School Board Meeting July 24, 2025- (Open Session)

001Everybody ready? Okay, >> good evening and welcome to the July 24th, 2025 meeting 2025 meeting uh of the LBUSD Board of Education. Um open session is called to order at 6:04. This is our first meeting with our new superintendent, Dr. glass and we're very happy to have him here and hope you will all welcome him warmly. All um all public comments um submitted online were sent to all the board members prior to the meeting. If you are a student and wish to speak, please put student on your card so that we can call you first and you don't have to be here for the whole meeting. Let's see. Um, Mr. Witco, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> It's on the board. >> You can do that. I pledge allegiance to the

002flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. I knew you could do it. Okay, >> I hear someone >> report on close session action. The board took action to readmit student 001 by a vote of five to zero. All members voting yes. Um now we are going to go to public comment for items not on the agenda but within the subject matter and jurisdiction of the board. We welcome your presence and your input. To ensure a respectful and productive meeting, we ask that there be no clapping, no booing or other disruptions during the comments or board deliberations. If there is a disruption, the first disruption, um I will I will say something and give

003a reminder. The second disruption would be a formal warning. And the third disruption, we will have to have a recess and removal. So, just to let everybody know what's going on. Um, let's start uh with our public comments. Clerk Hills, are there any speaker cards for those wishing to comment on items not on the the agenda but within the subject matter of the board? here. >> Okay. Um, Superintendent Dr. Glass, would do you have a report for us? >> I do. Thank you, Madam President. Well, and good evening. Thank you, trustees, and Madam President, as I begin my report tonight, I want to share a few reflections and updates from my first month in this role. We are still very early in that journey and I've been deeply engaged in listening, learning, and laying the

004groundwork for meaningful progress together. Since officially officially starting, I've prioritized meetings with you, our board members, district leaders, staff, families, and community partners. I've had one-on-one meetings with each trustee, including meetings with you this week to better understand your individual perspectives and your hopes for the district. I've also spent time with our communications team, HR, administrative services, learning services, financial services um and all the elements um uh related to those just understanding the team in the district. And I've begun outreach to our principles, local partners including the Laguna Art Museum with President Perry, uh the city and police department that I'll report on a little later, uh and the Boys and Girls Club. In addition, I've had individual meetings with parents, students, staff, and community members. These conversations have been candid, informative, and in many

005cases, inspiring. I've shared uh I've heard a shared pride in Laguna Beach schools and what this organization represents and an acknowledgement of times that we've fallen short, but most importantly, a collective desire to constructively move forward for the future of our children and this community. As you know, I have a 100 day entry plan or maybe 90-day entry plan uh that focuses on three things: listening, assessing, and building trust. And I've already begun community walkthroughs and listening sessions, informal coffee chats. Um and I I told Trustee Morgan that I would be very caffeinated in all those and that is happening in those meet uh with several sessions uh for families and staff scheduled over the next few weeks. and Victoria has been uh very supportive in making sure that that that schedule stays full. I've

006also been reviewing past survey data, board goals, our strategic frameworks to ensure alignment as we plan our next steps. This early work was recently featured in coverage in the Laguna Beach Independent and the LA Times Daily Pilot. These stories highlighted our focus on transparency, innovation, and responsiveness to community needs. And those are values that I am committed to upholding. As part of that commit commitment, I want to acknowledge something else I've heard clearly that our community wants us to do better, not just in outcomes, but in how we treat each other. So tonight, I'm asking for all of us, board members, staff members, and the public to recommmit to respectful engagement. That includes not interrupting one another during meetings, speaking only when recognized by the president, and showing our respect and restraint as we work

007through challenging issues that face our schools and our broader community. These expectations are grounded in our district policies, but more importantly, they reflect the kind of thing that we want to show our kids um that we can do. We want to be a model for our students. We won't always agree, and that's okay. If we're doing meaningful work, we're going to encounter issues where there's no single right answer. We may have some of those tonight. We'll instead have a set of tough choices, and that's life. It's natural that there are different values and perspectives and those will surface. What matters most is how we engage with those issues. How we lead in this room sends a message to the kind of district and the kind of community we want to be. In the months ahead,

008I'll continue to meet with the staff and stakeholder groups, reviewing data and operations, preparing for a more formal set of entry findings to share with the board this fall. I've already begun collecting a list of ideas to bring to you. The upcoming back- to-school events will also give me a great opportunity to spend meaningful time with the staff, the parents, students, and more time with each of you. I'll be working closely with President Perry and the full board to uh to support your work as a governing team and we're working on that already thinking ahead to the key issues that face the district and how I can support this board making a positive lasting impact with your time on the board. Finally, I want to thank you again for the incredible opportunity to be here

009and serve um and for welcoming my family into this community. Sorry. Um for the warm and genuine support that I've received from you and so many here. It means a lot. I am honored to be in this role and I'm optimistic about the work that we have ahead. I'm committed to keeping Lagona Beach the excellent school district that I know you all love. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um let's go on to the bargaining units. CSEA the would you do you have a report? >> Yeah, thank you President Perry. Good night. We um good evening. We had a wonderful first meeting with Dr. Glass and CSEA is really looking forward to collaborating with him and moving forward to um the benefit of our students and staff. So we're looking forward to that. Also,

010I have to give, like I do every year, a big shout out to Ryan and his team. And again, I stand by that we have one of the best maintenance teams in the United States. Our guys have been working so so hard on so many different things and I've watched them all summer and I have staff that tell me we have the most polite maintenance people. They're right there all the time. They take pride in what they do and they just deserve a big um shout out and I'll be doing brownies and lemon squares for the barbecue again for them at the end in August. Um we just finished summer school and classified staff have been very busy and engaged in helping with our um recovery aspect and also with um the lead program right

011now with 600 kids in it. We have a lot of classified staff helping and working with that and it's just been a really fun week and I know some of you will get to see it tomorrow and you'll see all the happy energy and um all the arts and crafting and learning going on and I go home every day covered in paint. >> So, it's been fun. >> Thank you, Mr. Witka. >> Good evening, board. It feels like it's been a long time since we've been here. Um, so not, you know, it's summer school or summer, so there's not as much going on for us, but we did run a very successful summer school program. Once again, 100% completion at the at the high school on credit recovery. Um, the majority of it direct taught

012as you saw last year, um, President Perry. And we actually added a few items in this year that we're excited that we'll share next the next board meeting. We go through it all, but we added some AVID programs in and some different things like that. So, I think you'll be excited to see that. Um, and also want to give a shout out to Ryan and the staff. There was a lot going on at the high school this year, um, with the field and, uh, finding leaks and bathrooms and all of that and the communication and the professionalism of everybody there, working with the students and and working through changes on a daily basis. Um, it just was kind of flawless. So, um, it's wonderful working with them and being able to do that. And outside

013of that, we're super excited to uh, get back to school and, uh, get started again. Mr. Mayberry. >> Yeah. Well, they pretty much gave gave my report. So, uh just a lot of wonderful things going on this this summer in our very large robust summer school program. Uh as I said, we wrapped up kind of our more intervention one uh last week and now we're going into this enrichment one this weekend and next week and uh again glad you guys are hopefully you're able to visit it and just see that how excited uh the families are and the students to be there. We we have we do surveys to get feedback on how we can continuously improve those. Dr. Canenberg um tire title tire tirelessly leads that work. Uh and we've received a lot of

014good feedback uh on the intervention one. And I think as we all know uh sometimes going to do more academic based learning in the summer is not the funnest thing you want to do in the summer, right? Uh however, our staff works really really hard to make it feel like it's more than just here to get some academic additional academic sport. It's fun. It's engaging. They're playing instruments. Uh I think you guys had a Irvine Valley College adviser that was there one day. So just it's really a continuation of the work that they're doing during the school year. So the kids are engaged and but also having a chance to have fun. So um great to have staff to support that in the summer and appreciate the board uh supporting that as well. Thank you,

015>> Mr. Conlin. >> Thank you, President Barry. Um hope everyone's had a restful summer and enjoyed their their getaways. Um, it's been an eventful summer for us thus far in HR and been busy filling the remaining vacancies in preparation for the fast approaching 2526 school year. Our attention has also focused on finalizing the details for our upcoming professional development day on August 19th. That's the same day as a welcome back breakfast. And I've personally enjoyed getting to know Dr. Glass over these last few weeks and being office mates and excited to welcome you and your family to Lagouna Beach. >> Thank you. Now, board reports. Um, Dr. Kelly, do you have a report? >> It's been a wonderful summer. Uh, I must say, uh, with, uh, having some time off. Uh, it's been really fun

016as far as listening to all the students in my community who keep raving on about, uh, the LEAD program and what you've been doing, uh, in that and how sad it is to end and can it could be going longer. Um, I've also been very interested in everything I'm hearing about the new superintendent. Uh it was wonderful to see the article uh in the Orange County pilot and in our own independent. As usual, I am saddened that uh the schoolboard stuff is in the back. Uh he deserved to be on page two. Uh most places that's where he would have been seen as the role that he is providing and will provide in our our community. And I've also spent some time as far as with uh city government and some uh of our council

017members. They're excited that we're moving forward with the pool. Uh they're excited that in March we will be breaking grounds as far as to finish it in I think 11 months hopefully. And u they're really not interested in meeting anymore as far as on the planning of it that they think that we've done a great job over all these uh years and the plan is a good plan. Thank you. >> Um I don't really have much of a report. I'm also uh was was happy to have a little bit of time in between meetings and also very happy to have my son in lead this week and have a schedule and I want to do a shout out to all the people who have been working on summer school and lead. It's been just a

018terrific program and um I know the kids get a lot out of it. It's a great thing our district does. Um I'll second and third fourth the shout out to the facilities team that every summer just just so much work to get our uh schools back in order and um just add my thanks to Jason for a great start to the the uh to your service here. I really appreciate it. You don't have much of a report either. I did meet with the art museum education department, transportation, the CCA board meeting, and a group called tutor me. That was very interesting and has some possibilities and I look forward to visiting the LEAP program tomorrow. >> Okay, thank you. Um, so I also would like to welcome Dr. Glass to our district. I um we've

019had several meetings and it's been wonderful to be in this role with um a leader that can give us guidance and perspective um whether we agree or not. Um we've been able to have a lot of really great dialogue over why and and what the different options and decisions look like which has really helped me because this is new for me obviously here but I've been over there for a bajillion years. Um and it's nice to have that leadership. So thank you. Um we um also the facilities team, the high school track is going in extremely fast. Um it's impressive how um some construction when you're looking at undergrounding is everywhere and and the track is like done just like that. So it's construction projects are different. They all have different elements to it and

020it's important to make sure they're done right and I applaud our team for getting that done. Um we've had a nice summer, a little travel, a little chasing baseball, preparing to move our last student into college. Um, I proudly attended the T and Elmoro fifth grade graduation which was wonderful because we have all graduated our kids from T or my family has all graduated from T and it was really nice to be at Elmoro and see how that goes because I've never been to an Elmoro graduation. Um then I headed to the Thirstston graduation um and participated in that at the high school and then as well as the high school uh graduation which was wonderful because all of the students that graduated are kids that my my kids have grown up with and those

021families and it was really special to be able to be up there and congratulate them all and um see them so excited and so thrilled for what's coming. Um I attended the staff barbecue at the end of the year. It was great, very well organized. They had terrific raffle prizes for all of the staff. I don't know if they had enough for every single staff, but it's it was very exciting every time somebody won. Um, and kudos to who to the team that put that together. Um, it was great. I went to the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Boys and Girls Club for their new playground. Uh, which was spearheaded originally by our own Cotti Petri Norris who lives here in town but is no longer in our district because of redistric redistricting, but she

022was there since her project she started off and that was great. I met Katrina Foley again as I had also met her at a um um another event that I went to and I'm completely escaping me. It's a >> Oh, I did go to Carter's um promotion. That's true. From Katrina Foley's um graduation program. They have the civic organization program which he was talking about when he was here. And they have a graduation at the end of that and so I attended that. Um I was one of I was the only board member which was a little surprising but um that's okay. He was happy to see me there. Um and I think um Jeff Dixon was there as well. Um and then Diane Dixon was at the Boys and Girls Club event as well.

023So that was really nice to see people and kind of see how how they interact and um h and model um that political process. Um we kicked off our initial transportation committee um very brief just to decide how the conversation would go, who should be included and um how we want that to work. I think we have our first meeting coming up in August. Um and I'm excited because that is definitely something that um Aliso um residents talked to me quite a bit about when I was out walking the areas out there. Um, and I'm excited to see how we can pro move that forward. Um, I attended the city council meeting where the superintendent was invited to speak and be introduced. Howard introduced him, which was lovely. Um, and it was very nice to

024be there to show support for our new superintendent. I also spoke about as a public citizen about supporting the Irvine Bowl and music and hope that that's something that the district can tap into it once that's something that might be an option. Um, and then I also went last week to um or this past Tuesday to encourage the city to consider a program that allows um that requires some kind of a pump or fire hose type system. They they do exist um for any new pool that's built in the area is something that I'm going to that I recommended or asked for um for our pool. So, I don't know if that's in there or not. Um, but I think that being partnering with the city, um, as part of the fire mitigation plan would

025be great. And our pool has a ton of water as a resource, and we have a big huge hill right behind the school. Um, and then I went to the summer school at Elmora, which I don't know if I heard about, um, which was wonderful. They had, um, fifth grade, you know, kindergarten through fifth grade students that were there and they were broken into, um, groups. And I don't want to take away the thunder of Betsy when she comes back and presents it, but it was absolutely wonderful because these kids have worked really hard all all session. And they had a carnival at the end of it and all of the games, they had carnival games spread out, music, they had cotton candy and everything, but all of the games were made from recycled materials.

026So they went out and got all the cardboard and the cups and everything and made all of the games for the students to play. So it was a great opportunity for them to see all the different ways that you can entertain yourself that isn't screen oriented. I thought, but then also that creativity that comes out of that process as well. Um, and then I think I think that's it. I'm going to the lead program tomorrow. So, I've been really busy and um um being out there supporting our students and our kids and it's makes me very happy. So, and rescuing a few dogs. I've got a few bruises to show that. So, thank you. That's the end of my report. Well, um, what I wanted to report is that, uh, last few weeks, um, I've

027probably sent the new superintendent more memos and background papers than he ever ever ever wanted to receive from anybody. And um uh what I have found is that our new superintendent is a very very brilliant man who uh synthesizes and and analyzes and um studies uh uh rigorously not just my stuff but all the stuff coming his way. Um it's been a real pleasure getting to know you um and working with you. Um, I think the the thing I would most readily say if I was asked to um uh do a one word is honest. I just have found you to be an incredibly honest man and I think that's what we really need. And uh so I'm really looking forward to working with you. And um uh I um wanted to mention that um

028in terms of activities in addition to spending some time out at Elmoro events and and um events up at uh up here at Thirstston and couple of other things that I've really had a lot of fun and my wife has joined me in doing. Um, we went down yesterday to Rivian and they had a really fantastic music program for toddlers and I've got two of my grandchildren toddlers in town right now. And I took my wife and I took them down and it was it started out kind of a small group and it just got bigger and bigger and more moms and more dads and I had the pleasure of being introduced as the grandpa, only grandpa there. And um, but watching these toddlers interact with each other and um and uh really get serious

029about the music. And um these are the kids that are either in our prek or our kindergart kindergarten. And they're also the kids that are too small to be in school yet, but they're the kids who um I guess you could say that you've been caught red-handed trying to figure out how they can be served by our pool. And uh so um the thing about it is it was just it was a highlight of the week if not the month for me to go down to that and the Rivian does such a fantastic job sponsoring these community events and activities. It was just a a real pleasure. I also would like to say that um uh the comments about the the the grounds cruise and what goes on in summer really resonates with me because

030um uh I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before or maybe it's uh there's very few things I failed to mention before but I was actually um a member of the classified employees um uh department here in the school district and I used to mow the lawns at all the schools during the summer and and I had a chance during the end of the school year uh picnic that they had in the parking lot to spend a lot of time talking with the grounds crew people and um they were over there sort of by theirelves playing um uh the bean bag game. I well I don't like to say that. The point is um I spent a lot of time with them and they're just uh they every everything that's been said here tonight

031is true and more that um they're they and their families and the you know you see their families together uh you really understand who they are and what they do and they are like it almost like rises to the level of patriotism the spree decor they have about serving this school district and we're really blessed by having those people. Um, the other thing I'd like to say, I read in the newspaper that um some of the union representatives uh made comments in the paper that one of your biggest jobs is going to be to restore trust. And um you know, I think um that's interesting because I think all of us have I don't think that's your that's your um necessarily limited to you in any way. I think all of us have some work

032to do restoring trust because I think trust has been damaged by um all of us in certain ways and there's nobody that can be sitting back and saying um uh you know our trust has to be restored because we've lost our trust. The fact is everybody has work to do restoring trust and I really liked your comments about we really got to work on that. Um and uh and how people treat each other on the board is a very important part of it. You know, it's funny. I noticed Jeff Dixon is going off to Newport Mesa or whatever, and because I was doing some research on how different districts deal with student representation, um, and how they go through the process of of appointing that, and I was just looking through some of Newport Mesa

033and comparing it to San Diego and whatnot. And um one of the things I noticed, if I've got it right, on Newport Mesa, where Jeff is going, they have protocols for how board members are supposed to conduct themselves. And it says not only verbal communications, but non non nonverbal communications should be civil and and have good manners. So I I thought that was kind of an interesting one. When we get into our bylaws, maybe we'll want to add that to our bylaws. So anyway, um those are my comments. Um, Madame President, and thank you for the time that you you've allowed me. >> Thank you, Clerk Hails. All right, let's uh move on to a governance item for the discussion and direction for staff regarding the revision of theou between LBUSD and the city of

034Laguna Beach regarding the school resource officers SRO. And would you like me to talk about this a bit or do you want to >> I'm happy to introduce it um or follow uh from you. Yeah, thank you. Um as you know, Madame uh President, we have a long-standing with the city and the police force here in Laguna Beach around our SRO program. And I did have the opportunity to meet with Chief Calbertt and a couple of members of his team to talk about the status of this. So I think I'd like to update you on that meeting first and what I took away from that. And then we have um Michael Keller here also to talk about some of the supports that we intend to uh put in place across the district really to build

035on the capacities that officer Croin um created for us and a testament to the impact that she's had in that role. Um but just on my update with um my meeting with uh police chief uh Calbertt, he and I had a and his team had a constructive and colleleial conversation that just affirmed the strong partnership that exists between the district and the police department. We we both share an interest in student safety, positive relationships, ongoing communication, and of course, Chief Calvert is uh I've just in the short time that I've been in this community know that he's he is known for that um as being a great communicator and a positive uh force in the community. Our discussion focused specifically on the SRO program and uh we both agreed that it has and it must

036remain focused on prevention, inclusion, and service and not on enforcement. Um, Lagouna Beach's approach, and by that I mean the district and the police force approach the SRO program, is thoughtful and intentional. I've worked in other organizations that have SRO programs. They've all been wonderful. And and I would say this is a a quality system that you have and partnership that we have with the with the force. It's designed to support students, build trust, and help foster a safe and welcoming school environment. One of the one of the assets of it that the chief talked about is that as officers complete their terms uh here working as SRO is they then go out into the community and they have those relationships. Um just on the um um on the on the 4th of July, our

037family was out on the beach. I don't remember which one. It was a big surf day. Um but we did see um um one of the officers Danny. Um Danny. Ah, there he is. Um, uh, Danny was, uh, riding an ATV and was mobbed by students, um, in a good way. And, um, and that I think that goes to show the the kind of connection and relationship. And as our students become adults and go out into the community, those relationships persist, um, and and can help the officers uh, head off um, issues that may be arising or be a trusted person on the force that uh, a young person can can go to. Chief uh Calvert emphasized and I um want to underscore that the officers selected to undergo s the SRO program or to

038to become part of the SRO program uh go through significant and specialized training. This includes coursework, ongoing professional learning in youth mental health, trauma informed care, deescalation strategies, adult adolescent development, legal parameters in school settings, uh cultural awareness and community-based policing practices. Uh it's a role that requires not just a law enforcement expertise, but deep empathy and skill and a commitment to working with young people. We also discussed uh Officer Croin who currently serves currently or did serve as the district's SRO. Um officer Croin established herself as a respected, visible, trusted presence in all of our school campuses. Uh she had a thoughtful student has a thoughtful student- centered approach that exemplifies what the role can be and should be. a supportive adult that builds positive relationships, diffuses potential problems before they escalate, and most

039importantly, and what we want to build on serves as a connector between students, staff, and the resources in the community. As part of my ongoing entry process, I'll continue to engage with students, families, um, and school leaders to gather input about the SRO pro program and think about how we can improvement. I really appreciate Chief Calbertt's approach, his openness to continued dialogue and collaboration. And at this point, I'd like to turn things over to Michael Keller to uh talk about talk with the board some about the supports the district is putting in place to sustain and strengthen the very kind of proactive student focused work that Officer Croin has led in our schools. So with that, I'll turn things over to Michael. >> Thank you, Dr. Glass. and uh board president Perry, members of the

040board, it's so nice to talk to you this evening. Uh we we have really enjoyed an incredible partnership with a school res with city of Laguna Beach and and developing the school resource officer program from one officer at the initial onset in 2018 to the district agreeing to partner on a second team member starting in 2019. And we have had five fi five current or alumni members of the of the current Laguna Beach Police Department be part of that program. and that gives them really invaluable skills and relationships with young people in our community which can be really helpful. I also want to honor the role that Ashley Croin played. She was an incredible partner for us. She she has a unique skill set, a unique approach. She's wonderful and highly valued for the services

041that she provided in consultation with our department and across the district. So, she's she continues to be somebody that we want we can readily reach out to. And so I just want to say that too she still makes herself available to us and then in in the unique consultation sense for for providing services for us. I do also want to just talk about um our role in in selecting an officer. We do participate in that process when there's a new member, but the ultimate decision for staffing comes down to the Lagouna Beach Police Department command staff and and their decisions on selecting the qualified individual for that role. And then as far as how we approach sensitive issues, specifically related to females coming forward with issues around sexual sexual assaults, harassment, bullying, lots of different

042areas that I think was really one of the drivers of this concern. We have a full systems approach for this and I just want to talk through just again you with your support on our student support services that we provide. We're able to provide a lot of really high quality specialized supports with M's level PPS qualified team members. We have nine site school counselors, four school social workers, four school psychologists, two school counselors who are coordinators. So that's a total of 19 staff members. And some of our administrators have backgrounds in psychology, school counseling, includes Dr. Alman at the high school. I don't know if you knew he was he has a social work degree and was a former school counselor. Irene White, former school psychologist. Jennifer Moss, former school psychologist. I'm a former school

043counselor and school psychologist. And together, um, of those individuals that I mentioned in terms of the direct service providers, of those 19 individuals, 17 are women. and we and they're readily available to create safe options for students who seek gender- aligned care. So all of our school team are trained in trauma-informed care, all the all the requirements of title nine which we have annual trainings on which which are to address issues around sexual harassment, discrimination in that area. The Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, CANRA, is a mandatory ret training every year and there are lots of specific elements of that from grooming behavior to partnering with law enforcement and child protective services on issues and we stand readily available and respond immediately when issues like this come up. Entry points for students are with

044parents and caregivers first and foremost. We'd hope that we have close comm students would have close communication with their families. This area in general is a highly stigmatized area. Lots of people do not want to report this and so we know that the foundation of reporting is is a high quality trusting relationship and a and a dstigmatized culture around mental health. Other entry points could be referrals from peers directly with a classroom teacher, classified staff, administrators, and then the array of individuals that I just mentioned who are highly specialized and caring and receptive to supporting students in times of need and crisis. So, with all that being said, um we want to continue to explore different options around additional training in this area. I think Ashley's a great example of somebody that has highly highly

045specialized training in child exploitation, child sexual abuse, really difficult topics and she does a lot of work in that area. And I think that in addition to the regular trainings, we can definitely consider additional supplemental trainings for our team members to ensure that we have a safe and trusting response process going forward. And we're going to be exploring that in the coming coming weeks and and look at different options in our in our district and community for our teams. And that's what I have. >> Thank you, Michael. And uh just to close, Madam President, I wanted to apologize to Officer Lopez. I called him by his first name and I just want to give him the respect that he deserves. And uh Officer Lopez, just please know that you're really respected uh and valued in

046this community and we look forward to working with Officer York as well. And with that, Madam President, we'll turn things back to you and for discussion in any direction that the board has for us. >> Um may may I ask a question, Dr. Keller? >> Yes. Um so officer Ashley Croin really got there were um students felt very comfortable coming to her. >> Yep. >> How how what can we do so students feel comfortable coming to the counselors and social workers. >> Yes. >> I mean because that hasn't happened as much. >> Well, I would push back on that a little bit respectfully, madam. Um, I I would say that I think that we really work to have our team members be highly visible with students. That means it's facetime one on one-on-one or in

047small groups or in large groups doing large presentations. I would also share that um that that is the foundation and and non non-judgmental interactions, open counseling type reactions, building rapport with students th those are all really important for students to feel safe and comfortable. So obviously at first and foremost we want to do no harm with children that we serve. And so we uh hold ourselves to a high standard in terms of making sure that we're positive, respectful, open, and and readily make ourselves readily available in times of need. If a student's crying or visibly upset, we approach them. We ask them what's going on. We bring them into a quiet setting. We transition them. So there's there's a process there that tries to help get at the root cause of what the concern is.

048And it's not always these really serious issues that we're talking about tonight. It's a lot. Could be peer conflict. It could be >> a bad grade on a test. It could be trouble at home. There's so many ways that we address those issues. So >> from from what I understand, one of the ways that our SRO really made headway with young people feeling comfortable coming to her is she was there and actually did some of the lectures in the health class on sexing, date rape, drugs, >> and trafficking. Um she talked about the child pornography task force. So when girls heard, not just young women, but even men heard some of these issues, they then she opened herself up to you can talk to me about this. >> So it's comfortable to talk to somebody

049about it. >> Um so my question is are are some of our school counselors going to take that role and be able to lecture in the health classes about some of these topics? >> Can I piggyback on that? >> Yeah, thank you for your comment. Um I I have a similar I don't want to say a concern but I think what happens when um one of the SRO's comes in and and lectures a group of kids about sexing or trafficking there is a kind of um you know it's it's done not just as an educative moment but as an educative moment with potential legal options that are connected to it. And so I think that was one of the things that made her um very effective because when kids heard her talking, she was both

050teaching them about it, but going like look, you can get in a lot of trouble for this, >> which is >> you it's easier to accomplish in a uniform than it is when you're the school counselor that you go to when you are upset about various other things. So, I would just like to suggest that we still have the SRO's do that and then figure out how our female counselors can be present and participating and have a role so that we continue to do the same thing and build that kind of trust around things that are not just you need to know this, but this is something you really need to know because it's, you know, deeply problematic and legal. >> I agree with you. I and I just want to share that our students

051our student support specialist our licensed clinical social worker at the high school does go into health classes. She does teach units on healthy boundaries focuses a lot on mental health but a lot of the relationship pieces that can get young people into difficulty uh relational abuse topics that are that would help again destigmatize this build awareness with young people and then know how to what action to take to get support. So they are getting facetime in those settings and that helps them. I and I agree with you. I think that we absolutely continue those conversations. I think the right qualified people have to be there and and and I'm I think that we're on the same I think we're in agreement about that. That's too and I I agree. A lot of these >> um

052issues have happened so quickly with you know >> agreed >> AI and so on that you know we can't expect them to know how to deal with all this unless we give people some training. The other part um Dr. Keller is we of course need our counselors and our social workers for ongoing help with these issues but When you're going to somebody initially, it's going to be somebody that has talked about an issue and that you kind of know. It's not so much going to be a counselor that you know may have one be a wonderful person, but you don't really you haven't interacted with them and you don't know if they know anything about date. >> I just I I have to again respectfully disagree. I know of many cases in this school district

053where the entry points were not the school resource officer for sexual abuse, sexual assault and they came through the the social worker primarily. We have had some come through the school counselors. Uh it's not always a female issue. Also, there's abuse that happens to to males as well. And when those issues come in, we have a safe and supportive environment that immediately takes action. and we're immediately partnering with our with the police department and child protective services in those cases. So, so I I don't it's not a black or white issue. We're trying to have a multi-dimensional response model where we can have kids have different entry points with many caring adults in the school system. Obviously, we want to support parents to be have great communication with their kids too and and hopefully they

054would be a resource in a in a traumatic situation. So, and and we want to empower young people to be able to support their friends because that is often when that that information comes out and how they can support them with taking action. >> Well, an example that was given to me and I I have to give credit to Fesa for really helping out and um Michelle Foster as well as Ivy and some of the other young women. But an example they gave was there was a sexing instance that involved two female students and they took it to the male SRO and he didn't investigate it thoroughly saying it was not really traceable. They took it to Ashley who in contrast leveraged all of her resources and expertise and really advocated fiercely for these girls.

055And I know if you go to somebody and they don't take you seriously, >> then you just go within yourself >> and it's not solved. It's you you you know you just you just hold it and you don't keep trying and that it's it's a a family issue too because um you know I know things >> a lot of things that have happened here that haven't been brought out but um like for a parent of a girl who went through many of these incidents and that finally came out and the mother just felt huge guilt because she didn't know and her daughter daughter didn't feel comfortable coming to her and it it it's like you said it's friends that you need to be able to talk to it's family too and I don't want to

056I want to have as many options open to our students >> I think we have the same goal obviously prevention is is a huge part that was that would be the starting point we want to prevent any of this from happening but obviously in a world that's imperfect these situations will happen. We want people to feel like in one of the hardest pieces of communication they may ever express in a really stigmatized experience and something that potentially there's a myriad of emotions that happen around that. We want them to feel okay and that somebody's going to do something about it on the back end. And I don't and I can't comment on that particular situation. However, I uh that's not our standard of care. And so I just want you to know that we hold

057a I hold an extremely high standard of care for our team. And so in the event that we underrespond or don't handle something correctly, that's a that is a really important learning experience that we got to do better next time. Well, I'm really happy to hear that we are going to put more emphasis in this area now. And I think that if we find some good training that um the SRO should also be invited to come. >> Yeah. And they they do partner with with us on many trainings and and we would be absolutely excited to have them join us in that process. So, thank you. I appreciate it. >> I would like to report back to you in a in a few months and and I'll let you know the status of this. >>

058That would be fabulous. Dr. Keller, thank you. >> Thank you. >> So, if I may, I'm a little confused because I thought we had questions and then public comment and then discussion. I feel like we've had the whole discussion and I have a lot of questions, >> which brings me back to the beginning of this of what is the purpose of this agenda item besides just discussing the role that the SRO's have and um what our staff does, etc. I I was under the impression that we were discussing if we were looking to bring in a new a third SRO. Are we not? Are we What is the purpose of this item because I have a lot of questions related to the the SRO's under the impression that we were talking about do we are

059we looking to add or I don't know. So, um I'm looking for a little bit more background on the >> I think we're we were looking to change theou and we're still looking to maybe change theou. So what are the details of theou that we're discussing tonight? >> It's theou between the school district and the police force uh that specifies uh how the SRO program will operate, the cost sharing, the goals of the of the program. Um, Chief Calbert and I did discuss uh the provisions around adding future SRO's because that that could be something that uh if we were to do a amended or new umou with the police force that is that is an option. There's a cost associated with that that the board would need to consider as part of its budgeting

060process. >> Okay. So, is that what we're also discussing in this? >> Well, you have a discussion item. So you and you're having that discussion now to learn more about the SRO program, but you also have on your agenda to provide direction to staff if you wish around that. >> Okay, I have a couple questions. Um, you had mentioned that the officers go through a significant training. So are the officers in theou program are they selected or do they volunteer for the program and then go through the training? >> Well I I know that Danny could answer that better than me but I do know as we're part I've been a part of the process for three cycles and so that my understanding it's a specialized position and that an interested officer would apply for

061the position and then they would go through a process to be to be selected. >> Okay. Um and then how do what are the criteria that we make the selection on? Because did you say that we're part of the selection process? I can't comment on HR matters other than to say that we made a we uh had multiple candidates involved in the process and the ultimate decision lies with the city of Lagona Beach and the Lagona Beach Police Department. >> Okay. So, we're not actually participating in the actual selection of who currently of who we have on campus. Is that correct? >> It's still their officer. Yeah. That's their employee. Yeah. Yeah. >> Um because some of this is we're, you know, we're still learning on some of these things. Um, can you outline who

062pays for what what part of the um of the SRO program? Like how I know it's half and half, but is there a distinction between what half we pay for and what half the city pays for? >> I don't know the answer to that. We can uh follow up and provide that in a response to the board. >> I I I think I know the answer to that, but um check me. I think we each pay half of the salary. I think we each pay half of the benefits. We also pay for half of the car, which I think is about $40,000. >> Well, I hope so. Since we get to decorate it, we should pay for some of it. Um, that's my opinion. Okay. Um, so who So, are there hours around these um

063current SRO's that they're because right now the biggest emphasis, right, is that they're on campus. So, is there an hourly like a, you know, 8 to 4, 8 to 2, 8:1? What distinguishes after hours activities? What's during what's within the scope of the MOU? what would be considered an extra charge. >> Yeah. >> And uh I'll let Michael and perhaps officer Lopez uh we may want to ask him up to answer some of these detailed questions about his work. But just to confirm the earlier question you had around the funding uh President Perry's recollection of how it's structured is correct. It's half and half. >> And then schedule-wise we have committed to and as it's articulated in theou there's there's four 10 hour shifts. Monday through Thursday is one of the FTE shifts and then

064Tuesday through Friday is the other one. Any after hours like coming and attending board meetings or going to football games historically uh that was charges overtime but we have now rearranged schedules to be able to balance some of the afterchool activities. So um we try to support with the main hours that are provided as part of the agreement but there are often overtime hours. So, is there a distinction of what events are um considered after hours? Like, is it all school campus events? >> That is a really good question. >> I can I have the agreement and again we can provide you a copy of this board uh in the update u we can provide it in the update tomorrow but I have just happen to have the uhou here because we were discussing this.

065Um uh I'll just quote a section of it. Uh the the district may request the city provide additional services uh performed during the 4 day 10-hour work week uh to include events such as PTA meetings, schoolboard meetings, back to school nights, open houses, sporting events, uh dances, proms, or other district sponsored activities. >> Thank you Keller for a very thorough report. And I just want to welcome our new SRO that uh I hope that uh you don't take uh are looking under the the glass so much as anything about you. It's just uh we have new board members who are learning the ropes. >> It's also accountability and oversight and that is our job. So when there's an event after hours, so I do have a question. Um there was a fuel event last spring

066that happened at six o'clock in the evening and the officers were seen at the site. So, who would be paying for that? Because it's not a district related event. Um, so is the city paying for that or are we paying for that? >> I don't have any information on that. >> Can we find out who paid for that? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, so are we also asking about if we want to have a third SRO? Is that part of this conversation or a female SRO? or we uh the board can uh the s theou is an agreement uh that you have with the police department and so at any time we could approach the city around renegotiating it and restructuring it. Um I think that uh the city would and the chief would

067be um open to the concept I know that he's open to the concept of a third SRO provided that the district pays for it. And so that would be, as I mentioned earlier, a question for you in your budgeting process. If it's something the board prioritizes, it's something that we can absolutely uh do. Uh on the question of requiring one of the officers to be a female, uh that would be a discriminatory hiring element and likely illegal. Um so that that is unlikely to be something that they would agree to. >> So if we wanted to bring in a third SRO, we can't define that we would like it to be a female or Ashley protein. And not because our SRO's aren't fabulous. So, thank you. You're very lovely. I've met you. >> Yes. >>

068Right. I understand. So, but I'm also a shout out because I know you guys are great. So, I'm asking that clarifying question of we can't select if we were to hire a third SRO to address the discussion of a of female students. We can't necessarily specify a female SRO. Is that correct? >> I'm not an employment attorney. Uh but I have um served in the human resources role. I think you'd have discriminatory hiring practice challenges with that, but that can be something that we discuss with the force as a priority for us and and investigate it further. >> Okay. So, we would have to pay for a third's SRO. Um, we can't specify what it would who it would be. Um, so the idea of bringing in a third and and spending that money doesn't

069guarantee that it could be Ashley or someone equivalent. Correct. Okay. Um, and then lastly, I just wanted to say, um, Officer Lopez, I did meet your brother at Fourth of July, and you're going to have to take him to the mat because the discussion was who's more handsome and who's taller and something else. I can't remember, but I just wanted to say you guys are like twins because I over went over and approached him and he thought I was like, who are you? Because I was like, oh, there he is. So, anyway, thank you so much for asking answering all the questions. I think it offers um a lot of to take to consider. Thank you. Are there any further questions? Uh, your mic's on. So, I thought maybe you had a question. If not,

070are there any do you have any cards? >> Madam President. Yeah. If if I may offer uh something to support the board in its uh process um uh the president should um designate a board member to speak on an item. that board member should ask their questions, make any statements they want completely um uh take the time that they need and then you can call on another board member and and make sure everyone is has an opportunity to be heard. Thank you. >> I just can >> kill do you have a question? >> I think just if I were only ask >> this is not discussion just questions. >> There will be discussion. >> Okay. Yeah. No, I'm good. But I have um Now the appropriate time for >> Yes. If there's no more questions,

071then we're ready. >> If this is public comment, >> yeah, we have Logan Marshall. >> Hi, Logan. You're going to be our student rep, aren't you? >> Yes. That that's that's >> Welcome. Um, but today today I'm just coming here as a member of the public. >> I understand. But it's nice to see you. >> I see you as well. Uh, good evening members of the board. Um, guys, my name is Logan Marshall and I just want to speak briefly about the process of the new SRO and something that I think is vital to both school safety and school spirit is the importance of having a truly interested school resource officer on campus. I think something that you were talking about, President Perry, about how students can be scared to come to the counseling team

072really gets eliminated when they have an SRO that um they trust, such as last year, Officer Ashley, because that's something that um just wearing a badge doesn't bring is the trust that comes with having an SRO that is at football games or is at, you know, student events that students constantly see all the time and are able to build a connection with that they see not only just on campus, but also within the community. So, something that um the past school board representatives uh Carter and Kate both talked about as well. I've talked uh with Carter individually about how having a SRO who's truly invested in the community and in the students is the utmost important thing in um a school resource officer. So, that's just why I wanted to contribute on that. >> I

073appreciate that. Thank you. And the other public comment is from Fasa Zuzia. >> Good evening. These Zuzak. I'm a high school staff member and um a parent of two graduates. D. Thank you for putting this on here. It is very important. I understand that it is um an agreement with the city and they have to want to come to the table too. But I think what we need to look at um Dr. Glass touched on some things DU touched on a lot is the fact that the four-year rotation is the big issue. This should be a program where they can apply for it. Ashley wanted to stay in this position, but because of the four-year dictate, that can't happen. I'm going to give you very firsthand experience. I sit in the health class for seven

074years now. I have watched the difference between a male sor I talked to officer Lopez in York today and said I was going to be speaking. It has nothing to do and no disrespect for them. the difference between a male officer speaking during a lecture and when Ashley came in. Ashley talked to the kids just flat out, "This is the way it is." I watched female students after class in tears go up to the teacher and say, "We need to speak to her." They didn't go to the counselor. And I know I'm not want I don't want to give any disrespect to our counseling staff, but the way a female can come in with the uniform and create that trust, I know we can't mandate it, but if we have somebody who's interested, this town

075is too small to not be able to turn on a dime to help our community and make things happen. Our students are dealing with things my students and my children never had to deal with. They're dealing with things that even when we wrote this in 2019, these students are dealing with things that didn't happen then when this came to fruition. Ashley has that expertise. I saw firsthand some of my bed students get in issues where or some of my students where the sexing thing would happen and they didn't know what to do until Ashley came in and spoke about it and they're like, "Oh, I'm not alone. I'm not scared. There's somebody who's going to trust me." I think the specition needs to be somebody who really wants to work with our youth, who wants

076to put the time and effort into it and wants to make those connections because it's the connections that matter. Not just a four-year rotation that, okay, I'll volunteer and do it and I'll get the experience to add to what I'm doing, but somebody who really I mean, those of us that are educators working, we're there because we're passionate about the kids. So, I just really think that we need to try to get the city to end the four-year rotation and make it something that they can an officer can apply for who really wants to do this. Thank you. >> Okay. >> No more cards. Board discussion. Dr. I think I think it's hard to say goodbye and I think it's hard uh to to be new and uh I think we need to give our

077new SRO a chance and uh I think I was one of the leading advocates for the second one. I would like to have four SRO hosts but again the time to discuss this is a budget time that you know can we afford it and then for the administration to negotiate with the city to see if they're interested in partnering with another one. Uh I also have a little bit of background in minimal from being the dean of the college of health where criminal justice and criminalistics reported to me. So I we we trained all the cops and we built a crime lab and stuff like that. But I do know that they have a real structure in police departments and uh you have to you have to go along with that. Uh that it's it's

078it's something hard to to break out of. And so uh um that I think that will be the hardest thing as far as for us taking more control over uh who gets it. >> Yeah. I I wanted to add a couple comments to that. Um, I have mentioned in here before that my brother is an SRO and um has been doing it for years and the conversation here sounds a little bit like this is some that the SRO's are accountable to us and they're accountable to the police department and in partnership with us and off officer Perez and I assume York who I have not really met yet applied for this because they really wanted to do this and I know officer Perez is just fantastic with our students. So I have no doubt that

079these are people who really want to be here doing this and are eager to do whatever it takes to you know uh fulfill those duties in partnership with with uh Dr. Keller and um you know pick up on some of what the students may feel might be missing without a without a female SRO. So I'm very confident um that we can do that and I want to thank both of them for you know taking on this work. I think it's also tricky to your point Thesa, I I agree that four years limits the ability to really learn everything you need to learn to, you know, become integrated into the school. But I also know from a police department perspective that, you know, um, some people see it, some people don't want to do it, but

080it's also a great way to spend your days as a police officer and other police officers want a chance to do it. So, I just think a lot of these are complicated things that have nothing really to do with the school district except we continue to advocate for what we would like in the district and find ways to work with our SRO's to have as strong a collaboration as we can and that's the way we problem solve on this um and consider in the future of course whether or not a third SRO makes sense. Um I would have to concur with um member Malesky. I think if you're in this position right now, you're choosing to be there and you want to be there. At the same time, I also understand and respect the need

081for um a female adult that the staff or that the students can um feel very comfortable going to. Um and it's you're right. I mean, it's it's it's a citydriven staffing decision that we're trying to, you know, impose our our desires onto it that what the students are asking for. Um, so it sounds like we need to come back to this and figure out a a solution if we have one or if there's something that some way that our staff can fill the role that Ashley embodied um or find a different solution that involves Ashley. I don't know with while maintaining the wonderful SRO's that we have um because I've interacted with both of them several times and it's lovely. I will say um one of the thing I was here in the room I

082think when this first discussion came up on whether we wanted an SRO um and to member Kelly's point um at the time it was the first one and it was um somewhat controversial. There's there was um at the time the discussion was does an SRO on campus cause more issues or less issues? Does it cause fear or it's not? And to have been in that room then and to be sitting here now as just just as a person knowing the impact that our SRO have had on our students I think is demonstrates the value of the program. And so for that I'm really grateful that we do have it. Um, I totally just lost my train of thought. Um, sorry, I completely lost my train of thought. Um, the the SRO programs and the female

083I think that that I mean that's a valid concern and I and I know that we can't impose that. So um I certainly would encourage this the SRO's oh one of the things so that first officer was officer K officer Cornelius and um bigger than life um shared a lot of his st stories which I think also resonated with the kids. So I think each officer is going to bring a different perspective to things. Um and Officer Korn sharing his experiences in his personal life, I think humanized him to the students in a way that um was really impressive. And I know that the SRO since then have done the same thing. Officer Fred was up on stage for um the um PEM the spelling bee play at the high school um and got himself

084involved and he earned a lot of respect. And with that, what happens then is you all go back into the community after your four years and students um residents see you and re and recognize you and it changes the dynamic of the perception of the police force in a very very positive way. And I think a lot of this kind of so it is a difficulti conversation in the sense of of the students needing to have someone that they can go to because we need to keep our eyes on the students and and what they need and if this is something that they're asking for that they don't feel they had before with with all respect to the staff that is something we have to listen to and we have to find a better solution

085than what we're doing. It doesn't mean that what we haven't been doing because the SRO's were the a great solution and we had all of the staff that's there as well. But clearly there seems like there's some kind of a disconnect with especially at the high school with the students to know that they can go to staff. So whether so I think personally I think there's a a further conversation to be had about how can we make sure that our female students are h are served. But I don't think it's a conversation that we should push down the road for many weeks, months or anything. school is starting in in a couple of weeks and um it would be good for us to be able to hit the ground running with the the female students

086or any of the students knowing that there is somebody there that they could address this conversation with. So I don't know if that really >> Sherry I want to or Miss Morgan I want to push back on that a little bit. I think the issue isn't that stu we have many people who are able to talk to female students I and do a great job with it. I think the issue is that when you're talking to someone in uniform, you get a different kind of advocacy. It's the question isn't how can I help you feel better about this? The statement is they did this to you. I'm a cop and we can fix this. That's what students are concerned about, wanting to have that feeling. And you know, my brother specializes in sexual assault and

087sexual harassment and, you know, has a page in the yearbook, you know, as a tribute to him. So my point being that there's no reason that officer Perez and Officer York can't take on that role in conjunction with Dr. color who works with them using some of our female staff to have the power of advocacy combined with a effort to provide support to the students. >> Point of order where there's repetitious exchanges. Can all the members of the board have an opportunity to make their comments? >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Um well I think this is I mean some people might say boy this is a lot of talk about one topic but uh I think this is an exceedingly um important topic and um it's something that I've been thinking about and watching for

088many years. Um, in the uh opening remarks, I couldn't hear because of acoustics. I couldn't hear what um board member Kelly was saying, but I got the general feeling that I probably didn't agree with him, but I did I was able to hear his comments about this subject, and I agree with everything he said uh very strongly. And um uh I thought he said it very well. And um I also wanted to respond to um uh Miss Zuziaak um who I as I understood it you were speaking in your individual capacity not as a member of the staff and whatnot. I appreciated that. Um, and the thing about it is is that um the um when I when I think of the SRO's, the first thought I'm thinking about is campus security and the safety

089and security of the kids. And I really support the SRO program from that standpoint. And then in addition as all of you have said we have this you know we have this augmentation uh and this wonderful you know additional function that's developed um and we all value it and we all care about these SRO's and they do a fantastic job and they keep our kids safe and um but the the thing one thing that I would say about this is it's important now and as we go forward in the future to develop this program and to sustain it. Um, uh, to understand, um, something that I think's been sort of referred to and Joan, I think you mentioned it and sort of referred to it, I would go a little bit deeper and say this.

090Um, if you're a police officer, you're a commissioned officer in um, a law enforcement core. Uh and um your career development depends on you being able to go into a job, do it well, and move on to another job and do it well and move on to another job and do it well. And you know, we talk about officer Cornelius uh on uh when we were I think down at the same city council meeting where you were introduced, they had several officers who had been promoted and officer Cornelius was one of the officers that was promoted and um and I actually had a discussion about the fact that he was a very popular SRO and when it came time for him to rotate out, a lot of people wanted him to stay. Um, but he

091was extremely professional in how he handled that and said, "I'm sorry. I love you. I want to stay, but I can't stay because I have to move on in my career." And the fact of the matter is um the obser observation made by somebody down at that meeting who has a basis for knowing said that officer Cornelius would not be there that day getting promoted if he had stayed in his SRO job because um having been anybody that's been in the military and anybody that's been in law enforcement knows um you can be the victim of your own success if you get clientitis and you and I and my own military career, I was able to get extended in the same job um uh four or five times until I had been for 12 years

092in the same position. And it meant that I had to move on in my career, which I was able to do. I was able to move out and up. But the point is um uh basically if you stay in a job too long, you are limiting your career opportunities. And I think that that's relevant here and we have to keep it in mind. Um but that having been said, I just want to say um Miss Zuziak that um my daughters all went to public schools in the District of Columbia and um things went on in the schools uh there that you we wouldn't even believe. uh starting with everybody going through metal detectors in the morning to get on campus and um they had SRO's there and they were a lot of them were women

093and uh um a couple of times when my daughters needed to be straightened out on a couple of issues uh they stepped in and did what I could never do with my daughters in terms of really straightening them out. So I have a very high appreciation for the value of um women SRO's on on campuses because my own daughters benefited from it. So I agree with you and your sentiments very strongly. But I just wanted to point out there is this career development issue that we have to be aware of. >> Thank you. So I my thoughts right now are um it's been a blessing to have officer Ashley Croin and a lot of young people felt comfortable coming forward than ever had before even though we had counselors here but our counselors and social

094workers are critical for the long-term care and support of our students. they we also we've got to get away so students feel comfortable going to them in the beginning or going to the SRO's and I'm for um giving the SRO's and the counselors and the social workers a chance to really work on this and see how it it goes with our students. We know now that we've been missing something and we want uh we want to fix it. So, I think we should um hold off perhaps adding to theou until we hear back every >> What do you guys think? >> I don't think there's any to-do item here. We Well, our to-do item was to discuss if we wanted to change theou or add to it, >> but what was >> we Well, we

095could have we could add specific training that we wanted. >> I I trust that they're getting all the training that we need and we just need to make females feel in a moment where they were used to a female officer that they have the same level of support. And I think Dr. Keller is really committed to that. So I'm actually quite comfortable with where we are because we've been very clear. Oh, it is on. We've been very clear about the need for collaboration to serve female students. So I feel like that is the the directive that Dr. Keller's heard and our SRO have heard. Are are are you in favor of the further training for them on some of these issues that they >> I I don't question the training that they've received. I actually

096agree with Dr. Kelly that part of the issue is that there's a sense of loss that there's not a female SRO. But I think that both of them are adequately trained and Dr. Keller wants to provide the support with a staff of female counselors that we have and that we can ask them to work on providing simultaneously advocacy and emotional support to young women who, you know, feel like they've had an event happen and there's no female SRO. I am very confident that those two groups working together can address that. Here we are. >> I I feel strongly that they need that things have changed so quickly that training should happen for our our counselors and our social workers and >> but that statement I'm not disagreeing about the need for statement but your statement

097implies that they're everybody's not already getting adequate training and there's no basis for saying that. So, I have complete faith that they've heard us and if they need extra training, I would trust them to do that. But absent a very long discussion of every single thing they've been trained to do, I don't think that's a real thing that we can ask them to do. I don't know that they need additional training. I do know that they need to hear what the concerns of students are and figure out how to work together in terms of simultaneously advocating and supporting our female students to make them feel that they've been heard. And if they decide that more is needed in order to do that, I trust that they'll do it. I don't know that they need more

098training. It doesn't because I don't know anything about the training they've received. >> Can I ask another quick question? Do we have any data on um and I'm not asking for personal information? I'm not asking for anything like that. I want to be real clear because my guess the word how many um somehow gets interpreted that way. Um do we have any idea of how many reports we've gotten that went to SRO Ashley Cro SRO Croin versus our female staff? And if there's something that's done in the health department that our students are resonating with, can we work with our SRO's and our and I maybe theou says this, maybe it doesn't, I don't know, but where they are working directly with our staff in like the health class so that maybe it's a female

099staff member counselor and our SRO together doing the health presentation because then you're also able to bring the whole relationship conversation like a predatory relationship. I I didn't hear anybody say that which is maybe it's all included but I think you know there's all these things that have evolved because of technology because of where we are in society because of all of it that by having anou or by having an officer that if this rotation they're male then we have a female staffer that is recognized as partner with them in that process so that whenever they're presenting to students a female staffer is with them especially if that's, you know, sex ed or something like that to give that same message to them because I think to member Malesky's point, one of the things that

100the that member um that um Ashley Crow team brought was oh a sex a sexing text um you can do this, you can do that and and maybe that's what's missing in our in our counselors because their approach is a little different whereas I think the SRO's have an approach that resonates with the kids as far as an action. >> But Mrs. Morgan, can I just respond to that or were you >> I just wanted to have um Dr. Kelly be able to say something? >> Yeah, I again it's not our job to micromanage how this is handled. I trust Dr. Glass to have heard this to be able to talk with Dr. Keller about it to ensure that there's adequate training and for the SRO's who are also trained to work together because we

101have expressed what the concerns are and I think that should be the end of the discussion because we're not supposed to figure out for them how they do this. This is what Dr. Glass is here for. I trust that all of these professionals are able to figure this out. We have all the right people here in the room and we have they have been trained and I trust that they'll ask for additional training if they need it. I I would like to move on because I trust the people who are here and Dr. Glass to do this. >> Dr. Kelly, >> Dr. Miles Chesky said exactly what I wanted to say except I wanted to lead off with saying that Dr. Keller leads an exceptional department and that I have full confidence in him and

102his staff and that to be licensed you have to have all this training also ongoingly. So I know that between the licensing requirements for psychologists, the counselors and the social workers and what we provide there is adequate training going on there. In fact, uh there's probably too much. I I disagree kind of because theou says that the um our SRO's will help with um alcohol problems, drug problems, absenteeism. There's nothing that they're supposed to do in thatou that has to do with um sexual issues, sexing or any of that. So I think so I think that should be added in there because I think that's a newer part of the job >> if Thank you, Madam Chair. Just another um suggestion to support the board's process. You've had uh introduced the item, had a presentation,

103asked questions, had discussion, had comment. At this point, it's appropriate to call for motions. And if there are no motions, then you can move to your next item. I'd like to make a motion that we review theou for the content of um of I move that we review theou to determine the content of services that the that the officers bring to our students to ensure that we that they are part of the process with our um students in our health classes etc because that is what the students are asking for and our job is also to listen to the students So that's I'm that's my motion. That makes sense. >> I second that. >> All in favor? >> Um Weber to repeat the motion for clarity. >> Motion to review theou to determine the content

104of services the officers bring to our students to ensure they are part of the process with our students in health classes. be second. Uh the president and all in favor >> I opposed. Are you opposed? Oh, okay. Okay. uh passes five. Let's move on. Um Mr. Conlin, can you provide an introduction to um the collective bargaining agreement? This is the you're you'll be opening a public hearing for um the public to comment on the agreement between uh the Laboufa TA for the 2526 school year and and uh and LBUSD. So again, this is an opportunity for the public to provide comment. >> What What's the time it's opening? What' you say? >> Uh the time is currently 7:29. >> 7:29. Okay. Clerk Hills, are there any um cards to speak at this item? >> No,

105there are not. >> Okay. So, no speakers. The public hearing is closed at >> 7:29. >> Okay. Okay. Um Mr. Conlin, would you like to present the next item? >> Sure. Again, this is a public hearing for the opportunity for the public to comment related to the 2526 compensation proposal for unrepresented employees listed on the management confidential and unrepresented salary schedule and the public hearing can open at 7:29. >> Clerk Hills, are there any speaker cards to speak on this item? >> No. >> Okay. >> You also need to include CSA that maybe you didn't. I just didn't hear you. Oh, so that's not so we need to so then we need to amend the the agenda because the agenda mentions compensation proposal with non-represented, classified and certificated employees, >> right? >> Those are individuals

106on the management salary schedule >> that are classified, unrepresented members. They're not affiliated with CSEA, >> right? But this motion item 8B says certificated employees. Isn't that CSEA? >> No. >> Oh, that's that's staff. Sorry. But the first one was >> okay. >> It says non-represented, classified, and certificated employees. >> We've always referred to certificated. I thought in conversation that it was staffed, but I'm I'm probably a little confused. So, thank you. >> There are certificated members that are not part of LEUFA. >> Okay, the public hearing is closed at >> 7:31. Thank you. Um, now information item from human resources, report of the fourth quarter report of uniform complaints for the Williams case settlement. Mr. Conlin, >> yes, thank you. Um, we have not received any uniform complaints uh for the Williams case settlement

107for the fourth quarter. >> Thank you. Board members, are there any comments or questions? No. Mr. Hills, are there any speaking speaker cards? Thank you. Okay. action items, business services. Uh, an improve an approval to award a contract to Runowl Clark Architects for Architectural Services to remove a temporary relocatable restroom building and install a temporary relocatable classroom building at Elmoro School. Um, Dr. Glass, do you want us to introduce this? >> Thank you, Madam President. We have facilities director Ryan Zeta here to brief the board on this. Thank you. Good evening, President Perry, Superintendent Dr. Glass, and members of the board. Um, this item is for the approval um that will allow staff to retain um architectural services from the firm Rena Clark Architects for the design and construction administration to room and replace a

108leased restroom relocatable building with a leased classroom relocatable building at Elmoro Elementary School. The need is a reflection of increased student enrollment in our TK and kindergarten grades. This unit provides the needed classroom space on a temporary basis for the 2526 school year. Renown Clark Architects is recommended to be retained to complete the services due to their prior work on the existing restroom relocatable and adjacent portables. they have the existing knowledge and expertise to process this project with the state architect's office quickly and also to ensure that they can work with the inspectors to ensure the project is installed meeting all all requirements and with that I'd be happy to take any questions >> board members questions >> Ryan I I just have a really quick question last year um if you could just help

109me to remember if you recall call it. Last year we had a conversation about moving one of the restrooms and there was some concern about whether moving that restroom was going to create a problem because it was so centrally located. So I'm wondering if there was any outcome to that and how this uh >> impacts that because it looks like it's a another classroom with a restroom inside that has anything to do with that. >> Exactly. So, this does play off that um that um conversation from last year where we did add a temporary restroom at El Mororrow to make sure we had appropriate restroom facilities there for to meet our student needs. As it worked out throughout the school year, um with the addition of the the preschool and the the building there in

110the preschool restroom that was created was sufficient to meet those needs and the campus having restrooms at each of their classroom buildings there for those those classrooms did not end up needing this restroom and it was not utilized throughout the year. So looking ahead at a viable location for a temporary portable, it would make sense to remove and replace this unused relocatable leased building with a new relocatable leased building just to meet our needs for the next year on a temporary basis. >> And then my dumb question is um when I looked at the third fourth SAI, could you just remind me what that is that's moving to to because I wasn't exactly sure what was happening on the map. >> Um maybe I'll defer them to Mr. Con. So that is the the third

111through fifth place uh third through fifth grade self-contained class that was at Elmoro has been moved to be aligned with the K2 self-contained class at top the world. >> So I have a couple questions. Um the contract is for that is being requested is for Ruhan Runa and Clark um architects but it's if it's replacing an existing building um there um some of the um scope of work includes um site preparation and AC pavement for portable building. I know we have bathrooms there but we have two other buildings. So isn't the is the site not already prepared for a building? And if and is that not a service that is included in the mobile mod um in this mobile modular contract when it talks about um delivery essential material handling fee ramp install that's is

112the ramp on the building or is the ramp the addressing the ramp to get the building into the school. >> Um I I think it's a little bit of everything. So the design will cover all the construction. So, um what you have there are the uh the proposals from the modular company to remove the leased portal units. That's there and that's the 11,000 and change um proposal. You have another proposal from mobile modular that's for installation of the new classroom building um that's a onetime charge and then on after that it's an ongoing monthly lease um similar to what we currently have with the units are there. Now, the architect services will cover the installation of the classroom um including the ramp and um there's also a restroom inside. So, there's a plumbing, electrical, um

113there's a access um with an accessible ramp and all that has to be shown in their plans process with the state architect's office for compliance and then inspected. Um so, they'll cover the design side and then the modular company will cover the installation. >> Okay. And was didn't you say there was a bathroom there already? So, isn't there plumbing already there? >> There is plumbing already there. There is electrical and plumbing for the restroom that will be disconnected in the back of the restroom. And then when the new building comes in, the restroom is never in the same exact location. So, you'd have to then reconnect. So, you'd have to then remake those connections. They'd have to be done per per code, per plumbing, electrical code. Um, it's a different building. It's got two panels

114versus one. So, you're going to have some adjustments in the design which has to be um included in the plans that get processed with the state and inspected by a state inspector. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah, >> Clerk Hills, are there any public comments? >> Okay, any other questions, discussion? Is there a motion to award a contract to Renown Clark Architects? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Um, approval to authorize the additional architectural design services for Laguna Beach High School pool modernization project for the design of squa project design features in an amount not to exceed $132,550. Dr. Glass. >> And again, um, Ryan Zeta will be here to brief the board on this item. Hey, >> um, before I jump right, I did want to apologize and let you know that our

115project architect for this project, Roger Clark, is here from Clark Architect. So, if we have any additional questions specific to their their services, he is available tonight. Um so the the SQA additional design services for the project design features is a positive impact based on community feedback and transparency during the SQA planning process. The scope includes but it's not limited to the addition of a sound wall and covered shade structure along the east pool deck photoic electrical panels modification of the site lighting system and reduction in building heights um including walls. A proposal was received by staff from Run Clark Architects on May 23rd. is being brought to you tonight for consideration and approval. Um, and with that, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to ask answer them. >> Are there any questions?

116>> I just want to thank you for being responsive to the community because these were basically what the neighbors had asked for. >> It's a benefit also to our district. So, we're we're very pleased to bring them forwarded forward to you tonight for for approval. was the um the original contract is that did that not include design services to get us to SQUA and if so would that not have included changes and modifications or is that part of the delivery process of the contract? >> Um the contract approved um included a a scope that included a design up to a conceptual level to 100% design documents that then came to the board and was approved. Um and then we went through the sequel process for that specific design. Um these additional items were um outside

117of that original design. So this is the cost for the 100% design documents to include these items. So they'd go back out to their consulting firms um and then they would then do this additional design work, add it back into that 100% design doc set and then develop them into actual construction plans. So there is additional services that in addition to the original scope that was in the original proposal. >> So when we had our SQA meeting, we had asked I had asked a couple of questions about design features and it was told to me then that this was for SQA which was environmental not design um and and >> um their project. >> You're now you're calling it design. So does that mean that the design is um part of the SQA now but

118it wasn't before or how does that work? So um when we went through SQA there was some mitigation that did occur through SEO. It was a few items but they were more related to um observation or um or paleontology artifacts Indian tribes those sorts of mitigate mitigation. But what um came out um which was at the board's purview was to do um they they could condition um approval on project design features. So they're not items that we mitigated. items that the board felt would be a benefit to the community and to the district. And so those items is what this scope of services includes, which would be a sound wall on the east pool deck, a covered shade structure on the east pool deck, solar panels on top of that shade structure. All has to

119get designed um reoing the plans to lower the buildings um minimum two feet including a redesign of the arcade column structure along Park Avenue. So extensive redesign is occurring in the plans that came out of these project design features. Um I don't know Roger missing anything. >> Mr. Zeta, is is it correct to say just uh in terms of what you're discussing right now that the that cl run Clark was um commissioned to to do everything required for SQA. In addition, the school district made a decision to put things into the SQUA plan that the neighborhood felt should have been part of SQA, but it was not required by the state and we opted to add those design elements as part of our SQA discussion. >> Yes, that's correct. >> So, exactly. So these are

120things that were not really new designs but that the neighbors felt even though they weren't required from the state should be included in our squid discussion because it had to do with things like noise remediation or lowering the height of the thing. So there there was a little bit of blending of design elements in response to Steve and Gary and Steve who and who were represent ne representing neighbors who were very concerned about all the environmental impact things even when they were not required by the state. So that would be the difference. No, I was trying to make sure I understood that that that you had asked the question. So, I was asking if that was actually what happened and is my take on that. >> Yes, that is accurate. >> Thank you. >> Any

121other other questions, >> M Clerk Hills? >> Oh, we're not to comment yet. Are there any uh we first have to see if anyone from the audience has comments. Okay, we can move to comments now then. Go ahead. Well, I would like to comment. I think it's been a good discussion. Questions are good. I would like to comment that uh um you know there as this thing has been debated and discussed um there have been there's been a lot of information and misinformation and disinformation put out publicly about the neighbors and um you know people have um and organizations and entities have um uh put out information and put out advocacy and put out arguments documentation um basically saying that this is a not in my backyard thing and that they were uh that neighbors

122were um out of selfish interests. they were trying to interfere with something that was good for the community and good for the students. And um I think the people that did that owe an apology to the neighbors because the fact of the matter is Laguna Beach is a city where we have always protected the rights of property owners and we have a design review board. I've been through the design review process and I didn't like it at all. Um, and I felt like it gave neighbors power over my property that I didn't want them to have. But in the end, um, it also forced me and my architect to and my builder to come to grips with what the rules are and what the rights of other adjacent property owners were. And that's part of

123the discipline and that's part of what living in Lagona is all about is that we respect the fact that people pay a lot of money to live here and we respect their rights to defend their property. The original plan that was proposed by the school district had uh an underground garage uh going in on Short Street for underground parking. It had huge buildings with tennis courts on top of them uh on top of them. And it it was just um a grandiose delusion that anybody was going to allow that to happen. And the neighbors had every right um and responsibility um to um make their views known and they did so as far as I can tell in a reasonable and rational way. And yet there have been um materials published saying that they um

124engaged in misinformation and they engaged in propaganda and they were acting uh uh in a selfish and univil way. And I I think that was really regrettable because um this the neighborhood around Laguna Beach High School um when the original piece of land was donated um the the people in the neighborhood that had houses there um had to make a decision that they were going to allow their neighbor uh neighborhood to become the site of the school and they did it. And uh you know so people say well if you buy a house next to the school district you should understand that um you know you know you've got the school there and so you shouldn't complain about what happens. Well you know the reality is that if you really follow that logic that means

125if you buy the house and the school is in one condition that then the school can't change the condition of it because you bought it uh with that being the condition. The reality is is that over the period of time, um, the school is going to want to modify itself. It's going to want to modernize. It's going to want to change. And it should be prepared to engage with the neighbors on the impact the change is going to have on the neighborhood. And this thing got turned around. So, it was like the neighborhood neighbors were doing something wrong by protecting their property rights. Can you imagine if you had a couple of hundred underground parking spaces at Laguna Beach High School? And the idea was that during the summer that the city could send traffic

126up there to park up there during the festival of arts. That would basically turn that neighborhood into an extension of downtown. And um so all I can say is I commend the neighbors for doing it. There was a lot of talk about, you know, um the election and and all the rest of this. Um, I never I never took any position in any election about um uh based on anything that uh the neighbors were saying, but I do believe they had the right to do what they did. And um so I think that it was an unfortunate chapter in our school community and our school culture uh that people who were standing up for their property rights got singled out. And you know, it wasn't just people that have had the fingers pointed at them.

127It was all the neighbors. I know I know 20 people that live up there and they all felt the same way and yet a few people got singled out to be ridiculed and there was cyber bullying and I think adults set a pretty bad example for the kids of cyber bullying over some of these issues. So, um I'm glad that um uh we've had the remarks that are made here tonight about the fact that um the school district finally in the end um responded well and did the right thing by the neighbors by changing the plans and investing in uh a future relationship with the people in the neighborhood as positive as it uh has been in the past. >> I agree. Any more discussion? Okay. Um, is there a motion to authorize the additional

128architectural design services for Lagona Beach High School pool modernization project for the design of the Secore Project design features in an amount not to exceed 132,500? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? No. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Oh, you're still here, aren't you? Um, approval, sorry. Approval to authorize additional design services to modernize transitional kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms at Elmoro and Top of the World Elementary Schools in an amount not to exceed $59,000 to address DSA access compliance and project certification requirements. >> And again, um, Mr. Zeta will brief the board on this matter. >> Thank you. Right. Approval of this additional service for TBB architects would allow for code compliant upgrades to the existing school drop off at El Mororrow at the traffic circle next to the main office.

129And it will also allow for the architect to support the certification project certification process of past projects at Elmoro and top of the world ele elementary schools going back to 1999 to 2002. The district operates under the rules and regulations of the division of the state architect and with certification liabilities transfer from the district to the state. Um, >> are there any comments or questions for Mr. Zeta? Are there any comments from the um from the audience? Clerk Hills. >> No. Okay. >> Ask a procedural. >> Can I just ask a just it's just a procedural question. Is there like item 10 was specific to award the contract to run? Sorry, how do you pronounce that? >> Run. Thank you. Run now and clerk. Um but yet um item 10 doesn't identify. I I know

130the contracts say um Runau and Clark, but then um 10 C doesn't identify either. Is that just a just >> I think it goes back to portable projects. the portable projects are temporary and they're leased and the cost involve the portable company and the architect. And so that's why it's written differently. You're talking about the subject of the board item where these other projects, these capital projects, they're very specific, straightforward, and they're um they're not a for some reason we we approach those reo projects a little bit differently. We try to give you all the backup. >> That's what I was. >> It's an ongoing cost, too. So they're they're a little a different type of service. >> Good question. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any more discussion? Is there a motion to authorize additional

131design services to modernize transitional kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms at Elmoro and Top of the World and an amount not to exceed $59,000 to address DSA access compliance and project certification requirements? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Great. items, human resources, uh, approval of the 202728 school student instructional calendar. Um, Mr. Conlin, >> thank you, President Vickers. So, just wow, I apologize, President Perry. I apologize for that slip. So we have a a quick presentation around the student the the journey of the student instructional calendar. So in 2017 the board of education directed staff to establish a committee to evaluate the student instructional calendar and identify adjustments that would better support academic performance and student wellness. This process led to a formal recommendation for adjustments to be considered in the adoption of the 2019 2020

132instructional calendar. Look at that. All right. So, the committee included parents, teachers, staff, administrators, city officials, and two board members between October 2017 and March 2028 or 2018. The group met to review relevant data and identify areas of of opportunity to improve the student instructional calendar while continuing to meet the state mandated requirement for 100 instructional days. Key opportunities identified through this process included ending semester the first semester at winter break, providing a homework free period to reduce student stress, support student wellness, and allow students to enjoy um the holiday season with no with no final exams. Addressing low student attendance on the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week to reduce instructional disruption, the need for retaching. Starting the school year earlier to support more natural instructional pacing and improve student prepar preparation for APs

133and statewide assessments in the spring. An academic calendar with a later start reduces the time teachers have to cover essential content before AP and state testing. Aligning the start of the school year with the beginning of the fall sports to better support college applications, athletic recruitment, and transitions to higher education. And aligning non- studentent days across grade levels to support family scheduling and reducing disruptions for households with children in multiple schools. So moving to slide three. So the calendar committee submitted the following recommendation to the board. a 180day school year, the entire week off at the at at the Thanksgiving break, uh three non- studentent days to minimize the teachers being out of the classroom for PD, and the semester ending before winter break. So, based on the committee's findings, the board of education approved

134a revised instructional calendar for 201920 that reflected several of the identified opportunities, including an earlier August start, the conclusion of the first semester at winter break. They kept the three-day fall break during the week of Thanksgiving, and aligned the non- studentent days across grade levels. So since that time, the instructional calendar has been refined through an ongoing process um with a calendar committee that includes representation from certificate staff, classified staff, and district leadership. The committee reviews data annually related to the student attendance, engagement, well-being, and performance on AP tests. And the table below shows that. So you can see from 2019 through 2022, the fall break stayed at three days. Uh first semester was 80 days. And the midwinter non- studentent day was aligned with the Monday after winter break. It's historically there there there's

135always been a non- studentent day in between semester 1 and semester 2. So moving on to 2023. So for the 23 24 student instructional calendar, the board accepted the calendar's committee recommendation for a full 5 days off for fall break during Thanksgiving week. Those shifting those two historically low attended school days to the first two days of school which created a Thursday start date. So we experienced that for the 2324 school year. And then for the 24-25 school year, the board directed staff to shift the winter non- studentent day, which had always been between semester 1, semester 2, to the Friday of MLK weekend. And the board's interest was to reduce the length of the winter break. So now we shift. So in response to the feedback and data reviewing the the during this year's

136calendar committee process, the proposed 202728 student instructional calendar addresses the interests of the labor associations to reposition the secondary non- studentent day between semesters. The proposed calendar includes a 79-day first semester ending at winter break with the secondary non- studentent day schedule for the Friday before the break. the elementary non- studentent day set for no november 1st which we've seen the day after Halloween is historically low lowly attended day and then the five-day fall break to address the days with low attendance. So secondary staff shared instructional and logistical concerns they experienced during this school year when they did not have a non- studentent day between semesters. This day has been used historically to finalize first semester grades, allow for makes up makeup final exams, and provide time for the counseling team to reshuffle students calendar

137scheduled without the loss of instructional time. So, the staff presents this uh recommended calendar for the 2728 school year for the board's consideration and approval. And we did receive a question earlier in regards to um what the makeup of the calendar committee and and per the contract language in Laboufa. It it states a calendar advisory committee composed of three representatives appointed by Laboufa, one CSEA representative and three representatives appointed by the district shall meet annually to provide a recommendation for a student calendar um two years out for the board for final approval. So with that, the we have the recommended 2728 calendar for your review. Any questions from the board? >> When was the committee composition changed? Because the original committee in 2017 included parents, it included um business a couple of business people um

138as well as um I think somebody from the festival and even then being a part of that committee how that worked is that every member of the committee had two votes and it was run by the superintendent. And so basically the staff's employer was in the room when there was a discussion and I and being a part of that discussion it was interesting because it was not a mutually agreed upon um calendar. It was just the number of votes that won. So I'm curious as to why the calendar committee now does not include um a more diverse group of people that represents all entities that would be impacted by the calendar. >> Sure. So to speak to the 2027 that was if you remember we had historically started after Labor Day. So the conversation of

139breaking the start of school away from Labor Day was a was a massive decision that had impacts to all aspects of the city. Um so because of so after that so that's why we had stakeholders from all you know all over the the the community part of that process because that was a huge shift for this this school district that that committee and and the board direction gave us the framework for a calendar that existed from 2019 all the way through 2023. we applied the same direction that the board had given. So there wasn't we would just bring forward here it is how is this how it lays on on this year's calendar how it looks on this year's calendar. Now in in 2023 again that was just the the the district administration just providing

140the calendar based on on the board's direction. In 2023, we created the calendar committee as part of to to get in input from the union the unions um and and district to provide the the next recommended. So there were never any major shifts. I mean the one discussion was the idea of bringing back the five days at Thanksgiving at the Thanksgiving B week because that was an an original interest of the original committee. Um so that was the one shift that happened and there's a lot of we did surveys of the community and there was a lot of uh input saying that that was something that that that they valued. Um so again the reason why we just have we shifted to this small calendar committee just again all we do is we we sit

141we say okay these are the parameters set forth by the by the board and how do you you know we look at the calendar and say how do you feel that this this lays based on the previous recommendation from the board because we're not making major shifts to it. It's like maybe shifting a non- studentent day here or there. the impact doesn't go beyond um you know just you know the the the staff it doesn't you know blend into having an impact with the functionality of the city. >> No I appreciate that. I have one other question um and it might be better for Dr. Keller to answer. I'm not really sure, but one of the other um one of the other um project or one of the other items that was being considered on

142the calendar in trying to end before the winter break was to um not have homework over the holidays and to have finals done before the winter break as well. I'm curious if there has been what the because I know that this idea is also starting to become discussed again in the in in um different groups as far as is it still is it as effective to reduce stress because that was the primary goal at the high school level was to reduce stress of the students so that they could relax over Christmas break. However, what's happened is that we have now a compressed semester of 79 days with minimal breaks other than Thanksgiving. So now Thanksgiving is the week that we're doing homework and stuff, not over the Christmas break, but how are the students reacting

143and is it time to revisit this idea on all levels from, you know, an education standpoint, from a mental health standpoint? Because I know families that I've spoken to find that the pressure to get college applications done, to get homework done, to get exams done, as well as breathe and sleep, um is actually increasing the stress and the pressure on the students. So, I'm just wondering if there's any data on um on that element with the students and is that something that we need to maybe look at um because again, Laguna's always been its own unique district and as we've moved away from that, are we not in an effort to be aligned with other districts? Are we losing track of our students needs in the pressures that that December finals date especially for the

144high school because it's really only relevant to the high school and the middle school not the elementary school because they're on trimesters right but I think they're going to semesters in 27 28 maybe I'm wrong um but anyway so I would be real curious as to how that because I know I'm hearing different I'm hearing that there's a lot of stress on the students right before Christmas >> there's a lot of stress on students in the college application process yes there's a lot of pressure on students during junior year when they're maxing out APs. Uh we know that many of our benchmark school districts have a calendar similar to this where they're ending the ending the winter break right before the that winter holiday. And the goal and the and the philosophy around that is

145really to have playtime, downtime, and family time and be able to maximize just decompression. We know that sleep adds to learning. We know that eating and spending time with families, your family, hanging out with your friends, all those things are good healthy coping strategies. Um, and you get very good closure at the end of that window of time. So, it is hard kind of hard to start the wheels and the gears back up after that winter break if you're not constantly revisiting the material. So, um, that that I think was the philosophy and I know challenge success kind of helped us think about think through that process. How do we maximize wellness, engagement, and belonging? And that's one of the ways that that we arrived at being able to have one of the levers which

146was scheduling and use of time and that we also think creatively about how do we build a master master schedule. What is what is the best system of what's the maximum amount of time that we want students in a space to be able to have the deepest learning experiences as well. So I I would re I mean I have a I have a selfish preference that we continue with the similar range. I know that they that is just an extremely I have a senior that's just graduated and is going to a freshman in college. It was a very stressful time and I would just recommend that um I think that when when considering all things on balance it's probably one of the best models that we have. >> Okay. Thank you. I did want to

147speak you had asked the question about the 79 day first semester that is a break a deviation from the past and I asked that question to um to the secondary to the admin as well as the secondary teachers that were on the the calendar committee um and they had shared what that at the secondary level that that Friday is an anchor day especially at the high school which is you're losing about 20 minutes of of of instruction so when they when they look at okay what the first semester looks like versus the second semester again first off at the high school there's very few semester courses, it's typically just a matter of taking the full year of standards and spreading them between semester 1 and semester 2. They also looked at if if we made

148it 80 days and pushed it back to a start day of a Wednesday, that that shifted the finals schedule if that would mean the last day of school would be on a Wednesday. And they had uh very big concerns about because they have a they have a set kind of finals week schedule which which runs Monday through it's it's a four-day schedule to get all the finals done. and they had concerns about that being shifted to having to almost have it spread over the final schedule over a two-eek period. So, they were like, listen, the the the the minimal loss of instructional minutes were the 79 first semester was far outweighed with the positives of keeping it to ensure you had those four a four- day week to end the school year because that's that

149that uh that final schedule was um can be heavily impacted if you don't have four days >> and we're in compliance with 79 days because I thought the state mandate was 80. Is are we still okay with that? The state mandate is 100 days for the year. There's there's no state mandate related to the length of semester 1 versus semester 2. >> What? Wait, 180. What did I say? 80. >> 180. Is that the instructional year that they said? I'm I'm I'm two for two tonight. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Cls, are there any? No. Okay. Uh, is there a motion to approve the 2027 2028 student instructional calendar? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? No. Thank you. Okay. um ratification of the 2023 through 2026 collective bargaining agreement

150in accordance with AB1200 chapter uh 12131 1991 government code 3547.5 and CCR title 5 section 15449 negotiated tentative agreement with Lagoon Luna Beach Unified Faculty Association and the Lagona Beach School District. Are there any comments or questions? >> We have some information for you that um Assistant Superintendent Conlin will provide and I will follow up with more commentary. >> Thank you. So, the association and the district reach a tenative agreement for the 2025 2026 revisions to the 2023 2026 agreement. The district and association utilize the interpace bargaining as the process for the negotiations. This tenative agreement includes a 3% increase in compensation for 202526. The total compensation of 3% is comprised of a 2% on schedule salary increase along with the additions of a longevity stipen after 10 years of service which currently to this

151and for this year would equal $795.75 and a longevity stipen after 19 years of service equaling $1,856.75. So the staff recommends that the board of education ratify the tenative agreement for the 2526 revisions to the 2023 26 collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the designated representatives of Laboufa and Laguna Beach Unified School District to also ask a point of clarification for a couple questions we received before the board meeting. Um we we were asked if the article 17 was was part of open for negotiations this year and uh it was article 17 was one of the topics that we had opened up as management. It's just through through the negotiation process um no changes were mutually agreed upon in that article which is why you don't see anything in the tenative agreement for that. Um and

152then it was a question about does uh the school calendar article what you know why it why it's referenced in labouah and not referenced in the CSA contract. it only exists in the laba contract since the teacher work year overlaps extensively with the student calendar whereas CSA doesn't and but they do have a representative at for those conversations but because the the student calendar and the and the teachers calendar work overlap so so closely that's why it lives with in the labouah contract and uh and the last question in relation to the TA was why there was no the health and welfare documents were not were not added to it in the Laboufa contract they chose to just have an electronic link they access their contract electronically and they can click the link to get

153to those documents. They are in the um the appendix of the CSEA contract though that they that union has chosen to have those in the in the contract. So that's all for this time >> article 24. >> No, if you're talking about the health and welfare documents, it'll be in in in the appendix uh in the back of the CSA uh contract. Yeah, but that doesn't have Okay, that's that was there's an appendix D that is listed that is not in the printed document that we were given. That's that was what I was referencing. So, I don't know what that was. >> So, you're talking about appendix D of Laboua. >> Uh, this is in CSEA. It just says eligible middle um members shall be responsible for any cost incurred over the district individual contribution

154which is specified in appendix D. But there is no appendix D in my book. I'll take that. >> It says appendix B, but it says it'll be added after it's printed. >> Okay. So, yeah, you have U. >> So, we never got it. >> I'll I'll I'll make sure you get those documents. Thanks. It's just the benefit. >> Thank you, Mike. We'll add that uh to the board update for tomorrow so all the board members have that. Also, uh President Perry, uh tonight, I want to address an important matter regarding the employee health benefits in this collective bargaining agreement. For background, our agreements with labor associations include annual limits on how much the district will contribute toward medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees. These contribution caps can vary depending on the type of coverage

155selected um and the employees family. Any costs beyond the agreed upon limits in the in the uh excuse me any cost beyond the agreed upon limits in the bargaining contract are the responsibility of the employees. As we were reviewing the rates for the upcoming year, we took a closer look at the overall health benefit spending and noticed that the district noted that the district had been contributing amounts toward the employee health care costs that exceeded the maximum outlined levels in our agreements. last year. Uh so this fiscal year that has just finished, the overage was approximately $550,000 and this coming or the current fiscal year that we're in, the overage is projected to be around $850,000. We believe this situation has been developing over a number of years and we are actively researching how far

156back it goes and how it originated. I became aware of this last week. From what we've learned so far, it appears that the efforts were likely tied to um or that the overages were likely tied to efforts at that time to encourage employees to choose certain health care plans or tiers possibly as part of creating financially stable plans. You want to create a balance of your employees across your different plans and not have them all um choose one. However, we believe those decisions led to spending beyond what was contractually obligated in our agreements with our unions. This issue was not clearly flagged or addressed in recent years and it's resulted in a breach of our current agreements with our associations. It's important to acknowledge that and to commit to addressing. It's important to acknowledge this

157and to commit to addressing it responsibly in partnership with our unions and with transparency to this board and to the community. Let me be clear. All the board members and union leaders at this table have been briefed on this matter and I want you to know that I am committed to working to address it with honesty, with care, and with fairness. In the short term, I've directed our staff to modestly increase uh a modest increase of 7% to employee health care contributions for this year. There may be some variations in that, but on average, it's around 7%. That's well below what it should be or what it would be to fully correct for the overage, but I believe it's the most responsible and humane and kind thing to do as an organization for our employees.

158Passing along the full cost of this to our employees would have resulted in rate increases of over 200% in some categories, which would be an unreasonable financial shock. We simply cannot and should not approach it that way. Instead, I recommend and district council recommends the following path forward. Based on the advice of council and my recommendation, we recommend the approval of the current bargaining agreement on tonight's agenda. This represents the result of months of hard work between our teams and our labor partner. The general fund may be used to to absorb the overage of the health care contributions and we believe this can be done without existing any um without impacting any existing programs or services. So I want to be clear on that. your general fund can absorb this overage and it has for

159the past several years. Second, I recommend and your council recommends that you enter into discussions, we enter into discussions with our labor partners to amend the current contract to account for the district's overage and formally cure the breach of the contract so that we're aligned both legally and we have clarity. And third, that we work collaboratively with our partners to evaluate the long-term structure of our health benefits, including how we balance affordability for employees with physical responsibility for the district. I want to close by acknowledging that I am still learning about the origins of this issue. I will continue to bring information to you as it becomes available. We would like to ask President Perry if you would put another agenda item on at the next meeting where we can explore this in more depth.

160But my values in approaching this again are clear. It's transparency, its partnership, its fairness, and its fiscal integrity. To our staff and our union partners, thank you for your patience and your willingness to work with us through this. To the board, thank you for the thoughtful leadership that you've already demonstrated as we navigate this. And I know that it is a complex and difficult matter and I'm confident that we can resolve this in a way resolve it together in a way that reflects the kind of district and community that we want to be. Thank you. >> Thank you for your explanation. Um are there board questions? >> I have a few of course. Um, so you're saying last year it was 500,000, this year it's 800. And those are the two years that we know

161about. So we're saying that the general fund contributed over a million dollars to the benefits packages for staff and teachers and and unclassified and everyone else. >> Last year around $550,000 and the current year it will be around $850,00. >> So if we approve, we're approving to spend an additional $800,000 that's not in the budget currently or that's not allocated in the budget to this item. the you've approved a budget that gives your administration the authority to spend the general fund up to the amount that you authorized and so the funds are authorized. The issue is that it breaches the contract we have with our labor partners. We are overspending the maximum amount that's listed in there. So you're it is um the board has authorized the expenditure of the funds. It is a material

162enough amount that I feel that it should have been bargained and negotiated and the board should have been aware of it as you made your budgeting decisions and that is what I'm proposing that we do going forward. >> So the budgeting decisions and that we made were not this did not was not presented. It didn't come up. How did it um how how okay who let me back up. Who is our um insurance provided by? Who's the what is the organization that navigate that provides all this and um helps us set this up? >> I'll turn that question over to Mr. Conlin. >> Sure. >> So we have we have we're in a a SIBA pool for for Blue Shield and Delta Dentl and then we we're direct with Kaiser. We have a partnership with

163with Burnham Benefits who who's a Burnham and now they're called the Baldwin Group for they're our benefit broker. Um, but again, this this was brought this came to my attention when I received the rates that they were going to be using for this year. And I asked I asked my uh one of my HR technicians to please take a look. And again, all through the insurance committee process, we were informed it was going to be a 7% increase for all the Blue Shield plans and a 5% increase for the for the Kaiser plans. But when I received the rates from the business office, um, I had to I asked them to please put these in percentages and the numbers were like like Dr. Glass had shared far exceeded the the 7% and 5%. So it

164led me to ask more questions and then bring this to to Dr. Glass's attention so we can and again this is what we're going to continue to investigate. >> How do we determine how we're going to fund each of these categories or each of these um >> your policies? >> The policy, right? >> The plan yeah the plan has a cost. Um so I'm going to use broad numbers that are not accurate. So please extend me some some liberty. Let's say let's say your let's say your your healthcare plan costs $7 million a year to fund. That is paid for through a combination of district contributions and employee contributions. Um this if if we had followed what was in the bargaining contract, the district's contribution should have been about five.5 million. Again, don't hold me

165to the numbers. We will bring you all of this in detail. The district's contribution last year was actually over $6 million. So that's the breach of a contract that I was talking about. Um and um that's that's the core of the problem. >> Is is it typical that we fund these programs annually without board review or how did this how did this continue because you say it's been going on for a couple of years now. So how did the who who determines how much we're going to fund these >> and who has been funding it? >> Like how did that happen? If the board or did the board approve it or did >> because if it's a breach of contract, does that mean the board had never saw it? >> The union agreement contains the

166uh tiers uh and how much the district's maximum um should be. And you have people here who know far more about that than I did. So that that is supposed to define what the district's contribution is and what the employees contribution is. So that that document should have defined it. It has not and it's resulted in the district's general fund picking up the overage. >> So, if you're negotiating the contracts, were you also setting the terms for the for the um insurance or is that a different department that does that? >> It's not This isn't handled through human resources. It's through the business office. >> So, the business office was responsible for funding this fund. the business office is responsible for managing the portion of that portion of the health plan. And again, Trustee Morgan,

167I learned about this last week and I've been in this I've been in >> and I've been in this job for three weeks. >> I don't have all the details on this. >> No, please. And we we are committed to addressing this transparently and honestly with you. I do not have the detailed answers that you're asking for tonight, but we will come back with this matter and get into it in some detail, all the detail that you want once we have more time to investigate it and understand it. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I might have more questions, but let me I'll I'll pass my time now. >> There questions. Are there is there any cards from the audience? >> No. >> Okay, go ahead and make a comment. >> Yeah. Um I would just

168like to um say uh Mr. Superintendent that I really appreciate the way you've handled this. um uh earlier not thinking about this not the I I said that uh if I had to use one word to describe what uh it's like working with you it's it's honesty um and uh I think you're kind of like you know um uh John F. Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis right now. You know, in terms of this is a very serious matter and you've handled it really well and um I think that there's a number of things to be said about it. One of them is that um uh this shouldn't happen, shouldn't have been allowed to happen. But I think as far as I can tell, everybody that has been informed about this. Um, you know, their

169reaction is just exactly what you said. Um, we need to pull together and we need to take care of this um and address it. And um you know uh everybody wants and just as you said I think everybody instinctively and without hesitation says this is a uh this is a a problem that has to be resolved in a way that's fair to the taxpayers um fair to the schools and and fair to the employees. you know, um the you know, there's a lot to be learned and a lot more that we need to know about this. It's kind of um an issue of um you know, how it could be that um there's an additional million dollars being expended uh for health care coverage and that nobody would notice it. um you know uh that

170nobody would notice it on the union side, on the health insurers side or on the district side, but uh the the thing about it is as you say, we there needs to be additional uh knowledge and information. um not knowing how many years it's been occurring is obviously a big thing. But um the point is in the end, you know, um uh this is a uh not just a a budget execution, fiscal control uh deficiency issue. Um this is a labor law issue and this is a um uh this is an issue of um you know uh whereas I think you put the right spin on it. Uh we need to work with the unions to solve this not uh get into you know unnecessary um you know like political uh debate or anything. Um

171this is a sensitive thing that has to be dealt with. But I think it's important uh for the public to understand that um there are a lot of factors here come into play. Um the what as from what I understand when you talk about a breach of these agreements this is a situation where the general fund um of the district um is not um you know cannot be just rated. It can't be just, you know, you can't go into the general fund and just do what you want with it. You got to do what's authorized. And in this case, there were limits on how much spending from the general fund was authorized for this purpose. And the spending that was done exceeded the limits of what was authorized. So it is in that sense unauthorized

172use of the funds. Um and so um that has to be taken into account. But I to the extent that I understand the situation when that happens and and by the way um I've done some research and I've talked to some people um and this is not a common occurrence. This this can happen in different context. It can happen like on a one-year basis. It can happen um and um it can happen also um through uh negligence and and and whatnot. But this is not a common thing. So um you can't you know this is a serious um problem. Um but in the end it's not a cause for panic and hysteria or anything. It's a cause for determination to and what it really what the way it was described to me was it's about

173returning to the contract. In other words, we didn't do what the contract provided. But that doesn't mean you start pulling your hair out. means you figure out how to get back to the contract and and I think we're going to be able to do that and I think it's it's a good situation because um uh I think the way you under your leadership I think I understand anyway that um this really is going to just become part of the ongoing relationship between the district and the union and we're going to negotiate how to solve this problem and it can turn out in the end um to um you know be a success if we come up with a solution and and whatnot. And I think that when stuff like this happens, you really start to

174you know people talk about uh trust and people talk about um you know um respect and and and whatnot and and how everybody should treat each other and whatnot. But this is when you really find out who your friends are. This is when you really find out um you know how we're going to work together to solve a problem. And I think that everybody on this board is a is a friend of the union and everybody on the board is a friend of you on in terms of wanting to solve this problem. And I I I think everybody on this board is a friend to each other. Um and that we're going to have to really pull together and and and sort this out. Um and uh and you know what what it represents when

175there's a deviation from um the allocation from the general fund. Um what happens is it's generally considered in labor law terms um a unilateral change and you can't change a mutually agreed you know uh arrangement through unilateral action. So unilateral action occurred here and we got to get back to bilateral action and I really believe we're going to do it and it's a challenge and I but I also see it as an opportunity um to show the unions that um we're on their side and for them to show us that they're on our side and we're all working together for the students and the parents and the teachers and the families. So I uh I just want to commend you for your leadership. I to come into this job new to move your family here

176and get here and you've worked so hard at establishing relationships with people all through the district and for you to have this um you know and for particularly the timing of it coming um you know all of a sudden you know uh I have questions about who knew about this a year ago but we don't need to get into those questions right now. Um, the fact is it came to you and you've picked it up and I just commend you for how you've handled it. >> Thank you, Clerk Hills. Just on that point, I just want to underscore that Laguna Beach Unified School District has a has been in spite of this issue a fiscally well-managed district. You have a healthy cash reserve. The general fund can absorb this without impacting other programs or services

177or staff. So this is uh this is something that we will need to work on, but it is absolutely an issue that we can manage. >> Yeah. I I'm just going to add because you of those comments, this isn't really about money. It's really not about uh the availability of money. It's about the authorized use of money. And um and and and so when there's an unauthorized use of money, you have to figure out how to solve that problem. And but in the process, you don't just repeat the mistake. you find a remedial approach to it and and I think that I think that um everybody in this room has really strong mutual interest in in figuring out how to do that with without any hesitation because it's got to happen. >> So, um I

178uh I agree with you, Mr. Hills, that there isn't a reason to panic and that we should always have sound controls. So, nobody disagrees with that. And I also think it was appropriate, Dr. Glass, in the context of approving the um union contracts to point out that we have to look into an issue that's come up. But I also think it was somewhat premature to bring this up because I don't think that we have sufficient information to be having a conversation that jumps to any conclusions whatsoever. I think at this point we have very basic information. And what I'm hearing from this, as somebody who does understand how accounting works, I don't have any um there there's no proof in this conversation about unauthorized uses of funds or anything because we don't have that level

179of detail. So, I would like to suggest that um we proceed with approving the contract, you look into finding more information, and then we figure out where to go from there because I think we're jumping the gun a little bit on jumping to conclusions absent the kind of information that everybody needed. And I wish that this had not in this level of detail been a part of this conversation or uh meeting agenda without that information. So, I think it's appropriate to move on to approving the contracts. I I agree, but I also suggest that we get in touch with our auditors. This is an issue that's that the auditors need to let us know as far as what's going on here. >> I would I would have to agree with member Kelly. Um we have

180an audit happening now, right, for um the s after the signatory cards. So is would an audit have well I I had more questions so I'm sorry I didn't get back um around but um and I I I actually disagree um respectfully with the not bringing it tonight because at the end of the day this is a it's a and I agree our general funds can carry it. Um, but I think that that's um we shouldn't be so casual when we talk about a million over a million dollars out of unauthorized spending when we have um in the last seven months we've had a $25 million pool, a $25 million solar project. I think it was 25, right? Um, and then there's also talking about a a um taking a loan taking a loan for

181that solar, but then also possibly fi um preparing for a bond to help fund everything else that we can't pay for because we're going to pay for the pool. So, while it it while we concurrently today manage this, um, we ran on I know I am very passionate about transparency and accountability. the people that have been in this room for um the many months um claiming that there's not transparency, the actual act of this happening is what's not transparent. And I struggle to believe that no one knew about it other than the one person that was um responsible for funding it because that same person now was just welcomed into the fuel community um at their summer evening on July 13th. So, there's just a lot of coincidental um actions that I think is important

182to bring up so that the public is aware of what's happening so that when we do approve a contract or don't approve a contract, I don't know what everybody's going to do, but um that that there's transparency on what we're looking at going forward. I appreciate the suggestion that it comes back on the October 14th or the August 14th agenda rather than just kind of push it down the road like it's not a big deal. Um the scrutiny that has occurred over the last seven months um from fishing through personal emails, demanding personal emails, um thinking being accused of hiding things. Um, this to me is very much about why I am sitting here because I promised people that I would try and figure out where is our money going. We have so much money.

183Where is it going and what is it doing? And what is it doing for our community, not just our staff? Our staff funding is 71 79% of our budget. So, this is this impacts a whole lot of things. I'm curious as to how it's going to impact the LCAP. Um because that's part of a funding formula. There's, you know, how will this impact um you know, what's the resolution? I'm not trying to negotiate it now at all, but I'm saying that we we owe the taxpayers of this community a a conversation on the 14th that identifies the problem, how it occurred, who's involved, how we can what some propositions are to fix it. And so to just say that we should approve the contracts for 79% of our budget without making an awareness that there

184is an that there's an $800,000 um unapproved spend for it to make sure that it's all in compliance. We need to make sure that that's that that's transparent. >> Point I'm making the point I'm making is that if you're going to talk about a million dollar problem, you don't treat that casually. we know all the information that we need to know to have a public discussion so that board members don't jump to conclusions that may not be accurate. I don't think it's fair to the discussion or to transparency. And while I appreciate that Dr. Glass brought this up so that the union and the people approving the contract understand that we're investigating an issue. It was premature to have this discussion absent all the information that we need because I don't have any information that

185would lead me to jump to the same conclusions that other people on this board have jumped to. If I may, um the when I spoke earlier about we will deal with issues where there is no clear right or wrong thing to do. This is the timing on this is one of those issues and frankly it's something that I struggled with over the past several days. There are compelling reasons to bring it forward tonight. There were compelling reasons not to. Ultimately, that decision was guided after conversation with your council. So that is why we're here raising it tonight. Further, as I stated earlier, I don't have all the information on this and I apologize that I don't know more, but that's the truth about where it is right now. And at this point, I don't have

186any evidence to point to anybody about anything. And so I I do think it's it's important that we are cautious and thoughtful right now. And you have you, Madam Chair, you have a recommendation from me on how you pro should proceed that has been vetted by your council and that's what I recommend. >> Is this Howard? >> Yeah. >> Can it be short, please? >> Uh, yeah, of course. Um the um I think that uh you know um I I'm I'm expecting I guess I can there's no reason why I can't announce uh what I how I intend to vote. U I intend to vote to approve this contract. Um but a serious discussion and serious thought and serious consideration of all the options and alternatives uh is I think the responsibility of everybody on

187the board. Uh in other words, it's not just oh, you know, we we don't have enough information yet. We shouldn't go public. Um we should just vote for it. uh you know um we support the unions or whatever you know or whatever it is or we want this district to do this. It's really easy um to say that what's hard is to tell the truth and in terms of who's friends with who. Uh there's an old saying that the harder the truth, the truer the friend that tells it. and the person that says, "Oh, yeah, we're just going to vote for this because, you know, and we're not going to draw any conclusions and everything." We know enough to know that somebody knew about this for a long time and somebody was not transparent. And

188so, yeah, each of us, the superintendent, you know, um I haven't heard anybody say anything other than we got to do what's right by the employees. We got to do what's right by the taxpayers. And again, I'm going to repeat myself. Um, this is an opportunity uh as as much as it's a problem. And um we're going to get there, but the fact is that we know enough. And I just want to re I want to associate myself with the remarks of Mayor Morgan. Um, I ran on the on the grounds that we were going to have transparency and after 20 years of not being able to get information in a timely way, um, I sure as hell wasn't going to be part of uh, withholding information that I believe the public uh, needs to

189know. And you don't wait until you get all your tees crossed and all your eyes dotted before you tell the truth sometimes. And you know the situation is is that the two senior officials of the district who are most responsible for this matter are both gone right now. They've left and um so we can't sit down and talk to them. Um and so we now got we now have to um deconstruct and reconstruct uh what happened here and we will. But the idea that it could take a while to accomplish this and the idea that we would sit on this information um until we got more comfortable about it um if we if we have information that indicates that the explanation for how this happened and whatnot or the or the ramifications of this are

190not as um profound and pronounced as we tend to think they are based on what we do know. I'll be the first to say, hey, you know, this new information, you know, enables us to look at this a little bit differently. Nobody has said or drawn any conclusions about anything except for the fact that, as far as I'm concerned, that it's important to tell the public about this problem um so that we can pull together and work together and solve it. Madam Chair, just um on those um last few points again, I would just want to underscore that an investigation has not been conducted. I don't have all the information. I cannot point to any person or individual that I know that was responsible for this. Um and it's I urge the members to be

191cautious in casting dispersions or blame at this point. We just don't know and we will take the time and fully investigate this and through a financial forensic audit process and determine what happened. But uh this is not that time. I don't have that information for you. So I just urge that the members are cautious. Thank you. >> I understand that and I am grateful that you brought it forward and that we're not hiding things. >> We vote on the item. We vote on the item. Um, okay. I move that the board of education approve the 2025 2026 collective bargaining agreements as presented and further direct the superintendent and staff to number one engage with employee union leadership to address the district's current overspending on health care contributions for the 202526 school year including discussion of

192a potential agreement to amend the exist existing contracts to reflect a mutually acceptable resolution. Number two, to collaborate with union leadership to develop a long-term sustainable strategy for managing employee health care benefits within the parameters of future collective bargaining agreements and the district's financial obligations. And number three, it is further moved that the superintendent is authorized to retain qualified independent auditors to implement specialized supplemental for forensic financial audits determined after notice and consultation with the board president to be necessary and prudent in order to prevent and resolve phys fiscal, budget, and financial control deficiencies. and to ensure district compliance with applicable contracts, obligations, and laws. >> I'm where I'm sorry, where did that motion come from? Was that your motion? >> Yes, >> I I provided model language uh for part of that. >> Okay.

193>> So, with that, are we approving the contract? Yes, >> we're approving the contracts. >> Well, no, we're taking a vote on the contracts. I I'm sorry. >> So, you have a motion has been made. >> I have a motion that's been made. Is there a second? Before I vote, can I just make sure I understand the motion that by approving these contracts, approving this motion tonight, we still have the option to go into negotiations to re possibly, if need be, re-evaluate the contracts as well as put together a plan going forward. And we're also asking for a forensic audit to happen on um our finances for do we need to define how long or we have an overspend of of over a million dollars plus and we don't know if there's anything else. So

194it's probably really important to have an audit done because >> Mrs. Morgan, don't you need to understand the nature of the overage before you decide that you need a forensic audit? The forensic audit like I I feel like we don't even have enough information. I'm not against doing a forensic audit if there's a problem I can understand has actually happened. I don't understand the details of what I'm even being told here. I don't have numbers. I don't know how the con decisions were made about the contract. I don't know that we have all the information we need to understand the extent of the problem. There's a possibility in my mind that the problem isn't what we're hearing that it is because we don't have enough information. So, I mean, I guess we could do the

195motion and if we discover that this is not the kind of problem we thought it was because we don't have sufficient information, then we could rethink what we're asking to do. It may not be that we need a forensic auditor. We we do know that we breached the agreement. I mean, the attorney determined that um to repeat myself, if if if it turns out that this is not as severe a problem as it appears, um then we don't have to use any uh special audit. given the situation, the facts are the facts are as they are that are known. um the um board council. Um, I mean what really my understanding is that the superintendent uh briefed each of the members and uh briefed the council and um the uh the recommendation from the superintendent

196and the council are that we that we go ahead and approve the agreements but that we give ourselves that audit capacity um among other things because um this would indicate that um there's um you know been a protracted long period of time in which um uh fiscal controls and compliance um have resulted in the objective fact of around a million dollars of money that's been spent um that isn't um that been taken out of the general fund uh that wasn't supposed to be taken out of the general fund. And so nobody is um trying to blame anybody or accuse anybody or anything else, but we know enough. The idea that we don't know enough and uh you know, we're all we all want to learn more and and the superintendent's uh committed to finding out

197more, but based on what we do know, this is a serious situ situation that justifies um the motion that was made and I encourage that we move forward with the motion. Thank you. Um, may I be recognized, m? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, just in the interest of uh full um transparency, I provided a motion to President Perry on this matter. It included the elements of approving the agreement, engaging with the union leadership to address the district's current overspending for the current year, and collaborating with union leadership on a long-term u mutually agreeable solution. Uh that was what I recommended and what council recommended. President Perry, you have added an additional element to that which is entirely within your prerogative to do as as the as a board member. You have a motion and

198a second on that. >> If I could just make one point, I think it's important to say the contract is approved unconditionally. Um and so um you know the the the action um item is the disposition of that is um final and complete and um and we now go into the process of working together to solve this problem. So I I think it's actually a potential success story if we we get our act together and do it. and I think telling the community about it uh was the right thing to do. >> Thank you. I'm I'm sorry to belabor the point. I I did also just want to add that I would consider it part of my professional responsibility to investigate what happened and bring you full information on it. So I I understand why

199it's why it is included in the motion that you've made, but please know that it you've hired a superintendent. This is my job to find out what occurred and bring you that information. Can we vote on the motion? >> Do we have a second? >> Yeah. >> Second. >> Yes, we do. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Did you? >> Oh, I didn't hear you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Maybe I just didn't hear you. Okay. 5 Z. Um, so are we going to do the same thing again for the next contract? >> Sorry. Uh the the um uh other contract isn't up until um maybe you can help me with the timing. I'm sorry. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. >> Yeah. Um >> I'll

200turn things over to Mr. Conland to review that. Apologies. So 11 11 C is the public disclosure of the collected bargaining agreement in accordance with AB1200 government code 3547.5 and CCR title 5 section 15449 requires that the costs associated with the agreement be publicly disclosed and approved by the board of education. The 33 employees represented in this group are classified management certificated administrator school psychologists classified unrepresented and confidential employees. These employees are not part of either Labou or CSEA and a 3% unscheduled salary increase is recommended for approval by the board of education and the staff recommends that the board of education approved the 2526 compensation proposal for nonrepresented classified and certificated staff >> questions discussion. Um, should we should I read that again? Do I need to read that again? >> We just have

201to make a motion to approve it. >> Can we just make a motion to approve it? Okay. >> Okay. Okay. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay. >> I >> Okay. Um, approval of service agreement with leadership associates to conduct an executive search for the position of assistant superintendent business services in an amount of $15,000. Mr. Conland, the floor is yours. >> Yes, thank you. So, yes, this uh this agreement is made with Leadership Associates in the amount of $15,000. they are in the process of supporting and helping us to uh to find a replacement CBO um with hopes of having someone in the position by potentially end of August, maybe early September. So your your approval of this contract will or the ratification of the contract will allow us to continue with

202that process. >> And I'll add um uh in the interim uh I've been serving as the in leadership role over the business services team. you have a very veteran and capable group of employees there um that's been handling um the financial and budget and and fiscal operations and and the um all of the the other operational aspects of the district. So, it's in good hands with the team that you have, but I've been serving in that role just in this short term. Uh I would ask for the board's support in this. I think this last conversation shows how critical it is that you have someone with expertise in these areas in that role. Boy, I wish I had somebody that was um in this role right now um to navigate through the issue that we

203just uh had dialogue about. But uh the reason that we're using leadership associates is really to accelerate the process and make sure that we get a top candidate in place quickly. Uh and if there are any I also just want to say in in terms of I understand that it is an additional cost uh the $15,000 for this contract but the board should also uh I think consider that I'm serving in that role now which is probably a savings of over $40,000 over the course of these couple of months that the position is is open. Thank you. >> And and also I think it would be good if you were just serving in your role as superintendent and not trying to serve a second role. So, I agree that we it would be good to

204hire someone as soon as possible. Not that you're not doing a great job at that also, but it's two jobs for you. >> Discussion. Sorry. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Me? Yeah. Yeah. Discussion. >> I actually had a couple questions. Has the search already started? Have you do you have a pool of candidates that you're looking at already? uh they're currently having a pool and they're and they're evaluating and do all the reference checks for us and then we're meeting with her I believe next week to schedule who's going to be on the panel um interview and the final interview process. So they're already again the the applicant pool has been they're getting accepted and they're being screened at at this time. We're hopeful. >> And is it all driving from the or

205being drawn from the education field? Are we looking at business um leads that are coming from the education um industry or is it a broader and can it be a broader search? I'm just curious. I know there's specific things to education, but I'm just curious if there's >> Yeah, they they have certain certifications that they're required to have in the state of California. So, someone coming from say just a a business accounting would wouldn't wouldn't have all the good to know. Thank you. >> And I think just uh contribute to that uh the position closes this Friday. Is that right? I believe so. >> This Friday. Yeah. So, we haven't had a chance to review the applicants to this uh point, but we have been in contact with leadership associates and they're pleased with the

206pool that they're getting. So, that's encouraging. >> Well, you definitely need help and I am um sorry for you that you um don't have this person, your right-hand person, and it's it's an interesting timing. Um, so I think you're doing a great job and you've been extremely communicative and it's a lot I know and I um appreciate everything that you're doing and expediting the process will help everyone I'm sure. >> Any other comments? probably not gonna be very popular um uh because I I I I want to take a few moments to express a few things that I think are really important. First of all, I'm going to vote to approve this contract. Um and I think primarily because of how urgent it is that we fill this position. Um and uh but I do

207want to make a couple of comments that sort of go back in some ways to our conversation about the SRO. Um uh you know um I've been following um uh some of the uh the hiring practices uh of the of the board here for about 25 years. And um I'm aware of the fact that uh we've fallen into a pattern of not having women in senior positions uh of administrative authority uh in the district. And uh I saw it begin uh back when we had a male um president of the board. And uh you had a bunch of uh parents come in, including several women who were civil engineers and scientists and in the STEM professions. And um they came in and uh advised against a curriculum change. And uh the um the the person

208who was the president of the board was pretty dismissive and um and uh sort of said, "Well, you know, if we have to choose between a bunch of parents that have opinions about this and what our staff wants us to do, well, we're going to go with the staff." And um that curriculum program turned out to be a disaster and had to be rescended and it hurt it hurt students. It hurt it hurt kids. And um then the woman assistant superintendent who had been assigned to advocate for that failed curriculum, she was essentially fired. Um and so you know uh so much for uh no good deed goes unpunished. But then you go you look forward from there and all of a sudden over a period of time uh you have a situation where there's

209a pattern develops where um all the women senior women in the district uh all just sort of disappear. And um so then you say well you know there are gender discrimination issues. um you can't you can't try to achieve gender ethnic balance or DEI goals or whatever if it's discriminatory and I understand that believe me I understand that um I was general counsel of an agency where I came in and there were 20 lawyers in a very prestigious uh agency and when I left there were 11 women lawyers uh because there were only 20 men lawyers when I got there and I didn't do that by hiring women I did that by hiring hiring the most qualified candidate and um if it turned out to be a woman, it turned out to be a woman.

210But um so I'm not advocating gender discrimination here. I'm just observing that I find it to be kind of unnatural that um there's been this pattern. Um, I'm not advocating discrimination for women, but there's kind of a de facto situation where there were there was a balanced um situation. And um you know, I I just think that it's something that leadership associates um you know um let's put it this way. I'm not an expert on this, but I'd like it to be mentioned to them that um uh you know, one of our objectives would be to have uh would be to have a balanced um uh uh again we want the most qualified candidate, but um uh there should be awareness that um uh there also if there if the if the turn if it

211turns out the most qualified candidate is a woman, I would really think that would be a step in the right direction. Um and um and uh I also um wonder um I was very impressed with leadership associates and the superintendent search and I think they did a really great job. I wasn't very happy about their participation in governance workshop where they acted as a consultant for a governance workshop and I think that was not a good situation. um wasn't handled well. But um uh uh that we're not asking them to do that again. So um we don't have to worry about that. Um but um I also just want to comment that um the reason this position is vacant is because um Mr. Dixon moved on to greener pastors. um and I wish him well

212and um uh uh I hope that he succeeds and has a great experience. Um I will say that um uh you know I my personal view was that um uh having him leave his position as an assistant superintendent and go become an acting superintendent. Um, at the time it occurred, I did not think it, as somebody who's been involved in executive HR for 45 years, I didn't think it was a great move for him. Um, >> that's no, I I can I'm sorry. Point of order. Point of order. I'm I'm I'm finishing my comments. I don't need to be debated. Um and uh so the fact of the matter is um the result of it was um I I thought thought it would be awkward for him to go to that and then go back

213and uh the point is um that I don't know I've heard it's been said that um that um he worked with leadership associates and so I don't know if that's true or not but um I I think that uh um if it is um that it might be good for there to be a disclosure of that. So we understand and the timing of it. But all of those concerns that I have expressed um uh I uh on the strength of their performance in the superintendent search which I really uh liked um I'm prepared to vote for this. >> Okay, let's have a vote. >> Yes. Um all in favor? >> I I opposed. None. No. Thank you. Um, let's move on to E. Approval of the declaration of need for fully qualified educators for the

21425256 school year. Mr. Conlin, the floor is yours again. >> Thank you, President Perry. Um, so the declaration of need is an annual document required by the state of California to be completed by school districts as a prerequisite if they um anticipate the potential issuance of an emergency permit or limited assignment permit in areas where the district may anticipate having difficulty filling a vacancy with a highly qualified candidate. This year we have several special education teachers taking leaves of absences and we're doing everything in our power to find highly qualified candidates to fill these roles. But in the situation where a candidate may have a special education credential authorizing them to teach say early childhood education which is birth to kindergarten, this declaration if if we find a viable candidate with that credential, this declaration

215would allow us to consider them for the K2 self-contained class. That's just one example of how this works. We also have one teacher who has a single subject credential that was issued in another state and then moved to California. Her outofstate credential does not meet California's requirements for an English learner authorization, but can be added after taking additional coursework or tests. We anticipate this individual will complete the requirements prior to the start of the school year. But in the event that doesn't happen or or the results cannot be verified prior to August 15th, we would have the employee apply for an emergency clad English learner authorization permit. In order to receive this permit, the district needs to have a declaration of need in place. So that's the reason why we're bringing this forward. >> Thank

216you. Questions? >> Thank you for clarifying that. I know I had a couple questions about it because I wasn't quite sure why there would be a need. Is there do are we going to prioritize existing staff and give them the option if they want to be trained before we go out and try and recruit people? >> Sure. Whenever there's a an opening, we if there's always a voluntary transfer opportunity for individuals to to express their interest and they're they're considered before we go out outside. And can they do that midseason, mid se mid school year? Like you said, a couple people are going on leave. So, can they do the training in anticipation? I'm not trying to get really detailed on what that training is, but is that a possibility? >> We actually had conversations

217with some of our current staff who who hold a different authorization um to say to ask them if they were interested in in shifting to the K2 class for this upcoming year. They respectfully declined and wanted to stay in the position they were in. But yeah, that that's definitely a possibility. Um, but again, we we've we've we've had those conversations and now we're just looking to is if and again, we we do everything in our power to ensure we find a highly qualified individual that has the the exact credential, but this this just gives us the potential flexibility if we find someone that maybe has a different credential, but it it still has the expertise to do the work. >> Thank you for that. I appreciate the clarification. >> Any discussion? Okay, let's um Is

218there a motion? Ben, >> second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Thank you. Okay, let's um move to item 12, the consent calendar action. Um Mr. Hills, are there any speaker cards for those who wish to make public comments on the consent calendar? >> Okay. Um, do any board members have any questions on items that would not require pulling the item or and does any board member wish to pull any items to be discussed and voted on separately? >> I actually have a couple Go ahead. >> I would like to pull that appointment as Okay. Wh which uh letter is that? >> U >> I actually have a couple questions that might help me not pull a couple of them. um is do we have and this actually came up in public comment and

219I actually >> which items are you >> I'm referring to BB CC >> DB >> BB BB >> BB okay >> CC >> BC >> and GG are the three items that were commented on from the public comments that came in but I also >> had a question about that and I thought it was a good question. Do we have a limit of how much a contract can be when we include it in consent as far as a spending limit and what is that limit if we if we know it and if not that's fine. Um not trying to put you on the spot. I'm just asking if we if anybody has that information um because it was asked by the public and I thought it was a good question. Do we have a limit

220that that we just push through consent? because I know that this is the beginning of the year, but last year we had we only went to BB or or DI and um this year we're all the way to um Yuyu. So, I'm just curious if we have any restrictions on how much we're pushing through on a consent calendar. >> Um Madam Chair, just from a procedural standpoint, um would you prefer uh to pull the items Morgan has raised and work through those individually? Let's let's pull those items and then I would like to pull item >> KK. So let's let's do approval of the consent calendar item C through UU except U BB CC GG and KK. >> Hang on. I had a couple more to pull. I was just asking that question. That's okay.

221Um the um Did you pull KK? >> I pulled. >> Okay. And then I want to pull QQ and RR. >> RR. >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> And um E E >> E E. Okay. Okay. So, um what what I have here I hope I'm correct that we're pulling seven items. U BB C G K R R E E. >> It was UU. >> Uu. Oh, two years you. >> Okay. Um, >> what's your list again? >> That U BB CC G K R E. >> Madam Chair, your um very capable exec here has got them. So the first motion will be all items under consent except for BB CC GG E QQ R K and UU and I'll put those in correct order. All in favor? >> I Okay. Um shall we start with

222um BB? >> I asked to have this pulled for the reason that I as the question that I asked which is um which we'll take three of these off right away. Is there a limit to how much we can put in the G in the consent calendar or do we have any guidelines on that or policies? There is no limit to how many items you can put in the consent uh calendar or agenda. The consent agenda, we start with a recommendation of uh items for the board that we feel are routine in nature and unlikely to generate any controversy or or anything else than a 50 vote. Um what you have here because of the time of year, you have a new fiscal year. You have a bunch of new contracts that that the district

223is renewing. You also have a new superintendent coming in. So, you got to do some changes to assignments and uh banking and authority around that. And then an item that um clerk Hill has has brought forward around assigning these secretaries. So, that accounts for why why there's a number of items on the consent agenda that we've recommended. With that said, it's the board's decision of how you want to structure your agenda. So we started with that list. Uh clerk uh Hills was the acting president. Uh he moved forward with those recommendations of the items that we we put forward on the agenda. When President Perry got back, uh she also affirmed that what that um that was the structure that she wanted. When you come to your board agenda and approving the board agenda, you

224have the opportunity to remove items then. And in California, when you come to this point, any any of the items can be removed by any board member. So what you have in in short is uh what we thought were non-controversial or routine items. That's typically what goes on the consent agenda. The reason for that is we're trying to preserve your time to focus on things that that are really substantive and what you got into tonight. So it's just to be more efficient with your time, but we defer to the board and the board president on how you construct your agenda. It's your agenda >> there. >> If I may, sorry. There was >> I my question was about the a value the value amount not necessarily the number of items. Do we have any policy?

225>> Right. We used to didn't we we used to if an item was a whole lot of money it wouldn't go to the consent calendar. >> Do you remember that large amount? >> Do you remember that Dr. Thank you. May I answer based on what you So each president has set an amount um a basic amount in the past. Um large items generally are not placed on the consent calendar unless they're they've been brought forward before. So new items do not go on consent. We put them in information and then action or action depending on what the item is. Um but if they've been on before and you've approved them prior, they have often gone on consent. Well, we're learning that maybe we don't need we need to do things new rather than how we've

226always done it. I know that's a term in business that if you um if we say this is how he's always done it, then that probably is a problem. So, um I appreciate that response >> regardless of cost. >> I disagree with that based on the fact that we're going to have an forensic audit, but I appreciate your opinion. >> Well, we may not need that. Thank you. That clears up BBC, CCC, and GG for me. I hope that it solves I hope that we've addressed the items for the um community member that wrote in um when he questioned those or they questioned those, whoever it was. >> So um you got >> just just in terms of order um uh which item were we on? What which one? >> 12, CC, and GC. So

227now properly fine moving them together. Anybody else? Well, procedurally, I think properly because you they've all three been pulled now. You need to vote on them as individual items. >> Approve BB. >> Okay. >> Thank you, >> Madam Chair. >> Second. >> Yeah. >> Individual. >> Yeah. So, BB first stickler on process. >> Okay. >> Perfect. >> Um, >> how many uh approve of item BB? >> I >> Thank you. How How many approve of item CC or who would like to approve? >> Okay. Um >> Okay. >> I think >> all in favor of item GG. >> I thank you. Thank you. >> All right. What are we up to? Auctioneer. This is >> uh KK. Uh um I pulled KK uh mostly for more information that um maybe uh I'm sure Dr. Mayberry

228has for us. Um, please explain how money must be spent in addition to what was allocated previously and add new opportunities for students with Prop 28. >> Yeah. So, for Prop $28, uh, there's multiple conditions to it. One is that it has to it cannot supplant something we're already doing. So, it's an addition, right? So, >> Right. Um so in this case we get a little bit under uh again this is this item is report based off of what was spent last year. Uh that's a state report, but the specifics of it um that are not in the report um is that the funds were used to provide additional um a new part-time um theater support at the elementary level uh which is our high school teacher who's now um her English her English u

229classes were replaced by a new teacher. So we took part of her role and put it down there. Uh we've added a >> So she's working at the elementary schools now >> as well both high school and >> she goes back and forth. Right. Okay. her she was teaching English and theater. Someone else took over her English classes. So uh a new a second uh vocal teacher that is the we hired a two years ago we hired a second our first certificated vocal teacher u while while also expanding our elementary par educator u that that supports vocal music. So we added additional hours to that that's in here. Um, and then we also hired a second vocal music teacher um, this past year with these funds. So, we now have two certificated vocal teachers and

230now a full-time PAR educator if that supports vocal music. It was not a full-time person. We added additional hour into their work work day. Um, those are all an additional that were usually prop 28 funds. My >> my question about those is I mean previously the students had vocal music at the elementary level. They had best Sands and at the upper level they had Roxanna. So it's is it adding a different experience for students um because they had it before. >> Yes. So Roxanna was not was I think believe was a professional expert was not certificated and so >> neither of them were certificated but the students were were still having >> so the certificated so adding the two certificated teachers one allows them to subdirectly support both middle and high school theater programs on

231a full-time basis which they were not be able to do previously. >> Okay. So we've added additional time as well as one of the things we found when the previous uh elementary vocal pair educator retired was that she was doing the work of multiple people, right? And so she was not able to see her class sizes were bigger. She was there was a lot of things that she was not able to do. Now we're able to have with a extra hours to that pair educator as well as certificated support. Those certificated teachers now can also support all the different classroom activities that happen at the elementary level. It might be uh a play that they're doing. It might be um a performance that uh the previous person was not able to do because they had

232so they weren't able to do they had to do a lot of it on their own. So they're increasing the programming a little bit at the elementary level as well as um as well as pushing into those classes. And then at the middle and high school level prior a person was kind of trying to bounce between the two. Both those pro theater programs happen later in the day. Um, so a one person couldn't be at both. So hiring the second person allowed us to be able to split their time between the middle and the high school as well as provide additional support at the elementary uh for the for that programming. And then they're looking to at the same time there they've both started um a new clubs during tutorial and outside the day so

233they can eventually expand the vocal program not so it's not just living in the musical theater but that takes obviously time to build up interest. Uh, but they started doing that this year as well. >> Okay, thank you. That sounds great. I want just wanted to make sure that since we were already spending money that we subtracted that money, didn't just add the others. So, for you know, just I I don't know, but say these two cost $50,000 and we're paying uh $150,000. Now, we need to subtract 50,000 because we were already paying 50,000. Are you following me? May >> I maybe is there a question? >> Well, well, what I'm we we already had people hired >> and now we have credential people. >> Yes. Not as many people >> that are, you know,

234our money, but I just want to make sure that >> So, these are new people and we can use that for Prop 28 funds, but we also need to subtract out >> money that we were using before. >> Correct. We can't. >> So like, so for example, you're right. So for an example, the PAR educator position previously was 30 33 >> 33 hours a week, right? And so in order to expand those services, we now have made that 30 40 hours a week. >> 40 hours a week, right? We're not >> we're not expensing all 40 hours. We're expensing the additional seven hours per week. >> Okay. >> So that's a one example how that works. >> Okay. I just >> Yeah. I just didn't know if we were adding these people and just adding

235that. And then I um I also had questions about um I guess you're reaching out to different groups in town to provide art for each elementary grade level. Um what are the costs and what are the groups? >> I'm not that's in this item. >> Well, it's how we're spending Prop 28 money. >> Correct. But and this so in regards to funding for this, there's no reference to per visual arts. It's reference to middle school teachers spending additional hours to for performing arts. We already have vaposas that do that role that are not funded through this. They're funded through general fund. >> Right. But we're talking about how we're spending all the Prop 28 money. >> Correct. >> Right. Um, so for the middle school it says we're spending $30,000 to coordinate performing arts programs.

236Correct. >> So how how is that different than >> explain to me how that's working? So they again, so this for Prop $28, um, the principles and school site determine how those are funded and obviously we support and help with compliance and accountability. And one of their interests was having looking at their performing arts programming and saying, how do we help how do we figure out how to help students transition to the middle school in a way where their skills are matching and they're getting the right support and they're getting enough uh, extra professional experts to help? And then are we getting them ready for the high school program, right? And so you think of the middle school level, they have instrumental music, chorus, jazz, and theater. Um, and we're trying to expand into vocal

237music. So it's already at the elementary level. So those three people got additional hours. Uh, there's three people at the middle school got additional hours um or a stipen to start to work more with the vertical part of those programs as well as look at how they can connect to local local groups. um things like Foursquare performance or festival of arts or things like that where are we all is there middle school is elementary doing something that middle school should do is a high school doing something middle school should do and like really help spending more time helping aligning those programs as well as connecting them to the community >> so it's giving students new experiences or it's more >> some of it is yeah yeah I think I don't know if you've noticed but

238some of the updates I don't put them all I don't put them all in the updates but one of the things you'll notice that we've done a lot more this last here is the pro specifically the high school programs. One of the needs that was identified was how do we help the the programs where we want kids to end up. You know this the ones that are really passionate about it. How do we connect them more to the middle school and then the middle school to the high the elementary. And so one of the things we've done more of is through these funds supporting field trips and buses to bring the dance program down to the middle school or down to the elementary or bring the the jazz from the high school down to the

239middle school to do some things with them. So they're trying to connect those programs. So that's used with field trip dollars for Prop $28. And then those people are coordinating some of those activities. >> Okay. >> And then how does the high school >> can prop $28 be used for field trips and things like that? I thought it was staffing like an 80% and 20%. >> It is 80 and 20. >> So 80% for staffing and 20% for materials. >> Uhhuh. And the high school staff um were we're spending $40,000 to supervise a makaker lab. Isn't that kind of in Mr. Whitfield's area >> area? I mean, it's getting late and as this is different, though. We're we're spending >> Well, this is beyond this is beyond their school day. So, make this that they've

240developed and Mr. W can speak to >> Did you do that last year, too? >> This was the first year that this >> this was the first the first year that we did it was this year um where we were open. Um, >> well, yeah, I was two days a week. >> We did it last, but this year >> you did it last year. >> 2425 >> was the first year. We've done it one total year. >> That's what I >> um >> that's what these and that's what these dollars are for there. This is like an end of year report on like what was impacted with the Prop 28 funds. And then um it talked about materials being bought, but I know we also in the consent calendar are doing that cool new engraver

241thing and uh >> but there's other things you're buying too. >> Yes. >> Well, the the new fiber laser that we were talking about was GG. That that's not through Prop 28. that is actually um Kelly Shear that had just retired um had wrote a specific grant that had came up for engineering um and she wrote the grant that's where we got the money for the fiber laser. >> That was the K12 strong. Okay. >> Yeah. Round seven. >> Okay. >> No, but that's >> Thank you. >> Sure. So a more detailed would it be helpful to have a more detailed report that is while I appreciate what's here um I think you know we are bound to we are required to make sure we spend this money in that 8020 so I think there's

242some a little concern that we're not quite fulfilling that >> can you share more about that concern because I just want to clarify Because 20% has to be materials, correct? >> 80% can be staffing, but it has to be new staffing or new and and or new experiences. Is that right, D? >> The >> right the the whole point of it is to give students more experiences and it it can be certificated or classified staff, but um to give students more experiences and concern that you know is that happening? Are we doing that? And it looks like in a lot of ways we are. >> So the report if I was there's not I'm happy to rewrite this in a different form. I will be upfront. There's not a lot more detail to provide like

243these are obviously rounded numbers but in the background the backup for the background for this I specific we specifically put in there like 65,000 was spent for this person's position that includes benefits right it might not be 65,000 it might be 64,000 $102 right um 110,000 is for part of the vocal teacher and benefits 15,000 so like those are those are that 80% as you go through the staffing piece the main supplies in there are going to the the Makers Lab had a a good chunk of money this first year around getting more supplies because they were now producing a lot more things after school for kids. Um and then um the other sites had some different field trips and stuff in there that kind of fall within that 20%. Uh I don't think it

244would look drastically different to this, but I'm happy to go and get that report and so you can see that. >> And I would also be interested in in seeing even though it's not part of I guess you you're saying it's not part of Prop 28. um the different grade levels that you've assigned different, you know, groups to and and the percentage of Prop 28 money that's being spent for elementary versus middle versus high high school. >> Yeah, that's we've I can reshare that with you. We've shared that an update. We get about we get just under $300,000 a year. It's based off of the number of students in a school. uh it's going down each year a little bit, not just because of a declining enrollment, but also because of the the state tax

245dollars or less. And that's based off of the state budget. Um and then the principles decide how that's spent. Um that the 100% and and there's obviously some obligations to that around 80. You have spend at least 80% on staffing. You could spend 100% on staffing if you wanted, but you have spent at least 80% on staffing. Um and then this report is that you're approving tonight is not related to the all I mean we have to this is about like how many schools were impacted how many additional staff were hired which is in the attachment how many students did they work with and impact which is in the attachment um so but I'm happy to to reshare that with you and weekly update next tomorrow next week. >> Another question as well you said

246um the 40,000 goes to the maker space lab. I need a refresher on how that one works because I don't think any of my kids ever did that. Um, but also if Maker Space Lab existed, which I think it did last year, if we're spending money on supplies for maker space, then does that not that doesn't qualify it, does it? Because it has to still be new, doesn't it? A new program, a new >> I mean, you're very familiar with this. So, >> it would qualify just like improving the instruments that >> there's a lot variety thing. coding is written in there or something. If we wanted to spend money on coding, there's a whole list of things that we have to follow regarding how money is spent for this proposition that was in in

247the law when it was passed and vote by the voters in 2022. Also, >> 8020 not 100%. >> Also, when we talk about the finances for um the makaker lab when we buy supplies, that is only for use during maker space hours and stuff that doesn't go into my typical uh daily classrooms. it is separated into um the what we call makaker lab which is the afterchool program. So it is defined as two different ones. Um we also run some tutorials where we do makaker lab during tutorials to to try to get more kids involved. >> So is makaker lab like a term for an open lab? I mean I'm again I've been all around it for years but I still am a little confused. >> Yeah. So there there's maker labs like literally all

248over the country. They're like gyms. you can go and they have all the equipment and you pay $250 a month and you get to go in and use the equipment. So, it's a very generic term. Um, we just call our we call our thing a a bunch of different things, but maker lab is a very simple generic term. It's just the entire lab. Um, but then we use that as the name for the after school program as well. >> Thank you. I was like, I know I've heard it. I know my kids are around it, but I couldn't. So, that Thank you. >> Okay. Um, can I have a motion for item KK? >> Second. >> All in favor of item KK? >> I do for all your knowledge on that. >> Um, item Yeah.

249Before we move forward, I need to make a correction to um your the very first motion and I need to do a roll call vote on that because it included resolutions. So, can I get a roll call vote for the very first motion to approve uh items C through UU minus BBCC E G blah blah blah blah >> I read the name. >> All right. So, I got five yeses verbally. Thank you. in California when it comes to resolution, you have to do that. So, great. She caught that. >> Okay. Thank you for catching that. Um uh so we're going to do you >> Oh, yeah. That was I asked about that. So that's inter services and I just wanted to ask if this is something that we are required to have or is it

250some is it an opportunity that we could extend to our staff for that's that are bilingual if that's if if that's in their skill set or is that possibility? Again, just more opportunities for staff rather than bring in consultants or contracted employees. If we have bilingual staff members, if that's something of interest to them, is that something that we could extend to them instead? I >> I'm not sure. And someone else here may know more about if it's required or not. I will speak to the second part of your question around um uh can staff do it. Some of our staff might be able to do it. Uh but when it comes to translation, often the in a district like Laguna Beach that has a number of different languages and nationalities, you often run into

251some rare and obscure languages that you need to translate for. And I would say is I would recommend that is it is the right thing to do to hire a professional translator who does this all the time. Uh because not everybody uh even though they may be bilingual um you know I grew up in Kentucky, English is a second language to me. Uh it's like you need somebody Yes. You need somebody that it's a joke. Sorry. Uh you you really need somebody that uh that spends um a lot of time thinking about how to make that translation understandable. It's it's a respectful thing to do for your family. So I I recommend it. opportunity for staff for for you know additional opportunity income skill set res you know >> pos possibly but again it's you

252would want someone that is an has expertise in the translation you and uh I I've from experience working in districts with a lot of different nationalities and languages parents get really offended and students do too if you translate something like I've seen districts use Google translate and people get really hurt that >> Oh no I'm not to use that. >> I know you're not suggesting that, but but uh uh it's it's not a material amount of money. It's up to $25,000. We won't use the whole thing. >> It's Yeah. >> Okay. >> All in favor of approving e >> I youu. >> Okay. I these are quick questions. Um, this is a calendar item for Lincoln's Lincoln Day to observe Lincoln. Is that Lincoln's um, what is it? It's not called Lincoln Day. >> Here,

253I can help clarify. So, >> so no, as in the President Abraham Abraham Lincoln, he has his own his own holiday which is the week before President's Day. >> Yeah. >> So, what the the Lincoln resolution, it's a federal requirement. If a school district chooses to celebrate Lincoln's birthday on a different day than when than when it's normally um housed and in this case it it's the week before. So the historical practice when they built the midwinter break they would make a resolution to shift it to be during the week of mid- winter break. And then what they also do is uh admissions day which normally is in September you're allowed to shift that as well. So, it's been historical practice that admission. So, the Monday is >> it's California admissions admission to the to

254um to the the United States. >> I have never heard these. Okay. >> It's a great it's a great lesson for you today. So, so the Monday is >> basically George Washington's birthday, right? >> The Tuesday becomes admissions day and the Wednesday is is Lincoln's uh Lincoln's day. So, th those are put together to make three holidays over to build out the mid- winter break as opposed to having like two three-day weekends in a So that was actually where I was leading with my question is because this is being requested to be observed during ski week or during our mid- winter break. How does that is that a staff day off? Is it a paid day? Is it a double pay? Can you pay? It's not double pay. So basically it's the CSEA contract. If

255you go under holidays, article 15, it lists all of the holidays that are observed as paid days off for classified staff. >> Okay? So they're all listed there. This is just how we configure it into the week to to build out mid winter break. So if you're a classified employee, you have three days of holidays. So you're getting paid to stay home, not additional pay, not anything, no not time and a half. And no one works those days, >> right? >> And then the Thursday and Friday, they take either a vacation or an unpaid day because if you look at the the CSA calendars in in the back of the uh the contract, got it. >> You'll see these VU days. >> VU. So like it's called vacation or un or unpaid. >> It's official

256holiday. >> So just later on if you take a look at the CSA calendar you you'll see that. So when to build out their like I said there's about 17 holidays throughout the calendar year. >> So this helps staff take that week off and not have to do another vacation day or because sometimes if there's like two days like in a business right you have two days before Fourth of July and if you want to take another day >> not included. So you have to take I guess to get the and New Year's, you usually have to take a couple of paid days off to fill that gap. And so this helps staff maintain more of their personal days. Yes. While we exercise the their holidays as well, and it falls in that >> just

257classified staff. So they they get a week off and it only cost them two vacation days because the three of their 17 holidays are land that week. >> That's what I wanted to know. >> Thank you. Okay. All in favor? >> It's a roll call vote. It's a resolution. Jim, slow down. Member Kelly. >> Yes. >> Member Maltesky. >> Yes. >> Member Morgan. >> Yes. >> Clerk Hills. >> President Perry. Yes. Thank you. >> Uh, no. Item mu. >> Oh, he answered it. It was the same question. >> It just means it's a resolution. So, >> yeah, it's the same. >> I do a resolution. Roll call vote. >> Member Kelly? >> Yes. >> Member Malchesky? Yes. Member Morgan? Yes. >> Clerk Hills. >> President Perry. >> Yes. Thank you. You interest the audience to

258hold mention this. One of the things that came up uh during the discussion about this particular matter was whether or not um the board needed to act to do this because um the idea that the superintendent um has duties that include serving as secretary of the board is a recital in the in the contract and um uh California School Board Association standard contract form Um uh and the u uh and you know this is something that we heard over the years um sometimes when issues would come up about how the bylaws are being applied or how the statute is being applied we'd say well we would hear from the from the school district that well that's in this that's in the superintendent's contract and um so uh uh with respect to this subject of appointment

259of the superintendent at as the as the um secretary of the board. There's things that I would just like to state for the record that I think um need to be clarified and it uh basically what I would like to have on the record is that contract recital of duties is not an appointment authorizing the duties under bylaw 9122. Um uh the contract defines contractual relationship of employer and employee subject to law but contract is not a source of legal authority and may not be and may not deviate from legally binding bylaw or state law. So if there's ever a conflict between the contract and the bylaw, the contract loses. Um and um and we had in the past a situation where when we raised issues about bylaws, we were told uh we we won't

260discuss that with you because it's in the contract and we couldn't get copies of the contract. So it was kind of frustrating. um the duties of the superintendent as secretary of the board are more narrow than the the broad general duties and powers of the superintendent. Um uh and so uh that's something that also needs to be understood. Um and uh and the duties that are delegated by bylaw 9122 um for the secretary of the board are those prescribed in education code section 35025 uh 35250 and government code section 54950. Now, I'm just not a crazy person that I um I'm reading those things off because um particularly well maybe I am a crazy person, but um the the the last one, the government code citation is really important and I want to read it

261into the record uh because it's important. In enacting this chapter, the legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards, and councils, and other public agencies in the state exist to aid in the conduct of people's business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly. The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people in delegating authority do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may uh retain control over the instruments they have created and um in addition to being apppropo of some of the discussion tonight that

262is the law of the state of California and that supersedes anything that is any employees contract. And by saying this, I'm not in any way um trying to emphasize that the superintendent I want the superintendent to have all of the authority and power and and and strength of the superintendent. And I'm not trying to suggest anything uh to the contrary. In fact, I think when you actually understand this scheme, it's it makes for a stronger board and a stronger superintendent. Um and so um this may all sound like um uh you know theoretical but um having lived with a situation for many years where we were told that the bylaws didn't matter because something was in the contract um I think it was important enough to myself and to other people to just um have

263this action taken by the board and not let this fall by the wayside. Um, and and and it means a lot to me. And furthermore, I think it's required by section 9122 for the board to actually make the appointment and not just say, "Well, it's in the contract, so we don't have to make it." >> So, Howard, just to clarify, essentially, you're just setting up a consent agenda item to clarify that Dr. Glass is going to do the job that he was asked to do in his contract. >> Is that what the outcome of this is? That's absolutely not the case. The contract doesn't fulfill the requirement that the board act to appoint him. >> We do this every year. >> Just because it's how we used to do it doesn't mean it's right and

264how we should continue. I've already said that once. >> Yeah. >> It hasn't always >> Thank you. >> I move that we >> I just wanted to add Howard, I appreciate what you said about not yielding power. The people aren't yielding their power. I think that's really important that we all remember All in favor? >> I >> Okay, great. Um, our next regular meeting will be held on August 14th, 2025. And board members, if you have something you would like on the agenda, please let me know. >> Second. All in favor?