GUSD Board Meeting - March 5th, 2026

001There we go. All right. >> Okay. It is 6:09. We apologize for being late. Um, we will start the study session. However, before that, I do need to read a statement. Uh before we begin tonight's meeting, Trustee Jennifer Delbono has requested to participate remotely pursuant to the Brown Act teleconference provisions under government code section 54953-8 or 8.3 due to a just cause circumstance. Under the Brown Act, trustee Delbono is permitted to attend remotely so long as she publicly states the general nature of the qualifying reason and confirms whether any other individuals over the age of 18 are present in the room with her. Trusty Delbono, would you please confirm your request and make the required disclosures? >> Thank you, Trusty Fiak. I'm per um participating remotely tonight from my home. Um, I am a family

002caregiver. I also confirm that no one over the age of 18 is present with me um or under the age of pres of 18 is present with me in the room tonight. >> Thank you. Because a trustee is participating remotely under the Brownout teleconferencing provisions, members of the public may al also observe and participate in the meeting remotely. Members of the public may access the meeting by visiting the GUSD YouTube page linked on the board agenda. Members of the public wishing to provide public comment remotely may do so by emailing the board executive assistant Lucy Werta during the meeting at Lucy. Huerta gilroy.org. Okay. So now we can start our study session. >> Thank you President Fia. Good evening board. Good evening superintendent and members of the public. The board will recall that you have

003commission us to do a bond survey. Uh John is advisers have performed a bond survey. So today's presentation and the study session by the way thank you for having the study session on an important topic. Um we'll provide you with a background of how districts finance facilities. You'll recall that the California um provides only $332,91 annually to our district annually for our schools to provide us with deferred maintenance. So naturally, we have the state basically says school districts find a local solution hopefully hopefully you get the support of your community to then do what we have done successfully at multiple campuses Brownell, South Valley, Dior High, etc. Um so John Isim is here to um walk you through uh I will call it a bond 101 type of information uh give you demographics of Gilroy

004uh etc and also give you most importantly the results from the bond survey. Uh John is >> good evening members of the the board and district administration and members of the community. He rep he he told me he represents all 60,000 since he's the the lone public comment. Um John is with Advisors where the district's financial adviser have worked with the district for the better part of the last decade and a half. Um I am uh going to take you through really kind of a as it says a facilities funding overview and then also touch on the bond feasibility study which specifically is the survey results. So, I'm going to take you through this presentation and if you have questions as it relates to the slide at hand, please feel free to ask. Right, this

005is a workshop. It's designed to to get information out to have some education, some dialogue. Um, if it's not on that slide, I might get to it um at a subsequent slide and obviously answer any questions thereafter. So, first and foremost, I think it's important for for districts to understand and constituents to understand how school facilities are funded in the state of California. Uh there's a couple of pots of money. Some are deeper than others, but really it boils down to two sources of funding. One is nonvoter approved and the other are voter approved. Non voterapproved includes things like grants, uh state aid from the st state of California. Uh some districts do self financing saying, "Hey, you know what? I have enough in my budget that I can borrow some money and repay it

006with general fund dollars." Uh and then you get private investment, right? Those are the primary sources. Again, most of those are quite shallow with the exception of the state of California who simply says you're overcrowded and thus you're eligible for a 50% match or modernization, your schools are old and you're eligible for a 60% match. In both of those scenarios, a local match is required. So, in order to get state aid 50/50 or 6040, you have to come up with money locally. Typically, that's in the source of the voter approved and propertybased taxes. Okay. What's interesting to note, too, is that that's always how it's been in the state of California, and we'll touch a little bit more on that in a moment here. The three primary voter approved tools, parcel taxes, which are usually

007a flat tax per parcel, although there's some variations in how you might approach it. uh community facilities districts or mealus and then general obligation bonds which are going to be the focus of my conversation with you tonight. Why not parcel taxes? Why not CFDs? Those are tools in the tool chest that are unique for every district and when it's appropriate certain districts do use those. So a parcel tax is used for operating expenses. Very rarely does a school district say, "I'm going to use parcel tax dollars to fix up and repair and modernize and upgrade old schools." That's a tool again that's used for operations. The other alternative, CFDs or mealus is a tool that's typically used where you have an area that's seeing major growth. We're going to see thousand homes, 2,000, 10,000 homes

008are coming in. Okay, we do a CFD and we assess a tax on those homes that are going to be built and then typically those dollars from those homes in the CFD are used to build new schools or provide new facilities. So, we're going to focus again on general obligation bonds. Why? Because that is the most common source of funding for California school districts. small font because we worked with in 2024 89 school districts to do a new bond program. There were over 300 school districts in 2024, one single year, that went to voters to said, "Hey, we need a local match. We want to leverage our local property tax dollars. Uh will you say yes?" And think about that for a minute. One out of three school districts went to the voters in a

009single year. Again, because this is a common tool that school districts use. This district is no stranger to that as well, having passed three different bonds in the last 25 plus years. So, Gilroy Unified School District residents, they understand and they've been supportive of you passing a measure really almost once a decade. You go back all the way to 2002 and then 2008 and most recently 10 years ago and 2016. Now, the voter support was great in 2016, right? You got 61% voter approval for school bonds. You need 55%. So, all the money of course is gone. the district still has significant needs and and really will always have significant needs because father time continues to wreak havoc on the age of facilities and infrastructure. So you're always going to have this need, but the

010idea is how do we come to the voters and the community with a smart program that they want and they're willing to support. So how do bonds work? Right, from the bond workshop point of view, uh bonds are based on a district's assessed value. So, that's a term you might have heard before. Assessed value is the value placed on property by the county assessor. Okay? It's typically the purchase price plus at most a 2% increase year-over-year. So, you a lot of times hear people say, "Oh, Prop 13, I've got this really low assessed value because of Prop 13. I've been in my home for a long time." Uh, my mom is a good example, right? She said, "I always dreamed of living in a a million-doll home. I just didn't think it would be a

01150-year-old tracked home, but she bought it in 74. It's worth actually $2 million, but she only pays about $200,000 or pays taxes, let me correct that, pays taxes on $250,000 worth of value because again, it's constrained by 2% increases regardless of what the market does. So, all of the property values within Gilroy Unified School District boundaries, as you see here, is 15.4. 4 billion. This includes all properties that currently pay taxes. So if you pay taxes to the property tax collector, you have assessed value. School district doesn't, churches don't, post office doesn't, right? Government and and and tax exempt entities do not. Everything else does. So dirt, gas stations, Home Depot, apartments, homes, etc., etc. So that's what that 15.4 four billion looks like when you add up all of the assessed value in the

012district. So when you do a general obligation bond program is you apply a tax rate to that entire tax base every year that tax rate provides tax revenues and that becomes the source of repayment that we use to pay off the debt. Think of like a home mortgage, right? you get the money up front and for the next 30 years you make mortgage payments and you pay it off. In the in the case of a bond, you get the money upfront and then we repay those debt service payments through property uh taxes via principle and interest over the life of the bond program. Today's tax rate, last bullet point on the third third bullet point there on the right hand side, is $114.30 per 100,000 of assessed value. So what does that mean? That's the

013way that tax rates and taxes are communicated in bond parliament. So when a person votes for something and they see a tax rate of let's just pretend $114.30, they have to do a calculation of well what is my assessed value? Because that's the rate per $100,000 of assessed value. So, if you have exactly $100,000 of property, your share of that bond is $114.30 or less than $10 a month. If you have a million dollars, right, add a zero. Uh, if you have a $500,000 home, again, not market, not what you could sell it for, but what it's assessed at. You do that multiplier to figure out what your obligation is today and what it might be with a future bond or a new bond going forward. One last little thing I want to point out.

014Um actually two things. One on that table what's important to note here is the percent change for you has been about 5.9% in the last 12 13 years. That's fantastic. That is strong and that allows a district to generate more in bond proceeds than a community that's more stagnant that doesn't have that kind of growth. So unlike a home mortgage where you you you borrow the money and you're pretty much paying the exact same payment every year regardless of hey I'm going to get a raise. I'm going to get a promotion. I'm going to make more money. Doesn't matter. You pay the same rate every single month every single year. In a bond program we can do what's called escalating debt service which means in one year we pay this much. We know our tax

015base is going to grow. So the next year we pay a little more. We expect that tax gra base base to grow and we can pay a little more, right? You're gonna get a lot more money in an escalating debt service schedule as opposed to a level. So a district like Gilroy that has really good growth can generate more in proceeds than, you know, I don't know, somewhere in the Mojave Desert that's not seeing a lot of growth. Okay, so that's just a key point. Uh the last thing I'll point out is just the bottom there. This is a kind of a statutory exercise, but you have what's called a gross bonding capacity, and it simply means two and a half% of a district's assessed value can go towards, in this case, school district debt.

016Okay? So, you do the math of what's the bonding capacity less what's outstanding, and you have this net limit of about 47.6 million. You might say, well, wait a minute, that's not nearly enough money for us to improve our schools. We're going to need more. Uh, don't worry. very rest assured that a district is going to have three things happen. One, your tax base is going to continue to grow. So, so too will that number. Two, you're going to keep paying down debt. And since we're further and further into some of those old bonds, they become more and more principal, less and less interest. So, a doubling effect of your capacity. And three, a district that needs to go above it goes and can get a waiver from the state. You go to the state

017of California, state board of education, say, "Hey, here's our circumstances. I'd like to apply for a waiver to go above my 2 and a half%." And in 100% of the time, the state awards the waiver. And you might think, well, where's the control? The two and a half% really is just an arbitrary number that someone at some point in time assigned, not really having the full context of what the needs would be. By contrast, a recreation and park district, if they wanted to do a bond, their debt limit is 10%. Who who needs more money? You or the guys putting in playground and barbecue equipment at the parks. So that's I think in my humble opinion why they grant all of the waiverss. Okay. Specific to this district now. So okay, John, we understand how

018bonds work. what could we generate possibly in a new bond program like what's our budget potential here? So this shows left to right on that table different tax rates on a again per $100,000 of assessed value basis and what a bond program might look like. I'll draw your attention to the far right hand side where it says bond proceeds. That would be kind of the max ask of what we would go to voters at a $60 or a $50 or $45 tax rate. You could ask for more, you could ask for less, but this is what a $60 bond program would generate in enough tax revenue that would provide enough funding to do a bond of upwards of $283 million in the case of the $60. Alternatively, you could go longer. You could get more

019in proceeds if that was the district's desire. There's different ways to get additional dollars, but you're just going to be ultimately constrained by interest rates, your tax rate, in this case, $60 as a max, and your tax base. Again, all of that assessed value. You can imagine LA Unified, they do a bond, it's 9 billion. You could ask for 9 billion. True, you could, but it would take you a lifetime to access it. But a voter could give you an authorization for any number and you would be constrained by that authorization number, whatever that that may be. In our experience, it's nice to be reasonable and do something that people can kind of see uh an end of the road to. Okay, these bond programs do require going through voters. I'm going to go through

020these last couple of slides a little bit quickly because it'll segue nicely into the into the survey information. So, you've got 40,000 registered voters. The plurality of them are Democrats, 48%. Uh, you can see the age demographics on the right hand side. What that really just tells us is we can't just rely on teachers and parents to carry the day, right? You've got a lot of young voters and older voters, neither of whom may have kids. Uh, so you can't just count on that audience. So, we need to ultimately give to the Gilroy community a program that most people can get behind. Okay. Turnout is really important in these these programs here. Uh this shows you Gilroy Unified School District respective turnouts over the last almost 10 years of elections. And you can see up

021down up down there's a correlation between presidential turnout in November of 20 and 2024 where basically twothirds of the voters show up gubanatorial turnout November 18 November 22 where about 44 45% show up and then primary turnout where for you guys it's you know below a third of the voters show up in the primaries March or June. Why is that relevant to to what we're talking about? Turnout matters because the type of voter that shows up for an election could determine whether you're successful or not. I'm going to scooch back here if I could and I'm going to point out at the very top, I don't know if anyone paid attention to that where it said March successes and November. And notice the difference. March. If you look at those counties, a little bit more

022liberalleaning counties, you look to the right, you got everybody, but you got Shasta, you got Kings, you've got Fresno, Inyo, right? So, what does that mean? That means that in a lot of these communities, a low turnout where you're only having a third of the people show up, that third who shows up might be a little less supportive of a bond program than the rest of the guys that are going to show up in November, right? So you the mix of the electorate makes a difference. So what we're looking at now is is a 2026 November. Uh you can see again what the likely turnout is. 44 45 45%. Probably would be a little bit higher uh with a local initiative on the ballot and some energy getting parents out that may not otherwise vote

023or teachers out that may not otherwise vote or young individuals that may not otherwise vote. So I think at most you're going to see about a 50% turnout. >> Yes. Do you do any um first of all bonds affect property owners? >> Correct. >> Not everybody is a property owner who is who is voting. Um God bless him. But do you do any um research on voters who are property owners and what that is? >> You're saying the level of support among property owners versus say renters. No, I mean we could probably dig some of that stuff up. Um, honestly, it would it would satisfy curiosity more than anything else. Um, ultimately and and where we'll get to in in the next few slides is our job is to help the district uh assess the

024feasibility among all folks in the district. More correctly, all likely voters in the district, not just residents, not just registered voters. But you need to be a likely voter. That's who our focus is on. Um but yeah, I that would be an interesting, you know, exercise academically just to figure out is there a difference there. Okay, very quickly on this last one because again I want to dive into the survey. There's a lot of really good information. So what goes into the process for school districts that are saying, "Hey, we have needs. We don't have enough money. We are going to be eligible for state aid but we need to use that triedand-true tool the general obligation bond starts off you got to have your master plan which you got you have the board say

025yep let's explore the feasibility which you've done we've done a survey and we're sharing those results with you this evening if you think of the survey as is a quantitative assessment one that is statistically driven with numbers a qualitative assessment is still needing to be done. So when you look a little further right down below at initiate public information program speaking with elected officials and stakeholders and unions and teachers and staff and service groups etc etc. We want to get their input as well because at the end of this process, if we've done our job well, we're able to create a program that you as a board approve that is then given to the voters and it's what the voters want, right? And we think that's a great idea, right? It's it's their tax dollars,

026it's their schools, it's it's their community as well. So, let's give to them a program that they are willing to support. And it may not be everything and it may not be the same tax rate that we want. It may not be all the projects we want, but again, I think if we do a good job listening, we're able to give to the community uh a program that they're willing to support. And then that makes your campaign committee's job a heck of a lot easier because they're not convincing people what an important and great idea this is. they're giving them, hey, we already know you you like it because we've done the homework. We've done the listening and we know all of that would culminate with a resolution being approved by the the the district

027board. I put down in June. It could be before then, but the deadline of deadlines for you is August 7th. So, when you're talking about kind of workshop and how much needs to get done and what needs to get done and by when, it's August 7th to make the November 3rd election. It's not 26, it's two years later. 2028 would be the next opportunity. Okay, I'm going to pause there because I'm going to segue and really kind of change it up and focus on the survey results. So, we're leaving kind of bond 101 behind. Um, but I I want to take any questions if you have them on on that topic. >> Hearing none, I'll keep going. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I do have a question. So we as a board would vote on what

028rate we want. Is that if when we put up a bond? Correct. >> Yes. Good question. So that resolution, right, would include the dollar amount. Remember, you could go for a billion if you want, but it would be a dollar amount. It would include a tax rate. It must include specific projects that you would pay money for or that you would fund. And then the date of the election. Right? So those are the four main things that a resolution does. By default, it directs the county registar voters to conduct an election on your behalf. It directs different entities to do their job so that you with your authority can in fact call uh this election with those specific details. >> Okay, here we go. >> I have a date question. >> Yeah. >> So August

0297th is Friday. Literally we you you somebody whoever not me hands this to the register of voters on Friday August 7th. >> Well prior to or the day of as long as you get in by 5:00. >> And the reason I ask is because our meeting in August is is August 6th. So, if we approve, that means all the way back to June, which I'm not sure we have time to do it in June. By June. >> Oh, I think I I think you do. And I'll share some of the the wise with that. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, methodology first and foremost, how do surveys work? In this case, you have 40,000 registered voters from that pool. Remember, we get rid of people that don't have a phone number. not our fault. And

030we also get rid of or do not include to be more appropriately um with my language uh folks that don't vote. So if you're registered to vote and you've never voted, you're registered to vote and you do vote but you don't have a phone number, obviously we can't communicate with you, but that's okay. It's easy to collect 400. In this case, we were able to get 411. Our goal was 400, but you don't want to just hang up mid call. So we're like, we'll take the extra data. improves your margin of error. Um, so we were able to get 411 folks that participated, which is a margin of error of about 4.81. The purpose is to test attitudes towards the district, projects, tax rates, and bond in general. That's the purpose. And there will be

031some subpurposes in in there as well. Uh, we're able to get all that information collected over a six-day period of calls essentially in February. Now, this did anyone get called by chance? Was that a hand up or Oh, okay. Um All right. Well, this presentation is going to be largely the order that the survey happened in. Um there are a lot of questions that get randomized for statistical integrity in the survey. Can't randomize them for the presentation. So, we put them in a little bit of a logical order. Um but for the most part, it's going to follow along. So, you can kind of picture like, all right, if I was taking these questions, how might I respond? How might I see things? I'm not going to hit every number either. That would take us

032too long. Uh, I'm going to just pluck out, you know, some highlights or low lightss or areas of of concern, and then I'm going to give you some comparisons um relative to how how does this stack up compared to other districts. So, we do start off with the first question about education in California. Right direction, wrong direction. You can see you're almost split, you know, 50/50 there with respect to those that provided an opinion on the topic. But then we switch and we say, well, what about Gilroy unified locally? How's the quality of education here? And here, I would say is is a good data point because you got a lot of excellence, a lot of goods, and very few poor, only 8%. I'm sure you want to see that down to 1% or 0%.

033But you're generally always going to get pores uh even in high achieving districts because candidly school districts, you know, for better or for worse, have become somewhat of a a lightning rod for political criticisms, right? You think of COVID and masks and vaccines and all this stuff and all of a sudden school districts became a little bit more political than they had been um prior to that. So you're never going to, you know, appeal or please everybody, but this is a good first key data point. The reason that we test these attitudes towards districts is we want to say, hey, if you like me, then you'll be likely willing to impart of your tax dollars and and give me a yes vote. We also wanted to get perceptions on the condition of the school facilities.

034Okay, now this is I would say good news, bad news. Good news is everyone thinks they're pretty darn nice, right? 57% good, 17 excellent, only 4% poor. Now, your needs are significant. So, you've done a great job with, I think, the exterior and and conveying how nice everything is. It probably creates a little bit of a challenge to say, well, we need to do a better job educating that despite the outside appearances, we still have significant needs. So, like I say, this is one of those mixed mixed bag pieces of data. If you have 30% think they're poor, it's like good. You don't have to convince people that you need the money, but you also might be criticized that they're not better. So, good news, bad news. On that front, we do ask them this

035right-hand side question, and this actually shows up at the end. We know everything about a registered voter. Um, I shouldn't say everything, but we know age, ethnicity, we know political affiliation, whether they're a homeowner or a renter, right? We know how often they vote. We know how they vote absentee or in person, right? We don't know how they cast their vote, but we know the means by which they do vote. So, we know all this stuff about them, and we want to make sure that the survey reflects your voting block or who's going to vote on election day. What we don't know and what we don't want to see is something skewed toward your parent community. So we asked this question, do you have a connection to the schools, children, grandchildren, anything like that? And

036over half of the survey respondents said, nope, no ties to the district at all. 34 or about a third said, "Yeah, I've got kids currently in school." 15% had them in the past. Okay, so this is just a a verification that we have a good sample for the district. Some thematic questions. Good schools improve property values. Your voters overwhelmingly agree because the state underfunds classrooms and education. We need to do more locally to pick up the slack. Overwhelmingly agree. And we get to what we call the ballot measure question. Now, this one is one of the more important questions. Um I'm not going to read that paragraph, but in the survey, we read it to them. And this would be similar to what the actual ballot language would look like for a voter that votes

037on election day. Now, picture in your mind, you're on the phone up until this point. It's like, do you like the district? How's the schools? Do you think school? But you haven't got to anything specific about what a measure might do for them. And then we hit them with this giant run-on sentence, right? That's confusing, I would say, to most. 289.7 million of bonds, 16 million annually, $60 per 100,000 assess value, and all this other stuff. And we say, if the election were held today, would you vote yes or no? You got to admit, it's pretty interesting that you only have about 10% of the population that says, I don't know. Everybody else, their mind's made up. And you think, how is that possible? Well, think about it yourself, right? A lot of us are

038ideological supporters of education or anti-tax. Uh you could lean one way or another with your political affiliation, but when we asked this question of your voters, 69% of the voters said they'd vote yes. 22% said no, and the balance says that depends. Okay? And every time I see this, and I've done this for 25 years, I'm always just I'm I'm I'm baffled that people have their minds made up without a lot of information, right? But we have to assume in some respects that a voter isn't going to hear anything about the measure. They're going to go into that booth and they're going to see one thing and one thing only, which is that paragraph. And what that survey is designed to tell you is that absent any information this is the type of result that

039you would get based on that paragraph. Okay. Now we have to assume that they are going to get information and we do want to educate them and we do want to say hey will this change your mind at all if we do the following. Now, the next couple of slides are project questions um specifically related to how we would spend the money. They're randomized. We organized them in in top to bottom levels of support. All of these things got 80% support or better. So when you see it, roofs, student safety at drop off and pickup areas, career tech, safety improvements, fire alarms, handicap accessibility, plumbing and sewer, HVAC systems, all overwhelmingly supported by the voters surveyed there. I always peak at the orange and the green in case there's something that's a big outlier. You

040don't have any of that. Nothing above 20% at all on these projects. So these are the kinds of projects that your community says, "Yes, sign me up. I want to pay for that next batch. Um, student access to computers and technology, outdated classrooms, restrooms, and school facilities, outdated portable classrooms. Now, you might see this the first time you've seen this SSA on those questions. That stands for split sample. So, it allows us to take of the 411, get an SSA version of the survey and 206 get the SSB. Okay. So what that allows us to do is is test a similar project but with slightly different language. So you'll see okay the SSAs in this case computers and technology and portable classrooms did better than some of these SSBs. Look down below. Construct new classrooms

041to replace outdated portable classrooms and update upgrade excuse me the district's technology infrastructure. Same concept, same projects, same way we're going to spend money. But the way we used words in these SSAs was better received among voters than these SSBs. Okay. So, still though, 70% level of support. Um, there still is not a project that people are saying, I think that's a bad use of money. I don't want to support it. Sometimes you get 30 40 50% opposition to a particular project and that our advice to the district is hey don't don't do it that singularly might be the downfall of a particular bond program. Now some districts um let me before I before I leave this section some districts like yours have really good support for pretty much anything that we tested. So what

042does that mean? Does that mean you do everything? It'd be nice. I think you've got budget constraints that will keep you from doing everything. But this is a valuable tool for you as a board to say, "All right, if I want to give the voters what they want, now I've got this road map on what kinds of projects are important to them." doesn't mean you blindly obligate yourself to doing the projects that the voters think are most important because in some respects as a board and as a district administration you might know better about specific needs and projects. But it's a valuable tool nonetheless to give you an idea of of the support going forward. Okay, look at the top there. SSA, right? So we're going to do split samples on these. So now we

043said, "Let's test tax rates." It's one thing to say you like me. It's another thing to say you like my projects, but it's an even bigger thing to say I like all the tax rates. And here's where we start to see a little bit of sensitivity among your voters. A little less support. So, we tested and and by the way, when the question was asked at $59 if you would support that and if they said yes to 59, well then we assume that you're going to support a lower tax rate. Uh but if you said no to 59, how about 54? You said no to 54. Okay, how about and we work our way down. So here we have about 57% support at the $59 tax rate, 62% support at a $54 tax rate. SSB,

044right? Split sample. How about $5 a month per 100,000? Only 54% support. How about 450? Only 55% support. Which is I think it's interesting. often, you know, when you break it down on a monthly, you get a little bit more support. That's why you see those commercials with the adopt a cute dog for pennies a day or a dollar a month, you know, whatever. They don't tell you it's like $300 a year um at the end of that process. But in here, you have a little bit sensitivity to those rates. 49 66% 39 70 makes sense, right? the lower you go. Uh $4 and $3 respectively, 60 and 63% support. So, some tax sensitivities among your voters. If there is a question, if you said, John, what's the most important survey question? It might be

045this one. Okay, this is that we put all the cards on the table. We bore our soul about projects and tax rates. Now, did that move the needle? And we asked the question again. And we really kept most of our support, almost all of our support among those ideological I vote yes for school improvement measures. I vote yes for kids. I vote yes for schools. Uh the nos grew a little bit. Um and it might be because they thought the tax rate is too high even though we haven't settled on a particular tax rate. Or maybe it's just oh I didn't know it was a tax because that 75 words is confusing and I'm going to say no to taxes. It's probably a little of both. Okay. So, having a lower tax rate, you probably

046grab back or recruit or recruit rather a few of those that went into the no camp. But even if you didn't, the most important takeaway of this slide is that you have better than twothird support in this community for a school improvement measure. Now, one of the questions that we initially looked into and then we got the data and it was just like, all right, we know where we're going here, but remember how I said we know everything about the way that people vote and all those demographics. One of the things that we always evaluate is that turnout and the type of voter that shows up depending on the election. So, this, if you remember, in your primaries, you you only have 25 30% voter turnout. That's what we call high propensity voters, right? It's

047I never miss an election no matter what. It's my civic duty. I'm going to go vote and I'm going to show up and I'm going to vote in those boring primaries. When you strip out that group and say, "Well, how do you feel about the school measure?" Check it out. 51% of that group said, "I'd vote yes." 44% said they would vote no. Now, stripping out the balance of that group, we call them the November only because they're only going to go vote in November. And look at that remarkked change between the two. 78.7% of that group said, "Sign me up. I'd vote yes to improve our schools." With only 16 and a half% no. And then of course on the right hand side is that blend. So if we get asked the question, well,

048why didn't you go in June? Low turnout is not the friend of Gilroy Unified. Okay, last slide. Um, a lot of great things that came out of this. You know, I think there's a high level of of support and trust and likability that the district enjoys. Uh, definitely have got good support and on the benchmark questions, the fundamental, if the election were held today, would you vote yes? And that's probably again the most important bit of data that we have for you today. Projects loved them across the board. Tax sensitivities for sure. And and that was, you know, one of the conversations that that we had was, you know what, I I don't think I would go for the $59 tax rate. You've got all this great stuff and I think you're probably well served

049at least to explore a $54 rate, possibly 49. And the question and I should say recommendation that I would have for the district is that last bullet point and which is reach out and continue to educate and also continue to seek input from the key stakeholders. So, when you think about, hey, Chamber of Commerce, what do you think? We could do 60, but we feel like 54 or maybe even 49 is is the sweet spot. Give us your opinion. Hey, mayor. Hey, city council. What do you guys think? Hey, county supervisor. Hey, unions, what do you guys think? We're we want your opinion. Every dollar that's lower that you don't get, of course, is dollars away from projects, but at the same token, we're trying to find out what does this community want and then

050give that to them. Okay. So, as far as a recommendation, my recommendation would be to to continue this feasibility study, focus on the the qualitative. If this survey was the quantitative, the qualitative is, hey, we need to start having some conversations with folks. And very specifically, I would ask that question. What do you think about this tax rate? We value your input. Uh what do you guys think? I'll conclude with one example. And the reason that we do this uh another G unified district, Gustinine, a little bit to your east, uh they had a survey, great results, similar to yours, even stronger support for the tax rate, $60. We're had a community meeting like this and said, "Hey, any ideas, any thoughts, any inputs?" And in the back there was the dairy farmer Portuguese coalition,

051the Pacheos. And the Pacheos, one guy raised his hand. He goes, "We think the tax rate's too high." Okay. Why? Well, the price of water is expensive and milk prices are down. And well, what do you think the tax rate should be? He said, $52. And I can just like that 75 words. How many of us process and know exactly what that means? There wasn't a real rhyme or reason to the 52. It was just we just would like it to be 52. And my advice to the district and the board was let's do a $52 measure and get farmer support and get Portuguese support and get dairy support and and that's what they did and they were successful. So I think that's the the course and the recommendation for the next couple of months,

052few months would be to have these conversations. Seek input and then ultimately if it all looks good, come back at at a future board meeting with a resolution calling the election. And that concludes my presentation. So happy to take any other questions if you've got them. >> Are there any questions board? >> Yes, trustee. >> First of all, thank you for the presentation. I just learned that I'm an older voter because that 50 I guess is the threshold. I always thought it was 55, not 55 yet. Um, uh, a couple questions about the demographics and if you said it, I'm I'm sorry. So, I know that, uh, you looked at, uh, the age of the voters, but did you also look at other demographic breakdowns, um, by uh, race, ethnicity, maybe even education to get

053a sense of, um, um, you know, who would be in favor of this bond? And then a second uh a followup to that is when you did reach out to the 411 folks that did respond um was it by telephone or how was it done and then did you have any um others um uh languages um because we are a very diverse community. So and then I have a follow-up comment. >> Yeah. So the the the the data was collected via telephone. Okay. So we we reach into a person's home. uh it's called a random sample and so the demographics of that sample are going to be reflective of the demographics of our likely voting universe. >> Again, we're talking about likely voters is who we want to talk to and that's who we speak

054to. So when you do a random sample, the political party, the ethnicity, the gender, home ownership, education levels, all of that is reflective of your universe. We just do that one test about parents, grandparents, etc. because that's a piece of data we don't have. And then we look at that data, compare it to the survey respondents and confirm, okay, this is reflective again of the parental, grandparental, and non-parent or tied to the community uh demographic. >> Okay, great. And then one um just uh something that uh sorry, let me find the page. Um and this is just a recommendation in terms of terminology. I think you used the word handicap accessibility. um that word is actually kind of outdated. I'm wondering if your um company will reconsider using other words that are more current like

055just accessibility um facilities or or features um and take out the word handicap. But that would be my recommendation. >> Yeah, appreciate that input. And and I admittedly a lot of the ways that we choose language in these surveys are more reflective of the commonality among registered voters. So there's a lot more educated approaches to questions, but you really try to do these surveys at a seventh grade level. But I I think that's an appropriate recommendation as well. >> And I understand you guys strike a balance there, but um >> yes, >> we are in 2026. point that out in case anybody forgot what year we were we're in. But thank you. >> Okay, um I do want to um let the board know that we have less than 10 minutes. >> Um but uh

056Trusty Moreno, you had a question. >> I do. Thank you. Um I'm not sure if you'll have the answer to this, but I'm just going to ask it anyway. Um obviously we're I'm thrilled with the way the outlook is at this moment. In 2016, the voting result was 61%. What was the survey? I'm assuming this kind of survey was done for the 2016. What was the projected approval rate at that time for that? Do you remember? >> Okay. I would be interesting to see >> if I knew 10year-old survey data after 300 of these elections. >> I know. That's why I said I preface you probably wouldn't know, but it would be interesting to see. Yeah, happy >> where it align did it land close to to that that was just my >> happy happy

057to do that. Ironically and I will say this I know we have that data because in 2016 we said how close are our surveys to performance and we did you know we looked at all and at that point in time I think we had 76 bond programs on the ballot in 2016 and when we did that exercise I want to say we were within one and a half percentage points. Now, keep in mind that someone could have been 10 plus higher and minus 10, but when you aggregate them all, we were awfully close. But let me let me research that and get back to you. >> Any other questions? >> Hey, thank you so much. Um, this is really exciting. It's great news to hear that the community is open to um having a bond

058to support our schools. So, thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Thank you very much. Good night. All right. So, at this point, we'll take about a um 3 minute break, uh bathroom break for the board, and then we will resume back again at 7 o'clock. Hard to get on. I have my Hey, it's 7:01. We will be starting our session. Hello everyone. Good afternoon. My name is Cesar. I'm your interpreter this evening. Thank you. This meeting is being recorded or broadcasted. Uh images and sounds only may be captured by those attending the meeting. We will start with our pledge of allegiance. If everyone can please stand. indivisible. >> Okay. So, we do have um I do have to uh make a little announcement first before we begin tonight's meeting. Trustee Jennifer Delbono has requested

059to participate remotely pursuant to the Brown Act teleconferencing provisions. Can you not hear me? Okay. Under government code section 54953.8.3 due to a just cause circumstance. Under the Brown Act, Trustee Delbono is permitted to attend remotely so long as she publicly states the general nature of the qualifying reason and confirms whether any other individuals over the age of 18 are present in the room with her. Trustee Delbono, would you please confirm your request and make the required disclosures? >> Thank you, Trusty Fiak. I'm part participating remotely tonight for family caregiving reasons and I also want to confirm that no other individuals over the age of 18 are present in the room with me. Thank you. >> Thank you. Because a trustee is participating remotely under the Brown Act teleconferencing provisions, members of the public may

060also observe and participate in the meeting remotely. Members of the public may access the meeting by visiting the GUSD YouTube page linked on the board agenda. Members of the public wishing to provide public comment remotely may do so by emailing the board executive assistant Lucy Werta during the meeting at lucy.werta hue ta gilroy ununifi.org. So now we will um we are on four 4B approval of the agenda. >> Move approval. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. And then we are on to item. Oh, sorry. This is a roll call vote. Jennifer Delbono, >> yes. >> Twin FAK, >> yes. >> Gabriella Kim, >> yes. Kenny Moreno, >> yes. >> Michelle Nelson, >> yes. >> Linda Piseno, >> yes. >> Honchu Yaker, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay,

061now we are on to item 4C, our recognition where most of you are here for. Good evening, trustees, uh members of the community and staff. Uh it is such an honor tonight. Uh we are all here to recognize the Gilroy High School wrestling team for their outstanding athletic achievement. This year's team won Central Coast section championships in both boys and girls division. This accomplishment extends the Mustang streak to 23 consecutive CCS titles, which is quite an achievement. This year's team has won a total of 19 individual CCS titles and 22 CIF state medals during their time at Gilroy High School, which again is quite an accomplishment. And through their rigorous academic coursework and athletic performance on the mat, many of the individuals being recognized tonight are going on to continue their academic and athletic careers

062at top tier universities throughout the country next year. Congratulations, Mustangs. We are so proud of you. And I just want to add a personal note. Um, some of you may know I was a a principal at South Valley Middle School several years ago and we had a really strong wrestling team right there. It was my first exposure to wrestling and I can tell you I was so impressed just the dedication, the discipline to complete homework and then get on the mat. U, I was just so tremendously impressed. So congratulations not only to the students but to all the families as well because I know it takes all of you. It takes tremendous work to come together and accomplish what we are seeing here tonight. So congrat congratulations to all of you. Can we please invite

063our athletes here so that we can get a photo with all of you? The the two athletes. Uh oh. Can we Let's all wrestlers, all the athletes, all the wrestlers. >> Okay. All right. Wait for Yay. It is also my honor to recognize tonight the first of our four students from our high schools who serve as student representative board representatives to the board of education during the 202526 school year. Many thanks to our board representative from GEKA, Victoria Garcia. I want to share a little bit more about Victoria with the board and members of the public during her time at GEKA. Her favorite class at GEKA has been AP language and composition. Victoria wants to pursue a career in journalism or some sort of writing field and this class expanded her skills as a writer

064and taught her to analyze texts and explore how different pieces impact culture and society as a whole. Victoria has been involved with a number of clubs and organizations during her time as a student in GUSD including there's a long list Gilroy Foundation Youth Board for seven years and one term as a president GEKA advisory board secretary guest journalist for the Gilroy Life newspaper youth ambassador and arts for our community pillars ASB student informationational officer peer advocate advisory council GEKA Student AD Advisory Council. Wow, Victoria, I got tired just saying all those things. What an accomplishment. In addition, Victoria has served as an intern for Gear Up and has 411 hours of community service. Outstanding. She wants to attend UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, or Santa Clara University as an environmental studies major with the

065hopes of becoming an environmental journalist. Victoria says, quote, "Through serving as a student board rep for GEKA, I feel that my communication and speaking skills have greatly improved. I now understand the proper process of a board presentation. I'm so grateful to have this opportunity to grow as I know these skills shall be ones that I often use in my professional career." unquote. Victoria, thank you for your professionalism and enthusiasm in sharing what is going on at your school with the board and also at some of the other schools that you were covering. Um, thank you from all of us. You are a wonderful representative of the class of 2026 and we are so happy that you have shared part of your senior year with us. We cannot wait to see what you do after graduation

066and we are so proud of you. Awesome family. Okay, now we are on to item 4 D, general public comment. We do have four speakers. Um, the first up is Maria Solenus, followed by Alexander Bataz. Good evening. Um, my name is Maria Salenas. Uh, the address is 275 Bernett Avenue in Morgan Hill. And, um, my granddaughter Maya is in the second grade um, special needs class at Rucker School. Since early February, we received notice that Maya's teacher would um be out for an unknown amount of time. Today, we heard very disturbing news um in regards to the reason why the teacher was let go. Apparently, the teacher was putting students in a closet, telling them that it was a calming corner for them. My granddaughter is non-verbal and I'm sure there are there are other

067kids in the classroom that are also non-verbal. as parents and grandparents of special needs children's. It saddens us and it concerns us because our kids are not able to communicate to us especially about what's going on in the classroom. whether it's something that they experienced uh if it was exciting an exciting day something that happened that may have been funny or in this case something inappropriate. If uh what we heard is true, we are glad that the teacher is no longer in the classroom. However, we are disappointed in the way that this matter was handled. Why keep parents in the dark? Why opt to sweep uh things under the rug? Prefer that we find things out in such a disturbing way. You're all educated people. Why not take appropriate action and let us know what's

068going on? We have the right to know. We now have a lot of questions. When did it happen? How many times did she do it? How many students she put in the closet? For how long did she leave him in the closet? How soon after did she let uh was she let go? How soon was it reported? How soon after it was reported was she let go? And the list goes on and on. I suggest someone in the administration meet the parents. Um, you owe us an explanation and in my opinion, you owe us an uh an apology for handling this matter in such an unprofessional manner. Uh, parents find out and you should know that and you should have taken action to meet with the parents and let us know this happened. >> Thank

069you. Your time is up. >> Thank you. >> Hey, Alexander and then Fabiola Bataz Alexander Batas. He goes to Gateway here in Gilroy. He's one of the reasons that I'm here. uh regarding also what happened at record. So he's going to talk what is it 3 minutes Mhm. Oh no. What? Huh? Mhm. Thank you. Your time is up. Fabiola and then Carlos Bataz. Ready? >> Yes, you can start whenever you know. >> Okay. So, my name is Fabola Vatas. I am from originally from from Gilway and I was really heartbroken when I heard this this week when this happened last week. As you can see in Alex right now, he was a kid was a like easy kid going, okay? Because he's in a wheelchair. He doesn't talk so he can never tell what happened

070in school or in classroom. I've been blessed that he's going a gateway. But it doesn't mean that the other kids are going to be just ignored. I'm here to protect the students, the teachers, the aids if they were provided at that moment. Who is the right mind would you put a kid like him in a closet? How can you have the heart to do that? I know why. Because you're sticking them in a room where you the teacher's probably not provided the right training to deal with a kid like that with autistic, autism, mental delay, seizures, food allergies. Even the climate can make him have seizures. And you want to take over other classes. We are not prepared for it. And as a parent, community member, and as a mom, I say no. this stops.

071I don't compromise my kids for nobody and for nothing. They deserve a happy, safe environment at all times because any judge will say that to you guys. And I'm here with a heart in my hand, broken. I'm a Mustang, class of 2000. Never had to go through anything like this. This is ridiculous. Protect our children because that's what you're getting paid for. to educate your kids, then do it. At the same time, educate some of the teachers that you're willing to put these kids. They're not prepared for this. I am scared if I die tomorrow, what's going to happen to my kids and the kids in this county because it's happening all over county right now. Closing schools for cheaper kids. Just for FYI, this kid is not worth This guy's worth it right now

072at 35 million with all the emergency seizures and and medical since the day he was born. He's not cheap. So why are you making his education cheap? His little fellow classmates, kids like him or even worse conditions that you don't even can't even see, can't even hear. But yet you guys choose over our kids and decide for our kids. The answer is no. I'm sorry. That dead silence that that that you guys heard for him, that's what the little kid in that six-year-old autistic kid felt in that closet. Put yourself in that closet with no water, no lights, nothing to help you out, to soothe you, to comfort you. Tell me that's right. >> Thank you. Your time's up. and then Carlos. Okay. Good evening. charge of the special children's I don't know what role

073you have taken over this because this is not the first time and you well know this you know this very well you know of a lot of matters I don't know what you are exactly Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. So, I don't know who was the one in charge of the idea of inclusion. A child such as my son. If you were to tell him calm down, he hasn't calmed down. If you tell him to be silent, he won't be silent. If you tell him behave yourself, he won't behave. Can you only imagine now a teacher in a classroom with regular students? Who will be more stressed out? Will this be more stressful for my son, for the other students, or for the teacher themselves? I don't know who came up with the genius

074idea. who I don't know who's getting these grants from the state from the government. From what every student is receiving such as my son, I don't know if that's where that money is even going. I don't know. I don't know what's happening with that money or what you're all doing. But what I do know, what's saddening me is that you all are not taking a matter in this matter a hand. And this is happening for all of you. All of you in charge who supposedly are this is what you were supposed to be doing for the children. I don't know what you were focusing on perhaps on the money and this and the earnings of every school. I just don't know because this is not the first time that something like this has happened. This

075happened since a very long time now. Your departments have been sued. several thousands of dollars have been taken from you and you're still quiet. >> You know, we're involved in this and we find out and you What are you doing here? >> And you don't find out. >> I just don't know. Truth is >> this is very depressive. I don't really know what's happening with you. >> Thank you. Okay, we are on to item 4E, report of action taken in close session. Okay. Under agenda item 2A, the board voted to approve a resolution to release 19 temporary certificate employees at the end of the 2025 2026 school year. The motion passed 6 to zero with trustees Delbono, Kim, Vak, Moreno, Nelson, and Peno voting yes and trustee Baker absent. Um, and then for 2B for

076the removal or the expulsion of case number 2026-11. Can I have a motion? >> Move to expel. Second >> roll call vote. >> Jennifer Delbono. >> Yes. >> Twin Fak. >> Yes. Gabriella Kim, >> yes. >> Kenny Moreno, >> yes. >> Michelle Nelson, >> yes. >> Linda Piseno, >> yes. >> Honu Y Baker, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> Great. That was all of the action that was taken in close session today. We are on to item five, student board representative, uh, Victoria Garcia from Gecka. Good evening everyone. Just to reintroduce myself, my name is Victoria Garcia and I am here as a senior and Gekka. This year I was the Gecko board representative and I have thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to represent my school that I am so proud of and our district as

077a whole in a way. So I just wanted to thank everyone who made this possible. I truly am grateful. I'm going to begin with some of the activities GEKA students have had the opportunity to participate in so far since my last presentation as well as what we have planned in the coming months. One thing I truly appreciate about GEA culture is that student input goes into nearly every event that I will be highlighting today and we are continuously working to improve that process as I will highlight when discussing our upcoming career day. Right before our winter recess, ASB implemented the very first winter rally. GEKA normally has only one rally sometime in the spring. However, we felt that this would be a great pickme up around finals time and set us off on our break

078on a positive note. All of Aasb performed a choreographed group dance that then set off a dance battle between all the different grade representatives and introduced the competitive spirit of the rally. Here in this top image, you can see that performance. The theme of was winter Olympics. So, we included fun games that centered around this idea. For example, ASB created some torches out of pipe and ASB representatives and vice presidents conducted our opening torch ceremony, which was really a spirit game within itself. Our other games included our versions of bobsledding, skiing, and driving a snowmobile. We made sure to also include winter themed spirit days and games throughout the week leading up to the rally. All in all, it was a fun experience that connected GEKA students across all grades. Just about a month ago,

079Gekka had its annual winter formal. Our venue this year was the Coyote Creek Country Club, and ASB received lots of positive feedback for this beautiful setting. The dance floor in particular was partially outside. And as I am sure we can all understand, one of the most important parts of a high school dance is some good airflow. So, this was a positive. The ASB representatives of the junior class selected theme for the dance through their class meetings. And this year, that theme was Phantom of the Opera. As you can see in the color scheme, this event also had its own dedicated spirit week that aligned with this theme. Speaking of spirit weeks, we have had a few so far this semester. School spirit is definitely something that holds great importance at GEKA. So, here are some

080photos of our students dressing out. Each student who dresses up for any given spirit day counts as a point for their grade. And in the end, the grade with the most points wins a class party. So, this challenge definitely adds to the spirited atmosphere. This semester in particular, we have also had the opportunity to have tournaments among the grades for spirit games. An example of one of these tournaments is our annual grade VG grade volleyball tournament. This event always gets very competitive and brings a lot of energy to the campus. And this year we also included an ACA prep tutors versus ASB round. So there was a lot of debate and added to the atmosphere. Now, to wrap up the GEKA report, we have some academic updates as well as a preview as to what

081is coming. At this very moment, GEKA is hosting a family art night to foster more parent involvement and support the tight-knit community in this creative space. Coming up on March 12th, Gekka is moving on to the regional level for the Rotary Speech Competition. We are so proud of the hard work that our student representatives who have participated have put into the event and continue to maintain. We also had students participate in the poetry out loud competition demonstrating the importance of the voice of the youth. As the year winds down, our seniors are wrapping up their senior projects. Just to summarize what senior project is, it is a mandatory class and graduation requirement in which seniors complete their own research for a topic they have a passion for and present their findings at the end of

082the year to a panel of community members. This year, students will have the amazing opportunity to not only create a professional poster for their research, but they will also be presenting this poster at the CSU Monterey Bay Symposium where students will even have the chance to be recognized and win an award for their work. As a senior in this program, I feel that this is an excellent preparation and exposure to the type of work we should be accustomed to in the rest of our educational journey. Moving on, tomorrow participating seniors will be heading over to Elliot Elementary School to celebrate ReadAcross America. Seniors will be able to read a book of their choice to the students and hopefully act as an inspiration for the kids. Gecko also has its annual talent show at the end

083of March. And this program has evolved to not only be a showcase of the students passions, but as a chance for cultural displays. Here we can see the Asian Student Union performing their dance and this year we're adding a flororico group as well. This event is always a fun, light-hearted experience, especially when the teachers get involved in the showcase, as we can see by Mr. Tor's iconic stand-up act. And finally, I need to touch upon our upcoming career day. This year, the planning of this event has been delegated to the student advisory committee. One of the main focuses has been to adhere to what the students have felt is lacking in our career days and would like to see moving forward. SACE started the process by sending out a Google form to all students, giving

084them a clear opportunity to voice their opinions and wants. This included questions like, "What type of sessions do you feel are most effective and what do you feel was lacking in previous years? We have on we have honed our attention on creating more one-on-one panels and interactive workshops as these are what students requested most commonly in this form. We are currently working on compiling a variety of different career professionals for our students. So, if any of you are available or know of someone who might be, please feel free to reach out to me. Now, I'm going to transition over to the Luigi Ara School report. Starting here with a February recap, students dressed up to celebrate their 100th day of school for the year. This is such an adorable way to celebrate this milestone. Here

085we have a Valentine's Day display created by the kindergarteners to celebrate togetherness and community. And finally, classes celebrated and learned about the Lunar New Year with some dragon themed crafts. Moving on to an academic update, Luigi is sure to focus and encourage lots of interactive learning techniques. Here we see the viewboards being used to promote just that. Some methods and skills that students are studying now are writing workshops and story mapping. These really help students understand some language basics and build a great foundation. And the classroom also uses collaborative learning as an effective strategy. Now to cover some upcoming events. Readacross the world will be celebrated on March 4th through the 6th. It was really interesting and sweet for me to see this crossover from what is happening at GEKA with ReadAcross America and celebrating

086the power of books. Going handinhand with ReadAcross the World, Luigi is also holding a readathon for their students to again encourage them to read these books. Ouija will also be encouraging students to show off their school spirit on March 6th with a mismatch spirit day. And finally, Luigi will be having its circus themed talent show on March 7th. And that concludes my presentation. If there are any questions, I am more than happy to answer them. But other than that, thank you all for your time tonight. And again, thank you for such a wonderful opportunity. Thank you for that amazing presentation. Okay, now we are on to item six, the superintendence report. >> Thank you, Victoria. The graphics were amazing. You did a really nice job of preparing the presentations. What did you use? Canva. I

087figured very nicely done. Good job. Okay, my presentation is very brief this time. I think last time I spoke a lot. Uh so uh February 16th through 20th uh we had no school for students. Students were on winter break. On the 27th uh we had guests from Gilroy Rotary who came um to put labels on some more books. The next shipment of books that arrived and the uh these books will be distributed to uh all our schools once again. And so you see the group over here. This is again part of the 100 day celebration. Uh we actually have another batch. All the books are still not here. We have one more um shipment that will be arriving soon. And they have also um shared that they would be happy to support us um if

088if there is a need. Um so we we'll be talking about that. So again, thank you to uh Gilroy Rotary for their generous donation. March 1st through 4th. I'd shared with you. I was at the uh Kaplan uh conference. This is the California Association of Asian and Pacifica Leaders in Education. Um we had some uh great presentations and actually for their um awards night, they um invited all all the attendees to wear um their outfits that represented them uh culturally. So if you look at me and I never wear a sorry to a professional event hardly ever but I got an opportunity to do that. But also uh what was uh neat is in the state of California there are only 2.6% superintendents that are Asian-American and Pacific Islanders. So I it was just an

089honor to be with some of my colleagues in the picture in the middle um just sharing some stories about their journeys. um and the ones on the left also. Next slide please. The other highlight of this presentation was that once again we got to um present as a district which for me I I've started encouraging our teams to be at different conferences and present. So Anna and Diane were with me uh and with our partners ESS and once again we presented we had a really good turnout and we talked about the MTSS structure. We talked about the work we are doing with our partners in early uh learning in our preschool classes but also some of the high school classes to meet uh the needs of our students. Um again it's just an honor when

090people walk up to you and say that was a great presentation and you guys are doing good work in Gilroy. uh and I think we saw that earlier too uh when John Eisen was presenting sometimes uh we forget to recognize the good work that we are doing and u you know when I saw the ALO when he shared the results with me that was the first thing that that struck both of us is people think we're doing good work and sometimes we just don't give ourselves credit for that or we don't recognize it we don't acknowledge it we don't talk about it but Um, again, I'm not saying we're perfect. There's always always room to grow. But I'm very proud and it is just such an honor to be part of this district and be

091part of the journey with so many of my colleagues. Um, some of them are here in the room tonight. So, um, we had some the last thing the the closing session I don't know how many of uh heard of Michael Fulen. He is an expert um on systems and he he closed out the session with Michael Matsuda and talked about reimagining education um in the future and what what the future of education might look like or the systems that we uh create for uh our students in the future. So again a really good um conference. uh some of the other spring site visits this uh that I've completed. February 25th, I was able to go to Rod Kelly Elementary. March 5th, we will be going to Luigi Priya. Um and then other upcoming spring visits.

092March 9th, Rucker Elementary, March 11th, Lasanimus Elementary. March 16th, Glen View Elementary. Actually, I had March 5th, I had to reschedule the one earlier today. I did text all of you. I wasn't feeling well and I didn't want to get the kids sick. Not that I want to get all of you sick, but I just didn't feel so well in the morning. So, we will be rescheduling that one. Uh upcoming other upcoming events, March 2nd through 6, read across the world week. And I know uh many of you some of you have been in classrooms reading to our students this week. Um March 11th, uh I'm I'm very excited and I hope all of you will join us uh for the GUS reclassification ceremony. March 13th, rock the mark at Gilroy High School. April 6th

093through 9, we have spring break. April 25th is run for fitness at Gilroy High School. And April 30th, Future Chef uh Chefs of America. If you have not had an opportunity to attend this one, I highly highly recommend it. It's It's really fun to watch the kids um cook. It's very professional, but also what's neat is just the presentation. It's very uh professional. So, I I invite you to attend that as well. That concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Munchie. Did you have a question? >> Yes. >> So, I have a question. So, what does the future look like for education? Can you give us a little summary of what he said? >> Oh, I can share that. So, if the I can get you the recording of that. I I can't share

094all of that right now. It's reimagining. Again, it's a closing keynote. I don't think, you know, in 30 minutes of a keynote speech, you can really talk about what the future looks like. But I would uh strongly recommend you read some of his books if you haven't. I actually have a book in my office. I'm happy to loan it to you. I I brought two copies. >> You have more reading to do now. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now we're on to item seven, our consent agenda. Do I have a motion? >> Approve. Second >> roll call vote. >> Jennifer Delbono, >> yes. >> Twin Vak, >> yes. >> Gabriella Kim, >> yes. >> Kenny Moreno, >> yes. >> Michelle Nelson, >> yes. >> Linda Peno, >> yes. >> Honchu Ye Baker, >> yes. Thank

095you. >> Okay, now we are on to item eight. This is a public hearing. Um 8A is a charter renewal for charter renewal petition for Navigator schools um and Gilroy Prep Schools. Uh the GSU GUSD board will conduct a public hearing regarding the charter renewal application for GPS. The purpose of this hearing is to receive public comment as part of the renewal process. Educational services staff will provide an overview of the renewal process. the Navigator School, Gilroy Prep School Charter renewal petition and supporting documents as well as the GUSD staff report. >> Good evening, President Fak, Vice President Nelson, Trustees, and Superintendent Munchi. Thank you for opening the public hearing. The public hearing on tonight's agenda is intended to provide the board and the public with an opportunity to learn more about Navigator School's request

096to renew the charter for Gilroy Prep School, locally known as GPS. GUSD has been the authorizer for Gilroy Prep Academy since 2010. We have maintained a supportive and transparent LEAP relationship for over a decade and a half. A charter renewal is a formal formal process that is guided by compliance requirements grounded in education code that both the petitioner and authorizer must follow. The current GPS charter expires on June 30th of this year. On December 19th, GPS submitted a renewal petition to the Gilroy Unified School District. The request is to renew the charter for a term of 5 years spanning from July 1 of 2026 to June 30th of 2031. The legal criteria for renewals falls under education code 47605 and includes the following criteria. They must show that they have a sound educational program. A

097reasonably comprehensive description of the required 15 required elements. Academic performance based on the California dashboard indicators. Fiscal performance and viability organizational capacity and governance effect effectiveness compliance with charter terms and applicable laws. GSD's executive team has carefully and thoughtfully reviewed the required elements and conducted our annual site visit. The board and the charter school have been provided with the staff report outlining the findings of the review and staff recommendations regarding renewal. This report is also a available for review by members of the public and is linked within the GSD board agenda meeting as required by public hearing compliance. This evening's meeting isformational in nature. No action will be taken by the board this evening. The purpose of tonight's public hearing is to ensure transparency, provide context for the renewal review, and allow the board and

098public to better understand the process and to provide Gilray Prep an opportunity to share about their school. At the next public hearing to be held on March 19th, educational services will formally present the findings and recommendations regarding the charter renewal. GPS will have also have an equal opportunity to share any additional information if needed. During the March 19th meeting, the board will make their determination and take formal action. After the closing of tonight's public hearing, I would like to welcome Dr. Caprice Young. She's the CEO and superintendent Navigator Schools and member of Gilroy Prep's leadership team to share theirformational presentation highlighting the school's program accomplishments and key aspects of the renewal. Okay. Or are there any or actually sorry I'm opening public comment. Are there any public comments? Seeing none, I will be closing public

099comments. >> You could ask questions if you had any >> questions. We go again. Okay. Would you open up the staff report? >> Yes. >> Go to page 14. >> Yes. I can't discuss our formal findings until next meeting though. >> There's a 15-day notice required. >> It's but there were append, you know, attachments. >> There are attachments. >> There's there's append. Are you talking on the staff report or the charter and the appendices? >> The staff report recommendations and findings and then the appendices. >> Yes. and discuss those. >> So, we can you can ask questions. I can't provide you with what our formal recommendation is this evening. There's a 15-day notice to have these documents public. >> I know it's a it's a crazy process. >> Okay. Um, so if I were to

100ask you what approximately was the class size, you can't say. >> That is a great question. when our our school navigator prep um provides theirformational presentation in a few minutes. >> Okay. On page 19 through 20 there are recommendations for sped. >> Yes. >> Can't pull that up. >> Yes, I I can I have it in front of me. >> Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. But you can't like >> I can Yes, you can ask me questions. >> Okay. I'm asking Okay. So actually is is it possible to have something like this for GUSD because this is really cool. >> That is a that is a great question for the superintendent. >> Okay. >> So this is this is the process that CDE and the county office is recommending for charter schools. This is really not

101for school districts. We have the dashboard and >> okay or >> I I mean we can I know the board has in the past requested reports but this t this takes a lot of time. This has taken us several months. >> Kudo kudos to everybody because it said yeah we went to the school for a day. No way was this done in one day. Um another question. Multiple adults were in the room paid or volunteers. Question >> at the school they they're paid staff. >> Okay. Yes, their staffing ratio is is different than um our traditional GSD staffing. >> Okay. And squad models, I'm interested in hearing about that if >> and I'm sure there'll be Okay. >> Yes. >> Um on the um appendices on page 287 or page eight depending on where you

102are. behavioral challenges and possible consequences. I love that. Um, and I actually had a question. I'll put it as a board request later. Um, board policy, um, 5144, the superintendent or designation shall create a model discipline matrix that lists violations and the consequences for each as allowed by law. So, I'll put that at the end of the meeting as a request. Um, I like the homework that was specific. Our board policy is this reasonable amount of homework. So again, I'm going to ask to review that. And uh the parent signature um on page 319 um or page 40 depending on where you go. Uh I'll be asking about that. And there's a mandatory training for uh the board of directors. we kind of do that, but maybe we need to look at that again, you

103know, like at the beginning that for the the newbies and um there was a survey um done for staff, which again I'll bring up later, but there were some things I liked. So I I think the purpose of this meeting is for their staff to present and for our board to ask because you are going to be authorizing the renewal and then our board for our district and for our staff anything recommendations or requests that you have those are kind of separate from this process because those are for our district. >> So at this time we're only >> right I'm referencing it now so that at the end you'll know okay it was about that >> and and Dr. Young will be able to answer some of the questions in her presentation, their presentation in

104a moment. We just and next uh meeting we will have a more formal um presentation of our staff findings. It's just this has to be in the public 15 days before your determination, all those public hearing requirements which are different than just a regular board meeting agenda. So we always appreciate your question. So of course you do. We do. >> Can I say something? >> Yes. This has nothing to do with the um renewal process, but I wanted to share we I was actually there on Monday because my son is an eighth grader and um he played their basketball team and I have to say your parents were some of the loudest cheers. Our parents like whoa look at their parents. No, we did win, but they played well and but wow, the parents were

105so spirited and um and like I said, our parents were like, "Wow, they're some of the loudest, cheering parents we've ever played against." So anyway, that's kudos to all of you. I think you have parents who are very dedicated. So, are there any other questions? Seeing none, we will move to 9A, Navigator Schools, Gilward Prep School. And this is information item. >> Okay. So, we have closed our public hearing and I'd like to welcome. Thank you. So, you're just going to advance right there. >> Hi, my name is Dr. Caprice Young and I'm here with Shauna Schmidt and um she is the interim principal at um Gilroy Prep because Missy's having a baby tomorrow morning and so um but I'm very very pleased to be able to present with her and we thank you very

106much for having been our partners for so many years. this would be um hopefully you will choose to renew our school and it will be our third renewal and um so I will just dive in. Um this is our mission statement. Um and I if I could just take a minute and read it to you because we're very proud of it and we live by it. Navigator schools equip students to become learners and leaders in high school, college, and beyond. We develop top tier teams of educators who continuously improve and innovate schools that deliver phenomenal outcomes for all students regardless of their circumstances. I hope what you hear in our mission is that we are successful because we support our teachers and because we work so hard to make sure that all of our educators

107have the um the skills and resources and support they need to be successful. And the um the five items around the compass that you see there are the key pieces of our in our instructional model, our culture being data driven, our coaching and it's coaching of uh our instructional staff um and equity and technology. These were the first uh these were the first kiddos that started GPS. And there's Missy. She's off having the baby, but she's here in in spirit. And um Dr. Flores was um was very supportive and we have enjoyed that continued support since we last saw you. Um which was seven years ago because of COVID. Wasn't the usual five. Um we had uh we won distinguished California Distinguished School Award. We worked with you closely with Prop 51 to be able

108to create a larger campus that allowed us to be able to add TK. Two years ago, we've promoted 350 alumni into Gilroy High Schools, including a hundred that chose to go to GEKA and got accepted to GEKA. Um, and a couple of those folks are now graduating this year from college. So, one of our graduates is graduating from UCLA this year. and um and we are always excited to be able to participate in the annual superintendent school site visits. So what you see here is that we are um relatively similar in our demographic makeup with um the Gilroy schools. Overall we have um 56% of our kids are socioeconomically disadvantaged. 26% are multilingual learners. Um now that number is much higher obviously in the lower grades than it is in the upper grades because kids

109learn English while they're with us. Um and we have special education that is very similar, slightly less than the district as a whole. Also, what you see here is that um there's a bump in 2425. That was when we added TK. So that's that's when that went up. We outperformed the state in both math and reading. First one was reading and that's math. Um, and we've also been recognized by Innovate Public Schools, which is an organization that um, celebrates schools that are closing the achievement gap. Actually, um, three out of four of the Navigator schools as a whole have won that award. The only reason why Hayward wasn't is that they're just too darn small. Only we only have 240 kids in our Hayward school. You know, just to jump back for a sec. This

110is the growth of GPS, but the Gilroy School was the first school. It was the first navigator school and you were the ones that helped us create it. Um, and that believed in our founders. And since then, we have Oops. We have grown to four schools. And so, we are now serving nearly 2,000 students. This is our squad's model. I'm happy to answer more questions about the squads model. Um, but what's exciting about our squads model is that it uh really engages middle school students and it does it by um it does it by taking what middle school students usually get complained about. Like people are worried about middle school students, they all want to just talk to each other all the time and uh things like that. So, we take those supposed weaknesses and

111we turn them into strengths by doing the squads model. And um it's not like your it's not like the group work of my of my generation when you know one person did all the work and the other people um don't. It's it's actually training students to have um the ability to take on different roles in teamwork and change roles over the course of the semester to be able to learn how to work successfully as team members. I'm going to hand it over to Shauna. Go for it. >> Good evening. My name is Shauna and I am proud to be here to represent Miss Corral while she is out having her baby um and the rest of our leadership team here tonight. While you can read the graduate aims up on the screen, I'm going to

112read a quote for you all from Arpinder Carr, who is both a GPS and GEKA graduate that illustrates these aims even better than our chart can. She says, "My name is Arpinder Carr and I'm a proud Nav'i graduate. I was in the second ever graduating class from GPS and I am a secondyear political science major at UCLA. Participating in Nav'i squads taught me teamwork, leadership, and problem solving skills, which became essential for collaborative project in high school and now college. It also instilled a sense of responsibility and empathy, helping me thrive in diverse academic and social settings. We're very proud of our Pinder and she is going on to graduate from UCLA this year. These grad aims are possible um as we also focus on the whole self for scholars and our staff. After three

113years of training and implementation, we have received certification from Valor Collegiate to be a powered by Compass school. Valor circles and focused intentions have provided all Gators with opportunities to both give and receive support, exhibit empathy, and truly work with one another to ensure we're living up to our commitments. And um Miss uh Dr. Young touched on this a little bit with our uh our compass points. Um but we wanted to give you some of the highlights. Our first compass point is culture which is you can see here um in our picture from COVID that we all overcame and showed our root resiliency in 2020. Our culture of excellent points includes student goal ownership, unit ward assemblies, visible tracked schoolwide goals, consistent routines, and a respectful environment. Um, next is datadriven instruction, which looks like

114datadriven weekly coaching, students tracking their own progress, data fluency that builds both teacher precision and scholar self-efficacy, um, two multi-ub teachers per grade level, so we have a STEM and a humanities teacher for deeper expertise. And scholars engage in small groups, uh, reducing student teacher ratios and enabling targeted differentiation. We have our coaching for continuous improvement um with the goal that as our students are growing, our adults are too. Our grow our adults should be growing every week. We have coaching um that is differentiated based on the teacher and their needs. We have all leaders complete a relay GSSE program to ensure consistent and high quality coaching and grade level teams meet regularly to reflect, plan and share best practices. Um, next is equity, our multi-tered support and full inclusion which serves our mission of

115every child by name and need. And this can be seen through 99% of our academic supports being delivered in the general education classroom. We have a low student to instructional staff ratio wraparound services and our model ensures every scholar is seen, supported, and championed. And um last is our technology for tomorrow. Um and where we're leading the way with AI and instructional technology innovation. We have one of our navigator leaders who is piloting ways to reduce teacher workload and increase instructional success through AI. Uh we have our onetoone technology digital supplemental programs that support with skill building, accelerate learning and enhance teacher planning and instruction. and we have intervention and technology that delivers targeted supports where students need it most. We're excited to come back again soon and talk about the journey Navigator and GPS

116have taken with AI. Um, and Navigator is always focused on being continual improvers. Uh so in addition to equipping all students to be learners and leaders, we're also going to tackle much more um such as addressing the recommendations from the GUSD staff report, reestablishing connections with local school districts uh to create model classrooms, and continuing our quest of today a reader, tomorrow a leader for every student. >> Tada. Um we're more than happy to answer any questions that you have and again we just want to thank you for being wonderful partners over the years and for your success um and your support for our creativity. We just feel tremendously grateful. Thank you. >> Uh board, are there any questions? >> Yes, Trustee Baker. Can I just ask a quick question about your admissions process since

117I'm um relatively still new to this district and as a board member, but I know I'm a little bit familiar with the Morgan Hill charter and they always have a pretty long wait list. So c can you speak to yours? >> You have a long wait list, too. Um the um the the rule for charters is that you're required to accept any student who wants to come regardless of pretty much everything. Um we um we have written into our charter the ability to give preference for students who meet um socioeconomic diversity um requirements because we really our mission as an organization is to serve the least um the most underserved students. So we are allowed to make that uh a preference point. Um we also have preference points for um the children of faculty and

118for um and for siblings and so but that's pretty much it. We find that most students don't leave. So uh your kid gets in in TK they've got a spot all the way through 8th grade. This last year we did uh some increase in class size and that allowed us to add more students at some of the upper grade levels. Um, in some of our classes we expanded from 30 kids per classroom to 31 or 32 just based on um the waiting lists and wanting to get folks off the waiting list. Thank you. >> Are there other questions? >> I have a question. >> Oh yes, Trusty Delono, >> thank you. Thank you for your presentation and I appreciate all the work that that you do and I know it's just a um just a

119great program that so many families um appreciate. So, I've been able to tour the the school. Um I went this year and then last year and um there was a classroom in particular that had an issue. Um and there was a there was a smell that was pretty profound um in the classroom both years. And I'm just curious, are you making progress towards really um correcting that? because I think there was something like maybe under the building or a little more structural that was going to take more than just a basic fix. But I'm I'm hoping for staff and for students that's something that's make you're making progress on. >> Yes, ma'am. We we have we've uh connected with our operations team um in order to take a look at that. So you have a

120good memory. Um I think that that has uh for the most part been resolved. Um but that was made we we did make our uh operations team aware of that. um and did address the smell. >> Got some bugs going around that school. >> Yeah, I've actually I think about it often. So, I'm just like gosh, I hope that's been improved because that was pretty substantial. Thank you. >> C closing up some of the vents that they get through. >> Yes, Trusty Moreno. >> Thank you guys for the presentation. Um I'm just going to take advantage of this moment. Uh I I don't know if you know the board members get assigned schools. I've tried many times to reach out and I sent an email and I called talk to a secretary and if you

121would do just do me a personal favor and try to connect, I'd love to visit. Never been. >> I'd love to do that. >> And um this is just a selfish moment. I'm just going to >> You got it. >> Take it right now. I got it cuz I can't leave this chair for another hour probably. So >> we will we will definitely reach out to you and I apologize that you had difficulty getting through >> uh yes trustee Peno >> just a question does my memory um suffice that in in accepting all students they are students also outside of Gilroy Unified >> we're we're allowed to but we have to give preference um to students inside Gilroy Unified because you're our authorizer Right. So, do you know offhand the percentage of of students that

122are outside of Gil Unified? >> I don't know the percentage off, but I know that there are a few. Um, it's more often the case that our Hollister school gets Gilroy kids who don't make it through our lottery. >> Okay. >> Um, that's actually more common. Um, but I know there are at least three that I can think of off off the top of my head. >> That many. >> Well, who very few. >> They started out Gilroy Unified students and then their family moved. >> Um and so we kept them. >> Okay. So few. >> Very Yeah, very very few. >> Okay. Just curious. >> Thanks. You Yeah, I mean we're here for you. >> Any other questions? >> Rusty Nelson, did you have any questions? >> Are you sure? This was the time

123to ask. >> Yeah, this is the time to ask. >> There you go. >> Okay. So, class size 30 to 31. Yeah, except for TK, which is always 20 or below. Okay. Um, so how many other adults in the room? Typically, >> in most grade levels, there's at least one small group instructor. So, um, the way we've worked it out is each grade level is two groups of approximately 30, and they have two teachers, a math science teacher and an English language arts teacher, and they swap. Um, so that what that helps with is that teachers don't have to do as many preps because and they don't have to be expert in as many things. Um, so that's part of the method to the madness. But then also um depending on the grade level, we

124either have one s uh small groupoup instructor per classroom or one small group instructor per grade level who splits their time to support the teachers in doing differentiated instruction. So for example, if you wandered into one of our first grade classrooms for a good part of the day, what you would see is three groups of students. um one group getting direct instruction from the certificated teacher, one group doing practice kinds of things with the small group instructor. Um both differentiated based on um the individual students needs. So clustered by what the group of students needs and then a third group of students that are doing a hybrid learning program on a computer um which then provides the data that our teachers can use to figure out which group kids could put go in. Is that

125more than you want to know? Then we have full inclusion instructors um who are basically the same as one-on ones. >> Okay. So the small group instructor is that a certificated person? >> No. Uh but they often become certificated people. It's not uncommon. In fact, it's it's it's part of our plan is that a lot of the folks who start out as small groupoup instructors or teachers in training um eventually become certificated and then are teachers. >> So what qualifications do they have? What credentials do they have to be small group instructors? >> Most most of them come in with at least some kind of AA degree from a community from community college. Um many of them actually also have some or all of their undergraduate work done. Um but um but they're not required

126to have a bachelor's degree or a teaching credential. That is that's the role of the certificated teacher for each classroom. Um Do the squad >> we train them like crazy though. >> Okay. Do the squad teams do anything with discipline or is basically cooperative learning? >> Uh it's not really about discipline. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I can I mean I happy to tell you more about how that works, how how those squads work if you'd like, but um also we'd love to have you come and see how that works. I visited once. Um I also knew one of the founders. Well, two of the founders. >> Sharon. >> Two. Two out of three are still with us. >> Sharon. >> Yep. Sharon. Sharon is >> James. >> Yep. And James is our chief impact officer

127now. >> Yes, I saw that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I can stop by. All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> Are there any other questions? Okay, this is an information item. Thank you so much for your presentation. >> Thank you very much. We're looking for, you know, ways we can work together more. So, whatever creative ideas you have, we're up for it. >> Thank you. Um, okay. So, now we are on to um item 9B, strategic vision plan. Uh, the board will receive an update on the strategic vision plan and this is information item. >> Thank you. Trusty F. Um good evening board. So several weeks ago uh you might remember our consultants um came to present to us um their kind of final draft of of the findings. They had gone through several listening

128sessions. uh they compiled all the uh information that they gathered and they came back to the board for input at that time and said you know what else would you like us to tweak and the document uh that you see in front of you the one that says Gilroy promise on the first page that was really the document that they presented to us and they said this is all the information that kind of bubbled up to the top and this is what the community asked for and then also you we had received some feedback from you as as well. Um, so that's this document. The next step then was how do we present this or what do we do with this information to compile it in a way where it's a working document. Um I

129I think something that was really important to the board and was how do we take this out to staff and to community where it's an elevator pitch where you don't have a paragraph long mission statement and then a separate vision statement and then you know 17 different uh priorities and uh so we have two drafts in front of you and really what we're talking about is the design phase. our consultants had said that you know we can help you get the data together but we can't help you with the design that's not our expertise so the two documents that you see in front of you it's really one was created by trusty fak uh she kind of took a shot at it and said let me see what I can put together so the one

130this one the one that on the uh first page says vision mission and values alignment and there are one two three three pages is uh trustify act did that and then the other one Melanie u uh played with it also the one that has a lot of blue that that's a GUD colors so these are again these are just drafts but this is we are what we are asking the board today is just for some ideas where do we go from here what are your recommendations uh in how should we what kind of a design do we want because keep in Mind also if we go for a bond this is a document we which we will be using if not all of it the portions of it that we can take to the community

131because that's how we present the district. So this really is just information but more than anything it's just gathering ideas from the board. Uh what what would the what are your recommendations or what are your thoughts about what the design should be for that final document? We have obviously not gone um and talked to any professional outside consultant or designer yet. Uh we are looking for direction from the board. Where do we go from here? The one thing that you had seen and I know trustee um Payak in her document the alignment of this document with our LCAP goal. I remember when we started this process just about a year ago. Um Trusty Ebaker I I remember you said well we have the LCAP. How what does all of this mean? Like how many plans

132and things will we have? And Gene and Sonia did an amazing job of actually creating the crosswalk for the board which I had shared with you in one of my weekly uh memos, my reports. And what we did is everything in this document, we lined it up with the the existing LCAP goals. The other thing I would like to remind the board is the LCAP. The way it works is it's a three-year document. The the county office of education expects it to be a three-year plan and we are in year two of that plan. Uh am I right, Sonia? So we have this year, the school year and then one more year where the plan the goals that we have in the LCAP. Uh we we have to stick with that. That's what the county

133office approves every year. And what they u look at is the metrics to see are we reaching our goals in the metrics itself. So again, I just want to open it up to the board and see are there any recommendations or what's the direction for us? Where do we go from here? >> And I did want to clarify for the the um page that says the GUSD strategic initiative. This one really isn't necessarily uh for the public, but it's really just because there were a lot of questions from the board about what's the difference between the LCAP strategic plan and all and how does that fit in? So I just kind of created a visual that hopefully um makes it clear or in terms of where this strategic plan fits in, where the LCAP fits

134in, how how the priority areas work. So you're asking for feedback regarding like the graphics and >> both. So the graphics and the content. So the graphics again keep in mind one was created by Melanie. She she's not a professional designer and I know trusty fact she wanted to play with it also but they both have full-time daytime jobs. But these were just some ideas. They both you know played with the information that was in that original document. Uh but what we're looking for is just some recommendations on on content as well as the graphics. what do what is important for the board to see for example the one thing that stood out uh is pictures of our kids right so we wanted to when Melanie was doing this she for her and I know

135trustify actually said I didn't have the pictures of our kids but I would have liked to put those in anything that we create we definitely want our students to be represented right so we we are going to take pictures of our students so things like that what colors should we be looking at what design elements uh are really important important to the board that you feel should be uh part of the the final document and then the content. Yes. So let's start the hand up. >> Yes. Trusty >> content. >> So the question I have is what um how are we going to use this? I mean this is multi-page. I don't know about you, but most people are not going to go through six pages because it is six pages of steps. So, and

136even three pages and we had talked about keeping it short. >> Um, I like this the back page of this. >> It's one page has kids pictures. I think it's clear. But then we have all the rest of this too. So I'm I'm I'm not sure what the what are we going to do with this? How is it how are we going to use it? That's a better phrase. >> So this really I the the plan is to introduce this to staff um next school year. That what we had said. We had thought we might be able to do a soft launch this year but we are behind on the project. We just had lots of other initiatives we've been working on. Um but it really is when we talk to the community when all

137of you board members when you go to different groups or you're in different spaces and I know trusty Pano one time you asked Melanie to prepare something for you people ask you about tell us a little bit about the district this is going to be that one to two it could be backtoback but it is that one document that gives a picture of the district in terms of our values what we want for our students what is the desire of the district. Uh, and this would be for our staff, for our community, something that all of us can share, something that we lead with, which is also tied to our LCAP goals. So, I'm just going to say one thing because you guys can I like this page, one page in the back, and this,

138which shows what a graduate is. put those back to back and I'd be happy. But that's me. >> Yes. So can because it's so much information um can we chunk it up and make decisions based on those chunks? Right. Um so like what I would recommend first is um the Gilroy promise. You have two versions of it, right? So one is our promise where learners grow, leaders rise and futures begin. The other one is where every learner thrives, every voice matters, every future begins. >> That one. >> So that one is in so on this version. >> Oh. Oh, that's >> my god. Okay. There's just >> wait. Yes, Trusty Baker. >> So, I would just say this. I'm not a graphic designer. Um, that's not what I do professionally, but I do look a

139lot look at a lot of graphic design stuff um for my work. I would say it's got to be simplistic. I mean, when someone's looking, especially, you know, when someone's looking at something for the first time, something's got to stand out. And what does stand out to me is the the acronym lead, right? But you don't find what that means until you go all the way to the back. And then there's just so much in the back that I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I can't even read it. I need to find my reading glasses." Right? So, my recommendation, whatever you do, it's got to be clean. It's got to be very um uh clear. I don't like a lot of text and a lot of images. Like, I think you have to really narrow it

140down to what is best going to represent and what's going to really resonate with people. Like, they're going to you want to engage, right? And that's part of having good graphics is people are going to look at it from far and like what is that? I wanted to see what that is. Right? So maybe it is pictures of our kids. Um but you know size matters like you know like this text back here is is actually too small for me. But maybe that's cuz I'm old. >> Um and um things like this not too crazy about it. It's just there's just too much going on. It's too busy. Too many words. Too many. Right. And so people are not going to we want to pre I I get it right like when when any institution

141we've got some great core institutional values we've got a mission we got we want to show them people but that's not what people want right so what is it that we want people to remember about what we're doing and what our um work is so so whatever it that is I think you just keep it clean and to the point >> yes trustee Kim >> okay So I think what you asked us is you you want us to look at it's on. >> Yeah, it's on. >> You want us to look on look at both of the promises. So the picture with the girl >> and then the picture with the diagram situation. >> So you want feedback on the verbiage. >> Yes. >> Because we So here's the thing. We have to land on

142the, you know, basically what the promise is, right? Based on the feedback that we've received. um you know if we can have a tagline that would be great. not totally, you know, um we also have to land on the definition of the core values, right? So, a lot of this is like the graphics could be easily done, right? But what what we want to like make a decision on is what must we include in the graphics? What what information? Okay, so just to put it out there, my vote or my preference would be the promise with the cute little kid on it. >> The the verbiage >> where Yeah. where learners grow and leaders rise and futures begin. I like that one better than the other option. >> Okay. >> Me, too. >> Okay. Is

143is there a consensus that that is the favorite? I'm going to try to not say too much about it other than to say I also look for the I like the shorter over the long. >> Okay. >> Um Trusty Nelson, >> you're good with that. >> Trusty, >> that's next. >> Yeah, we're not there yet. Yeah. One thing at a time. >> One thing at a time. >> Okay. >> Trust Trusty Baker. comment. Which one do you like? >> Okay. And trustee Delbono >> prefer the um the shorter promise as well. >> Okay. Perfect. So, yes, we made a decision on that. >> All right. Okay. Let's go under core values. These are our six core values. Are we good on the definition of the core values? the blue box. >> Yes. >> Well, it's

144it's under the number three. Um but it's not like a definition. It's just a shortened version of of it. >> So So the content in here has to go in whatever. No, we could take it out too. >> Yes. Okay. >> Totally up to you. This is what we when the consultants were doing the work, we had asked them to identify these these areas. So that's why they're set up like that. We asked them for a mission vision. But then at one point, you remember when they were here, we said no, let's just go with a promise, not a separate mission and vision. We specifically asked them to um talk to the community a community about core values portrait of a graduate and then the uh the lead part of it kind of came out

145through that process and we landed there but we had asked them to specifically look for um portrait of a graduate core values and the the promise part. So my recommendation would be is that we choose one of these contents and not all of them because I think that does muddy things up and it's very difficult for people to really understand what it is. >> The what? >> Well, I when I look at it, you look at core values, you look at the lead acronym and you look at the portrait of the graduates in in many ways it's kind of saying the same thing really. I mean um the other >> it takes this idea and then Core values are driving our strategic and initiatives. Correct. >> Yes. Core values is our guiding star. >> Yes.

146Like our the h our habits of mind, the way we operate or the way what we hold centered, right? Or as core. >> Yes. But what it is, what is it that we want whoever is going to be looking at this? What is it that we want them to walk away with? >> Who are we? >> So there's there's different things, right? Like all of this is not going to be in necessarily one document, >> right? >> So we have to a as a board decide okay we've got our our mission and vision which is our promise. Now are these are these are the core values that we identified and then also because we want to have a shared language and understanding of what each thing is. Are we good with the definitions of these

147core values? That's all I'm asking for. >> Yes, I'm I'm good with the definitions um or how they've been articulated in the core values. Yes. >> Perfect. Thank you. I agree with Trustee Delona. I have a question. I have a question about belonging. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, we embrace diversity, respond to cultural needs, and then here's the part I'm not sure I completely buy to ensure every student has full access to opportunity. How do we ensure that? How do we how do we as a a board, a school district, whatever, basically guaranteeing full access to opportunity? That's my question. So I know we talk about inclusion a lot. That's just the first step that the whole concept of inclusive practices is giving students access to this much and then letting them decide how much

148of it they can take or making sure when we talk about um opportunity for every student in a classroom, our effort as a district has to be that we provide the best instruction, best teachers, best learning experiences for our students. that that's what that means to me. >> Then I I think I would maybe cling to a word you just said which is provide. I may be providing every student with full access nots insuring. Insuring to me is a guarantee. That's the And then I'm just throwing it out there. >> So basically we like I'm I'm good with changing insure to provide. >> I just don't know like for me I want to I want so with all of this I want to read it and believe it. >> Yeah. That's where I'm coming from.

149Trusty Moreno. I'm sorry. Trusty Mareno is It almost feels like, and I don't think this is the right word, but I can't find a better one. Um to attempt like we're we're attempting, right, to that it's um >> I Yeah, I I like provide better. >> That's what I was thinking. >> Yeah, I like provide better >> to provide each student a full full access to opportunity. >> Yes. provide every student with full access to opportunity. I like that better. >> I have another >> I can live with that. >> Collaboration seems a little wordy to me. >> And I'm I'm thinking and this might be too short. We work together with trust to serve our students and strengthen our community. >> I like that. >> And delete the open communication and shared purpose. work

150together with trust. >> We work together with trust to serve. Just delete open communication and shared purpose. That seems wordy and >> okay. >> I don't know if anybody else feels >> good with that. >> So, what's the proposal? >> So, under collaboration, it's we work together with trust to serve our students and strengthen our community. So, we're taking out open communication and shared purpose. And the reason I I struggled with the open communication one, but I think that really is um addressed in integrity. If we act with honesty, responsibility, and consistency in all we do, that certainly covers open communication, I think. And I think that if if we work with trust, that includes open communication. Okay, everybody good with that? Any other comments or changes? >> Doono? >> Nope, I'm good. >> Okay,

151perfect. So under recommendation about portrait of a graduate. So Sonia is working with a group and we've talked about this in cabinet a lot. Sonia is working with a group of teachers from from all the high schools and they've been talking about um literally the portrait of a graduate. Uh some I don't know how many of them attended any of the sessions but it really goes with graduation requirements and they've had several meetings. If the board is okay with it, I would almost say these two pages which are backtoback are about the portrait of a graduate. We let that be a standalone document and let the committee work on that because they're the experts. They're high school folks. I I think you also have other members of the community. Sonia, do you want to talk

152a little bit about it please? >> Dr. Mchi before what two pages are you talking about? >> The one that they're both portrait of a graduate. So one is the graphic one and then the other one actually has a lot of words. So they're the same thing but just back to back. That's what I thought. >> That's what I thought. >> Yeah. No, that's what I'm saying. >> Did you find it? >> It's this one >> and then this one. Sonia. >> So, um, the committee is actually looking at the graduation requirements. Um, and so we were waiting to see what the final strategic vision would be. um as we were looking at those graduation requirements to inform um the recommendations to uh the board about what this would look like. Um and so on

153March 19th, I believe there's a study session scheduled for six o'clock um so that I can present and um just inform um our trustees about um I can also incorporate the u vision here. Um but uh the idea is looking at the graduation requirements and how our new requirements from the state of California need to be integrated into that. But we've also talked about what is the purpose of a diploma and what is it that we're trying to achieve with our high school graduates which is aligned with this notion of the portrait of a graduate. Um and so just that's that's what the committee has been working on. >> Okay. So before we go on to that, I just want to close out. We're good with our core values with the the changes. >> I

154have I have one one more. >> Yes. >> Under accountability >> and it says and follow through to deliver meaningful results. Meaningful to who? And not every result we do is going to be meaningful to everybody. So I and follow through to deliver results >> would be my suggestion. >> I am good with that. Is everybody else good with that? Are you good, Trusty Delono? >> Thank you for checking. >> Okay. All right. So now we're good with definition of the core values. Okay. got two things done. Yay. >> Okay. So, if we're going to delay um the portrait of a graduate. So, my I >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. So, and and basically this is the same as the the graphic, >> right? So, my um my vision of when we complete the portrait

155of a graduate um and what we're talking about is hiring a graphic designer to design the graphics of it because I would like to make that as a poster and basically post it in every single classroom. >> Yes. >> Um >> yes, trust. Thank you. Um I I my first impression of the of this one the the the young lady I I I was like, "Oh, this is pretty striking." But I then of course I didn't know you made it. So it's a little bit harder to say what I don't like about it. >> I know. Look, let me just >> LGBT did that for me. So I will like >> my fear was this is what we I No. >> Okay. So, just for like cautionary tale, like I cannot tell you what this

156gentleman in the bottom left corner is doing. I I zoomed in on it. I tried to like chat GBT that and I still couldn't come up with it. Also, the the young woman on the table in the middle, she has the funkiest arm I have ever seen. It's like that got destroyed. I was happy that this was like our final >> trusty Moreno. I am not a graphic designer. >> I didn't know it was you. I just thought this is an interesting >> this is just a concept. >> Got it. >> I I do like the striking that that this is Yes, this is impactful like just the boom but uh Okay, thank you. >> So, this is the part is it okay if I speak? >> Yes, trustee. >> So, this is the part

157that I think I struggled with the most. Um, as you know, uh, Trusty Moreno was saying, I whatever I'm reading, I have to believe or that we can actually impact. And I felt like the this part was harder for me to feel like this was really ours to do in full. So like for example the ethical and empathetic I felt um were maybe redundant where I was really thinking you know as schools and and as educators and what we really are able to do and what's within our scope I thought critical thinking innovative problem solver resilient through learning and collaborative um communicator were really solid and then the ethical and empathetic felt like over redundant where I could see those qualities in the collaborative um communicator and in being a problem solver or being resilient.

158Um so then when I looked at this picture, it felt like um if anybody's if you ever I don't know, I felt like some of these were like some of these um Catholic images that I remember seeing where um I don't know, it's hard to explain. It felt very subjective, too subjective for me where um I just didn't feel like that's really what we can promise. And so um I just wanted more maybe a more of a streamlined edited version of the portrait and it felt religious to me. >> Yeah. From the expert. >> Okay. So, um the suggestion is maybe uh we're letting the committee work on the portrait of a graduate and especially since these are students. Um it would really be great to get their feedback in terms of your concerns around

159the ethical and um empathetic uh pieces to see if you know if if that's what they are learning in school in our schools. Okay. >> And are we really teaching that? And I if we are, I'm not really sure what curriculum we're using to do it or if we could even agree on what that is. Um what that curriculum would look like. So yeah, I'm just those are just wonderings and thoughts that I have right now. >> Sonia, I had something to share. >> Yes. So um along those lines there was um the discussion among the teachers when I showed them the draft of the strategic vision and they indicated you know it really depends on the individual teachers approach in the classroom um about um the strategies for example that they might be employing

160um and their approach to student discipline and other areas like that that um do um it it's not just something that is a a curriculum based approach. So it's more of like a broader philosophy. Um and then the other um point that I wanted to highlight is the aspect that um Tony Thurman, our state superintendent, is also looking at the statewide portrait of a graduate. Um so that's also just something to um to consider. So, >> and then also I'm this is a a lot of this is also aspirational, right? So, we might not be there yet, but that's what we're working towards. >> So, yes, Trusty Nelson. >> Um, I'm having trouble understanding why ethical and empathetic would be redundant. Um, I think those two are important to include. Um, it's not exactly the

161same. You can be a collaborative communicator. I could see maybe you could have some empathy, but um, it's part of the classroom. Depends on the teacher. Yes. But for the most part, at least for my experience, these were embedded in the lessons themselves and the classroom environment. >> I I respectfully disagree. Um, we are not I went to a I went to a Catholic high school. I could see these being the um the portrait of a graduate of the Catholic high school I attended. I don't really feel like it's a better fit for, you know, for public education. Just don't that's that's where I'm landing right now. And I just want to share that. Well, let's so I think a lot of it also has to do with the definitions of what these these things

162are, right? So let's let's go on to the definition again. Um are we good with the definitions or do is there clarity of the portrait of a graduate >> okay? All right. >> Okay. >> We're going to let the kids >> Okay. We're going to let your your different group >> again. It's staff. But I I also like the idea like if the state is going to come down with something and then here we do all this work and create something and the state superintendent says nope this is what we want. So I I would I think we can pull that piece out and have it as a standalone piece and focus on everything else because in any case what the board wants to do is shorten it to a two-pager max right back to

163back. So, if we pull that out and keep it as a separate piece, then we we I think we'll be able to do that. >> And do we have any idea when Thurman's portrait of a graduate is coming? >> Election year. >> Exactly. Exactly. And he'll be gone in November. So, >> they're currently working on it. I mean, it is there there is a work group that's developing it um from what I have seen. So, I don't have a concrete date, but I can I'll I'll bring that back. >> Well, and it is an election year and he will not be superintendent come November since he's not running. Uh he's running for governor, I think. Um so then we'll have a new superintendent of public instruction who may have a different portrait of a graduate.

164So, um, yeah, we could be spinning our wheels for nothing, >> but it still makes sense for the committee to have a little bit more input because again, these are high school teachers that work with our students on a daily basis. I think it's really important to get their feedback and have them weigh in on this. >> And I would really like them to look at the definitions and words smmith it, not make them a paragraph long. I will have to weave that in to our meetings. Right now, we're still we're still grappling with the graduation requirements. So, >> okay, >> yes, trustee. Uh um so I'm struggling to understand why the state superintendent's u portrait of a graduate has anything how how does that have to do with what does it have to do

165with us? You know we're we are a unified school district. You've engaged the community. You've asked everyone to give input. And for us to now think that the state superintendent's portrait of a graduate would somehow over um ride what our community has shared with us and our input of it really just doesn't make any sense to me. Um this is our job, right? This is our job to do. This is our community. We're the elected officials or appointed officials um unopposed who are in these positions to do this job for our community. Yes, Trusty Nelson. >> Um, sorry about that. Um can we look at maybe one of the students in the uh digital design class come up with something so we don't you know >> still again since we there are a lot of

166things that we're pausing on. We we need to get more feedback from our own staff. We need to look at the design. we need to uh and again if the state superintendent is working on this uh as far as I know the state hardly ever does something and sends it to districts saying use it if you choose to do so. So not knowing all of that and knowing that it's an election year and he may be looking at get it getting it done before October, November and not knowing what the intent is. Uh I I think we can pause, but most importantly, I want to honor the committee that is working with our students on this and get some feedback from them on what is really important in their minds. So if we can agree

167to maybe pause on this one and get some more feedback and then continue to work on the rest. >> Yes, Trusty Nelson. That >> that's fine. I just wanted to put it out there as a possibility. >> I like that idea because then Okay. All right. So, we are pausing or we are deferring the portrait of a graduate um to your working group. Now, we are on to the strategic plan. Um I mean I like the on this this one. This one. >> Yes. Lead. So, I I like the graphics kind of, but I I agree there's way too many words and we don't have to have all of that. Like, literally, I think that we could just have this. >> What is it that you're referring to? I can't see. >> I'm sorry. So

168under the um the last page uh where it says strategic plan, it has all the graphics of the students. Um we we I we like the left hand side and we can get rid of the right hand side stuff. >> Yeah, just keep the stuff in the color blocks. >> Sorry. And instead of it repeating lead in every box, just L E A D. >> Yeah. >> The very top could read lead so people know what the acronym is. But then >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> It's not so repetitive. >> But so now then we're going to go into the content of the words um learning for the future. Are we good with we prepare students with the skills, mindsets, and experiences they need for a rapidly changing world? That's the goal. >> Yes. Again,

169aspirational. Okay. So, everyone's good with that first section. Okay. Under the next one, engaging safe school communities. We create supportive, welcoming environments where every student feels safe, connected, and ready to learn. I like it. >> Yeah. Um >> I'm not sure where to go with this one, but something does not sit right with just doesn't sit right with me. I don't know if it's >> um welcoming environments where every student feels safe. I don't know how to make that. Like I said, I want to read this and believe it. Um I don't know. I'm not sure where to go with it exactly. >> Yes. Trusty Peno. >> Is it the word every? >> So if it read, we create supportive welcoming environments where students feel safe, connected, and ready to learn. >> I will go

170with that. Yes. Thank you. just take out every in and says we're students. >> I just know it's it's impossible to make every stu every I just and I know that's just parsing words, but >> there just back to me. I think I I don't believe it. And >> that would go along with the first one that also says just students. >> It doesn't say every student. It says students. Yes. >> Yet it still is aspirational, right? Yes. >> Because if we're not striving, it's like golf. You're never going to get a perfect game, but you still keep trying to have a perfect game. Um, then I'm not sure which students, which students are we talking about? I'm still trying for every still shooting for it. still trying for every >> or I you know

171what about our students because they are our students. It's not the most important thing to remove and I'm just saying for myself in this very moment have a bit of a reaction to every but it's also in the next one down it's every student to you know >> um and then the next one down it's we ensure every student the problem is I know we can't >> but again it's ask >> I get it I'm just saying I look at it with a real world like >> so it's just my personal reaction I will never say it's not great it's great it's just my personal reaction But if it's everybody's happy with every, let's that's fine with me. >> Well, I see it as it is our goal. It is our goal to to help

172all of our students. Um and you know and and maybe um if you want to talk about practicality. I mean that is the job. It is our responsibility to ensure that all of our students receive a great education. So I like the word all our every. I think it is important because I think it makes a statement about what our purpose is and what we're trying to achieve. >> I would say the possessive I like the >> I like owning the students. I do like that very much. I'm not sure how to work in >> students instead of so where our students feel >> I do too. >> Okay. >> And I think it we need to be consistent with all four of those including the first one. >> Yeah. >> May May I just

173ask a question? How is that different from what's already in place? Even now, we have students who are thriving. We have students who are doing really well. We have students who feel safe. Is that our aspirational goal that we continue on that path? And as long as some or majority of our students are okay, it doesn't have to be every kid on our campus. I think it's implied when we say our students that means every student. >> It it also brings a level of like personal connection to me when I >> ownership. Ownership >> ownership. There you go. That's a good word. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Trusty Nelson. >> Not to throw cold water on this, but from personal experience, the green one, we ensure >> Yeah, exactly. Thank you, Michelle. >> Sorry. Um many

174many of my kids We're not ready. >> We can't ensure >> for lifelong success. Sorry. Much as I tried and other teachers tried, they were not ready. >> Okay. We'll get to that. >> Okay. >> So, we're we're still on the second second one. >> Oh, okay. >> So, are we good with um replacing every with our? >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay. We will do that. And then the next one. So replacing every with our does it make somehow instead of removing barriers, why are we putting barriers up to begin with? What barriers are we where do they come from? You know what I mean? How about we focus on opportunities instead of barriers? >> Yeah, >> but it's it's there. It's there. We provide That sounds familiar. We already did that. Provide opportunities. Barriers

175and um inserts a negative in there. We just run pick the one that we like. >> It's then affirming the positive like what we do >> to ensure and so what is that we >> like some kind of support >> I I would strongly suggest we can we can use our experts over here to wordsmith this. I would not use chat GPD. We have a lot of experts in this room that that work with students every day. We prepare, we create, we ensure, and then all of a sudden we remove. >> Oh, Linda more proactive. >> Yeah. Strength. >> Linda, >> what about we problem solve? >> We problem solve. >> We seek solutions. >> This is about access, >> right? to ensure so so students experience >> opportunity enrichment and support >> about we

176provide >> for >> our students with experiences for opport whatever but some something proactive that we are doing rather than >> in a proactive >> we just give actively like >> yeah somebody changed >> that do their Yes. >> Yes. >> So, make that more strain spaced. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Now, we're on to the last one. >> Like insure. >> So, we're removing insure. >> We provide strategies. We offer strategies. We h Okay. We we provide services. Oh, we provide resources. Okay. So, shall we ask our words smmiths, our professional words smmiths >> to to replace insure with something else? Okay. Any other comments? >> We're on deep strong foundations. Is that where we are? >> Yes. >> And I didn't like insure. Okay, so we've got the the promise done, the core

177values done, and whittle down the strategic plan for public consumption. >> Actually, yeah. No, that's that's a good point. Do we want to do we have any preferences or do the speed. I'm >> not a fan of the red. >> I can't hear. >> Sorry, I was saying we didn't discuss the colors of the LEAD on the uh strategic initiatives. >> We could use the colors from our different schools. So, just go with those colors. >> Yes. So, in terms of um like making this look pretty, are are we going to ask our students to do that or are we going to >> ask our students to do what? >> Make it look pretty. >> The final graphic. >> Yeah, >> we could we could look at it. >> Yeah, >> we have wonderful art

178departments, wonderful graphic artist class academy at Christopher Jennifer, were you >> I before I commit to that, keep in mind I don't know what their teachers are planning for them and I don't want to make a commitment on behalf of, you know, are the students going to do this after school? Are are they going to do it in class? I don't want to say we expect them to do something. So, let me let me talk to some of the teachers and see where we can go with that. >> Uh, Trusty Dono, do you have a comment? No, that was um it was just I think in line with everyone else was saying that we have um opportunity to see if our students could support us because we've got lots of great artists in our in

179our school district. So, can I um if that we're going in that direction, can I make a request if um like have it have multiple students take this and give us multiple samples if if they are able to do it that we can choose from. Once again, I will have to check with staff because keep in mind students cannot do this work alone, which means then I also have to assign staff who is then going to be overseeing the work. >> Um, so let me think this through and I I can come back with some recommendations on how we can make this possible. One, who are the students? Who's going to supervise them? Um, who out of the staff here would be overseeing this project? So that's one more project we are I'm assigning to

180them tonight. So let me think this through and I'll get back to you. >> Can we make it a if we can do it? If we can do it, can we make it a contest? >> Where we where we give them like a prize money or something small >> just like the DA's office does. >> Yeah, the DA's office. So we give them like a small prize amount. >> Yep. And we make sure that their name is on it somewhere >> as a recognition. >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. >> I'd be happy to personally contribute to that prize money. >> Y >> I mean, if every one of us donates either 50 or 100, that'll make a good prize. >> Pretty pretty sweet. >> Pretty sweet. >> Actually, that's a good idea. Uh, trusty Delbono.

181I like it. Well, let's see. >> Yes, I think so. So, thank you. We actually got a lot accomplished. >> Yay. Okay. So, now we are on to item 10, uh, action information items regarding maintenance facilities, and these are roll call votes. >> Mr. Paul Nato. >> Good evening, board. I have one quick item for you this evening. It is a contract with Cavan Architects for the architectural services for closeout projects for the division of state architects not to exceed $20,000. >> Yeah, but what is the the wording of that contract? >> Oh boy. >> Sorry. >> Let's go over it in detail. Let's start at paragraph one. How do we feel about the font? Uh, I will entertain any questions you might have. I know I've probably spoke in detail about the closeout projects

182that we have in play. >> Are there any questions? Seeing that there are no questions, this is an action item, can I have a motion? >> Move approval. >> Second. >> Okay. Roll call vote. >> Jennifer Delbono, >> yes. >> Fak, >> yes. >> Gabriella Kim, >> yes. Kenny Moreno, >> yes. >> Michelle Nelson, >> yes. >> Linda Piseno, >> yes. >> Honu Ye Baker, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> We are on to item 11. Board member reports. Are there any reports? >> Yes. Trusty Moreno. >> Oh, sorry. You're right after uh Trusty Moreno. Trusty Delono. Um I had invitation to visit the um or to come and and watch the El Worldly Talent show on uh was it the 28th I think it was. Um and I've always

183enjoyed that uh show watching the kids who are uh usually deathly afraid get up there and just uh be very bold. It was a very good show and I just want to shout out to Julie Miller who who is the director. It was her 20th consecutive year or 20 20 years. I know that consecutive um but that is that's an impressive run. 20 years um of providing the Elroé community with the talent show and I know they start um in December I think they start working on it. So it is a great production and um yeah it was great. Enjoyed it. Trusted Del Bono. >> Thank you. Um, yes. So, I have a couple things. Uh, first thing is, um, I heard a presentation today from two of our GEKA students, Madison Gilg and Raja

184Alenerry, and they are working for the Blood Cancer United organization as student visionaries. And so what was really nice is they're raising money and they um they conclude their um their drive to raise money at the end of this month. I'll share information with the board. So if anybody was wanting to donate to Blood Cancer United Research, they could do so. But it was just really nice to hear the um the two girls talk about their work and how they're raising money. And they're the only two um student visionaries from Gilroy in this regional effort um which was really nice to hear. and they have personal connections to blood cancer and that's what's driving their efforts and um they were just really impressive young ladies, two freshmen from GEKA um and I again will share

185this information with you so that you can um share it with others to help them raise money or donate on your own. Um and then the other thing that I wanted to share was I had a really nice conversation by phone today with Alyssa Campbell from the public health department. She was um introduced to me um through council member um Zach Hilton um as they used to work together on um safe routes to school. And I'm going to forward the email to to the board members. But was really nice is see that they're really they are working hard on our behalf to try to support us with some of the things that we were hearing from family members and knowing that we needed or that we could offer our um our communities. And I know

186that they're collaborating with the um South County Youth Task Force members, but in short, they there is an offer right now to um support the school route maps. We had to pull them down because they were no longer accurate, but they the public health department is connecting with the city around opportunities to update the maps so that we can have updated maps put back on our um on our school site websites. And for Los Anonymous Elementary in particular, they have two things that they can offer for free through public health that would support some of the requests that families had supported around um conducting a walk audit. So they would support the school um leadership with walking the school and auditing to so they can have a process for what that looks like to um

187improve safety. And then um another program called Safe Moves. And there's another connection that'll be made um to discuss a free pedestrian safety rodeo and parent workshop for that school in particular. And um that'll be an offer coming to us soon. So I'll forward that to um like I said each of you and the superintendent. And then for general safe routes to school, even though they don't have funding for safe routes to school anymore, they can do a district or um a principal presentation about what does um exist for safe routes that anybody can um utilize. And then they also have a district-wide parent train the trainer program that they can um work with us to provide. And they said they could work with PTA, ELAC, or any other parent group. Public health can offer

188a one to twohour training dedicated to introducing safe routes models to parent leads and help them learn about different strategies they can do to promote traffic safety and encouraging safe walking behaviors. They can talk about encouragement days, corner captains, walking school bus, and they try to make it interactive and engaging, but they train parents to be trainer of trainers. And it's just what parents can do to support themselves and others. And I just was really um inspired by that. But it's just the beginning of conversations that I will keep forwarding to everyone so that we can be um informed about what is available. And then I also just want to um just do a reminder or shout out that our district is supporting um there's a collaborative um around traffic safety ebike and pedestrian awareness

189night. It'll be at Brownell Middle School on March 27th from 5:30 to 7:30. And so that's exciting that, you know, people are coming together to really put some information out and support people with um with just information and resources around pedestrian and traffic safety. >> Thank you, Trusty Dabono. Trusty Kim, >> I had the opportunity to participate in um Read Across America, Read Across the World um at one of our preschools yesterday and that was lovely. Um the kiddos sat through two books which in preschool land was quite I was quite impressed with myself. Um and then tomorrow I'm going to two other schools. I think I'm I'm going to Glen View and Recker um to >> Thank you. >> Yes, Trusty Nelson. So, we know that third grade is the um is the very

190important benchmark for for reading. So, I was I put my money where my mouth was and so I'm uh reading twice a week or helping six kids who are low in reading at Elliot School and having a lot of fun doing that. Um and I haven't read for the, you know, read across America or Read Across the World yet, but I'll be doing it tomorrow at Glen View. and I have my favorite book, Miss Nelson is Missing. Okay. And so, Miss Nelson becomes really this nasty character. So, I put my all into being a nasty nasty substitute. Um, and then here's another favorite one. I have the icky sticky anteater. The anteater doesn't like ants. And so, I let the kids um play with the sticky. And they can watch a video too because they

191don't know what an anteater does necessarily. I have a super long tongue. Okay, I'll stop now. Okay. >> Anyway, >> thank you, Trusty Veno. >> So, today I read to second graders and fourth graders at Broad Kelly and I um took a book off of the shelf in my home that was one of my my son's books and realized that I was given that book in 1988 and I thought, "Oh, and it's called Anamelia." I don't know if you've seen Graeme Graham Bass is the illustrator and writer. It is a beautiful book and it's an alphabet book. So, um but fourth graders can get into it. The second thing and I always started last year I um as you know I have a passion for baseball. So, I go in my baseball Giants gear and

192I have an alphabet book on baseball. And it never ceases to amaze me kids who don't know anything about baseball. So we go through that and and this year I asked them, okay, instead of reading A and I usually get through about F, I just asked them, give me a letter, which of course they got really excited about. And uh Z is one that came up and I thought this could be interesting. I don't know if I've read all the way to Z in this alphabet book. And it was for zeros, zero runs, z blah blah blah. Perfect game. So then and and we get into the discussion and one little girl said, "My aunt." I always ask, "Who has played baseball? Only boys raised their hands." And this one little girl raised her hand

193and said, "My aunt played baseball." I said, "Great, because there is now a professional woman's baseball league." I said, "So good for you. And you girls can play baseball, too." So, tomorrow I uh do my stick at Elliot to two fifth grade classes. So, and I give out baseball cards. Any other board reports? >> Hey. Oh, I closed up my stuff. So, thought we were finished. >> Close session. >> Yes. Um, item 12, upcoming and new referral agenda items. Um, you had a couple. Yes, Trusty Nelson. >> Um, I'll forward, you know, I'll send an email, but I would like to, uh, look at peer mediation programs. It is a board policy. So, can we look at that homework, the existing policy, and the discipline matrix? I'll forward information about that if we could discuss

194those down the road. >> Okay. Do you have I do have some >> Yes, Trustee Delbono. >> Thank you. Um I think it piggybacks on what um Trusty Nelson just said because I I think I would love to know actually I really feel like I need to know because I see it everywhere as well about restorative practices and I think you know peer mediation as a restorative practice, our discipline matrix and our opportunities for restorative options. If we could have um a presentation about what that looks like in our district, I would love to know. I feel like I should know as a as a as a board member. Um and then I also I attended a um school board meeting in Selenus. Um it was a recognition for my mother as a um longtime

195board member and before her recognition I got to watch their board meeting take place and they had a presentation. It were all the district level coaches presented around their outcomes and the impact of their work and it was really interesting. Um and so I would be interested in knowing what the how we measure the impact of our district level coaches. We have quite a few I know around technology um instruction um all sorts of TOSAs at the district level. I would love to know um what they do and what the impact of their work looks like. How are we measuring it? >> Can you also follow up with an email trustee Delono? >> Sure. Any other um new referral agenda items? Okay, seeing none, announcements. The next regular meeting of the board of education will

196be held on Thursday, March 19th, 2026. Close session will begin at 5:00 p.m. followed by a study session at 6:00 p.m. and the regular meeting at 7 p.m. The agenda will be available on the district's website by 5:00 p. p.m. on March on Friday, March 13th. And we will the board will be adjoining to close session.