seen in the last 25 years. California is growing at a rate faster than the nation. That's driven primarily by AI uh intelligence growth, the company and the stock market just the sheer investments that happening happening. But the first time he's seeing a dichotomy between the economic growth and the labor market. The labor market is slowing down. The labor market in California, the unemployment rate is hovering over more than 5%, which is kind of offsetting. So, what
196he kind of said, it's income without jobs. So, the jobs does not grow, California income tax does not grow, personal income tax, but the economy is charging along fine. The GDP both for the nation and the California is growing. So, the term he used is growth among amid crosswinds. So, there are some mixed signals that's coming through in the economy and we'll see what pans out over the next 6 to 9 months. This of course predates the geopolitical crisis in the Middle East that we kind of have been seeing over the last 1 week. Particularly the energy prices, that's something we'll keep on mind as we develop the 2026-2027 budget because we also consume a lot of energy in the school district be either for our fleet vehicles, transportation, they will of course pass on
197the cost if energy prices go up and then also for our utility rates. Next slide. Raymond, take over and go through the revenues and the expenditure. Thank you, Mr. Roy Chowdhury. Good evening, Board President Morgan, Trustees, Dr. Glass, student leaders, colleagues, and members of the community. So, what this report is all about, this is our second check-in of the year. It's a snapshot in time through January 31st. It compares what we projected earlier in the year and what we're coming back here is what is happening now. I'll briefly walk through the key updates and point out a few areas that might be helpful as the board reviews the second interim report. On this slide, you can see a side-by-side bar chart comparison of the first interim and the second interim. These are the revenues for
198this current school year. We see a change from 92.1 million to 93.3 million, which is an increase of about 1.2 million dollars. Most of the increase comes from property taxes. At the beginning of the year, we worked with preliminary numbers when we build the budget. As the year progresses, the county auditor-controller's office updates those numbers as more complete assessment and collection data comes in. Earlier projections are a good starting point, but they get refined as we go through the year. Right now, based on the most recent data through January, we have updated our property tax growth estimate from 5.1% to 5.8%. Which added a little bit over half a million dollars in revenues. Next, we have federal revenues. The category increased slightly, about $8,000, and that's to updated title fund allocations. These are formula-driven adjustments,
199and it's normal for them to be revised several times throughout the year. Next, we have state revenues. State revenues increased by about 176,000 and that's primarily related to restricted programs such as expanded learning and career technical education. Like federal funds, these allocations are recalculated by the state as updated data becomes available. Additionally, local revenue increased by about 406,000. Some of that reflects stronger interest earnings and community donations. The rest is one-time Medi-Cal dollars that we received. It's kind of complicated, but this is related to state required amendment to prior year cost reports. What happened is that the state updated its reimbursement methodology for Medi-Cal dollars under federal approval. And districts districts statewide were required to resubmit prior cost reports for Medi-Cal funds. As a result, we received additional dollars for eligible services that had already
200been provided and this is one-time revenue for the school district. So, when you look at the full picture, this is simply part of refining the budget as the year progresses. As more information comes in, our projections become more precise. As we move to expenditures, you will see in a graph that the increase largely mirrors the revenue adjustments we just discussed. We continue to ensure we have a balanced budget. Total expenditures increased from 92.1 million to 92.3 million. And that's an increase of 1.2 million. Let's begin with salaries, certificated salaries. The category increased about about $132,000. At the start of each school year, we budget assuming every position is filled for the full year. And as part of the normal course of the year, some staff take approved medical leave often for important life events. When
201that happens, we provide temporary coverage to ensure learning continues without interruption. This increase does not represent new o- Sorry. This increase does not represent new ongoing staffing. It simply reflects the cost of short-term coverage during approved leaves. Then we have classified salaries. This category actually decreased by about 133,000. For this current school year, we budgeted approximately 316 360 full-time equivalent positions across the district. A term we typically referred to as FTEs. 360 FTEs represents the total staffing level in the entire budget. Whether positions are full-time or a combination of part-time jobs, they add up to a full position. When we build a budget, we assume all of those positions are filled for the full year. But what actually happens is that some positions become vacant during the year. When that happens, there are natural salary
202savings while we work to fill those jobs. So, what you're seeing here is simply that major adjustment, capturing the difference between what we originally assume and what actually occur. This is something we adjust every quarter. It's part of the normal staffing cycle. Next, we have employee benefits, which increased by approximately 410,000. The majority of this increase relates to health benefits. The current year budget now reflects the full projected cost of those benefits. Following the comprehensive review conducted earlier this year, the budget has now been updated to incorporate the identified shortfall. So, what you're seeing now reflects the full cost we expect to incur this year. And that cost is about 5.9 million for health benefits. It was increased of from first interim, it was 5.5 million, and now it's 5.9 million. Books and supplies, there's
203a minor decrease to report. Mid-year adjustments are very normal during the year, and this time around we have adjusted this budget category down by 17,000. Services and other operating expenditures increased by about 851,000. This category includes all the outside services we we relied on to serve our students every day. Things like contracted services, transportation, instructional support services, and facilities maintenance that keeps our campuses safe and operational. One of the main things we do as part of us of our second interim review is to look at where is our spending exceeding projections, where is less than projected, and we start to make those true-ups, so that we're are as close as possible to actuals when we close the books. Capital outlay increased by 38,000. And the reason for that is we made some improvements to the
204TOW multi-purpose room to the AV equipment. That was done a few weeks ago and I believe we're just waiting for a control panel and that will finalize the project. And next for capital outlay, we have the Thurston library. It's going to be undergoing some improvements to the AV equipment and that's projected to be done during uh spring break. Lastly, other outgo decreased slightly by about 55,000 as we're projecting lower costs for county program services. At the end of the day, the adjustments on both sides total revenues and total expenditures largely offset one another. That increase in revenues was matched by similar increase in expenditures resulting in very very little change to the bottom line. So, after all these adjustments we talked about, the ending balance is about $50,000 lower than the first interim. Which is
205a very small change in the context of a $90 million budget. Our projected general fund ending balance for the current year is 12.8 million. The total includes several components. We continue to have 50,000 categorized as non-spendable. These are funds that are not available for general use. Then we have restricted funds, which increased slightly by about 370,000 primarily due to one-time funding that must be used for specific purposes. There's no change to the district's obligation related to the supplementary retirement plan. As you will see on the next slide, that commitment begins to taper off over the next 2 years, which is a good thing. And then approximately 1.2 million remains assigned to support district priorities and goals set by the board. Lastly, we continue to maintain 5% for a reserve for economic uncertainties. While the state
206requires a minimum of 3% for a district our size, board policy calls for an additional 2%. As expenditures were adjusted higher during this reporting cycle, we recalculated that reserve amount to ensure we maintain the required 5% level. That amount is approximately $5,280,000. Moving on to multi-year projections. This next slide looks ahead at our at our multi-year projection. It reflects our current assumptions for revenue, expenditures, and planned capital investments. You will notice a dip in 2026-2027 followed by an increase in 2027-2028. That pattern reflects the planned inclusion of the high school pool project in our long-term model. Tonight, the board will also consider a resolution to transfer $11 million into the capital improvement fund to align with the construction phase of the pool project. I would like to highlight that the $12.8 million you see in
207the current school year 2025-2026 already includes the transfer to support the pool project. In In words, the number you're seeing reflects the budget after the transfer. There's no additional reduction to the general fund in the current fiscal year. The budget sets our direction, but it's the discipline and how we manage and how we manage it that ensures long-term stability. Thank you, and I will now turn it over to Mr. Mr. Chowdhury to walk us through the details of the multi-year outlook and the rest of the presentation. Thank you, Raymond. Again, I just wanted to recap that what we are presenting or what Raymond presented is the general fund, which is the main operating fund of the district, and we are discussing general fund only. So, the first question before I go over this slide, which
208is slightly heavy slide, is how the question, I think as a board member, you need to ask is how are we doing in This fiscal year, we are good. We are recommending that we are certifying a positive budget. What does a positive certification mean? The positive certification mean that the district will be able to meet all the obligation for the current fiscal year, which is 25-26, the next budget year, 26-27, and 27-28. So, as a school district, we do have to project our budget for two out years, and when we certify our budget as positive, that means we'll be able to meet obligation not only for this year, next year, and the following year. The question comes, what does the Obligation means it's all our payroll and non-payroll obligation. So, we'll be able to meet
209all the staff salaries that we have budgeted in our position control, all the contracts that we have contracted through this year and the next 2 years. And we do assume that we will continue some of the contracts the next year. So, this year we are good. We are recommending a positive certification. Going to next year, it's slightly different story, next 2 years. So, this slide I'll walk you through. If you look at the green line, uh First of all, the green line and the red line, those are the revenues and the expenditures for general fund. And the axis for those lines are on the left. On the right is the axis for the blue line, which is the reserves. So, think of it in your family budget, what's your revenue, what's your expenditure, and what's
210your savings. So, the green line is your revenue line. As you can see, the district has been going up in the revenue from 2022-23. It's a pretty steady climb of about 3 to 5% because of our property tax. We were about 71.21 million revenue in 2022-23. As of this year in general fund, we have 84.39 million-dollar budget. And this is the unrestricted side of the budget. And then we are projecting that we'll be somewhere around 90 million in the next couple of years. So, that line, you see an increase. On the red line is our expenditure line. So, the expenditure line has been trailing the revenue line for 2022-23, 2024, 2023-24, and 2024-25. Last year, we came close. This year, you are incre- you are seeing a spike on our expenditure. And that is primarily
211coming from the one-time commitment of the district general fund to build ours Laguna Beach High School swimming pool. So, the Laguna Beach High School swimming pool, if you recap, the board approved the contract for about not to exceed 25 million. We have committed funding of about 20.4 million dollars. Uh this year, we are transferring 11 million from general fund to the Laguna Beach swimming pool um construction fund. Next year, we are also going to transfer about 4 million dollar for that swimming pool. So, you see an increased spike, and that is taking our expenditure way up towards 97.99 million. Then, the expenditure comes down next year to 90 88 million, but it is still higher than the revenue. Um so, the next year, if you see, we are spending the Laguna Beach swimming pool for
212about 4 million. And you'll see another couple of lines for this year, which is the health benefit payment. Uh we were not in compliance with the health benefit uh for the CBA over the last 3-4 years. The total overspend that the district net overspend was about 1.04 million. The board approved the uh absorption of those excess health care payment this year. So, that's about 850,000 that we are absorbed in this year's budget. The last item line you see on that box is the PARS payment. PARS is the supplemental retirement plan. Uh the board approved two supplemental retirement plans back in 2021 and one in 2023. When we approve a supplemental retirement plan, that plan payment goes for 4 5 years. So, you will see about 500,000 we owe from the prior 2021 and 2023 supplemental
213payment this year. And next year it's about 400,000. You will see on the right-hand side that box, parse payments 0.4 million dollars. So, those are one-time expenses. Those are not operating expenses, so to say, ongoing operating expense that how that's how we describe it. So, that's how it goes and then come 27 28, the expenditure drops below the revenue and we are back in where you we should be. That's where we should be. I mean, traditionally CBOs or chief fiscal officer wants to maintain what we call a surplus budget where we carry a small surplus just so that it brings a cushion for one-time payments. The district had built up that surplus and that's why we were able to fund a significant capital improvement projects from our general fund. Let's look at the blue line
214at the bottom. That's our savings. That's our surplus that we had. We started off with about 24.17% 18.35 million dollars in 22 23. We increased our surplus a little bit over the last 2 years from 22 23 to 24 25. This year, we are spending that savings for that swimming pool, for that health benefit additional cost, and for the supplemental payment. We are drawing down to about 7.12 million, which is 6.75% of the budget. Next year, we are still drawing down because of the one-time payments. We will bottom out about 5.76% of our fund balance. Mr. Lee mentioned that our end ending fund balance per the board policy should be 5%. If you look at what 5% is, 5% for our school district like us is about um 4 and 1/2 million dollars. It's a
2151-month payment for our payroll. So, think about if suddenly our revenue stops, we should have enough funds to process at least 1 month of our payroll. And that's about 4 and 1/2 million dollars. So, that's a good reserve. State requires a minimum of 3%. The board has added 2% to it, so we are at 5%. Um That's the bottom line we want to hold to. We don't want to breach below that because that will be too risky for us in case of any emergencies if that happens, if something goes wrong, and we have a large fiscal commitment, we will be not able to support it if the reserve for economic uncertainties go down. There's a blue uh cloud there. Um That's the liability that we have not funded yet. So, those are the some of
216the monies, as you know, when I presented the swimming pool, the there's a chance that we will need another 1.4 to 4.6 million dollars to complete that swimming pool. We'll know more as we progress because that includes our contingencies. And I'm sorry, it's a small font, but um that's what it is. About 1.4 to 4.6 million. So, any new surplus be it property tax increase or one-time discretionary funding if we receive from the state will be allocated for that swimming pool to meet that unfunded need as of now. The second item that's there is the AB 218, which is Assembly Bill Bill 218, which um member Hills mentioned about uh a couple of minutes ago. This is the state uh legislation that passed and removed the statute of limitation where we can have claims back
217from 1970s, 1980s that can strike the school district and can impact the fiscal budget. So, there are some um items if the district does not have an insurance coverage, we are required to fund those from our own general fund or borrow. So, those are some of the unknowns, which we will hopefully know between now and March-April of next year. Be it the swimming pool, be it AB 218, what our liability is. Once we passed June 30, 2027, uh if revenue um stays as is, that means that we still get property tax funding from remaining as basic aid school district, we our surplus will grow. Uh so, we have very less limited control on our revenues. We have more control on our expenditure from a board perspective. So, I would request um and that's my recommendation
218to the board uh at this point of time not to add any new programs or even if we add new programs to find money somewhere else where that money can come from. So, So, not new money that we want to add in our budget. Um the board can certainly request the superintendent to add something to the budget. But, we as a group uh collectively have to decide something else has to be removed in order to accommodate that additional funding. So, this will be true for starting now, pretty much March-April of this year till uh at least December of 2027. Uh because that's when we receive our first chunk of 27-28 um property tax. And we will know by January-February of um where our property tax is heading and we are back in our good path
219where we build some surplus. So, that's a mixed news. I mean, as I said, we are still positive in our certification. We'll be able to meet our obligation for this year, next 2 years, provided we don't add any new budget expenditure item for at least the next 18 months. With that, uh I'll wrap up uh with some of the other funds that we have. If we can go to the next slides, these are some of the other significant funds that we have. Small budget compared to our 90 million uh general fund budget. The adult education, child development, cafeteria, those are our operating fund. The child development is our preschool. Adult education is a small CTE program um that we work with other seat agencies. Special reserve is a non-capital. It's a one-time fund uh that
220we have is a budget differential. The capital facilities is uh our developer fee, which we have $250,000. And the special reserve for capital outlay is where we are spending the money for the swimming pool. That's where we are proposing to transfer the 11 million that's on our board packet this evening. And then also it pays for other deferred maintenance, the FRP and the other maintenance program. We are doing good. Revenues are over and above expenditure and all these funds are in good shape. Um the next steps. So, this is the last slide. Uh what happens between now? So, if the board concurs with our recommendation, they can approve the budget what with the positive certification that goes to the state and tells that Laguna Beach is in a good place and will be able to
221meet the obligation. And two things you certify when you certify the positive certification. One is the budget was developed in the format that's recommended by CDE. That's why you see the certificate salaries, classified salaries, books and supplies, health and welfare. Those are the recommended object categories for CDE and we have to present it that format. This First is the we complied with the SACS and the second is that we'll be able to meet the obligation. Uh governor's may revise will come out in May 2026. Governor is at this point negotiating with the legislators based on the governor's revision as to how the state budget will look like. Although we are not dependent on the state budget as such being a basic aid school district, we get about 6 to 7% of the fund from the
222state budget, be it one-time funds, be it some other funds, ELOP, CTE, other categorical funds, uh lottery revenue, state lottery revenue, etc. The 2026-2027 LCAP and the budget hearing will bring back to the board in May-June 2026. The LCAP process is going on under Dr. Mayberry and Dr. Cannonburg. And once that's wrapped up, we will start funding based on the LCAP goals and actions on the LCAP. With that, I'll conclude the presentation and I'll open it up for questions, if any. Thank you very much. There's I'm sure there's a lot of questions around this and I really appreciate it and I you did a fabulous job. So, well done. >> Um so, thank you. I'm going to open the floor for questions. I'll start at this end. I'll just going to be consistent tonight. Um
223Dr. Kelly. I was wondering about the Medicaid dollars. Are those for special needs students that we're bringing those dollars in for services? Those were services that we rendered in prior years. And that was typically handled by special ed. That makes sense. So, if if I can add on to what Mr. Lee said, uh the Medicaid dollars or Medi-Cal dollars are not necessarily for special ed. It's primarily special ed, but it can be also for general ed. If we provide services to any general ed students related to their Medi-Cal enrollment, if they're Medi-Cal eligible, if we enroll them, that enrollment effort we can get reimbursed for. But these we don't currently participate in that Medi-Cal program. This is a part In the past we did participate and these are the past money that they owe us.
224Okay. any more questions? Okay. I mean Howard Remember Hills? So, I thank you very much, Raymond. Um And uh So, one question I had when you talked about that the board voted to absorb the $850,000 uh overpayment on the health care benefits. Um Uh I understand what we did. We voted that we would um we would absorb that cost in our budget. Um uh but that doesn't necessarily reconcile the whole situation. So, one question I have is uh when you say that that money is going to like be absorbed or absorb uh are the are the um collective bargaining at the CBA caps changed from what they are in the agreement? The CBA cap has not changed. So, the board absorbed it as a one-time absorption in the general fund. Um The collective bargaining cap
225still stays and it will be effective going forward. For this year and the prior 3 years where we overpaid, we just took the amount differential and we paid the employee portion from our employer portion, the general fund. Yeah. Well, I guess um maybe the less I say about that right now, the better. But um I think that it's important to recall that we created a record here that we were um approving the new agreement, the new collective bargaining agreement for this year, um uh with the understanding that um uh labor law required us to have an agreement in order to negotiate over the issue of exactly how to absorb those those costs. So, um those are issues that I think are going to have to be addressed in the collective bargaining process. That was the
226advice we got from counsel at the time was um in other words, if we said we're not going to do this um then we would have we're not going to approve the agreement, then we would have no structure, we would have no framework for negotiating. Question. But they said in the end um the goal is to get back to the caps and to restore the caps and the the absorption was to prevent it from being a deficiency on the budget that among other things might not allow us to get a clean audit. I don't know. But anyway, um what is your what are your thoughts about those issues? So, uh you're right, absolutely, Mr. Hills. So, the CBA cap we have not changed. The CBA cap has remained. We have opened the negotiation as Mr.
227Conlon has mentioned. Um so, that will be on the table for 2026-2027 and going forward. Yeah, at the last last meeting we had somebody say um Did you say question? I'm sorry. I'm trying not to interrupt. Please keep it to questions. Okay. >> we'll have discussion. Okay, thanks. I'm that's good. Thank you. No question, discussion. >> Thank you. I know, but we have to questions, public comment, then discussion. Trying to hold you to questions. Work with me. Thank you. Um Ivy, do you guys have any questions? We're missing one. Um No? Okay, thank you. Remember Malteski, any questions? I do not. Okay. I know Mr. Rochatary and Mr. Lee that our health benefit costs have really gone up. I wonder about our other insurance costs for like for example against losses. Have those insurance costs
228really come up? So, I'll take a first shot. Yes, absolutely. I mean, we are saying a lot of what we call the property and liability insurance because the um AB 218 cases are not unique to our school districts. It has impacted all school districts across California. Um the insurance agencies have actually gone back to school districts and they are trying to collect some premium from the last 15 years. So, they are going back and saying we have not assessed because this was not known because of the high nuclear verdicts, 20 million, 30 millions and up. We have been assessed by the JPA that insured us back in 2016, 2017 for the premium cost, although it may not be that we have incurred those costs. General school districts, so those have and then also going forward
229we have seen about 8 to 10% jump on premium for property and liability. There has been discussion on um the insurance that maybe California school districts uh will not be provided any insurance. There are no reinsurers that are insuring California school district because of this. So, this is a big issue. I mean, it's very difficult for insurance companies to find reinsurers um which are Lloyds of London and those that have the big um 100 million plus reinsurance. So, that's the property liability. Workers comp, not so much. We are seeing a CPI increase on the workers comp insurance, which is about 3 to 4%, but for the property and liability, yes. On the liability side, significant. Even on the property side, we are seeing seeing some significant increases because of the wildfires. So, the wildfires has
230impacted a lot of school districts have burned down in Pasadena and Malibu. So, those we are seeing that the insurance companies, they are either fleeing the state or saying you need to increase the premium for rebuilding and you need to have some steps to make sure your properties are defensible. So. So, I'm sure you're taking all that into consideration with our budget. I I had read that some school districts have to actually go out of the United States to try to find insurance. It is it's a very difficult insurance market. That's what we see, but we have factored in those. We factor in those when we do our multi-year projection. Raymond keeps a tab if I don't. Amber Clark Perry, just to give you an idea, it was probably paid earlier in the school year,
231but we made a payment of 99, about $90,000. It was the first installment for the AB child victims. And then we have another installment to pay next year for another $90,000. Following up on the insurance question, um has the Orange County School District done anything with um maybe self-insuring all of our districts? Uh my experience from the Cal State system is we didn't carry insurance. We basically the 23 campuses, we insured ourselves. We you know, that was one of our budget items and I'm just wondering if all of the districts could go that or ever thought of going that way cuz So, typically for insurance, we have what we call the JPAs, joint power authorities, where multiple districts kind of form a joint power authority. In our property and insurance pool, we have um actually
232it's managed through Keenan, uh our insurance agent. There are out of 10,000 1,000 school districts in California, about 4 to 500 are Keenan members. So, we 500 districts in California are all in that super pool, um which have different insurance levels and it is all managed through what we call the Southern California Risk Pool or Northern California. For workers' compensation, we are in the North Orange County Pool with the Orange County Department of Education as an agency, but uh unlike the Cal State, uh it's not self-insured. I mean, I don't think we have the money for self-insurance for school district, particularly in this kind of nuclear um verdicts. Thank you. I I have a couple couple questions. Um so, can you based on the reserves that we have in general fund, so you're you're just
233focusing on the general fund in your report tonight, you said, right? But we got information on the rest of the funds. Is the um is the child development fund I think this is kind of what Howard was leading to. That's the child development fund includes our special education services and so is that fund impacted at all by or any of our student facing services? Are they in uh Outside of adding new programs, which you had I want to address in a minute, does this impact any of the current programming that we offer for our students currently? So, the child development program is the preschool program, not the special ed program. The child development is only the 2-year, 3-year-old that are on in El Moro. Um which is exclusively preschool. It's both gen ed and there
234I believe there's one special ed student maybe there in the preschool program. Um but the special ed program is on the general fund restricted side. So, that's a large program that sits within our general fund. Is that Is there anything that needs Is there anything that is done to protect that fund if we go if we are getting so close to our reserves? Cuz 5% is is while it's more than others, our budget is also higher than a lot of others and our per student spending is higher than a lot of others. So, how do we protect that if cuz there's another issue out there that hasn't been mentioned. I don't know how the legit I don't know the success of it, but this is this property tax that might be excluded for 60 and
235over if they've lived in the state for 5 years or or paid property taxes for 5 years and lived in the state for for 10. If that were to go through, that would have a huge impact on our budget, would it not? That's right. So, I'll address it in in two different segments. Let me address the special education piece. As we know, special education um is an intensive program. We are required to provide um FAPE. Um I think we have regular conversations with Dr. Mayberry and Ms. Jennifer Moss on the special education and there are things that are legally required. And we cannot or the board at this point of time, we do not have the discretion to say no. Because we need to be compliant with the FAPE and appropriate. So, it's a difficult
236task. Ms. Jennifer Moss has a really difficult task in meeting all the needs as to how we accommodate the student needs and provide the best instruction within the services that we have. Ms. Perry mentioned about some of the special education student being transported to Saddleback. Uh there is a minimum number of students that we need to run an efficient program. And if the program is available in a certain school district, we do send our programs because that's the best fit for our kids. And I do empathize when the students have to travel in school buses for about a hour, but at the end of the day, I think if it's a compromise between what's the best program and what it is. We do factor in some special education costs, particularly litigation costs and service costs.
237Um we do have uh working I mean, Raymond works intensely with Ms. Moss trying to find out what students are coming in. If there's a student that's coming in with significant disabilities or significant needs in grade one, we know that we need to provide the services. If we need some speech language therapist or any other uh support for related services, we need to hire those. So, we have conversations. We do factor in. We budget it and we will make it happen. So, we will not compromise on special education. As related to the property tax, uh there are there is a ballot initiative that's going on. It started in uh San Jose area. The ballot initiative is going to um exclude people or property tax owners who are 60 years and up and who have stayed
238in that particular community for 5 years or more from property taxes. Um so that's a ballot initiative that will take about 800,000 plus signatures to be qualified on the November ballot. If that passes, the legislation does not have much um much action because it will be a a ballot initiative and it will it will significantly impact all school districts and cities in California. Because cities significantly get a significant amount of property taxes um and that that's an unknown. It's a big risk. Uh we all know but we'll have to kind of track it at this point of time being a ballot initiative as to where it lands. It will devastate basic aid school district for the lack of a better word and we will have to drastically reduce our expenditures if if such thing happens.
239Um so I don't want to be a kind of have a crystal ball, but we will track that where that initiative lands and how it's voted by members in in the community or members in the state. The second is a legislative initiative. They are trying to take the excess property taxes that basic aid school district receive and redistribute it to neighboring school districts within the county that are LCFF funded. So that will not impact the LCFF fundings funded school district because it will get additional revenue. They're trying to equalize the revenue between LCFF district and basic aid school district, but it will significantly impact basic aid school district, but I'm sure there'll be litigation if that is coming through if that comes through. So, those are the two things we are on a tracking mode
240and we'll keep the board updated as to where it lands. Madam Chair, just a quick follow-up point on both of those concerns. It's not a consolation, but the magnitude of them is so large that there's really not a lot that we could do to protect it. They would both be catastrophic in terms of our operations. So, I know that's not a comfort, but there's there's really not a lot that the district can do to safeguard from that. No, I I agree with there's not a lot we could do, but I think it's really important that we have a really open and transparent conversation about our budget and what we're trying to achieve and what we're trying to maintain and uphold as well as the real the reality of what is happening out there. I mean,
241you know, some of the issues that we identify here in this community are are are really interesting because when you compare them to what could happen if we're talking about coulds or woulds or shoulds, you know, making sure we protect our as much as possible, but some of these things we may not have any control over. So, I do have a a couple of other questions. So, if somebody's looking at this budget, is there that are um that aren't here or that you know, or might look at it later. Is there what specifically will the pool and and moving these funds and paying for the pool and we dip down into the general fund? What uh Can you Can you point out what the various funds are and if they're going to be impacted after
242the pool? Are we Is that cuz it's all coming out of a reserve fund, but we have identified that we're short now on the pool 1 to 4 million depending on how that goes. We also have an unknown with AB218 that impacts school districts to some many millions. I mean, I think I'm hearing reports of up to 85, you know, and as well as low, but all of those are things that will take away more money out of our general fund as we sit here and try to try to figure out, you know, we pay for a leads program, we have a preschool program, we have staff that would like to retire, we have staff that doesn't get insurance or can't buy into the insurance because of 5.75 and we've talked about what that would
243cost to bring them up. There's different pools of money that we're trying to find access to. So, how do those how does this pool impact our ability to do all that? Cuz I know I know one of the things that we tried to do last year in December was to slow the pool to make sure that we were going to be able to afford it and to make sure that paying for the pool was not going to deplete our funds to the point that we couldn't do other things. And now, if I understand correctly, you're telling me that we can't add new programs for our students, we can't retire our staff, we can't some of these things that we can't do in Are those tied directly to the fact that we are funding this pool
244100% in cash? So, thank you for that question. I'll try to address it in parts. So, if Raymond, can we go back to slide number nine? Go back. Yeah, so that's our non-general fund, if you look at it. The last fund that you see, fund 40, the special reserve capital outlay, that's where we are spending the money for the swimming pool. The current budget is 9.88 million when we started the school year, you will see it will draw down to 5.08 million. So, that's the first 5.4 million of the swimming pool dollars is being spent from what we have on fund um 40. Once we transfer, if the board approves tonight, we transfer the $11 million uh uh for the swimming pool, $11 million will go to fund 40. That will spike it up by
245$11 million and we are going to spend the $11 million over the next 7 to 8 months. So, that will take us to 11 plus 5.4, 16.4 million dollars. Next year, we are transferring another $4 million from our general fund. So, that will take us to about $20.4 million, $20 million and $400,000 for the swimming pool. That leaves a gap of 4.6 million, 25 million less 20.4 million. Are we going to spend 4.6 million? We don't know at this point of time. We can spend only 22 million um depending on what happens during the construction, the unknowns, um and those contingencies. So, if we spend another 1.4 million, we'll have to find another 1.4 or 1.6 million that will take us to 22 million. And do we think we'll have 1.6 million? Typically, when the
246district closes its books, as Mr. Lee mentioned, there are some vacancies, intermittent vacancies, we have some savings. Property tax might go up little more than what we do budget conservatively. So, we I'm very confident we can address the 1.6 million dollars between now and June 2026 if that so happens. If it's not, then we may have to borrow from some other funds. Or we may have to borrow another two to three million dollars from outside. That's the funding gap for the swimming pool. But I think it's little premature to start thinking about borrowing that and from where till we get into 6 7 months of the project actually execution. So that will take us to March, February, March and that's when we said by February March 2027 we'll come back to the board. We'll update
247the board as to where the construction cost are heading towards and if we need money, we'll approach the board with possible option as to where we get the money. That's the swimming pool. To answer your question, are we stretching ourselves with the swimming pool? I mean, that's a commitment from the board. I cannot make a value judgment on I think the board committed to spending the 25 million not to exceed 25 million when we approved the contracts in January and much before that. There were several discussion as to what the total size would be and how we contracted the project. I believe from reading the history 50 50 meters to 45 meters and things like that. So I think we have done most of the value engineering to bring it within a reasonable amount. You
248have to think of another factor in the past in 1991 when the original pool was constructed my understanding was the city it was a joint effort by the city and high school. City paid about 60 to 70% of the construction cost. The school district paid 30 to 40%. This we are paying in full. So if the city wants to use it we may recover some of the capital cost through the rental program over the next 25 years. So obviously we will have to recoup that construction cost of the capital investment on that. So, that's going forward. But, I think overall, my personal judgment is it's a definitely must or needed for the swimming pool. I mean, I don't know the size, whether we needed that size, but I think it was a community effort, community
249input. There were several community input session. We are at a good place with the swimming pool. I mean, we have an amazing water polo team, I heard, swimming team. So, and Laguna Beach, what I was told is everyone loves swimming. So, um it is what it is. We have committed. We will make sure the project is executed. Is it stretching some of the other funds? Or is it crowding out some of the other needs um that might come? Yes and no. It'll crowd out the other needs for the next I think 12 to 18 months. So, it's kind of holding on to the new programs or new projects for the next 18 months. And then, we will review where our revenues go, and we can accommodate start accommodating accommodating new programs if the need comes
250through. But, at this point of time, my recommendation is not to add any new programs. Or even if we add new programs, we have to kind of um let go some other programs, which I think I'm working with Dr. Mayberry. He already have initiated a project to look at all the software licenses to see if there are duplications and kind of seeing where we can optimize certain things, and we have taken some steps to optimize business processes and cost and kind of um exploring some of those things. And it'll be intense over the next 3 months as we develop the budget for next fiscal year. Thank you. How does this impact then the our staff as far as I mean, I know we've got I and I know we're bargaining, so I know we don't
251need to be careful what we talk about, but I'm just curious as to how this impacts staff and our ability to support them in whether I mean, I know we have funds for learning opportunities and professional development and stuff like that. Do we have a retirement a fund that for retiring? Do we have um do we have funds? Are we looking at all of the different programs that we do as far as supporting them as well as to continue those so that it's not impacted? Or is that going to be impacted as well? And then I have the other question I have is how does the 11 million that's going to be spent? How does that how is that factored into our amount of the amount of money that we spend per student that's reported
252out as well? Is that excluded or is that included cuz that will drive our that would drive it up as well, right? So, I'll address the uh particularly the supplemental retirement program. I had a discussion in the executive cabinet with Dr. Glass and my executive cabinet members. We looked at because there was I believe a request from the staff to explore the supplemental retirement program, which is kind of an incentive for folks to retire a little early if if they want to. Uh looking at the budget, looking at what's coming, we at that point made a decision that it will not be uh good for us to recommend the supplemental retirement program for the staff this year considering that it's a liability that stays on the books for 5 years as we saw from the
253chart that even if we pay it's a liability that hits the general fund over the next 5 years. And at this point of time looking at the ending fund balance, it's not recommended at this point of time unless we can think of saving somewhere else. So, that's the supplemental retirement, but as a uh school district, I think we are goal is to offer the best uh total compensation package to have this retain our staff. I mean, that's our universal goal. Superintendent, uh if you want to add anything to that? No, I think that Well, yes. I think what I would add is the distinction between one-time money and ongoing needs that I think is part of this. Whenever we talk about salaries or adding staff, you're creating ongoing needs for funding. And so, it would
254never be appropriate for us to use something like money that's in a reserve to fund that because it's it's going to run out and then you got a cliff problem on what you do. So, when we expend down uh reserve funds to pay for something like the pool for it's a one-time fund that's going to a one-time expense. That makes more much more sense. Does it mean once you expend that, you can't do anything else with it? Absolutely. Uh that's the nature of uh spending on anything. Uh but, we we um uh would not recommend to you to expend um the money that you're using on the pool for something like ongoing staffing or programmatic needs that really need an ongoing funding source that you can rely on going forward. Thank you. Just a quick
255another question about that. How often do we How often do we How often do we do the supplemental retirement? Is that um something that's in a contract? Is it something that we offer on a regular basis? No, it's not on the contract. It's a uh voluntary uh offer that I believe the district makes to the offers up to the employees depending on sometimes it's economically effective because of the salary differential particularly in in the certificated side and I'll have to pick on Mr. Conlon's history. I think the last two I know one we did in 2021 and one in 2023. I think before that there was one in 20 15 or 2016. Yeah, those those in 21 and 23 the last that that I was part of. Prior to that I I I can't speak
256to it cuz I I wouldn't know offhand. I believe we did one in 2016, one in 2021, and one in 2023. Okay. Um Thank you. Okay, I think that's all the questions I have for right now. Um public comment? Thank you Sorry. Thank you so much. That was wonderful. I'm sure there's going to be questions for you all that will come through public comment that we can answer in discussion. Thank you, Raymond. Thank you. We have two public comments for this. Vicky McIntosh and Erica Robles. Thank you. My name's Vicky McIntosh and I'd like to say you guys did a fabulous job in your presentation. It was very easy to follow, very easy to understand. So, I'm grateful for that. I had one question um that I was very curious in the expenditures in the
257section of services and operating expenses. It increased over what was being projected from the first interim by 850,000 and I didn't maybe I missed it, but I didn't really hear what was creating that difference. So, that was just a question I was going to throw out. So, Thank you. Uh we usually don't respond, so I'm good to go. Okay. Um so, I just want to say again also thank you for the presentation and I know obviously financial stuff can be very challenging. Um I do appreciate our district and how compared to other school districts in the state, we are in a very good place. I know there's a lot of uh different aspects that come into play with our district being good. Um one thing I do want to kind of reiterate in this though
258is that uh things like a school bond that will be coming up um is still going to be very much needed to support any capital investments and infra- infrastructure upgrades. And so, that's something that um I look forward to seeing in like future reports and things like that. Thank you. Thank you. Is that Is there any other speakers on this topic? Okay. Thank you. Okay, discussion. Mr. Kelly, Dr. Kelly, no discussion? Howard, any further discussion? Just a couple of Hang on a second. We need a motion to approve this item before we can go into discussion. >> to approve this item, the second interim financial report. Second. Discussion, please. Howard, do you have anything to discuss? Well, I just would say I didn't I hadn't heard that the executive cabinet was having discussions about early
259retirement or whatever that however you refer to that. Um, so I didn't know that. So I you know fact that that was internally going on, I guess with the unions, um, you were having those discussions with the unions. Or did the unions have any in- involvement in that at all? No, it was just within the executive cabinet that we discussed. >> Yeah. Okay, well, I Uh, yeah, I will add to that. Um, the associations um, raised the concept with us and we um, we um, said we would investigate it. Um, really that it first came on in a time that we didn't have a CBO in place and so we were not in a position to really evaluate it. Once we had Manoj come on and evaluate where we were and the pool expenditure um,
260and what our long-range planning was, it was at that point that he recommended um, not moving forward with it and I have um, protective habit of doing what my CBO says. Yeah. Um, so that's um, but the the associations were um, involved with us in asking questions about it. The administration is the one that did the analysis that concluded we did not feel it was prudent. Okay. Thanks for that. Yeah, I just would comment really quickly. One is I think it was a really good discussion tonight. I think Raymond and uh, you you all you all did a great job as everybody else has said. Um, I think it's interesting um, to note the discussion about liabilities that several of the members and and uh, discussed with you and and that is that um, in
261some cases if there's lawsuits uh, where particularly um, there's lawsuits against the school district because of conduct by a school employee or whatnot, that um, sometimes it's insured and sometimes it might not be insured and the if I understood what you were saying about insurance companies that are coming back and want I guess they want us to pay premiums that they think that we owe them or we thought we thought we had paid premiums and then we didn't. I don't know what all of that implicates but it it's good for the public to have an understanding that when you talk about reserves and when you talk about having some money set aside that there can be completely unexpected lawsuits and I noticed that there's been some discussion lately about legal fees. And you know, when
262you start really looking at legal fees um uh lawsuits and hiring lawyers to deal with lawsuits are a big a big a big ticket item when we talk about legal fees. And um so I I just think those things are to be noted and um other than that I just think that uh this gives us one thing I was when you were talking about um the pool situation we've already have we are this is a question but we've already allocated some funding from the the building repair or building maintenance we've taken some of that moved it over for the pool or is that just a option? So we already had 5.4 million from that fund 40 allocated towards the pool when we initiated the contract so that was already spoken for. We have additional funding
263as you saw about 9 million dollars so the additional funding is the replacement funding. We may raid that funding if we don't have a source for the balance of the pool for this year and next year. Let us comment and say for the record um uh the um the situation with the the possibility of this ballot initiative that would exempt people over 60 I from property taxes. Um the superintendent said that would be catastrophic statewide. It'd be kind of like um the Proposition 13 or something. It would be a huge uh change in the fiscal environment in the state. Um I suppose though it would not be imprudent for us to start looking at how many how many property taxpayers in Laguna Beach are over 60. Um uh might give us some sense of how
264catastrophic it would be. But um the last thing I wanted to mention, somebody said something about the bond. And uh uh my understanding is that that particular ballot initiative would not exempt taxpayers here um from bonds. It would uh uh it would exempt them from property taxes, but wouldn't accept or or is Have I got that right or is That's correct. Bond is a special assessment. So uh no There is no exemption. We'll be rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic at that point. Kind of. Second. Speaker Thank you. Um member Masielski, any discussion? No discussion on the budget? >> No, just a thanks to Ray Chadderton. Member Pearl. Thanks. Thanks for a wonderful presentation. I'm ready to vote. Okay. I have no further discussion either. Uh so you have a motion on the floor to
265approve uh this 2025-2026 interim financial report. Um student member vote. I. Howard. Mr. Hills. Um what you're asking? Yes. Okay. Yes, 5-0. Thank you very much. Okay. So, do we want to look at the So, the time is 10 is 9:55. Uh we have our hard stop at 10:00. We still have a couple items on the agenda that we have to get through. Um I'd like to move that we extend the time by 30 minutes. on non-agenda, of course. I want to move 30 more minutes of meeting time. So, we have a motion on the floor for 30 more minutes of meeting time. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Thank you. So, so Okay. Well, as soon as we start with the with the agenda again and we
266get to that point, then we can discuss it then. Um Thank you. Board President Morgan, is there anything we could put on an agenda? >> some items off off the agenda if you'd like, yeah. We can do that. What is is there anything else on the agenda that is um Dr. Malcheski's item has to be done. Okay. Um Mendoza, do we have to move the million to 11 million tonight or is is that a quick is that a quick vote? I don't know if that's a quick How many questions Do we have cards on that? Okay. Okay. So, Okay. Okay. Um Where are we at? Okay, let's just keep going and we can um assess as we go. So, thank you very much for being here. I apologize if this was a little dry for
267you tonight, but thank you so much for being here. Um okay, moving on to item eight B, approval to establish an interfund transfer of 11 million from the general fund to the special reserve fund for the capital improvement plan for 25 26. Doc uh Mr. Mancha. Second. What are we seconding and motioning? I said so moved. We haven't had a I think we have to at least give the show respect to our CBO to at least I thought he already explained it. My apologies. He hasn't said anything. Thank you. In the budget part, yeah, thank you. Wait, once we hear Yes, we have the item introduced, then we have So, we introduced the item, and then we have questions, and then we do public comment, and then we do discussion. I just was reminding you.
268Manish. Sure. So, kind of touched this on the budget presentation. This is 11 million dollars we are transferring from general fund to fund 40 to pay for the construction of the pool. The pool construction is going to start in June and we have executed all the contracts, so we are lining up the ducks, so to say, um with the agencies, making sure the traffic and other items are controlled. So, this will be the first of the two installments of the transfer. This is 11 million this year. We want to execute it by June 30th and the next transfer will be 4 million for the next year. So, this is nothing new. The board already executed the contracts, so this is just a formality to make sure the funding is there to pay for the construction.
269Thank you. Any further questions? Questions? Howard, questions? John, Dean, any questions? No? Okay. Uh and there's Is there any public comment? No? Okay. So, and no further discussion. So, now motion to approve. Move to approve. Thank you. Great. All in favor? Aye. Aye. But motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rosen. Okay, item nine, approval of certification of State Board of Education on the competency of all employees who are athletic coaches per California Code of Regulation Title 5 Section 5593. Uh Thank you, President Morgan. >> Mr. Coleman Coleman >> So, as stated in board policy 4127, uh Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations, Section 5594, it requires a local governing board to certify to the State Board of Education annually by April 1st the competency of all employees who are athletic coaches.
270So, the principal and athletic director at the high school have confirmed certification and maintain records of certifications and required trainings. So, staff recommends that the board certify to the State Board of Education that the provisions of Title 5 CCR 5593 have been met. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Are there any more questions? Okay. Is Are there any public comments? Okay, no discussion. All right, all in favor? Aye. Great. Thank you. Okay, action items, Governance Board approval to retire Board Policy 5145.13, response to immigration enforcement, uh Dr. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh this policy was um superseded by the other immigration policies that the board passed at the last meeting. Uh CSBA's recommendation is to delete it. The practice here has been to retire it, so that's what we recommend. Great, thank you. Any questions?
271No. Okay. Question? Okay. The uh California School Board Association um recommends uh you know, we've had discussion about the past where you should just accept whatever the California School Board Association recommends and just do it because they're the California School Board Association. Um but in this case in fact, we had somebody call us stupid for not just accepting whatever California School Board Association says. But um what they say about this one is that um uh whether other policies contain the remainder of the revised model policy language or its equivalent is unique to each district um and county office of education. Therefore, it is recommended that the districts and county office of education consult with CBSA's district and county office of legal education services or other legal counsel to determine whether other policies should be updated
272by the March 1st deadline. So, I raised this the first couple of times we looked at this and that is that the the general policy of replacing um um the old bylaw um you know, was set forth in the proposal in the document we had. But then there were all these other policies that also were supposed to be brought in compliance with the new statute. The reality is the new statute doesn't really change anything from the old statute, but anyway, um so my question is um with respect to the other policies uh that are part of this required statutory reform. Did we ever consult um Are we sure that we're actually replacing all of the policies that need to be replaced? Did we talk to the um to the CSBA lawyers or our own lawyers
273to make sure that we've completed everything that's required by was required by March 1st or have we just because it's their recommendation that we get counsel on what other policies we have that might need to be changed. So, I'm just curious, did we ever contact California School Board Association and get legal advice on whether or not what we did was sufficient because that's what California School Board Association recommends. And we just let them go. So, go ahead. We uh contacted the attorneys at the Orange County Department of Education and asked them for their review on this. Um we also involved John Pearl, our counsel, in the revisions that happened at the last meeting. Uh so, counsel from both of those um viewpoints have been involved along the way as well as Victoria reached out to
274the CSBA to ask for their input on it as well. So, we've triangulated um all three of those toward the recommendations that we have both with the policies that you approved. This There was a set of policies, four of them that you approved approved last time. Uh and the removal of of this. So, based on that, it's our recommendation to move forward with the retirement of this policy. Yeah. Yeah, I I only ask because at one point we were told that CSBA that the that the California District I mean the Attorney General's Office and the Superintendent of Public Instruction would be in the enforcement agency um that does it the Department of Education that they would be flexible if we didn't meet the deadline cuz we needed to So, I just wanted to make sure
275that we covered those bases. Yes, we've met the deadline and so um with the policies that you approved at the February 26th meeting, so all we're doing now is retiring the policy that those superseded. Thank you. Any further questions or discussion? We have a motion to approve. We need a second. I'll make Thank you. All in favor? I. I. I. So moved. Okay, sorry. My hole punch is over my numbers, so I'm off on my numbers. This is item 10. No, 11. No, 10. Sorry, this this agenda has the hole punched out. Okay, 10B, thank you. Approval of seven so item 10B, approval of seven delegate nominees for CSBA Region 15 Delegation Assembly. Member Malchesky, would you like to present your recommendations for CSBA? Yeah, you want me to just do the motion? I mean,
276I've I've reviewed the candidates and so I'd like to make a motion that we approve the seven delegates. Um, Carrie Buck, Carol Crane, Katie McEwen, Deanna Miller, Art Montes, Barbara Scholemann, Jonathan Stone. Um, uh, for the Region 15, uh, 2026 CSBA Delegate Assembly. And I've reviewed all of the candidates for for the role, so I'm making this recommendation based on that review. And you started with it as a motion through the last name, right? So the motion is through Jonathan Stone, so we can we can second that motion. Yeah. Yeah, perfect. Second? I'll second that. All in favor? I. Was there any further dis- There was There was no further discussion, correct? Oh, I was I'm going to ask what what were your criteria? Um well, they they don't actually give criteria, but I reviewed
277it comes as a stack of applications and I reviewed all their past service and their resumes or CVs depending on where they came from and um also spoke to people who had knowledge of the CSBA region 15. What I meant >> We actually made a motion and I thought we voted so we need to retract the motion so we can have the discussion and we can pick it up again in a second. Okay, go ahead. Um what I meant was it looks like you did a great job making sure there weren't too many from one district kind of spreading it all out. Um I just wondered if there were any other criteria that you used. I I know what cut it looks like. I I've done this many times. Yeah, my criteria wasn't am I
278spreading it out among the region. My criteria was who are the people running, what qualifications do they have to be on the school board, what qualifications, you know, most of them have school board experience. That's that's why they're here. And many of these, I think all of them are incumbents right now. It's it there weren't >> them, any of them? No, I did not meet them. Yeah. left Are your questions answered? Yeah, I mean it was like a good group. >> I just didn't know what cuz you said your criteria. >> Okay, and okay, all right. So, we good? We've got a motion, we've approved we've we've got a motion, we've had discussion, board member vote, um student board members. I Okay, all in favor? I. No, so 4 to 1. Okay. Okay, so now
279we're on the consent calendar. Are there any board member questions on the consent items B through L that do not require pulling the items? Seeing none. Um are there any board are there any other board members that would like to pull items? I would like to pull item um B and C. Let's see. B and C. These are the minutes from the February 12th and February 26th meeting. Um I think that there's they're incorrect and I'd like to go back and review them before approving, so I'd like to move them to the next meeting. So we can check the transcripts. Uh that's also true for item C. So we can approve items D through M. All in favor? Okay, so we'll bring B and C back for the next meeting. Okay. So that concludes our
280agenda, so we're going to move to the final item of public comment on non-agenda items. How many cards do we have? 20 cards, so 20 cards times 3 minutes is another hour. We can only extend it once. And we've already done it once, so we have 15 minutes. So we need to do Can we Can we make another motion to extend 20 minutes? I know it says one. If no one questions the action, it will just go on. >> If nobody questions the action, it will go on. So, if we don't stop, we can just go on. So, we're going to listen to public comments for an hour. Okay. Perfect. Okay. Let me just call the students up first. Yes, I'd like to start with this student. >> two or three at a time so
281they can get in queue so we can expedite? Thank you. Simeon Siddall, Warren Rutledge. Good evening. It is very clear tonight that many students and community members feel that their voices are not being heard. The number of people who came here tonight, especially students, should matter to you. Students rarely attend board school board meetings. Most of us are busy with school, sports, homework, jobs, and everything else that comes with being a student. So, when students take time out of their evening to come here, it usually means something is seriously wrong. Right now, many of us feel dismissed and disrespected. At times, it feels like you sit up there, figuratively pat- figuratively patting us on the head while shuffling around your papers, and then doing what you want to do, telling us you know what's better
282for us than we do. Our concerns are minimized and ignored. When students speak, we are often treated as if our perspectives don't matter, even though decision the decisions that are being made here today affect us the most. But, I will say this. I'm incredibly proud of the students who come out meeting after meeting to stand up and make our voices heard by the community. Even when it feels like the board is not willing to take us seriously, this is civic engagement in real time, and I'm sure these lessons will stay with us. For now, I want to repeat what others have said tonight. You were elected to serve the students. Many of us are paying close attention to what happens here. We talk about these decisions at school the next day, and some of us
283will soon be turning 18, and I will say that some of us will be continuing our civic lessons at the ballots in November. Thank you. I'd like to remind you if we're going to go through these in a timely manner, please do not applaud. There's no applauding, hissing, booing, or cheering. We said that at the beginning of the meeting. I'd like you to respect that, please. Hi. So, my name is Warren Rutledge and I'm a sophomore at the high school. Um So, I just find it kind of interesting that at all of the last probably three or four meetings, you all had very contentious discussions about the bylaw. I believe it was 9322, the one that gave the board president the authority to set the agenda. Um I In my interpretation, it the reason that
284you guys gave for amending that bylaw was that you believe that the public wasn't being heard in the way the agenda was set and you wanted to change that. Um and so, what happened today? All of the seniors came on a Thursday night. We don't have school tomorrow, so they could be out having a good time with their friends, but instead they decided to come here and try and have their voices heard like you amended the bylaws to do. Um and then when they were speaking, I it seemed to me as if you were kind of listening and you were understanding what they were saying, but some of the board members were more focused on telling the audience not to clap rather than actually understanding what the seniors were saying and asking you to not
285even like vote. They just want you to consider and hear their voices. If you're not going to vote and move it back to the Guyer field, I would like it to be Guyer field, but I'm not a senior, so I don't think my input really matters at all. Um if you're not even going to listen and you're not going to put it back on the agenda to at least discuss it and allow more information to come in. I think the way that it was handled and moved for the Irvine Bowl was not good at all. Um I think if you're not going to re-agendize it at the very least, you should if there's a way you can do this, let it be a site decision again. Our administrators on site, Dr. Almond, are amazing. They
286are like involved with the students and they understand what the students want and they're way more connected to the students and that's not meant to be offensive. They just see them every day. So they understand what the students want a lot more. So that's for graduation. Um as for Logan and Ivy, I think if any of the allegations or what was said is true, I think that's incredibly disrespectful. I don't know if it's true or not, so I'm not going to comment on that, but I just want to thank them because I think that they represent the student voice incredibly well and they work really hard to make sure that the students' voice are heard on these board meetings, um especially because a lot of students are like talking about the school board meetings at
287school, which I think Kate talked about earlier. I don't think that should be something that students are talking about. Um so at the end of one of my public comments last year, I believe in November, I stated I will always I will always continue to believe that you have the best interest of students and staff when making decisions, but based on this decision made around graduation and what I've heard from the staff, I dishearteningly say that I no longer believe this to be true. I urge you to consider why you ran to be on this board. I don't think it was to incite chaos and make people angry and I apologize for going over. Thank you so much. Are there any other students? That's all I had that said student. Okay, Michael Morgan, Kimberly Smith,
288Laura Silver. >> Good evening. Thank you all for the district leadership and the board for having us allow us to speak here tonight. Um I actually was fortunate enough to take a couple days of leadership training this week. And um as some of you may know, there's a book out there by Patrick Lencioni titled The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. As I was going through that, I would say that the district leadership, the school board, site leadership, um basically all the leadership here probably is aware of this book. Some of them probably have read it. Some of them probably been through seminars. I actually felt one of the topics in general that a collective leadership team basically has fallen prey to is lack of commitment. So, there are five total traps, as mentioned, that are
289out there. Um I won't go into those, but essentially the lack of commitment I think is something that it speaks very loudly and clearly. So, just a few minutes here, I'm not a trained moderator. I pulled some of the slides after listening to Patrick. And certainly hope the collective leaders would like to align, commit, and not be subject to chaos, and hold each other accountable. So, as you probably heard from tonight, right, a lot of people may be in disalignment and agreement, but I think this collective leadership team can do a lot. Even tonight, I heard Dr. Glass come very clear with the statement that the district and superintendent and his staff have heard the board loud and clear. They're going to do an amazing job. So, on this level of commitment, teams should encourage
290constructive and respectful debate, focus on the mission, goals, and strategies. They should avoid topics such as people, personalities, excuse me, and blame. They should allow the team members to come forward in this room, right? You're not a corporation per se of a private company. You can't have closed board meetings. But they should allow people to come forward, voice their opinions. But often 100% consensus is never gained. And when it is gained, it waters down topics. They often come too late. It too high of a price is paid. It often lacks clarity. Leads to ambiguity. And basically you end up with passive commitment from leaders. Effective teams adopt, disagree, and commit. It's a mentality that results in common plan. Goals resonate across the team. And again, Dr. Glass said that tonight. Leaders looking to be to
291be part of a highly effective team should not leave the room and voice their private concerns. Highly effective leaders commit to the collective plan even when there is not 100% agreement. So, this commitment leads to the ability to know what is called a cascading messaging where you adopt organizational commitment, not personal opinion. You eliminate side conversations that reopen settled discussions. You model confidence to your teams and that the organizational directive is believed in even when it wasn't your first choice. Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is Kimberly Smith. Um I'm really appreciative of actually the comment that was just made about Peter Lencioni. I have actually not what I'm up here for, but since I have 3 minutes, I'll take a moment. Um I read The Advantage, which was the follow-up to the five
292dysfunction of a team. And interestingly enough, uh the biggest factor for a successful organization is trust. So, uh thank you for bringing that up, and I'd like to highlight that as a key component to uh a successful organization. I'm actually up here this evening. Well, first I want to thank the team for putting together such uh a thorough uh report on the financials. I unfortunately came a little late, so I didn't catch it all, but from what I did hear, uh it was clearly there was a lot of diligence done. Um but I actually wanted to come up and speak about being a parent. And for anyone in the room or anyone listening that is a parent, it's as much as we're talking about all the factors that go into running a district tonight, I
293wanted to take us back to step back and reflect on our children, who are the students that we serve. And I personally and my husband, who's here tonight, um are going through an interesting phase of growth in our children's lives, as we all do. And our oldest daughter is moving into junior high and will be going to Thirston. And so, we had the incredible opportunity to join a number of parents this week with Mr. Vidal and his entire staff. Not his entire staff, but those that came and represented the staff and teachers, uh to learn more about the curriculum and the opportunities that are available to our students, to our children. And I can't tell you how blown away I was with their commitment, um their understanding and empathy of the stage of life that
294they're in. It's very apparent how close they are to all the students uh that they have the pleasure, from what it's very apparent, the pleasure of working with on a daily basis. So, I wanted to take a moment moment to commend them and express my gratitude. My husband and I moved here to be part of this district specifically, and um we're very glad that we did. So, thank you to the all the teachers and staff that do an incredible job. Did And then we have our next speaker. While the speaker is coming up, did you see that um Thurston Kimberly was named in a distinguished school this morning, and it's in the OC Register. That Thurston was identified as one of the distinguished schools of Orange County. So, it's in the Register. Yeah. It was
295announced this morning. Um Michelle Hyberg, and I know you have two cards, but you just get to speak once. Sorry about that. And um I think Kimberly Smith had two cards, too. Um Go ahead. Hi. I'm Michelle Hyberg. I'm a veteran parent of the Falkowskis. I'm here today as the co-founder and gratitude chief of Just Gather Wellness. We are the world's first digital detox nonprofit um based here in Laguna Beach, and I came to mention that we'd like to help with the device protocols that are required at all schools by July 1st in California. But, after being in this meeting, I just my heart is broken for these children. My children, who graduated recently, were not We didn't go through this. I'm I'm here as a gratitude teacher. I'm here to promote mental wellness. We
296use nature, the arts, and gratitude for inner peace, and we need a lot more harmony. It's a tough world out there. This board, you're the examples for our children. Our teachers are fabulous, too. But, what's going on in these meetings is it's it's sad. And I don't get sad. I'm pretty emotionally mastered, but um what I'm witnessing here is unhealthy. And there's got to be harmony because I'm going to go fight with the students now. We're not having the graduation in the Irvine Bowl. I don't care if I have to go to every city council meeting with them and write press releases every week. I'm fighting for them. Who's fighting for them? So, anyway. I love all of you. I'm here to help increase harmony. Um and we're going to do a lot more events
297to do that. We're even doing weekly Jess gathers. I have a funder who's paying for food and facilitators to do weekly self-care cuz we're going to unite this community. So, that's my uh share for Jess gather. Hi, I'm Michelle Hyberg. I'm I'm here on behalf of the Top of the World Neighborhood Association of which I'm the president of the board. And I was asked to come here to address the empty lot on Alpine Way right next to TOW school. There's been um a lot of dangerous activity going on in the cave that the kids are coming from all sorts of towns, Long Beach, Laguna Hills. I I mean, most of the kids I talk to aren't from our town and they're going to that cave. They're doing drugs. They're you know, committing graffiti. A lot
298of the graffiti looks like it's from teen boys. Um I think you know what I'm talking about. So, I'm here to ask that we re-look at that lot that TOW owns. We gave a letter last year, but there was a different school board. And for a moment, stakes went up, and then it seemed to get abandoned. So, we've also written a letter to everyone on City Council and to our wonderful new Dr. Glass, welcome. Um to re-address what is going on with that lot and Thank you. Dr. Glass, just to to add onto that, didn't we have we had that that was a discussion that the board had that it was staked, and we were going to look at that and how we could better protect that, and now we're hearing that nothing was done.
299Can we look back into that? Um I've received a letter from Michelle on it today and asked us for a staff briefing on that. They have sent that to me. I haven't had a chance to review it yet. Okay, cuz I know we brought that that was a discussion. We actually did this I think out here. And we worked with the neighborhood association. We agreed on putting up a fence, and and we were all with the program, and then uh it got confusing up there with the neighborhood association cuz some people would agree, and some people didn't. Think so. So, it sort of uh ran out of steam. Okay, thank you for looking into that. Next speaker. Leslie Elliott, Aaron Berryman, and Daisy Suziac. Good evening. Uh Trustee Hills, you've said a few times that
300we should all watch the Newport Beach School Board meeting from December 9th, 2025. And I bet you I'm the only one that did it. I did it twice. It ran 1 hour and 57 minutes. You heard me, not 7 hours, not five, not even three, 1 hour 57 minutes. And here's my takeaway. The board president clearly knows Robert's Rules and doesn't need a gavel to prove it. No grievance tours from the '80s. No marathon bylaw bylaw rewrites. No conspiracy theories about the union. And no one treating the superintendent like a suspect under interrogation. Their president wasn't ill-tempered or a hothead. No one seemed to think they were the only smart person in the room. It looked like the board members had actually done their homework before the meeting, which wild concept made things move efficiently.
301And everyone seemed to treat Jeff Dixon with the utmost respect, and he looked like a district employee who had a reason to enjoy his job. Again, respect. Non-agenda comments. That happened at the 28-minute mark. No one was trying to quiet the voices of the community. So if you're still wondering why our meetings don't run like Newport's, I'd suggest watching one of our 7-hour sagas with a mirror handy. Erin, come on up. >> staff that would like to go ahead of me though. I'd rather have staff go ahead of me. Go ahead, Erin. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um okay. After the last meeting, I thought it'd be fun to do some reading on like your documents online and some CSBA stuff. And it was inspired by Mr. Pearl's words and his his presentation. So I just wanted
302to throw out some words that I enjoyed reading in in regard to how board members should behave. Be courteous. Be good citizens. Take personal responsibility. Do not berate, scold, or condemn vehemently. Act with dignity. And understand implications of demeanor and behavior. Govern in a dignified and professional manner, treating everyone with civility and respect. What you say reflects the whole board and district. Be prudent. Don't ever talk negatively to patrons about staff or personnel. Demeanor of board members sends an important as important message to the public as the actual decisions made by the board members about the quality of leadership the and the schools. Perceptions of demeanor have dramatic consequences and board members must act accordingly. And you have your five um core values on the LBUSD website. They're all really important, but number four is
303courtesy. We reach We treat everyone with dignity and respect. As I said at the last meeting, I'm going to continue to say it. You are on record, Sherry and Howard. Um and when you vote with MD, you again you co-signed and you're complicit in their poor behavior of staff, but you are irrefutably um on record, on video, um witnessed by staff, in communications, public records of being disrespectful to staff. You've been disrespectful to students when you threatened to kick them out when they're whispering over their homework. And so, it is very clear from your attorney as well as all of your documentation of how you are to be behaving and acting and setting examples for the kids in the room. Um but we're not seeing that. You are on record for being the opposite of
304that. I would like for you, um because I it seems like you can't shame the shameless, and it's too much to ask for people to leave egos at the door um to or to be just decent humans. So, I'm asking you need look at the actual CSBA, your documents um and what your lawyer is saying for future meetings and how you treat the staff and students particularly. Before you say it Sherry, no thank you. So I am speaking as president tonight, but I thought I'd just step down and that was Aaron was good to follow because mine goes along with that. I wrote a statement to the board of trustees and the community because recent public comments by Sherry Morgan suggesting that staff have bullied, harassed, or intimidated students or might intentionally create a mishap
305at graduation demand a clear and public response and an apology. These claims are false. At no time has any member of our staff bullied or threatened a student. In fact, staff have consistently and proactively supported students on all sides of the graduation venue discussion. Those who hold differing opinions have received regular check-ins to ensure they feel safe, heard, and respected. That is the standard our educators and our administrator upholds every day. The suggestion that staff would intentionally disrupt or undermine a graduation ceremony is particularly troubling. Our educators are professionals. They are committed to students. They've been asked to pivot quickly to a venue they've never planned in advance with limited time to prepare and they are doing so with professionalism and care. To imply sabotage or retaliation is not only unfounded, but also an attack
306on their integrity. Publicly suggesting that educators would bully students or intentionally create problems at graduation erodes trust and damages morale at a time when staff are working diligently to ensure a meaningful student focused ceremony. The board majority decided to change the venue 3 months before graduation. That decision and the chaos that has occurred since is strictly on the board majority and only the board majority. Our staff, on the other hand, remains committed to doing everything humanly possible to make graduation a safe, celebratory, and memorable experience for students and their families. That commitment has never wavered and it won't. Given the seriousness of the accusations made, a public clarification and correction is warranted. Our educators deserve nothing less. They deserve nothing less than an apology from me because you clearly do not understand the people that
307work here. Michelle Thank you. Michelle Foster, Meredith McMahon, Brooke Tegree I'm not saying that right. Hi, Michelle Foster, teacher at the high school. Um So, Sherry, I just have to bring one thing that just really hit me hard today when you were responding to Logan and Ivy and all the other students about graduation night. You said the difference between having it at Guyer Field and the Irvine Bowl was one student. And so, how I took that is that that one student that actually got the majority to have it at Guyer Field does not matter. And that is not okay with I don't think anyone in this room or any educator at this district. Um I'm true Unless I'm mistaken, I thought our slogan was still every student every day. Did that change? I don't think
308it did. So, um what you're saying is that the voice of Piper tonight, the voice of Warren, the voice of Samia, the voice of Ella, the voice of Teddy, the voice of Delilah, Kate, Logan, Ivy, Emily, Ariana, Megan, and every of their student that voted in a survey that was given to them on what choice they wanted, that even though they had the majority, that did not matter to you. And that is not okay. Just so you know, just let's just take one vote into perspective. Pretty sure every time I've watched a meeting or been at a meeting, the votes have been in the majority three to two. So, can we just excuse one of you as one of those votes? Can we just take a vote off since it's it's not a big deal,
309right? I mean, so if we actually did that and we went back to the Garfield versus Irvine bull vote, and you said one vote, it's just one vote, can we just go back to two-two? And then that would have it stay at Garfield. So, is that cool if we do that since you are the one that commented it was just one vote? Pretty sure that that's what you're saying. And so, this is this is absolutely not okay. You guys truly need to reconsider what this how chaotic this decision has been and how unjust it's been. We teach democracy in our schools, and you basically just voided that. You voided that, and you are not listening to the majority, and it would be like no one paying attention to you or or Dr. Glass not having
310to listen to a three-two vote every time because it's just one vote. It's extremely frustrating. It's very disrespectful to our students, and I will continue to fight with them if as long as they're going to fight, I will fight with them. And honestly, I think every student here cuz just how they were raised in the district they were raised in and the people that brought them up, if the majority did decide on Irvine goal, we would not be having all these discussions right now, but they didn't. They wanted it at Garfield, and what you told the whole entire public today is that Liz Bates vote meant more to you than the students and that is not okay with me, period. Hi, good evening. I wrote you a bedtime story. It's called the meeting that went
311past bedtime. Once upon a time there was a magical coastal town where the ocean sparkled in the sunshine and the rolling hills turned golden at sunset. The town was full of wonderful families and neighbors that cared deeply about their community. In that town artists painted the sea, children wandered winding canyon trails after school, and the children's schools were filled with teachers who helped them learn and cared very much about them. And every so often the school board gathered in a bright meeting room to talk about the schools and make important decisions. Parents came, teachers came, neighbors came. Some carried notebooks, some carried questions, some carried big ideas about how to make the schools even better. At the beginning of the meeting something very special happened. A microphone was placed at the front of the room
312and anyone who cared about the schools could step forward and share their thoughts. Sometimes people agreed, sometimes they didn't, but everyone knew something important, their voice belonged there. Then one day the new board majority got tired of hearing the people listen, tired of having to listen to the people say things they didn't want to hear. They decided to make a change and then the public microphone went away. Public comment was moved to the very end of the meeting. Would their change work? That is when the meetings began to grow longer and longer and longer. Parents checked their watches, teachers stacked their papers, neighbors shifted in their chairs. Outside the sun slipped behind the hills, the sky turned dark. The parking lot began to empty, but still the townspeople stayed. Inside the agenda kept going, past
313dinner time, past homework time, past bedtime. But still they stayed and said things the board didn't want to hear. But the people in the magical town knew something about storybooks. They knew books have chapters. And sometime when a chapter isn't working very well, the author writes a new one. The magical town's new chapter was written in November. The people of the town went to vote, and they chose change. And when the new school board gathered for its very first meeting, something familiar appeared at the front of the room, a microphone, right at the beginning of the agenda. Parents smiled, teachers stepped forward, neighbors lined up to speak, and the new school board listened. And from that night on, the meetings in the magical coastal town were no longer known as the meetings that went past
314bedtime. Thank you. Brooke. Okay. Um Samantha. I think Stephen McIntosh left. Okay. Samantha, Lauren Carter. Crystal Jerabek. My name is Samantha Savage Bright. I am the mom of a senior in the class of 2026 and sophomore class of 2028. On March 1st, with the help, love, and support of a remarkable powerhouse of people, a lot of them behind me today, I created a petition to bring Laguna Beach High School graduation home to Guyer Field. A petition that as of today has over 1,059 supporters in less than 2 weeks. More than a thousand people in this community have spoken. Students spoke, parents spoke, teachers spoke, relevant alumni of Laguna Beach High School spoke, and yet a very small group of people in power positions decided they didn't have to listen. What a shame. But tonight, I'm
315not speaking to this board. I'm not going to waste my time. Tonight, as a mother, a teacher, and as a child advocate, I'm here to speak to the students. The behavior you have all have witnessed from the adults in this process should serve as a lesson, not in how leadership works, but in how it fails. And it is certainly not how real leadership works. Real leaders listen. Real leaders respect the people they serve. Real leaders understand that power is temporary and accountability is inevitable. Seniors, I want you to remember this moment, not because of where your graduation will take place, but because you have now seen very clearly what leadership is not. Leadership is not dismissing the voices of the students you represent. Leadership is not ignoring a community asking to be heard. Leadership is
316not making decisions that divide the people that you are supposed to serve. And most importantly, leadership is not using authority simply because you have the power to do so. Over the past few weeks, you have organized, you spoke up, you asked to be heard, and that took courage. And the fact that so many of you had the courage to stand up and use your voices should make this entire community proud. Even when adults in positions of authority didn't listen the way you they should have, you showed something far more important. You showed courage, you showed integrity, and you used your voice. And I want you to remember something as you move forward in your lives. Never let anyone in a position of power convince you that your voice does not matter. If you see injustice,
317speak up. If you see people abusing power, challenge it. If you see leaders ignoring the very community they're supposed to represent, hold them accountable. Because leadership is not about power. Leadership is about responsibility to the people you serve. Seniors, we are so proud of you. And as you step into the world beyond this school, remember this. You always win when you move through life with authenticity, honesty, love, and a grateful heart. And lastly, for the record, I've also submitted a written statement and public records act request to the board and superintendent regarding its accountability and ensuring compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act as it pertains to the board's decision to move graduation from Guyer Field to the Irvine Bowl. I request it be entered into public record. Good evening, board members. My name is
318Lauren Carter. I am a Laguna Beach parent of a 2028, 2029, and 2035 graduate. The decision to move the graduation venue to the Irvine Bowl raises serious questions about process, transparency, and whose voices were prioritized. First, I want to acknowledge that the Irvine Bowl is beautiful and it's a historic venue. Yes, my husband is a creative director for the Coast Film Festival, but this is not the Coast Film Festival. This is not Jack Johnson with the greatest AV and sound people available to them. This is going to be a different type of event where we're going to be looking at our children with our the backs of their heads. We're going to be looking at them through binoculars. But I digress. There are several inconsistencies in the process. Many in the community are struggling to
319reconcile. President Morgan in a recent email to me, you stated that the board relied on staff presentations rather than the Irvine Bowl petition in making this decision. Yet, February 12th planning presentation repeatedly highlights accessibility for grandparents and extended family members is a key priority for graduation. Those priorities clearly align with a flexible ground-level venue like Gahr Gahr Field, not a steep amphitheater. The timeline also raises serious questions. The Bowl petition was created in August of 2025 yet the graduation venue did not appear on the board agenda until February of 2026 after invitations were already printed listing Gahr Field and operational planning was already well underway. If this decision truly stemmed from staff planning considerations, why was the venue question not brought before the board in spring of 2025? The student survey also deserves context. Students
320were told a survey was for feedback, not for a permanent venue change. I would also like to add that I don't think it's fair that that only the seniors of 2026 get a voice of all future graduations. Um excuse me. Let's say da da da. I forgot where I was. Okay, there we are. The Irvine Bowl petition was introduced in 2025 and accumulated 1,134 signatures over many months. In addition, dozens of emails were sent to the board and more more than 40 public comments were spoken on February 26th. The overwhelming majority asked for boards not to move the graduation to Gahr Field. There are practical and financial implications as well that are ringing up as we speak by moving it to the Irvine Bowl. Graduation is a family event. It includes parents, siblings, grandparents, and
321relatives with mobility limitations. Under ADA Title II, public school districts must ensure that their programs are accessible to individuals with disability. A steep amphitheater venue with extensive stair seating raises legitimate questions about accessibility and the ability for families to sit together and participate fully in this milestone event. This conversation is not about nostalgia or resistance to change. Traditions evolve. In fact, Guyer Field has become the tradition graduation tradition for recent classes because it works well for students and families. What concerns many of us is not simply the venue itself, but the process that led to this decision. Transparency, consistency, and community voice are essential to good governance. When the reasoning presented does not appear to align with the facts and the timeline, it naturally raises questions. This community has spoken through petitions, emails, and public
322comment. Good go Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Next Next speaker, please. Hi board. My name is Crystal Gerabek. I come as a parent tonight. Logan, Ivy, amazing. All the students that came, they have left, and the ones that are still here, incredible. You make parents in our town very, very proud. I was um and to the new seniors that you stuck fire under their butts, I'm so excited. I looking um looking back on the idea that you we had um two new board members voted in. I went back and looked at the election results. And I was reminded how close we were, but I was like, what what was the the the motive for for the two new elected officials? And I'm assuming it's change, that people wanted change. They want to see
323something new come in. And I'm assuming that this change was change to push to be greater. Change to ensure that we had motivated and and inspired staff. Change to provide new challenging education opportunities for our children in this ever-changing world. But instead, you are spending the first year changing governance and graduation locations. All while unmotivating staff, not listening to student voice, and making the quiet majority ready to fight. The fact you would not reconsider reviewing your vote on graduation locations based on new information and this in this week's agenda may seem like a small sword you want to go down on, but come November, your community will not forget. Thank you for opening up the eyes of the silent majority. In spite of your decision-making antics, our kids will have an amazing graduation because of
324the staff and the parents. They will dedicate themselves to that location that they do not want, but they will make it special. But you, my friends, will see large numbers in November. Thank you. Shaheen Siddall I'll just start by saying Logan and Ivy, thank you for those really moving statements. In my experience, when people make false accusations, they're often confessions. So, I'm not sure who's feeding anyone lines up here, but what I do know it is not me to both of you. I want to address a theme that this board majority keeps surfacing. The idea that decisions should be framed around honoring taxpayer taxpayers and the financial contributions of this community. We've heard specific numbers cited that the community funds roughly 80% of the district's $90 million budget, that School Power contributes more than 500,000
325annually, and that community groups and families donate more than $450,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors. These numbers are real, and they reflect a community that is deeply invested in its schools. But, it's important to understand why our public education system is structured this way. Public schools are funded largely through state and local taxes, including property taxes, because education is considered a core public good. Something communities collectively support so that all children have access to learning and opportunity. In the United States, the vast majority of school funding comes from state and local sources, with property tax playing a very central role. The purpose of this system is not to create tiers of influence based on who contributes the most financially. The purpose is to ensure that communities invest together in the education of their children because
326strong schools produce strong communities. When a community funds its schools, the expectation is simple, that the district will produce well-educated, capable, thoughtful citizens who contribute to society, strengthen the local economy, and make the community a place where families want to live and raise their children. That is the social contract behind public education. The way we honor taxpayers is not by repeatedly invoking how much money they contribute. The way we honor them is by delivering what they are actually paying for, an exceptional public education system. When our schools succeed, property values rise, communities grow stronger, and the cycle of community investment continues. A school board's responsibility, then, is to steward that investment on behalf of the students the system exists to serve. Every decision should begin with the same guiding question, what best supports the students
327in our schools today? But invoking that the community funds roughly 85% of the district's 90 million budget, for example, as a rationale for decision-making risks sending the wrong message. That financial contribution somehow translates into authority over student experience, and it does not. Our students are not beneficiaries of charity from adults in this town. They are the reason the system exists in the first place. The role of this board is not to continually remind the public how much money the community contributes. The role of this board is to steward the investment responsibly by building a world-class education system centered on the students. Thank you. Are there any other cards? Okay. No. Has everybody spoken? Okay, if you had did not submit a card and you still want to speak, please line up at the microphone. Thank
328you. I I didn't want to submit a card because um I've cried twice since I was 20 years old, when my grandfather died, and when my father died, 3 years ago. I have tears in my eyes because of the chaos of this board. I've spent the last 20 years here. I love these students. I love this community. I love this district. And you guys have me wanting to look for another job. It breaks my heart. Shame on you. Shame on you for saying I can't clap for a student. I never thought from the day I walked onto this board into this campus that I was ever going to leave. I literally would have been happy dying in my classroom. Now I want to leave. Shame on you. So normally when I come to uh give
329comment, I prepare really extensively ahead of time and have written things down. But after what happened during the reporting thing, I've been really trying to think about what is happening. And I really feel like a student slogan I be that was amazing to be able to bring adults to be accountable for every single adult in this room. And I think that was incredibly strong and you should be very proud of yourselves and I'm if I was your parent, I'd yeah, I'm crying. I have a four-year-old. He's graduating 2039. Like a long way to go. Um but one of the things I think that just keeps on happening is these warnings that I have had up here giving the board is saying we need to stay as a governance, right? We need to stay as a
330governing board. And this decision and all these different little decisions have gone to the point where you have fallen on your swords. And there is some confusion where we are a mischief minority that is trying to take over things and that you maybe you're hearing the same voices over and over. Maybe you're seeing the same letters, seeing the same emails. But that's just because these are the people who are willing to stand up and talk. These are the people who are willing to reach out and give a voice to people who aren't comfortable coming up here. I know many parents who are not comfortable coming up here for fear of their kids having retaliation on on certain things. So, it's one of those things that I think we really need to look at it not
331in terms of lashing out against our community members, against our parents, against our students, but as a time of reflection, a time to be able to kind of look in on ourselves and take accountability. Just because there's a you know, maybe five people saying the same thing, it's not coming from the same source. I feel like we all are very intelligent. We all work really hard to be in the school district, whether you're a parent, uh a staff, or a teacher. We're coming from these positions for a reason, and I think it's one of those things that we really need to make sure that are we actually paying attention to this group, or are we actually listening to what everyone is saying? Um I personally believe we would not be here if we uh if
332there was a vote. I know that it was a 50/50 chance. I know there's still a loud group of people who love uh Irvine Bowl, and again I have a long way to go, so I have no idea what's going to happen when my kid gets ready to graduate. But in general, um it's one of those things that if there was no vote, and it was left to the site, and we had that open conversation, which is legally what you're allowed to do, right? The governing board should have an open conversation, allow the community to have a voice, but ultimately it should have gone back to the site. And it would have been their decision, and we wouldn't be in this turmoil, in this uh fractured community. So, I really hope that we can look
333inward, take some accountability, and move forward as a community. Thank you. Hi there, my name is Kathy. I've attended numerous meetings, watched uh many more. Wasn't sure I'd ever uh have the courage to get up here and speak to you, um but it's actually my fourth grader at TOW that gave me the courage to speak. Um and that's because she came home on Tuesday. Was Nora's birthday? Um, and talked about how amazing she thought Dr. Glass was. And my husband and I have talked about this, but all I did was ask her about her day. I I I would never have thought to ask my fourth grader about what she thought about Dr. Glass. Um, but she reminded me that it's important um, to communicate that with not only him, but but you all that
334hired him. And I actually have come today to say thank you to the five of you. I think that, um, hiring Dr. Glass is single-handedly the um, the best decision that the five of you had made together. And it shows me that when you come together and vote unanimously on something, you're making the right decision. Um, I hope that that's a sign to all of you as well as you work, um, to work together more more more cohesively. Um, I I I see the efforts and I appreciate it, but I also, um, again, want to thank Dr. Glass for his leadership. He's He doesn't He doesn't He doesn't know me. This I was not paid by Fuel or Dr. Glass or any I'm just here as a parent tonight. Um, and yeah, this amazing kid
335in our district learning to come home and and and talk about the good things happening her district and remind me, um, about how important it is to to to honor the voices of our children and to honor my own voice and come here and speak to you about this incredible superintendent that you hired us for us just 9 months ago. Um, I have talked to many parents People who know me know I talk a lot. So, I have talked to many many parents, all of whom have a growing affection and affinity and a respect for Dr. Glass. I hope that you will continue to respect him as our students, our teachers, our staff, and our parents do. Um and allow him to do his job and lead our district as I believe he's doing an
336incredible job and I believe that so do the people the rest of the people in this room. Um thank you for your time. Thank you. Okay, it's 11:00. That brings us to the end of our of our meeting. Um I need a motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Thank you. Our next regular meeting is Thursday, March 26th.