School Board Meeting- October 9, 2025 (Open Session)

001Good evening and welcome to the October 9th, 2025 meeting of the LBUSD School Board of Education. The O open session is called to order at 6:15. Sorry about we were late. If you are a student who wishes to speak to an item, please write student at the top of your card so you can speak first and do not have to remain for the entire meeting. All public comments submitted via the online form were sent to all board members prior to the meeting. Ivy, will 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, Ivy. Okay. Um, I have I have an action

002to report out of our close session. Uh the motion a motion was authorized by the board for the board president and the superintendent in cooper consultation with the new CBO to refer the audit report by Michael Bishop and associates um to agencies of regulation and compliance. jurisdiction if necessary. The vote count was um board member Malesky voted no, board member Kelly voted no, board member Morgan voted yes, board member Hills voted yes, I voted yes. Now, public comment items not on the agenda within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. Clerk Hills, are there any speaker cards for those wishing to comment on items not on the agenda? >> Yes. Uh first is Yankee Han. Uh second is Lauren Hunterburgger. Um third is Steve Brown. Okay. The first one was Yoni >> Yoni Han. >>

003Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Hello. My name's Yankee Han. Um, I'd like to make a comment regarding the um, healthc care insurance audit for the premiums that were paid by the school district. Um, it's been a number of years, but my kids went to school here. They're now pretty old, so it's been a while. My background is actually in um, financial audits as well. I work with deote and deote related entities for over 30 years doing financial audit audits and helping organizations with cost reduction strategies. So, I found it interesting that while the audit that was done um confirmed that the district paid in excess of what was the obligation for the uh insurance premiums, but I think a uh more important question is why did that occur? and the audits that are

004done by uh the company that was um employed that's not within the purview of that type of information. So, I think it's important for either the current broker or an independent um benefits consultant to dig into the information on why did this overpayment occur? Was it because um the analysis, the contribution analysis that was done, maybe that was incorrect, or maybe the employee information that was loaded into the system in terms of what they're supposed to contribute, maybe that was wrong. But I think it needs to have further conversation, not just an audit that says it's confirmed that they paid more. The question is why did that happen? If we don't look at that, it could happen in future years and you know it appears from what I read that it's been going on for

005over five years. So what do we need to do to make sure that that doesn't continue in the future. So that is my suggestion. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hi there. Uh, Lauren Entertarer, my daughter is in first grade. Um, Dr. Glass, first and foremost, I want to apologize because I came here tonight with the sole intent of hearing your pre present your 100 day report. But unfortunately, I became aware of the letters Howard Hills has been circulating regarding the healthc care over overages, and I felt I couldn't sit back and stay silent. I'm not sure you and I were in the same school board meeting two weeks ago. From that meeting, you have mischaracterized what the auditor presented. You have disrespected the staff. You have accused past board members and employees of crimes. And

006you have likely opened yourself and probably the district to lawsuits. Your outbursts and tales of grievances are old. Howard, you are not contributing. You have not contributed anything positive to our schoolboard meetings in the last 10 months. I've sat in that seat the entire time. I usually stand up here and ask you to put aside your grievances and move forward. But tonight, I'm no longer asking you to step up to the position. Tonight, I'm asking you to step down. Good evening. Hiring an outside professional to do a targeted audit of what appears to be a multi-year benefits overpayment issue was absolutely required in your oversight role. It was a good start to your discovery process. Before I continue, though, let me clarify something around a confusing narrative making the rounds. Structurally speaking, the district hierarchy

007related to benefits in this case breaks into three main pieces, all with different roles and responsibilities. It has an oversight layer, which is the school board, a management leadership layer, which is the superintendent and the district leaders and staff. To be clear, this overpayment issue was not caused by actions tak attempt to say so is patently ridiculous and seems only intended to increase anxiety among the rank and file. It's clear to everyone at this point that the staff was simply swept up in this and obviously did nothing wrong as they did not and do not set benefits for the district. It's also clear that the two groups with more work to do here are the board and its oversight role and district leadership who does set benefits for the district. At this point, the open

008questions are many, but perhaps the most obvious one from the audit report revolves around which person or persons may have approved and paid taxpayer money intended for children and seemingly without board approval. In your oversight role, you must ask yourself what the impact may have been to children and programs that did not receive this money. You must ask yourself how over a million dollars and possibly over two million based on simple mathematical interpolation of the missing two years in the auditor's analysis possibly have left district coffers and with seemingly without board approval. That money appears to be gone now as flagged by the auditor. So answers must be found. One way the auditor stated this in their report was quote as mentioned previously for the four years 2223 through 2526 the district did not set

009employee contributions according to the language contained in the CBA and consequently the district covered or in my words paid out more of the total annual cost than it should have otherwise end quote. The Audgers report states what happened but it leaves unsaid how it happened and what that means. So you must seek it out. To that end, the audit report tells you exactly what you need to do by further stating, quote, "Whether this lack of compliance is evidence of a material breach or impropriy requires a legal review and conclusion." End quote. This is now the place where each of you finds yourself. And I would simply say this next step is not an optional one. Each of you look took an oath of office when you stepped into this role. Clear. It requires you affirm

010your support and defense of both the US and California constitutions. follow all laws and faithfully discharge your duties of office. The bottom line is that it would appear from what you know now, the children you protect, the staff you support, and the district you lead and oversee appear to have all been impacted by this. You must continue to move forward, and your next step requires hiring legal expertise. Thank you. >> Thank you. Are there more cards? Yes, we have uh George Weiss, we have um Shaheenic Sadal, we have Kit Verdugo and we have Gary Kasich. So that's four people and that's the end of the um cards for that agenda item. >> Thank you board. Uh at the last meeting, the Michael Brown auditing team appointed by the school new school board confirmed that the

011good beach unified school district employee health insurance plan had been overpaid by $1.3 million since 2021. Forgiving this debt would amount to an illegal gift of public funds. The evidence indicates this was not a single simple clerical error or consequent con consequence of underststaffing. A memorandum of understanding as I understand it was executed in 2021 that specifically authorized the overpayments for that year proving the district was aware of the issue. However, nous were created for sub as would have. Furthermore, the auditors confirmed that key staff members would likely have known the overpayments were continuing. This is not a simple matter of honest mistake. It was a deliberate choice that needs to be explained. The board and district staff must now be guided by three core principles: transparency, accountability, and fiscal stewardship. The critical question you

012must address is what steps will be taken to conduct an expanded forensic investigation into who knew what and when did they know it. The hiring of a new assistant superintendent of business services provides an excellent opportunity for decisive action. We urge you to direct him to one recover the funds, work with the LBUSD employees union to reclaim all funds paid out without proper and continuing authorization. two, launch an investigation, engage a a forensic auditor to determine if those responsible were acting in good faith compliance with the law, making these honor authorized payments, and why were they allowed to continue? Failure to meaningfully address primapacia misconduct costs a tremendous amount of time and energy, and it can cause significant damage to an organization's health, effectiveness, and reputation. Please do the right thing. The credibility of the

013school board and the district is on the line. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I missed a card for Aaron Perryman, so she would be the next one. >> No, she doesn't have to go next. You may repeat. >> No, you could, but >> Okay. Well, so you don't want to >> Okay, I'm just going to talk about your report. I appreciate it. Um, and I really appreciate your letter, um, your introductory letter associated with it where you now say that you are going to kind of dig in and get into the trenches at at all the school sites. Um, I went to, as you know, two of the town halls I submitted on my online um, comments. I I'm going to assume that all the comments and the things that were articulated at the

014town halls were verified because there was some mis misinformation and that's fine. I've been a misinformed parent a lot, too. But, there were some things that were not totally accurate. So, I assume that the report verified all the comments online and in person. Um, but the best way to really get the district on top of the town halls and these surveys is to go to all the amazing things happening on campus and to go see the things that do need improvement. Um, and just kind of get down and dirty. And I'm hoping that that's actually what you're going to do because in the last several days there have been amazing things on campus. the school power supported homecoming huddle, the game, the pep rally, like the bonanza, the boo blast, um the cultural um music

015traditions happening at this campus as a school power and PTA collab. I mean, all the things in the classroom as I was talking with Mr. Whitop earlier, he has the coolest classroom in the state of California as we've decided. See Thesa in action with kids, see a science experiment in action here at Thirsten, the egg drop at to Elmoro. There are so many incredible things. So, I hope that that's um I know you have to sit down and look at tedious things like insurance policies um but I hope you have a chance to balance that out. Get out the backyard right there with sporting events happening all the time is incredible. So, I really hope you have the time to get to know all the amazing staff. I'm going to continue standing up. I don't

016want to be here every two weeks, but I feel like I have to support this is an awesome staff, even the ones who make mistakes. So, I hope you have the time to know what I know and and pretty much everyone here and everyone watching and submitting on the public comments online know how great this staff is. So, I hope you have an opportunity and your family is opportunity to really get to know this district and this community and really to really feel the love which you indicate in your letter. Like that's your big role is is your takeaway as a superintendent to really understand this district and to know is to really get to know the staff and see see how hard they are working and create either create new teams that need to

017be created or really help nurture the incredible teams that have already been established. Whether that's the awesome custodial staff working super hard every day or the the administrative level at the district level, everything in between. um like I can't say it enough like I really hope you have that opportunity and you feel the same thing that we all feel as parents and families and students in this district. So thank you. >> I apologize that card was given to me as being on the non-aggenda items. It turns out that was on an agenda item. So, returning back to the non-aggenda items, um it's um Kit Verdugo, Shaheen u um uh Shaheen Shadal, and Gary Kasich. >> Everyone, >> hello. My name is Kate Verdugo. I am a proud parent of a second grader at Top of

018the World. I am an active PTA member and I bought my home specifically for the reason that it is in the Lagona Beach Five-Star School District. I care deeply about this community and about this school district in particular. Um, I'm here today making my first ever public comment in a civil civic uh meeting of such as this and I'm here to implore you all to please please focus on the students and on this district and to please leave your vendettas, your self- vindication behind. There is no place for it here. The children need you to show them what civil civic leadership is. This is such an opportunity. You all are in such an important roles and your egos have no place here. Your job is to ensure the greatest amount of good for the greatest

019amount of students and people in this community. That should be the goal of everyone on this board. That community starts with the children, our children. And it also extends to the teachers, the staff, the district, everybody involved here. Um, you cannot do it without them. And the behavior of Mr. Hills and the letter that was written is completely unacceptable for how a board member should behave. If these teachers strike and they walk out because of the behavior of one board member, the parents in this district are not going to tolerate it. Well, I I please ask you to be thoughtful of your role and what your job is and please focus on getting those things done. Sending a letter of that does does nothing. It does no good for this community. All it does is

020show that you want to vindicate yourself in some way on the backs of others here and it's misinformation. It's false and it's completely out of line. It's a role that you are in. So please please focus on what you need to do. How are you going to improve this insurance scandals as you said which is not a scandal. Um, I think no one in this room, at least that I have spoken to, would ever want any of these teachers to have to come out of pocket for a decision that was made related to an insurance policy that they had nothing to do with. These teachers did not take this money from the school district. The school district gave it to them. I would like you to please keep that in mind. And whatever happened before,

021you need to focus on how you're going to fix it now. Make it better. Show us that you can do that. That's what you're here for. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Shaheen Shake Saddle and I have two kids in the district. I don't actually have a formal response tonight other than to say that I did wanted to alert the community that a recent communication from board member Hills has been widely circulated. Now, it was electronic communication and that as a result, we now have a 27 pages of staff and community comments available on the district's website. I understand it was a bit delayed today because of some technical difficulties. So, I just wanted to alert the community that's watching um to please take the time and read through all 27

022pages and you will hear the angst and frustration and exhaustion and fear and concern and anger of our community and our staff members. Um it just it reflects a deep concern from all these people that are beloved to us. um and a narrative that continues to show and sew division create cha chaos and pull our focus away from the most important thing that we're all trying to do, which is serve our students. So, it's long it's long past time that we bring back professionalism to this board, trust in our communities, uh trust of our board, and stability in our district, um so that we can move forward in the best interests of our kids. And President Perry, I've submitted a formal letter to you and I look forward to hearing your response. Thank you. >>

023Good evening everyone. Gary Kasich. Um once again, everybody else forgets, but I want to thank you for your service. It's deeply appreciated. Though we don't may not always agree on things, we know that uh in your hearts, you care about the kids and are doing what you think is right to move them forward. So, thank you all for your service. I was going to welcome Minaj. I'm disappointed he's not here today, but I was going to leave with I was disappointed that there's nothing on the agenda tonight regarding the next steps for the overpayment of the insurance benefits, but I'm cautiously optimistic with the report from the close session that there looks like there will be some further review. So, that's good. Um, the Michael Bishop report was helpful, but frankly, it stopped short of

024key key assessments. At its core, the report simply repeatedly said that CBA limits were not followed. We probably knew that going into the report. There is no fundamental why as we've heard from some other speakers today. And their complicating factors are really questionable because it's a process that's followed by any entity public or private that helps fund health insurance for their employees and frankly a process that's been done by this district for decades. You've taken the right first steps. Uh I think that's very good. But it's critical that you see it through. Simply saying we'll do it right in the future ignores important accountability issues. This is a serious issue as it's not only a misappropriation of taxpayer funds, but more importantly, it redirected funds that could should have been used for student programs. I'm

025hoping this leadership team doesn't get lost in the land of large numbers as we are blessed with an extremely rich district and significant reserves that can make it easy to conclude we have the money so we should do it. And that is a dangerous trend to start. 1.3 million, likely more, is a lot of money. It could hire more classroom staff, could support more student centered programs, and provide more tools for student use. Regarding transparency, as I've stated before at the podium, transparency is easy when things are going good. It takes a lot of courage when mistakes have been made. for the it's a wrap to state quote excess costs were not readily visible to district leadership staff or the board is disingenuous at best CBA negotiators insurance committee contract presentations contract approvals brokers variance

026reports budget transfers there were a lot of eyes on this let's get to the bottom of what happened to ensure everything is right going forward thought it was interesting as the consultant stated how long would this have gone undetected if it was an underpayment as opposed to an overpayment. Please don't stop short. Finish the job. Thank you. >> Is that it? >> Yeah, that's it. >> Okay. Thanks. Thank you everyone. Um, >> can I comment on >> No. Um, we're going to do bargaining. No, you can only ask a question. No, you don't. No. get a threeminute board report. >> No, you can do it in your board report. >> I would just know for the record that the state education code said board members >> I'm noting it for the record. >> Okay. Okay.

027Um we're going to have a report from the bargaining units uh CSEASa. >> Thank you, President Perry. Um first I want to say Dr. glass. We're looking forward to your report tonight and I'm sorry that our report won't be as positive as yours. Um, but my report tonight and Mr. Wickops is to set the record straight for the transcripts for everyone in this room and for those watching at home. Let's talk facts. Mr. Hills, your recent statements and the email you sent following the auditor's report regarding health care were inflammatory, misleading, and deeply inappropriate for someone serving on this board. spreading false information and making unfounded accusations of illegal acts is not only irresponsible, it's defamatory. Your pattern of intimidation and selective truthtelling will not work anymore. This is a strong, proud district comprised of

028highly educated and dedicated staff and parents who see through your tactics. We will not be intimidated or silenced by your elect by your actions. I was elected to represent our classified staff and that is exactly what I intend to do with integrity and without fear of you, Mr. Hills. I will no longer tolerate your harassment or bullying and neither should any member of this staff. Respect is something that must be earned, not demanded. And the reality and fact is you have not earned it. The unions and hardworking employees of this district did not endorse you because you have shown a lack of respect and collaboration. In the last survey, 87.3% of classified and over 90% of certificated staff supported recalling you. That number speaks volumes about how the staff feels about your leadership. Bottom line,

029you didn't earn it. That's a fact. Another fact is for over 20 years staff has watched you as you you board as you use your board meetings to attack and distort. People are tired of it. You talk often about the importance of board policy but you're failing to follow the very policies you cite. You are in violation of board policy 9005, 901, 9012, 92000 and 9323. You cannot pick and choose which bylaws and policies you follow based on your personal agenda. Accountability works both ways. And if you're going to demand adherence to board policy, then you must be held to those same same standards yourself. Respect is earned through integrity, collaboration, and honesty. This district has earned that with staff. You haven't. So, not through intimidation or spin like you want right now. We expect

030all board members to rep our to represent us and our district with dignity, respect, and truth and to act in the best interest of students, staff, and the community. We love this district and we will continue to stand up for it and for what is right. It's worth fighting for and we will fight. >> Thank you, Mr. Woodcock. >> Thank you, President Perry. Um, I'm going to kind of add on to that a little bit and talk about some board policy. Um, and also set a few things straight. Um, at the last board meeting, Howard Hill stated that the unions were here by invitation and we could not have the floor. This is completely incorrect and truth and facts are very important as you just heard of some things from CSEA and they've been lacking

031some of the statements Mr. Hell has been making. I sit on the dascese representing the employees of LBUSD. It is our right to be here and our me membership's right to be represented according to our art our contract article 3-6 the association shall have a seat on the dascese board bylaw 9005 um within that it says act with dignity understanding the implications of your actions members are expected to model appropriate behavior in both public and private settings I would like to quote wrote an email that Mr. Howard Hills sent to a past employee, a pass a past member of LBUSD union, LB uh Laboufa, and very beloved by the students and staff. These are two quotes from that email. Finally, congratulations on joining the election deniers who include the Trump fanatics accused of anti-democratic insurgency

032in 2020 21. You really do need to tend to your own garden. we do not need you here. And from what people say, we never did. And that's responding to somebody coming and standing up here and speaking. The second one in the same email says, "Go ahead and make fun of my social awkwardness when I'm at a loss for words and say um a lot." That's because I was facing a room full of sthing anger inflamed by sign civic ignorance and mediocrity. He was speaking to all of you out there when he said that. Second, I would like to speak about an email that Howard actually sent to Laboua. Um, the LBUSD union document indicated that planning a call to action. I guess those of us who know disinformation when we see it better, start

033dusting off our action for our own. President Perry, I would like to ask you a question. Under transparency, what action, including disciplinary action, is the board planning against current and past employees? And have you had these discussions about this? Also, has the board sought legal advice on disciplinary action against staff and union leadership for speaking out? Thank you. Yeah, I didn't see any disappoint. >> No. Okay. Um, our school resource officer, I think, would like to speak. Thank you. >> Good evening. I'm Officer Spencer, also known as Officer York or Officer New York or my utmost personal favorite that I just found out about is Officer with the gray hair. We'll get it going. Uh we're going to look towards a lot of events in the future. We've gained a lot of interest for another

034ebike safety course coming up. And so we were we are looking at dates in January to hold the next ebike safety course which has been very popular and very successful. Uh I'm not suggesting that parents run out and buy their children ebikes for the upcoming giftgiving holiday season, but if you are looking at it, this could be a good opportunity. Uh coming up, we've got uh Top of the World Bonanza tomorrow. Looking forward to having my vehicle painted and covered in paint and making it difficult to drive back to the station. Coming up on October 21st, we have the Thirst and Thriller and then of course Boo Blast at Elmoro on October 24th. We have uh recently partnered with the high school counseling team for an upcoming substance abuse parent event on October 28th. Uh

035it's going to be kind of an open panel board uh where we're going to be able to go over substance use prevention, behavior recognition, and how parents can seek help and additional resources for uh drug abuse recognition, things along that sort. Uh of course, that event coincides with uh Halloween coming up just a few days afterwards. Of course, we want to make sure that everybody is being safe as they are going out trick-or-treating and being a little drug aware and stranger danger. I'm continuing my onboarding as a school resource officer and will be attending National School Resource Officer course next week. It's five days and I will be learning about more of the best practices in safety and student support. The police department is aware of the limited staffing that will be available next week

036with me, Dawn, as well as officer Danny and so they will be backfilling our positions to continue to support the schools. Um, and lastly, this might be the most important one, a huge congratulations to Officer Danny. He is getting married next week, and we definitely wish him the best. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. And now, Dr. Glass, we're excited for your report. >> Well, Madam Chair, I'm on a little later. I think I have a lengthy report to the board later on this evening. So, to maximize the efficiency of your meeting, I'll defer my remarks until then. Thank you. Thank you. Um, executive cabinet members, Dr. Mayberry. >> Good evening. Thank you. Uh, just wanted to um thank the parents and staff for the the minimum days that are this week. We know

037there's some challenges to that and we offer some after school care for for families that are working uh during this time. But it's really important to have these goal setting conferences. That's a part of our framework for the future where we give kids agency and empower them as learners to meet with their teachers and their parents to talk about what they're learning around academic and social goals and goal setting is really an essential part of that process. And we do it with the youngest they'll youngest kids that are willing to do that and sit with their teacher and their parent. And so it's a really really helpful process uh invaluable process for students even when they're really young. So uh that is going on this week at the elementarymentaries. And then uh we've also had

038some very timely professional development at the middle and high school uh levels as well that's been really uh really impactful and thoughtful deep conversations around a variety of topics. And so I just wanted to appreciate everybody's time as we uh some a little bit shorter days here but letting everyone know that's been well used and and really valuable use of time with our staff. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Conlin. >> Good evening President Perry uh and board members. I recently attended the AXA personnel symposium. This is a multi-day event for California school administrators to gain information insights into current human resources issues and labor laws, providing interactive workshops and networking opportunities uh with experts and peers. And then this week, we have wrapped up our interviews for several nutrition department positions. Um leaving the

039department fully staffed to support the scratch cooking initiative spearheaded by supervisor of nutrition services Briana McCabe. And finally, we look forward to welcoming uh Minaj to our leadership team this coming Monday as our next assistant superintendent business services. Thank you. >> Thank you. And now our student board members. >> Who would like to go first? >> Okay. Hi. I'm going to be starting. Um so I'm just going to be giving you guys a rundown on what's happening at LBHS. Try to lighten the mood. Um, homecoming was this past Saturday and there is an upcoming student senate that will be happening at Laguna Beach High School. Uh, we have that every year um, just for the students to kind of give their input. Uh, Lagouna Beach High School and Career Center is welcoming over 115 college

040admission officers to our LBHS campus from September through November 15th. Uh admissions are open to all students grades 9 through 12 and they're held before school during lunch and during tutorials. A financial aid workshop was held yesterday from or on October 8th via Zoom. The college and career center is hosting a college information night on October 15th with the guest speaker Rob Franique who is the editor and chief of the Princeton Review from 6:30 to 8:30 in the LBHS library. Okay, there's a study um a UK presentation and fair with Russell Russell Group universities equivalent to the Ivy League universities on October 16th from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the LBHS library. Study at Cambridge information evening October 20th from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the LBHS library. And um Laguna Beach High School will

041be hosting a district-wide learning walk on Wednesday of next week. And we are excited to welcome our colleagues onto campus for class visits. >> And then I'm going to give you guys a rundown on what's been going on at Elmoro and T. So at Elmor Morrow, the kids are in the midst of submitting drawings for our annual Boo Blast t-shirt competition that's due next Friday. And the Sea Lion Squad has planned several fun student activities for our Boo Blast spirit week beginning October 20th. And of course, uh, we are eagerly anticipating and inviting all of you, uh, Lagouna Beach community and board members to attend the booth blast on Friday, October 24th. Uh, at to the to Student Council held a window decorating contest with the winners painting Mr. Turner's view with festive fall themes.

042And the PTA's 10th annual Bonanza is tomorrow after school, and students and staff alike are very much looking forward to it. Um, and TW's PAL students have been selected and will begin their training soon on running that. >> Thank you. That's that's all we have. >> Anything else? >> No. >> Okay. Thank you. Board member Morgan. >> Oh, thank you. Um I uh I have my report here, but I wanted to add just a couple of things. Um I I am um I appreciate Erin Barry Hill uh Barryman, excuse me. My apologies. Uh for her comment about the misinformation on the thirst or the um Lagouna Beach Town Hall and Thirsten. Um maybe we were listening to different conversations. I'm not sure, but I know the misinformation that I heard was that the pool was

043not on track or it wasn't on track and now it is. I think we've said that many times that the pool is on track. Um, the other comment that was made at Thirstston that was really disturbing to me because I think it was a disservice to our hardworking staff is that the walls are cracking, the rooms are flooding, water's coming in the ceiling. I mean, that's not the case. I think that there's been I know I've toured every cl every school and I, you know, we have old buildings, but I think our staff has done a phenomenal job of upkeeping them. Um, I think we've done a phenomenal job of keeping our funds so that we can address any issues that come up. So, I just want to make sure if we're talking about making

044sure there's no misinformation. I think we need to make sure that it's across the board. Um, I also am very concerned with some of the comments that came in, I'm very concerned with some of the comments that are being made um towards a board member. Um, I have no desire to question people's first amendment rights. Um, but I do think people do need to remember uh it goes both ways. If we're trying to be a good example for our students, um that also includes leadership and how we treat people when we disagree and how we um approach them to correct what they might say. And I think it's really important that everybody takes a step back and understands do they have a role in that. And if you can honestly and clearly conscious say I

045have said nothing disparaging to anybody on the board or in the audience, then then you don't need to entertain it. But you know, we all need to work together. This is a community. It's a small community. we run into each other all the time and finding some way for civil discourse is really important. Um it's what we're talking about teaching our students so we probably should practice it here. Um with the comment about the teachers um I I really um struggle with the comment of if they strike. Um I have raised four kids in this district. I still see teachers. My kids still come home. They were here for homecoming. They saw their teachers. They went down and talked to the principal. Um, this is a small community. Our teachers are awesome. I love our

046teachers. I support our teachers 100%. I don't know that the insurance issue is a is a staff issue. I don't know that. Um, but I do think that staff has forgotten that you do need the board to help solve it. You can't solve it alone. Staff can't solve it. Administration can't solve it alone. We have to partner. And so the more you attack us or one in particular, I think it's really it's really not a great way to start. So, um, I do want to point out there was an article that came out on October 7th. If you get EdSource, you should take a look at it because it does create some concern for me. One of the things that it talks about is that teachers in wealthy districts, of which we are considered one,

047and it's a basic aid district, and that's what it focuses on. This primarily focuses on Northern California, but I think it's really relevant here as well. Says teachers in wealthy districts can earn earn up to can earn $27,000 more than teachers in other districts. And the article kind of goes on to talk about how there there's a lot of they're starting to look at basic aid districts and the funding in these districts that are state funded that are struggling. So I think to have fiscal responsibility, fiscal um accountability and to make sure that we are creating the most unique, wonderful, fabulous, and wellunded school that we can. We need to do what we can to protect what we have because they're going to start looking at us as basic aid districts and how can do

048they cap us? I have no idea what that would look like, but it is something that has been discussed and it's out there. I would encourage you guys to read the article. It's Northern California. It's Ed Source uh dated October 7th, 2025. So, my report um and that was based on the comments that I heard. My report um I attended the KXFM fundraiser. It was a it's what KXFM is fabulous. I think we have a student that has a program there. Uh they're a wonderful resource for local news programs and information. I spoke to Billy uh Fried, the founding partner of the station and um and talked to him about having um working with the superintendent to create a school focused program on the radio station where we can talk about event updates, programs, state

049news, it's impact on Laguna Beach, uh football games, scores, a myriad of of of opportunity that can then partner with different groups within our campus. Um I also spoke to George Durban. um to garner support support from him and the art community for our upcoming arts committee that I know we have a um will be mentioned um in a little bit. Um I attended the first the fourth and final um in town in-person town hall at Thirstston along with my colleagues Clerk Hills and Dr. Malchesky. I thought it was very well attended and I thought the discussion was very good. I was encouraged that community members were coming forward with their ideas and concerns. At the Elmoro town hall, we had language instructors coming talking about the desire to strengthen our language pathways. Something I

050know I'm very passionate about of strengthening all of our pathways and pushing it out and trying to bring some of these students that we have in our community that don't go to school here back into our um campuses. Um at Thirstston, we had a parent who is um also an educator that commented on the need to evaluate our science curriculum, stating that there are inequitabilities um given that we offer honors programs for English and math but not in science. Um given that this came to the attention of the district in April 2024 when the district ordered a study of our advanced learners that's when the first mention of science and equities was brought forward. It was identified by students again with member U McKenzie the student member McKenzie last year and um I actually met

051with students that he asked me to meet with uh as well um as well. Um and then again during the special meeting when the current board tried to address it and move it forward it was blocked by community some members and staff. I thought that was really kind of discouraging because at the end of the day, this is something that students have asked for u and they were ignored. Um and I mean even most recently member um Dabs here also reiterated the science curriculum could use an overhaul. Uh it's time to it's time to address this with a common perspective. As Aaron Barryman constantly mentions, it's all about the students and providing the absolute best education possible. And that is a commitment I'm sure that this board has. I know I have it. Um, I

052was very disheartened to see the push back on this topic last spring. Um, some of the sudden turnaround by the student board reps. The issue is real and I look forward to bringing the curriculum committee restructuring item back to the board for consideration so we can finally holistically address this and put our best path put us on the best path to provide the best education for our possible students. Another parent that commented, and I applaud them for their bravery, was a parent who homeschools her student. And she very clearly stated that she homeschools her student because her student was given an option when they did not when our district did not meet their needs. The option was to homeschool or to send their child on a 50-minute bus ride out of town in alliance with

053our SEPO agreement. And I want to make it really clear, the students are sent away because we don't have the programs. And the research that I've done recently has since November until now, when you have program, when you have a student that's being evaluated for that IEP, the staff has to look at what we have on our um adj on our offerings. If we don't have what they need, they have to refer the student out. The problem is we can bring these pro programs back in. We have the funding to do it and we didn't. And so that was very concerning. Um because it's not that we cut special ed funds. I've never said that. We cut programs, but when we do cut programs, that money goes back to the general fund. So something to

054kind of think about. Um that comment about the cutting funding for special ed is also on the fuel website. So I do hope that they will review that and correct it where necessary. Um I'm appreciative for Dr. Glass for putting these town halls together after years of expressing them and suggesting them as a private citizen. and I look forward to the final online Zoom town hall offering um that expands access to the Laguna Beach community. I'm grateful that the purpose of the town hall was to allow a safe environment for a voice and we and that we were able to create a positive growth mindset approach to understanding and embracing the community's input in such a constructive way. Um as volunteers, we've been very busy. I also attended two special board meetings and I'm grateful

055that we demonstrated the ability to hold special meetings with a board quorum but not necessarily all board members present. I was encouraged um given the intense push back we received after our initial December 16th meeting as well as a curriculum focused special meeting where we tried to comply with best practices and have in identifying a superintendent. Um it was then that member Mountesky and a special interest group argued we couldn't and shouldn't unless all board members were available. But at the governance meeting on September 18th, Dr. Kelly couldn't attend. Member Hills wasn't able to attend the first special meeting last week. And in fact, Dr. Glass was unable to attend the second special meeting last week, but was updated on the discussion. I'm glad to see that there's no longer concerns as all the topics

056are important, especially if it's caused a special meeting. We held our first arts committee planning meeting earlier this week. Um, it was very exciting. We explored considerations for appointments to the committee as well as soon to be future applicants. Uh, some of the criteria was that appointees and applicants need to have a place in the arts community, but most importantly, they need to have a history of supporting board initiatives. We explored local artists and musicians to consider as well as staff involvement and development. And I'm ecstatic to continue this work along with the upcoming transportation committee next week where we're going to focus on the student experience and again the quality of their education. Lastly, I want to thank Dr. Glass for working to bring Parent Square to the board. This is a positive step.

057I know all the parents in the room know what Parent Square is. It's a communication tool for within the district for parents um of students in our community, but the school board has never received that. So we only get information from what is reported here or what we do our own research on. There is no direct board communication from the district. So I appreciate this comprehensive communication effort allowing for district and site updates. This helps keep the board informed of ongoing things within our school community tells us where we can show up. To be clear, this does not include student information. It's a communication tool that until now the board was not receiving and it holds vital information and announce announcements important important to the board. And lastly, after I took one of our kids

058to college last week and resettled after her ACL surgery, uh she's finding a new short-term and uh normal and doing great, we another one of our college kids back with one of their buddies as they all prepare for what's next in their various baseball careers. And tomorrow, we're welcoming our newest college student home from for fall break. We are grateful to live in this community and be the safe space for our kiddos to to regroup as they create their own path in life where they can take chances and build a life that lights up their spirit every single day. That's my report. Thank you. >> Thank you. Go ahead. Board member Kelly. >> I will try to be brief. >> Put it out. >> First, um, Parent Square has always been available to board members.

059Mrs. Morgan, you had to sign up for it. And you're a new board member, and I know you just probably didn't know that, but I've had access to Parent Square for the seven years that I've been here. U, I agree with Mrs. Barryman. uh how wonderful the fall activities have been. There's just too many of them. I can't go to all of them, but uh I love them all. Uh I want to thank uh Mrs. Murray from our local radio station who spent last Friday. Uh she does the news and her husband then does the weather. If you haven't tuned in, turned on, uh make sure you do. Uh our local radio station is just fabulous. But Mrs. Murray spent her whole news time uh talking about the 100 day report of our superintendent. Uh

060she was articulate, she was great, she gave lots of credit to everything that you talked about, everything you're doing. And I was just so delighted as I was driving along looking at the ocean. Uh the rest of my time I spent dealing with fires that were started by board uh members. And uh uh I'm sorry that that's where I have to spend my time. Um, and in closing in in closing, I just want to say that health payment issues were not started by the faculty and staff. They had really nothing to do with them. That was basically something that the administration did. They should not be blamed in any way or retaliated against. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Kelly. Dr. Milcheski. I did attend PTA council school power endowment in one of the town

061halls, but I'm going to focus my comments on another board issue that is related but separate. Um, at the January 23rd meeting last year, the new board majority agenda is the district's communication plan for discussion. And we uh I know uh Mrs. Morgan wanted to talk about two-way communications and public records, but it veered into a critique of the plan and a call to rethink it, um, including more board input. Mr. Hills argued that the president of the board should have a larger role in board and district communications, including working with the communication staff. I didn't agree with Mr. Hills then, his interpretation of the bylaws, I don't now, but we did all agree at that time that we would um, bring it up at a future governance meeting. And we also agreed that to

062the extent that President Perry has a role in communications, the board president is not the spokesperson for the whole district and board policy 9200 says that a board member has no individual authority. We should operate as a collective authority. This principle was underscored at the spring governance workshop with leadership associates that board members must communicate as a collective body. So, President Perry speaks on behalf of the board and her public rec speech should represent the entire board. We didn't have further discussion, but the board has taken over writing it's a wrap as of the last board meeting with a statement or at least a part of it's a wrap with a statement that includes false information and represents the perspective of only some board members. I found both the tone and content to be deeply

063problematic. And what's interesting about it is I believe other board members thought it didn't go far enough, which will get to the main point I'm going to make. My general concern is that majority board members use the idea of transparency as a cudgel to share partial and false information that lends itself to false narratives. This is also a good moment to remind the board of what our teachers already said, our union members already said, excuse me. 9005 is about our behavior. It asked we understand the implications of our behavior, assume collective responsibility for building unity, create a positive organizational culture by governing in a dignified and respectful manner, and treat everyone with civility and respect. It also says we should refrain from management functions that are the responsibility of the superintendent. In writing the last

064it's a wrap, the board in my view undermined the role of the superintendent who is our CEO. I passed our communication officer who is a nationally recognized expert and represented the views of only part of the board. When I called the district office to find out why it's a wrap had been written with a politicized and alarmist tone, I was told that the district communication expert is on a short-term leave. The problem here is not about some petty concern about who gets to write a report. The new board is creating constant churn and chaos. tried has has tried to take over district and teacher function has gone after our unions. And if you're wondering about that, I urge you to read the public comments for tonight's meeting. Um many of the the actions that happen

065here exhibit and often a petty desire to go after current and past district staff. It's prevented us from doing what we're supposed to do, which is take care of our students. We have a board problem that is undermining our students, negatively affected the affecting the district's reputation, which for those of us who own property in town, it affects our property values. Whether you have students here in the district or not, it feels oddly dystopian to have to warn our community to be careful what is published from the district office because some of our communications have been taken taken over to represent board perspective. We don't even agree on the board about what that perspective should be. We have a communication expert and a superintendent who knows how to do that. Um I have spoken with

066President Perry to share my concerns and I will continue to work with her constructively to develop a more collaborative relationship on the deis, but we should be relying on our communication expert and superintendent to report objective information from the districts. Last week's it's a wrap did not. Thank you, Clerk Hills. >> Yeah. Well, um there's a lot to unwrap there. Um first of all, I disagree strongly with what my colleague um member Malchesy just said about the January 23rd meeting. I would encourage people to go back and look at the tape of the January 23rd meeting. I can tell you exactly what I said. Uh please don't interrupt me. Um you know so >> um what I said at the January 23rd meeting was that the superintendent gave me the district communications plan and said

067we're going to talk about this at the meeting tonight. So when it came time for me to talk, I said, "I've read the plan that the superintendent gave me, and I have some concerns about it, and there's some things about it that I think I'm don't agree with, but we should talk about those things when we had a governance workshop." That's all I said. And what happened was the um union representatives uh then started yelling at me um and yelling at the board. But the thing about it is what happened on January 23rd um is not really um what is at issue here. Um what is at issue here is that my colleague member Maleski says that the bylaws um require the board president um limit the board president's ability to communicate on behalf of

068the board on behalf of the district. And the fact is I've spent a lot of time talking to the superintendent about this and we can go back to the lawyers. We we are going to have a governance meeting in a few weeks. It's kind of like the same situation as January 23rd. People wanted to raise these issues and um at that time we said, "Let's address those issues in a a governance meeting." And we're going to have an governance meeting in a couple of weeks where we will be addressing these issues. But the fact is that board bylaw 9121 states that the president of the board in conjunction with the superintendent can speak on behalf of the board and the district to the media. It also says that the board president is the lead representative

069of the district. uh she speaks for the board on district issues uh with respect to the public, addressing the public. And the very same um board policy that gives the superintendent the lead role in communicating for the district also states that the board president is recognized as having the authority and responsibility to speak for the district. Now, you all are sitting out there saying this is down in the weeds, but this is what they're trying to make an issue of as if somebody's on the right side of this, somebody is on the wrong side of this. The argument we're making is that they're saying that the president has no role in communications. We're saying that the president has a role and the superintendent has a role and they have shared powers and responsibilities and there

070needs to be collaboration. So, if that's some kind of wild crazy idea of mine that there's shared responsibilities and that there should be co uh collaboration, I plead guilty. Uh the other thing I want to address is that um the uh quotes that were read from emails um uh that's an email between me and a woman named Don Honeyut. And what that email was about was her coming into this board and um stating um on the record um that um stating on the record that I had violated the rights of the student board members that I had released information and documents. You see, you talk about putting the students first. I had gone to the model UN at the invitation of the model UN faculty and members and students and made a presentation. They had

071responded to me very positively. The faculty wrote me emails and said this was great. Thank you for doing it Howard. The student who is the secretary general of the UN model UN wrote me an email and said thank you very much. So, Don Honeyut, who used to be a member of the uh staff, came down and came in and said that um uh that I had released student records illegally and in violation of the student rights. And she told the students that I had done that. So, I guess one response I want to give or I'm forced to give now that this is all being disorgged here is that we now have received a legal opinion from the district council stating that I did not release student records. So, a student on this board was

072lied to by somebody and told that I had violated their rights when in fact I hadn't done it. And so, um, I got into an exchange with Don Honeyut, and yes, she said a lot of, um, univil things to me and I said some pointed things to her. Um, and and so you take that out of context and read it, but um, that's fine. But the fact of the matter is is that, um, the other aspect of this is you hear people say, well, let's all be civil. let's not, you know, let's not um uh try to settle old scores or whatever. But the fact of the matter is is that and we we hear people talking about setting a good example for the kids. Well, there were people here earlier that have left this

073room that participated in cyber bullying, who participated in social media abuse, uh that included um accusing me of being a pedophile and stalking little girls. and they took those emails and they sent them to my grandchildren. And so then when I met with um the two union representatives, um I was told, "Oh, Howard, you're overreacting. They didn't really accuse you of um being a pedophile." Well, we now have a legal opinion from the council of the district that I was accused of being a pedophile. So, you don't want to get into all this? I don't want to get into all this but they are raising these issues and the this is the truth about these issues. I would rather talk about um and by the way um you know last thing I want to say

074with in response is that the union contract in the case of Laboufa gives you a seat um where you are designated by the board to sit and uh there's no similar provision for the other union but but the point I was making was that doesn't make you a member of this body. You're you're elected by your members to represent your members. You claim that you had the floor in before this body. This is a legislative agency and the only people that have the floor in front of this body are the members of the agency. And that was the point I was making. The fact that you have a seat at the table u and then we can discuss the issue of whether or not um you've acted consistent with your contract. But the last thing

075I want to say is this. I'm going to repeat something that I said before. uh because apparently we have selective listening. I was acting president when the staff informed the superintendent that there was overspending and the superintendent called me and said, "I want to advise you that I've been informed that there's this overspending problem and it's a it's a serious problem." um and um that I've talked to the staff and I've decided on a approach to addressing it and getting beyond it and and resolving it also finding out exactly what happened. And what I told him was that um I understand what he was saying and that I I could I would be in supportive supportive of him in going forward with his plan. But that there I had two conditions for supporting him. One

076was that I did not want us to repeat the same action that had been taken by the by the board previously of approving uh spending in excess of our caps because that's a violation of law as recognized in the in the audit report. The other thing I said to him was that I would support and I would recommend to President Perry when she returned that we support the superintendent in developing approach that doesn't punish the members of the union because they should not bear the brunt of correcting this mistake. We should find a solution to it that doesn't hurt our employees. And so the fact that people talk about strikes and people talk about, you know, uh, you know, that there's some kind of horrible egotistical abuse, um, going on here. Um, uh, all I

077can say is that I've worked with unions throughout my professional career. I've never seen a union misrepresent facts to its union in a survey and then take the results of that survey and claim that it gives them a moral or other mandate to um uh criticize people who are elected officials doing the best they can to actually support the members of their union. Um uh lastly, since um uh my uh report that was full of all kinds of positive stuff has been over, uh taken, the issues that may uh member Mountes has raised about the role of the superintendent and the role of the board, their relative roles. Uh she sees it one way, I see it a different way. I see it as shared powers and collaboration. she sees it as like a separation

078of powers, which is not what's involved at all. Um, we're going to be discussing that in the meeting, but we're also going to be discussing the December 16th meeting when um member Malesky uh attempted to preside over a meeting of the board with no legal authority to do so. And we had to take extraordinary parliamentary actions to prevent that from happening when she in fact had the room full of people who were going to support her to be elected president prom which she hadn't done. So we'll we'll get to debate all these things if people want to debate them. But the fact is people talk about that December 16th meeting is oh the first meeting of the board showed how bad these new people are that are on the board. Well, I invite you to

079go back and look at the August 15th meeting of the board before we were elected. When you want to see a board in dystopia, go see the board on August 15th of 2024, that's a board in dystopia. And um and uh so the fact is when we talk about 1.3 million that was overpaid, I want to I when we that was an when on August on Julyh 24th when the superintendent explained the problem. Um my biggest concern was how we can do this in a way that doesn't unfairly hurt the members of the union. Um but uh um we're going to discuss those issues at the governance u workshop that's coming up. Uh, other than that, all I want to say is that in addition to the fantastic homecoming game and the performance of our

080football team at that game and the game the week before that was as good as a really good college football game. Um, I'm totally thrilled about the uh about the season we're having with our football team. But I also want to mention that at last weekend's Brook Street contest, all grade levels in all of our schools were represented by young men and young women and the students of this school district um uh young women and young men performed in an exemplary way and got and did and and placed really well in the contest. So, um, our schools did really well in the surfing contest as well as on the football field. >> Thank you, Clerk Hills. Um, I don't have much. I want to hurry on to Dr. Glass's report. I met with quite a

081few people last week. Um, some I met with some wonderful parents about special education issues. I met with some of the La Papa artists that were working uh at Heisler Park with students and some other artists about art coming up. I met with some people about the insurance issue and transportation. I met with city several city council members that have some great ideas about the school district and the city working together for opportunities for our students. I attended well I volunteered for the Chamber of Commerce because they provide help our students with a lot of summer jobs as well as mentoring our students. And I attended the My Hero Project which celebrates stories highlighting remarkable individuals both children and adults and um many people in Lagona have been honored. What one thing uh one of

082the films that has been very special to me, two students that were that I adored, one was Shawn McGelvvery and another one was Joey Msala. And they were about 10 years apart. And when Shawn was in graduate school for film, he did a film about Joey before Joey passed. And that was, you know, they're far enough apart they were never in school together, but I felt like they were both mine. And it was wonderfully done. And I feel so appreciative to be in this town where I can see things like that where students I had do wonderful things for students 10 years younger. Anyway, I'm appreciative of that and so happy to be here. And um Dr. Glass, let's go on to your 100 day report. I forgot to ask. Are there any speaker cards?

083First clerk kills for the 100 day. >> Not an action item. >> No. >> Okay. Dr. Glass, the floor is yours. It's a little longer. Thank you. Good evening, President Perry, members of the board, students, staff, members of the community. When my family and I made the decision to move to Lagouna Beach, it was much more than a career choice. We were choosing a new home and a new community at the same time. Relocating from Kentucky meant leaving behind family and familiarity. It also meant stepping into something extraordinary here. A place known around the world for its beauty, its creative energy, and a school system known for its commitment to excellence. In these first few months, we have experienced that beauty and spirit up close. I have stood with my wife at Thalia Beach and

084watched our kids play in the surf. We took our old Colorado whitewater kayak that has been down many rivers and affixed a fin to it with some incredible epoxy and turned it into a seagoing vessel. and we felt the warmth, the welcome and the generosity of this community and I'm grateful for that. And I've begun my work here as super as I've begun my work here as superintendent, I've come to see that same creative energy and deep pride reflected in our schools. There is no space between the schools in the community in Lagouna Beach. No space. These schools are the heart of this community. If you look at that picture, you see that heart. This 100 day report isn't a new strategic plan, but it does form what could be the foundation of one. It

085captures what I've heard and learn from hundreds of voices, from staff, from students, parents, and community members, and pairs those insight with an honest look at our systems and operations. The listening process was both structured and it was organic. It included time with each of you as board members, time with our school and district leaders, a validation survey of our staff, conversations with teachers, a series of community town halls, and an open-ended start stop keep survey that generated over 1,700 individual comments. And beyond that, there were countless individual one-on-one conversations in coffee shops, parking lots, classrooms, and hallways where I heard firsthand about the aspirations, the people, and the stories that make this district who it is. Weaving all this together painted a picture of a district that is both proud of who it is

086and also ready to define where it is going. A place of tremendous strengths. and as we've heard tonight, real challenges. It's clear to me that we are a community that needs to begin a new chapter. There is enormous pride in our schools, in our students, and our staff. People deeply value the relationships that make this district feel personal, human, and student centered. But there is also fatigue. There's a sense that too much is happening all at once. and a desire for alignment and focus. And yes, I've heard what we heard tonight. Clear and repeated calls for greater civility, professionalism, and unity in how we govern. Variations on the phrase stop the drama surfaced more than any other comment in the surveys and town halls. People spoke about that with fatigue again, but also with hope.

087They are frustrated by the personal conflicts, the public discord and the sense that adult disagreements too often take away from students. What they want is simple and it's fair. A board that models the same respect, maturity, and collaboration that we want in our students. One that focuses its time and energy on learning, staff support, and the future of our schools rather than old disputes. The message was consistent and it was clear. Board, it's time to move past the divisions of the past and lead together in the best interest of our students and community. The opportunity ahead is to rebuild trust through clear roles and steady communication. Yes, we've got work to do in business services when it relates to our health spending and with our transportation department. And we've got work to do with our

088special education staff. We have incredible special education services in this in this district. Um and we need to communicate better what are what services are available and we need to model you and I board steadiness in leadership and in governance. We need to build a culture of openness where communication is proactive, it's candid and it's two-way turning information sharing into relationship building. Ultimately, this first theme was all about culture. Moving from fatigue to focus, from tension to trust, and from confusion to coherence. I also want to mention a note for the future. This appears in the 100 day report and but it didn't come from anyone in the community. It's just an idea that I have that I think Lagouna Beach should consider. And that is for a local accountability dashboard. Most accountability dashboards are

089built around test scores or things that are easily measured. We know that Laguna Beach is a place that values community. It values the arts. It values athletics. It values opportunities for students. There have been early prototype models of accountability dashboards developed around the country that get out a broader set of measures that bring forward and show what the community values in its schools beyond just what can be measured on the test score. And so it's an idea that I put forward for us to consider. It wasn't something that emerged from any of the data that I collected, but it's something I bring to you as a consideration. The second theme that emerged in the listening was arts, environment, and community. Across every source of input, the arts came through as the clearest and strongest mess.

090Keep the arts repeated. Here in Laguna Beach, the arts are not optional. They are essential. They define our students experience, our community identity, and our connection to the creative spirit that makes Laguna Beach what it is. This theme also extends to environmental stewardship. Just as our hills, our canyons, and ocean shape the daily life here, they also shape our shared responsibility. LBUSD's sustainability work from its goal of carbon neutrality by 2030 to recognition uh with several California green ribbon schools reflects that and commitment. And the opportunity is to build on these legacies through our new ad hoc committee on the arts by recommitting environmental learning and stewardship and by celebrating the traditions and small district field that make Laguna Beach special. The third theme was around pathways, student voice and place. Parents and students alike

091called for more realworld and relevant learning, career pathways, meaningful civics education, experiences in technology and design. Our staff echoed this with calls for deeper learning, project-based, experiential learning, things that make learning meaningful and relevant and lasting. The students were also clear. They want a stronger voice in decision-making. They don't want to be just the objects of adult decisions. They want a seat at the table and to be empowered to influence decisions that affect them. While LBUSD has mechanisms to hear student input, and we have two exceptional students that are on this board with us tonight, we should consider more ways to formally empower student participation where it's appropriate. And this theme connects to place our learning spaces themselves. The board has already advanced the long-awaited pool modernization project and I'm grateful for that. As has

092been mentioned, our campuses are beautiful. They are stunning. Even these are some of the most beautiful school sites I have ever been in my life. And I've walked on hundreds of school sites. But they are also aging and they're showing the wear of being wellused and well-loved. They deserve a long-term plan and soon this community will face a choice whether or not to renew the district's 2001 bond and reinvest in the schools for the next generation. The decision is about more than just facilities. It's about legacy. The renewal of the bond, combined with the district's regular capital transfers and bond premium that would be generated through the sale of the bond could generate nearly $90 million for school improvements. This is a once in a generation investment in our community's future. What could it mean?

093Could mean modernizing learning environments, renovating classrooms, upgrading science and arts and CTE spaces, all align to the learner profile. can mean improvements in safety, accessibility, sustainability, security upgrades, ADA improvements, energy and water efficiency that reflect our community's commitment to the environment. It can mean comm community expanded community m use and pride in the spaces that serve our students by day and can serve the broader community after hours, keeping our schools at the heart of Lagona. Perhaps most importantly, it would say to the next generation of children here, Laguna Beach believes in you and we are investing in you. Because when a community invests in its schools, it invests in its children, in its property values and in its shared identity, anchoring families here, and keeping Lagona a place where people want to learn, live, belong,

094and raise their children. Ultimately, the board's going to need to decide whether to let the voters make that decision. And of course, we'll respect what the voters decide. But I would offer that this is not a question of taxes and buildings, just a question of taxes and buildings. It's a question of what kind of community do you want to be, do we want to be, and what future will we choose together? The fourth theme was around balancing innovation and well-being. Parents voiced concerns about screen time and the impact of technology on relationships and the focus of young people. Staff spoke about initiative fatigue and the need for pacing. Students reminded us that technology itself isn't necessarily the problem. It's how we use it. That they want the students want innovation done well. They want opportunities

095to interact with AI, computer science, media literacy in a way that prepares them for their future. The opportunity is to hold both of these truths at the same time to reduce distractions while embracing meaningful innovation to ensure change is purpose purposeful and paced and to prioritize wellness, belonging and safety so every student feels valued and supported. Also in our town halls, several parents urged us to remain v vigilant about bullying. While not the most frequently cited theme, it is central to our kids' well-being. Families ask for clear communication, consistent follow-through, and a visible commitment when incidents arise. For LBUSD, that means sustaining and sharpening our existing efforts so that every student experiences school as a place of safety, dignity, and belonging. At the heart of this theme is something deeply human. The desire to connect

096with one another, with learning, and with purpose. Running through all these four themes is our north star. And this was here before I got here, the LBUSD learner profile. In conversation after conversation, I heard echoes of the five competencies that you see here. When parents talked about civics and media literacy, they were talking about empathy. When students asked for voice, they were asking to be empowered learners. When staff talked about deeper learning, they were describing creative problem solving. And the collective commitment here, every student, every day, I asked about this repeatedly with staff. I pushed them on it. Is this really who you are? What came back was a resounding yes. Staff made it clear that that's just not a slogan here. It's a lived value, a call to provide consistent, individualized support that defines

097who we are. This is an enduring commitment that aligns with the learner profile and reminds us that our vision for the future is built on a foundation already strong in care and purpose. As I mentioned from the outset, this report is not a plan, but it's the foundation of what could be one. The next steps are to confirm and refine these themes with the community to distill down, that's a Kentucky term, to distill down a few priorities that really matter to get to what's essential and just then sequence them thoughtfully. I want to emphasize this next sentence with you. If everything is a priority, then nothing is. From there, we have to build a strategic plan aligned to the state's LCAP framework and grounded in our local vision, our arts, our environment, our learn learn

098learner profile and our shared voice as a community. Central to that process will be the student voice because our students are not just passengers on this journey. They are authors of it. These first 100 days have confirmed what I believed when I accepted the role. Laguna Beach is an extraordinary community with remarkable schools. The challenges are real. Strain trust, divisions that distract, the need for coherence. But I think our strengths are greater if we can pull together. A small district with proud traditions, a community with thriving arts, and people who deeply care about our children, regardless of the divisions that you have as board members. I believe that about every single one of you. If we the the story of our future will not be written by chance or circumstance. It'll be written by the

099choices that we make at this table. By our willingness to take ownership for our actions. Any dysfunction that's happened in this room, every one of us has contributed to it in some way. We can be a place that defines what public education can do. One of the reasons that I took this job is because you have the resources to ignite a public education system like few places on earth. I truly believe that if you can't do it here in Laguna Beach, you can't do it. And I believe we can. A few acknowledgements just to close. to the staff, the teachers, the classified employees and our school leaders. I appreciate your cander, your professionalism, your relentless focus on students. And I mentioned to them today, I know I need to be with them more. I spent

100a lot of time working on this. I spent a lot of time in the community, spent a lot of time working on governance, and I haven't been in schools as much as I want to. And that's going to change. to our parents and community members who came to to our town halls that filled out the surveys that stopped me for a conversation. Your insight shaped this report in many ways. And to our students, they're the heart of everything that we do. Thank you for your courage and your voice. And to you board members, thank you for your support in this opportunity. I am honored and excited and ready to help you write the next great chapter in this story of this superlative school district. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll yield control back to you and

101happy to take any questions. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Glass. Are there any board questions? Are there any speaker cards now? No, just questions. Then we did speaker cards. Now we'll do comments. Word comments. >> Yes. Who? >> Uh thank you Dr. Class for that report. It was very very insightful and um we're really happy to have you here in the district. But um one of the things I wanted to touch on that you mentioned in your report was the students voice being used other ways than you know just through us. I like to think that Ivy and I are doing our our best to represent the students voices here in Laguna, but obviously we can't catch everyone who you know people don't always want to talk to us at about or respond to

102our emails about what's going on uh on their mind related to the school board. So I think that your ideas are absolutely fantastic on getting more student involvement. Personally, that's one of the reasons I applied for this position was to be able to um represent student voice, but also I I felt like the one of my favorite things about seeing the board was how many students who you you know, you would never think were interested in in the school board, coming to meetings, making public comments about things they were interested in. And I think getting more people into that is something that not only helps hold hold me and Ivy accountable on are we representing the students voices correctly um but also just provides tons of new valuable insights from people all over the district

103of all ages. So I'm I'm really looking forward to seeing that come into action. >> Thank you very much Ivy. >> Um so 100% to Logan's point your talk about student involvement could not agree more. Um, we need our students voices now more than ever. Um, and I mean again it is keeping us accountable. If we are seeing more representation and we're doing our job, you know. Um, beyond that, I just wanted to say you did an amazing job. Thank you so much. Um, and I really appreciate how you're always you're very positive and you're always making sure to commend all sides. Um, and I think that the board and myself specifically, I don't want to speak for everyone, really appreciates that. So, thank you. >> Any other board comments? >> Um, little box. >>

104I couldn't find it in here, so I couldn't comment on it, but I thought what you're talking about the future is just great. >> I just want to say I thought it was a great report. your comments about if everything is a priority, nothing is really resonates. And so I look forward to you in your capacity as our CEO to keep us directed and focused on what we can do and when we can do it. So thank you, >> Clerk Hills. >> Yeah, Dr. Glass, uh, congratulations on your statement. Um, I agree with Jim Kelly. um the idea of having a dashboard that um looks at academics, looks at test scores, um doesn't do a lot of uh you know this thing of rankings. you know, there's I I've never gotten an opportunity to do

105it because our meetings have always been sort of um uh very robust, but um I want to really talk about a study that was done in the down in Texas about the fact that dollars per student does not really predict rankings or or or what's going on in education. You've got schools all over the country that are low funded who are doing well and you've got schools that are funded well and are not doing well in terms of academic test scores and rankings. And the title of the article was everything you know about school rankings is wrong. And I want to talk about that someday. The point is that your concept of a dashboard that um is based on yeah test scores, academics and whatnot, but also values and you know that's why I really

106liked it um at the high school graduation when the principal said um I want um all the graduates who are uh here to stand up and he said the breakers and the artists you know and I had been criticized that I was trying to prosecute some kind of old vendetta or something because I like the fact that we value both the breakers and the artists and that you have these traditions and the part of the culture that relate to the arts in the community. Um, and so the point is I I really would like to work with you on that dashboard concept uh because it's about families. It's about social and emotional well-being. Um, it's about not having not making sure that we're not modeling cyber bullying and whatnot, which is a huge contributor to

107suicidal thinking in kids. And the last thing we want in this community is adults who are modeling that behavior of cyber bullying, which causes a lot of problems for young people and in fact in the community. The other thing um I wanted to say is that you know uh when we did the selection process for superintendent um I was sort of thinking we were going to end up with a two-3 vote and we could have ended up with a two-3 vote very easily and that would have been okay with me because that's democracy and that's what how things work. But um in the end we ended up with a 5-0 vote for you and um it was a genuine vote. I remember at that time uh I asked you two things and um and you

108promised us two things that I had asked for. Uh, one was, uh, that we really need to restore bylaws compliance because bylaws in this school district are treated like Robert's rules of order. You know, you you should do it this way, but if you don't, it's okay. And you made a very strong commitment to me that we were going to restore the bylaws because you can't have fair, honest uh, student uh, school governance without compliance. And um the other one was that everybody wants to move forward and put the battles of the past behind but some of the things that have happened in the past uh you can't really go forward if you don't fix some of the things that have caused problems in the past and um I think that's an area where we

109need to work a lot harder on not making this whole thing of um oh let's just move forward and you know so question is when's the cut off last week, last month, last year. You know, when when's the cut off for things that were done wrong in the past that don't need to be writed? And I'm all for not writing wrongs that don't need to be writed. But if there are wrongs that do need to be writed, um we need to do that. And and that's one of the things we talked about back there. And that's one of the things that um I think we still have a lot of work to do. Uh lastly, I I would just say um it's been fun working with you. You're a brilliant guy. You're a wonderful writer.

110Um and uh you're a very persuasive person. I really enjoy doing the um town hall meetings and going around to the schools for the back to school nights and stuff with you and um uh you have a beautiful family and it's wonderful um working with you. I think one of the things that uh I would like to see when we look at the learner profile and whatnot, you talk about empathy and citizenship. Um, I think an empathetic person is a very clear we know what that means. When you say an empathetic citizen, that's one adjective uh that's assigned to the word citizen. And there are lots of other adjectives that go with the word citizen. But the point is um uh I think that uh I agree with you. We have a wonderful learner profile.

111I think we can do some finetuning on it. Um, and you know, we also, uh, you talked about and we hear a lot of people use the words trust. Um, they use, uh, you know, we hear relationships matter. Um, and one of the things I really like about your dashboard is that see I I believe whenever you use the word trust, which is a subjective word, you got to objectify it by adding to it accountability. If you say relationships matter, uh yeah, there's relationships, but there needs to be collaboration. And so, um you know, um I I really like your dashboard because it's a dashboard ultimately that is about trust, but is also about accountability and um so I think that's a good model to work towards and I agree with um member Kelly about

112uh the importance of that dashboard uh display that you put up there. Thank you, board member Morgan. >> Thank you. Um, I appreciate the report. It certainly has we've all been waiting with baited breath to read it and see what it was going to say and what your observations were on the district. Um, I feel that the what is what how this report has come about, what the content is, I I I speaks to me very clearly. Um, it is certainly why I one of the many reasons why I chose to take this on. We have a very fabulous school district, but we also, um, can afford to make it more of our community's central focus. Um, it's a goal of mine. Um, it's what I have said to many people and I appreciate that

113you recognize that and as the community's desire also because that is who we represent as the community in different ways and not all the same. And I think that's really important to remember um that you know some many people in this community had kids in the school. Many people in the community currently have kids in the school and I think the effort that you've done to capture all of the different perspectives I I appreciate. Um, I look I am very excited to work with you going forward and I appreciate all the insight that you give me. Um, I love the dashboard idea. I think it's great. Um, I would we've talked about um the website being easier to use. We've talked about um two-way communication. We've talked about, you know, the student voice. I mean,

114I I was thrilled when students reached out to me, like I said, about the science in January of this year. Um, wanting to go and have a conversation, not an email, not a text, a conversation. um and they valued that and they appreciated being heard and um I'm really glad that you recognized that and I'm glad that you made that a focal point in your themes because um student voice is really important at the end of the day. It's who we all serve. Um the board, the staff, uh the community and the parents. Um you know, I our staff um is terrific. Um but we only have 15% of our staff that live here. I'd love to see that change. I'd love to find creative solutions on how to change that. Um, you're right. If

115we have all these priorities, then nothing is a priority. So, I just want to plant that seed so that it's out there for something in the future, whether it's with the city or not. But it when you have owner, when you are in within the community that you live, and I love that you live here, you have a sense of agency, you have a sense of ownership that you have to make decisions that reflect what you would want, where you want your money to go. And I think that's really important. and I really am grateful for the time that you took to put a thoughtful presentation together. Um, I am grateful for all of the insight and advice, even the crappy options that you've given me in the past. Um, because that's now an inside

116joke that I have four crappy options. Pick one. Um, and I really really am excited. I have told you that from the very beginning that I think there is an amazing path here um that is ripe for opportunity and I am absolutely delighted to be on board and work with you. Thank you. >> Thank you. I was so looking forward to your 100 day report and it did not disappoint. We definitely have the right person here with with us and I am excited and proud to work with you and let's do it. Thank you. Um information items from human resources. Mr. Conlin, please provide information on the first quarter report of uniform complaints. >> Yeah, we have received no complaints for the first quarter. >> Okay, so I bet there aren't any board questions, are

117there? >> Clerk Hills, are there any speaker cards? No, I don't think probably not. Emily Ralphing. Are we on >> Oh, I I think she's she's on consent, not about um uniform complaints. >> Oh, yeah. She's on consent calendar. >> Okay. Okay, great. Um Dr. Mayberry, we're excited to learn new more about the new math adoption. >> Thank you, Bo President Perry. Um so today we're going to provide an update on our elementary mathematics instructional adoption process to the board. Um this is we're in the part year two of our process. Thank you. Um the um the content standards, the frameworks, professional learning materials are all part of a connected system to support student learning. uh structural materials are central to the student learning experience there, how well they do, the continuous improvement process. Uh

118research shows that high quality instructional materials uh have can have a significant impact on student learning and as well as aligning practices across classrooms uh as well as grade levels. Uh and then depending on the subject area, um California State Board of Education uh typically updates their content standards or frameworks about every seven to 10 years. Uh and then districts make the decision to if they need to update the materials um based off of any new uh new needs of students. And so we're in that process with elementary math right now. Um I wanted to share a little bit about the process before I get into where our staff is at and and and and our outreach to the parents with that. Uh we are again we're in year two. Year one is really about

119research and development. So there's a lot of learning that goes on in year one. Um a lot of looking at different materials, setting the criteria. that was last year. Um we're and test and select. So teachers are piloting this fall. Uh we want to move forward with a selection process in the next few months that we'll bring forward to the board uh probably in hopefully in January or February um for approval. And then there's year three implementing it. And that's really one of the more important things is after you select how do you keep this continuous uh growth going with the materials and with the instructional strategies that go with it. So um there's a lot of different parts to this. uh probably can be simplified. Uh you're not going to be able to read

120this, but you obviously can look at it later, but there's eight key steps to adopting new curriculum for our courses. Uh that's one of the reasons why it takes a few years to do. Um but it really is a collaborative process. What you'll see up here is I I can say at the elementary level, every instructionally facing staff from preschool through fifth grade has been a part of this process uh in some form over the last year and a half. Uh not even a year and a half yet. So, uh, it's a pretty comprehensive process because we're going to invest not just invest money into the materials, but we're investing into the student learning experience and we want to have these common experiences that we prioritize that we know are impactful that align to our

121learner profile. So, I'll kind of go through some of those steps and what that looks like. But before we even get to year one, um, you can see up here there's a lot of pre-work that's done. In our case, uh, several years ago, the elementary teachers went and did their essential standards and common formative assessments around that to really look at like what are these priority standards and how do we assess students on a regular basis for each grade level? What do they look like grade grade level to grade level um going vertically connecting that to the middle school and to the high school. They've also done a lot of different workshops around instructional strategies that are more problem based, more flexible learning, have skills that apply to relevant things that they will do the

122rest of their lives. Um, they've also started to update their curriculum maps that started prior to this as well uh with this. And then, uh, lastly, we did start a teacher leadership program with Orange County Department of Ed two years ago, and that was with a group of 12 teachers that volunteered to do that. Uh we met that year I think six times to unpack the new frameworks, study, do some research. We did some demo lessons. We went and visit other schools to really help not only develop their leadership but also to help make a recommendation on what year one might look like for other staff. So in year one, again this was last school year um we had three priority priority areas. One just understanding the new California math frameworks and the different pedigogies

123that go with that. uh two developing a common vision for math learning experiences and that's a really important one I'll talk about more in a little bit and then exploring aligned resources so that was our priorities last year so what that looked like uh for our staff was one a lot of learning um in the fall all teachers presented participated in some training with Orange County Department of Ed uh around different types of problems looking at some key ideas within the standards and across grade levels a lot of deep learning there's a big piece around big ideas and looking at different ways to assess students that are more competency based. How does that align to our learner profile? How does that align to our district goals um or site goals? We looked at some student

124data and some different ways of like, okay, here's some trends that we're seeing that we could do better on. Here's some trends that we're doing really well on, right? So, how do you find eventually you want to find that resource that helps you meet the needs of these? Um so, that was a lot of work there uh in that prior area. And the second one was around developing uh a vision of student learning experience for elementary and ma for elementary math. And so what we one of the things we did as as part of this process again there was three days in the fall but there was also um our prof districtwide professional development day in January as well as March where they did a lot of work in this area and some teachers did

125it beyond those five days. Um we asked really two questions uh with staff that we reflected on. what are the key learning uh strategies and experiences that we want for our students in math and what are the key skills and outcomes that we want and we do what you do nowadays you take that that feedback and you put it into AI and you get some themes back so uh so we took all their feedback all the teachers responded to these questions after all the things they'd learned and researched and gone out to visit other schools unpacked with the framework our work around looking at the learner profile and alignment um and they came up with this um this common vision for student learning. I won't read all of it to you, but I will say

126this is a pretty um something that I think I am really proud of the teachers and the staff that came up with this because it's really central. It puts students at the center of the learning experience. And it talks about problem solving, reasoning, communication, collaborative learning, hands-on activities, real world applications. This was the teachers that said this is what we want. We think is best for students based off of all the information we have and everything we've learned. inquirybased approach, building strong number sense, deep conceptual understanding, really really important things. That's the first paragraph. But what's also really impactful is if you look at the bottom paragraph and it talks about having a positive math identity for students, having helping kids have confidence and curiosity. Right? This is different. We're not trying to make our

127kids into human calculators, right? We want to make them into problem solvers. want to make them to have a level of creativity to work with others to communicate these really important ideas and solve the problems of now and the problems of the future and that's not be that's not through doing a being knowing every little fact that is to know it's about being able to reason and communicate and learn deeply. So that is this vision that they said no why and reason why this is not only impactful for what it says this is how you develop your criteria for evaluating materials. So if these are what we say is important as a as a staff and educators and and the and all the other information they brought in, we want to develop criteria to look

128for materials that support this. Do we already have this? Are we missing some? Does it what's it going to take? So that's the next step u is exploring align materials. So in the spring last year, teachers were given the opportunity to volunteer as a grade level team. As you know, we have we have uh six grade level teams uh not counting TK uh K through five. We have 60 of these schools. So, there's 12 possible teams um that could have volunteered for an opportunity to pilot this year. Half of those did it. So, half of our elementary teachers uh which is a really high percentage to said, I want to spend my extra time doing this, looking at getting these materials that going to help us educate our students in the right way. Uh that's

129going to have a lasting impact. And so there was we met in the spring some additional time with them to evaluate uh several resources that we screened down to four to look at in May and June. Um we look screened four. We went through a process of looking at the problems and the different books and how do they align to that criteria that they that we talked about like problem solving, reasoning, looking at strong number sense. Have is it help kids build a positive identity? Positive math identity. Does it help does it elicit curiosity and inquiry for students? And so we worked with Orange County Department of Ed for that as well as well as a few other organizations that evaluate materials, these high quality materials. Uh and that landed on two that they wanted

130to pilot this fall. So as you go into year two, which is this school year, um those are really the four four criteria um that they're looking at high quality tasks, access for all. So how you're differentiating to all the different student needs and the diverse uh students that we have different ways of assessing student learning uh beyond traditional ways and the usability of it right how is it for teachers how is it for students and parents and what does that look like so they actually as part of this pilot process they they took one of the materials they they did the first unit with that one they answered these types some survey questions about that um they then are doing another unit two they're in the middle of the second publisher right well answering

131the same four questions around it. Uh these these six teams as well as some staff from our intervention teams and our English learner teams. Um and so they are looking at this and saying providing feedback so they can then go back after doing the unit in each of them and say this one seems to be the best for our students and our our families and our and our colleagues. Um, so as you look at kind of where we're starting to get to uh where they are now this fall, this this second year of of this curriculum adoption process, right, they're piloting instructional materials. They're providing feedback. Um, they're most of the teams will be wrapping up their second unit around the end of November, early December. Um, so they'll take some time there to look

132at that feedback as well. Um, they're also doing weekly curriculum based professional development. So they meet uh each of those six teams meet separately with somebody from Orange County Department of Ed and they unpack a series of lessons to like talk through what are the main ideas, what might students need with this, how might we assess this? So it's really a thoughtful and comprehensive process. Um they're starting to we're we've just recently received some some parent kits to look at. So we'll be sharing those at some of the upcoming PTA and school state council meetings. Uh we also have a ma a family math night called math quest uh that's going to be up top of the world on November 18th. Uh we'll have some of the materials there to get more input from uh

133families there. And then with any large adoptions, you also have a review period. So we'll have a review. We'll have a 14-day review period. Parents can provide more input there as well and feedback. Um after that process of collecting that student and some student input as well uh we'll there will be a recommendation on which ones to adopt based on all that feedback. Then you move into the approval process right and that involves curriculum council uh which we've talked about here previously uh that's an instructional services stakeholder group that reviews and offers recommendations to go to the board includes teachers, directors, principles, coordinators, parents, board members, u elected parent representatives. So, a wide variety. It's a fairly large group. So, they'll present to that and say, "Here's what we're recommending and get some more feedback

134and recommendations there." That is scheduled for December. Um, and then lastly, we'd bring it to the board ideally in January or February uh for the board to to approve because there's obviously a set of we have we have budgeted funds for this, but as part of the board's roles to approve these instructional materials that align to the standards. So, really important process to go through very comprehensively. It's an investment not just for some materials to to provide students, but it's an investment in our approach and how we want students to learn uh and how we think we can develop the the right skills for them. So, we want to do that. We really ideally what's nice about doing that in January, February. It allows us to continue to train teachers in the spring to do

135a full launch in the fall. If you've been a part of for anybody who's been a teacher and and I know board president you have been there where like often the adopt the you just make a decision near the end of the year in like May or June and what what typically happens and I've been a part of these in the past you're trying to get teachers to come in over the summer and do some training or it's being done right for the school year start and it's really rushed out right so ideally if we get approval in the middle of the year it gives us a lot a longer window for teachers to prep and get ready and still have a summer break and still be very aligned with the start of the school

136year. So, that's where we're at right now. Uh, as you can see, we're there in the middle of year two. Um, and then we'll go into the fall. We'll implement something next fall, a year from now with all teachers. They'll be ongoing. We provide ongoing instructional coaching, uh, resource support, um, a lot of training will continue. You learn a lot when you are implementing things for the first time. And so it's really important not just for them to get training whether it's from the publishers or structural coaches or Orange County Department of Ed, but to have time together to work on it and unpack it and and say this works better than this. I want to tweak this. Uh I want to adjust this or maybe we don't need to spend as much time on

137this. Uh so we're u that will this will all continue into next year as a priority for because everybody right now we're fortunate very fortunate to have half the staff involved in it. So it's going to be make it even smoother when it's everybody. Um but we still have a lot of staff that you know um were not a part of the pilot process and we want to continue to provide them support as well as we get ready for next year. So that is the the overview and update of where we're at with that process and we're looking forward to continuing that and coming bringing some forward a recommendation to the curriculum council as well as the board uh in January. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Mayberry. Are there questions from the board? Um,

138thanks Dr. Mayberry. Um, I just have a a I guess some curiosity is about what happens with every um effort to get a new curriculum plan, right? You have a a curriculum program that you're using and then you do an evaluation as as you choose a new one of what we need to do differently or what we can prove improve upon. So I guess my question is are are there named goals that you had for selecting and choosing this particular curriculum? Were there things from the other plan, you know, our other curriculum program that you thought weren't quite working or things you really want to improve on and and uh how might this plan do that? >> All right. One of the things that emerged when looking at some of the student data and the

139prior curricular materials uh was they were very procedural heavy. Um and you want a balanced approach in math, you want to start with conceptual. Uh so kids are building those relationships and making connections. That's how the brain works. You want to do that. Uh that's not how I learned math. We started with procedural and we tried to memorize and what you find is those who are good at memorizing did well in math and those who didn't memorize well often struggled. Right? I think I saw a recent survey where uh 64% of the public population um has math anxiety, right? And so um as a if you're trying to memorize these procedurals that don't have meaning, it adds up over year after year after year and then it becomes like a a block and a barrier

140for a lot of people. And so um you want to start with something that's more conceptual. um you build towards the procedural piece when and the previous 100 years of math and construction in our country it's primarily been start with procedural which made sense when we didn't have calculators and computers. Um so we saw some of that the previous book was definitely more weighted heavier to the procedural part. These two materials that they are piloting this fall have a better balance. there's a little bit more problem solving and conceptual understanding being done up front before they move towards the procedural part where the more where there's more fluency. >> The two that we are piloting this fall are through amplify and imagine learning. >> Other board questions. >> Okay. Um I want to thank member

141Malesky for that question. Um that was good. I um I I remember back to school night at Thirstston. I think uh we walked into I think it was Mr. Nuniata's class. One of the classes I overheard they said, "Don't say don't come to me with your math homework. I'm not the math person." And I'm like, "Oh, we said that in our house all the time." So with an engineer husband, I was like, "I can do the math, but he's gonna be much better at it." Um, so I appreciate the question the question about how what prompted this um effort to to change or to adopt new curriculum. I remember back when Common Core was a big deal. Um and it was very um alarming for many parents because they didn't understand that we were going

142from the memorization the procedural to actually understanding how to get how to process and how to solve the problem. So are we is this program are we still in line with common core? Is that still something that we're that is the the initiative? Because I do in the report I appreciate in Dr. Glass's report. I appreciate that we're very initiative heavy and I know that has been a concern of parents in this in the boardroom through the years that I've been in here that we're always adopting the newest thing. We're always wanting to be the pilot for so many things. And while on one hand piloting can be good, if we're piloting something new all the time, then we're not really landing and digging and getting into expanding the good out of a program. So

143what of the of the current program? What is the um I think member Meski ask what is the goal and how are you measuring the goal as to whether this math program is going to be successful or not and is that part of this um roll out? >> Yeah. The so one of the things couple things that you respond like and I think those are really important things to bring up. The standards haven't changed. the framework is which is is the how um has changed that's the new piece and so there and the reason that's changed is to so schools and students are having it using a more balanced approach um which is one of the things that we looked at it was related to like the previous book procedural heavy and that was adopted

144I believe in 2014 or 2015 so almost 10 years ago >> um >> that's really >> and so um and that one was a very traditional book um that you would probably look not that different from the book you had in high Um so though nowadays there's much better high quality instructional materials out there that have a balanced approach. Um so the ways to how we will measure it will be obviously some student outcomes on the state tests. Um some of our own measurements we have our we have our own common formative assessments that we look at the same standards. We're still measuring the standards. So whether the student whether they use this resource or they use or a different one or a third or a fourth one there we're still being measured by the

145same state standards. Uh what's happened with the previous materials is the teachers had felt like they had to supplement quite a bit. So there was more this and I want I want to try this additional workbook or this additional uh online program because that wasn't meeting the needs. This one the goal of this one is that we're not having as many supplemental materials. So it is more encompassing and all and which makes it easier to be aligned and have coherence from grade level to grade level. Um, so that'll be one way to measure it through our common formative assessments, through our standardized test scores is one way and obviously from the student experience, right? We want students to have that positive selfident selfidentity and want them to be confident with math. Uh, and that's not

146always the case, right? If you're struggling with math, it's it's often because the procedurals are adding up. But if you're able to make those connections and build those relationships with numbers, uh you should have more success and be more confident around problem solving things you have not seen uh previously. >> Thank you. Um is so are we assessing let's see a couple questions out of that. Are we assessing then students comfort level with math as well as they go through this program? Because I know like middle school about sixth and seventh grade is where math and science starts dropping off I think right for um especially for girls. Um I know that's why like the um league of women not league of women al thank you sends kids to the um tech science camp. Um

147I know which both my kids did and it was great. Um, so are we is that part of the the plan is to assess not only the comfort level of this not obviously their progress but their comfort level with science and may and how we can embrace empowering our our girls to be more comfortable I guess in the in the math world. I think that stigma is still out there. >> I mean this is something that we definitely want to have see happen. Um I know as part of the pilot process uh teachers are touching base with students asking them questions about the types of problems and how whether what student at least the upper grade ones obviously sometimes that's harder to collect you know with a five or six or seveny old right but

148they are talking with students about the resources and whether they what they how valuable they are what things they like or don't prefer um there's a lot of opportunities to differentiate so it's more personalized with this these materials these they come with they come with centers and stations where kids can then break off and do things that are more at their level. Uh that all that's a big important piece with building confidence is we're meeting students where they're at and not having them all do it exact same way. Last question. Is there a lot of um I would love to participate in one of these learning opportunities. I know one of my favorite memories of starting at in in our school system was volunteering for Carol Nilson's class every Thursday for two hours counting the

149little stacking blocks and helping the kids with math with the stacking blocks. So, is there um one, is it an opportunity that anyone can come and do these um trial um these workshops that you're going to hold with math? And then um I think that's my last question. >> The ones the ones we're doing with parents um there's a couple ways that's happening. One is we're going to have the materials there for them to look at and just, you know, what does this look like for my student and what might what are the problems look like and what might they be bringing home? What resources have to support them? the math night on November 18th. It's a Tuesday. Um that is a one that we would love to have you there. Uh this will there'll

150be stations and centers set up that are very similar or the same as what they're doing within their uh the pilot materials. So they'll see and that's not everything that's in the materials but it is a big part of the instructional program is these different stations and centers. >> Well, thank you. I would love to attend. So send me a reminder and thank you for the comprehensive report. I appreciate that. Thank you. Um, Dr. Mayberry, could you just real briefly talk about the textbook adoption schedule that we're not so people understand we're not just trying to bring in new things all the time? >> Yes. So, um, prior to LCFF, the local control funding formula, um, which believe was 2014, the state, um, would give specific funding for instructional materials every year. For certain of

151you, it would say, "This year you're doing math, the next year you're doing ELA, the next year you're doing science." Now, the secondary level, it's not a that was, you know, not as difficult to navigate as elementary level. At secondary level, it's different. most of those times it's different set of teachers and they would go through an eighty year nine year cycle with that um and they would just start again that had been going on for quite a while in California with LCFF all that funds went into the general fund um so we have we budget each year funds for instructional materials um there is no specific seven or eight year timeline that there was previously um what the state typically does is they do update their frameworks which is how you want they want

152students to teach and and uh student learning experiences again every seven or eight years that got off a little bit with COVID. Um so that's why this one's a little bit longer. Um so again the last one that they did previously for math I think the frameworks was might have been 2013 this was 2023. Um they do their the secondary math like there'll be some work with secondary math to do a review process as well. After this the state will do the next one in the rotation is English language arts. Um and again that one I believe was 2015. So you get on a 10 after you know five six seven years a lot of materials are not updated enough to meet the needs and you start to see more teachers supplementing it. Um so

153that's why it's typically around like year seven 8 n you start to look at okay do we need to just get a new set of materials. So we did so that was this district did ELA around 2015 2016 and then they went into um social studies I believe was next and then science uh was around 2019 2020 um and then obviously we haven't done anything for a while quite a while um and now we're back on that rotation with math. >> Thank you very much. So basically it's about every eight years but with co I mean sometimes it might be a little longer but it's it's definitely not every couple years that we're changing everything. Right. Thank you. Any other questions? Any comments, Mr. Hills, about the map um green cards? Okay. Comments. Any comments

154from board members? I'm I'm glad that the teachers are making the decisions on this. Uh it seems like a long involved process and uh the experts are really the ones who should be doing it in conjunction with the students. >> Um I'm I really like the the thoughtfulness and the support that goes into helping teachers with this as well as students. The midyear approval I think is really great. So people have a chance to get used to it before they really have to jump in. And I think improving student confidence in math is huge. So I'm really glad to see this is working on that. >> Thank you. >> So just weigh in from an somewhat external perspective evaluating this. what uh Chad and his team and the teachers in the district have put in

155place is really a model for how curriculum should be reconsidered on a cyclical basis. Uh you don't do everything at once every year. You put things on a cycle and there's a very thoughtful process around considering math and then considering English language arts and then considering uh science and on down the line through all the subjects that involves your classroom practitioners. Frequently that gets stalled in districts because they just don't have the money that it takes to pay for the extra time or to acquire the materials. We're fortunate here that we have the resources to keep this cycle going, but it really does exemplify a best practice. >> Thank you, Dr. Glass. >> Okay, I think we're going to get to hear from Ry. Um first uh action item is approval of the 2024 2025

156unodudited actuals financial report. Mr. Raymond Lee will be presenting tonight. Thank you for being with us. Please proceed with your report. >> Just as uh Ray begins, Madam Chair, I'll just uh say that um Rey has put in a lot of time uh preparing for this. We had hoped to have a new CBO on board uh by the time uh this was presented to you. The timing doesn't allow us to do that, but I have full confidence in Raymond and I know that he's really prepared, worked really hard on this, and we worked on it again today. So, I'm excited uh for his presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you for doing this, Ray Herman. >> Well, good evening or President Perry, trustees, Dr. class colleagues, student leaders, and members of the community. My name is

157Raven Lee. I'm the budget administrator for the district. Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight to present the next few items for tonight. And before I begin, I wanted to commend all of you who are public speakers because a year ago I joined Toast Masters of Lagona Beach and now I have a greater appreciation for the art of public speaking. So I just wanted to say that. >> Good for you. Before you this evening is the unodited actual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. This report is the next step in our annual financial reporting cycle. At this stage, we are presenting the final numbers for 2425. Once that's complete, we begin the new fiscal year's reporting cycle. The state requires several financial checkpoints throughout the year to ensure the school

158district remain on track. The first checkpoint is the first interim report which comes to the board in December. It covers financial activity from July through October and updates the board on any changes to revenues and expenditures. The second interim report follows in March and reflects financial data through January, providing an updated projection for the remaining of the year. After the school year ends, we bring forward the estimated actuals in May along with the preliminary budget for the following year. Those estimates show where we expect to close the year and help guide the budget that the board adopts in June. Then once the books are officially closed and every transaction is verified, we return in the fall like tonight with the unodited actuals to show the final numbers for the year. There's also an important step

159that happens in between the annual independent audit. That process begins right after tonight's meeting when our auditors start their fieldwork. They will be presenting the final audit report to the board in January of 2026. And with that, the cycle starts all over again. Each report building on one before the other one. It is a continuous process of planning, monitoring, and validating. So what are the unordered actuals? This is the final district reporting for the fiscal year for the last fiscal year 2425. It is an accounting rather than a budgeting process. The reports are year end financials prepared using technical accounting principles. Essentially the honorary actuals is the final product from closing the books. The report includes all fin all final revenues and expenditures and it becomes the foundation for the annual audit. They represent the

160final figures for the fiscal year, the actual dollars the district received and the actual dollars spent. Closing the books each year is a detailed and highly technical process. It takes several months of work. The report in front of you follows all state accounting standards and is prepared using the SAC system which is the state accounting software. This information will be submitted to the county office of education and in turn they will certify our financial data so it can be sent immediately to the California Department of Education by the October 15 deadline. It is a very tight window but tonight's certification will allow timely delivery. Unodited just means the numbers have not yet gone through the audit through the outside audit. In fact, our auditors will begin the annual audit in early November. The final audit

161will come back to the board of education in January and will be presented by our lead auditor. So, how did we do this past year? In short, we ended the year with about $1.5 million more in fund balance than what was projected back in May. As you may recall, the estimated actuals were part of the information we shared when presenting the 2526 budget in May, which was then adopted in early June. Here in the graph, we have a summary of those results. Here the green bar represents the adopted budget. The light blue bar represents the estimated actuals and the vibrant blue color represents our final actual numbers for the year. What this chart shows is that revenues came in slightly higher than expected. Expenditures came in a bit lower and together that resulted in a

162stronger ending fund balance growing from 23.5 million to $25 million. We recognized total revenues of 89 million and we were very close to our property tax projections. The main reason the main reason our revenues ended up about 66 667,000 higher than expected was due to stronger investment earnings and year-end fair market value adjustments and the county investment pool. What that means is that each June the county revalues our cash investments based on current market rates. And this year's adjustments came in just a little bit higher than expected. At year end, we also received donations as well as some grants that came in later in the year. Combined, the variance was only about 0.75% which is a little bit less than 1%. Which shows how close we were to our year end results. Meanwhile, expenditures ended

163the year at 87.5 million, which is about $876,000 lower. And that's definitely a good thing. Salaries were right on target and benefits came in slightly lowered due to year-end adjustments and reduce worker compensation costs. Expenditures for instructional materials, supplies, equipment, and routine maintenance came in lower. What is usually the case at year end is that we often have what we call encumbrances. These are funds that are set aside for open purchase orders such such as instructional materials that have not been ordered or projects that have not been completed yet. When those purchase orders are closed at the end of the fiscal year, any unused dollars go back to the bottom line. It's kind of like putting a deposit down on something you have not received yet. The money is reserved, but it's not actually spent.

164When we close the books, we only record what's what is truly spent, not what is still pending. So, if something we plan to buy doesn't happen before June 30, those funds go back to the bottom line. And if these are categorical dollars, these funds roll over to the following fiscal year. Overall spending came overall spending came in just under budget about 1% lower than what we thought we were going to be spending. And this is a good indication that our budget estimates were very close. Ray, just before you move forward, um, board, there are a few key financial indicators that I pay a lot of attention to as a superintendent. One is what's happening with your fund balance year-toear. What you see here is looking at the adopted budget um, fund balance of 22 million

165and then the unodudited actuals once we get those verified, assuming that they are, you'll you see almost a $3 million increase. That means effectively you ran a $3 million surplus last year. That's a really good trend. And it's a continuing trend that we look back across several years where he's going to show you that. But I just wanted to highlight that that's a key financial metric. Are you running a surplus or deficit? This district is running running a surplus and that's a good thing. >> Thank you, Dr. So while it is important to compare the onard actuals to what we projected back in May and to see how closely our estimates align, it is just as important to look at how our actual revenues have changed from one year to the next. Comparing year-over-year actuals

166gives give us gives us a clearer picture of how our long-term trends, how our revenues are growing, how is our spending evolving, and what that means for our ability to plan ahead. This next chart focuses on that trend. When we look at our actual revenues from to 2425, we can see a steady growth. Total revenues increased from 85.7 million to 89.4 million, which is about 3.7 million or roughly a 4 or roughly a 4.3% increase. Most of the growth came from our property tax revenue. which continues to be the foundation of our funding and a reflection of the strength of our local community. Public tax revenue grew roughly about 5% last year and we expect to see similar growth again this year around five to 6%. So far we have focused on how this year

167closed compared to May and also a year ago. Now let us take a step back and look at the longer term picture. How have our revenues grown over time? Well, when you look at our long-term revenue trend, the story is one of steady steady growth. Revenues have doubled over the past 13 years, which speaks to the strength and stability of our local property tax base here in Lagona Beach. It is also a a reflection of a community that continues to value and invest in high quality education. turning into expenditures. This chart breaks spending into two major categories. About three quarters of our budget goes into salaries and benefits, which highlights our top priority. People, our teachers, staff, and administrators are truly at the heart of what we do. Compared to last year, salaries and benefits

168increased by about 6%. The remaining portion covers operating costs, things like instructional materials, supplies, contract services, utilities, and equipment. Those costs have grown about 9% over the past two years, which aligns with what we have all experienced, higher prices for goods and services across the economy. And similar to revenues, this chart shows our expenditures over the past 13 years. We can see the expenditures have grown gradually closely following the same upward trend as revenues, nearly doubling since 2012, which reflects the steady growth of the district and our continued investment in people, programs, and schools. But the real story comes into focus when you look at revenues and expenditures together. This where you start to see a meaningful trend. Over the past 13 years, the district has maintained a strong financial balance averaging an annual surplus

169of about $3.9 million. These funds have allowed this I'm sorry. These funds have allowed us to keep investing in our schools, supporting facilities improvements, and ensuring our campuses remain well-maintained and welcoming places for students to learn. Now that we have looked at the trends in revenues and expenditures, let us focus on the bottom line. This chart reviews the components of the ending fund balance and the general fund. Essentially, what remains after all revenues and expenditures have been accounted for at year end. The fund balance is made up of several categories. non-spendable, restricted, committed, assigned, and and unassigned funds. You can think of each category as a different pocket of the district's savings, some already spoken for and some flexible. The first component shows $50,000 as nonspendable reserve which includes our revolving cash account. The second

170part includes $21,000 in prepay prepaid prepaid I'm sorry and prepaid expenditures. The re the restricted balance of 4.4 million represents categorical programs. This includes carryover funds for instructional materials and programs and it also includes our 4% reserve for routine maintenance. The committed fund balance of 1 million is set aside for the district's supplementary retirement plan. These funds were designated last year to cover the cost of the retirement incentive program for eligible employees. Because it is a committed Because it is a committed balance, the funds remain reserved specifically for that purpose until the plan is fully paid off. The assigned balance of $15 million represents funds identified for potential one-time expenditures. These funds are not yet restricted or committed, but with board approval through a formal resolution, they can be designated or transferred for other purposes.

171For example, the funds could be committed and transferred to our fund for capital projects to fund the pool project. Lastly, 4.5 million is held as our state required minimum reserve for economic uncertainties, which equals 3% of our operating expenditures plus an additional 2% as required by board policy for a total of 5%. Combined these components make up our total ending fund balance of 25 million. This normal then becomes our starting balance for the new fiscal year 2526. This final slide summarizes the balances of all the district funds including the general fund as well as other funds. The ending fund balance represents the dollars available in each fund at the end of the fiscal year. It's calculated on what's called a modified acral basis, which means it includes revenues that are measurable and available and expenditures

172that have been incurred. Each fund has its own ending balance and together they make up the district's total fund balance. It is basically your cash plus receivables minus li liabilities for that fund. As of June 30, 2025, the total ending fund balance for the entire district was 58.7 million. With the board's approval tonight, we will certify the unodudited actuals and submit them to the state. This keeps the district in compliance and ensures our information is review in a timely manner. The audit team from a Bailey will begin their fieldwork audit next month and will return in January to present to the board the final audited report. Thank you for your time and attention this evening. I will be happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Lee. Board members, are there questions?

173remember Morgan? >> I have a couple. Um, thank you so much. You did a great job. I know this was a lot um to take on which is part of your day-to-day, but I know it was above and beyond and you spoke beautifully. So, you did great. >> Thank you. >> Um, I have a couple questions. The audit that is conducted is is a typical audit that's done in all districts, right? It's not a forensic audit. It's not one that just that would have would that would have identified if we had an overspend issue or anything like that. It's it's are the monies all lining up where they're supposed to be. Is that I mean in the simplest form? >> Uh that's correct. Uh board member Morgan. The typical audit happens in every school district

174and usually the auditors come in the spring to do the major audit where they look at different items for compliance. Then they come back at year end. Usually they come back anywhere from September to November to do their audit and during that time they look for many things that are part of the annual audit which is formalized by the state. >> Okay. So >> madam um >> go ahead. Yeah, Trusty Morgan. Um, a comprehensive annual audit looks at the closed books at the end of the year and validates that the funds uh were accurate. In other words, what Rey and his team have said we spent in each fund, they will go through and and make sure that that number was right. So, if we overspent and didn't account for it, they would have flagged

175that. Um or if the district has internal financial control problems uh like there is aren't uh sort of checks and balances involved in the appropriation of funds, they would flag that and tell you that the issue with the healthc care audit is that there was a contract the collective bargaining agreement that was not followed. An annual comprehensive audit doesn't look at individual contracts and validate those. So that's why and the annual audits would not have caught that because they don't go to the level of individual contracts. It really requires a forensic audit on a that's targeted which is what you had um the time for. >> Thank you for that clarification. So So following that thought then what I'm I'm a little conf I guess I'm a little confused. I don't I know that we're

176not going to have a line item. I went through I appreciate the presentation um information. Um we I didn't have that we didn't have that I don't think until earlier today. So, I went through the um the 70page document of unaudited actuals um and read through and I guess I'm still a little unsure if we had um if our agreement with uh the the unions was a 5.5 million budget or a 5.5 million policy contribution, but our policy came in at 6.3. three, right? Approximately, which this year, which is where we came up with approximately 800. Where is that in here? Because when I look at the general fund under employee benefits, I mean, every all the numbers align pretty close. I mean, we're 400,000 off um on our estimated actuals versus our un audited

177unodudited actuals. Um, and I know and I don't So, and and then it said we said, where else did I see? Um, we have an employee benefit noted as a decrease of spending by like $276,000. So, how and I I got the answers. I got them really late so I didn't really get a chance to review closely but I'm curious as to where where that came from where the money to adjust and I know the superintendent um you had expressed that there are uh limits to how much money you can move through different accounts that doesn't need board approval but I'm curious so where is that number in the budget that would show that this fund had more money and that's the fund that would paid because if our premium was 6.3 this year or

178and last year it was six six million I guess because it was about a $500,000 overspend. Where is that in here? because it shows the benefits that we paid. You know, 5.5, we paid 5 point um our budget actuals say that we paid 5,528,000 which is our um unaudited actuals and we budgeted the 5.5 which is what the contract agrees to. So where did how does that work? Yeah, I'll give you the um high level answer and Ry can give you the details. Um the unodudited actuals show that the district spent $5.5 million on health benefits and that's what the district did spend on health benefits and the auditors will validate that. So that's when when you approve this, you're giving us permission to send it to the state and the auditors to do the

179validation of that. But the unodudited act will show that the district spent $5.5 million on healthcare. If the collective bargaining agreement had been followed according to the the way it's written last year, the district would only have spent around $5 million, not 5.5 on healthcare. The employees would have picked up the other 500,000. And so if we had followed the collective bargaining agreement, the unodudited actuals would show $5 million and not 5.5. Great. >> Yes, that's accurate. So basically when we're looking at this report, it's just showing what we actually spent. So for the employee benefits section of this report, it shows $20 million. But out of those $20 million, there are other components that make up total employee benefits. We have the pension costs. We have social security. We have Medicare, unemployment insurance, and

180workers compensation. And then finally, we have health benefits. So health benefits is just a piece of the pie. So in this report we have 5.5 million showing as what we actually spend for health benefits out of the $20 million. >> Right. >> And what the 5.5 million represents is actual premiums paid to the carrier minus employee contributions. >> The 5.5 is >> Yes. The 5.5 is the 5.5 is the net cost to the district. Got it. So 5.5 >> it's a net cost to the district. So if if the collective bargaining agreements had stated something in writing that the that the employee contribution should have been X amount then perhaps that should have been followed to the dot and I think Mr. Bishop at the last board meeting gave a comprehensive review of what his

181findings were. Yeah, I Okay, I think um I think I'm still not totally clear on on this because I think um because the and I'm just keep coming back to the same thing. I think the agreement was 5.5. We paid more, but you're saying that the premium was actually less. It was 5 million. >> The difference the the contract doesn't specify if it's five million or 5.5. The contract specifies what is the district's contribution per tier uh per plan. So it's not you can't it's practically impossible to derive from that what the district's contribution should be. Um so because your number of employees is shifting uh throughout the year. So there's an estimate related to that. Um but again the audit or the unodudited actuals are showing you what the district actually spent on healthcare.

182So 5.5 million is that number and with your approval tonight, you're you will be sending this out to an outside auditor to validate that that was in fact what it what it spent. The core of the issue is that the bargaining agreement uh should have had the employees pick up more of that $5.5 million. That's the net amount that Ray's talking about. But we didn't but we but between the 5.5 that the district paid and then what the premium balance turned out to be was more. >> Um if yes I mean there's what you're seeing in the unodudited actuals is what the district's payments were. What we're saying is if the bargaining agreement had been followed we believe that the district's payments would have been less but it wasn't. So it's 5.5 million. >> Okay.

183Because I guess I I saw somewhere that we pay 5.5. So, I guess that's why I'm a little confused because it says 5.5 and we spent 5.5. So, how where where was the overage? >> The overage again is that the bargaining contract indicates that more of that 5.5 should have been borne by the employees and it was not. >> Okay. Uh board member Morgan, can I clarify that for you? I believe I don't remember the exact numbers but I think total premiums for all plans for medical, dental, vision and life for this past year was around $6 million, >> right? And then employees contributed about half a million dollars roughly. I don't remember the exact numbers. So when you take $6 million in total premiums and subtract the employees contribution of half a million dollars,

184we end up with about 5.5 million and that was the total net cost to the district. >> But if we're saying that employees should have contributed more, perhaps more than half a million dollars, then we will have not spent $5.5 million. We pro we will have probably spent less than that, maybe five million. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay, I don't have any further questions at this time. Thank you. >> Any other questions for Kil? So, uh what are the options for um balancing the books uh uh in terms of what we do uh in the coming period with the uh with the health care costs? Uh >> yeah, I'll I'll answer that. Click Hills. Um that really is a question for our new CBO to tackle right away. Um, as I've mentioned previously, it's

185a question that will be resolved through collaborative bargaining with our associations. Uh, it will be invol it will involve uh the board um determining at what level the board the district wishes uh to contribute to the plan, but it will be a process. It's not something that we will be able to answer tonight, nor do on from the administration we have the authority to say what that is. Yeah, I yeah, I sort of assume that might be the response, but um I mean that is selfproving. I mean that's just a fact, you know, that we're we're not there yet, but um we could speculate about some of the options without stating that we we would follow those options. Um, so when this goes up for the unudited goes up to be to the what? County

186Department of Education for auditing. Um, are they going to um find that there was a overpayment or what what what are they going to say about it? >> What the county does is just do things for compliance. They will accept the report as it is and they will submit it to the state of California. From there, that allows our auditors to audit our financial information and present to the board back in generate their findings. >> Yeah. Are they going to what are their findings going to be? >> That's up to the auditors. >> Yeah. We we can't say that. They they need to conduct the audit and determine that. However, um because we've now flagged the healthc care issue as as an item, it's something that they will look at as we would have if

187if we had told the auditors last year that we suspect there's a problem. It would be something they would look at in the course of the audit. Uh but as I was mentioning to member Morgan, uh evaluating compliance with individual contracts is outside the scope of what a typical audit does, but because we know it's an issue now, it'll it'll come up. >> I understand. But so I just want to make sure um so that what what that means is what we're doing this year with respect to the health care premiums and the overpayment is different from what we did last year. In other words, we've changed our behavior because we're flagging it to them because we did that audit. Yes, it's um widely known now that we have a problem and that will be

188something that we'll make sure is communicated and >> I think you guys have done a great job. We we're we're improving over what we did uh over the last five years. And um I also want to just thank you for your presentation. I I don't know how much you have left to go, but so far as in terms of how far we've come, it's been very helpful to me. >> Sure. Thank you. And I did wanted to ask something for the board to consider. 10 years ago, our CBA had one single district cap number. 10 years ago, it was, I believe, 4.5 million. It was one number that was clear. Everybody could see it and everybody could understand it. That was 10 years ago. 4.5 million. So perhaps we should consider, should that number go

189up by inflation or should it stay stagnant? And we have to remember that competitive wages attract top talent to our district. And what is considered competitive wages in our modern world? Are we comparing that to other companies to other local agencies? How how are we determining what are considered competitive wages? Yeah. Um that context um I just want to respond by saying that um you know uh cost reductions uh are also something that are possible. I don't know if if you looked at this 4 point or 5.5 what exactly would be the um insurance commissions for the brokers and whatnot, but I think those are all issues we're going to have to look at as we go forward. So, >> thank you for those considerations. Now, may I have a motion to approve the unudited

190actual finan actuals financial reporting? Second. Second. any discussion. >> Um, so I just want to be clear that if we approve because there's been comments of, well, you approved the interim budget December 16th. Okay. Well, we got our binders, I think the Friday before and um no explanation of of the budget of the audit and the um interim report and what we were looking for and everything. It was just it was presented that night. Approve it because if you don't then we're in not in compliance by tomorrow. Um I do believe the same thing was kind of done in April because as I had indicated earlier on the joint fiscal committee um the first meeting I attended we talked about the codes and how to read the codes. Pretty basic. We were done in about

19125 minutes. Um and I my colleagues here can attest attest to that. The second meeting that we had um basically looked at the um property taxes and the fact that by you know in the next couple years the big celebration was that we're going to have almost $und00 million in our budget. So there really has not been um and I know it's on record that I have asked multiple times for a comprehensive budget presentation on how we were going to pay for the pool and everything else. And I think we got that finally in June of what the budget was. And what that clarified for the pool is that we have to drain most of our funds to pay for this as long as we stay within the reserve of 25 million. So if we

192if we approve this, if we don't approve this tonight, does that that means that we're not in compliance with the state? Is that right? Because I think this insurance thing is I don't want to approve something and then have it come back to me and say, "Well, you approved it, so you authorized it. I'm still speaking. Um, and therefore you're responsible because at the end of the day, we're still trying to understand how our budget works. One of the things that's come up is that we don't have the we could afford to improve our processes and our protocols and checks and balances. And so I'm concerned that by approving this, we will then be held liable for approving things that we should never have approved to begin with. So unless that's not accurate with this

193document, this document is just this is what we spent, this is what we budgeted, and it's going to go and be audited, but we aren't going to be like held over a fire because we approved it, and therefore we should um pay all the insurance and everything because um we already approved it. Some of that might be a little flippant, but I just I'm really wanting to understand this. I I want to make sure that our staff is taken care of. But we are also responsible to our taxpaying community, which um is actually a larger number. So I I mean that's just a fact. It's not an insult. It's not an attack. It's not anything. But those people checked a box for me to sit here and and part of that was so that we

194had good oversight. And so it's been used against us multiple times that we've already approved two interim budgets. Yet I will argue that it was without a lot of background information. So, I want to make sure that whatever we're approving here, if we are approving it, that it's not going to be um one hindering a solution for the staff, that it's not going to hinder the board, that we've approved something we never should have. um that we have all the information that we need to keep compliant but also keep our options open to be able to fix the systems to address the staff needs to protect the taxpayer dollars. Um and I don't know how all that makes sense or anything, but I I I find some of this I find the overpay to be

195um alarming um because I have sat in this room for a long time. I've listened to some of these budgets. I know that we're very well and I think um to the point of you know just because we have money we can continue to spend it is not a good practice um especially if we're trying to build a $25 million pool we're trying to fix um some of our you know improve some of our other facilities but we also want to start we want to start um investing more into our academic pathways for our students. So, I don't want to approve this if I'm compromising any of those things or the board for making this decision. >> Okay. >> Who's got the >> We're not approving a budget. This is what we spent, >> right?

196>> That's why I said budget. I don't want to >> No, no, no, no. But I I'm I'm slightly confused because you're they're not asking us to approve what we might spend. They're showing us what we spent, what we brought in, and what we spent. These are the actual numbers. So, it's there's no judgment to this, >> right? >> I understand. But I understood that with the audit with the interimm budgets as well, and that's been used back. know that there was a >> a slide put up that said, "Do you want to allocate an extra $400,000?" And the vote unanimously was yes. >> That was on the 16th December. >> We did it twice. I'm not trying to get into the details of it. I'm explaining that those are judgment decisions about where we're

197going to allocate our funds in a budget. This is what we actually spend. >> I do understand how a budget works. Thank you. Um, and I still stand by my concern that I want to make sure what we're what this reflects, which I understand reflects what we've actually spent, but by sending it on, we're not being tied to some concern that we've spent extra more money on insurance or things like that and then it's going to come back to the board somehow. >> Dr. Glass, >> thank you. Um what you're certifying tonight is that your superintendent and the staff have done the work to close the books accurately for the past year. So it is accounting for what you spent in the last fiscal year that >> what it it it was approved it was

198spent I mean these are it's not an question of approval. this is what what the checkbook was reduced by these amounts. And so that's we've done the work. Now from an unodudited standpoint, what you're doing is certifying that um from the district standpoint, this is what we believe the the closing out of the books is. That is not the final word. That is now then referred on to the county and the state and an external auditor to validate that all of those numbers were in fact accurate. So it what what you're doing is sending it on to that next step. >> Clerk Hills. >> Yeah. I I would like to uh associate myself with member Morgan's uh comments um and elaborate a little bit. That's why I asked the question earlier, are we doing something

199different than we've done in the past? I got the answer is yes. We're doing something different because what we're sending up to the county uh notifies them and and informs them of the fact that we had a audit report that indicated we were out of compliance with our >> one clarification clerk hills and that would be we would we would notify the auditor right that issue. >> I'm sorry. >> We would notify the auditor of that issue. >> Yeah. And you know, I think it's interesting because um you know, you you can say, well, this is just what we spent last year. Um but then as member Morgan's pointed out, we're also hearing, why are you guys asking any questions about all this? You voted to approve it. And so it that makes it necessary

200for me to state on the record. Again, as I've said four or five times previously, um you don't uh you're not in a situation where you can be said to have approved something when you didn't know about it and when it was concealed and undisclosed. And so, um, the reality is that, um, when the question came up of whether we were going to give the insurance companies our numbers and we were going to commit to these numbers and whatnot, um, the the question was, you know, are we just are we doing the same thing that was done four times earlier or four times previously? And you know the the answer that we got from council was uh no because you need to have an agreement in place so you can negotiate to get back to

201the caps. Now what getting back to the caps means could mean a lot of different things and that's what's going to be negotiated and um it could actually be an opportunity to do what we should have been done during those doing during those three or four years. We should have been saying insurance, health insurance prices are going up, costs are going up. We've got caps in the uh bargaining agreement that the unions agreed to that, you know, arguably aren't meeting the need. And so instead of uh just going over the caps and not saying anything about it and uh for four years or whatever, um we should have been saying something about it and say we've got a problem here and we should have been addressing it. And u so now we're going to have

202that opportunity in the negotiations to address it and figure out how to do it. But it's very important to make it clear that um when I voted uh for any of this at any time um it either was without knowing and it should have been disclosed and so I would argue that um the board was not given the information to make a a a knowing and informed consent. Um but that's okay. We move on um and we solve the problem. But I think what me uh member Morgan is saying is very important to understand how all this came about. And I'm just glad um to say I'm happy that we can say that um we're not doing this time the same thing that we did last time because among other things this time we're disclosing

203the fact that we are had overpayments. In the previous years when we did this when we did this unodudited finals, we didn't disclose that to the county and to the state. This year we're disclosing it and that means that we're doing better that we're doing it better than the way we did it in the past. So I commend your office for um getting us to this point. >> Thank you, Clerk Hills. Um may I well I'm going to call for a vote. I just had one comment. Okay. I know that this past year in your office has been exceptionally busy. You've all been working extremely hard. You I'm extremely grateful because not only was there a lot going on in the district, but Mr. Dixon also took on a second role. So, it's not just

204that you did a great job tonight, and I appreciate that. It's that you've been doing, you know, with other staff a standup job for the entire year, and I'm deeply appreciative. Thank you. >> I too really appreciate all the extra hours you've put in. Thank you so much. >> Okay, let's call for the vote. Student board members, >> uh we'll be voting yes. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. No. Thank you. Okay, you don't get to leave yet. Sorry. Approval of resolution number 2521 increase 2024 2025 GAN limit by 3,410,396.95 [Music] and adoption of the 2526 district appropriations subject to GAN limits. Mr. Lee, please continue with your next item. >> Thank you. Next is our GAN limit calculation. The GAN limit is a California constitutional rule from 1979 that says the amount

205of tax revenue a public agency reports each year has to stay in line with the formula based on inflation and student attendance for school district. It's really an accounting compliance step. Each year, the state sax accounting software automatically calculates this limit for us. You can think of it as the state's way of double-checking that our revenues align with the constitutional formula. Because Laguna Beach Unifi is a basic aid district, most of our revenue comes from local property taxes. Property tax growth in our community often outpaces inflation and enrollment, which is a good thing. But it means our actual revenues can exceed the preliminary state limit. When that happens, the law automatically requires us to raise our limit to match the revenues we actually receive. For 2425, our preliminary limit was 68.7 million while actual appropriations

206from tax revenues total 72.1 million, an increase of about 34 3.4 million. This 3.4 million is not new funding. It's simply the adjustment required by law. So our official limit aligns with reality. Adopting this resolution is a routine annual step that takes us in compliance with the California Constitution and Government Code section 7910. By approving this resolution tonight, the board certifies that the district's GAN limit calculation is accurate and that Laguna Beach Unifi is operating fully within state law. This is a routine annual action, has no fiscal impact and no change to programs or staffing. is purely an accounting and compliance requirement and I'll be happy to take any questions regarding this item. >> You are there any board questions for kills? Are there any speaker cards? >> No. >> Okay. May I have a

207motion to approve resolution number 2521? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Uh, roll call vote. >> Student board member. >> Uh, we vote yes. >> Member Morgan, >> yes. >> Member Kelly, >> yes. >> Member Maleski, >> yes. >> Clerks, >> yes. >> President Perry, >> yes. Thank you. >> Okay. App approval of res resolution 2520-22 to establish an interfund transfer of $900,000 from the general fund to the special reserve fund for facilities repair and replacement program for 2025 to through 2026. Mr. Lee, >> thank you. Next is resolution 25-22 authorizing a transfer of $900,000 from the general fund to our facilities repair and placement program often referred to as the FURP. This program began more than 20 years ago following the 2001 bond measure and this was to ensure there are schools

208remain in good repair over time. Each year we set aside funds for major maintenance projects, things like roofs, HVACs, flooring, and plumbing. This proactive approach allows us to plan ahead, avoid costly emergency repairs, and keeps our facilities safe and fully functional for students and staff. This transfer is already built into our budget and multi-year projections. So tonight's action simply reaffirms the board's ongoing commitment to maintaining our facilities in excellent condition. Thank you and I'll be happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. Any board questions? >> I have one. Is this so um the fur is a maintenanceon fund? So, if we use this, was this fund identified for the pool? >> Ray has another slide to show you where the pool funds are coming from. Do you want to show that, Ray? >> Um,

209I have the handout. >> Okay, >> I can share with the board. >> Let's do that. >> Okay. So, this is not I mean, I know what the fur is. I know that it's for maintenance and things like that for repairs, emergencies, etc. >> Um, I thought I saw at one point somewhere that we were using those funds to help fund the pool. And so I guess my question is if it's part of the budget, it's not a new expense, but what it is going to do is is by going away for the pool, we're not going to have those funds for the expense. Is that right? >> Ray will answer the question. >> Yeah. Need 6020. >> We need one for you. >> Yeah. So you are using the 25 million. You are using

210>> What was the question again? >> Well, I think this answers it. My concern is that by um I'm not opposed to moving to approving the resolution, but I'm concerned that this is our repair and replacement program and it's been earmarked for as hundred thou or as a million dollars of the $25 million pool. So, what happens once we move these funds for the pool? What happens if something breaks down and we need to repair it? >> Excellent question. Uh board member Morgan. So the paper in front of you shows the balances as of June 30. >> So let's imagine we are on June 30 and we wanted to build a pool at that time. The paper shows the funds available to build the pool. >> And the transfer that we are asking the board

211to approve tonight is for the new fiscal year. is already been budgeted and it just means that we're going to add an additional $900,000 to the fund balance in front of you. So >> So it would be 1.8 million60. >> You will be adding additional $900,000 to that number that you see in front of you. >> Yeah. To the FURP. So that would be So if it's 960 here and tagged to go into the pool, we're adding another 900 >> 1.8 million, >> right? But we're not tagging the 1.8 8 million for the pool. We're only tagging the 960. >> Correct. >> So, we're putting 900 back into >> Yes. >> And what's our annual budget for the fur? Typically, is it always been 900? >> Uh, it depends on the different projects. So, for

212example, this past summer, we have the field, the synthetic turf. The cost for that project was about $1 million. So, essentially, this money is going to go towards paying for the synthetic turf, >> the 960 or the 900 that we're transferring today. the the money that was transferring tonight. >> So that's already spent then. So how are we putting funds in to anticipate future need needs this year because there's other things that could go wrong. So >> So every year we try to allocate money to replenish the money that's spent out of that fund. So depending on what projects we have lined up and there might be a question for uh our director of facilities to see what kind of projects are down the road. Uh I don't have that information in front of me,

213but we can always come back and provide you with that information. >> Sure. Well, I know we have a 10-year facility plan. I get that. So, and I know that this is not for that. This is for repairs and and emergencies and an HVAC breaking like you said, a leaky roof or you know the fictitious um pipes bursting and and flooding classrooms all the time. Um so I guess I'm still have that concern that if this 960 is being tagged for the pool, the 900 that we're transferring today is going to pay retroactively for the turf that's already in. What where where are we transferring money to repair things? Well, I just wanted to mention that in the general fund, there's also a budget for routine maintenance and it's about roughly $2 million. So, out

214of the general fund, we all we also have money for routine maintenance projects for painting, for plumbing, electrical, and all those items are paid within the general fund. What the fur is for I think of it of a firm as larger projects. >> Okay. So, if I may, um, the >> all of your reserve funding is 50, what's on the sheet there? 58 million. >> $58 million. You're going to move $25 million out of that to pay for the pool, which is going to leave 30ome million dollars left. So, that would be if you had something happen where we needed additional money to cover it, you still got a healthy reserve to cover those kinds of expenses. >> Right. But you've also confirmed that you don't that there is no other projects being done after

215the pool unless there's a bond because we have >> that's I I would not goes below I would not characterize it like that. Um it would mean that your future projects will have to be done a little bit at a time. Uh so this year for example you added $3 million in surplus money to your reserve. If you did that again you'd have six. If you did that again you'd have nine. So you start building you start building up enough cushion to start taking on some larger projects or you uh if you had a bond you'd be able to do it all at once. So it's really a question of are are you able to do it a little bit at a time or or if you have a bond funds you're able to do

216large projects all at once. So, and some of this is just for understanding, but if we have if to pull a bond and I to take a bond to do everything all at once is we have this fund that this came out of because of the last bond, right? So, >> no, it did this was not funded from the last bond. The last bond in improved and expanded the facilities and then you're using general fund dollars now to maintain the facilities that you have. So Ry said it was a commitment that the a board made in the early 2000s to maintain the facilities that you have. >> Oh, this says yeah as part of the facilities master plan following the >> following the bond, right? But it's general fund money. This is not bond money.

217The bond's been spent decades ago. >> Okay, got it. Thank you. >> The bond was probably spent in the first five years that you got it. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? >> Uh, okay. >> Did I miss him? Um, may I have a motion to >> Okay. >> Any dis any discussion? >> Okay. Call for a roll call vote. >> Student. >> Yes. Thank you. Member Morgan, member Kelly, >> member Malchesky. >> Clerk Hills. >> Yes. >> President Perry. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> This is your last one. >> Yes. >> Um the approval of resolution 2523 to establish an interfund transfer of $1.2 $2 million in the general fund to the special for capital improvement plan for 2025 2026. Mr. Lee, >> thank you. The last business services item tonight is res

218resolution 25-23 authorizing a transfer of 1.2 million from the general fund to the capital improvement plan fund, also called CIP. The CIP was created in 2014 as part of the facilities master plan to support projects that go beyond regular maintenance. Things like new classrooms, athletic facilities like we saw what we did at Durston, the nice field that that was done there and other major site improvements like the FURB. This transfer is included in our budget each year. It allows the district to plan ahead and keep our campuses updated and align with the needs of students and staff. And I'll be happy to answer any questions. Board questions? No. Okay. May I have a motion to >> Thank you. Um, any discussion? Roll call vote. Mrs. Weber. >> Logan. >> Yes. >> Member Morgan. >> Yes.

219>> Member Kelly. >> Yes. >> Member Maltesky. >> Clerk Hills. >> Yes. >> President Perry. >> Thank you very much, Ray. You get to go home. >> Thank you. Thank you, Boore. And thank you, Dr. Glass. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Action items. Superintendent approval of agreement with Grey Matters LLC for temporary contracted communication services in an amount not to exceed $10,000. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um with uh the increased communications need over the past two weeks uh related to the 100 day report and the need for editing support uh design layout um marcom work on that I reached out to um a colleague that I've worked with previously that has an LLC in communications Tammy Schiff. She has the Gray Matters LLC to support us with the completion of the 100 day report.

220Um, as was mentioned earlier, our current communication director is out on leave and uh, we we had an increased need during this particular period of time. Um, so I brought um, Tammy and her team on to support us through the delivery of the report that you have. I don't expect that we'll need the full $10,000, but it's there in case the need continues. Thank you. >> I'm sorry. In case the what continues? >> In case the need continues. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Are there any board questions? >> Does she um so I looked at her website um and so they do all levels of communication including website development and general um graphics etc. So and plus a broader communications plan. Um, is there a timeline on her contract of when it would expire if

221we were to approve and is there options to increase it if we have a larger need beyond uh what's approved tonight? >> Um, we certainly could bring back to the board an expanded contract if that's something that um that there was a need for that. Right now, this was purely in the context of completing the 100 day report and the work that needed to happen around that. So, I haven't really contemplated uh the next steps beyond that. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Clerk Hills. >> Um yeah, just I apologize. Um I've had this explained to me a couple of times, but um when did you when did we um bring these folks on board? >> Sepmber 30th. >> September 30th. Yeah. >> And um it was primarily because of what of just to

222do this 100 day report. >> That's correct. >> Um was it an unanticipated need to have them come in? >> It was. >> And what was the variable that was unanticipated? >> Um the communication director is on leave. So, was the communication director on leave back like on September 30th or >> I don't recall the exact date? >> Yeah, >> that happened. >> Yeah. >> But I knew that I had this report to deliver it to you and I align the resources I needed to make it happen, which is what this is. >> Okay. Are there any speaker cards? Oh, I asked that. May I have a motion to approve the agreement with Grey Matters LLC for the temporary contracted communication service in the amen? >> Any discussion? >> No. >> Yes. >> Oh yes,

223Mr. Hill. >> Yeah. Um so as member um Besky pointed out earlier um the whole issue of communications has been a difficult one for this board and you were talking tonight about us all hoping that the board can get along better and work together better and all that. Um I just wanted to say that uh you know um she um my colleague uh talked about not um agreeing with the tone and the content of the um it's a wrap that came out that addressed the issue of the audit. Um >> point of order. This is has nothing to do with this. >> Yes, it does. It has no I'm not gonna respond to a member. No, it's a point of order for President Perry. This has nothing to do with whether or not we're approving

224a contract for a um for a consultant to do this work on a 100 day report. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Hills, does this have to do with approving this contract? >> Well, if we're doing a contract for communications, the context for doing this contract is what the current state of our communications program is. We're we're not talking about that. We're just talking about approving this contract. >> Okay. Well, um I don't Oh, that ruling um if that's the ruling, that's the ruling. >> I don't It's not a a conversation about communications. It's just about ex approving this contract. But this is a communications contract >> but it's only about approving it for gray matters for this temporary amount of time. >> Yeah. But matter of time, uh, it was to do the 100 day. >>

225There have been developments and occurrences and events that have been commented on on the record. And, uh, so if I'm going to vote for this, I'm going to want to state for the record um, what my uh, comments are about this matter. >> Um, Dr. Glass, >> a great example of people working >> from a procedural standpoint. You've had a point of order called as to whether clerk hills remarks are gerine or not to the item. You've determined that they are not. If clerk hills wishes to protest that, he can ask for the rest of the board to overturn your ruling and then you move on. >> Member actually what I said was if that's the ruling, that's the ruling. >> So then then that's the ruling and you move on. >> Have we made

226a motion to approve this or can I ask another question? But we're on discussion then, right? Okay, good. So I can discuss. So in the time so it's more of a question given the fact that the um contract states through October 17th the communication services that the board would need between now and do we know when the communications um director is coming back? >> Off the top of my head I do not. But again this contract is written purely in the context of the 100 day report. >> So this is only for the 100 day report. There's no other services that are that are optional within this time frame. >> Uh well, the contract is open for what we could ask um Tammy and her team to do, but again, this contract is in the

227context of the 100 day report and completing it and the follow-up communication around it. >> Sure. So, we um which actually that's right. You had a thing in there of how you wanted to communicate your 100 day report out. I remember that now. Um okay. So, can we extend the date on it if we needed to tonight or can we um That's a question. Sorry. Um >> answered it already. >> He said it was open, right? And we can always come back to it. So, okay. So, this is just then for the 100 day report and then anything we might need, we have that that option. That's all this is about. It's not about our communications plan, our programs or anything like that. >> Okay. Call for the vote. Student board member. Yes. >> All

228in favor? >> I thank you. >> No. >> Okay. Or one. >> Um, >> Madam Chair. >> Okay. >> You had a call for a recess. >> Um, call for a two-minute recess. Okay. Call the meeting call the meeting back to order here at 9:41. We are we are to approval of the September 29th, 2025 special board meeting minutes. Dr. Glass. Woohoo. We're back. Order. Dr. Glass. >> I think this is just approval of the minutes. So, >> yes, it is. >> No, no, no comments for me. >> Okay. Are there any board questions? >> This is What number is this? 13. >> This is the um approval of the minutes for the special meeting. >> Cler will need to abstain on these. >> Yeah, Clark Hills will need to abstain on these. He was

229not in attendance. Okay. Okay, this is the one last Monday, right? >> Right. >> Okay. Uh, why do I have >> Did you want to ask a question? >> Yeah, but my my thing is numbered wrong. This is 12B. >> Yes. >> Oh, you changed it on me, Jen. It's probably where you put my water bottle. >> It's >> okay. I don't have this in my >> It's Yeah, >> 12B. Oh, there it is. Okay, I'm good. >> I move to approve the minutes. >> Second. >> That's what I was trying to get to. >> Great. Um, we >> have like five sets of >> any discussion. >> No. Call for the vote. Student board member. >> Oh, that's >> all in favor? I >> Thank you. Uh on to item 13, the consent calendar.

230Um approval of consent out calendar items C through Q. Does any board member have questions on any item within the consent calendar that does not require the item to be pulled to be voted on separately? >> Um we do the comments after this part. Okay. But thank you for reminding me. >> Madame President, I'd like to pull item C. Item H for actually a question. Never mind on item H. So I'd like to pull item C, item M. Uh, those are the two. Thank you. >> Does any board member wish to pull any items within the consent calendar for discussion and to be voted on separately? >> Oh, I'm sorry. That was always. >> Yeah, my my both of you want C M and O to be pulled and voted separately. >> Oh, actually uh

231no, sorry. Can we pull C H M and then member Malesky's O. >> Okay. Um public comment Hills. waited a long time for this. I have um good evening. Um thank you for being up here and the positive progress that you're hopefully continuing towards. Um I want to touch on M and I want to address that I think we all know there is history and learning around the health care but my concern tonight is about moving forward in a way that protects our staff and and continue um sorry protects our staff um and keeps benefits planning stable. This agreement provides continuity with a broker who understands our district's unique needs and I urge the board to ensure that any discussion of past issues does not disrupt the support our staff relies on today. Thank you.

232>> Thank you. >> Any more? >> Okay. May I have a motion to approve consent calendar items um D through Q except H M and O >> second. >> Thank you. Discussion. Um student board member vote. >> Yes. >> All in favor? I. Thank you. Okay, first item pulled was item C. Thank you. Um, so I was going through this is for the governance meeting, correct? >> That we had uh Okay. Wasn't um Scott Danforth in attendance? >> Okay. I don't see him listed here as a as anybody present. uh or noted that he participated in the governance practices. So I think we need to pull these minutes to correct them and we need to pull and table them and correct them and bring them back. >> Mike, please. I don't think we need to

233pull and table them. Just request the correction and I'll make the correction and it'll be done. >> I don't think we can approve minutes that aren't correct though. >> You Dr. Glass. >> Yeah, you can make a motion to approve of those corrections and then move it forward. Danforth. >> We're adding Scott. So, I'd like to make a motion to add Scott Danforth to the people in attendance. He's not a member. So, >> yeah. But then and then also to include him under the discussion B for governance practices. Um I think we I think it says each board member was to decide the element of response. Um, and I think we need to add that we had an attorney present and he contributed to the conversation. >> Okay, we vote on that now. >> Is

234there a second? >> Second. All in favor? >> I Okay, >> standing because I'm absent. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Uh item H >> H I app >> sorry I asked questions about H uh prior to the meeting about the payroll and I had a I was concerned and the reason I had asked questions where is here it's H right 13H I don't have anything in my agenda where'd it go I have that piece I don't have the payroll itself in Yeah. >> Okay. Where did I see it? I must have seen it online. Okay. So, the question that I had that I had asked was about the personnel report in the back that lists booster funded coaching staff and I'm concerned about the par the legal parameters around the district allocating booster funds for coaching

235staff. So I I know we have in season the district pays out of season I believe is stipens. Um but I'm a little unclear as to why board why um I don't have it in front of I must have seen it online. Um why we have booster funds included in the personnel report for staff that booster is paying for. >> I think Mr. Conlin wanted to say something. Am I right? I'm just point of clarification that's uh the personal report is item F and this this is item H for payroll. I'm happy to speak to that. I don't know if we if we can. We can definitely provide a further update from what we provided uh earlier today. So, I must have gotten a little confused on that one. Is the personnel report. Sorry, I'm

236I'm struggling because I don't have it in my binder. So, I'm not really sure what reference um how I'm confused here on the on the reports because I do think that it is the personnel report that has it in the back and that's why I'm but I had that highlighted asking who the certificated payroll was on H. So, my apologies. That's my mistake. Um I got the two items confused >> on this one. >> Yeah, we can include this one. We can approve this one. >> C. I wanted to understand that >> Item H. Yeah. >> Second. Um, student board members. >> Yes. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Let's go to item M. approval of renewal of consulting agreement with Baldwin Group for healthc care benefits with the Levven Beach Unified School District

237from October 1st, 2025 to September 30th, 2026, not to exceed $60,000. I would like to pull and table this. I this is in no way a reflectant of not taking care of our staff whatsoever, but I am concerned that with the ongoing um process with the insurance. Um it's unclear what role the Baldwin Group had in this. And so I think rather than just continue to approve contracts that we have questions on. Um we should understand better the role that Baldwin Group had in the process before we approve it. if we need to if this is a time issue and then maybe we need to bring in a different consulting group but until we understand their role in the current situation I would um move to pull and table it >> I'm I'm just confused

238the consulting group I understood helped us to think about the plans and information that would um provide what we needed to go into collective bargaining and for people to choose choose plan not to go into collective bargaining but for people to choose plans. So that has nothing to do with the anything to do with the cost of our health care accounting. >> I don't think we totally know that. I mean part of the pro part of it is that we overpaid the premiums and there were different and we have a very complex pol one of the things that came out of that was that we have a very complex >> um policy system where we have so so many different policies um that it adds to some of the possibility of issue and so I

239think it it would be better to understand the pro the situation that we have how it came about and what best practices we can follow to change it >> but They're they're following our request. >> Dr. Glass, >> thank you. Just from a procedural standpoint, um, member Morgan has moved to table, there is no second yet. So, there's no discussion until you have a second or lack of a second. Yeah, there's no there's just from a board efficiency standpoint, if no one's the motion, there's no point discussing it. >> Okay, >> I'll second. >> Okay, now you can have a discussion. This is fiscal accountability. I'm not sure why you guys. >> So, um discussion. >> Could I could I add a point of clarification? Um in my conversations with the the auditors as well

240as with the with with Burnham, they did not play any role in the setting of the rates. And it was actually an outcome of of a comment that the auditors made um to me as well as back to to Burnham is they they look forward they felt the the resources of Burnham were underutilized when it came to the setting of rates and they were looking forward to having them be part of the process for helping us to develop our uh our next steps. But they they they did not play any role in setting of the rates. That was not a function that they served in uh with the partnership with the district. >> What are you talking about? Burnham being now the Baldwin group. >> Sorry. They used to be called B they got bought

241out. So they're so company name is Baldwin. >> So they're but they're responsible for setting the rates and all the different tiers and that was one of the things identified as a problem. No, >> no, they they they they negotiate with the the different different uh kind of our our benefit plans and Kaiser and both SIBA to to get the best possible premiums for us and then they come back and say okay your your your rates are increasing 5% for Kaiser 7% for uh for Blue Shield and then it was a role of the business office to develop the rates which would which would basically were the employee contribution rates. Burnham did not create those or Baldwin did not create those whatsoever. That was not that was not something that they were asked. It was

242not a service they were asked to provide the district. >> So, Mr. Conlin, do you think that Baldin was doing a good good job for us? >> Yeah, they've been a partner of the district since 2016. Um, and and they they've been excellent partner. They they help facilitate our insurance committees. They they negotiate on behalf of the district with our carriers. But again, they were never asked to be uh to be in the the process of setting rates. >> Thank you. Al also to answer that it's our recommendation that you approve this. We need expertise to sort through this and this is an important part of the team that figures out what happened and what we need to do going forward. So it is our recommendation of course we defer to what the board's decision

243is but it's our recommendation that you approve this contract. >> Thank you. I I understand um board member Morgan being a little hesitant about this because there are things that we don't know. But if this if they've done a good job and they had nothing to do with setting the rates, then >> I'll probably go forward. Uh Mr. Hills. >> Yeah. Um I seconded this because um I wanted us to have this discussion. Um I think this is a very good discussion and um the uh the thing about it is is that as part of my due diligence for this meeting I have talked to several people about Baldwin. It has a very good reputation and is considered to be very very credible. Uh but a couple of questions arise that I wanted to ask.

244Um first of all uh Mr. Superintendent is it is do I have your permission to ask staff some questions or do you want me to um uh Mr. Conland. Um, when this issue came up, um, uh, for me it was when the superintendent indicated that we had kind of a short, uh, fuse on needing to, um, make some decisions about how to proceed. I guess it was in late June or I can't remember exactly when it was. Um, and, uh, so I just wanted to be clear, what was it that was on a short fuse? um that required the superintendent to act. And I'm not criticizing anybody or anything. I'm trying to just get the facts. Um the uh the point being that um was it because we had to get numbers to Baldwin or

245was it because who what did we have to do there on that very short fuse? >> So, um open enrollment. So, when October one is when is the plan year, but open enrollment begins August 1st. That's where staff can begin to determine what if they want to make any changes to their their health benefits. So, we have to have the employee contribution rates to American Fidelity is the is the platform that we use for for individuals to to um complete the online enrollment process. So, we have to give them the rates by late July. So, I came to Dr. Glass because the rates had not been set prior to to to Jeff leaving. Ray actually set um set the rates and when they came to me they they were anywhere from 300 to 500% higher

246than what we had anticipated but throughout the entire year working with Burnham we were expecting 5 to 7% increases. So when I got employee contribution rates that Ry set um based on his looking at the budget they were exponentially higher than anything we had discussed. >> So I couldn't explain that. So I went to Dr. last and I said, "Listen, these these rates are substantially higher than what we had expected them to be." Um, I don't have an explanation as as as to why that is. It's just I I in in good conscious I couldn't just put those rates into the system and because it had not been something that we had that we had uh discussed and saw coming. >> That's very helpful. I guess I would say you could have just called me

247and asked and I would have explained it all to you. But um that's a joke. Okay. Um but um that's a very helpful explanation. Um it gives me a lot of insight into what I was experiencing back in that time. Now Baldwin, this is a contract with them to provide services to us. Um and they don't get in they're not brokers. They don't get involved in commissions or anything. This is just a straight contract >> 100%. They're they're pay they're they're a flat fee. So it's 60,000 for the year. There's no there's no commission. There's no they're not in any way incentivized. Thank you very much. >> Any more discussion? >> So, member Hills, do you want to amend the motion >> or member Morgan? >> Do we need to amend? We need to amend

248the motion if we're going to approve it. Otherwise, the motion on the floor is to pull and table it. >> Right. Okay. Okay. >> Okay. Um, student board members, >> we're we're we're voting on tableabling the motion. >> You don't get to vote on. >> Yeah. Uh, no. >> No. Um, all in favor? >> No. >> All those opposed? No. Okay. This doesn't pass now. I move that we approve. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I board member vote. Sorry about that. >> Thank you for the explanation. No, there's no apology. We didn't understand. It's all good. >> Okay. Uh let's go to Oh, approval of resolution 2524 about the textbooks. This item requires a roll call vote. So, I'm pulling it from the consent agenda because it shouldn't be here. Okay. I'm pulling

249it because it should be pulled. Correct. >> Okay. >> I make a motion to I move that we approve item O. Second. Okay, I second that. >> I didn't hear. >> Okay. Um, discussion, >> questions says that we're supposed to have a required hearing. Are we supposed to have a hearing with this as well? >> Whereas the governing board of school district as part of the required hearing shall also made a written determination as to whether each pupil has sufficient textbooks. So, I don't know. I I don't know if that means that there's was supposed to be one or not. I'm just asking the question. >> I believe it's been posted already for public comment. So, it's just a a matter of voting for it at this point. It's an annual thing also. So, are

250we ready to vote? Everybody ready to vote? I know you are. Okay. Roll call. >> Student. >> Yes. >> Member Morgan. Member Kelly. Member Malesi. Clerk Hills. >> President Perry. >> Yes. >> Okay. Our next regular meeting is October 23rd, 2025. May I have a motion to adjourn? >> Any discussion? Call for the vote. Student board member. >> Yes. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you very much. Meeting adjourned at 10:02.