School Board Meeting - September 11, 2025- (Open Session)

001Good evening. Could everyone please take their seats? I'd like to call the meeting to order. Excuse me. I'd like to call the meeting to order. >> Thank you. I would like to call the meeting to order. It's 6:01. Welcome everyone. I love all the buzzing that's going on, all the talking. Um, I want to say that if you are a student and you wish to speak to an item, please put student on your card so that we can call you separate and you don't have to stay for the entire meeting. also because um I think and maybe I'm wrong but I think some people are here about the pool item and in order to be expedient with that and give people a chance and not make them wait too long. We're going to move item

00210A to item eight. That will make item eight item nine. n item nine will be 10 and then we will go in order from 11 on to try to be courteous to everyone. Okay. Um all public comments submitted via the online form were sent to all board members prior to the meeting. As we begin tonight's meeting, I want to remind everyone of our expectations for public comment and discussion. The board welcomes values and community input. Comments from the public are an important part of our process and we ask that speakers address the board respectfully and remain within the time limit set comment to ensure that all voices can be heard. We cannot allow interruptions, personal attacks or disruptions to the meeting. This is part of our responsibility to maintain order and focus so we can

003do our work on behalf of our students. For our board discussion tonight, we will also be using a structured rounds process. This means each trustee who wishes to speak will be recognized once before anyone takes a second turn. After the first round is complete, I may open a second round for additional questions or comments. The purpose of this process is to ensure equity and participation, reduce the pressure to interrupt, and allow every trustee the opportunity to contribute their perspective before we circle back for more discussion. Together, these practices help us deliberate more effectively, respect all voices, and make thoughtful decisions for our students. Um, Dr. Glass is going to speak for a minute about our colleague, Dr. Kelly, who can't be with us tonight, but will be with us in voice >> electronically. Thank you,

004Madam Chair. Uh, Trustee Kelly is not able to be with us in person tonight. Uh however uh per AB557 passed in uh 2023, it states that the ability for of members to attend public meetings v via teleconferencing alternatives for just cause or emergency circumstances uh exists which uh will be eliminated after January 1st, 2026. So it is still in effect and we will be using that provision to allow Trustee Kelly to participate with us tonight. Thank you. >> Wonderful. And before the pledge, I would like us to take a moment of silence in to reflect on 911 and also for the horrible shooting tragedies both in Colorado and in Utah. Thank you. Thank you, Logan. Would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

005of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God with indiv with liberty and justice for all. >> There I'm reporting out there was no action taken in close session. Um, now we will move to public comment on non-aggenda items. So, items that are not on the agenda but within the jurisdiction of the board. Clerk Hills, are there any speaker cards for those wishing to comment on items not on the agenda but within the jurisdiction of the board? >> Yes, ma'am. Um, we've got Jeff Roer Shimemer and um, Eva Pauling. >> Dez, can you check the sound, please? Uh, online. I was having trouble hearing. Okay, I believe you. Good evening. My name is Jeff Rodshimer. I'm not really thrilled to be here on this particular topic, but I am compelled

006to do so. I'm a resident father and a giant uh supporter of public schools. Um, just like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, they championed education as a necessity for the survival of the American Republic and to enlighten its citizens. Unfortunately, I'm not here tonight to talk about students, but because I need to set the record straight. Again, I've been accused both directly and indirectly of saying that only parents of children in our schools should have a say in schools or schoolboard elections. Let me be absolutely clear. I have never said that and I've never written that. Hope you're all listening. In fact, if you go back to my LTE on a April 11th, I wrote about the value of experience about how those who have spent years volunteering, donating, and showing up for our schools

007have earned credibility when it comes to discussing what's going on in the schools. That is a far cry from dismissing others voices. Just as when you think about taking on a new job, it's important to talk to people who are actually working at the company. My point was about voters doing research to make the best decision they can. Yet, my words have been twisted into something I've never said, which only sews more division. Mr. Hills published a letter implying that fuel and by extension me believe non-parents should be excluded from school board elections and influence. And just this past week, I learned that this board is still suggesting I was the one who made these false this false statement. When false and damaging statements are spread about private citizens by elected officials, no less, that

008can carry legal consequences, specifically slander and/or liel. I have both the time and resources to pursue legal action if this behavior continues. I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that. And let's be honest, this isn't the only example. We recently heard accusations from this very board during a meeting that a respected former administrator Jeff Dixon and Fuel committed financial fraud with zero evidence that is not acting with confidence that is reckless and veering into conspiracy theory territory not to mention slander. So tonight I'm asking actually I'm insisting that this stop now debate ideas debate policy. Debate priorities that's democracy but do not put words in my mouth and do not mislead the public about what I've said. Please set a better example for our students. If people were going to quote me, I'd really prefer

009they use my actual words. It saves me the trouble of coming up here to deliver a correction. If it comes up again, I won't come back here for a correction. I'll be in a legal office. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, clerk hills. >> You have a point. Hi everyone. Um, Eva Pauling, parent and community member. Um, I wanted to thank Dr. Glass for taking the time to meet with our fuel community this week. Um, you made it clear that shaking hands, connecting with the most engaged part of the community was important to you and we were thrilled to have over 60 of us there to be able to meet you and listen to you speak. It's exciting to see the vision you're forming for this incredible district. Um, you've acknowledged what so many

010parents already believe that with the resources, size, and community support we have here, anything is truly possible. It's also been remarkable to watch you bring order back to these schoolboard meetings. Even though it was short-lived, it was refreshing to see the board function properly and appropriately during the discussion on digital devices in the classroom by acknowledging the real challenges while also showing confidence that we can get there. Previous to this past December, I had only stood in front of this board to comment on devices on our campuses. Digital use is one of the clearest opportunities where the majority of the community is aligned and meaningful progress here would be a tremendous win for this generation of children. What we need now is more of that. Our kids are growing up in a rapidly changing world.

011It takes a leader who looks forward with intent, grounds decisions and facts and data, and keeps this board focused on what work that matters. We don't have the luxury of dwelling on ghosts from 20 years ago that mean nothing to our community today. What matters is the path ahead. And we hope you will lead it all by always putting students first, supported by this incredible administration, staff, and teachers at your side. Thank you. >> And Lesie Elliott. Hi, Dr. Glass. I just want to thank you for taking the rounds for the last couple weeks. I only have two kids, but I'm personally exhausted by all the back- to-school responsibilities. So, appreciate your time. Um, I just want you to know you have a large swath of parent support. We may not physically be able to

012be at all these gatherings because we're cooking dinner, getting kids everywhere. We're still working at this very moment, but we are on Zoom. We're watching the video. We're communicating with each other. And so, we you have our support. So, just know that. Um, I saw you at the speaker event with your family, at the high school PTA, the fuel fireside, the high school town hall. I want to um express my appreciation for continually, consistently expressing the fact that this is we are student focused. We are all here as board members, parents, staff, administrators, superintendent, always focused on students first. So, I appreciate you um acknowledging that. at the board meeting last month. Um it was clear that you are very knowledgeable and well-versed in parliamentary uh policy and processes. So we I'm looking forward to

013um board meetings being functioning very well um to execute and um take action in the best interests of students. I heard you say several times best practices and this is best practices for students in this case. These are the best practices. I truly appreciate that. I look forward to hearing that more because we are always we always need to focus on best practices for the best interests of students and the staff who support them. I'm going to start sounding redundant, but we are here best practices for the best interests of students and the amazing LBUSD staff who support them. And finally, um I do appreciate you being very publicly candid about one of the important reasons that you moved here with your family because from your previous home to here because of the the personal

014and family values. um that were not aligned with you in your previous home. Um Laguna Beach has a history of u it was founded as an art colony and it's been open to the marginalized, the vulnerable and people needing a place to express their voices and that is incredibly important to keep that legacy, carry it on and cr and teach that to students. So I appreciate you wanting to focus on the things that make this district unique and keep those things. And as an alum, as a parent, um, focusing on human decency and listening to those voices is critically important. All the academic rigor, sports, theater, all of it super important, but at the end of the day, raising a decent human being and listening to other voices is ultimately the most important. So again,

015thank you for making the rounds. You have parent support. Um, you have the wind at your back. I'd say keep calm and carry on, but sometimes keeping calm isn't always the best plan of action, but know you have public support and carry on. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Lesie Elliott. I've lived in Laguna Beach 45 years. I have two grown kids who graduated from the schools. Um, I'm here as a community member. Uh, first I want to thank the board for making what may well be the most important decision of your tenure, the hiring of Dr. Glass. In the past week, I've had the privilege of attending two meetings where Dr. Glass presented, and I'm really optimistic about the future of our district under your leadership. Thank you for giving your time to meet with

016the community and for so thoughtfully sharing your educational philosophies. I'm hoping that your presence and your kind strength will bring a sense of order and respect back to our schoolboard meetings. Uh with a strong superintendent now in place, our district is well positioned to move forward in a positive direction. I'm hopeful that the board will follow proper governance processes and engage in meaningful, transparent, and student centered discussions about how to strengthen our schools. The best way forward is to empower Dr. Glass, allowing him the trust and space to use his deep expertise to lead without micromanagement. As we put the last nine months behind us, I encourage the board to stay focused on the future and what the district can become rather than revisiting past, sometimes 40 years old grievances. True leadership means putting personal

017grievances aside and working towards meaningful positive change. Let's move forward. Thank you. >> Thank you, Lesie. Any more, Mr. Hills? >> Um, no. I think that's it. >> Okay. Please, please come up, Lauren. >> Yeah, please come up. Hi board. I'm just going to keep it short and sweet because I'm echoing everything everyone has already said, but um my name is Lauren Enterburgger. I have a daughter in first grade and I'm also an alumni here. I went to TRW Thirsten and Laguna Beach High School. And I just want to take a minute to express my deep appreciation to you, Dr. Glass. Um, I've had the pleasure of hearing you speak at board meetings, PTA meetings, and this week's fuel event. It's clear from all these engagements that you came to Lagona with an openness and

018a goal to unify the schools and the community. I'm incredibly impressed by your energy and effort to engage our entire community in such a short amount of time. You truly hit the ground running. It's refreshing to start to see the board functioning properly, following sound governance and processes, and engaging in meaningful discussions. Thank you so much. We're glad to have you. >> Thank you, Lauren. >> Any more clerks? No. >> Oh. Oh. Um, please come on up, Mr. Macintosh. I can't see you with these glasses on. So, uh, good evening everyone. Um, so, uh, Steve Macintosh here with Sensible Laguna. So, here we are on September 11th, a day that is a symbol and a benchmark when our country came together and united as one, a concept that we desperately need in this district these

019days. It's the start of a brand new school year. Students and parents are excited and optimistic about what the year can bring. Teachers have worked tirelessly to get their plans in place, and the maintenance staff has facilities whipped into top-notch shape, including a beautiful state-of-the-art turf on the football field. For months, we have urged the board minority to start working with the board majority and to stop obstructionist attitudes and positions. There have been recent instances where there are glimmers of hope is when like Jim Kelly asked for an audit of the current overpayment of the health care benefits. This board is actually accomplishing great things. They unanimously hired a fantastic, extremely experienced superintendent that is committed to help the board take our district to levels it's not attained before. A budget has been passed. A

020fantastic pool will be built. A new business officer with extensive experience has been hired who will play a huge part in bringing the district operation out of the shadows and into more transparency. Yes, plenty to be thankful and happy about. Yet, here we are again. I feel that we're a division is coming as as usual. There's the typical attacks, consistently fabricated issues, overblown concerns, and constant chance that this board is not putting kids first. They're fake, no merit, and people are seeing through this. In fact, these actions are doing more harm to kids. So, there's not one board member here that's not for kids. Listen to their words. From empowering student voices to listening to what students are saying they need, listening to parents with real issues, from special needs to programs to curriculum, they're

021all about putting kids first. We would like to commend this board for holding the course and not letting detractors with fake narrative stop you from doing what the community duly elected you to do. Thank you all for your service. >> Good evening. Uh Morris, father of three involved in town in various ways. Um I'd also like to thank you Dr. Glass. It's been good to getting to know you over the past time that you've been here and I have to say you come here in the best time of the year for weather. So enjoy the water before it gets cold. Um I'd like to commend uh the entire board about the discussion around screens in the classrooms. Um so everybody knows there's too much screen time but at the same time we've all become dependent

022on them whether it's I ready for remedial um assignments uh educational videos even something as basic as checking assignments. they're part of the schools. Um, and every school in the country is dealing with this. So, what that means is there's no best practice you can point to. This is something we're going to have to figure out on our own. Now, certainly we have all the resources, but that's why it's so important that we work together to do so because we have to do so. We can't go outside and it's an opportunity for us to innovate. This the conversation you facilitated and the subsequent just exploration where we came to was an example of a school board acting as its best. Member Morgan, we spoke last night about your ideas about how to integrate our schools

023better into the community. Um, I'd just like to point out that recently a former city council member sent out an email about with magazine rankings. U magazine rankings have a lot of issues for a number of reasons, but one of them is that they only apply to clubs and sports offered directly from the schools. And in that we're in this weird kind of disadvantage because we have so many things that are available in our town that our kids go to use. For example, my daughter does theater at the Lagouna Beach Playhouse. That wouldn't show up there. Logan's DJ at KX, that's not that doesn't show up in the school rankings, but all those things are are awesome. And I would very much like to work with you to extend those opportunities within our community. Um,

024my oldest son goes to the urban workshop up in Costa Mesa on the weekends for classes. They have a wood shop, welding shop. It sounds like you know it. Uh, and President Perry, I know this is something that you're passionate about, the uh, career technical education pathways. This is something we should be discussing. I very much look forward to having more constructive sessions that are around these topics that serve our students and that they happen in a productive way and that the cell phone conversation did. Thank you all. >> Can I ask a question? N what was the name of the program that on the weekends? Urban what? Um, urban workshop. Sounds like Dino because she smiled and nodded. Talk to you about it. Good evening everyone. You should have a card for me. My

025name's Gary Kasich. As always, thank you for your service, your commitment of your time, and your resources uh toward the betterment of the district. I know everyone that comes up to the podium means to say thank you. Sometimes they just forget. At the board, at the last board meeting, a founding member of a local activist organization read a statement that focused on their views of necessary objectives for LBUSD. The list was a wide-ranging conceptual areas with emphasis uh on this on the statement that the group said and I quote stands for student success and board transparency. We can all agree to that. So, we've got good unity there. I'm not aware of any local organization that wants to see a decline in performance given the importance of the having a top performing district for every

026resident of Laguna Beach. The speaker went on to declare, and I quote, "We demand the board imagine and prepare for what comes next. And for now, since you are unwilling to do so, we will." I might suggest that demands and threats to usurp a dulyeleed board are less effective than a willingness to work together within procedural guidelines with a cop cooperative posture. I would further propose that everyone's desires, desired objectives, fall within a reasonably common range. We all want the same things. Perhaps priorities and the path to get there are going to be slightly different, but that's always the case and compromise will be inevitable. LBUSD is in fact a top performing district. But that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. Improvement in reaching every student, every discipline at every level, every day. I've

027listened to multiple years of the district's selfappraisal presentations and have yet to hear the category of needs improvement referenced. Transparency, something that seems to be a common goal from everyone here, is easy when the lights are all green. But it takes courage to openly call out what we need to do better and how we intend to do so and do so publicly rather than spending excessively on marketing spin of results that mask area areas needing improvement. Let's have the courage to call them out and work together to drive improvement, not simply demand it. The first listening sessions are a refreshing approach toward real transparency. As was Dr. Glass calling out a potential financial inconsistency early and before he had all the facts, proposing the next steps, getting the support of the board to assess the

028situation and commit to report back out. You board members are all faced with multiple voices and a wide range of diverse opinions. I appreciate your courage to hear them all and to perform the role you were elected or appointed to do. Thank you. Anyone else? >> Green card speakers. >> I think we're we're clear. >> We will move on then to our board reports. First, we'd like to hear from our bargaining units. Um, Thesa at CSEA. Um, only thing I have to report is we're really excited to have our contract before you tonight and look forward to hopefully it being approved. Thank you, >> Laboufa. Mr. Bitco, >> good evening board. Um, we don't have a lot except we've started out with a really great year and uh we're hoping it'll continue. >> Wonderful. Um,

029now our school resource officer, do you have a report? Welcome, Officer Lopez. >> Hi there. Good evening, board members. My name is Danny Lopez, one of your two school resource officers. I apologize if I speak quickly tonight or if I mumble and stumble. I haven't had the opportunity to eat tonight because I just been running around so much. So, I apologize in advance if I need to repeat anything. Just throw it out there. I'll do my best. Well, I'm very excited to report that our recent ebike safety course between the course we just had recently and the course we held during the summertime, we had over 62 students attend, but not just the students themselves, but their parents as well. During this session, they negotiated multiple corn courses to realize the limitations of their skills

030on their ebikes and realize that they're mortal and they're not the best professional ebike rider out there after all. We have a couple of those oh shock moments. Oh, I guess I can't stop that quickly. Oh, okay. And it's our greatest hope that they're going to learn from that and carry that in their daily lives. While they were doing that, the parents are also educated on the different ebike laws that have come to fruition recently, as well as the different penalties that could occur, such as impounding an ebike. That's an actual thing nowadays. Some of these ebikes are now classified as an e motorcycle, for lack of a better term, which requires you to have an M1 motorcycle license. And last time I checked, none of our kids can have that quite yet until the

031age of 16. Don't do it. I have one and it's uh driving my wife crazy. Moving on. uh with the thought of our ebike class uh out there. I apologize stumble mumble already. I apologize. Uh to give you kind of a brief history on our ebike program, since the inception and launch of our first class in uh 2022, we had a reduction of ebike accidents in our community involving our youth by 58%. That is massive. Here's the next better thing. The first year we had an additional 98 reduction percent. And here's the best part. This year alone, from 2024 to today, we've only had two. That's a great number. I'm looking forward that to being zero. So, we're very excited to have that go on. And we're hoping that this new program, which is going

032to be mandated every single year, just like your car registration, because we all love paying in that thing, is going to be a reoccurring safety knowledge for our students to better equip them for the road and keep them safe. So, no trips to the hospital. Uh we had a fantastic opportunity to attend our back to school nights at various sites. Getting a good chance to introduce ourselves to some newer parents at our new schools and say hi to some some familiar faces as well. Uh we're also developing an upstandard program in coordination and collaboration with our counselors at the elementary level giving the students a sense of comfortableness and confidence with who they are the way they are and how they are day-to-day. I joke around when I'm not wearing my police uniform when I'm

033off duty. I either look like a cowboy or a mechanic. Yes, I wear cowboy boots and yes, I wear a cowboy hat. Deal with it. With that being said, I brought those into one of our sessions that we did last year and it had a great resounding success. Everyone was like, why are you wearing that? You look kind of funny. I'm like, you know, yes, I do look funny, but I'm happy the way I am. This is who I am. Take it or leave it. And by developing that that rapport with the student and letting them know it's okay to be comfortable the way they are, it's giving them that building block to be confident in any situation, but more importantly, be an upstander when they see someone else being made fun of. that way

034they can stand up to bowling as a community, not just as an individual. Couple things we have looking forward to. We have homecoming coming up. We're very excited to attend the game. Our boys and girls out there on the field are crushing it. We're excited to keep it going and we're looking forward to attending the dance as well. And last but not least, I'm very proud. This is the probably the biggest proudest moment of my life. Talk about this particular program is Shop with a Cop. For those of you who aren't familiar with that program, it's a program we instilled to be able to help support students and families that are in need around the holiday season. Not everyone gets to have that big Christmas tree or whatever uh holiday they celebrate to have those

035presents at that time of the year. So, we're always looking forward to be able to work with our PTAs and other community businesses as well as anyone who who's able to either volunteer or to donate to this fantastic event. But last but not least, of course, we're just looking forward to the continued amazing partnership that we have with the district and being present in our students daily lives. I'll take any questions if you have any. >> There any questions? >> Where is Shop with a cop this year? because I know two years ago I think I ran into Ashley and a big group at Irvine Spectrum. So, do you move it around all the time or is it the same place? >> We normally keep it at Spectrum just because the number of shops that

036are available and it's so heartwarming to see those students when they get their little stack of cash that we help from the fundraisers for them to be able to spend for presents. They end up buying stuff for mom and dad first or their brothers and sisters and we're like, "Oh, tears flowing through." Or better yet, they just start buying normal toiletry everyday items like, "No, no, I I'll buy that for you. go get something you want. So, there's nothing more heartwarming to see a student really get what they need, but more importantly, what they deserve at the end of the day, but yes, it'll be at the spectrum again this year. >> Um, I want to I went to the ebike safety class with my child. It was fantastic. The parents got a lot out

037of it. The kids got a lot out of it. Um, for people who may not have heard the report at a recent meeting, this is now going to be required annually of both parents and students to attend. And you know, I went on a Sunday morning and wasn't sure like, you know, am I just going to sit and watch my kids scoot around on a bike for an hour? I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was very well done. I'm deeply appreciative of all the thought that all of you put into it. There were six of you there. I think it was fantastic. So, thank you. >> Thank you. We appreciate it. Have a good day. >> Thank you, Officer Lopez. >> Um, we'll move on to reports from our executive cap cabinet members. Mr. Conlin, >>

038thank you, President Perry. Um, I'll have no report this evening since we'll be sharing our our opening of schools report later. So, thank you. >> You Dr. Mayberry. >> Yeah, just the same. I'll I'll save my report for the opening of schools. Thank you. you, Superintendent Dr. Glass. >> Thank you. Um, thank you, President Perry, trustees, staff, and members of the community. I first want to start by saying how um, humbled and grateful I am for the words of support. And I also want to say that I'm new to this community and new to this state and I am making a lot of mistakes, but I have the support of a wonderful team and the support of this board and I'm grateful for that. So, thank you. In support of keeping our meetings focused, I

039will work to keep my remarks under three minutes. And I've asked our executive team and our SRO's to do the same. Our first an update on the audits. Uh the board has authorized on the signature authority and the healthc care costs. Both of those are wrapping up and we expect final results and any needed next steps to be presented at the September 25th meeting. Also, I've been meeting with leadership, staff, our union partners, PTAs, community groups, and I'm grateful for the conversations that are happening about our schools. The start, stop, keep survey remains open, and I encourage anyone who's not yet contributed to that to do so. I'm reading every single one of those responses myself. This week we also held town halls at Laguna Beach High and Top of the World with more scheduled

040at Elmoro next Tuesday here at Thirsten on September 30th and a virtual town hall that we are adding that and a Karen will be sharing details on on Sunday September uh 28th. And I want to thank um Trustee Morgan for the idea to uh conduct these. I have really enjoyed it. The input from this from all of this listening and from the uh start stop cube survey will inform and shape my 100 day report which I hope will move us into a deeper discussion on where we go as a district next. I want to also recognize two outstanding students this evening. Lagouna Beach High School seniors Estella Newton and Zoe Tran have been named national merit scholarship finalists joining 230 students countywide and 16,000 nationwide. They now have the chance to compete for nearly 7,000

041scholarships totaling $26 million this spring. So, congratulations to Estella and Zoe and to their families. I want to also acknowledge the board's progress on improving our meeting practices. I know that we've had a few missteps and I've had many missteps in these first few months. I appreciate your patience with me and your commitment to improving together. Tonight's use of the discussion rounds model that President Perry discussed is another step forward toward more thoughtful, equitable conversations and I look forward to seeing how it serves us and how it works. I also um will extend my comments just a a bit more because I want to recognize guests that we have. I want to introduce our um new CBO pending board approval at the next meeting. Minaj Rochow is here. Um, Minaj is the acting superintendent at

042Hienda Laenta School District, but he's a veteran and experienced uh, CBO. We're very excited about having him on board. And I wanted to him to come and introduce himself to you and to the community and uh, just let you get to know him briefly. >> Welcome, Minaj. We're so happy to have you. >> Thank you. Good evening, board president, members of the board, superintendent, and members of the cabinet. I'm very excited and appreciate uh for my consideration by the board for the next board meeting. I'm very grateful for the opportunity and the trust that potentially you'll be uh placing on me as we lead with the superintendent's leadership and the executive cabinet leadership to execute the goals of the board in collaboration with the community staff and the parents. Thank you. Thank you. >> And

043thank you, Madame President and trustees. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve this incredible community. I look forward to a meaningful and student focused conversation tonight. >> We do too. Um let's move on to governance. Um and we'll start with our student board member reports. Ivy, would you like to start? >> I would love to start. You know me so well. Um so, uh I'm just going to do the report on Laguna Beach High School. try to keep it under three minutes but there is a lot. Uh so first off we had um most recently our LBUSD superintendent listening town hall meeting um which I was lucky enough to attend. Uh it was very helpful you know collaborative interesting to hear what um community members had to say um and it was super productive for

044the most part. Uh I highly recommend you all going if you ever get the chance. Um super interesting and it's a great way to get involved. Uh the student support collective had their first meeting on August 27th and held an event at lunch today. They're a student um mostly student made up um mental health organization with teacher adviserss but it's mostly studentr run. Uh, Model United Nations had their first meeting August 26th and had their first mock conference last Tuesday with new sectgens. Um, Kate Hennessy, who served on the board last year, and Sierra Paul. Uh, mock trial had his first meeting August 22nd. Um, Laguna Beach High School was lucky enough to have Mike Smith speak to um, ASB and Student Support Collective as well as talk to staff and students. So, this is

045the first time that this has ever been done. um that a speaker has come to talk to both the staff and the students. Um the goal of that was just to make sure everyone's on the same page for the school year. Um admin also talked to each grade during tutorial about goals for the year and about the new vape detectors which have been installed in bathrooms. Um those counselors uh released a counseling needs assessment. So, this was sent um via Gmail to all students to make sure that student needs are being met, which is just another example of how amazing our admin is. Um, Legacy Night is tomorrow, so it's a football game September se September 12th. Uh, where 60 kindergarteners come and meet the seniors. We have our first football game. We had our

046first football game on August 21st and the first home football game was August 29th. uh ASB updates. We welcomed 187 freshmen at orientation. Uh we had our welcome back pep rally and new this year ASB planned and executed the first ever first day all school assembly that we we've never had that before. Um focusing on building legacy with Mike Smith. Uh as you can see we are very fond of Mike Smith. He did a fantastic job. Uh the freshman elections took place. Um club rush will be happening on September 17th with over 60 clubs rushing. Um which is a very high number. August 3rd we have homecoming and that is hopefully under three minutes. The entirety of what is happening at Laguna Beach High School. I will pass this over to Logan and he will

047tell you about Thirstston and Elmoro. Um, yeah, as Ivy said, there there's quite a lot going on at the high school. So, I'll try I'll try and get through then and uh our two elementary schools in the district rather quickly. Um, but at Thirstston, there was the introduction of the circlekeepers program, which is student leaders being trained by counselors to join classroom sessions with them and uh facilitate restorative circles on peer-to-peer empathy, community building, conflict resolution, and overall just really good ideals that we want to be spread to our middle schoolers on campus. at TWW and Elmoro. They are both of the schools are doing some work with our PALS to conduct focus groups to share student voices that help us to affirm the strengths of our school as well as to provide them opportunities

048that they can identify where they want to grow in. So instead of just, you know, funneling into you're going into engineering, you're going into math, you're going into being a doctor, a lawyer, the students actually get to come up with different experiences like at um Elmore what's called the Cine experience to find what skills they're proficient in and then uh excel in them. So that's a fantastic opportunity. And that about wraps up the board report that we have for you on gauging what the students are feeling like. >> Thank you very much both of you. Now we'll move on to board member reports. Member Morgan. >> Hi. Thank you. Um it has been a very busy back to school start as Aaron mentioned. Um I attended with Dr. Glass the um back to school nights

049for both elementaryaries and thirsten. And um it was so great to see all the energy and all the excitement. I loved hearing that we were able we would go into each room and kind of sit in the back of the just stand in the back of the room just for a few minutes. Um and and that was consistent at all the different schools. Um some rooms we were introduced and got to introduce Dr. Glass and others we just stood and then and listened for a bit and then left. And what I loved is that um here at Thirstston when we visited the different classrooms and listened to the teachers um presenting the focus was um so positive on um collaboration and teamwork and ensuring that our students are putting their best selves forward but also

050acknowledging that there's um you know that some days our best days are mediocre at best and and that's a fair human experience. And so I really loved how our teachers really um um vocalized the ability to be um just okay today and that's okay rather than there might be something wrong or there might be this. It was just a very positive message and I really like that and it was very consistent to all the classrooms which I thought was really was really terrific. Um it was um the elementary schools were great. I think I was speaking to um Nuth last night about um we were talking about community and how our community is so tight and um the parents are so supportive and I was reflecting in speaking with him I was reflecting back how

051elementary and middle school especially are so yummy and they're so and they are very um parent united in having to because sometimes that's the only way we can get through the day. So, um, hearing that, seeing that, being back in that environment, it's been a few years since I've had an elementary school student, but, um, to see that was wonderful to see the teachers at to because that's the home school that we came through, um, as well as Thirstston was wonderful, and it was nice to be greeted so, um, positively. Um, I, um, also wanted to comment, there was a couple things, um, that I saw that were interesting because also in these town halls, and thank you. Um, town halls are a wonderful way to get perspective and ideas from the community and maybe

052point out things that like you said start, stop and keep. And I know, um, community is a big one, civility is a big one. Um, one of the comment, one of the things that came up at one of them was about, um, embracing and embracing our special ed students, which I, that's not the right word. Um, our students with needs. >> Thank you. Um, and I thought that was really an interesting timing because at the same time in in um watching probably some of my trash TV like um Master Chef or um America's Got Talent um there has been a recurring ad from Easter Seals and it talks about how promoting equitability for people with disabilities and simplifying and accept and and having it be completely normal. And I think one of the benefits, and

053I think this was said last night, of having our special ed kids, our our students with dis, excuse me, um, thank you, with disabilities on our campuses, integrated into our classrooms, involved in our theater, in our music, in our programs, is that it teaches all of our kids what normal is, which is every single one of us, with our good, our bad, our highs, our lows. Um, and I think that that's a message that I hope we continue to push out and push forward and maybe even enhance on. So that's my report. Thank you. >> That's was my next >> Oh, good. I'm right here. >> Dr. Kelly has reported to us. He has no report. So >> Oh, okay. Thank you. >> Madam Chair, just for everyone um that's wondering at home, Dr. Kelly

054is is on the line, but um we're having to mute him so we don't get feedback. So, he's uh texting in when he'd like to say something. So, we'll let you know uh when that comes up. >> Okay. Thank you for working with the texts and letting us know. Dr. Maleski, >> um I first want to thank all of the teachers, staff, and administrators for facilitating a great start to the new year. The back tochool night at Thirstston was just really fantastic. I'm sincerely excited about the presentations from all of the teachers and um it was just a great start. So, thank you. Um the PTA council, I went to the first meeting of the PTA council. It was wonderful to see all of our leaders of our PTAs present ideas for the new year

055at each of the schools and what will happen in the larger council. Um very excited about what I heard about the schools. Really excited that I'm going to be part of the fun PTA at Thirstston. Um, and I uh mostly want to thank that entire group in advance for doing so much work for the schools. A lot of dedicated effort every year. So, thank you. Um, and finally, some of you may have noticed news reports this week about a drop in national test scores for student performance. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is referred to by educators as NAPE scores, has issued its most recent national report card of student achievement across the country, which indicates that both reading and math skills on average across the country were lower. Um, with 12th graders on

056average scoring the lowest in reading since 1992. And much uh, you know, I talk about this national trend often in here. I know it sounds like I'm beating a dead horse. Um, and uh, much has been written about the problem of reading. This is not an issue that's endemic to Lagouna Beach. This is a national issue that a lot of people are writing about, whether it's about phones, whether it's about um, social media, whether it's about a sort of lack of a reading culture. Um, but I would urge us all to um, pay close attention to it. I did a deeper analysis by going to the NAPE website to look at some of the um state comparative data and unfortunately um the state of California for both reading and math scores below the national average.

057Um we're lucky to be in a district with the resources that allows us to exceed those state averages. But um as I do at every board meeting, I just want to continue to call on us to think about developing a reading culture here and being attentive to this very important issue. That's it. >> Thank you, Clerk Hills. >> To start by uh am I on um start by saying that um that fantastic football game against Santa Monica. And I wanted to call out um for u for Charlie Christian, the running back. And uh uh he did an excellent job. And my son-in-law is a former NFL running back. So, I have a special place in my heart for running backs and uh he did a great job and I was really proud of the team

058and it was a thrilling thrilling night. One of the lessons if you look at the quarterback and the the receivers and the running back, one of the lessons that I've learned is that um uh in football, uh being big and being strong is important, but being fast is more important. And we've got some very fast players on our team. So, I think I'm looking forward to the season and it's going to get tough as the season goes on. It's going to get tougher because we're playing against bigger schools, but I'm very excited about the the season for the football team. Um, I also wanted to just respond to um Miss Erin Barman um the comments that were made. Um, thank you for your comments about our new superintendent. And I want you to know that

059one of the things that I talked with the superintendent about before he was the superintendent when we were going through the selection process and um is that um is that uh exactly what you were talking about. Lagona has an incredible legacy of uh because of the artist heritage and the heritage of small town uh when the town was very isolated uh in the early 1900s. Um but as we move forward, we've always been kind of a countercultural town even before there was a counterculture uh that as the Theodore Rosac described it. But um we talked about the fact that um Lagouna Beach High School um was one of the first was the first high school in the United States of America to have a policy against discrimination against gay and lesbian students. And that happened

060in 1969 when we had a student in our high school who was uh uh he was cast out by his parents and uh the community took him in and we took him in in the school and gave him a job in the student government that enabled him to get a job at the local paper and start to make a living for himself when he was 17 years old. and that um you know recently my friend Chris Tet talked about what had happened during um the the month of celebration of gay lesbian uh and uh um LGBTQ and all that. Um but um Chris talked about the history of Laguna Beach uh leaders in that movement nationally and um he left out I mean to tell him when I see him, hey Chris, you left out

061the fact that our high school was the first high school in America that we openly adopted a policy of uh that gay and lesbian students were welcome to all our social events and all our social activities. So I just wanted to say when you said that um that's something I talked with the superintendent about when we were first getting to talk. wanted him to know that uh based on the experience he'd had at his last uh a couple of jobs back that um we really care about those issues and fact that he cares about it is something that um uh indicated that he would be a really good pick for our our district. So I I I appreciated your comments. I um recognize that um we're down to three minutes, but I do want to

062say that um we had a problem at the last meeting when um the uh some of the board reports were cut off. Um uh and um it created a problem because um the recording was cut off some for some of the um board members making statements and um that in effect converted the meeting into a closed meeting for people who were listening in. So, um uh I wanted to comment on that and just um maybe reclaim a minute of my time um that I that I was cut off and just say this. Um I am really glad to hear your report uh glad we have a new CBO. Really glad to hear report that we're going to hear be hearing about the the health um premiums uh issue. Uh, I just want to say that

063um what I said that got cut off, what I was saying when I got cut off from being recorded in the last meeting was that I'm very interested in the accounting aspect of this and what's decided about fiscal integrity and fiscal performance and the budgetary budget execution aspect of which is what the auditors are looking at. But the point I made to the auditor not in close session uh when we but when when they were here and the point I was making when I was uh when the recording was cut off is this. In addition to whatever the fiscal auditing budget execution internal controls uh uh analysis ends up being of what happened. There is an additional issue and it is this. Um, our board bylaw uh 9310 states that our bylaws and our policies

064are binding. That means in essence that they have the force and effect of law. Um, and that's why they have to that's why it has to provide that they're they have to be consistent with state and federal law because they do have the force and effect of law. And um but what it says is that the acts of the board and the uh acts of the district must be consistent with federal law, state law, and the collective bargaining agreements. That means that the collective bargaining agreement is law. And if we exceeded caps that are in that agreement, we have violated law. And that's my personal view of it. I'm not speaking for anybody else but myself, but that's what I got cut off on. And so I wanted to reclaim the time that I was

065not recorded because I think that people were listening had the right to know what I was saying. >> Thank you, Clerk. >> So, in that vein, the Zoom has been going in and out tonight. Um, so people may not be able to hear exactly what's being said online. However, our backup system is working. So, the recording should be fine because the backup is catching that. But people may not hear all of the live comments. Dez is working on it and we hope it doesn't continue, but it has happened a couple times tonight already. >> Thank you, Mrs. Weber, for letting us know so people aren't thinking it's their device and trying to fix it. >> Okay. Um, I also enjoyed back to school night at Top of the World and in and Elmoro. um the

066staff and parents. There was a lot of enthusiasm and joy. This uh since our last board meeting, I've attended a number of arts meetings with community and one with staff. Um we're talking about strengthening our partnership with Lamb. I attended the town hall at the library and I'm really appreciative of Dr. Glass for having the town halls and letting people have a voice. I went to the uh I zoomed a small district meeting that was really interesting for small districts in California. And I attended the CCA meeting which was exciting in that the student ambassadors were having a meeting at the same time. And this year we have 88 student ambassadors which are students that take part in some of the career technical and dual college enrollment. And each school has a number of them

067and they do a lot of wonderful things speaking with eighth graders coming into high school as well as community. And anyways, lots of fun. Very exciting to meet them. We have seven here in Lagona. Uh the uh we looked at the enrollment figures in CCA and Laguna Beach is exactly the same as it was last year. 382 students are enrolled in CCA classes. Um let's see. We also looked at new programs. One of the exciting new programs is a building program where students, it's a actually a four-year program where students take one class each semester of their freshman and sophomore year and then their junior year they build a tiny house. So, they go through all of it and then the house is is sold. It's a real tiny house. not what we've done before

068is kind of a a little kid house on a on a cart. Um but these are real tiny houses and then their senior year they are allowed to do an internship with a company which would be early in the morning maybe if they don't have first second uh and they will actually be paid for that and they will come out um and have a choice. they can go. We're having both people from the Carpenters Union work on this as well as people from uh the a private a private firm that is giving Simon Builders which is out of Newport does a lot of building. So students will have the opportunity to go either direction and come right out and work and be an apprentice if they'd like. Another new program is broadcasting and that's that's

069one that um Logan might have liked if we had that here. And so they're have students broadcasting their football games and so on. And they have a new business pathway now. There's a horiculture class which sounds great but it doesn't have very good enrollment. We're hoping the enrollment for that will come up. So, lots of exciting opportunities for students in college and careers. That's it. Thanks. Okay, let's move on to um approval of the foundation formation of a new ad hoc board committee for the arts. This came about from requests from parents, community, and students in Lagona. We are blessed with many wonderful professional artists and some of them would love to share with our students. Why wouldn't we why wouldn't we want our students to hear and learn from them? It brings together our

070school community and our overall citizen community in a positive way. We already do a lot of wonderful things in the arts, but this could bring us to a whole different level with all the arts, visual arts, media arts, music, drama, and dance. At our town hall, actually, the one I went to at the high school, three or four people spoke about the importance of the arts in our community. So, we're looking at this ad hoc committee which the board will discuss and take action on the formation of this new committee for the arts. The ad hoc committee will be comprised of no more than two board members. The rest of the committee will consist of 15 members selected in the following manner. Five members by appointment of the superintendent and committee co-chairs. seven members by

071an open application selection process coordinated by the superintendent and co-chairs seeking to balance different art communities and geographic balance in the community and following the five members by appointment and seven members by application. three members through an intentional recruiting process ex executed by the superintendent designed to bring representation and equity in terms of perspective to the pers perspective to the committee um under the Brown Act ad hoc committees may be formed to address specific short-term objectives these committees are generally exempt from the Brown Act's public meeting requirements when they meet the following criteria. Um so that's what we're looking to form a and be able to help our students with this and there any um are there any members wishing to serve on the committee? >> We need to discuss the committee and approve it

072before you appoint members. Um, no. Then we're then we're going to take questions and that would be more question. >> Okay. I just thought we were appointing people without approving committee. But >> whatever. It doesn't matter. Seems like we should approve a committee before you appoint members to it, but it's a small point really. >> What do you think, Dr. Glass? The way >> um the way you have it structured is that you would um solicit interest in the committee and therefore when you make your motion you could actually say and appointing these two members to it. So you can do it all in one motion and and handle it all together but you could have a conversation now about who wishes to serve. >> Okay. Um >> can we make a motion committee then

073and then discuss appointment? No, we're No, we're gonna we will first see if there are any members work wishing to serve on the committee besides I would like to. >> Well, I know we've had a meeting um for to to explore the possibilities and what kind of things that we could discuss and and what goals we could achieve in our um kind of our think tank. And I know I was a part of that as well as some members of the community. So, I'd like to continue in that role if possible. >> All right. Anyone else? Okay. Are there questions from the board? Any board member questions? Okay. Clerk Hills, are there any speakers wishing to comment? >> Uh, I don't see any, but the cards tonight are pretty confusing. So if anybody um wants

074to speak on this, they should come forward. Um but I don't see any cards. >> Okay. Now, may I have a motion to approve the formation of an ad hoc? >> We're going to do that after we do the motion. >> Okay. May I have a motion to approve the formation of an ad hoc board committee for the arts with members Perry and Morgan as the board representatives? So move >> second. Any discussion? >> Now um so I just want to say at the outset that um my own children have been very involved in the arts in um school whether it be music, musical theater, whatever. So, generally speaking, I'm very supportive of this kind of initiative. Um, with this particular committee, I just want to go on record that, um, I was surprised to

075see a recommendation for a committee before getting any kind of information about the problem we're trying to solve, what we heard from the community, and what um, Dr. Glass is recommending in terms of priorities for this year. Um, this is actually a huge amount of work. That's a huge committee to pull together. I'm not saying it's not an important one, but we haven't really evaluated in terms of what the huge range of needs are. And I really worry about the amount of work we're giving to Dr. Glass in his first year here about all of these various initiatives. Again, it's not that I don't support it. I would just like to ask that before we come to a board meeting with a recommendation to you know to fully form a committee that other people have

076discussed we have a discussion on the board and have it board direction based on information from Dr. Glass about what we're currently doing in the district and with community members. So I it's it's a process question for me or process issue for me that I just want to put out there not just on this issue but on any issues we bring to an agenda. >> Thank you. Clerk Hills. >> I think um member Moesky makes a good point. I I think that uh that concern uh is subsumed. However, uh in the uh I I would just say that I appreciate the fact that a couple board members are willing to provide the leadership to um undertake this and think that and hope that um it can be done and you all can lead it without

077any undue uh burden on the superintendent. I will also say this, going to back to school nights at the schools, um I felt like there the the arts programs could use a boost and use uh use some increased intensification and focus. I know that um we have a long tradition of the school. I I can remember when the school and the students were providing real leadership in the art community in town and and it was a big part of our legacy and I think all the enthusiasm we have for support of the pool, the sports team, the football teams, the water pool team and all that, the support for the sports, support for academics and and everything else that we're doing that is are is successful and is so good with our schools. Um, I

078think the arts program could use a shot in the arm and so I really welcome the fact that um, you all are willing to take it on and if there's anything I can do to support you, please let me know. >> Thank you, Mr. Hills. Doesmber Kelly have a comment? >> No. Board members, student board members? >> Um, I actually had a comment. So, this is more of a inquiry. Um, for a committee on the arts, is that just like a general supporting of the arts or are there any like established goals? Like what are you trying to accomplish with this committee? And is it supporting the arts financially? Is it, you know, um, within the schools? Is it more of a community thing? Just what is like the specific goals of this committee? Thank

079you. Um, we are looking at trying to have a world-class art program and people in the community. We have wonderful professional artists that really want to help with that. And so the purpose of this is to figure out what else we can do. We have wonderful art teachers. This is nothing against art teachers. We want, you know, we want them. We appreciate them. But is are there ways that we can also get help from the community and bring the level up even higher? >> Yeah. Could I just add? >> Um, no. No, we got to let everybody Sorry. >> Yes. I just was testing to make sure you were paying attention. >> Okay. >> Did you want to say anything? Logan, >> I I did. I have So, I have one question. Does getting support

080from the community? I I'm sorry. I just personally don't know what that looks like. Does that is that almost similar to like kind of what the AER program does at the high school where it mo it moves in mentorship from the community? >> That's really cool. >> Yeah. >> Yes, that could be. And part of it is also one of the requests that we got was looking at careers in the arts and you know mentors for that. >> So this actually I'm very grateful that this is committee is coming forward. I think it's very much about students first. Um I know last year we did an arts night at the high school that was fabulous. It had great um graphics and the programs and there was art all over the hallways at the high school

081for those of you that that weren't at the high school or didn't see it at the high school. There was um ceramic work by one of the students and I wish I had all the names and everything in front of me, but I don't. that was something that you would see in any of our any of our any of our um galleries here or the museum. It was fabulous. And from that point, seeing everything set up in the in the high school and the music and the dance performance and the pieces by the theater, it kind of started the wheels turning where when we walk around town, we have so many empty storefronts. So, initially where this started in my mind was how can we help beautify our community and give our art students a

082broader exposure to showing their art rather than just the festival, which is phenomenal and has been a longtime partnership, but expanding it even more because there's a lot of opportunity where we could put student art in public spaces while we help the city um fill some of these empty storefronts until they're full. How that works, I don't know. That was kind of just the thought and then from there started the conversation and then I was talking to um on art art night talking to artists in our community. They were super excited about it and took it even further and said we have such a rich community. We have such a rich history of art in our community. We used to be the artists. We were an artist colony when we were founded. And so how

083can we bring those stories into our students history and curriculum? So that was another area to it. Again, I'm not offering solutions. I'm not offering how to get it done. It was an idea that needed a place to land to become something more. And then from there, um it's it was um bringing in the mentors and helping our students and then careers. So, there's a lot of there's three different steps or three different focuses I think that have come up just in conversation that help form the idea to start this committee. And I think um you know with 15 13 12 to 13 to 12 to 15 people on it um I know I am hopeful that we can get um maybe our arttosa one of our arttosis our we have a couple art teachers

084I know I've spoken to the teach one two of the teachers about it and they were very excited about the idea um you know getting them involved having you know a couple of art students perhaps I don't again the committee needs to be formed in a formal way but I think the possibilities of what it could become is amazing I I know that Dr. Glass has spoken about the importance of the arts in helping balance our students social and emotional health and I think it would be an interesting um study for to understand how the arts does balance the social emotional of our students and could we focus on arts as much as we focus on their social emotional to where maybe we're putting more energy into the arts because the arts have helped our

085students lessen their social emotional if anxieties or or challenges and helps bring this whole world child that we are talking about as a district that we've always talked about and that we are and really bring it into the um looking forward into as a looking forward in the future of our district. So, thanks. Sorry, I didn't write anything so I'm just kind of >> Thank you, board member Morgan and to your point about the empty storefronts. I did have an opportunity to talk with um part of the city council about that and they were very receptive. This really came about because we're trying to listen to people like listening at um the meeting with the meeting with the superintendent at the different schools. There are a lot of people that this is very important to.

086So, we're trying to make a way to figure this out and we certainly don't want to burden Dr. Glass with a whole lot more work. So, can I hear from you what you think about this? >> I'm I'm excited about this work. It is um it will it will be um a lot of work. Um but it's because it's really important. Um this is a community with extraordinary um commitment and talent when it comes to not just the visual arts but the performing arts as well. And I think to Ivy's question around what are the goals, I think those will emerge from our work with the with this group. It is intended to bring a broad spectrum of arts viewpoints and talents together. Uh to think about what are the things that we aspire to

087in the arts community and in the school community for our children and our schools going forward. Uh to evaluate our current programs uh in light of those aspirations and then work together on a long range plan around uh what that looks like. Uh I have heard as as you've mentioned madam president that there's a strong interest in focusing on this in the listening sessions and in the start stop keep survey from a number of perspectives. So I do think it will be aligned with our work going forward um uh if the board chooses to uh lift it up as a strategic priority. But in any case, just as with you, it's a it's a passionate area of mine. Uh, and I believe in arts and music education. Uh, and I I I support this. Uh,

088and I'm glad to do the work on the behalf of the board and the community. >> I really appreciate that. Thank you very much. And please let us know if it's too much and we'll take over more. And I look forward to not us, but people in the committee putting together a presentation for the board to be excited about. >> So again, I certainly um support all of these initiatives and I appreciate Dr. Glass that this is something you're excited about. I'm sure great things will come out of the committee. Um, I do want to say though that there were a lot of comments in this conversation with some assumptions about our own art programs that I don't think we've really vetted here. And again, I would just urge us to engage with teachers, pre

089present for those of us who haven't been in the high school, present information from teachers and programs about what we're doing, be clear about where the problems are, be clear about what we're trying to solve, and then get board direction about launching a big initiative like this. Again, I'm I'm I will vote in favor of it, but it is a process issue and I think led to discussions where lots of assumptions were shared that aren't clear to everybody in the room or or to me. So, I just think it's important that we are really inclusive of teachers in our art people who are running our art programs in this discussion before setting up a committee to solve problems of the arts. I I really still in this moment don't really understand um again I understand

090what all the aspirations of the committee but I don't understand where it fits with working with the teachers and the people who are running our art programs to you know create a better arts program. So enough said um I I'm not going to vote against it. I just think it's an important process issue. >> Mr. Hills. >> Yeah. I just wanted to say not to labor this, but I don't think anybody's focused on problems with our art program. I think it's what it this is about is going in and seeing all the good stuff that's being done in art and how can you support it, how can you expand it, and how can you, you know, we have uh graduates of Laguna Beach High School who were uh exhibitors in the festival of arts and

091the sawdust um and who went to New York and had careers and and there some of them are professors at Cal State Fullerton and whatnot. Uh they would love to come down and and and help and participate. So, I just think it's a very positive thing. And um you know, at the back to school, I had the great experience of meeting one of the uh younger teachers who was in my youngest daughter's class at Top of the World. And um you know, these the the young teachers we have are amazing and their enthusiasm and you they just connect with you and with the students and with the parents and anything we can do to swoop in in addition to the math and the science and the other things. swoop in and make art a really

092positive part of our our culture, I think would be great. So, >> thank you. I agree, Dr. Glass. >> Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I just wanted to build on Trusty Malchesky's uh point that and clearly state um the arts programs in this district and community are incredible. Um, when we were looking at places to move our family, one of the selling points for Laguna Beach Unified School District was the art and music programs. They're terrific. Our teachers here are terrific and we want to make sure that they're included in this effort going forward. >> Absolutely. May I have a motion to approve the formation of an ad hoc >> so I'm just going to call for the vote. >> No, we already tried that. Um, okay. Student board member V. >> I think

093that Logan is in the restroom right now. Um, do I want to vote for him? I don't know if Am I allowed to do that? >> Uh, do you think you guys come back to us when he's back? >> Sure. >> All right. Thank you. >> Yeah, if it's pretty soon. Uh, okay. Um, all in favor >> I >> Mr. Hills. >> Hi. >> Thank you, Dr. Kelly. >> Miss Mr. Hills. I Thank you, Mr. Hills. Okay. Thank you. Um, do you want to vote for Logan? >> Yeah, I'm going to vote for Logan. We're going to say I. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Now, second reading and approval of board policy 5131.8, eight mobile communication devices. On August 14th, the board received a presentation from Mr. Morrison and reviewed a draft of board

094policy 5131.8, mobile communication devices. The policy is moved forward for a second reading and approval. Do any board members have questions on the policy? >> Board member Morgan. Um it's a turns into a comment later, but I believe that some of I just want to confirm that um part of this is lifted straight out of the board of the state ed code. Correct. The one two three4 of when we can use a phone. >> Yeah. So the draft of the policy uh aligns with state ed code requiring which includes exceptions as well as the authority to limit the use of um and then what's been added and highlighted in the draft is the emphasis around um families as crucial partners in this process. Uh making sure students have you know a healthy habits here and

095at home and we work as partners as well as the appropriate agebased support by grade spans that we currently use. Thank you for that explanation. Any other questions? Okay. May I have any um are there any cards on this, Mr. Hills? Any public comment? >> Okay. Uh may I have a motion to approve board policy 5131.8? So moved. We'll have discussion first. >> Thank you. Yes. Now, any discussion? >> I would like to amend the motion to um include language from the actual bill itself. Um, I appreciate that we pulled um I appreciate that we pulled the um four um circumstances uh that follow ED code that we can use the mobile the mobile devices. Um and I I think it's important that we maintain consistency in our policies if we're going to quote things

096directly from the ed code itself. I would like to see us um because I think my first question was is this even enough? I mean, it's it's it's an ongoing issue with the phones, right? So, it's it's always like is can could we even do more with phone limitation? I think some people would really like to see us not have phones in classes at all. Um, and I'm not arguing that point, but what I would like to see is that in above in the first paragraph where it says an uh, research increasingly indicates that unrestricted access to smartphones, cell phones, smartwatches, and other electronic communication devices can negatively affect students emotional well-being and academic performance. I don't think that's up for debate at all. I think that's true. But when you look at the policy,

097it's very clear that it actually goes on to say that um it interferes with the educational mission of the school, lowers pupil performance, particularly among low achieving pupils, promotes cyber bullying, and contributes to an increase in teen anxiety, depression, and suicide. I think that if we're going to look at the policy, we need to make sure this policy is robust and it actually highlights the problem we're trying to solve, which is a frequent statement in here. And I think to to to emotional well-being and academic performance does that, but I think the language in the policy in the um ed code itself is much more um specific and I think that that sends a more serious message to the importance of this policy. >> Thank you, Dr. Glass. >> Madam Chair, you uh uh serendipitously

098I sent out a memo to you all on how to handle submotions and we have another one tonight. Um so you've had a motion and a second and then um Trustee Morgan has um offered an amendment to the main motion as we as I discussed with you all in the memo. The proper procedure is to see if the amendment has a second before discussing it further. >> Really need clarification on the motion. >> So I move to amend the motion by editing the language where it says emotional well-being and academic performance and Where is that? >> It's in the first paragraph, third line, halfway through. I'd like to see it the I I move to amend the motion by striking emotional well-being and academic performance and including interferes with educational mission of the schools, lowers

099pupil performance particularly among low achieving pupils, promotes cyber bullying and contributes to an increase in teenage anxiety, depression and suicide. And that would be in section two of ED code AB. Uh AB 3216. It's the first paragraph of section two. >> Do I have a second for this? >> Okay. >> Yes. Okay. Good. We have a second for the submotion. So now we will vote on it. >> Submotion. >> Okay. >> Submotion or comments again. >> Uh sorry. I'm If you'll give me just a moment. I'll refer to the memo that I wrote this week on this very uh topic. Um uh >> I have it. >> Yeah. >> So I I think we just we need a new motion for the submotion. >> I amended the motion. I move to amend the motion. So,

100you you have a um your submotion has been moved and seconded. Uh the question that I'm looking up right now is do you need to vote on that or not? I don't think so. Um but uh that's what I want to check. >> One of the Yeah. But one of the questions I would ask is part of the discussion on the regular motion just in terms of how boards operate is it seems like before putting in a motion would it be more helpful to us for Mrs. Morgan to say I looked at this language and my response to the original motion to approve it is should we think more about the first paragraph and then we can have a discussion about that and make a decision about whether we want to amend the motion. that

101I think we should try to stay away from submotions to motions by having discussions about it and then advancing it to a motion. That would make it easier because I would like to respond to the thing, but we have a motion within a motion. So, that's just my suggestion. >> Yeah. So, just as a procedural step on on that point, uh now you have a question about the proper order. So, you can decide Madam Chair if you want to first have a discussion on the main motion. um before the second motion or do you want to go ahead and move to the amended motion? >> These four items >> are these four items. >> Okay. Is there a discussion about the first motion? >> I'm asking about >> approving this word. >> So what I

102would say generally which also responds to Mrs. Morgan's um amended uh proposed amendment is that I think it's always better in bylaws um to be more general in ways that allow um the the bylaws to change with what's happening in the social context so they don't constantly have to be updated. And perhaps one way of doing this is um and and again I don't have a problem with what she's recommending, but it might also be better in terms of the future of the bylaw to say something like negatively affect students emotional and well-being and academic performance as current educational and psychological research has indicated. so that it's more of a blanket comment that captures whatever might change in future years in terms of that educational research instead of having all the specificity. So I would

103recommend that instead. >> Okay. Thank you. Um do you have anything clerks? Do you have anything? >> Dr. Glass Dr. Glass. >> Sorry. I'm just trying to support a good process. Um we're uh a little complicated. So, um, looking at the, um, memo, um, it is now that you've had a, um, submotion and that's been seconded, you should debate the submotion, vote on it. If that, if that succeeds, that becomes your main motion. It wipes out your main motion. Now, your submotion is the motion. And then you vote on it again. Do you want to pass the amended motion? So, you're really uh should um have discussion around uh member Morgan's uh substitution language. Do you wish to amend the main motion with that >> which I just contributed to? >> Yes. >> Point of

104order. >> Yes. Dr. If you do what the superintendent just described and are done with it, will there be an opportunity for any additional um motion for any additional amendment to this um document? In other words, you're not going to what he just described isn't going to lead to approval of this on second reading. There will still be an opportunity to propose another amendment. >> This is a second reading approval. >> No, this is a second reading approval and Um, >> yeah. >> If if you have something you'd like to add to it, I think you should do that now. >> Submotion within the submotion within the submotion. >> Can we can we resolve a submotion and then talk about whether we want to make an amendment to the to the to the original? >>

105Okay. So I suggested keeping the language more basic to capture the fact that educational research will change in subsequent years and we may not want to be updating this every year. It's better to keep our our bylaws >> um general enough to capture whatever issues that we that may be part of it while still being specific enough. So my preference would be not to name every one of them, but to more generally say that it affects student emotional well-being and academic performance in line with what we've learned from educational and psychological research. >> I think that covers what Trusty Morgan is is trying to cover. What do you think? Well, I think my my the reason I brought it up is because we have directly pulled out of the um out of the article the

106um four reasons that are listed in AB3 um all these numbers straight. Um in the item in AB3216, it's very specific of when we can use a phone or when a phone is allowed. So, if we're going to be specific and pull things directly out of the assembly bill, then we should use the first paragraph that is very clear. There is growing evidence that unrestricted use of smartphones, blah blah blah, what I had said. And I think to your point, if the >> research continues to evolve, I would imagine because this is called the phone free schools act that the that the that the bill would evolve as well. We can always evolve our policy if there's more. But I think um this covers a lot of the items that we highlight in our social

107emotional well-being programming in our conversations. And it also I feel people are going to if they're going to look at our policy, the impact the the impactfulness of this language I think is much stronger than a generality. And that's what I'm trying to have this policy do is to uphold the concerns of the cell phone and be more specific of what it is we're the problem we're trying to solve. >> Are you going to be recognizing Brown? >> Um I I would like to recognize Ivy. >> Um so I my opinion is that I think it's general knowledge that cell phones are bad for you. I mean I don't think anyone wants to give their child a cell phone. I know my parents didn't. Um, so I mean I think it's pretty obvious that they

108do allow for cyber bullying, um, mental health issues, body image issues, especially with Instagram, you know, uh, accounts where you're looking at other people comparing yourself, etc. Um, but if it's so common knowledge and so ingrained in our society, is it really worth mentioning in our intro paragraph? That's all I have to say. like I just don't see the need to hyper specifically mention that. >> Thank you. Logan, would you like to >> I I feel like the issue at hand though isn't exactly like how the how those are the negative effects of cell phones because those areas of cell phones and like social media and stuff are already banned on like school internet. I feel like the issue that's being addressed in general is more so like how can we limit cell phone use

109because it's already known those things are bad. So that's kind of where I agree with Ivy. Like I I just don't know how hyperfocusing on that actually talks about the broader issue that's trying to be solved which is minimizing screen time which is both on computers and cell phones. And like we talked about last meeting a lot of the negative effects of cell phones also carry over to computers. So I that's well I mean and I were just talking about that's kind of our concern. >> True. Um so >> say so we can go for a second round. I'll start over here here with clerk hills. >> Yeah. I um I think that the points that the two the two student reps made are both very good points. Uh and I agree with them. Uh

110my um by the way I want to say that um student board representative Jobs Ivy um came up with one of the best phrases I've ever heard last time when we were talking uh and you said you just you characterized a position that you didn't agree with as slightly ignorant and um I've been using that a lot um and it's a really good term but this isn't a case of slight ignorance. This is a case of um the the fact that um you know we have for example uh this goes into specifics and detail says limiting uh the device also uh encourages um minimizes exposure to inappropriate content and cyber bullying. And I was really happy to see that in there because as a recent victim of cyber bullying myself and my children and grandchildren

111have been recently victims of cyber bullying. I was really happy to see that level of detail uh in this and um I think that um it doesn't I think that it would be a good idea to take language from the statute. I I'm I totally agree with your point that everybody gets it and so in a way it's not needed but um I think the idea of taking language out of the statute and putting this in here is an idea that I will support and I will vote for it. >> Thank you. Yeah, there's no more discussion. You should vote >> on the >> um so I just wanted to kind of revisit what Logan said. Um cell phones are, you know, an issue that we've talked about. We talked about it last time as

112well. And I think kind of our most prominent like motive behind having things like this is not only to follow the law of course, but um it's also to limit students screen time. So I know that our goal was three hours for the high school, which I disagreed with a lot. Um just because I don't think that's manageable or possible. Um, but considering that the main goal behind all of this is to limit students screen time, shouldn't that be mentioned in the intro paragraph? Um, and then also to Howard's point, um, sorry, Mr. Hills, I want to be respectful. Um, I'm still obviously a child, so I want to make sure that I'm being respectful, but um, cyber bullying and um, instances of viewing inappropriate content can occur on Chromebooks. I mean, not all sites

113are blocked by the school efficiently and that is a real risk. Um, you know, we can still access YouTube. we can still especially with um how good kids are with technology. It's not hard to bypass a lot of the things on whether it's Hapara um whether it's you know I know of students who have downloaded ad blockers to bypass HPA and stuff like of that nature. So just because we're not having cell phones does not mean that we're actually limiting students access to inappropriate or violent content. Right. It's just a step. Um, Dr. Kelly would also like to be recognized. Okay, >> you are if there's no more discussion, you're ready to vote on your sub motion. If it succeeds, it subsumes the main motion and becomes your main motion. >> Okay, so Right now

114we are going to vote on the submotion which board member Morgan proposed. Um it >> can you restate that please? >> I'll you'll restate it. Okay. >> Make sure I have it right. Is that okay? >> Motion to amend the motion to approve BP 5138.8 8 to edit the language to strike stating emotional well-being and academic performance and replace it with by pupils at elementary and secondary schools during the school day interferes with the educational mission of the schools lowers pupil performance particularly al among low achieving pupils promotes cyber bullying and contributes to an increase in teen anxiety depression and suicide and approved BP 5131.8 eight mobile communication devices as revised. >> Is that correct? >> There's another few words in the beginning of section A. But um >> do you want that there is

115growing evidence >> to I think growing evidence of research and that it's continuing and ongoing and always will. So that would be that might those couple words there also maybe encompasses the fact that this is an ongoing issue and it could evolve. So that would probably be um to include the whole section a is only a few more words. So there is growing evidence. So I'd like to move to amend the my motion that there's growing evidence. Okay. I don't need to. Okay, great. So there's growing evidence. Yes. Section A of the um assembly bill. >> Mrs. Weber, are you clear? You got it. Okay, we will vote on that right now. Uh oh. >> Students first. >> Okay. Um >> let your students vote, >> right? Um student vote. >> Um I think Logan

116and I are going to vote against this motion. >> Board members, all in favor? I opposed. >> No. >> Okay. 32. >> Thank you. >> So, your motion's passed. 32. >> Motion has passed. 32. Right. >> Can continue discussion on the now amended motion. Um, you've had a lot of discussion on it already, so there may not be more, but then you could vote vote on the main motion again now. Yeah. Which has which is effectively the the submotion. >> Okay. So, is there any more discussion now on our amended motion >> on the on the policy as a whole? >> Yeah. >> Just for clarification, we're now voting. So, >> because I think this is um exceedingly important and um this is really focused in on what goes on in the classroom for students.

117Um uh enumerated item number four uh when the possession or use is required by the students individualized education program. I think that's a really good thing to have in there. Um but I've done a little bit of legislative um drafting in the past and um my concern would be uh that that could be interpreted uh in a way that the the the decision about whether it's required in the IEP would be made uh on an ad hoc basis um or on a on a basis a discretionary basis. And so in order to sure ensure that you don't end up with students with IEPs um spending more time on phones than students that aren't on IEPs, I think that it would be good to say when the possession or use is an express requirement of the

118students individualized education program so that we don't have a discretionary decision to be using phones more with IEP students than otherwise would be the case. Uh so so when the IEP committee makes a decision about the phone being used in that student's program that that's not just something that somebody decides to do for that particular student, but it actually has to be a requirement, an express requirement, not some not an ad hoc requirement. >> I I think that's what an IEP does. it's very clear about what the um explicit interventions in the classroom will be to address the issues in a student's IEP. So, I I take your point. I I don't much care either way, but I I think that IEPs do just that. So, I don't know that there's a big difference between

119expressly required and required, but whatever. I have I've had children with IEPs in this school system and um I also last night at the at the town hall meeting there was a really good discussion about IEPs and um uh then after that discussion last night when I was reading this I said I don't want phones being used for IEP students on kind of a a an ad hoc basis. I wanted if if the committee has decided that is a feature of the IEP then so be it. but shouldn't be added or augmented on a discretionary basis. So I I I would move that we would make that um we would make that amendment and say when the possession or use is an express requirement of uh and delete required by is an express requirement of

120the students individualized education program. >> Okay. >> Is there a second? >> No, no, I I can't make a second. Um, but I was just saying uh he's moved to amend your motion again. So, is there a second? >> Is there >> I'll second that motion. >> Second. Okay. Now, we'll discuss this. Uh, I also am not sure that it's necessary because and you have to follow an IEP. It's the law. And if that's what it says in their IEP, that's what's done. Are you worried that students that have IEPs, but there isn't something in there about phone use that they'll be using phones excessively? >> It becomes a discretionary thing or that it somebody could say I I'm deciding right now that this is required as part of their IEP. >> No, you can't

121do that. The IEP is a whole process that parents have to sign. Um, you can't just say that arbitrarily that, you know, I'm the teacher and I decide he needs a phone right now. >> Yeah. Well, if it ends up that the phone gets used when it shouldn't be being used, um, this this would prevent that from being possible. But I, uh, listen, I don't want to belabor it. I will defer to the, um, the common sense of the board. If you don't want to pursue this, I'll withdraw it. Okay. Do we who would like to pursue this? >> We have a motion. >> And was was there a second to discuss it? But we can >> I don't see the need for it. We could do a vote and I don't think there's any

122discussing it. >> Uh >> I think so. Yeah. Oh, >> okay. We we had a second. >> You had a second. >> We had a second. Um >> yes, we need to vote to whether or not we're going to make his changes. And if we decline, then we can move to approve the the correct. Okay. >> So, okay. Right now, then we're going to vote on the second The second voting on the second >> we're gonna vote on his change. >> How many how many people would >> are in favor of adding this language? >> I'll let no since he ret since he retracted it. I'll I'll start the voting. >> Student board members first, please. Logan and I will be saying no. >> No. No, >> no. >> So >> now we can we

123can vote on um our mobile communication device >> with the amended motion. How many Oh, not um all those in favor. Well, I'll do student board member first. Are you in favor? the policy we've discussed the last >> um policy if we've discussed it I think yeah I think both of us want to say yes okay >> yes >> okay okay 5 thank you now first reading of board bylaw 9223 filling vacancies ies. This item is brought forward as a first reading for review and discussion by the board. The change brought forward is based in statute education code 590G, incorporates government code 1770G, which provides his or her ceasing to discharge the duties of his or her office for the period of three consecutive months except when prevented by sickness or when absent from the

124state with permission required by law. Do any board members have questions on the policy? A quick question. Um, so this would just be following would just be following law. Is that correct? >> Uh, yes, Madam Chair. Uh, the change simply brings the policy in line with what the statute says around vacancies. >> I have a question. Board member Morgan, >> when was the last time this policy was a amended? Usually we have that at the top of the policy um from the manual, but I don't see that. Am I missing? Am I just not seeing it? Oh, here it is. Last reviewed last year, August 27th. >> Oh, that's fixed. Sorry. Yep. >> Okay. So, it was looked at in 2024, 2023, and 2019. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Any cards, Mr. Hills? >>

125Um, >> any public comment? >> Yes, this is 7D, right? >> Yeah, we have um two cards. We have um Shaheen Shik Sadal and Keta Brown. Okay, we'll put you for that one. >> Okay, this says 7D. Okay, so you want to speak on 7E. >> Okay, >> I good. Um, I just hope none of you has a child, grandchild, or spouse in crisis during your tenure. This is punitive and unnecessary. It may be statute but we have certain leeway we can take. >> Thank you. >> Board discussion >> please. Any >> Oh, >> I move to approve 93 uh 9223. >> Second discussion. >> If we have a situation where a board member has an illness beyond themselves, its family or grandparents, can we make ex can we make exceptions without it being in

126the policy because it's a situational issue? Dr. >> or can we amend it when the ARI situation arises? >> This is a first reading of this policy. So that would be a question that I would take back to legal counsel for validation on. Um I believe and I'll state this as not being an attorney that you can add additional language uh that create exceptions but you cannot exceed the vacancy limit that is in the statute. So, I I think that's correct, but that we need to validate that with um council uh when I when I bring back your second reading. >> Okay, that sounds like a good idea. >> Yeah, I would agree. Um uh the proposed revision restores the original exception due to sickness of a member since family member illness was added by

127the board but is inconsistent with state law. it it the the the provision that's being amended creates an exception that is not authorized by the applicable state law. This is not a matter of exercising local control. It is local creation of an additional exception to the state law exception and thus violates current bylaw 9310 which prohibits bylaws inconsistent with state law on what constitutes a vacancy. So this is a case where our bylaw basically imports the state statute and the state statute limits the exceptions that are allowed and so it would be inconsistent with the state statute for us to create an exception in addition to the one that is allowed by state law >> and that's probably what the attorneys will tell us when you >> we'll find we'll find out when we come

128back for our second reading. I just went to a third tier law school. So, we'll have to see what somebody went to Harvard. >> Let's see. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Um motion um to bring this any Well, first of all, any more discussion? I was here. I mean, I I know I stood at this podium when this item came up and I I believe this was one of the many times that Howard and I actually um disagreed completely. Um I understand I was I I know why this was included. Um I supported then while it was included um I did not know that it was not part of the ED code um at the time and that is you know sitting here sitting there you learn things along the way. Um, I would certainly

129like to know. I I think our bylaws need to be in compliance with the law. To Howard's point, um, to Keta's point, I think it would be good to find out from our attorneys, can we um, can we, if a situation were to occur, can we add it as an exception or is it better to have it in in case there's a situation? I think I I would lean more towards being in line with the law and then coming back in and making amendments where we need to. Um if that's um if the motion to change it is to bring it in compliance with the law, I would support that. But then also support um exploring if a situation were to occur with a board member, how can we support them in the best way

130possible to so that they can support their family and still serve our community? Um I do agree with that last sentiment um by you. Um I agree that if a board member has a sick family member, especially if it's something that is serious like cancer for example, um I believe that they should be able to miss a meeting. Um perhaps adding, you know, a rule or a guideline of how many they're allowed to miss or, you know, say a board member misses one meeting because their daughter is sick or something or um versus missing 10, you know, I think there's a big difference. Um but perhaps adding um structure to there as to like how we would go about that. >> Yeah, th this talks about if you miss three months, so that would probably

131be five or six meetings. >> Okay, thank you. >> They're asking questions. >> No, I know. >> Yes, Logan. Um, so first off, I want to say I completely agree with Trusty Hills that the board's bylaws should be in compliance with the law. But I think if there's anything that we should remember, especially on a day like 9/11 or on what the recent events in America have been, is how quickly you can lose a family member. I think that's something that everyone in this room, whether you're on the board, whether you're student board rep or whether you're a community onlooker, has seen. And I think that something that we've kind of become desensitized to is losing people. And I think it's something that is incredibly crucial to not forget. I hope that everyone in this

132room does not have to experience losing someone. But the pain is incredible. And even worse than that pain can be having to tend to an incredibly sick person that you love. And I think that although you do have a duty to the community as a board rep or sorry as a board member, you have a duty to your family first. And I think that being able to maintain both of those duties is something that is not only incredibly important to this community, but incredibly important to this nation. And I hope that there can be legal solutions to allow that to work. >> Thank you very much, >> Clerk Hills. Yeah, >> I think what we owe to um this board um and to future boards is to clarify this and um I fully support the

133idea of referring to council and making sure that this is uh as we believe it is grounded on on u on solid ground. Um the other thing is I think for in response to um what the student reps said just to clarify this is a state law and the legislature of the state and the governor of the state have determined that if a board member is absent for three months a full three months at the at the expiration of three months then that creates a vacancy. So if a board member just starts not showing up or disappears or you know whatever um then um if they're if they don't attend board meetings and don't do their duties and meet their responsibilities as a board member for three months that creates a vacancy and um the

134exception is in if the board member has been sick. the legislature has not extended that exception to family. And uh the question is we might all agree that they should extend it to family. I personally have no problem with that. But um we don't want to be in a situation the only thing that could add and make things worse for somebody in the situation you described would be to have a big controversy about whether they had a vacancy or not, you know, and that just adds additional stress to the whole situation. And I finally I would say um if it turns out that the lawyer advises us that this would bring us into compliance with the statute or is necessary to bring us in compliance with the statute, there's nothing wrong with us contacting our

135uh assemblyman and and senator and saying, "Hey, we think you ought to that might be an interesting project for the students at the high school to undertake to engage in the legislative process." But one thing I wanted to ask um uh if I could ask um the executive assistant question. Um at one point when there was an absenteeism situation that occurred along these lines, nobody wanted there to be a vacancy. Nobody was hoping there would be a vacancy, but uh it did at some point uh become extended. Um, and if I recall correctly, on several occasions, you at the beginning of the meetings read into the record that the board had excused the absence. So maybe there's some procedure for doing that that we don't know about. Is is there some kind of a procedure

136for the board to did the board act at that time and excuse absences? >> I would have to look back. >> Okay. >> Can we move along here? >> Thank you. Um, so can we vote on filling vacant filling vacancies board bylaw 9223? Move this forward for a second reading and approval at the September 25th, 2025 board meeting as presented with conferring with legal advice. Board student representative. >> All right. Uh Ivy and I will both be voting no. >> Thank you. Um other uh all in favor >> I >> opposed. Okay. >> You vote. >> Thank you. Okay, move moving on. August 14th, 2025, the board considered amendments to bylaw 9310 board policies reviewed two draft divisions and voted 50-0 to refer proposed amendments to legal counsel for review and to return the item

137for the board consideration on September 11th, 2025. Since that meeting, the superintendent has obtained and incorporated council's suggested edits to board policy 9310, invited additional trustee feedback, and considered community input, and prepared an annotated draft aligned to best practices for policy development and board governance. Do any board members have any questions on bylaw 9310? Can I add as amended? >> As amended. Okay. Clerk Hills, are there any speaker cards for those wishing to comment on board bylaw 9310? >> Yes, there are. We have uh Shaheen Shik Sadal, we have N. Morris, we have Kimberly Smith. And I just want to make sure because of the confusion earlier um whether because the topics on these cards are pretty general. Lauren Unterburgger um and also Jeff Roersshimer had had topic listings that could include this. So I

138just want to read their names if they have a statement to make about this. >> Okay. Okay. Can you turn your microphone off? >> Yes, I can. >> Thank you. Come on up. >> Good evening. My name is Shaheen Shakes Settle. I have two kiddos here in the district. I um just wanted to talk briefly because many of the parents weren't here since the first reading of this was during summer break. Um 9310 is foundational and it sets the rules on how we set all of our rules here in our district. And I wanted to to thank Dr. Glass actually for having a couple of conversations with me about um 9310 putting on my corporate lawyers lens um and kind of suffering suffering through that with me. Um, and as he said, the attorney, actually,

139your attorney, the district's attorney, agreed with some of my concerns. I think this second version that you've put forward um, basically almost goes back to the original version minus some syntax um, changes. Um, but I think one of the things that I wanted to say is we can review board policies, but they should always keep in mind a couple of things, and this this is particular to 9310. One is last time member Hill said the district and the board they're one and the same thing and actually they're not. The board is very distinct and has its own function and roles and responsibilities and its own fiduciary uh responsibilities different and distinct than the district. Hopefully their goals are aligned. Hopefully they're all moving towards working for students. But you all are trustees of the public

140and the district's mandate is to focus on students and staff. So I just wanted to make that distinction that there there is actually a difference between the board and the district and there should be that's the whole point of it. Your job is to oversee one one employee only and your CEO is supposed to run a really great school district. So that's one point. The second thing is 9310 when you revised it last time sort of pulled back on keeping students this the number one priority and we discussed this and I I'm happy to see that students actually are kind of put back into this policy in a real way. Um although I do have some concerns about the way that it's drafted. You have students, staff, parents and community kind of all on one

141line together. I think what we took out last time was was language um this particular language provide for consistent and fair treatment of students and staff and proactively address equity and the provisions of equal access to opportunities for all students. I don't know why we took that out. I don't know why that language around students and student focus um priorities is now somehow worthy of being taken out. The other thing I would say there was a syntax suggestion to change non-discriminatory revise it. I would say you had put in non-discriminatory. I would say it is actually better to keep in equitable. Um anyhow, I do want to thank you for for at least engaging with me in these conversations. on the lawyer's suggestion around, you know, these um one-time exigent circumstance temporary suspensions. I think

142you and I discussed this. The better one would be option one um because it does allow for you to have some freedom in the moment of an emergency to do what's best for the students, you know, student safety in a fire, for example. So, you know, I just wanted to repeat the things that I said to you privately and here in this room with parents now that we're here. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Yes. Uh Nuth Morris, father of three. Um you know, I want to say as uh as productive as the cell phone conversation was uh in the last meeting, this one was as problematic. Um so and uh you kind of gave up the ghost on the draft that you put out there as originally um suggested um which was essentially

143to create some kind of an enabling act which would create a subcommittee of three members. We can all guess who those members would be. Likely would include member Mountes and member Kelly. um pushing it down there and then uh subsequently having the bylaws come back up without the second reading. Nothing about that is about transparency was obvious for anyone to see. And the tiny fig leaf that was used to justify this was about retroactively changing the laws was was the was fell apart in the face of the simplest hypothetical which is what should the superintendent do in the case of emergency. So this is the kind of stuff that leads to distrust and acrimony. So President Perry, when you and I sat down, I told you that I wanted you to be a successful president.

144I wanted your tenure to be and I meant that sincerely at the time and I mean it now. And how we get there is through investigating like how do we do the cell phones? Do how do we engage with the community? How do we do the CTEs? That's how we get there. Not following these kinds of paths. Thank you. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Kimberly Smith, mother of two uh students both at Top of the World. Um I wanted to address a few of the proposed changes to the bylaw 9310. Um Shaheen had touched on the removal of the word student. I'm happy to hear that it's back in, but quite frankly, it's just asinine. Um, the entire purpose of the system is to serve our students. Stripping that word out erases the very

145reason that this board exists to make decisions in the best interest of the students, not put them on par with other stakeholders in the district. Second, the proposal to allow bylaws to be suspended or amended temporarily without a time limit. That creates a loophole. We know this. Uh, that undermines the transparency and accountability. So, if a suspension is truly necessary, it should have clear boundaries, not an open-ended back door that lets rule lets rules be ignored indefinitely. This is just good governance. Um, together with the other proposed changes and no clear guidance on why this is even a topic, I actually disagree uh with my friend Shaheen. I don't think we should be looking at one of these options. I think we should be removing this, dismissing it alto together. Um because this combined right

146now is a signal to our community of something much larger which is the gateway to a power grab. Um this would give any of future majority of the ability to run the district and that isn't your role. You unanimously hire Dr. Glass because you believed as it's becoming clear to all of us that he is a competent executive capable of managing and leading this district. You should trust him to do that job. While you focus on governance and oversight, the superintendent manages the district. The board provides oversight. Shaheen touched on this. They're not the same. Yet, the member pushing these sweeping changes keeps insisting that they are. That is a dangerous blurring of rules and making revisions like these sets a frightening precedent. At the last meeting, I spoke directly to you, Miss Sher, Miss

147Sherry Morgan. I jokingly said that if you were in our position that I would fully expect you to be coming over the proverbial podium in outrage of these changes. And little did I know that I actually proved that observation correct because on May 27th, 2001, you did just that. You spoke out against minor edits to bylaw 9310 and you said bylaws and policies aren't living and breathing documents like a budget. They are governed standards for elected officials and it's completely unacceptable to have this even on there for discussion. Those were your words, Sherry, your convictions and they're the ones that exactly are concerning the parents that are here today. So I voted for you because I trusted for you to stand for fairness, for transparency, for accountability. Those were minor changes that you opposed. How

148can you in good conscience accept this unnecessary overhaul? I make a plea to you tonight. Please reconsider. Reconsider your Don't let this misguided power grab cloud your values. Don't forget the principles that you defended so passionately. That is why I stood behind you. For our students, for our staff, our community, and for your own integrity, please reject, consider this wholeheartedly. Reject these bylaw changes. Thank you. Thank you. Any more speakers? >> That's it. >> Okay. May I have a motion then so we can have discussion? >> I move that we adopt the on second reading adopt the proposed uh bylaw revisions as um proposed by the superintendent and as modified by the attorney. Um I so I move that we adopt it with the um changes that the attorney recommended. >> Dr. Glass, >> just

149a point of clarification. My um draft includes uh two options at the end. So I think uh to complete the motion, you should also uh click >> specify which option, option one or option two. Okay. Is there a second? >> Yeah. Is there a second for discussion? >> Second. >> Thank you. Okay. Discussion. >> Dr. >> Thanks. I thought you were going to say my name. I didn't mean to jump the gun. Um, so I cannot approve these bylaw changes as written. I very much appreciate Dr. Glass's effort to um take the bylaw back to how it was originally written, but I would only be able to approve this with a revision to the um second paragraph, which uh it says the board shall endure ensure that district policies, programs, and practices align with the

150vision and goals adopted by the board, comply with applicable state and federal law, and promote student learning and achievement. policies shall advance equity, ensure non-discriminatory access to district opportunities and resources for all students and staff. Period. The district shall provide for the consistent and fair treatment of students, parents, guards, employees, and the community. And I'm not sure about the exact wording, but the point of the last sentence for me is that in addressing the needs of the various constituencies in the district, Dr. glass should treat them all consistently and fairly. That's very different from putting students and community on parody with return with regard to district opportunities and resources. So, I want to make sure we highlight that this is about the students and also um be clear that of course the community is important,

151but it's in a different way. So, I would like to recommend that change. I'm not making a motion yet because we don't need a submotion for the motion, but we can discuss this. >> Thank you, Clerk Hills. Um, I would not object to making the change that um, uh, member Maleski has proposed, although I since we're discussing it at this point and it no motion has been made on it, I would I would add that this formulation starts with students. It leads with students. I think employees covers teachers, but maybe we should specifically be saying teachers here. Uh, parents and guardians are people who should have non-discriminatory access to opportunities and resources as parents and guardians. And the community, I mean, the community takes advantage of of resources and and and um opportunities when they

152come to football games. And in other words, this is the purpose of this is that there isn't discriminate discrimination against anyone who is a stakeholder in the education process. But that's just a comment I would make, but I'm I'm not, you know, I'm not but I would like to respond to a couple of the other things that were said. First of all, I understand the statements that were made um about the question of whether the district and the board are separate or the same. I understand the um fact that when you want and agree with an amendment, you're going to say, "Yeah, this is a good amendment, go ahead and do it." When you're opposed to it, you're going to say, "This shouldn't be done." And I think going back several years um uh to

153board member Morgan's positions, I took positions opposing changes to the bylaws many many times. But that doesn't mean you're you're thereby limited to supporting changes later. But more particularly, I think it's really important to say something. We just got to let's put it this way. We've been advised by council that there should be um a holistic approach to understanding what the district is and what's the district's relationship to the board and what the roles are of the board and the superintendent. And we're the I believe that we're going to go through a process of reviewing a lot of governance um provisions and there's a lot that's been put into these bylaws over the last 10 to 20 years. um that was very aggressive revisions of these bylaws and I think going back and looking at

154some of those uh is probably a good idea. But on the specific question uh I saw that somebody's comments today talked about that this will prevent checks and balances and this concept that you've got a a a superintendent who's a chief executive and then you've got a board that's like the legislature and there's separation of powers or something. That's that's not right. That's not what the state legislature did when they created the education code. And if you look at the California schoolboard associations principles, it talks about unity of purpose. And if you look at what they've done under the education code and what we've done under the bylaws, there isn't a separation of powers doctrine. There is a shared powers doctrine. And so you can go through every issue. You can go through agenda approval.

155You can go through um uh communications. You can go through um uh what were the what were the other ones? You can you can go through several areas of authority and responsibility of the superintendent and the board and you will find that there are shared powers. There is no this isn't the federal model. This isn't about co-equal branches of government. And so many of the comments that were made tonight and that were made on the 14th had a false premise and that was that this is like the federal model and it's not. And your comments tonight um uh um u Madame Shik Shadal um repeated what you said on the 14th. On the 14th this is what you said. You said that section 35010 does not authorize us to make changes to the bylaws. Um

156you said that once you've made rules in the bylaws, you have to follow those rules in order to change those rules. That is precisely not true. Um the fact of the matter is that Congress is constantly passing and the state legislature is constantly passing laws where they say notwithstanding any other provision of law. Here's what we're enacting. And the reason they do that is they're saying we don't care what laws we passed before. This is now the law. And so that's the same thing this does is it says this is now the law. And um so I think that there's a lot of misunderstanding about what this is. Um, and people have a lot of exaggerated concepts. And last thing I'll say, um, uh, Mr. Morris, um, who I really enjoyed talking with last night

157at the town hall meeting, he's he's used the example of retroactivity. Well, precisely the example that you gave actually has the opposite outcome. If you have an emergency and you don't want to or can't follow your bylaws to be able to come along later and make a retroactive um uh uh retroactive application, the emergency's already over. Uh so there there was no there was no be no reason to make a retroactive change to bylaws if the emergency already passed. The fact is this district has an emergency plan and it delegates authority to the people who are responsible starting with the superintendent and we have provisions in our bylaws that deal with emergencies. But the problem with and so the reason I supported option one instead of option two, the problem with retroactivity is that you

158and I don't agree with what the council said here about retroactivity that we don't want to limit our options. I don't think we should have the option because what you can do is you can go back and you you know we have under the federal model we have no exposfacto law we have no bill of attainer those are in the nature of retroactive laws that go back and take away rights that people had after the fact and so that's the concern but we get we avoid that whole issue of retroactivity by going with option one so thank you very much for allowing me to make those comments >> thank you does anyone else have a brief comment. >> Yeah, >> Logan. >> Um, Mr. Hills, I think something that I obviously Ivy and I are

159here to maintain representing the views of the students, which is something I want to do in this moment, but I think the whether it's called a shared power, a separation of power, it is definitely apparent that the board's job is to govern and the superintendent's job is to administer and effectuate like the board decides the what and then the superintendent handles the how. And if either side crosses into each other's role, there's friction. And I think that something that was very prominent last year and is still present today, at least from the students perspective, is a worrying of potential board micromanagement and overstepping. So I just want to maintain representing the views of the students in this as well because that has been a a big concern. I don't think the concern has necessarily been

160whether it's called whether we're using the federal model or whether it's called a separation of power. I think but maintaining the apparent separation of power by having the board and the superintendent have different responsibilities has been a concern of the students and I just wanted to voice that. >> Um yeah, just adding on to what Logan said, I completely agree. I've had many students um actually come up to me and ask me, "Hey, what's the difference between the school board and the superintendent? Like what's the difference in what they're allowed to do, what they oversee?" Um, and I think it's kind of hard to tell when you guys work so closely. Um, I think it needs to be more apparent that, you know, like Logan said, um, the how and the what I think needs

161to be a little bit more obvious as to who has power over what, who's doing what, because I feel like there's a lack of transparency where the general public kind of doesn't know where the line is. And um yeah, I it's been a concern that's brought up to me that's been brought up to me numerous times um about just lines being blurred. So yeah, >> thank you Ivy. Board member Morgan, >> I just have a couple of comments because honestly I'm I'm a I'm kind of a little perplexed. I'd have to go back and look and see what I said in 2021. I mean I'm glad that you guys have the time to go back and look at every single word that's been said five four years ago. Um I don't. So I'm glad that

162you're bringing that to my attention. So thanks. Um if you could send me the minute on it, I'll go back and look at it because I really don't I have no idea what specifically. But I know I was here here absolutely quite a bit challenging many policies. Um I was in this room challenging many um uh decisions that um at the time everything that I stood for when I stood in this room was so that there was um an open com that not an open conversation but that there that the students were kept in mind that the community was kept in mind that decisions weren't brought to the board and not discussed that they were just decided and at the time if I did say something in again about changing a policy. It's likely that

163it I may have felt that it wasn't discussed in this forum. Um this is quite an extensive conversation and and taking a long time. Yes, it's getting late. Um but I don't recall these kind of conversations in depth on a regular basis and so I I appreciate the fact that the community is paying attention and involved. I know I sat in this room by myself a lot um and challenged things and was dismissed because what I was they what was said there was nobody else here to support it. So I would like to know what I said in 2021. So if you have that by the minute which I would assume you do um if you would send it to me that would be great. Um this policy as I said the last time is

164about how we make policy. It's not about a power grab of who's going to do what. I don't see anywhere in here that says the board's going to do this and the this superintendent will do that. It's merely about how we make policy. Um the fact that it talks about suspending policy if necessary. Um I think last time I asked how long would we suspend policy um if that were if that's in if that were um to be of a concern. And um when we go back and look at what the what was suggested after so the I was prepared to approve the first uh reading with the second version that was a summary that um Dr. Glass took and um I thought made it a lot clearer. Uh it's the same policy that um

165past board members have functioned under um including members of this board. I'm actually starting to get really confused over which version we're talking about because we sent out your version, correct? To be reviewed by the attorneys to see if it needed anything to be considered and this is what we got back. Is that correct? And so, um, I I'm reading through the rationale and it talks about how it how the intent of the original paragraph was to prevent the board from changing policies simply to validate past actions. So, I don't know if it's preventing us. I don't understand how there's such concern that it's a power grab because it says right there, it's to prevent just changing things randomly for past action. And that was the major correction that I think was being made originally.

166Correct. So, I appreciate the interaction from the community. I truly do. I appreciate the opportunity for people to come in and have a voice and have something to say, but I think that we need to be careful that we're not creating drama where drama is not necessary. It's very clear the intent of the paragraph was to prevent the board. And the attorney comes back and says this language could unnecessarily restrict the board's flexibility if laws change. to the point about um our mobile policy if laws change um or need legal guidance emerges. Since suspending a policy would always be a significant action subject to legal review, the recommendation is to simplify the se the section by removing this paragraph and it wants to remove any such amendment or suspension shall apply prospectively from the date

167of adoption and shall be shall not be applied retroactively. So, I appreciate all of the comments, but I I I feel like it's creating drama and extending the evening beyond where it needs to be because this is pretty clear. Um, it's not to it's to help prevent a power grab for this board and for boards in the future. So, that's all I have to say. >> Um, one I was going to make a comment, but >> um I I like the revision. I like that the lawyers agreed with it, that Dr. Glass worked hard on this. If if we are changing anything, um I think that we should not not be able to wave a second reading. I think of our board policies in the past. I found that was really helpful to be able

168to pass a f um move a policy forward and then have time to reflect on it and that's in policy development and adoption process. the fifth paragraph. Also, another thing that we have done before is we've in a in a workshop in a policy workshop, we've come up with first, you know, with with policies and is this saying that that can only be done at a scheduled meeting because a workshop isn't a scheduled meeting. So, that's a question. But the other part is I think we should take out that um that the board can wave the second reading. >> I agree with that talk. Sorry. >> Okay. Howard. >> Yeah. Um I think that uh it's important to first of all the comments that the student representatives made. I really really appreciated those comments and

169u I think that the superintendent knows and everybody on the board knows that we're going to be addressing these issues because there's been a lot of controversy over the years about what exactly is the role of the the president, what exactly is the role of the um the board. And for example, somebody made a comment about, well, the board only hires one employee and um and uh and so the board shouldn't be interfering with with um the um employment decisions. But actually board bylaw 9000 says that um the responsibilities and powers of the board um include uh establishing an effective and efficient organizational structure for the district by a employing the superintendent. This is what the board's powers and duties are. the board's power is to employ the superintendent, which the the statement that the

170the one employee that the board hires is the superintendent, and then the superintendent does all the other hiring. And that's fine. That's we all understand that. But it also says employing the superintendent and setting and and the board sets policy for hiring of other personnel. So you see this goes back to the shared powers situation where in this case the superintendent has the power to do the hiring. The board shares in that only to the extent of deciding policy issues. In other words, the superintendent decides every individual employment hirings makes those decisions because he's the chief executive of the of the board. But still when it comes to hiring policy generally that isn't about hiring an individual position, the board has a role in that. And so the point is everybody's trying to figure out

171what that means. It's the same thing with the formation of the agenda. It's the same thing with consulting attorneys. There's all these areas where both the board and the superintendent, the president of the board and the superintendent have shared powers. So it really goes to your point about finding a balance and how that's done and we're going to have to work on that because you what you said is absolutely true. There's a lot of confusion about it and there has been for some time. The last thing I will note is that I view this board bylaw and the reason why I thought it should be one of the first ones that we should look at and I thought it would be pretty simple, but a lot of people have some strange ideas about the implications

172of it. But what I like about it is it squarely puts the ball in the superintendent's court so that we don't micromanage the superintendent and if we want to do something we have to revise the bylaws. the board has already given direction about the role of the um superintendent and this the legislature has in section 35035 the legislature said the superintendent is the chief executive officer the CEO but it doesn't say he's the CEO of the district it says he's the CEO of the board and that's because as our lawyer has advised us there's a holistic unity of purpose structure to the education code. And so people that are coming around talking about checks and balances and and separation of powers, they just don't get it. But our job, that's part of our job is

173to enact revisions here that clarify. I think this is the best way to stop micromanagement of the superintendent by the board. >> Dr. Melchesky, >> very quickly, um I have to disscent uh Mr. Hills. I'm not at all confused about the relative power of the board and the district and school boards have been organized um historically um to uh ensure that the board doesn't micromanage, doesn't um you know end up with a situation where there's an inability to make uh basic decisions or the prevalence of committees that cause endless work and delays. Um, having too much board control leads to factionalized politics and delays in routine decisions. And the concern, what people are saying in the audience isn't coming out of nowhere. And it wasn't, as Mrs. Morgan said, about option one or two. It

174is about the August meeting when your original revision said that the board should have I I don't have it in front of me, but um say over board and district governance. and we have a CEO of the district. I'm very excited. We have somebody who can manage the organization of the district and all of the day-to-day uh things. We have a revision in 9310 that takes us back to pretty much the original one. I don't know why we approached this at all to begin with. It makes no sense to me. But this is what we have. I would like to make a motion that we I don't know if I need a motion, but I would like to amend this to take out the ability of the board to get rid of the second reading.

175I would like to amend it to um be closer to the first uh draft um where we or the original policy um as I mentioned that ensure non-discriminatory access to district opportunities and resources for all students and staff. the district should shall provide for the consistent and fair treatment of students, parents, guardians, employees in the community. So, I recommend those two amendments. And I would also like to add that this one at a time going through bylaws that impact all the bylaws and potentially reflect a change in the power balance between the district and the board should not be happening one policy at a time. If you're going to change 9310 and you have an idea about that balance, I want to see how it goes through all the policies because I really want to

176understand what you're trying to do. I'm confused every time we come to the meetings and talk about bylaws. You have this big you, meaning the group has this idea of all these bylaw changes and the balance of power. It actually makes zero sense to me. I need to see all the policies edited together. Thank you, Mr. or Dr. Glass, for bringing us back to the original policy. I would like to amend it with those two changes and vote on it. >> Dr. Glass, >> thank you. Um, so just for a process check, you have a subsidiary motion again. Um, so um, if it would be helpful, Victoria could read back your motion so we have clarity on what, uh, is being discussed, then the proper procedure would be to see if there's a second to

177it. >> Can you I the first Can you read the changes to progress too? Opportunities and resources for all students and staff. The district shall provide for the consistent and fair treatment of students, parents, guardians, employees in the community. [Music] >> And the second part >> and yeah, she already got the second part. >> Okay. And the uh just for my clarity is the second part was around removing the >> removing that the board the second reading. Is that correct Dr. >> Males? Yeah. No. >> Yeah. The the motion is to keep the second reading. >> Is to remove that part. >> Take away the board's option to to disallow a second reading. >> Yeah. Wait a minute. That was your motion was regarding access. >> Would you like >> your motion was regarding >>

178my I said that we had a discussion. These were two amendments that were discussed. I made a motion to incorporate both of those amendments into this. We can vote on that and then vote on the whole bylaw. >> Have we got the language for the other motion? >> Yes. >> I second that. >> Oh >> yes. I can read both of or >> go ahead. um policies shall advance equity and ensure non-discriminatory access to district opportunities and resources for all students and staff. The district shall provide for the consistent and fair treatment of students, parents, guardians, employers in the community. And then under number five, um scratch the line that says the board may wave the second reading. Um the you could say instead the board may require additional readings when appropriate. Yes. >> Okay.

179>> We have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> We should discuss. >> Okay. More discussion. >> Okay. >> Sorry. But it says at its second reading, the board may take action on the proposed policy. The board may wave the second reading or require additional readings. So if we say that we must have a second reading then are we taking away the possibility that we can have um three readings if we need to because it says require additional >> readings may require additional reading >> just taking the second reading we can't wait second reading >> we have to have a second reading >> okay >> so you're striking the l >> wave the second reading and or require and you just saying may require additional >> yes Um, I believe Logan >> Dr.

180Kelly, >> sorry, Dr. Kelly. Hey, Dr. Hill. I mean, Mr. Hills. >> Yeah, I have a jurist doctorate. You can call me Dr. Hills if you want to. Um, so uh I think that this is really a good discussion, a good process. I think that um I will note that what the what the it's really ironic because what the what the old board and the old uh districts uh them being one in the same position was is what's in the in the existing bylaw. It says the board may wave the second reading or require additional readings when appropriate to ensure adequate review and public input. So what this says is that the board has the option of waving the second reading uh if it if it chooses to or it can require additional readings. It

181says a first reading shall be held at a regularly scheduled public board meeting with the proposed policy posted publicly in advance and between readings. At its second reading, the board may take action on the proposed policy. The board may wave second reading or require additional readings. So if you want to take out the option, it's really ironic because the old board used to wave second reading a lot and I used to come in and say you shouldn't be waving that second reading. So I can accept >> when I was on the board we read all the policies through we edited them. We came back for a second reading and then we came back for a third reading holistically. That's fine so you could understand it. But it doesn't matter. >> That's fine because I went

182to I went to meetings for 20 years where they waved secondary. >> Okay. But it doesn't matter complain. If it matters enough for you to talk about it, it matters enough for me to respond. But the last point I wanted to make is this >> for people in the audience to understand something. >> When you first of all, >> member Macheski said that we have a CEO of the district. That's not what section says. It says the superintendent is the superintendent of the board. That's because the board and the district have to be treated holistically. And let me tell you why. If you look at determination of what's on the agenda, if you look at consultation with board counsel, if you look at um communications, if you look at a whole range of powers that

183are discussed, if you make a decision between the superintendent and the board president as having the primary power and you decide that it's the superintendent, then that means the decision about what's on the agenda. uh what isn't what is communicated and what the lawyers are asked all goes to the superintendent who is not elected by the public. He's appointed by the board. And so the way this legislature has dealt with that is it's created a shared power system where both the board and the president have to to use one of member Malesky's favorite words collaborate. We have a collaborative model of shared power and a bunch of people are in here thinking that we have separation of powers and checks and balances and we don't. What we have is a system that requires collaboration. So

184after me hearing people talk about collaboration for a long time, this is about collaboration. >> Excuse me, Mr. Hills. You're making a lot of really good points, but I think those >> can be made at our policy workshop. I think we need to move on with this right now. Sorry. And I know the students have something else to >> um Mr. Hills, I just want to clarify something really quickly. In 35035, it does outline the specific duties of the superintendent, but you're right, it does not say that uh the superintendent is the CEO of the district, but in 35020, it does explicitly state each district must have a superintendent as the chief executive officer of the district. >> So, I just wanted I just wanted to clarify. >> It's a good point. And I will

185just add that what 35035 says is that any power that's given to the superintendent can be delegated by the board to another employee of the district. And so it is a balancing act. It's not a one or the other uh act. >> And >> yes, that's that's true as well. I just I just wanted to ensure that there was clarity on that for both the students and the the community. >> Yeah, just further elaborating on that. So um just so everyone is aware of the separation of power that is evident it is um legally evident. Um so the governing board has according to 35160 uh 35160.1 and 35161. Uh their powers include policym budget adoption hiring firing the superintendent and general oversight. The superintendent, according to 35035 and 35161, um has power over executive management,

186policy implementation, and staff administration. And I think that that is something that we need to highlight. And the general public should know what powers who has. And I think when lines start getting blurry and we start claiming that we have holistic power, I think that's a dangerous thing because it risks overstepping and micromanagement. Thank you, Ivy. Let's um We've been called now. We're going to vote. Um >> yes, we're voting on >> the amendment. So, >> we're we're voting on A and then we're voting on the additions that board member Malchesky made. Student vote. Uh, Ivan and I are going to be voting no >> to the amendments that I proposed. >> Oh, sorry. So, I I voting yes. >> We're voting yes. Thank you. >> No, no, no, no. I agree. Sorry. Sorry. >>

187Miscommunication on on IBS fart. >> Okay. >> All in favor? I >> I I I must say there's so much conversation now. I'm kind of a little confused which to this point this is why we need a governance workshop. We've asked for bylaw policy revision workshops for 10 months and we haven't had them. We have to have them. We had one governance meeting and that was it. So that's why some of these are coming forward on an individual basis. >> Thank you. So did you vote yes? And clerk hills, I didn't hear you. >> What's that? >> Did you vote yes? >> This is on Jones amendment. Yeah, I voted yes. I don't agree with it, but I'm voting yes on it. >> Okay. Okay. So, this passes 5. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now,

188now Okay. Now, we are voting on the amendment that um board member Malesy added. Um >> with that amendment, >> right? Okay. Student board member. >> Yes. >> Um >> we're we're voting on the two things that um board member Malchesky amended this with. >> Yeah, I think we're both going to be voting yes. Sorry, >> it is getting confusing. Thank you. >> It is getting confusing. I agree. >> Thank you. Um, all in favor? >> I >> Okay, now it passes 5-0. Thank you. Moving on to we're skipping a couple and we're moving on to uh approval to advertise notice calling for bids for the Lagona Beach High School pool modernization project and thank you for waiting >> and madam chair. Yeah, if I could be recognized just for a moment on and I'm

189excited about this conversation about the pool coming up, but I also want to say that um I know that was difficult, but I want to commend the board. You all worked really hard to allow the person who had been recognized to speak. You worked through some detailed uh motions and submotion process and and your process is getting better. I know it's still halting and and tough, but uh there's progress here. So, I just want to acknowledge that. >> Thank you for positive feedback. Thank you. >> Okay. Now, now we're ready. Um, >> like to recognize Mr. Zeta. >> Thank you, >> Superintendent Dr. Glass, President Perry, Clerk Hills, members of the board, and student board reps. Thank you for the opportunity this evening to present to you information related to Lagouna Beach High School modernization

190project. Here with me from the construction management firm is CW Driver project executive Dave Almanson. And also here with me from the architect firm of Bruno Clark is principal architect and president Roger Clark. To begin I would like to bring up Roger Clark who is going to provide an overview of the project design by taking us through a 3D model. He's also going to give us a brief update on the plan check and approval of the building plans at the state. >> Thank you. Okay, Mr. Clark. >> Thank you, Ryan. Um, thank you, Superintendent Glass, and members of the board. Uh, if we can go ahead and and go through the fly through, if we can bring that up. >> Yeah, let's go ahead and do that. What we're going to see is a 3D

191fly through of the project as it now stands. Uh I'll make a couple comments and then at the end offer some things that we've done as a part of the ongoing uh meetings that we've had. And so as you're coming up Park Avenue, uh the overview of the 45 meter by 25 yard pool, uh the scoreboard at the end, some of the things that we've added with the sound wall, uh and solar panels, uh that you're seeing in the design now. And so we're just kind of going around. You see the building there on the left with the locker rooms, restrooms, the separate restrooms uh for the public uh that we made a part of it. This is coming in from the street. Uh tennis courts are on the right. And you see the sound

192wall that was added as a part of the uh squa documentation and that that went on. Um and you kind of see the view of this uh from nighttime trying to keep lighting levels you know to a low level. Um, we've also done a couple things in terms of working with uh various committees uh providing for flexibility in some of the spaces. And so I think there's a handout uh for that to talk about uh creating area where we can sell concessions and those things that were brought up during some of the discussion sessions that we had. And so we have an area in there where we have a sink and we've put in facilities where they can sell things out of. And I hopefully that um it's actually right in the the middle of

193that building uh right at the uh where we before we had a a coach's office in there and we've converted that into a flexible space um uh for being able to sell concessions and provide additional storage. And so there's a sink in that in that space. Uh and that doesn't detract away from the rest of it. the water polo team and that didn't think that they really needed that space and so uh we were able to convert that. Um and then the other uh comment that we just kind of made and I think Ryan is going to speak to this uh about putting in u I guess it's really just to make the first lane shallower. Uh there was concern with creating an area for the younger children. Uh and so being able to move

194that in and out of the pool during heavier use times like the summer sessions uh possibly when students are not using the pool. Uh and so is there any questions that I can answer regarding the design? I know you've seen this before. Uh we haven't made significant changes other than what I've noted here. >> This looks really beautiful. Thank you. >> Thank you for making the sound barriers um a corridor that that is safe. I really appreciate those those changes to what was in SQA. >> Thank you. >> That's really just an example to show you how that uh window operates uh through that space. being able to open that up to where you can hand out uh whether it's concessions or whatever from that room. >> That's not the room that's in the building

195itself. It's really just an example of the window. >> Where? Okay. So, I'm sorry, I'm confused. Where? And maybe it's just because it's getting late. Where is this? >> Okay. It's right between the two locker rooms. So, it's I don't have a a plan here tonight. Well, I have the boys restroom and the girls restroom. The girls locker room is on one side and the boys is on the other, but it's between but between the locker rooms is the bathrooms, >> right? It's between those two locker rooms and bathrooms. So, the locker rooms and bathrooms are together. Boys on one side, girls on the other, and this room sits in between those. >> Do I have a different plan or can you show it? >> But where is it on here? Can Where is it?

196Can you I'm sorry. Can you just show me where it is on here? Because I see the I see this the the um So, you're saying it's between these two. >> Oh, it's over on the side. >> Okay. So, what's this space here? >> That's just the deck. That's just on the >> So, they're coming in this way. So, it's right here. And so, the office is here and there's another. So now rather than make this another office, you converted that and made that the flexible space. >> Thank you. >> I I have a question for clarification. This this is about giving permission to get bids. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> So okay. So >> I just we just wanted to bring back a you know just a broad overview of you know design

197updates and what we've done since then and kind of responding back to some of the comments and concerns that the committee has had over the time that we've gone through the design process. The other thing I would like to mention uh we've been in the finished the construction documents submitted those to the division of the state architect uh we have the comments back from them and we're making those corrections now. We plan to resubmit back to them at the end of September and we hope to have final approval from them by the second or third week of October. >> What comments did they have back that would need to be corrected? >> Well, they make typical comments on structural details. They'll make comments on u dimensions and things for ADA accessibility. And so a lot

198of it is just clarifications that we have to put onto the plans where they want something a little bit differently than way we've shown it. >> What was the original timeline to be completed with DSSEA and um >> we're right on that schedule of what we were anticipating. >> So we had in the schedule to have um comments back from DSSEA and then have to redo those redo those changes and then resubmit it. >> Yes. And so is there are we being moved to the top of the line like a because it's a resubmission or are we back in the queue? >> No, that's a typical process that you go through on every project for for schools. Uh DSA makes initial comments, what they call version one >> comments. They bring that back to the

199design team. The design team makes a response. We resubmit that uh to them. And then hopefully you've caught everything. you might have to go through some minor things with a version three. Um but typically that's a very quick turnaround. >> Okay. Thank if we have um if we are submitting this package for bid if we approve it tonight and DSSEA has come back with notes that need to be amended on the plans. Where does that fit in the construction bid? Are they going to take accommodations and and assume that in their bid when they're going to bring that in? Or is because there's going to be possible changes to >> certain things and and hallways and corridors. Can um are we going to get charged for change orders u because we're already in the construction

200document phase. >> The bid will include uh the approved DSA approved plans before any bids are received. So, it's the slight possibility that we if we had to extend a bid timeline that can be accommodated, but I think Dave is going to go over that timeline in detail with you. >> Great. So, thank you very much. So, we're ready for the second part of the presentation. >> Can we see the fly over one more time because that was really cool, but it was fast. Do we have ability to do that? >> I really I know. I want to see it one more time. >> Okay. No, I think I I I I think we need to just move. >> Will that be online? >> All right. Thank you, Roger. >> Um, I want to review

201the organizational framework for the services needed to construct a public TK through 12 capital project. Capital projects are governed by the public contract code and also the education code. Um district staff facilitates and manages the project as owner's representatives and deliver on the vision of the board. Contractors are responsible for tangible building of the project which is done by skilled labor governed by state labor regulations. The contracting process by the district follows a competitive bid pro process where the contract is awarded by the board to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. These costs are identified as hard cost in building project estimates and budgets. Consultants provide design management and support services for the project but do not perform any physical work on the building of the facility. Consultants are retained through a qualificationbased selection process

202where district staff processes a request for request for proposal an RP and proposals are brought to the board for approval to procure services. Examples of consultants would be architects, construction managers, building inspectors, testing labs. Consultant costs are considered to be a soft cost for budgeting purposes. And this will all connect back in later as we progress through the presentation. Just want to lay down some framework. The initial step of the public works construction bid process is to put the project out to bid by publishing a notice calling for bids in a paper of general general circulation. In our case, the Orange County Register. The construction manager facilitates and manages the public works construction bid and award process while district staff processes RFPs and collects proposals for the needed consulting services. Once all the contractor bids

203and proposals are received, they are brought to the board for approval. This allows the board to see all the contracts and their associated costs at the same time to give a complete picture of the construction phase. Okay. Okay. The public bid process as it pertains to the public bid and award the process the ex execution is prescriptive in nature and it provides for transparency competition and eliminates competitive advantages. The first step in the process is to advertise the bid. Following the bid advertisement interested biders pre-qualify to bid on the project by submitting a questionnaire and financial documents. A pre-qualified contractor list is published that at the conclusion of the pre-qualification period, the intent is to be inclusive and not exclusive. The term used for this is coverage and the goal is to get as much

204coverage as possible to ensure the best price in the local market is received. Bid documents are made available in a public plan room for all to access. They include documents such as plans, specification, bid and bond forms, etc. This ensures that all interested biders have the same information and received at the same time to encourage fair bidding practices. Interested bidders have opportunity to submit pre-bid questions which are answered by the architect and posted to the public plan room to ensure all biders have access to the same information. Biders submit their bids in sealed envelopes and a public bid opening is held immediately after the bid deadline. Bids are read out loud and a bid summary is immediately posted to the public plan room. All bids received are taken to the board and the lowest responsive

205and responsible biders are recommended by staff for acceptance and approval of the contract delivery method and options. As a district, there are options available per the public contract code to contract the construction to build a capital school facility. There are positive and negatives with each delivery method and it comes down to a best fit and risk tolerance. Below are some commonly used delivery methods in public school construction. The delivery method is identified early on in in the planning and design phase so that all work done on a project by the design team and construction manager is coordinated to deliver the project via the selected delivery method. The administration and board at the time the design services were procured to design the Laguna Beach High School pool modernization selected the construction manager multipime CM multi-prime delivery

206method for the pool project. The construction manager multi-prime method follows the same process used to hire a single general contractor but divides the work up into multiple contracts to ensure that all contractors working on the project are highly qualified and have the financial stability to complete their part of the work successfully. And with that, I'm going to bring up Dave Almanson from Seed Driver to walk us through the construction phase of the project and expand on the specifics of the CM multi-prime bid award process. >> Thank you, Ryan. U thank you board members for having me tonight. Uh introduce myself to few of you that have not met. My name is David Ammonson, the uh project executive for CW Driver. We've been hired as the construction manager to manage this project. Um, little about me,

207I've been doing this for 30 years, working in the construction business, 22 years at CW Driver. Um, in the last five years, I built six projects similar to this where athletic facilities or commercial pools. Um, all of that 30 years of my building experience has all been in Southern California market, mostly all in the education market. So, I've been doing this for for a long time. just to kind of give you a little history myself. Um, absent of the district kind of going to my presentation, um, absent of the district uh, hiring more staff to manage a job, all the delivery methods that Ryan just pointed out, you you probably need to have a construction manager. So, from us as a as a company, we're indifferent to which delivery method you use because we do

208them all. Um, you know, so we just responded to a public bid advertisement and a request for proposal that previous board members had selected. Um, and so we've been hired to do that. So what I'm here tonight really to do is just to kind of give you really some insight on how we approach the multiprong method. Um, and you know, and really how the services that we provide. Um, you know, like Ryan mentioned, the public contract code, uh, allows you to select a CM based on qualifications, not just on lowest price. Um, you know, that gets you your construction manager fully engaged throughout the entire process of the design phase, the bidding phase, uh, and the construction phase. So basic concepts is um we provide full-time professional uh uh site staff on site that includes

209project managers, superintendents and support staff. Um we manage the work like we're a general contractor. Uh you know the the trades see us that way. We act that way. It doesn't matter the delivery method. I'll give you an example. My superintendent, he's coming from a design build job for a Cal State system that's coming to this project. J, his name is JD Barbara. And so his his approach isn't different whether it's a CM multi-prime delivery method or whether you're a general contractor. He's providing a service to to act as the owner's representative. Um so really the way I see it is we're a building expert working on behalf of the district and looking out for the district's best interest. Um, so really if you break it down, the district's writing 20 $1 million contracts instead

210of one $20 million contract, but we still manage that entire process for the district on your behalf. So if you look at like an org chart, you know, just like the district hires an architect and hires a construction manager, um, you're also hiring the trade contractors. Uh, but we manage the entire process. Um, you know, just like as as the district representative. Um, so there's some advantages to uh uh doing the the pre doing a multi-prime method. Um, you know, the district, like I said me before, you're hiring a construction manager on your behalf based on qualifications. Uh, you know, there's I'll give you some more stats in a second at at the end about the company. Um, but we now are partnering with the district. We're partnering with the architect. We're partnering partnering with

211the design team uh in the best interest of the of the district. Um we provide input on constructibility. We provide input on this is all during the pre-construction phase. Things that we've already done actually um provide input on estimate, develop schedules, uh and and develop uh uh bidding procedures, which is what we're here for today is ask for approval to proceed with those bidding procedures that we've developed. Um I'll give you an example of some of the things that we do. Uh some of the advantages of being in having us involved in pre-construction on this specific job. You saw some of the fly through. It's a very tight site and when we received the the geotech report, the soils report, it said, you know, we need to excavate down below 13 feet, which is at

212the existing pool depth elevation all the way across and create a flat datam base. Well, that if you looked at the site and you understand the site, it's surrounded by three retaining walls on the uh existing residence and and the the tennis courts. And so if we would have dug down that 13 foot, we would have had undermined the existing retaining walls and be cut into the zone of influence of those of those retaining wall foundations. And so what the re the way to solve that problem would be to put shoring all the way around. And that would have been over a million dollars worth of shoring and taken a month to install. And so we've come up with a solution as a team to only have to dig down below 2 feet below the

213ex the new pool depth. And we put cement stabilization in. And that now solves the problem. we don't have that issue. So, we work together as a team. So, there I'm just giving you an an example of the value of having bringing in a construction manager early on in the phase of the job. Um, this also gives us, and I only bring this up because I'll talk about it in our schedule in a second. It also gives us the ability to look ahead and see some of the long material items, procurement items. Uh, two things that we've identified already on this project is elevators are about a year time to get. uh um fabricated uh and and also electrical switch gears takes about a year to get. So I'll talk about that in a second

214when we look at schedule, but it gives us an opportunity to kind of look ahead and pre-plan the job. So going into construction, uh you you have the continuity of the same team, the same construction manager and design team working with the district into construction phase. Um, so you get as a district, you get a a professional builder that's on site, uh, working on your behalf to manage the site. The same team that's been working through pre-construction all the way through. Um, so the district doesn't need to hire additional staff to manage the job. The way we look at it is we do it all really. You would just need to you need to write 20 checks instead of one check every month to pay the contractors, but we manage the entire process. Um, you

215like Ryan said, there's still competitive bidding. We're still going out and that's what we're asking for today is to to move forward with that process of of getting the trade contractors on board which is the majority of the cost of a of a construction project is actually the trade contractors. Um and so I think uh uh uh you one one of somebody had mentioned that asked about change orders and I think that's part of the whole process here is we develop very detailed scopes of work put that out so it's very clear to the trade contractors when they're bidding what we're expecting from them so there's not overlaps in scope there's not scope gaps and scope gaps lead to change orders and so we we really take the time to very put very detailed scopes

216of work out there to bid and that's what we're putting out now. Um is those detailed scopes to asking for for bid. Um and I think probably maybe even more importantly to you is if there are changes that come along, we don't charge for those changes. You know, we have a we have a flat fee for a timebased contract or we're here for the the 12 months of construction and and and things that come up during that. There's not an additional fee from us. Um, so just a list, I don't want to go through this whole list, but this is a list of all the services that are are being done during pre-construction and construction. And really, I think the point is it's really a full service, right? You're you're there's no additional work for

217the district. We manage the entire process. I there's a couple things to point out on, you know, on the construction side. Full-time staff on site, we manage the schedule. We manage safety. We manage all the buildings. we and and probably more importantly dis and and is manning dispute resolution when any disputes come up. That's our job is to to resolve all those disputes before they actually become real issues. Um so kind of talking about why we're here today kind of getting into the specific job more or less on the global viewpoint of what we do is we've broken the job into 20 bid packages. Um, and what that really is is asking to bid out to 20 separate se separate trades right now. Um, and I'll go through that in a second with the timeline,

218but we're really just putting it out for pre-qualification once we get the um DSA approved set of drawings, which is supposed to happen here in October. Towards the end of October, we'll actually put it out to bid uh for uh and maybe I should go to that slide. There we go. Maybe that make a little more sense. So this is this is kind of a high level uh schedule for for purposes but today we're sitting here asking for the board approval to move forward. Um as you'll see in uh that puts out to pre-qualification now we get pre-qualifications and then actually put it out to bid in October when we get the DSA proof set of drawings and then we will collect bids in December and come back here to you in January and ask

219to move forward with those contracts. Um, and then the start of construction is planned for summer of uh 26. And there's there's some reasons for why are we coming to board in January, but we're not going to start construction till June. Some of those reasons are um what I had talked about earlier about procurement. We've acknowledged that we have some procurement issues of getting materials. So, if we wait until, you know, let's say we wait till May, we won't have materials in time. And part of the what we're trying to accomplish as we heard very loud and clear from the user group and from the athletics, you can't shut down the pool for more than one season. So in order to limit some of the disruption to the community, the thought was twofold is if

220we start in in summertime, we can get a lot of the demolition work and some of that hard that hard work done during the summer months. Um because that's probably the most amount of traffic you would have from trucks coming in out of the site. Uh um and then that gets us back active in the next season for in summer of 27. And that also allows us to start procuring materials in January. So they're on site and we can install the elevator, install the electrical switch gear early in 27. So the building will be operational by summer of 27. So I just kind of want to leave it with, you know, I mentioned a little bit about the company, right? So, um, this is what we do as as a CW driver, what we do

221for a living. We're number two education builder in, um, in California. We've done almost $1.5 billion worth of CMultime work. Uh, lot of that's for over 30 different districts. Um, we only work in Southern California, so we're a local company. Um, and so over 50 pool and athletic projects. So, this is this is what we do. So, you know, from from a management perspective is you're hiring an well, you already have hired, you cut an expert that's here working on your side. And so, I really wanted to really make that point is our role is to look out for the best interest of the district. We're here as your consultant, um, as the professional builder to make sure that things are done in the best interest of the district. Um, I want to leave you

222as the executive of CW Driver as our promise to to the district is you have active leadership. I've been involved in the pre-construction. I met a few of you in some of the meetings. Um, and I will be continue to stay actively involved in the project throughout construction and beyond. Um, I bring a team of professionals that are dedicated to building education projects and and and doing uh athletic facilities. Um, and I truly believe that this is a business of what have you done for me lately? And and what I mean by that is every day I have to earn your trust. And earning your trust is by being accountable to doing the things that we say we're going to do. Um, so you know, 70% of our work is repeat clients, and that only

223happens by doing what we say we're going to do. So, um, our purpose as a company is building better communities and lives together. So, really, I want to leave you with we're here to help Lagona Beach build a better community. So, um, with that asking you guys to, uh, approve moving forward with this project and I would like to turn it over to back to Ryan to kind of talk about what are the next steps. Oh, could we ask a few questions or we want >> I think u madam chair if uh you could let them finish the presentation they'll also cover the financial elements of this that were of concern but this team will be available um uh to answer all the questions you want or if you wish you may break up the

224presentation however you want. >> So are we going into the financial part right now? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um but we can go back to some of the other things. Okay. All right. Yeah, we have a few more slides. We'll wrap the presentation up. So, um the construction budget, um the budget for the construction phase of the project is estimated at approximately $25.15 million. This amount is comprised of both hard and soft cost, and that's what we're showing up here on this slide. At the top, there is the construction hard cost, and underneath that are the construction soft cost. Um based on the most recent CW driver estimate, the hard costs are estimated to be approximately 22.25 million. This is the anticipated total of the bids that are called for in the public advertisement. Construction

225soft costs are estimated to be approximately $2.9 million and are made up from various deliverables including plan check and permitting fees, utility company fees, construction management services, building inspection, furniture, fixture, and equipment and so on. um uh the the furniture, fixure and equipment, the FFNE um that budget will cover things like lifeguard chairs, lane lines, pool covers and swim platforms. Um typically FFN is sourced and procured after a project is in the construction phase so that products are purchased and delivered at the end of the construction phase to be placed in use for occupancy to begin. We understand that swim platforms are prior priority and we will work with our partners at the city to source a platform system that provides similar functionality to the existing shallow pool that can be installed and removed seasonally

226to meet community needs. We have received some preliminary information back from vendors and should have additional information in the near future. Um, let's now take a look at funding and see how the district may fund the project. Given that the construction phase budget is estimated at approximately $25 million, funding sources available to fund the project. Oh, >> oh, yeah, sorry. The the it is small, but I really we just wanted to get the detail out there, hoping that um you can still find a way to to read that. somehow some way. So the uh through a combination of one-time set aides in the general fund approximately 15.6 million dollars onetime funds could be utilized. This includes uh $10 million specifically set aside for the pool project and an additional one-time and rollover funds that can

227be contributed to fully fund the project. That's the the first two first couple line items on that. budget slide. The um the other nine and a half million dollars could be paid from the facility fund accounts, fund 40, 41, and 42. Fund 40 is the repair replacement program that the board traditionally funds $900,000 per year. Fund 42 is the capital improvement plan account, which the board typically funds $1.2 million per year. The other account is fund 41, the ELISO property fund, which has funds set aside that do not have a usable purpose at this point in time. It is also important to note that the project is eligible for state building program matching funds in the amount of approximately $6.7 million. The application will be submitted for the project by the architect immediately after state

228plan approval is obtained. Like prior projects that receive state building program funding, the district has to have the funds up front to construct the project and the funds are received from the state later when the project moves to the front of the list to be funded with state bond sales. For context, the last project we received state funding was a thirst and field modernization project and those funds were received in 2024, two years after the project was completed. The funds are used to replenish accounts at the discretion of the board. So you could theoretically replenish any of these accounts with state matching funds once received. >> Ryan. >> Yeah. If I might interject, board, I know that the uh questions around how this is funded and what happens to your uh what is your reserve

229position is a significant question given your fiduciary responsibility. So what we uh are trying to show you here is you have uh roughly $56 million in cash in various accounts that is available to this project. Um Ryan has shown you the uh funds that that's being drawn out of. We have Rey here who's also um available to talk in more detail if you want to get into any of those funds. But the bottom line is you've got $56 million in cash available after you expended on this pool. You'll have about 31 a.5 million available. That's still a healthy reserve position for the district. It's less uh than 56 million admittedly, but it's still for this size of district. That's that is a healthy reserve. I'm not concerned about that. I we will get more cautious

230going forward uh about what we expend things on because your reserve is smaller. So we have to be more thoughtful about what projects we we undertake from uh from that point forward. And then also just to underscore something else Ryan talked about, there is the possibility of $6.7 million of that coming back in. That'll be a few years in the future though. So, you have to complete the project, you get on the list, you work your way through it, but and it is possible that we could refill part of this with $6.7 million of state funds. So, I just wanted to underscore that because I know it's a it's a concern for all of you. >> Thank you, Dr. Glass. >> Okay. So, consideration for next steps. Some important information to note when considering the

231next steps is that the plans once approved by the state are good for three years. After that, they require to be redesigned per the current building code and reprocessed with the state for plan approval. Construction cost escalation in Orange County area for public school construction is about 3 to 5% annually. And there's some figures there about how that would relate back to this project. Per the recent pool maintenance audit report, the existing pool requires about $3.6 $6 million in work during the short term to continue to be health department compliant and remain operational and good repair. So there is a uh a current need at the with the current pool that if we do not move forward with this project that we would need to address in the short term with our city partners there.

232And with that concludes the presentation material we have and we'd be pleased to address any questions that you have for us. I'm pretty sure we all have some questions. Um, who would like to start? >> I'll start. I mean, um, so, um, Mr. Zeta, what what would be a reason that we wouldn't want to go through getting bids right now? Um staff's recommending to approve the advertisement to request public bids for the project. So at this point in time, we don't have any reservation to not move forward with a public advertisement to open up the bid and award. >> I Yeah, I understand it's difficult right now between um tariffs and lack of lack of skilled labor, but it seems like we need to know what the bids are and if we want to keep

233this project going. >> Yes, >> there you you can you can't play devil's advocate and tell me why we shouldn't have bids right now. >> Oh, Dr. Glass. >> Yeah. Um, as Ryan said, is it our recommendation to move forward with the bids? Uh, we've understood that the priority for the board is to complete this project on time and on budget. And in the memo that I put together for you all this week on this, I noted that one of the concerns here is that it's uh it's compressed uh and you're you're working on a tight timeline in a complex uh building site in a congested area. And so every delay stacks up and creates more problems. So our recommendation if the board wants to move this project forward is to move forward with bids.

234The only reason I can think of not doing that is if the board decides not to do the project, this is also the time to make that decision and stop us. >> Okay. Um, another question. So, the beginning of the project when you're when you're doing the demolition, is that and that's being moved. It was going to start in March, I think, and now it's being moved to summer. Is is that the messiest part of the project as far as traffic and >> Yes, like like Dave referred to in the presentation. I'll let him elaborate on that. Yeah. Yes, there is some very significant activities, dental grading, etc. Yeah, I think that there was a there was a couple reasons for the thought process is really three reasons mainly is we we wanted to have

235the least amount of impact to the community as possible and thought you want to do that do that during the summer months when there's less there's less especially less student traffic. Um and and two was because of material procurement trying to get you know that's why we need to do this now because we need to get material starting to be procured the first part of the year or we won't make the summer to summer time frame and then the other part was trying to ensure that we only were shut down for one year period and so that that the best thought was let's not let's start it in the summer and finish it in the summer. So, um, of course, you know, we have a lot of traffic during the summer, but the thought is

236it will not affect students as much because some of the really noisy things will happen during the summer. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, other board member questions. >> Um, thank you. Um, I know this has been a very long long haul. Um, I appreciate you bringing forward um a clearer idea of where we might be able to have um a snack bar or not even it's not even just a snack bar. It's a facility or a space that allows community use as well. I mean, we've have four schools, three of which have had end of the year parties. We've had birthday parties. We've had not from a community standpoint, not just a district standpoint. Um and I know the kids um throughout the year um there are numerous birthdays that are celebrated amongst

237the teams and everything after a practice or stuff like that. So having some kind of a not a kitchenet but certainly having something that replaces a snack bar that is there right now um is I know something that a lot of people have asked me about. Um so I appreciate you bringing that forward. I have some questions about um I have a couple different categories of questions. Um the platforms that you provided us. What is the um what are these to code as far as safety for the students in the sense that I look at the platforms um PF or with a handrail and bottom side protection and there's a lot of large gaps underneath and so I'm wondering how we ensure that our kids are safe if they're if the platform's in the water

238and um surrounding it as well as on top of it because with the slats and everything is there's a couple different >> That's a great question and something that's already come up with our design console and aquatic design group who's the pool designer. Um they're they're helping us work through the FFN purchases and u those are those exactly those safety concerns they brought up too and they're ensuring that these vendors that we're working with that whatever product we do purchase that it is code compliant for a pool. Um and um and this vendor right here does have options to close it off. there's some fine print on there and they talk about closing off the bottoms and sides and so absolutely we'll make sure it's code compliant, safe and doesn't put um any any risk

239for for use within the pool. But we wanted to show just a sample that's one vendor out there. There's multiple vendors, three or four we're looking at and um exploring and we hope we can find something um and we we feel pretty confident we will find something that can provide the same functionality. >> We're not hoping on the platforms they have that we need them. So, um, what, uh, where are they going to be stored, how long do they take to install, and how what size are we talking about? >> Um, well, as far as a size, we're looking at something that's comparable to the current shallow pool to provide the same sort of functionality. Um, as as far as where how they are installed and removed and stored, we really need to to figure

240out um, and finalize the sourcing of the products that we because all products could be different. They could go together differently in stack and store differently, but once we get the product finalized, we could make those final determinations, but facility staff would most likely be the responsible party for installing them and removing them. We've been doing the dive blocks last couple years, and we're fairly good at those kinds of things. So, we're um we're up for the installation, removal, and then if they can't be stored on site, we also have a warehouse in the canyon they could be taken to. um the conversations we've had, it's more of a seasonal um use of the platform just like the shallow pool is pretty much used seasonally. Seasonally right now um it's it starts um you know

241late spring and the summer um and so there would be an opportunity to install them um use them seasonally um and then remove them and then there's smaller platforms that can be used throughout the year too um is the conversations we've had with our partners of the city for ways they would possibly use the the new pool facility. So they're they're very optimistic they can make the new pool work with different types of FFN items like this to provide the same functionality as the current pool as far as early child you know swim lessons and >> if we had so the whole argument around the shallow area is that it's used in a way that's not measurable in the sense that there's no programs there's programs that might spec that use it I think splash

242ball somebody correct me used to be done in the shallow area. Um the introduction program um but then it's also used by families when the older kids are practicing or when they're at the pool with with doing water polo etc. Is this platform something that could be instage of the pool? Like I know some of the the outlines for polo water polo had a full floating course and then had two half courses on the and the remaining end closest to the street. I think that's the way it was laid out. I don't know if it was opposite. I think it was >> with the two that way. Are you thinking that one of those quadrants would be used for platforms? >> The the early >> or is it less like just a lane? Like one

243of the pictures here is a is a full lane. It's not a it's not a corner. It's not a >> um the the first question they are flexible. So there is flexibility with putting them in putting them out, how you build them, how you put them together. So they're not permanent. So they could stay in as long as programmatically there's a need to keep them in the pool based on the the joint use with um the district and the city. Um as far as location and whatnot, we're there there's been some preliminary discussions um that have surrounded putting them more in the shallow end of the pool. the the the pool as designed has the same shallow end as the existing pool. Um, and there is some different program uses in the shallow end such

244as water aerobics, water rock, water walking, and you theoretically could install them in the first two lanes um in the shallow end of the new pool. Um, they could be a similar size as the shallow waiting pool is now and it would still allow for water aerobics and those other types of programs to possibly coexist there. So there's there's a lot of options and a lot of flexibility. So we're excited to work through that and source a product that works for all the to balance the programmatical needs. >> Do we have a um is there going to be um a presentation on different options for use? I think I'm understanding to do water aerobics and things like that. You're saying use the platforms or don't use the platforms. Well, I think Water Aerobics uses the

245shallow end and they take up I'm going to say twothirds of the shallow lane. I only know this because my office is right above the pool, so I see it a lot. Um, but there would be there'd be room to have these platforms in the first the first two lanes. Um, where maybe it takes up one-third of the lane. Um, and then the other two/irds of the shallow lanes are still available and open for water aerobics or other types of activities there. So, I I think there's a lot of options with the platforms and we really think that's a good solution to provide a shallow swim area for some of our younger children in the community and that's supported by our our partners at the city. >> See those options like in or something? >>

246Trusty Morgan, just to jump in quickly, um if if there are um if the board wishes to have a presentation around these platforms, we're happy to facilitate that. I I actually had a point of order. I don't mean to interrupt and I think that this is all really useful information for the community as we plan for the pool, but should we be sticking to issues that have to do with whether we're going to go out for a bid and not have long detailed discussions about when water aerobics will happen or when we're going to take the platforms in or out? I I mean I it's not that I don't think that stuff's important. I just am wondering if we should just stick to the topics that have to do with the bid. >> So, the

247president makes that determination. >> I I think at this point we're looking at voting on going ahead with bidding and the the bids will come back to us. Um like they said, they will come back with more information about the pool platform forms. There will be another time that we can discuss these, but right now I think we should stick to voting about the bits. Okay. So, as a group, we're okay sending this out to bid without understanding the funding sources or asking more questions about the funding sources. >> It's asking questions is what I'm asking for. May I ask questions about the funding source? >> I think yes of course. >> Um, yes, of course you can. But can we let somebody else ask questions and then come back to you maybe if somebody

248else has questions? >> Does anybody else have questions? >> No. Okay, we're back to you. >> Thank you. Um, okay. So, the funding source. So, we're talking about this costing $25 million, which is 10 million from where we started originally, right? Um, it includes all the soft costs and hard costs. Is there um I know that some of the concerns that came back were um when the contracts were reviewed was the fact that we have such narrow windows of time and that there's no float for um issues in the project. Is that how and I think the recommendation was to have it and this is not a funding question, so sorry. um this was not um and how we deal with that and do we bring somebody else in? Is it CW driver? Um what

249we talked about getting reports and everything. When would those reports start to come through? Because um a weekly report or a monthly report updating us where the project is and what's happening and >> if you're talking about status reports, is that your question? So um we would so we do daily updates of the schedule right that's just as part of our management but we will do a formal update of the schedule every month so there's a formal update submission so you know exactly and we will also do an executive summary every month um if if that's something that goes to the board that that would be up to staff right I'll I'll issue it to staff and they do what they want with it but um the the summary report would be a status of

250what's happening on the job, what the what's hap coming up on the job, um photos of progress, uh um input on the schedule, some things that we see that are risks on the project that are coming up. >> So, so it's an executive summary report every month, right? So, >> and and on the top and and on top of that, there's also a detailed schedule update. to to answer your question about the schedule. Yeah, I do believe the schedule is tight schedule, but it was, you know, it we're also uh um hearing the user group, right, that says I can't shut my pool down. So, we're trying we're figuring out a way to make that happen. >> Trusty Morgan, um through the board's regular agenda setting process, you can add um ask us to bring

251back regular reports on the status of the pool. So, that's something that we'd be happy to do. I I think given the concerns with the float and the fact that there could be there's there's a concern with being able to stay on schedule. I mean that was identified in the research that you did and sending it out for a third um third party evaluation that um delays in the project is a high concern. We're high risk and so I want to make sure that I mean it's our fidiciary responsibility to make sure this project is done on time and under budget. And I'm the concern going to the fidiciary. I'm a little concerned that we have a number out there of 25 million. That's the estimate, but we don't have actual quotes yet. So I

252know that this is what you do every single day. So I'm not necessarily challenging that, but I'm also a little concerned that we're going to get a bid to the to the budget that's been projected and not and it we won't know if there's if it could have been done for a little less or if it's, you know, if there was any cost-saving measures in there that we could have done. I don't know. Um, but with regard to the cost, so if we're if this is 25 million, is the 25 million due upfront? Is that what I heard you say that we have to pay that initi all up front or can we is it done in phases? Is it done in payments? Is it done, you know, halfway through and then the balance is

253due when it's done? >> Yeah, it's it's um we have to have the fund in place to contract the project. That's what the the requirement is. Um, so the funding has to be there and then the expenditure of the funding happens throughout the construction schedule over the 12 months. You would get invoicing every month from the contractors and it kind of looks like a belt curve and we cash flow that out in the business office. Um, and we have a lot of proxies from past projects. So um, you'll basically see that 25 million get expended over a 12-month period. And then do we have so if we spend this 25 million and you're saying our new reserve is 31 million. What's the how what's our wiggle room in there if we have unexpected things come

254our way? If we have um I mean we've got you know settlements that we sometimes have to pay with um students that have um that need education outside of the district. We've got you know a variety of things that come up in close session. So, what does that do and where does that leave us? And at what point do we not have any money to do anything else? Like we just toured Thirstston or we're at Thirstston and you know the the gym that now hosts sports that we've had for are new. We haven't had sports forever. So, the gym was usable, but now we have a gym that hosts a lot of sports, but we have no seating for it. And on the facilities master plan, it has a it has an it one of

255the items is to expand the gym. Um, you know, we've got a huge fabulous maker space at the high school and I see that we have um when I did the back to school night last week that we have a great introductory program here now at Thirstston with a computer room and they've got a big huge printer, but he had it was very congested. So, I'm just curious as to if we do this project today and we commit to getting it a bid is one thing, but then we still have to be able to address how we're going to pay for it. What happens when we pay for this pool? When can we do the rest of our facilities? And you know, and I mean, I think the gym came up at the high school.

256I don't know what the condition of the gym is, but I think all told, our district facilities are in great shape and you've done a great job keeping them that way, but do we have that funding because you're bringing all these offers? >> So, what happens if something breaks that's major? What happens then? >> Let me answer that. Um, by uh committing us to bid, you are um taking that that step toward committing this $25 million toward this project. Um, it's going to take you down to 31. Um, I will not recommend major projects or spending this reserve down further. Um, it's I'm comfortable with it and I think you're going to have a new CBO that's going to come in and he can tell you his comfort level with it based on my professional

257experience. You still have a healthy reserve, but I would not recommended recommend because of the size of the district and your overall budget. Uh, we are done with major projects for a while. Uh, now I don't know how long that will take. Um um but it for the next couple of years the major projects that you talked about we I I would not recommend bringing forward unless there is some kind of other source of funds uh for example uh a bond question is something that I will talk about with the board considering that could be something that would supplement it or if and if you don't have the bond funds you would be looking at um scheduling out the other projects in your facilities master plan as funds become available. So that's that's what your

258reserve looks like. Your other question around overages. I there there is a contingency that's built into all of this. So they these uh professionals count on some things coming in over and some things come in over. This is an estimation process, but it's not going to be exact. And I've been through enough construction projects and other roles that I won't tell you here today that it won't be over because I don't know that. It can be it can be under, it can be over. um you're going to have a professional management firm that's going to watch this thing and and work every day to make sure that it's done on time and on budget. Uh and if something gets off track, you're going to get a regular report on what's happening. But it could be

259that we have to come back to this board and ask for additional resources to complete the project. That could happen. So I I won't guarantee you tonight that that won't happen. It could also be that we can bring this thing under budget. Um we just don't know yet. uh what you're what what what you what you've got is a good faith estimate based on the experience that these um professionals that we've hired um have brought forth on what they think the project is going to cost that includes a contingency to account for some variations. >> So what immediate projects then would not be able to be done that are that are pressing that have been displaced because of the pool? So Ryan, I think um if I may, um Trusty Morgan is asking sort of

260what else is on the facilities master plan list that that would be delayed. So we in the uh spreadsheet that you have here, you've got the capital improvement plan, uh some of the um maintenance funds that are being in there. What what is going to be delayed or held off on because of this allocation? I don't think there's any immediate project that would be delayed, but it would just it would just defer the next project down the line to be out until the funds are available in the account. So, that would be under the board's discretion on what the next project would be. Um, >> but no projects for two years because we wouldn't have any money. So, nothing like the gym won't be done. So, we're now talking like four years gym and stuff.

261>> I'm sorry to interrupt, but this might be helpful. It might be worth reminding um the the board about the amount of money that we stick into the capital outlays account every single year. So, we're constantly replenishing it. >> Right. So, >> we are are we? We're not replenishing it. >> Traditionally, every year out of the the general fund, it's carved out. $1.2 million is deposited into the the CIP fund 142, the capital improvement plan fund. >> And what we traditionally do, at least we've done it since I've been here, is we we save our money in that account. And when we get enough money to do a project that the board wants to do, we go and do that. That's how we paid for building 100 at the high school, the the storage building

262there. Yep. >> And then we paid for class the classroom building here at Thirstston. Classroom the D1 and D2. >> Um we did the field modernization and then but all those projects have been spaced out a couple years if you look at them. And so it's it's that's just been the nature of self-unding small projects at a small district. And just to build build on that, the the answer to how you get to those other projects is the same way the district got to have $56 million. So you build it up over time and then when you have the cash available, you can start working through the projects that are next on your list. >> Right. And I understand that. I'm just wondering what projects that others might see as a priority aren't going to

263get done because there's because other projects won't get done. >> There will be some. Yeah. This is a major investment of district funds for this project and it necessarily means that you're not going to do some other things. It's a choice. >> Clerks, >> thank you very much. >> Joe Biden moment to know um at some point wasn't there an infusion of $10 million a couple of years ago or a transfer of $10 million? When did that occur? >> Um, it is in the general fund. It's been set aside. It's been, I think, rolled over each year, just held in the general fund. It's it is it's up here on this slide, too. It's the first item on this slide. It shows $10 million. >> So, that's that was what also went into the 56.

264Yeah. Okay. >> Just trying to keep track in my head of where the all the what's getting drained into this. >> Yeah, we can bring back up that um slide. We we sort of zoomed it zoomed it up before. >> It's okay. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't thinking of something else. >> You have you have uh the funds available in some general fund accounts, some other uh specifically designated accounts. You have the funds available in cash. They're just spread into different funds. We'd be pulling all those together in order to get to the dollar amount that you need to execute the project. >> Any further questions? Okay, I think we need to move on then to public comments. >> Yes. >> Um, >> thank you. I know that was a lot of

265information. Thank you. I know I have a lot of questions, but I am trying to make sure we have a responsibility. I was told they go off at 10. >> Okay. >> First speaker is Steve Macintosh. Second, N Morris. Third, Kimberly Smith. Smith for four hours. >> What's that? >> We need to have the students go first. >> Yeah, I thought the students identified themselves on the cards. >> Oh, here. Okay. Yeah, I see now. Mason Gruba. And >> thank you for um and um Somaya Sadal. All right. Um, good evening board members and beach community. Um, thanks for this opportunity to share a short message. I'm Mason Guba. I'm a sophomore at Laguna Beach High School and I'm part of the water polo team and swim team. First, I wanted to thank all the

266board members for all the work you have put in to move this pool project forward. Um, I'm confident that this new pool will prove to have a very positive impact on the future of countless students, athletes, and community members as well. Um, I realize that during the entirety of my junior season, I will not have a home pool during um, due to the construction, and I am perfectly content with that, knowing that future generations of swimmers and students will have a beautiful pool to enjoy. I believe I speak for my team, all the pool users, and the student body as a whole when I say that it is vital that this pool project is to be completed as planned. And I also believe that it would be an unforgettable community experience if the waterpro team

267had an opportunity to win a CIF championship at our home pool my senior year. Um, thank you all for this opportunity and your time. >> Thank you. And thank you for thinking ahead towards future students, too. Good evening. My name is Samia Sudel and I'm a sophomore at LBHS, member of the varsity swim team and a club simmer swimmer with Aquazots club in Irvine. I'm here today to urge you to move forward with the pool modernization project. This pool is widely used among the totality of the community from toddlers learning to swim, high schoolers practicing their sports or our senior community members participating in lap swim. Yet, it has not had any updates in 30 years. Not approving the bid to search for a contractor would only would not only be doing a disservice to

268the students but also the community. Although I may not be a student in time to experience the new facility, I truly believe it will be a valuable investment. If you would like to support the students, the number one priority of LBUSD and the greater community, please continue the bid for contractors in order to progress with the pool modernization project. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any more students? Okay. >> Morris, >> while they're walking up, can I ask a another quick question? At what point will you know for sure that the pool is going to be completed at a certain point like March, you're going to it's on track or can we ask that? >> No. No. Staff, no. No. >> Uh, yes. Good evening again. Um, wonderful presentation, guys. I think it looks beautiful.

269I mean, the the the video was really spectacular. It looks really good. So, I think that's uh you've captured everything that everybody's talked about and wanted. So, uh I would like to urge the board to go ahead and pass this and move it on and to the next and let's let's get after this. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Morris. Sorry about that. Uh third time today. Um you know I just wanted to say that and other people here are better equipped to talk about than me that you know as we think about all the things that make our town a legacy the aquatics is one of them. Um understand that there are going to be challenges and everything else and appreciate with the community. But just as we're engaging with the arts

270and and everything else as part of the the spirit of our community. Um as it relates to the other um projects that are out there um uh Dr. Glass uh spoke briefly on the bond. The all property owners in the city of District of Laguna Beach are currently paying um for a bond that that comes up in 2027 um that expires. And so to give you an idea of what that looks like, it's about $120 per year um per million dollars of of assessed value. So assessed meaning what you pay your property tax on. So uh just by renewing that, so no tax increases, no everything else, the exact same ticket. it comes out to I don't want to get I'll do kind of broad numbers that could free up somewhere on the order of

27170 80 million for capital improvements and so as we look at that and it and the way to think about how we go about a bond and Dr. glass has done this before. Um 10 times this size uh in the place where I went to college. Um you kind of end up going to every group that uh that is around town and say what what do we want? Um and so this could be the theater. This could be expanding thirsten gym. This could be um getting scratch kitchens so our kids all have organic food. So kind of all all of the things that are out there and it's of the size and the scale where it could really address um the needs of every kind of constituency that's in our in our schools and potentially

272in our town because there are in some situations where the school district is allowed to develop in town and we have interesting properties around town like St. Cathine's and Lang Park and what have you. Uh and so understand that there were tradeoffs and a lot of trade-offs that were made and going into this current pool. there is the opportunity, this board has in in in the very short term the opportunity to address those parts of town that feel those communities in town that feel like they left out. So, I strongly encourage you all to move forward. This has been a long long process. Um, it's not going to get better. It's not going to get cheaper from here. But, thank you all. >> Thank you. Jeb Brown. >> Hi, my name is Nick McConnell. My

273wife and I are alumni of TL Elmoro Thirstston and LBHS. Uh I got two kids in the district, T and Thirsten. Uh my family and I are active duty military in the Coast Guard. We were fortunate enough to come back to the district two years ago and have been uh while we've two years ago after having been away serving for 15 years. Uh I'm currently stationed San Diego and my wife Katie works as an instructional assistant at to uh for the kindergarten department. So we all know who the real hero is. Um I would like to extend a warm welcome from my family to Dr. Glass and his family. We're all so lucky to be part of this great community. Um, and I would argue one of the best communities in the nation. Uh, the

274pool's a hot topic and any agenda item about any part of it brings out the community as you see here tonight. There's a reason for this. Every hurdle for the pool construction has been used to try and stop it. Uh, my emotional response may not be in line with the actual agenda of going to bid, but uh, here it goes anyways. Uh, I learned to swim before I could walk. My mom took me to even the the older high school pool that used to be in the quad is now um is now in the or was in the quad and taught me to swim before I was one years old. Swimming in that pool, belly flopping off the high dive are some of my earliest memories. Uh this also helped me survive the local childhood

275responsibility of being a beach rat. My first swim coach and swim team experience was with Chad Beer. Yes, the same one who's yelling uh I mean coaching on the pool deck today. Uh, I joined the age group water polo team in middle school and learned to my great surprise that I was not bad at all sports. I had previously thought and experienced. Fish out of water is a very apt description of my time in youth sports. Uh, this carried into high school water poland swimming where I learned and experienced teamwork, leadership, winning and losing. Uh, these acquired skills also landed me the best summer job in existence, an ocean lifeguard in Lagouna Beach. Uh, I spent two years at a local community college where, you guessed it, continued my time in the pool playing water

276polo and swimming. Uh, academics were not my thing and I needed to find something to do with my life. Uh, with my limited skills of tanning well and floating good, I was honestly at a loss for what I would do with my life. Uh, then I found myself watching some dude jump from bright white and orange helicopter into the waves and the rest is history. uh my ability to have a worthwhile career and the lives I've been a part of saving are direct result in this district and this community. Um all this to say that if this new pool can give one more kid the opportunity you gave me, you should vote in favor of the pool every damn time. Please keep the momentum going and uh please vote yes to put this to bid.

277Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. I know it's late. My name is Jeb Brown. I I've lived around here for 35 years and have three children that graduate from the school district and I'm a lifelong swimmer. Dr. Glass, welcome to Gloom Beach. And thank you for your leadership. As as we all know, it's it's been two years of planning with multiple stakeholders, the school district and I'm sorry, the school board and and the city council. And we've arrived at this point tonight where a pool was designed. And and the design, I think, is beautiful. And uh no no no design is perfect. Not everyone was happy. But I would propose that that the best solution to a complex problem is when not everybody is happy. And so so this

278is a workable solution for all parties involved. Our the pool that we have right now is falling apart. As you all may know, there were jackhammers on the pool deck about a month ago because there was a leak. Um, I implore the board to go forward and approve these plans to send the bids out. Thank you very very much. >> Thank you. Next, Mr. Hill. >> Uh, yeah, Leslie Men and uh, Steve Brown and Gary Kasich. >> Hi. Sorry it's late and I'm kind of slow. Um, good evening. My name is Leslie Amin and I'd like to begin by thanking members Morgan and Perry as well as Dr. Glass. I've had the opportunity of working with you on the transportation committee and I have seen how quickly and thoughtfully you act when it comes to

279student safety and modernization and you listened and brought my concerns to the forefront and I am confident we will soon have really encouraging, dare I say exciting news on our buses. Um, but tonight I stand here on a different issue, but with the same mindset, doing what's best for the kids. As someone who spends five nights a week at the pool, I am speaking in strong support of moving forward with the pool project as designed. I am all for doing things right. Um, in this case, the district has as a parent. Tonight, we have a thoughtful, balanced um, and uh, uh, this design is thoughtful, balanced, and serves both students and the wider community. It has gone through planning, redesign, public com comment and compromise. Community concerns have been heard and integrated, environmental review completed,

280board design approved. Um, this has not been rushed. It has been very deliberate. Any delay now would only prolong the process and it would cost and our students significantly more because the pool will have to get done eventually. At the heart of this conversation is not politics or process though. it's the kids and to give our students the best education possible. My 10-year-old daughter plays water polo um with coach Chad and um I grew up in Chicago where water polo is foreign. Um but I can tell you from my experience now it is unlike any other sport. Um these kids are learning perseverance. They are getting educations and composure, patience, resilience, time management skills and so much grit. Um this summer her team competed at the Junior Olympics, finishing 11th in the nation in the

281top tier um and representing Laguna Beach. What an incredible gift and one I hope more students in our community can experience. But as we know, the truth is our current pool is at capacity. We can't easily accommodate more teams or more players. We're already struggling to get the kids we have practice times. A larger facility sooner would mean more kids using the pool, more kids thriving, and more kids discovering what they're capable of. Uh, member Morgan, I know the social emotional health of our students is something that you care deeply about, as do I. Swimming and aquatics are proven to support emotional growth and are especially powerful for children who are neurodeivergent. Expanding these opportunities sooner than later expands our ability to serve more kids. Um, yes, this pool serves the public, but when considering

282this facility, we must focus on its primary responsibility, and that's the students. Um, our kids have proven that they can tread water. Um, and they will keep doing it if they have to, but they deserve a pool that lets them grow, compete, learn, and thrive. So, let's approve this item and move this project forward. Thank you guys so much. >> Seconds to spare. Steve Brown's uh back went into spasm, so um I'm going to do him and me. Um first of all, thanks for the great presentation going into that detail so that we can all understand the process. Uh President Perry, I think you asked the right question. Why wouldn't you go ahead and get the bids? There's no reason. Uh you should go ahead and get the bids. It's going to c all you're

283doing is extending your construction contract for two months until the bids come in. Absolutely. The right thing to do is to get those bids. Um, so total totally in support of moving this forward tonight. Um, I think there's some there's some good news here because everybody seems that this has been a a struggle and it's been delayed and it's been slowed. If if you go back, the only thing that's changed from late 2023, early 204, the schedule is still the same. We've still targeting when construction starts. We're still targeting when construction ends. We're still targeting one less than I think at one point it might have been nine months. Now it's 12. but one season of outage. So everything that the prior board put forth is still in place. So this has been marching. It

284may feel slow, but it's exactly what was proposed. Prices have gone up a lot. When this was originally proposed to spend $3 million on the design and to get us to this point, the number was more like 156 million. So it has gone up a lot. So there's a lot of anxiety about is that$2 million good? But we're way much further down the line, so it should be that much more accurate. Um, that's really it. Go forward, get the steps. I think we're going to be here in December or January making your final decisions, but tonight is not the time to delay. So, go forward. >> Thank you. >> Sist Julian Harvey. Hi. Hi everyone. Um, thank you. I'm just going to add my voice to everyone who's spoken before. I'm a one-trick pony. I'm

285here for the pool. I care about the pool. I care about the kids who use the pool. And um I just I don't see any reason why we shouldn't move forward tonight. You should send it out to bid. It's a long process. You've already been here for two years and you've arrived at a solid compromise. So, let's just do it. That's all. Thank you. >> Hello. Thank you. I'm Becky Black. I just want to say um please move forward with the bid for what everyone else said, good design. It's been a long time. Also, I was fortunate enough to be born and raised in Long Beach, California at a time where Long Beach was the funnel for water polo and swimming. And this town already has a funnel from the coaching that's happened. I mean,

286you have three past female Olympians that have come through this high school. So, I think it's very important. You only can have funnels and success and whatever person who was saying about the kids and the success, you only really get that when you have the facility and the facility now, you don't have it. So, go forward and we'll all be better off for it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good evening and thank you for staying uh to this late hour. Thank you for the board's efforts. I'm the father of three kids in our local schools, one of whom plays water polo. As was just eloquently stated, the legacy of the success of our aquatics programs cannot be overstated. Um, and this district and these programs deserve the proper facilities and this design by a renowned

287architecture firm is just that that product. This is a a step toward a step toward finally providing a muchneeded long overdue resource. Runout Clark, renowned firm whose portfolio includes both iconic and public use facilities. CW Driver, a proven general contractor with track record of delivering. This agenda item should be viewed as simply another process step in moving an already approved project forward. As for the platforms, there was comments about the platforms. I want to make sure that these don't become a torpedo to this project. The platforms are a great tool to teach swimming lessons. As a swim coach, I can tell you that the current shallow end is not conducive to teaching swimming lessons. It can't be done. It's too shallow. These platforms allowed they're allowed to be adjustable and you can teach swimming programs

288here in a in a city with seven miles of coastline which is an absolute objective should be an absolute objective of this board when considering capital outlay projects like this finances. Having CW Driver as your agent, ensuring the trades are kept on budget and on task will save the district money and will shorten the construction timeline. That's a fact. Finally, I I I can't let it go unnoticed in considering the the period of time we're in in this country with political division, the comment earlier from board member Hills. Um regardless of political affiliation, we expect more from our elected officials, especially those whose actions are impressionable upon our students. Thank you. >> Hi, I'll keep it quick. Um, I'm just here in support of the pool. I support the total estimated costs as presented. These

289are a good use of our funds. It's essential to keep the pool project on track. Any delay could cause unnecessary costs, including short-term maintenance of our 31-year-old dilapitated pool. The community has supported this muchneeded pool for years, and it must remain a priority to ensure the timely completion for the benefit of all of our LBUSD students, our Laguna Beach youth, and community members. Thank you. >> Thank you, Laura. Anyone else? Mr. Hills, >> I think that's it. Okay, please come up. >> I'll be super quick. I I repeat, I echo everything everyone said so far in support of the pool, but actually I wanted to read um a comment on behalf of an 11-year-old little girl who couldn't stay until 11:00 at night. Um so this one is for L. She's a fifth grader at

290Top of the World and plays for the Laguna water polo team. She's proud to be part of the team and represent Lagona in the Junior Olympics this past summer. Now that her practices end at 9:00 p.m. every night, she's even more excited to get to the new get the new pool done so that the space will allow multiple teams to practice at once and not stay out so late. She's really happy that the board is making it happen and wanted to thank them. Thanks. >> Thanks. May I have a motion to approve the advertised notice calling for bids for the Laguna Beach High School modernization project. >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion? >> I have just a couple comments. First of all, um to the AOT swimmer, go NOVA because we had many many

291years at NOVA and we did look at AOTS and we like that program too. So it's a great program. Good luck. Swimming is a wonderful um sport. I swam in high school. My son uh went to college as a D1 swimmer. Um so I do respect the process. To um Nick Nick, right? Um thank you for your service. My nephew is also a rescue helicopter swimmer. So um that was kind of I think you were mentioned last time we were here. Um and he also started out in water polo and um was phenomenal. Um, and so I am of this water community and so if there's for anybody that doesn't know me that's in here, um, I have always supported this pool and I'm I know that it's been a long journey. Um, I'm glad

292that it's been confirmed that we are on track, that we've always been on track and that we have not fallen behind. Um, and I will hold you to that timeline as best that you can. So because um, it is about the students. Um, swimming is a phenomenal sport. It is great for all students of all kinds, neurody diversion, athletes, academics. Um I have them all and they all swam. It was a requirement. They had to learn how to swim because they had to do jinger guards and if they didn't they'd have their mom sitting on the beach saying, "Hey." And that would be if they're 15. So swimming was always a priority. So I know this has been really difficult. Um I applaud all of you for staying so diligent. Um I could have used

293with a little bit less hate um because I think it was misguided, but um I am ready to support this pool tonight. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Any other discussion, >> Mr. Hills? >> Yeah, I just wanted to say uh particularly thank you, Nick, um uh for your service to our country and um for your comments. Um, I was in the first class of junior lifeguards in Laguna Beach in the 50s. So, um, uh, I, um, could identify with what you were saying about, um, the importance of swimming in our community. Um I also would like to say that um I think to some extent people are preaching to the choir in the sense that uh I think there's always been a lot of support um for uh moving forward with this uh and

294with this modernization program. And I think um uh you know that um that actually for example the changes that were made to the plan for uh to accommodate the neighbors and we we saw the beautiful design and we saw the beautiful uh changes that were made in order to deal with the concerns of the people in the neighborhood. Um, I'm not so sure that uh those changes would have been made um if it weren't for the fact that um in addition to supporting the modernization program that people ask questions um and uh uh I'm glad that the questions were asked um you know uh asking what's the design and how much it's going to cost are not unreasonable questions for people to ask. And I think uh Sherry Morgan um I really am disappointed in

295her for getting caught red-handed asking what's the design and how much it's going to cost. Um and I think that she made a real contribution to this whole process by asking questions that nobody else wanted to ask. Um so I commend her for that. Finally, I'd like to say to the gentleman uh who was offended by my comment, I actually was trying to make a self- aacing joke um and sort of make fun of myself and um when Joe Biden was having a lot of hard times politically, I used to say, "Hey, go easy on the guy. Um I have the same problems." So, the point is um I wasn't trying to be disrespectful. Was trying to make a self- aacing joke. If it didn't come off, I apologize for that. U but I've always

296respected and supported the success of anybody who was president of the United States. But anyway, thanks very much. >> Thank you. All right. Um no student board members left. Um all all in favor Oh yeah, please get jump back on. >> Yeah, we have a motion. Yeah. Um, all in favor >> I >> passes 5. >> Um, we're going to take a 10. >> We're going to take a 10-minute recess. >> I need a motion first. >> Oh, I need a motion for a 10-minute recess, please. >> No, no, I need a motion to extend the meeting. >> Oh, I need a motion to extend the meeting. >> Seconded. All in favor. >> All All in favor? >> I now 10 minute recess. Okay, I'd like to call the meeting back to order. Um, we

297got some news that we think the lights will stay on till 11. So, we have >> We were done before then. >> That would be nice. Okay. So, now we're um kind of back to item eight, public hearing. >> Well, no, because we switched the order. So, >> is that isn't that correct? We're doing the public hearing on the tenative agreement with mutually agreed upon changes to the 2024 through 2027 collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the designated representatives of the California School Employees Association CSEA and its Laguna Beach chapter number 131 and the Lagouna Beach Unified School District. I now open the public hearing at 10:21 p.m. on the tenative agreement with mutually agreed upon changes to the 2024 through 2027 collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the designated representatives of the California School Employees Association

298and its Laguna Beach chapter number 131 and the Laguna Beach Unified School District. Clerk Hills, are there any speaker cards for those wishing to comment on the public hearing? >> No, there are not. >> Okay. I will close the public hearing at 10:22. and thank you. Yes. Uh thank you board. Um we have um our staff here tonight uh to discuss um some data looking at the end of the last school year, some instructional and facilities projects that happened over the summer and information around uh the beginning of school year that I will just say has been a very smooth start. uh just given the late hour uh that we have here, I'll ask all of the presenters to uh compress and condense their remarks to the extent possible while also honoring the work that

299they put in to put this presentation together for you. So I think uh next slide um the items that will I'm sorry I u uh as you know I'm in this 100 day listening phase not to belabor the point but um it's it's coming and and uh the work that we've been doing around listening will inform that. So go ahead to the next slide please. Uh Victoria the topics we'll cover tonight uh will be enrollment and demographics looking at the class of 25 2025 that just graduated and some data around them. We'll look at the summer enrichment and learning programs that happened and some outcomes and participation that that that had um our early childhood uh programs and school readiness uh looking at our staff and professional grow growth and then some campus and facilities

300enhancements. So we'll try our best to move quickly through that and I'll turn things off over to Dr. Mabberry to kick us off. >> Thank you Dr. Glass. So um this first slide here our current enrollment is shared on the screen. Uh first of all, I think it's important to highlight the board's continued support for small class sizes. You can see they're over on the right side of the screen. Those are the envy of many communities around us to have these small class sizes and and we thank the board for that support. It really allows us to have a more personalized learning experiences and support for our students, especially uh those students who may receive additional specialized support resources. As you can see, our counts or percentages up there uh on the top right. If

301you go to the next slide, um this shows the historical trends in enrollment that mirror the state and regional downward trend uh due to lower birth rates, housing shortages among other factors. Um with the full implementation of universal TK and our new preschool program, uh it is important to note that our that our district enrollment has stabilized the last year or two. Um so you can see that there in those bar charts there on the left. Uh, additionally, I want to point out that the school enrollment counts continually change throughout the year. Uh, this is a snapshot right now. Uh, as you can see over on the right, these this is the summary of transfers and withdrawals that happened during the summer from the end of last year to now. Um, and this does not

302include TK, kinder, preschool, new students that are coming into. These are just ones that are moving within our district and coming and going. And so this continues throughout the year, although the largest amount does occur during the summer. Uh this is the slide that I will say is worth the wait. Um this is a slide that I think hopefully will make every student, parent, families, um community members, staff very proud. Um this class of 2025 who's the vast majority of them been with us for at least 13 years uh in a pandemic uh has just an exceptional amount of rigor and achievement. It's shared on this slide. Uh, you know, setting aside the the very high graduation rate, nearly 90% of the students are meeting UC eligibility requirements, highest that I've seen my my seven

303years here. Uh, 90% earned some type of early college credit, almost 90%. Uh, 70% passing an AP exam, half of the students demonstrating proficiency in a second language. I mean it's really just exceptional achievement by this class of 2025 considering all that they've been through uh and in the last 13 years over their career and just really important to highlight this um their exceptional achievement. Uh moving on to next slide highlights their pathways where they go after right where they think they're headed. And so this is uh self-reported data that they share with us at the end of last year. So we we um likely where they ended up. Um, couple things to point out here. Uh, 72% of our students indicated they were planning to attend at the end of last year planning to

304attend a four-year college or university. And then besides going to the California universities and colleges, uh, they also went are planning to go to 21 colleges, universities in 21 other states as well as three countries. And so you can see that here a long list there of the different places across the country beyond California. There this class is also going to So, I'd like to introduce our uh director of early learning, Kim Johnson, to talk a little about school readiness. >> Hi. Um, our early learning programs in Laguna Beach continue to grow and thrive. Um, providing our community families with strong foundations for success. Um, our learning link is remains a popular program. Last year, we had over 120 families enrolled. This is a free hands-on kind of adult and child participation program that works

305on school readiness skills and we have uh locations at both uh El Mororrow and Top of the World. And our preschool program just uh completed our inaugural preschool year and then over summer we had five weeks of camps uh which was great. And this fall, we continue to have a great opening with three active preschool classes. In uh TK and K, we had 92 students participate in TK and K readiness camps that help them acclimate to a new environment, building confidence and um friendships along the way to have a successful like entrance into TK and K. at Elmoro. With our growing enrollment, we opened up an additional TK class and an additional K class as well. Next slide. Okay. ELOP, our expanded learning opportunities program. We continue our partnership with Boys and Girls Club and

306offered full day summer enrichment programming. We had 67 Lagouna Beach families participate over the summer and they had different themed activities every day and had enriching field trips to the zoo. They did fishing. They went to the Disney cube, Disneyland, and many more things. >> Thank you. Good evening. This summer, LBUSD also successfully served students through our summermies and our lead enrichment program. At the elementary and middle school academy, students received four weeks of intensive small groupoup instruction in math and literacy and participated in enrichment blocks such as art, steam, and musical theater, which kept learning engaging and balanced. Our fourth grade students even led a service learning project inspired by their novel study to raise funds for Texas Blood Relief. Most importantly, 100% of participating students demonstrated growth in one or more academic areas

307as evidenced by our post testing. Parents also overwhelmingly affirmed that the program addressed learning gaps and provided personalized support for their children. At Lagouna Beach High School, credit recovery options enabled students to retake courses to earn credits toward graduation. We are pleased to report that 100% of students in credit recovery successfully passed, earning a combined 305 credits. To further strengthen this experience, guest speakers and integrated lessons were embedded into designated courses, giving students exposure to college readiness, career exploration, financial literacy, and study skills. LBHS summer academy also included academic intervention opportunities such as bridge courses in algebra 1 and English 9, which help students strengthen foundational skills and prepare them for the transition to high school. This year's enrichment options honor Spanish and accelerated geometry prep, allow students to preview advanced coursework, and build confidence

308ahead of the academic year. Didn't realize you guys got me. The LEAD program continues to shine as a truly inclusive enrichment program where students discover passions, build skills, and develop confidence in a supportive community, all while having lots of fun. This year, the program expanded both early career exploration classes and leadership opportunities with 37 LBHS peer mentors and two workability interns supporting younger students while exploring and sharing their own interests simultaneously. Parent feedback highlighted the program's impact with 94% reporting that the program helped their child explore new interests and build social school social skills. Additionally, 94% of parents surveyed also indicated the lead program helped to instill a love of learning in their child. Together, the summermies and lead program engaged students across the district. Themies ensured every student experienced academic growth while lead offered

309diverse enrichment opportunities that fostered creativity, curiosity, and confidence. On behalf of our entire summer team, I would like to take a moment to thank the governing board for your continued support of these impactful summer programs. >> Thank you, Dr. Kennberg. Uh the next the next slide highlights our commitment to personalized professional learning as well as our our focus on developing capacity and talent uh for our staff. At our recent all staff professional development day, we organized a mini conference where staff were able to participate in 52 breakout sessions tailored to their role and responsibilities. Uh 75% of those sessions were actually facilitated by LBSD staff. So emphasizing the experts that we have on our own team to facilitate and learn with their colleagues. >> Thank you Dr. Mayberry. Um yeah, so as shared previously um

310we had a big expansion with our early learning. So we had a added a second TK class at Elmoro and a fourth kindergarten class at Elmoro. Um and then in addition, as we've shared previously, the TK extended day program, as you recall in the past in our community, if you if because it's still a half-day program, if you happen to have have the PM class, you didn't have any daycare options for your child in the AM. There was nothing in town that that that could provide that resource. But now with the expansion of our TK extended day, we have the ability they can come on campus first thing in the morning, be in the extended day TK program and then join their their PM class around 9 9:30. So it's a great expansion and a

311great resource for our community. In addition, as we've shared, we've had a leadership transition in special education. We have um our our current director is on a personal leave. So we have our interim director, Jennifer Moss. We have our interim program specialist, Jaylen Thompson. And then we have a new school psychologist at Top of the World, Courtney C uh Krenshaw. So we been a just they bring a wealth of experience and and uh and and resources to that department. And then in addition, of course, we were able to steal away Katie Treat from from Orange Unifi to be our coordinator of career education. So we're excited to have her be part of the district as well. And then overall, we welcome 29 new staff transitioning from the end of last year to the beginning of

312this year. that includes 16 classified staff and 13 certificate staff that support students across all schools. Thank you. >> Added 29 new staff. >> Hi. Uh I'm Bana McCabe. I am the supervisor of nutrition services. I started here back in March and nutrition department is uh had a big overhaul and and a lot of changes going on, a lot of great positive changes um across all of our schools. Um I met with uh various members of the community, green team leaders at all of our school sites just to get a a feel and idea of of what the change uh what everyone was was asking for. um scratchmade meals were high on that list and to remove heat and serve and to remove anything that was served in a package primarily at our elementary site.

313So, um we have removed all of our heat and serve. Everything we serve now is from scratch. It's bulk. We heat it. It goes in trays. Um we now serve plain Greek yogurt. We have a lot of regulations in nutrition. One of them is sugar. So we cannot have more than six adds of sugar per ounce in our cereals and our yogurt. So we have transition to plain Greek yogurt. We have gluten-free cereals at all of our school sites and our elementaryaries will be moving into organic cereal. It is available the end of this month. Um we did a taste test at one of the schools um so they are familiar with what is coming. Uh we have implemented using the use um prioritizing using the use of local growers. Um one being Sunny Cow

314Farms. I don't know if you guys go to the local farmers market. Um he is who you would get all of your fruit from. Bluebird Canyon supplies all of our tomatoes and our lettuce and it's phenomenal. Uh we have a a fresh salad bar at the high school. Um and that's all Bluebird uh produce. Aziz Farms comes out of Thermal, California. We get their deliveries on Monday. Dickinson Farm as well is on Monday. And I prioritize all four of those over our our big box distributors who we get most of our food items from. Um elementary sites, uh a big push on fresh cut, uh fresh cut fruits and vegetables. Um there was a lot of waste where it was a whole fruit. there wasn't quite enough time to eat those apples, oranges. Um, so

315we are now cutting the fruit, cutting the vegetables, and they seem to love that. Um, no longer serving syrup as a condiment or honey. First of all, they don't need it. Second of all, uh, we have a we have a B issue that we're combating. Um, our breakfast and lunches at the elementary site, I would say sitewide or schoolwide. Um, incorporate the fruit and vegetable in the meal ra because you are required to take a fruit and vegetable with each entree that you receive. If it's incorporated in the meal, it wastes less of a kid grabbing something they are not wanting to eat. Uh at our middle and high schools, we are working um with Gina's Pizza, who is local. We bring those in uh pizza for the students at those sites once a week.

316High school's Thursday, middle school's Friday. The kids are loving that. Uh the pizza is genuinely Gina's pizza. They've reformulated it um to comply with our nutritional requirements. Uh a little change in our allocart items. Um, we are serving whole grain rich, a few organic and gluten-free items. Uh, all of our sugar products we have gotten rid of and we are limited to now box water um at our middle and high schools. Uh, the biggest change I would say is to high school. They have the infrastructure where the students can actually access the cafeteria. So, we have um a Chipotle style build your own bar um where the students have a complete choice in creating their entree. Uh we have a build your own burger bar as well and and a big emphasis in the high

317school was they want choices. They don't they want choices. Um and lastly, all of our products are now um eco-friendly and compostable. We don't use saran wrap to wrap any of our packages anymore. and a big emphasis on um really transparency of the product and so the students have an understanding of what they're eating with clear lids. >> That is it. Thank you. >> I have eaten some of the bowls and salads from the high school and they're excellent. Just want to be perfectly clear, food's good. Um, so for the summer 25 capital improvement projects and facilities at the high school, um, as everyone knows, we did a replacement with the turf and rubber track system. We also did, um, some enhancements in the CTA maker space, classroom 42. Um, I'm just highlighting some significant

318projects. Um, at Thirstston, we renovated the building B student restroom. Um, similar that as we did the summer prior where we did the student restrooms over here by the gym. So, both student restroom sets here at Thirstston are now modernized. At Elmor Mororrow, we did some safety enhancements up in the upper parking lot. It's fully fenced in now. Separates cars from students. Um, it provided a few more parking spaces to meet their parking needs. Uh, we also um converted a storage room on the kindergarten playground into a restroom, a very small facilities project that made a huge difference knowing now that we have four kindergarten classrooms and two TK classrooms. That's six of those younger age classrooms. And with only two on suite restrooms in the first two kindergarten rooms, that's six classes for two

319restrooms. That's a little few too many. So that restroom out on the playground is a huge help for the lunch area and the playground. We and then we were able to um install the the P4, the fourth portable that the the board approved back in um July, end of July. So we were able to get that installed and up and operational for extended TK with the start of school at Top of the World. Um, we repainted um repainting was done in building A, the admin office. We refurbished the the playground equipment just it was just a replacement. You wouldn't know any difference, but it has new platforms and slides and accessories and extends the life of that playground another 105 years without having to replace an entire playground. Um, and we did some work on

320the baseball field out there at Top of the World. Also, what I'm not highlighting here, what I what I do want to point out is what I'm most proud of is really not these projects. I'm proud of our staff. um for the deep cleaning and maintenance work that's done throughout the schools. Um that's what's not shown here, but that is a huge part of summer for us and the staff and facilities did a phenomenal job again got everything done and um really proud to share that with you and that's what I have. Thank you. >> Yes. >> All right. Um so we replaced our visitor volunteer management system. So when you check in with the school, you're going to see a new system there. The old system we're having trouble with speed, some outstanding support

321issues, and the quality of the print. And all those have been addressed, I think, with the new system. So it's faster. It also will allow allow us to have multiple iPads available for a big event so that we can get everybody checked in. Our old system, we just couldn't handle big events. So that'll be helpful just to do that check. Um, we also uh um added video surveillance, a better system to thirsten and Top of the World this summer. Uh, provides more coverage, better quality cameras, and we're slated, we have budgeted in April for a fall install for Elmoro. So, we'll have all the sites to up to speed on the new camera system. So, that'll be really good. And I'm happy to say I was not involved in the snake fencing at the So,

322uh, uh, finally, um, uh, thank you board for all the support that you've given, uh, us in, uh, having a successful start to the school year. And I want to acknowledge the staff and the effort that you put into this presentation. I'm sorry that we had you late and uh, compressed your time, but I want you to know how proud I am to work with all of you uh, and appreciate the work that you did. And thank you, and Karen for pulling all of this together. We're happy to take any questions that you have, but we appreciate your time and attention. >> I I just want to say thank you for a great start to the school year, but also thank you to all of you for being here so late. I'm really sorry. I

323appreciate it. It was useful. >> Ditto. >> Same. Um, can we put because because it's been condensed, is it something that is worthy of sharing or making I know we put it on the website, but people even if we put on the website, people may or may not know that it's there. And then the other one was back to the um the pool video. That was cool. I'd like to look at that a little bit slower and closer and and with more time to absorb it. Thanks. And >> yeah, it'll also it'll be the headline story in the newsletter that goes out tomorrow and it'll >> the uh opening of schools report and uh the other items of significance. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Wonderful report. Item 11, technology, approval of resolution 2520 supporting efforts

324to optimize computer screen time and reduce excessive computer screen time. Dr. Glass, >> thank you. Um, at the last meeting, you heard a proposal around trying to put in place some guidelines around screen time use in our schools. that was 1 hour for early elementary, two hours for upper elementary and then three hours for other grades. Uh the board at that time expressed interest in finding some way to materially support this and I suggested a resolution would be the right course at this time. Uh so we're here back with that resolution and I'm going to let um Mike talk about uh the elements of that. >> There we go. So, um, yeah, there's five elements of this that, uh, you would be supporting and they they were all covered in the last meeting. So, I

325think there's nothing new here, but, um, just optimizing that screen time and minim minimizing unnecessary screen time. I think that's the first one. Um, making sure that we have guidelines like Dr. Glass said for appropriate use uh, by grade level uh, and maybe department. Uh we're looking at also professional development for teachers on strategies for uh high-tech use, the most effective high-tech use and the most effective non- tech use. So working on those strategies because there will need to be staff development on that. And we'll continue to collect and analyze data across grade levels, but we'll find some new ways to do that. Um we'll also be collaborating with families in this issue of screen time at school and at home. So that's the other part to the resolution and that's really the five parts

326that we covered last time. >> Oh, sorry. Poor members, are there any questions regarding resolution 25-207? Not seeing any. >> Oh, >> I couldn't. >> Okay. >> Yeah. But first, you have a chance for questions. >> I understand. Okay. I just wanted to see where we were in our process. I'll stand by. >> Okay. >> I just have one question. Remember >> on number five when we talk about collaborating with families to promote healthy screen use at home and school does that include providing data and information on a regular basis? >> Yeah, I mean it will also include like the securely home access so parents can you know monitor and also control the Chromebooks at home. So that's one of the projects we work on with this with this idea but also coming up with

327with Dr. colors some guidelines for uh usage at home and how that would play out. >> I think with as to member Machesky's point earlier, things are constantly evolving and changing and certainly more data on the impacts of technology are constantly shifting and not in a good direction. So, I appreciate this. Thank you. >> Okay. Um Clerk Hills, are there any speaker cards? Just got to make sure. Um, >> there's still there's still some people. Um, may I have a motion to approve resolution 2520 supporting efforts to optimize computer screen time and reduce excessive computer screen time. >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion? Just very quickly, um I first want to reiterate that uh my own interest in this issue comes from national concerns about the increase of screen time post pandemic. Um and

328I think that the strength in this resolution is we're not being really prescriptive, but putting the decision-making in the hands of the experts, which is the superintendent, district staff, including Mike Morrison and his department, and most importantly, the teachers. So, I uh really appreciate that you're going to um take the initiative to work with teachers to think about not putting in a resolution, you know, exactly what the end product is going to be, but an iterative process where we see how we're using technology and come up with um the best guidelines. So, anyway, I I would support this resolution. >> Clerk Hills. some language from the statute into this. Is that what you're saying? Um, so, uh, >> yeah. Um, so, uh, I was thinking that, um, maybe, um, I would suggest a a small

329revision to this. Um, I noticed that it uses the term in the one, two, three, four, the fifth awareness clause. that has uses the term digital citizens. Um I um could go into a long explanation for it, but I just I'm thinking that it just should just be um digital technology users and healthy technology user habits. Um uh because um the uh term citizens is u a term of art and um there is no such thing as a dig digital citizen. Um so I would just say digital users. Um, and that may seem esoteric or um, uh, exotic, but in fact, I think that we need to seriously look at our use of the term citizens in a lot of the um, nomenclature and a lot of the documents and material that we develop. Um,

330so anyway, um, I would recommend that. And then in the end, I'm thinking about a a sixth paragraph that would involve um reporting um uh reporting at certain periodicities um to the board on uh progress, user response, standards established, compliance um uh um problems and challenges for all categories of users. Um, and you know, I'm not, you know, make a big deal out of this, but um, I think having a some type of a reporting back or a feedback to the board about how this is getting implemented is not a bad idea. >> Um, thank you, Howard. I think uh one way we could handle that is put it on an agenda um you know in four months or however long we think it might take to kind of get this going. >> So you're

331suggesting that instead of having a reporting or a a report back that we the board would put it on agenda in a f future meeting, >> right? and then they would report back. >> Yeah, that's fine. >> report back to the board. >> So, the only thing I would suggest is that we just um not use the term uh digital citizens because I think a lot of our use of the term citizens trivializes what citizenship actually is and um I think we need to avoid it. Um like for example when we say empa empathetic citizens and we also refer to global citizens and yet nowhere do I hear us anywhere using referring to American citizens and so the term citizen is being used for something that is not good civics and I think it's a

332bad it's bad uh practice it's not a best practice for uh the teaching civics to the students. >> Um are you done? >> Yeah. Um, I actually disagree with that. I think that we need to teach our students to be citizens in multiple communities and that includes global communities, the digital environment in which they're operating every day, our local community, and being a citizen in any of those communities requires to that that you engage with kind of democratic values and good ethics and all the things that define good citizenship. on this particular issue, the cat's already out of the bag. They have all kinds of presentations at the schools and my own child talks to me about what it means to be exhibit good digital citizenship because it's one of the many communities in which

333our students live. So, I don't know that we could even if I did agree with you, I don't, but that's irrelevant. I don't know that we could we're not going to go tell the school district to change all the language about this. I think because it's the way we talk with our students, empathet empathetic citizens is a definition of the kinds of democratic values we want to exhibit when we're out in the many different communities we're in. And I actually from the perspective of citizenship, I I think that that's really important. >> Madam Chair, >> um just Dr. Glass, >> yeah, just on a point of of process, um Howard is making another submotion and you all know how to handle these now. So, but really before you uh expend any time on debating the

334point, is there a second to it? >> Okay. Is is there a second to clerk hills wanting to change the term digital citizenship? >> So, can there be further discussion about it? >> Well, um you need to see if there's a second. That's the first. That's the first step. Is there a second? If there's no second, then the the motion fails and you go back and you debate the main motion. So, is there a second? >> Okay. Without a second, then we're going back. >> Without a second, we're going back to the original and we can discuss that. So I'd like to explain why just for Howard's knowledge and just for the record why I did not support changing it to users because when you look up empathetic citizen an individual who actively seeks to

335understand and appreciate what others are thinking, feeling or experiencing. So I'm assuming that one could say that digital digital cit citizens are citizens that are actively seeking to understand the digital world um and appreciate how I don't know if we can assume that appreciate what others are thinking but I think to your point um I think citizens in this area is it works for me. I think this is a term that is being used now that we understand students understand um and perhaps previously it had a different connotation. >> Yeah. So um >> the fact that it is being used as it's being used if you're using um for example empathy as an adjective for what kind of citizen that is that's not the problem where where where we have a problem is where for

336example we say um a global citizen there is no such thing as a global citizen and um when you um use the term uh for like example the empathy study thing was not the right thing. I remember the other day when we were when we were doing that, well no, when I went down and saw uh Remy or whatever his name is, the guy that made the presentation down there, >> he kept saying um an empathy citizen as if um or a citizen of empathy or something, you know, and I started thinking about that and I thought start started looking at our learner profile and our learner profile um uh uses the term citizen. The bottom line is that uh it's it's you know it's not a big deal to me but the fact of

337the matter is is that there's only one uh form of citizenship. Um and uh you can be a citizen of a state, you can be a citizen of a nation, but you can't be a citizen of the world because the world doesn't have the capacity to confer citizenship. And so um it's just the degrading of language is what it is. And I don't care. It's, you know, if we want to degrade language, we can, but it's not um it's it's teaching uh that there are other terms that can be used to describe global stewardship. You can be a steward of the of peace. You can be a steward of the environment. You can do you can use a lot of different terms to describe a person who takes responsibility in a community. But citizenship is

338not a proper use of the term citizen. And we're devaluing the currency of it by not recognizing that states have citizens, nations have citizens, but empathy doesn't have citizens. And so I will, you know, I I I I sense a certain lack of enthusiasm for my proposal, but I wanted to make the point. >> I I don't I mean, you're right about the etmology of the word, but the problem is just that it is how we talk about being a citizen in the multiple communities that we live in. even if it is not how the word is supposed to be used in terms of your relationship to the state or the local or the federal government. I I get your point but but the way we talk about it in school is that our students

339are citizens in a global world. >> Yeah. Well, >> I I take your point but >> well taken I think we can't do >> we got too many I'm sorry. Um >> I don't think we need to spend more time. >> Okay. I think I I think we need to We had a motion on this one. The other one didn't pass. We need to vote on this one. >> All in all in favor. Um uh approving resolution. No, not that one. >> Huh? supporting efforts to organize, optimize computer screen time, and reduce excessive computer screen time. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. No objection. Is he still? >> Thank you, Jim. on to action items from the superintendent. Approval. >> Uh, your board needs to reset. >> Y >> u, thank you. Uh, so

340the next item is, uh, the approval of the independent contract agreement with Michael Bishop and Associates. This is uh simply the uh contract to conduct and complete the healthcare audit that is already well underway. >> Clerk Hills, are there any speaker cards for those wishing to comment? >> No, there are not. >> Okay. Now, may I have a motion? Thank you. >> I move that we um approve that contract. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Up to that amount charge enough. But anyway, Okay. Well, >> I drove a hard bargain quickly. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Let's let's let's call for the vote. All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Thank you. Okay. Now item 13, action items, human resources, approval of the tentative agreement with mutually agreed upon changes to

341the 24 27 collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the designated representatives of California School Employees Association, CSEA, and its Laguna Beach chapter number 131 in the Laguna Beach Unified School District. Mr. Conlin, >> thank you, President Barry. Uh so yes, the association and the district reach a tenative agreement for the 2025 20226 school year with mutually agreed upon changes which include a 2.75% salary increase for the 2526 school year along with the changes to the vacation day acral process for unit members that equate to 0.25%. So a total compensation package of 3%. And the district and association utilize the interpace bargaining um as the process for negotiations. So the staff recommends the board of education ratify the tenative agreement for the 2526 school year negotiated by the designated representatives of the of CSEA and its Laguna

342Beach chapter 131 and Lagouna Beach Unified School Districts. >> Okay, Clerk Hills, any speakers? >> Uh yes. Um we have uh Porter James Hughes. >> Okay. Oh god. Oh, it's on. It's magic. It feels like magic. Apologies. This up. Good evening, President Perry, members of the board, Superintendent Glass, staff. Um, my name is Porter James Hughes and I'm the labor relations representative for California School Association and its Laguna Beach chapter number 131, the labor union that probably represents the approximately 150 classified employees of the district. When I was younger, my parents used to tell me, "If it's not broke, don't fix it." That advice is something we have all heard, and it applies directly to the decision before you this evening. The collaborative interestbased bargaining process that our union and the district have committed to

343has worked. It's not something in need of changing. It's worth sustaining. The key to that success has been the presence of a trained IBB facilitator. The facilitator is not just a neutral party. They are the person who fosters the respectful and constructive dialogue that makes this model work. Proof of just how effective this process is can be seen in the very tentative agreement that is on your agenda for appro uh for approval tonight on an agreement reached through IBB with the help of facilitator. Approving the contract for the IBB facilitator is not only a practical step, it is also a symbolic step that demonstrates our support for our collaborative labor management relationship and for maintaining the approach that has already brought both of our sides success. Rejecting the facilitator would undermine the very tool that

344has helped us build positive outcomes for our employees, our district, and ultimately the students we serve. On behalf of our members, I respectfully urge you to approve the IBB facilitator contract. Let's continue what is working. After all, as my parents said, if it's not broke, don't fix it. Um, and I will just say another thing really quick. Um, you know, we have a very great working relationship with this district. I always joke that when I come here, this is my easy day. Um, so let's not ruin that. It's amazing. Let's keep working together. This is how we do it. Thank you. Um, somehow we got to B and we we right now we're not on item B. That's next. So, >> we're we loved hearing from you and well, keep that in mind. >> Oh,

345okay. >> Okay. But what what we're actually um [Laughter] Okay. >> Okay. May May I have a motion to approve the tentative agreement with mutually agreed upon change to the 2427 collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the designated representatives of CSEA and its Lagouna Beach chapter number 131 and the Lagouna Beach School District. second. >> Any discussion? >> You have a quick question. So, and I presented this before, but I just want to make it a public comment that um by approving this contract tonight, it's still it's does not address what we're looking into with the insurance premiums. And so, by approving this, we're in the same situation as Labufa where by approving it, it opens up the possibility to go back and renegotiate that those that need to correct the issue. Correct. That's correct. >>

346Okay. And will we get a printed copy like we have? >> Will you get a printed copy of what? >> Yeah, we'll provide a printed copy of the the contract once we make the changes and it gets gets finalized. >> Great. Thank you. >> You are any more discussion? >> Yeah, I um would like to elaborate a little bit on what uh Sherry just asked. Um I think it's important that as we do this we be real clear about what we've agreed to and what we haven't agreed to. Um first of all um there have been suggestions made in previous meetings that uh with respect to the issue of um uh the payments that were made for insurance health insurance premiums that this board um approved going over the caps. Um and I want to

347just emphasize that um uh when I discussed this issue with the superintendent um when uh he was advised of the situation. Uh I made it clear that um um as a board member and at that time as acting president of the board um I did not want to repeat something that had been done if it wasn't right. So that if there was a problem created that we would find a way of addressing it that would be right. so that we would not be um participating in something that wasn't being um handled in compliance uh with requirements. And um so as I say there subsequently were comments to the effect of well you know you guys approved it in December or you approved it whenever um when it apparently came up on the agenda um uh

348or it's asserted that it came up on the agenda. Um, I just want to emphasize that if I as a board member voted for something and it involved going over the caps and I wasn't told that we were going over the caps and that the that bylaw 9310 uh forbid us or prohibited us from going over the caps, um, I wouldn't have voted for it. And so you can't say that the board has ratified it. um or at least I can't you can't say that I voted to ratify it if I wasn't on notice of what was supposedly passed. I think that's an important point to make. Also, um I've been provided with some of the background documents and at one point I believe that um the uh information given to the board about uh

349budget items that apparently may have included this was that um the explanation for the uh cost increases was that the employer's share had increased. And if that's what was documented or that's what we were told, I don't believe that that's accurate. I believe what happened is the amount of the employees share that the board that the district was paying increased, but it wasn't the the district share that increased. And so I think we need to be um mindful of these things as we go about this business because as um as we've all agreed um uh the advice that that I understood that I was getting as a board member and I think we were um uh getting including from council was that um this would be something that would become part of the negotiations and

350so voting for the LUFA and voting for this now is not agreeing to going over the caps. What is it agreeing to is that we need to have an agreement in place so we can negotiate and get back to the caps. And so I just wanted to state for the record that is my understanding of where we are and how we got here. Um, and I think that's about it. >> Thank Thank you, Mr. Hills, for stating that and getting that on the record. Um, so can we vote now? All All in favor? >> I opposed. Passes. 5-0. Now >> sorry, Jim. >> Thank you. Too much information. >> Okay, now >> I even have my gray water bottle. >> Okay, we're we're we're going on to B right now. >> Okay. >> What? What

351item is this again? Um 11 or 13b is it >> 13 pulled this from the consent agenda 13. >> Okay. So this is the approval for renewal of memorandum of understanding bargaining with Laguna Beach Unified School District in an amount not to exceed $32,700 from July 1st, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Mr. Conlin, >> thank you. President Perry, I want to begin by clarifying when this item was brought back, we did make a change to the not to exceed amount was reduced from originally $50,000 down to 32,700. That's based on the exact cost. We currently have 10 days calendared with the consultant. That's five for Labou and five for CSEA. Um but we we typically increase have the the note be slightly higher in case we go beyond the the the the expected number of

352negotiation days. Um so with that being said, interpace bargaining is a negotiation style in which parties collaborate to find mutually beneficial solutions to problems. This strategy focuses on developing mutual agreements based on the interests of the parties. Interests include the needs, desires, concerns, and fears important to each side. And IBB provides each party with a better opportunity to resolve complex problems and establish ongoing relationships that enable both sides to maximize their interests. And we've utilized this process since uh 2017. The investment in time pays off in stronger relationships, more effective problem solving, and a healthier organizational culture. I know the union leadership can attest to how our use of a neutral thirdparty facilitator has helped us to develop collaborative working relationships between union and management. And I also I'd like to end by just giving

353them a moment to uh to share their perspectives on on IB and how it's uh worked for us in negotiations. >> All right. Um, I have actually been on the negotiating team for about the last five years as well with Mike and you know quite a few others and it really does help us focus um and keep on a consistent basis and keeps us from going off track and also keeps good relationships going. Um, on top of that in our contract in article 51 it does say that we're going to be use it and past practices is we've used a facilitator. I think more importantly going into this year's negotiations, we have superintendent who we're building a relationship with. Um, but it's also very new. We're going to have a brand new CBO. Um, which,

354you know, we've got to build trust. We have a board that's that's relatively new. So, you know, we're working with you guys. Um, and now we have the insurance issue coming up, too, which is going to be a big one that we're going to have to be negotiating in that room. So, we have a lot of big issues going on. So to make that change now, I think honestly would be foolish. Um I think we need to continue with a process that we know that works and continue continue with that process and then down the road if we can discuss it, maybe there'd be a change down the road. But I think for now we continue on with the process that we trust, we know that works to come out with positive outcomes in the

355next negotiation period. >> Thank you, Mr. Wit. So, I sent an email to everybody which I hope they read and it broke down the differences between the IBB and traditional. I've been on the negotiation team for 10 years and um we've been doing this for over 17 years. There's a reason we do it because it works more. We've always come to an agreement on our contracts by the end of the year and a lot of districts don't do that that do traditional based bargaining. It creates very good collaboration and trust between us. And I'm going to reiterate what Scott is said about with a new CBO, our new superintendent, two new board members. You can't ask the management and the two heads of the unions to step aside to then become a facilitator. That just

356doesn't work. a neutral facilitator is what keeps us moving forward. At every year, they've always had to step in on one or two things where we lose the why and get into that what and she brings us back together as to why are we here? What is this for? What's the best interest for everybody? And I think it's made a very it I know that it has has made a very good working relationship and trust And like Porter said, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. >> Thank you for your input. >> Board members, Mr. Hills, >> I don't know, Mr. Superintendent, if I can direct the questions to the union representatives or if I can ask you and you can ask them or what's we'll all work together to address your questions. Yeah. So,

357um first of all, I wanted to know this says uh from July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. And um I guess what I'm asking first is is there current activity going on right now um between July 1st and right now with these folks in terms of having a facilitator working with us during this particular period >> I can answer that for you. Uh no not currently. the the first we'll we'll we'll begin with the first negotiation date which is tended to be scheduled for late February early March. >> Okay. Thank you. Um yeah, you know um I understand >> excuse me >> questions. >> Okay. >> Sorry. >> Um let me see. Um no I guess I don't have any other questions. >> Okay. and is creative consultancy who we're using now. >> That's

358who we use now and they were part of the process for the in last year as well. I don't because I I'm not ask I don't really have >> um I don't think IBB is the discussion in my mind. >> Um but no, thank you. >> Any other questions? Um and thank you for your presentation. We've got in mind. May I have a motion to um >> Excuse me. We're not going to have discussion about this. >> Okay. May I have a motion to approve the renewal of me renewal of memorandum of understanding with collective consultancy for interpace bargaining with the Lagona Beach Unified School District in an amount not to succe exceed $32,700 from July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. >> So move. >> Is there a second? second. Um, any discussion, Mr.

359Hills? >> Yeah. Um, so, uh, I understand what this is all about and, uh, I understand the reasons to do it. Um, and I al I think though what was appropriate is, um, uh, in addition to the very good advice that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Um uh part of that is to make sure that it's not broke and um and uh so you know I'm just looking at this um these communications that we got about this um from the union representatives uh uh emphasizing the importance of transparency and um referring to uh needing a facilitator to guide the new CBO um and two new board members where trust is still a struggle now. And um and um also the statement that um in the case of um in the case of Laboufa,

360the statement is that the association is not open to having district staff serve in this role. In other words, the BUFFA uh the representative is saying on behalf of the members of the bargaining unit that they're that they're not open to it that if if we don't do this facilitator that they're not open to dealing with Mr. Conland and um so um that's creates a little bit of context for um uh an additional point that I would make and that is that you know um we're right now in the process of spending money taxpayers money uh to get to the bottom of what happened with the healthcare premium. And um you know the question that arises is when you talk about transparency u with respect to the health premium issue what did the unions know

361and when did they know it? >> Um that I think is a discussion for another time that I'm more than willing to have this is about the IBB process. The reason that I stated that I wouldn't be comfortable with a district personally because I think you need to have somebody that's absol absolutely neutral as a facilitator if we have a negot can I finish? Were you recognized by the chair? >> I was in the middle of a statement, >> Mr. Witco. >> Oh, no. I Oh, you're you're Okay, you finished. But you asked him a question, so I think he was trying to answer. >> I thought you asked me a question. >> Yeah. So, he was trying to answer. Uh it was at that point a rhetorical question but um uh what I was

362saying was that we are in a process right now of working with somebody who's evaluating what happened and one of the questions that I think should be addressed in that process is what did the unions know and when did they know it. Uh I think that proc that question should be asked to everybody involved and the same thing's true of this facilitator. What did the facilitator know and when did he know it? Uh or did they know it? I'm not against uh I'm not against approving the facilitator. Um what I'm saying is the same reason I took it off the uh consent calendar is that we're in a very sensitive period right now. There's a lot of open issues right now. We don't know exactly what the nature of the problem is. Um some people

363think that it's no big deal. Other people think that it is a big deal. I don't know. I'm not a accountant and I'm not a union uh negotiator, but the point is um it's really good that you guys get along with your facilitator. Um uh but in the context of this uh situation we're in right now, the question is did you get along too well with the um with the facilitator? And I'm not um casting any aspersions on anybody. I'm just saying that if this isn't going to be an active uh contract until February, um I would think that we would want to once again postpone this till the next meeting and come back and address it in light of what we by by then will know uh about the investigation. >> I Mr. Mr.

364Hills, I don't understand why the answer to that question has anything to do with whether or not we need to engage the firm with a contract. It's disconnected from the question of whether or not we should have a facilitator. >> If the facilitator was involved, >> Dr. Glass, >> just a process standpoint, um, Clerk Hills has the floor. He should finish and then the president should recognize the next speaker. Yeah, this is just one of those situations where um to say why don't we wait until we have more information about the total process. Um I'm assuming that the facilitator um did not know about it or what. In other words, I'm not assuming anything. I'm just saying the facilitator is a player in a process that we are currently evaluating and trying to understand. And

365it would seem to me to be prudent uh if if if the situation were that failure to do this tonight was going to prevent the facilitator from being able to provide services to the unions, that would affect my thought about this. But since it's not going to happen until February, it's not prejuditial to ultimately deciding this. But I I I as I say, I think once again, it would be prudent to move it down to uh uh down the road far enough for us to get the report on the overall healthcare premium issue before we take any further action uh that is implicated. >> Thank you, Mr. Hills. Mr. Conlin, is there a problem um basically kicking this down the road? What would the >> I would I would say from if we're talking about

366to the next meeting, I don't see it being an issue, but I would have I made the the facilitator aware that the the contract had not been approved yet. There were some questions regarding it. The concern would be I have I have currently locked in days on their calendar that fill up extremely fast. So my worry is that there is a possibility that the facilitator would say okay since there's concern with this not being approved they may remove us from their calendar and then by and so that that would be one concern I could see but I think Dr. Glass has something to share as well. >> Thank you Dr. Glass. >> Uh thank you. Um when I brought the healthc care question to you it was very early on in that process and I

367had incomplete information at that time. Um, and I told you that um, I have more information now. I don't have as much information as I will have once we get a full and complete report on it. But I can tell you unequivocally that the bargaining teams in the interestbased bargaining facilitator um, have not been implicated in any way with anything to do with the healthcare overage. So my recommendation to you is to approve this tonight. What's at risk is the trusting relationship that you have with your associations. That that is a that has a powerful currency and it is something that you want to protect and preserve. So that is my recommendation. >> Thank you, Mr. Hills. >> Yeah. Well, I would gladly recede to the superintendent's wishes in that regard. Um it is important

368information for us to have which we did not have until you just gave it to us. Um and uh um I'm happy to hear that. Um I think it still leaves open the question of what did the unions know and when did they know it, but that is not prejuditial or that's not at odds with the idea of them not being implicated in any problems. In other words, that's still a relevant question. But um if based on what you've uh ascertained um I would recede to that and um on that basis I would support going forward. >> Thank you. >> Um I'd like to recognize Mr. Wickoff. >> Thank you. I want to make this crystal clear. We learned about it the same time you did from Dr. Glass. Period. There's nothing else that I

369can say about it. That's when we learned about it. That's when we had our first discussion. And I think he told you guys the day before, two days before that. That's when we learned about it. We had no idea that there was anything wrong or possibly wrong. We still don't know exactly where that's going to come out until the audits here. Just so to implicate that the union knew or was in cahoots with a facilitator is absolutely 100% ridiculous. >> Excuse me. >> No, I'm talking. I have the floor right now. >> Okay. Okay. Well, when you're finished, then I'll ask to be >> So, I'm just saying that's when we knew. That's a fact. >> And I just want to let that be clear on the record. >> Thank you, Mrs. Zuzak. >> Thank

370you, Madam President. We have an insurance committee, Mr. Hills, that meets that goes over the renewals. It's not something that is brought to the bargaining table that we talk about. We are given the numbers. This is what it is. This is what the renewal is. This is how much more the employer going to have are the employees going to have to pay. Our insurance went up this year. That's what we're told. It's going up 1%. It's going up 5%. Kaiser is going up this. The PO is going up this. There is no discussion about it's this much over the cap. I mean, we're told this is the cap. Anything above it, you guys pay. And that's what happens every year. We were told, like Scott said, the same exact time that you found out. So,

371this is all news to us. The facilitator knows nothing. We choose the facilitator together. We have to be in agreement on the facilitator. In fact, we changed CSEA requested that we change to the same one Laba has because they were better at it. There's 10 dates that Mike has to negotiate between all of our negotiation teams, both of our labor reps, and the facilitator. It isn't that easy to just do. So, it's something we've been doing. It's something we fully believe in and to question it and to even put out there the thought that we are in quotequote cahoots is uncalled for and you should not be saying anything until we have the final numbers. We all understand and hear together what happened. So to even insinuate that there was anything is so incredibly disrespectful

372and uncalled for. >> Excuse me. >> Thank you. And um Dr. Dr. Kelly has something to say too. >> I'd like to move the agenda. >> Thank you, Jim. We miss you. Um I was >> gonna say that. Um I I would also like to make a comment. Um I did bargaining for a long time for the union before interestbased bargaining and this does seem like such a better system. I mean we were told okay you think you need this much of a raise ask for double that because that's how you do it. I mean, there were all these this is much more comfortable and open and Okay, Mr. >> Yeah. Um, so, um, I'm, uh, concerned about some of the statements that have been made, so I'm going to have to address them. First

373of all, I made it very clear that I wasn't implicating anything anybody in anything. I made it very clear that I was saying until we have more information, we should not take any actions that have any relationship to the uh to the bargaining process because we all know we're going to have a big bargaining uh process over that issue. And so I was very careful in what I said. And so for you to tell me that what I said was ridiculous and for you to tell me that it was disrespectful is in my view ridiculous and disrespectful. And I did not say anything about what you knew. I said we need to know what you knew and when you knew it. So then you trans you converted what I said into me saying that you

374knew it. And so then you were being defensive and saying uh that um that you didn't know it. I never said that you did know it. I said we need to ask and answer the question of what did you know and when did you know it and that has to be done for everybody involved in the process including me and so uh your reaction which you know you guys talk about trust and you talk about respect maybe we need a facilitator between the board and the unions because you're not treating us with respect and you're not treating us with trust and I don't trust the way I get treated by you guys. Um, okay. >> Um, may I table the May I move to table the motion because it's so it's so >> bad idea.

375>> Well, it's so excuse me >> that's twice. >> Yeah, let's reset. I would like to I would like to suggest that we table this with the instruction of holding the dates with the negotiator so that we can everybody can just take a breath. We can finish this agenda. We can get out of here. It's almost midnight. Um I I I have to I I appreciate the new information. I would have I I I that might have helped the conversation. I don't know. Um, but I think that because we have the fidiciary duty to our community, um, that is our job. Um, I I don't I don't think there's a question about what kind of negotiation is questionable. I think that it's, um, there's so much tension, it might be best to move to table

376it, preserving the dates, and bring it back with the information from the insurance, and we can wrap it all up in a nice little package. I'm moving to table this item. >> Is there a second to table the item? >> Okay. So, there's no second for that. So, we're just going on with this the way it is. Um I I I think we should vote. Did Did you want to say some more? >> Yeah, I just Um, member Morgan, I understand her motion and um, uh, so I'm just going to reiterate one more time that, uh, I was very careful in what I said. I asked whether or not there's any current activity going on with the facilitator that would be interrupted uh if we didn't act uh tonight. And I was very careful to

377say that I have no problem with the facilitator. um but that the facilitator was part of the process of negotiating um an arrangement on health insurance that's under investigation and a prudent approach would be given that state of affairs. You changed the state of affairs for me by the information you provided and I stated that based on um what you provided I could go forward. Um, I didn't really need to be uh verbally assaulted uh because I was very careful in what I said. And uh the people who verbally assaulted me were not being careful about what they said. But I'm going to stick with my commitment that I made to you, which was based on the information you gave, which um uh we didn't know until you gave it to us. Um I made

378a commitment that I would go forward based on your recommendation. And that's why I was unable to second um member Morgan's uh motion because I had made that commitment to you. >> Um Mr. Whitov and Muzi Zuziak, I won't really appreciate you telling us when you knew answering that question. And at least for me, I totally trust you. You didn't know. You didn't know. So, >> thank you, President Perry. >> Mr. Glass, >> thank you. Uh, just, uh, quickly, uh, I want to, um, apologize to the board, um, if there was additional information that you needed to be informed on to make a decision on this, um, I would have been happy to provide it to you. Um, and tell you what what I, um, know at this point so that you can make a,

379um, an informed decision. That's part of my responsibility. Um, up to this point it was my understanding that the concern was around this the le the the dollar amount because that was what was stated at the last meeting uh was it was the dollar amount. We had an agenda setting meeting where we discussed this and I was not made aware of of these additional concerns. So I I think it it's a learning point for me and for all of us to really communicate about um what are the board's concerns and to the extent that we can bring you information where we're we're not surprised that's a good practice for all of us. So I I want to apologize all of you uh for not proactively uh helping facilitate this conversation better. >> Thank you. apology.

380Um, but I will just need to clarify that um, I'm not comfortable leaving here right now um, with any insinuation or suggestion that by asking what did you know and when did you know it that I was presuming that you knew it or didn't know it. when you asked that question, when I asked that question, I'm saying I don't know whether you did or I don't know whether you didn't. And I don't really want to know. I would I would never have asked you that question. I would have said as part of this process, we need to find out what what you what people knew and what they didn't know and when did they know it. And I said that applies to me too. It applies to all of us. We've got to figure out

381what did we know and when did we know it. So now you have come out and provided us with information that I never would have asked you for which is that you didn't know it and that you take numbers I guess from the district or from the facilitator or whatever. You take numbers and you accept it and you didn't know that you were going over the cap. the fact that there was an increase in cost and that there was an and that there was a reduction or there wasn't as much of an increase uh in your members share as um would have been anticipated um you know I I can't quite figure out how that works into the equation but if you say um that you found out when we did thank you for that

382information I didn't really ask you that information but thank you for that information my point was that we until we know who knew what and when they knew it, we shouldn't um necessarily take an action on something that doesn't have any impact. Again, I receded to the superintendent's information, but I don't like the I I don't like the suggestion that if you if you it's not a question of it did you trust them that they didn't that if you didn't know, it wasn't a question of whether you trusted them or didn't trust them. The question is they could know and if they did know that might not be anything wrong with that. The point is you get all these value judgments and all this paranoid stuff about oh you're asking me a question so you're

383being disrespectful. The question is not disrespectful. The interpretation of it is but the point is they could know and that could be perfectly all right and they could not know and it could be perfectly all right. I wasn't going there because that's up to the investigators, not up to me. But the suggestion that if you ask the question, you you don't trust somebody. There was no trust or distrust. It reflected in what I said and what I asked. >> I understand. We should be able to ask a question and not mean that we're distrustful of them. I'm was just commenting that I was glad they answered and I trust their answer that they didn't know. And I think we need to get back to um voting on this if if we can do this collective

384consultancy for interested bargaining. So we had a a motion and a second. I'm all in favor? >> I >> opposed. No. Okay. So 5. Thank you. Now we're on to item 14, the consent calendar. Approval of consent calendar see through. Do any board members have any comments or questions or any consent item that does not require putting to vote putting pulling to vote on separately? Do any members wish to pull any items to be voted on separately? Um, I guess I would like to um ask a question about two consent items, but it doesn't require polling to vote on separately. I would like to question item J and item K. Can I get a motion to approve consent calendar items C through N except J and K? >> No, you didn't follow up. >> You

385can ask questions. >> Oh, I can ask my questions now. Okay. Um my questions on item J and K um that are both for legal services. Um I know we have we have asked for information about how much money we have spent on them and what were they working on and what were the results and we haven't gotten that. >> Be happy to provide you an update on that madam chair. Um shortly after I started, we did receive u requests for uh the cost of legal services going back 10 years in addition to uh all of the major cases across those uh 10 years. Uh I informed um member Morgan made that request. I informed her at that time that is an extensive in uh staff intensive request and it would take us time to

386compile it. We have completed that and we will provide it to the board in the update tomorrow. >> Okay, great. And really for 10 years I was just asking for the last >> year but it is a lot of years. >> The idea was that five has been it's been asked before. So there should have been five years. >> It has been asked before. >> So it did require us working with all of the firms that we've used to look at their billing and ask them about cases. So it's an extensive request. >> Okay. Thank you for doing that. >> Go back on something. I wanted to comment on those two items actually now. How do I do that? >> Well, Jay and K. >> Well, um just from a procedural standpoint, you've you're in

387the question phase. >> We're in the question. >> Okay. So, um so item so Fen so F3 uh that's outlined in item J. The contract states that they are being used for special ed education special education cases um uh special education legal services to Laguna Beach including but not limited to ma matters involving section 504. Um I'm concerned that this contract is specific in that way because I know they've been um solicited for information on Brown Act issues and other items outside of the scope of this contract. And so I'm curious if this contract um if we're going to limit their services then to those services and the same would probably be applicable to BBK because it's talking about development of contracts and other matters as may be requested. So that one's a little bit

388more broad and open. >> So may I address that question first? Pretty specific. Yeah. So the uh background information has the language including but not limited to uh so it includes those matters related to special education but there are other areas >> but it's specific to it's still specific to um special ed because it says including but not limited to matters involving section 504. >> Including but not limited to means that we can ask them other questions as well. We have depending on the circumstances in which >> as well as special education matter. >> Can I just add it? It also states in the background general and special education >> which allows us to use it for general education purposes and special education purposes. >> Okay. All right. >> Thank you for those answers and

389uh thank you that we'll be getting that information. Okay. Let's put those back on um and vote on vote on all the items C through N. >> I thought we did too. >> We do not have a motion. We just had questions. >> Oh, okay. May I get a motion to >> move items through >> N? Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. Um, uh, all in favor? >> I opposed. point of order. >> Yes. >> I don't think people should start packing up and uh disturbing the the uh the order of the meeting because it's late at night. I think we wait until we're adjourned before we start packing up. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Great if we did not plan eightour meetings. You're right. I'm on hour 17 of my

390day. Eight an eight hour meeting for a regular board that meets twice a month is really just way beyond the pale. >> The governance took a long time. >> Well, then we need to think differently about how we do governance. >> Yeah. Well, we've been trying to get a governance workshop. >> Let's not have this discussion right now, but I I I get it. Dy noted. Duly noted. >> Um, may I have a vote from Dr. Kelly? >> Thank you, Dr. Kelly. Okay. Um, the next regular meeting is September 25th, 2025. Can I get a motion to adjourn this meeting? >> So move second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. >> Bye, Jim. Bye, Jim. Feel better.