PCOE/PUSD Board Meeting

001All right. You feel alone out there? Just probably enjoying the quiet little bit. Yeah, it's been a rowdy couple of weeks. All right, I'm going to go ahead and call the PCOE PSD special joint board meeting to order. We'll start with the flag salute and I will lead us the flag of right there. Raise your hand over your heart. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, Barb, go ahead with our roll call, please. Johnson, present. Harrison, here. Here. All right. So, I will entertain a motion to approve the PCOE PUSD agenda. However, I would ask that that motion be amended to consider public comment um with each one of

002our items. Sandria, is that what we said? So, if any time the public wants to comment, you know, we'll open that up on each item. Okay. I was going to ask for just one open uh public session. So, I that's So, I make a motion to approve the agenda adding um public comment per section. I second that. All in favor? Hi. Hi. All right, we will move into Actually, do you want to address the board on any close session items? Oh, no. No. You're the only one in here specific session. Yeah. Okay. So, we're going to go into close session. Thank you for asking. You're welcome. [Music] Okay. [Music] Here we go. All right. We're going to get started. So, I'm going to ask for public comment at the beginning of each number. uh we

003did amend the agenda at the beginning of this meeting, but weren't in the room when that happened. So, just so you know, when we get to um right now, for example, there's nothing specific to report out of close session. Uh so, we'll go right into number 10, letter A, personnel items, and I'll ask for um public comment. And the first one in that section that I have is Shannon Phillips. Shannon, would you come up, please? Shannon, what? It's your turn. Public comment. Sorry, that's okay. Agenda item number 10. Thanks. Hello again. Hello. Uh, my name is Shannon Phillips. I come to you as a teacher at Green Belt Elementary School, a community member, and a parent. I urge you not to improve the staff reductions outlined in tonight's agenda. The process the district followed is

004is in executing these layoffs was flawed. Inconsistence with its own inconsistent with its own policies and it failed to comply with both the both the collective bargaining agreement and ed code. The district failed to properly follow its own tiebreaking procedure. The collective bargaining agreement clearly outlines three equally weighted criteria for determining seniority among staff with the same hire date. However, the district applied only two of the three, skipping the first entirely because it was deemed too difficult. When employees had identical scores under these two criteria, the district failed to conduct the required lottery to resolve the tide. This is not a technicality. It is a violation of both the CBA and the resolution passed by this very board. As a result, staff were laid off based on an incomplete and incorrect application of procedure. Second,

005the district's explanation for who was laid off and who was retained reveals clear evidence of skipping. Yet, it denies doing so. The law permits skipping only under strict conditions, when a less senior employee has demonstratable training and experience that is more that more senior employees lack, and when there is a specific curricular need. Yet, five less senior teachers were retained, some as many as six spots lower on the seniority list. without the district providing any documentation or evidence of the special qualifications justifying these decisions. This directly contradicts the resolution's own criteria and ed code. Lastly, the resolution itself is flawed. List teacher as the position being reduced which is not a recognized particular kind of service under the law without clearly defining the type of service to be reduced such as elementary classroom teaching. The

006resolution cannot be used as a legal basis for layoff decisions. If the board wants to reduce elementary positions due to declining enrollment, it must do so through a properly constructed and lawful resolution. So in short, the process was rushed. It was flawed, rules weren't followed, and people lost their jobs unfairly as a result. This board has the responsibility to ensure transparency, fairness, and strict compliance with policy. 30 seconds. Especially when people's livelihoods are at stake. So I'm asking you, please do not vote to approve these layoffs tonight. The vote should be no. and and you need to demand that the district correct its errors and follow the rules that it committed to. Thank you. Lauren, whose last name I'm going to get totally wrong. Please come up. Hello, my name is Lauren McIntyre. I'm currently

007a teacher at Greenville Elementary School. I'd like you to consider the legality of the district layoff process before taking action on the final layoff resolutions for certificated and classified staff. The layout process conducted by the district not only failed to meet legal standards, it was found unlawful by an administrative law judge due to multiple welldocumented violations of state education code. Plymouth Unified School District's layoff process was ruled unlawful under education code 44955 based on several legal violations. First, the district's resolution failed to identify a valid particular kind of service, naming only the generic term teacher, which does not meet legal standards. Second, it retained five less senior employees without proving the legally required need or unique qualifications to justify skipping. Third, the district used an incorrect seniority date for some teachers and failed to apply

008it as adopted tiebreaking criteria or conduct the required lottery. These procedural errors led the judge to conclude the layoffs were not legally authorized and must be rescued. The proposed ruling makes one thing clear. Even in times of financial stress, school districts must follow the law. and the district did not. The judge's findings confirmed that the layoff pro process violated education code 44955 by failing to specify legally defined services, misapplying seniority rules, and ignoring required procedures. Continuing to act on these unlawful layoffs would only deepen mistrust, risk further legal consequences, and jeopardize the quality of education for our students. The responsible course of action now is for the board to disregard the layoff notices that were improperly issued. Doing so will have minimal impact on the district's overall projected debt, but it will have a major

009positive impact on classrooms and student learning during this next transitional year. At the same time, the board should allow the state to lead the long-term restructuring process, ensuring that any future changes are both fiscally sound and legally compliant. This is not just about reversing a mistake. It's about restoring public trust, supporting educators, and putting students first. Thank you. Good evening. I am not scripted tonight. I'm just going to lay this out because those two are hard to follow. They spoke Alabama. Um, as president of the Kimis County Teachers Association, I want to encourage the board to disapprove the layoffs uh, tonight. Um, the two members who are listed on your HR agenda are deeply impacted by the decision that was made by the courts. Although they were not respondents in the case, however, their qualifications

010are very similar, if not identical, to their situation. Please disapprove these layoffs. Should that not happen, the union is committed to grievancing this through a contract violation and we just wanted to give you a heads up about that. Thank you. All right, we can take these. Is there any other public comment? I'm sorry I don't have any more comment cards. Would anybody else like to make comment? All right, I will move forward and entertain a motion for resolution 242518, reduction of classified staff for 2526. I make a motion to approve sorry I I don't sorry here we go. So, um I make a motion to approve resolution 2425-18 um for res reduction of classified staff of 2526. Are you going to second that? No, I don't approve. So, there's not a second. So, just a

011technical question. As the president, may I second or not? I don't know the answer to that. I don't know either for the county office of ed. That's just my information. That's information. So that one for this first one. Yes. Yeah. Cuz that's a PCOE one. Okay. Yeah. So I can second and now we take a vote, right? A roll call. Harrison. Yay. I have I have a question. We just heard from three three teachers, two teachers and the president of one of the unions I believe stating giving the actual fact of how this is illegal and that if you go ahead and approve this there might be litigation that's going to waste more time and more money. So, if we're going to go ahead and approve it, can we maybe have a little discussion as

012to why we are completely omitting this advice and just going with with what we want to do as opposed to what the law says we're supposed to do. So, this is for PCOE, just a clarification. So, this this is the approval for the PCOE reduction. It's different than what we're talking reduction of the pacifi. This is for PCOE Harrison. This is for the district office. Go. Yay. I I'll resolution 242518 reduction of classified staff for 2526 passes. All right. Now I will ask for a motion for PSD resolution 1618 res resolution for certified staff for 2526 1681 I apologize. Thank you Jan. So I actually have questions on this one. So I have questions on this one. So I understand what was recorded but there has been no uh content and for me to even

013see to understand what you're referring. So, that's why I wanted to um I'm I'm at the point where I don't have enough information to be able to make a resolution. I I appreciate that. And so, at this point, that is why I will not be motioning to approve because I don't have enough information off of what was presented. Do you want to add anything? I'm not going to approve that reduction of the certified staff for PUSD. All right. We can make no action on PSD resolution 1681 reduction for certified staff 2526 and for PSD resolution 1682 reduction for classified staff for 2526. Same statement for me. Is that something that you can send? Sorry. I actually did send that to you Chelsea and I emailed you a few days ago administrative law judges decision. I

014don't remember seeing something from you. So that's why I apologize. Yeah, it it probably came from CTA president. Check your spam. Say it again. Check your spam. I couldn't understand. That's what I'm wondering too because it came from a Gmail account. It did. Yes. Okay. I'm going to check spam then because I got very I always my fault. I should be better at checking that and it should have been an attachment to to the agenda that was posted last Friday. [Music] So I have a question as well. So with us not approving knowing that there are state laws what is the repercussions on this side associated with not approving today? The ALJ the ALJ ruling did not first of all apply to classified employees. It applied to the two people that had hearings and uh

015those uh layoffs are not on your list. the two individuals that did appeal and the ALJ made a ruling specific to those two individuals. Are we open for discussion? Felicia, if you want to make a comment, a public comment, you're welcome to, but we're not engaging in question and answer. Okay. So the comment that I would make is is that the two people in question that are on the agenda tonight for termination through layoff for classified or or certified they're certificated. I only represent certificated person. Apologize. Um no problem. Um so those two are also more senior on the seniority list that is erroneous and which the layoffs are based on than the five teachers below them. So even though they are not respondents directly in the actual case before the administrative law judge, they

016are impacted by the decision because their situation is almost similar or identical to what happened to the two that were overturned and I'm happy to provide a copy of that decision for you. I have a copy here and the title is before the governing board of the Unified School District. Still not sure how you guys didn't have access to that. I know that's I'm looking. So I I have access to this. Jim, could you answer Chelsea's question about the consequences for not approving this and what that does for you know just what the decision if it was grieved and reversed. We'd go through a process and so but the ALJ ruling was to two specific individuals and so we can move forward with the layoff. There's procedures, agreements, procedures, legal procedures that if it was

017wrong, it could be reversed. If the judges found it, we can always do a contract grievance. We have binding arbitration in our contract, right? Yeah. There's an arbitration proc there is an arbitration process that can decide it for us. Okay. So there there is a process. So should um because the state requires us to have a certain process which is why we had to have a special meeting so that way we could follow it but then my understanding that I heard from public comment is that the original process wasn't even done correctly in the first place and so that is what the grievance and I apologize for not saying correct words but that is what the grievance is right now. So I'm going back to the same question is should it be not approved today

018what are the repercussions for that you will not receive layoff notices they will not receive layoff notices and the budget will be severely impacted okay are we talking about the previous layoffs does that include the previous layoffs as well we're only talking about certificated um um which is a teacher Correct. No. Yes. We're only talking about certificate which is the teachers. So that's my question. So if the judge found um that the district was wrong in how we applied the um um layoff notices for two people. I read some of this and I'm not a lawyer or anything, but he said if it applies to two, it applies to all. Yeah. if I think I quoted that correctly. So that tells me even if they did not file a a a grievance or an appeal,

019the teachers, the judge made it pretty clear there was an error in the process and how they were laid off. And so I think us as board members need to um not approve this at this point because the judge made it very clear if if they were wrong if this district was wrong on how they did the first layoffs. They weren't just wrong for one, they were wrong for all. And so no no no no reason we need to go into another lawsuit I don't think. Amen. That's all. I have a question. Why? So I want to make sure I understand. Do you want to use public comment for that? That'd be great. Can you use public comment for that? We're not going to do question answer yet, but if you want to make if

020you want to make a statement. Okay. It seems as as though I mean I remember being I think this very room hearing this same board say that there was a certain procedure that was going to be followed and that layoffs were going to happen based on seniority and now it's been attempted to lay people off not according to seniority. Am I correct? And now we have a judge ruling that confirms that. So like what are we even talking like if you need to lay people off fine. There's a simple set of rules that says you have to follow. Why are we not I don't understand. I won't ask the question. I'm just going to state that I don't understand why we're not following the procedures that are in place. And the result is everybody's time

021is going to waste. You guys already voted on this and said no. Yeah, we voted no action. You already said no. Okay. Did I get do you have what you need for all three bar? Yeah, you move on to classifier. Yeah, we have to move on to classifier. I I have a statement. So, while I understand the position that the board's in of having to approve this, we've already discussed the legality of the layoffs and them not being valid, but we haven't discussed what a grievance is going to look like and the fact that yes, retaining these teachers because the district didn't follow their proper proper procedure is going to cost the district money. But these grievances will also cost the district money because any grievance is going to be paid out of district pocket.

022And the district has been in Stanny long enough to know and Mr. Frost has enough experience that there should not have been an issue with any of the pink slips handed out. He should have known that policy. He should have known our contract. He should have known the laws. And he should have known how to do that do this. and he should have known this was coming down because we don't have a weak union and we are here fighting for we're going to move on. It's going to cost the district away and I don't think that you should follow the law or disallow what the administrative judge said those pink slips were not done in a legal fashion. Not one of them, not 10 of them. None of them were legal. Appreciate that. I'm sorry.

023Just really quickly. Um, say that again, Andrea, for you, please. You guys have taken action. Just need to take action. Okay. There's no action, right? No action on that cuz I don't think they heard that. I vote no. So, there's been no action on 10 or 10 A2. So, that is There's no action on that specific item. So, now we are on 10. Sorry, I'm saying it out loud. Sorry. USD resolution 1682 for reduction of classified staff. That's what we're talking about right now. Okay. And I can speak on that just really quickly about um accountability for the district. I I understand that said that in doing in in carrying out these layoffs the the district's going to suffer severely, but it's not really about the the staff that's being laid off, but more the

024accountability of the district and correcting that they made and being accountable for that. And so I don't want it to get flipped back over to staff being let go to save the district's budget. I I would like, you know, let's just keep it um focused on accountability for the district office. Yes, a mistake was made only. All right. Is there a motion for GSD resolution 1682, reduction of classified staffer 2526? I'm in that same position again because I feel uh I I feel like there is still that there's information that I didn't feel I had before as we were reviewing thesis and I'm notified except my understanding is there is some handful of classifides that are a seasonal position but we would also be put in a position to where we if we do not

025approve some of the layoffs then they are um they're offered employment already for next year. Yes. So I am I am torn at the moment for classified because there is a handful of classified on that list that are seasonal because of programs not because of reduction for um budget and since the resolution includes all of them I don't know how we can handle that. Can we pull out from the list? It's an all or nothing when it was offered that I don't have anything to say at the moment because I don't know what the solution is for that classified accepted and I can appreciate that they haven't had a hearing. So I I can appreciate what was said which was that everyone who had received the layoffs had accepted um accepted them because actually I

026believe some of them were retiring as well. So that some of them had accepted because they are not going to take their position again. Um but I I can appreciate with not understanding all of the processes and then there is a question about how we have handled our process and not understanding enough for me to feel confident to say we've done everything correctly but I also do feel we still have a responsibility that some of the programs some of the retirees and how can we pull that out because my understanding is our deadline tomorrow. So, we've already put this up to the wire, which is shame on us, too. Um, that again, I'm stuck with the don't know how to move forward at this exact moment. As far as the certificate, I I I agree

027that the ALJ disagreed with legal c with the district's legal counsel. That's an ALJ ruling and we live by that. H LJ ruling today. We could contest that ruling. If we live with that ruling, that applies to certificated who are in the same classification. And with the classified staff, we have different classifications and different seniorities in classified service. That has not been in question. There is no ALJ ruling that determines anything about classified staff. So those reductions uh and again like you say some of them are seasonal and should happen every year and some of those are people who have accepted the the layoff for various reasons. So um u so I would uh is there anybody on that classified list Jim for that resolution 1682 that did not accept the layoff? They did not

028apply for a hearing and they were all uh given the opportunity to have a hearing. That's because a few of the classified workers are so disappoint It's because a few of the classified workers from our my district are so disappointed in how they were um so quickly just dismissed from their jobs and then brought back on and now they're like now so when's my next layoff? that a few from my district are going to quit and move on to a different job, which means we are going to lose some really good employees that really were beneficial to our children. Well, if they're not on the layoff list, they're not No, they were on the layoff list and it was rescended and now here's our new layoff list. So, could I speak for a moment? You

029can have three minutes. Yeah. Thanks. Um this comes from all connected in my bag. Sorry. So I represent the classified. Um we requested 15 hearings from our members that are union members. 14 out of 15 of those um the district did not do things correctly. Yet again, the classification was wrong and various other things along the way. Um, Cindy is absolutely correct. Many people through this process have given up on you guys. They're tired of the roller coaster. Um, beyond being considered for layoffs, all the kitchen managers, it was a stupid plan from the very beginning. food service was never consulted. There was never a plan to have some central kitchen in which our students would be fed out from that. And so just a short time after those layoff notices were sent out, we

030were told in negotiations that those kitchen managers layoffs would be rescended. Um Tracy Daroo, who is the food service supervisor, put out an email to her staff saying that all the kitchen staff would have their jobs come the next year. Um and many people through that process are not going to stick with you. They are not going to continue that emotional roller coaster. They need something they can count on in life and that's not this district right now. So, um am I is my time up? It seems like you're going for the microphone. 30 You have 30 seconds. Oh, Joy. Um so, um just like the certificated, the district did not do most of these layoffs correctly in a legal fashion. We don't have the same process that the certificated do but we definitely have

031a discovery process and many district funds were dedicated to your lawyers as were you know our CSEA lawyers involved in that many hours of many people's time has already been devoted to this and like I said 14 out of 15 of those classified staff have had their layoffs rescended you're you're absolutely correct in that some people were going to retire already um and uh so you're going to have that there are some retirements etc etc but anyway thank you thank you I appreciate it thank you all right so this like an auctioneer now um [Applause] just so this This is what's on the resolution and so which is a retiree these were two special programming right and then these were ones that we identified okay so I just want to make sure so what I'm

032looking at the actual resolution for classified it shows a licensed vocational nurse two healthcare aids a cook manager which I know is retiring and two parent educators my understanding is that is the seasonal program that is reidentif identified every year once we find out how many students are in each class. Is that correct? Okay. So, um I I cannot speak to the healthcare side of things. Um and so, but my understanding is there is some new um programs and decision or not decisions but um what is the word I'm looking for? So, program uh plan for our healthcare um process. Correct. Sorry. Is that correct? I guess I didn't say that as a word as a question. I mean, okay. So, um, so I feel and I can understand the frustration with layoffs and then

033them being rescended because the list was a lot larger for the resention resisions than it is for what is um on the actual layoff list. And um so at this time I and I can appreciate the process that did not get followed. But at this time I am going to because of and then if we need to revisit and unfortunately go through the arbitration I I am going to make a motion to approve the PUSD resolution 1682 reduction of classified staff for 2526. Do you want to second that second? Yep. I'll second that. Roll call, please. Harrison. Yay. Johnson. I No. All right. We are going to move on to our fiscal section. Uh, any public comment? I'm going to Is our auditor on? Is Heather available? Stephie? Yes. I believe Heather's here and is

034going to be able to discuss about the measure B audit. Great. Go ahead. Oh. Okay, I'll just jump right in. Um, do you guys have a copy or is this something in front of you? Okay, again, my name is Heather Rubio and this 2223 audit of your bond measure B bond building fund was the first year our firm conducted the audit for um there was a previous firm that did the previous audit. Again, this is for fiscal year ending June 30, 2023. And this is only of the measure B bond building fund information in fund 21. So that is your fund 21, your Sachs. Just to clarify, um this is the financial and performance audit. You are required to have this audit. It should technically be done by March 31st of the fiscal year. So

035the due date officially was um it should have been March 2024 would have been the official due date of this report. You go into um can the sound be turned up? We can't hear. So I think unfortunately it's only plugged into our owl. It can't get connected. Put the microphone right up to it. I can only possibly here I'll figure keep going. So on page two is the auditor's opinion and so the numbers we're saying that through our audit we did find some things that we can talk about as findings later at the end of the audit report but the numbers that are essentially presented in this audit report here we do agree with. we think that they substantially represent the position of your bond building fund at June 30, 2023. Again, you are required

036to get the audit. It's um there are some financial procedures and performance procedures and those performance procedures are really heavy expenditure testing and I'll go into that a little further. Um I'm going to take you to page four of the report and that's your balance sheet. At June 30, 2023, you had cash in fund 21 of 1.5 million and you had a large due from other funds. So you had $3 million that other funds, the general fund had borrowed from fund 21 that is due back to fund 21 at June 3rd, 23. We had some liabilities and some due to other funds. Um resulting in a fund balance of 4.3 million. Page five. um the revenues for bonds, the main revenue is always going to be interest earned on that cash and in addition to

037that um any proceeds of bonds which you didn't have in this fiscal year. And then the expenses which is the biggest piece of this performance audit was 10.8 million. And essentially the big part of this audit is making sure that those funds were spent um with allowable measures. So it has to be um well the bond measure is a little vague but it has to be something that supports that in addition to board approval. Um okay and then I will take you to kind of the audit procedures and results section on page 14. So just to kind of start off we have an unmodified opinion because we agree with the numbers in the report. Um but we did have things that we found to be material weaknesses um and significant deficiencies in the bond program

038itself and the kind of controls over that and I'll go into those a little bit detail but um to start off oh I actually I should jump right into those because that's kind of the order. So that would be um the inner fund piece. So the biggest piece is you are borrowing funds from fund one and those were borrowed from year to year and they should have been paid back to the bond fund because that money right if you issue bonds that's taxpayer funds and they should stay with the bond and if you borrow them you have to pay them back within 120 days and that was not done and then you can earn interest or use those for bond approved projects. Um the other one is related to um kind of the process of

039tracking the cash in county treasury. So all the cash has to be in the county treasury. We were able to get to the balance but at the time of this audit that process was not completed the way it should have been. So you have to reconcile your cash with the county treasury and that's a combination of issues at your county treasury and within the district. So um making that task difficult. Okay. And then in addition we do some performance procedures to make sure the bonds are spent correctly. We tested 30% of those expenditures what we believe is a representative sample and we feel that at least those that those projects we could tie to what was requested in the ballot measure. Um, we also made sure that any employees charged to the bond program were

040working on the bond program. And then finally, because you are a county and a district, you're public, you have to follow public contract code. And so there are really strict guidelines on how bidding procedures are done. And in our testing, we found that um at least um two contracts um did not have files that we could locate. So it was we couldn't determine if the bidding procedures were followed or not. And so um the total of those two contracts is 1.2 million. So again, um just findings and then we tested some change orders to verify they did not um exceed the 10% rule and we found at least there um they've been and if they do they have to be approved by management or have a reason for that or go back out to bid.

041So I summarized the findings and recommendations. Some of them are repeat findings. One of them is a repeat finding the cash reconciliation process. Um, the next report would be your 2024 report and that would be the next audit. Do you have any specific questions I can answer on this report? From 23 wasn't here. Did you have something, Chelsea? No, I was going to say just from 23 don't wasn't here in 23. So, I apologize. Stephie, were you going to add anything? No, I was just hopping on until once Heather was thanking her for her time and if anyone else has any questions for her while she's here. Oh, any questions for No, I I wasn't here in two 23 either. So, do we um do have we contracted for 24 and where 20 the next

042audit that needs to be done? Are we contracted for that? And is that with you as well? [Music] So am I okay to answer? I can answer. You are contracted with us for 2024. We are currently you're the district and the county are currently undergoing the 24 or audit. Um and in addition to that pieces of the bond audit, but that will be a little bit um that'll be the third. So you first it'll be the county and the district audits that will be completed this month and then the bond audit shortly after. So we are in the process of conducting the audit currently for 2024. Do we have an ETA? We're required to submit have it ready by the end of this month. Oh for the districts we're on track for that. Yes, we

043they're they're our auditing firm for that. Okay. Right. But I mean, are we on track to be able to have a report by the end of this month? I'm meeting with Heather um actually this week and we're trying to make sure that we get everything they need. They had to reassign us um a team and so we're working through that. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to PSD third interim financial report. Stephanie? Yes. Hi everyone. Thank you Heather. you. Thank you so much for your time. All right. So, I realize now I can't tell how big this screen is. So, um I do have a presentation. Hopefully, it'll be read readable. Um it'll also be a PDF version in um the minutes. So, or you can also reach out to me and I can

044send it to you. So, hopefully you can review that later. So, this is going to be the third interim report. Why are we doing a third interim report? Right. That's the question. And so we are required under EDC code that when we show a negative certification in our second interim, we are required to do a third interim to give an update on the information that was presented during the second interim. So because the PUSD had a negative certification at second interim, this is our third interim as required. So what does a third interim show? So a third interim shows an updated financial projection up to April 30th. Okay. So we review any updates in revenue, any updates in expenditure. We look at our fund balance projections. We also, you know, make any inclusions in new

045adoptions of budgetary actions which included layoffs, reductions, additional grants, and then we just confirm also our cash flow and reserve requirements. One of the biggest parts of our third interim reporting is to show our multi-year projection. Each one of our interim reports and our adopted budget and our unodudited actuals all come from this ability to have a obligation to meet sorry to meet our obligations for the current and two subsequent years. Okay. So current year and two years after this year what we use for the multi-year projections is that we are pretty much evaluating our ability to remain solvent right and as our second interim presented and fickmat's um evaluation is that we do not have the ability to remain solvent. So doing since we showed in second interim we cannot meet this, we have

046to show again with updated information a my to demonstrate any adjustments we can make to lessen our insolveny risk. So why does this matter? We need to identify where the budget shortfalls will occur. We need to look at where reductions and corre corrective actions will take place. We also ensure transparency and accountability. This is an extra reporting period that helps show that we're trying to make progress in our fiscal health and also which is a requirement and shows oversight for our county office sickmat CDE and all of the community fiscal recovery. I just wanted to give some definitions here as I talk. You'll learn as I make some fiscal presentations. I like to educate in the moment that I share information. So you'll hear the word deficit. It comes up a lot and it's one

047of our biggest issues with our budget here is that our expenditures exceed our revenues. And so this may not always be an issue if you have a multi-year funded grant that you get all the cash up front and you have a plan to spend it over multiple years. You can deficit spend because of that, but it's not structural. Structural deficit spending means that we are continually funding our district with more expenditures than revenues. Okay? So there's two different things. Deficit spending isn't always bad, but in this case, we are structurally deficit spending. Fund balance is the difference between total assets and liabilities. Okay? So what this really means in layman's terms is that what we have our reserves, we have our expenditures and revenues and it's the difference between those. So we take whatever our

048deficit is and it gets subtracted from our reserves and that would be our fund balance. Okay? And another word I'm going to be using is assumptions. Assumptions is how we build out our multi-year projection. There are things that we use to estimate how our funding is going to be supported, right? And one of the things that uh the budget world lives in is that we live in what the information we have right now, which always will change. Okay? The information we have like COLA, enrollment, staffing levels, benefits, all of these projections are assumptions that we use to try to project where we're going to be. Okay? So often when I make reports, you'll hear me say things like,"I can promise you it will not be that number, but it might be similar to that number."

049Okay? Because we are working with the information we're given from the governor, from the state, from projections of of, you know, uh, taxes and things like that that don't actually get solidified until after we have to adopt our own budgets. Another quick little hint here as we move into some slides is that negative currencies in accounting will always be parenthesied, not formatted in a negative. Okay? So when you see those parenthesied numbers, it means that they are negative numbers just so that we're not confused when we look at our our reports. All right? So the assumptions used for the third interim are actually majority of the assumptions that were used from FICMAT's reporting coming forward. um due to the timelines we use their numbers and what we're adjusting for are any changes that we've received.

050So the large change that we received here is potentially the 2.5 salary increase that's on this board agenda as the information we have. We also got two additional revenues that changed our cash flow assumptions from a um invoice for medical revenue and our Golden State Pathways grant that went to CTE. All right. The rest of the information is considered status quo, right? We're not on our multi-year projection. We're not breaking down every single budget line to say, "Oh, this person's leaving next year and then this person's coming in next year. What's the savings here?" We really are just saying if we stay in the status quo, can we withstand what we're doing? Okay. So, what is our multi-year projection showing us? Our multi-year projection showing us in current year we have a f almost a

051$6 million deficit and we have a negative fund balance of 2,663,000. Okay. Next year we have a larger deficit of almost 8.6 6 million and $11 million in negative fund balance which then continues to grow and we are maintaining the structural deficit of about 8.5 million and a fund balance of19 um close to $20 million. Okay. So what this shows us is that we are still in a state of une unable to meet our obligations in current year and two subsequent years. And I just wanted to show what that would look like in the report I gave you so that you know what I'm talking about when I say that these are the lines we're looking for. Okay. So in the multi-year projection, we have our total revenues minus our total expenditures which equals right

052our ending fund balance. So sorry, which equals our um our uh deficit. Okay. So the deficit that's how we get that number is the revenues minus the expenditures equals deficit. Okay. So if this is negative means we're spending more than we're receiving. So how does this affect our fund balance? Right? So our fund balance is here. And when you look at it, it actually gets split up between restricted and unrestricted. Okay? So when you're looking here, you go, "Wait, that's 2 million." We have a negative 6.8 million in our unrestricted funds, but then we have a fund balance in our restricted funds of 4 million. So that gives us a net of a -2.6 million. Okay. So the other uh this is just a visual representation of our structural deficit which is ongoing expenditures that

053are exceeding our revenues. As you can see here, it's growing and then a little bit stabilizing in the next two subsequent years. And also how we are budgetarily insolvent. A multi-year projection does not tell us about our cash. It only tells us about our projections of insolveny. Okay? Sometimes we use the word monopoly money when we're talking about budgets because they're they are hypothetical and they are not actual cash. And I'm about to go into our cash flow here, but as we can see from these representations, we are budgetarily insolvent and we are structurally defic uh deficit spending. So the second half of a third interim report is our cash flow and cash flow is our ability to actually pay the bills. So while the multi-year projection focuses on long-term fiscal health, can we you

054know what is our projections? cash flow shows a month-to-month liquidation of our cash to pay our bills. So whether or not the the district has enough cash on hand to meet obligations, that is what we're looking for when we say the word cash insolveny. So why does this matter? Third interim is a fiscal checkpoint before the end of the year. The big end of the year reporting is our adopted budget and our estimated actuals. But for now, the third interim is try a check-in point to see if we've made any structural changes. So, we have to assess whether we can remain cash solvent throughout the 2425 school year. We have to evaluate monthly and actually right now daily cash flow to see where we are um to make sure we can meet our obligations. And

055we take action to try to preserve the liquidation of our cash. All right. So there was a spending freeze coming up and that was one of those actions we tried to take to prevent going cash insolvent this year. So what our actuals tell us? So through the year of 2425 we are out of compliance due to interf fund borrowing. Um as you as Heather mentioned uh borrowing from fund 35 that actually should have been a fund 21 and other things like that. We do not have the ability to pay this back right now. So, we are taking a hit and being out of continual app um out of compliance so that we don't have to go insolvent this current year, but we will eventually need to pay that back because we cannot keep that money

056in our account because it's not made as unrestricted money. These are restricted monies that have specific purposes except for fund 17. Well, we will permanently transfer our reserve which is the purpose of fund 17. Fund 17's job is to allow us to protect it's approximately supposed to be three months of payroll. Um so that is going to be permanently transferred into um our account and once we go back into a state of fiscal health we will start contributing back to fund 17 for that if a situation like this comes up again we can protect ourselves from um you know not being able to pay payroll. And also the projections currently show that we will go cash insolvent in Sep September of 2025. So the cash flow balances for the rest of this year we have

05715 million in April 11 million in May and then down to 5.6 million in June. So what this means is we start in 2526 with only 5 million and we decrease right into 4 million August into 1.3 million and then it the projections are showing the cash insolveny starting in September. So this is the third interim report. I hope if you have any questions I'm happy to answer. Additionally I'm happy to sit down with anyone who wants to review this more specifically. But I will say that the third interim is just a snapshot if we will be having a really indepth evaluation and and more true expenditure projections when we adopt our budget in June the June 18th mini. Thank you. All right. Thanks for that, Stephanie. We're going to move on to USD resolution

0581679 to establish a cafeteria fund. Um Stephanie, do you want to explain this a little more please? Yeah, so fund 13 is best practices. Um keeping your cafeteria funds in your general fund can cause risk for for the general fund. The way that a fund 13 and cafeteria services are funded is we allow the state and federal reimbursement of school meals to be revenue to run a food service program. So because they are such restricted funds, we need to make sure that they're kept in a separate fund to allow for compliance, easy tracking, and really identify the um budgetary obligations of our food service department. So, and the recommendation to be compliant and move forward with best practices, I'm requesting that fund 13 um be solidified and the food service budgets and payroll move into

059that fund. Thank you, Stephanie. I will entertain a motion to approve USD resolution 1679 to establish a cafeteria fund 13. I make a motion to approve. I make a motion to approve PUSD resolution 1679 to establish a cafeteria fund 13. I second that. Cindy second. Yes. All in favor? Go ahead. Sorry. Um Harrison I Johnson I also need to approve the Okay. Each of those need approval as well. Yes. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve bond measure B 2022 23 financial audit report? I approve. Do you want to second that? I'll second. All in favor? I. I. And a motion to approve PSD third interim financial report. So move. All in favor? I. I. Okay. Okay, we are going to move on to interview of the candidates for appointment of board represent

060trustee area 5. Um before the two members come up, we will take sorry. Okay. Uh we will take public comment. So I will invite Julie Kaka up. So I would like to begin by saying that um anyone that's applying or willing to be seeking this position um during this critical time obviously has the best interest of our teachers, students and staff um is prioritizing their best interest. So Matt, Keith, I'm you guys are all here for the same reasons otherwise he wouldn't have wanted to step forward at this time. Um, but I'm going to utilize my time just to read a couple letters that um, some employees submitted to me because they can't be here and I said I would utilize my public comment to read it. Um, to whom it may concern, it is

061best it is with best pleasure and without reservation that I write to express my strong support for Keith Barnett. I have had the opportunity to meet Keith roughly 20 years ago and throughout the years I have never had a negative experience. He has always been a great person to bounce ideas off of and he offers some direction. Keith has been a successful business owner and I have personally seen the work he performs. He has a lot of pride in his craftsmanship and relationships. I have been particularly impressed by Keith's commitment to actions demonstrating commitment, careful review of budget proposals and advocacy for efficient resource allocation and have helped ensure that our schools are making the most of taxpayers dollars while still providing a high quality education. Keith possesses the vision, integrity, understanding of the needs

062of our diverse student body necessary to effectively lead our schools. He consistently demonstrates a genuine commitment to the well-being of students, the support of teachers, and fostering strong community partnerships. His broader impact, thoughtful decision-making, and dedication to the long-term success of our district will make him an invaluable asset to the school district board. For these reasons, I wholeheartedly endorse Keith Barnett for school board. I am confident that he will continue to serve our community with dedication and distinction. Thank you for your time and consideration. And this is from Brenda Kirk in the transportation department. Um, if I have time, I'll get through this one. I'll just restart because you're reading someone else. Okay. Thank you. So, you're restarted. This one's um, "Dear members of the PCOSD school board, it is with genuine enthusiasm that I

063write to express my strong support for Keith Barnett's candidacy for the school board. As a fellow community member, I have come to know Keith as some deeply invested in the well-being of our town and its future. Keith's experience as a small business owner in our community community provides him with a unique and valuable perspective. Running a local enterprise has honed his problem solving skills, requiring him to navigate challenges with pragmatism and find effective solutions. His proven financial responsibility essential for the success of his business would be sign a significant asset in overseeing the school district's resources and ensuring fiscal accountability. Beyond his business accum commitment to our community is evident. As a local business owner, he understands firsthand that strong schools are integral to a thriving local economy and a bright future for all of

064our families. He is not just a business owner. He is engaged community. He is engaged in our community members who interacts with a diverse range of individuals and understands the very needs and perspectives within our school district. The ability to make sound and timely decisions is crucial for any leader. And as a small business owner, Keith demonstrates the skill on a daily basis. I am confident he will he would bring this same level of thoughtful consideration to the important matters facing our school board. Furthermore, his deep understanding of the local economy provides him with a valuable insight into preparing our students for the opportunities and challenges of our region. In conclusion, I believe Keith Barnett's blend of business experience, community involvement, and genuine commitment to our town make him an exceptional candidate for the school

065park. I urge you to give his candidacy your full consideration. Sincerely, Anthony Arcangeli. And he's from the transportation department also. Okay, that's all. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. [Applause] Emily Patterson, Hello, my name is Emily Patterson. I'm a resident of East Quincy, a parent, and a business owner. I also run a nonprofit that collaborates with the county fire department and other volunteers to place the military banner you see on Highway 7. Thank you. Um, I would like to voice my support for Keith, Mr. Barnett to represent East Quincy on this school board. Over the last few years, I've worked with Keith at Quincy Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, where he currently teaches striking and self-defense classes. I know him to be an excellent coach to teens and adults in his classes. He is patient, consistent, and consistent in

066his delivery feedback. He is encouraging and has strong values. Something that I truly appreciate is his willingness to listen without intention to immediately tell a person why they may or may not be right or wrong, but to instead hear them out and understand their point of view. This quality truly speaks to his strength of character. I'd like to thank Keith for his willingness to make himself available to listen to all the parents and other community members about what is important to us moving forward should he be added to this school board. Over the past few months, this experience has been extremely disheartening. The realization of what has been going on and the enormity of the impact to our communities is a lot to absorb. At his presentation in Forola, Mr. Fine was asked how the

067school board could do better and he respectfully stated that our school board needs to learn and improve our governance. Governance includes transparency, accountability, and effective followup to procedures and rules. Taking into account the role of the school board going forward, I feel that best suits our community to have Keith Barnett in this position. Thank you. Thanks for Thank you. Brienne Olsen. Good evening. I'm here tonight to show my support for Keith Barnett as District 5 representative. Keith would be a strong choice to the board for many reasons, among being an entrepreneur and successful business owner within our community, which gives him the experience and the grit that the board would benefit from. He is going to have the best interest of the students in our district, not just as a parent, but as a coach,

068too. Keith is going to take the time to research answers to the hard questions. We need a different perspective in this precedent time and Keith will bring that. We cannot keep having members that have close friendships on the board as it can cause conflict of interest and affect decision-m in the coming months and years. The board will need to make hard choices. I believe Keith will be a well fortified asset to the board during this time and moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] Bridget. So I'm also here to support um Keith as a member of our school board. Um Keith is a nononsense leader who speaks his mind and addresses the tough issues others often avoid. He doesn't sugarcoat the truth or play politics. He um tells it like it is. And that

069kind of honesty is exactly what this board needs. Our students, staff, and community deserve leadership that values truth over comfort and action over appearances. Frankly, the board has started to resemble more of so far more than a serious body responsible for shaping the future of our district. Personal relationships, favoritism, and behind the scenes have no place in the school governance. Bringing in people based on who you know or who you are related to is not leadership. It is a conflict of interest. It is dysfunction and it is disgusting. Keith Bernett will not be a part of that. He is committed to putting the right people in the right holes based on merit, not personal connections. He will hold others accountable and push for decisions that serve all students and not just the board's inner circle.

070We need less of the buddy system and more purpose. Keith Barnett is strong, clear, and a principal's voice our district needs right now. Thank you. Thanks, Jason. Is there any other comment? Any other public comment for this? All right. Uh Keith and Matt, why don't you both come up to the podium area? Um we have some questions. I'm going to give you guys each a copy of the questions because sometimes I prefer to read and listen simultaneously. and then the three of us will take turns asking. So Keith, you'll get to go first for the first question and then Matt, you'll get to go first for the second question and alternate like that. Okay. And uh well, and actually go ahead because I can speak loud enough. That's all right. Just ask the question anyway.

071[Music] Um so keep starting. So what motivated you to apply for a position on the school board and what do you hope to achieve during your tenure? Okay. What motivated me to apply for being on the school board is been paying attention to what happened at the school board for quite a while. I had a really close friend that was here um that we started a business quite a while ago and they moved away because of what was going on and allowed to go on in the district. The guy was highly educated, highly knowledgeable and very informative and very amazing to this community, to the children. um what that person cared about was crazy to see the district push him out because he didn't agree with some of the things that were going on with

072the district. That right there kind of gave me an idea to start paying attention. And I started watching the meetings, started running numbers, started checking things, and as a 20-year veteran of multi- businesses successfully, and my son in school and a lot of my other friends in school and stuff, I started like diving into it, trying to find factual information. I mean, I can be outspoken. Some people could say it's a hotthead, but a lot of people get u um confidence, confused, and arrogance. And I just started seeing after this whole last 6 months to a year of what's really taking place. And my whole business life in 20 years plus is been on accountability. If I make a mess with something, I clean it up. It doesn't matter what it is. Um I tell

073people I'm going to do something, I do it. I don't do it for my benefit. I do it for the benefit of walking away from somebody and having them very happy at what I did because I told them I was going to do that. Now, the last six months, I've spent a lot of time talking to teachers, educators, and what I call the ungreased wheels and gears of the district that nobody pays attention to. Um, and the first thing that really made me sad is when I was talking to these people almost every time, and there's a lot of them I can I mean, my hands and toes do not count as many people that I talk to, they all say, "Can I trust you?" And I said, "Why would you ask me that?" Well,

074because anytime I bring anything up, um the retaliation and everything that comes at me, I have a family to feed and I don't want to step forward. So, I had to build trust and relationships with a lot of these people and communicate with the ones that didn't know me. And then, basically, they started to open up to me. And at that point in time, the only thing I could do to get their voices heard, I don't know if it's because of the chain of command and the way this district runs from all the different schools and everything, but when there's a conflict or something, it gets stopped and people are afraid to address it. They're afraid to sit down and talk about it, and they're afraid to make procedures and policies better to eliminate some

075of the most ridiculous things I've heard from some of these people. Um, with that being said, once I got the people to start trusting me and understand there was nothing I could do in the situation that was occurring. So, I told those people, "Who can I talk to on the board that um you could bring your attention to?" And almost every single one of them said, "Not one of them." And that kind of shocked me because these are the people as board members we represent as a whole. And at that point in time, it was like, "Okay, I'm gonna be serious about this. I'm going to talk to people. I'm going to find out." So, I started having people email Chelsea because people asked me, "I personally have never met any one of you guys.

076Um, briefly in Portal and briefly in Portal. I've never met you before." And I started having people email Chelsea and there was nothing I could do to take the information from him because it would be a third party thing and I didn't want to do it. So that is kind of the main thing why I wanted to run for the board is I've built my career off accountability. And if I sit at one of those seats, I'm not just going to raise my hand just to get through the meetings quicker. I'm going to pay attention to what's going on. I'm going to take analytics and factual data and put it in front of myself and I'm going to read it, understand it before I put my hand up and say it. So that's what made

077me want to run for a school board member. Go ahead. And so I answered question number two. Correct. You answered question number one. What? Oh, question number one. Okay. Would you like to repeat it or No, I have it right here. So, as far as what motivated me to apply for the position, it was simple. I got asked. Um, to be honest, I didn't know. I knew there was some trouble. I knew there was some issues. Um, stuff that concerned me. I haven't met any of you guys. I did meet Jodie at one point uh in the I think it was the fall. I made a phone call to her. I had a concern about field trips being cut. My son is in the egg program, FFA. Those kids work really hard um for that.

078They had they had built up this field trip and I found out it was going to be cut, possibly be cut. So, I uh did some research really quickly, tried to find out what we could do and I made a presentation to the board. First time I met you guys at that time, I was given a phone number for Jodie and I reached out to her. Um I think she called me back after the uh meeting because she was out of town on vacation out of cell service. She called me. I explained why I was calling and then I had made a presentation to the board. Um you guys uh gracious graciously accepted the uh presentation that I had um and we were able to get the field trip funded. I don't think that there

079was ever a time where it was not going to be funded, but that's how I think communication is a really big important uh step for this. So, getting into that, I was asked about a month later if I would consider uh being on a panel, an interview panel, uh for hiring the new superintendent. I thought I was honored. I was humbled. Um, and absolutely I take uh take um the school district stuff and in my son's school, my daughter went here. Um, I take it very very seriously. Um, so I agreed to it. I went back and talked with my family. We talked about it. Shortly after that, I don't know the time frame exactly. I was notified that it was uh that the state was likely taking over and that position uh would be

080postponed as far as that goes. I was contacted by a couple of teachers that asked if I would consider running for the board and after hearing today I really support my first uh idea which was no. Um and and I wanted to learn more about it and I I uh and and so I started asking some questions. I I reached out to some teachers. I reached out to some faculty and uh and and really tried to find out more about it and and what was involved. Um I did reach out to Jod cuz I don't know any of you on the board. I've never spoken with you. So I asked her what are the commitments like? What am I looking at? Um and stuff to see if it's something I could possibly do. Um I

081did some of my research uh finding out. I don't have as much research as Keith has done. He's been at this a little bit longer than I have. Um, so and and I care about kids. It's the most important thing we have. It's our future. And we deserve to give them a safe place to learn. Uh, and to have the tools available to them to learn, to have our teachers feel like they're supported, our staff feel like they're supported. And that goes from the superintendent to the volunteer holding the chain sign or the chains on flag football on the football field. Um it goes to everybody and we have to we have to work together for that. And so that's basically where I came from to to try to make it. It's easy to focus

082on mistakes, blame people, and my vision is what we can do to move forward and and to make it better. I don't have an issue with having a tough conversation. I never have. Um, and we're going to have to do some tough stuff. There's also going to be a new thing with uh with a state coming in. That's going to be a whole different ball game. So, I pledge to you guys to communicate and to be fair. I also wanted to say that I appreciate everybody here. Everybody here, we have the same goal. We want the best for our kids. And that's what I'm here for is to represent you guys as well. Even though you didn't necessarily come to support me or Keith, it doesn't matter. We're both here for the same thing. We

083have different personalities and different experiences. That's life. Thank you. [Applause] All right. So the question is in your opinion what is the role of a governing board member? Okay. So, I believe that it is to we're going to have to make decisions and I think that's a two-part question as far as what is the opinion of the governing board and what it is today because I think that's two very different answers and what it's going to be when the state is taking over and telling it. I believe it's going to be advisor advisory. I hope that to be able to be a voice for programs that uh and teachers and for when the state's making cuts to be a voice uh for the students and for the staff and for um the district so we

084can somehow become solvent again. And so we're not operating like this so that we can provide the best learning situation that we can. Thank you. Thank you. What my opinion is of a governing board member. Um I feel that as a governing board member, you are the ultimatum decision of what the district decides financially. Um sports-wise, education wise, procedure- wise, policy-wise, all the above. Um I just feel it goes back to the accountability thing and that's how I built my business my entire life. everything that has happened, everything that's going to happen. Yes, the state is going to come in, they're probably going to take over, but I feel at a board if we can show the state that we are trying and trying to do the right thing, they are going to give them

085give us the ultimatum, okay, and look at us and go, they're making the right decisions or as other people have said talking about me, I just speak from the truth. They're going to look at us and go, this is why you're in this situation, don't this is what we're doing. So I think as a board member we have to communicate with each other. We have to do the data analyst of what we have in front of us. We have to basically be on the same page. We have to be able to bring things to light. And there's always a famous saying if there's four people sitting there. There's eight eyes is better than two. There's eight ears is better than two and someone. So um it's not to to play with conflict or or dive

086in it and blame each other. Like Matt said. There's nothing we can do from here of the past. We have to go forward. We have to find a good solution. We have to work together. We have to find a common ground. We have to make educated decisions. And when it comes down to it, the bottom line is it's for the teachers, the educators, and the children. And then what's left, we dissipate out between the rest of the school. We go back and forth, don't we? Yeah. You get the next one. You can start the next one. So, I want people to know what you're asking. So, what you're answering then read them out then. Do you mind? Yeah, no problem. Great. Go ahead. I mean, I did educational stuff for construction 2,000 people. I love

087it. How would you prioritize the needs of the school district, including fiscal, academics, extracurricular activities, and community engagement? Um, I mean this is kind of where I could go into a story about this kind of stuff because the last 20 years of my life I've watched Quincy Portzo and Chester have elective programs, music programs, sports programs. And if you guys don't understand and are new to here, which a lot of you guys are not, we live in a beautiful area. So our kids don't start to really go out and start playing in the forest and the woods and all that stuff until they're a little bit older driving around. These programs that we have have have kept our kids out of trouble, have kept our kids sane, have kept our kids on track, have c

088have actually taught our kids discipline and all the above. And I don't just mean sports even though my kid plays sports. I'm talking musical programs, art programs, everything that children do in these schools is very important. So, uh, basically as a board member, what I would try to do is I would try to find, especially going into the state of what we're doing control-wise, try to find any possible way we can, not affecting financial budgeting, to keep kids engaged, keep the parents engaged, keep the teachers engaged, and find ways to do things with programs that the kids are already involved into. I mean, a lot of the sports and stuff and or and everything else parents pay for a lot of it as is because we love our kids and stuff, but we also have

089to keep in mind there's a lot of kids out there that don't have the compassion and the caring of what we provide our kids. So, we have to find a way to be able to do that for everybody involved. Um, economic wise, well, we have a CBO who runs everything down there. As board members, I feel our job is to take the paperwork that she gives us. It's not that we're being an audit and double-checking what they're doing, but as I said in the first or the second comment, when we raise our hands, it's the ultimate decision that affects this board. So, I just feel not looking at the past, but moving forward, there just needs to be a little bit more effort going into that and making sure that we are making the the

090right decisions. I feel in the past, not bringing it up and trying to smear anybody or anything like that. I feel a lot of us were just kind of had the wool pull over our eyes and eyelids pulled down and people were given information that wasn't factual information and just because people get comfortable and people like kind of start to not really pay attention to it is why we're in the situation we're in. That comes to economics that comes to the programs for the kids and then personally I would just go around and my goal is to go around. doesn't mean just east Quincy Quincy. I'll go to Porto. I'll go to Chester. I want to talk with the principles. I want to talk with the teachers. Talk with the bus bar people. Talk with

091the people in maintenance. Ask them even though we're in a financial crisis right now. What would you guys like to do? What what would make your job a lot more positive to come to work every single day and make you comfortable? Um, doing a lot of leadership in my life with the construction industry and stuff. I've learned a long time ago, I pay my guys more even though they're not worth it because the way the economic state is now, if you make 15 to 20 bucks an hour, you can barely pay your bills. So, if people can pay their bills and they can take care of themselves and they have a happy, comfortable environment to work in, you'd be amazed what the outcome goes. So, that's kind of my foresight of what I would like

092to do. I mean, a lot of people know me as an outspoken person. So, I'll go around, talk to people, ask them what their opinions are on their problem, and just I mean, you got to just throw oil in all the wheels of the whole system. You can't just grease parts of it. You got to grease everything. So, with that said, that's where I'm at. First, I don't think you're going to have a school district if you don't pay pay the bills. You can't turn the lights on. You can't pay teachers, you can't pay the staff. You have to have that. So, first and foremost, I think we have to we have to solve this. We have to figure it out. And how that is, I don't have the answer for that. I have the

093passion to find it and I have the passion to work with people. I have the passion to work with the state. Been doing it for a while. Um, and uh and to to take that on. As far as academics, I think that comes second. you you have to you have to have academics. Um, and the extracurricular activities, they're important. I agree with Keith 100%. Keeping our kids busy, keeping them doing stuff. You know, it's not that they're all going to play football and they're going to be professional football players, but they're learning that they have to go to practice every day. They're learning respect from their coaches. They're learning that. And I think we're missing that. So, losing those programs, we have to fight as as hard as we can to do that. If that

094means we have to teach our kids to go out and do more fundraising and be there with them, then we have to do that. I've done a lot of that uh over the years with both my kids and um I think that that's something that we can we can work on. Um we have to be engaged with the community. They don't trust you guys right now. And I don't mean that as an insult, but they don't. And we have to get that back. Whether it's me, whether it's Keith, it doesn't matter who it is. We have to get that back and we have to show up prepared and we have to figure out how to make these tough decisions. And hopefully we can rely on the help of the state of California to guide us

095through this because they're coming in and we're going to have to understand that. I think we we have to have communication with the public and we have to have it so we have open communication, honest communication where they trust everything we're doing and that's why I pledge to you. Thank you. Thank you. So now you go next. I go next. Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. So, how do you view the role of respectful communication and con or collaboration within a governing board? Can you share an experience from your past where you faced criticism for your communication style and how you responded to that feedback? Like I said, I've only addressed the board one time and when I did, um, it's something that means a lot to me as far as a programs and our

096students and I was nervous getting up there. You guys treated me with respect. I didn't have I wasn't on the agenda. Didn't know how the rules work. I made my presentation it. I wasn't uh I was grateful for the reception that I got in in times as you get older, a little wiser hopefully. Um I'm a little bit slower or slower to uh respond and I think about what I say and I've worked in an industry that demands that every day. What I say matters. Um I worked also in the tile profession before that was a manager of over hundreds of people. I um you learn how to things to say and not to say. I've been to a lot of different training uh for that and I wanted to I guess you you you

097we're products of of the things we've been through and the experiences we've had and I'm not quick to speak. I want to do my research. I don't want to sit up here and be told we're wrong. Um, nobody does. If I'm willing to do the work to do that, I think that's the biggest thing as far as my comm communication skills is I want to make sure that I'm I'm getting up there and speaking the truth and speaking courtes like with respect. [Applause] How do you view the roles of respect, communication, collaboration board? Can you share an experience from your past where you face criticism for your communication style and how you responded to the feedback? Uh, one of the hardest things I can say to do as an educator myself is teach middle-aged to

098people who are my father and grandfather's age that they've been doing things wrong in construction in front of 200 people or 60 people at different events and stuff. Um, the only way that I could do that at first going to the criticism part is you first you get who does this young kid think he is? I've been doing this for 40, 50 years. You don't get irritated, you don't get frustrated with it. And from my experience with that, I had a really good teacher. And I showed them with education, knowledge, and technology. I would get down on the ground hands-on with these people and show them, explain to them what I'm doing, and not be arrogant, not be pushy, nothing like that. I would just communicate with them, smile with them, enjoy what we're doing,

099engage with them, have them engage with me, and then as you would sit there and like say say for instance putting tile down correctly and having bond underneath of it. When somebody's used to bonding a tile and there's only 10% bond on the bottom of that tile and they think they've been doing it right their whole entire life. I work for the National Tile Contractors Association. Um, you start to pop the tile up and you show that individual. You ask them, "What do you think? What do you got there?" They're like, "Hm, 65, 70%." Okay, go ahead. They pop it up maybe 80, maybe 12. And they kind of look at you and then you get down on the ground with them and you show them industry standards why respectfully, honestly, and not with an

100attitude or anything like that. And you watch that light pop in their head when they pop their tile and see that that coverage is 100%. And the expression, I just can't explain it. You got a guy who's been doing it for twice my living age, looks at that tile and looks up at you and the first thing that comes to your mind is this guy just realized he's been doing it wrong most of his life and now he's paying attention to the science of what we're showing you. So that's how I respond to criticism. um I find a way to kind of dive into it instead of taking it to heart, opening up to it and looking at different avenues to go forward and show the people what I mean rather than attack them. Respect.

101You give respect, you get respect. You talk to people respectfully, you're going to get respect back. Um there's just individuals and we all know them, we've all seen them that you just can't engage with. you have to just kind of okay give them their time and that kind of thing happens. But uh that's kind of how I've dealt with it most of my life and I was taught by a really good person that taught me how to do that and that's what I can say about that. What is your understanding of the current challenges facing our school district and what strategies would you propose to address them? Um, there's all kinds of things that I found in the last couple of years diving into the school district that the board doesn't know, principles don't know,

102athletic director doesn't know. It just doesn't seem like there's a lot of communication between individuals that are scared to bring things up. And in the past, we don't like to bring in the past, but in the past, many times somebody would bring something up and try to get resolved. things would happen to certain individuals and they would kind of just go into their little shell and hide. I would like to try to break that, help people communicate, find ways like popping that tile and getting that person to have a light and reach out to Chelsea or Jodie or Cindy or Jolene and communicate. Obviously have the chain of command. So, you'd start with your teachers and I've done that. I've started with the the assistants and the uh um subs and things of that nature

103and teachers and gone to the super superintendent and the um supervisors and stuff, but I want to help with that is a big process. The financial side, we have to budget. We have to look at what's going on. I mean, just cuz the state's coming in and going to bail us out doesn't mean we just continue on like everyday life like we have been. Like Stephanie was saying, if we don't have the money and we're spending more than we have, there's obviously a problem. So that's there isn't a quick answer for that. There is a lot of analytics and a lot of graphs and charts that have to be looked at. There's a lot of things that have to be budgeted. I just personally don't feel that students or students, sorry, are going to be

104mainly affected more by teachers, educators, and the staff that they see firsthand. I mean, sometimes those cafeteria workers hug those kids and they don't even get hugged when they go home. So, that kind of bugged me when I was reading all that kind of stuff. But to make that, I don't know, we would just work together, try to find solutions and bring light to things and make it okay to talk about things rather than hide and worry about being fired or not having a job because when somebody's not comfortable like that, the outcome of everybody's energy, mental, physical, is not good. Thank you. So, I think uh this is not a simple question. It appears like it is. It's not. We're a mess. Um we're upside down moneywise. We uh we're getting we're we're being

105taken over by the state. Um it's kind of as bad as it gets. This area has uh has endured a lot. We've had fires, COVID, we've had a lot of firsts and a lot of stuff. I don't think one thing is what caused us to get into this situation. I think it's a perfect storm, but it's a bad one and we need leadership to get through and to to to navigate it and to work well with others. I think um as a board member, I think we need more training. I think uh that was shown. Um I think we need to take advantage of that. Somebody who's had a lot of training over the years from sexual harassment to before it was popular now it's all required um for most of the industries for hostile

106work environments for stuff like that. We we have to be up on what what is needed and I don't think we are. I know I'm not. Um, and I propose that that's one of the first things that I would look at so that we don't have we're making decisions where we have the answers and and we're not getting grievances. We don't want to go through the process where we we have to have something greedy because we didn't follow the rules. I'm a rule follower. I was that way before my current job. I've always been that way. And we need to make sure that we are following the rules that we need to follow. And with that comes a lot of education and a lot of learning. [Music] Um I guess and the best way to

107say how I would propose to address them is head on not shy. What isn't? Let's figure it out. How what can we do as a board to get through this? What can we do to gain the trust? I think trust is one of the biggest things we're we're missing and rightfully so. Um so I go to the next one. Sorry. You're good. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next question. How do you plan to engage and communicate with parents, teachers, and the community regarding schoolboard decisions and policies? the same way I've addressed issues that I've had for school. I've been in your office a couple times where I wasn't upset about stuff or I was upset about stuff. I I remember one of them I was upset. Why? We We all know what to do

108when you stop, drop, and roll, right? Or when you're on fire, stop, drop, and roll. Well, for safety, for an active shooter, people don't like to talk about it. We're behind as a district. But when I came to you and I expressed my concerns as a parent, things start happening. And I think you have to you have to be honest and you have to say things. There's going to be cuts. If I'm on the board, there's going to be cuts you guys are pissed at me for and and there but they're going to have to be made. I ran businesses. I work for the state. We're going to h there's going to have to be cuts that are made that nobody's happy, but it's what we're going to have to do. And all I can

109promise is that every one of those cuts will be made with, is this the best thing that we can do for our students? Second, is this the best thing that we can do for our staff? And that's what I have for that. How do you plan to engage in the community with parents, teachers, and community regarding school board decisions and policies? Like Matt said, this is kind of a tricky loaded question. Um, first of all, things that are evolving the board, you cannot really discuss with the public. You have to be protected by the Brown Act and everything has to be communicated in front of the public. Um, you have to give them public comments before and after and give them a chance to stand up and communicate even if you feel it's probably not

110right because as Matt said, we have to earn the trust back of the community and right now it's not very good on the trust of the community with what's going on. So my biggest thing is to be transparent but be communicative with the community. And I think another thing that needs to happen is people need to be educated on the Brown Act. Me personally, I paid 200 bucks and had an attorney friend of mine from San Diego explain it to me for quite a while just so I understand it so I don't open my mouth and say something I'm not supposed to. Um going around talking to people, teachers, educators, students, principals, um athletic directors, everything. Um district employees, whatever we need to do. um that is not protected by the Brown Act because it's

111not a decision made by the board. I think the community needs to understand that kind of stuff more because you guys get attacked 247 or we'll get attacked, he'll get attacked, whoever you choose about the Brown Act stuff. So, I think there could be something we could do probably to find an educational system on the Brown Act and let people understand how it works so that they would get off your back and start to trust you a little more because once people start to build trust into the board, seems like people online, in person, whatever, attack the board for that kind of thing. Um, with the teachers, uh, same thing like I talked about earlier, we just go around, communicate with people and find out. I mean, the only way to learn what somebody's thinking

112is ask them. The only wrong question I tell people is the one you don't ask me. And you get a lot of responses for that. Be respectful to people, communicate with people, but then again, like Matt said, and it goes back to it over and over, is winning the trust of the community back. I mean, we have elections coming up probably for these board seats eventually and we want to keep people where they're sitting and we all want to work together and we need to turn the avenue of the community to trust everybody again. I mean, that's the biggest thing. It's not that you guys did anything that's untrustworthy. I feel that everything happens for a reason and basically people just got into positions where they thought they were comfortable and doing the right thing,

113but the wool was pulled over our eyes and that comes to the accountability thing. I own stuff at work every single day. I don't work for the state um on the professional training level and stuff like that. I just kind of have taught myself over the years what to say and what not to say when it's coming getting or coming to getting yourself in trouble um politically and professionally. So that's I don't know that's probably all I can ramble on about that one. [Applause] And number seven, the final. Can you describe a situation where your team faced a significant challenge or setback? How did you approach the situation in terms of accountability and communication? Specifically, what strategies did you use to address any mistakes? And did you ensure that your feedback fostered a learning environment

114of a contract going for hours? Um, I did a giant deck project up at Bugs Lake, a really monster cabin that was beautiful. And I trusted the manufacturer on the products and we did everything the manufacturers's recommendations and we put it down. We uh basically noted everything, took videos of everything, and the good old mother nature of 15 to 27 feet of snow up at Bucks Lake proved that these manufacturers and scientists for this company had no idea what they were doing. Noted this was a very substantial amount of finances to build this uh debt coding. Um, and I was taught a long time ago and it was one of the reasons I became a boss to myself is cuz I got tired of supervisors screaming and yelling at me. And I said, "Well, instead

115of doing what is going on right now, I pledge to myself when I start my own business, instead of screaming and yelling at people for making mistakes, you can take the same amount of energy that you could do that for, turn it around, and put into a solution to what you're doing." So, basically, I just told the owner, "Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. It's not your responsibility. my insurance isn't going to cover it because the manufacturing failed. Is what it is. Took the equipment up there, took the employees up there. Cost me a bunch of more money on the payroll side, too, because I wanted it to be an education factor for my employees as well. I wanted to dissect that system, explain every detail. Normally, you could skip a deck

116out like that probably in a day. Took us three days because I wanted to explain to them as we broke the layers down what failed and what happened. Um, we went through the whole entire thing, got it all the way down. Homeowner was amazed that we did that. Thought there was going to be some conflict, but they were really good friends of ours. So, business and friendship is hard to keep apart in the first as it is. But, uh, back to the accountability thing. I just took accountability for it and had them pick out another system, ate the bill on it, put it down, walked away. Still really good friends, actually, almost like family. And that's just one of the probably hundreds of explanations I can give you on doing something like that. But uh

117yeah, you just got to put the energy that you would take into flipping out, throwing a fit about it, doing whatever you're going to do, making all your energy not good, and use that energy to find a solution and fix the [Applause] problem. I have two things. He talked more than I did. Uh the first one is uh I was a general manager of a tile company. I did I over saw payroll training uh you name it. Um day-to-day operations, scheduling for a very large tile company. And I also did uh the bidding for commercial jobs and and all the jobs. And uh shortly after we started a job, I realized I missed something and it cost about $7,000 that we ate as a company. I was mortified. I was like, I I just lost

118this money. Um it's not my money. Um but it's it's my responsibility. I took it to heart and it's my mistake. I went to the owner of the company and I said, "Hey, I messed up. I missed this. I figured out it's going to cost us about $7,000. He looked at me and he was kind of a hotthehead and he looked at me and uh he he told me, "Okay, let's fix it." And we went out there, got our tools on and I wasn't setting tile every day at that point. Got our tools on and we worked with the guys, we fixed it. The next day, I'm going over some blueprints and he can tell something's off cuz I didn't sleep at all that night. If you know me, I didn't sleep at all. And

119uh and I take I take it very seriously. And he looked at me and he said, "Come here." And we walked out back and I said, "Oh man, I'm getting fired." And uh he looked at me and he said, "You messed up. Did you do it on purpose?" Said, "No, you know that." And he goes, "All right, well, if you keep dwelling on this and if you keep dwelling on the past, we're never going to get to the future. And now you're never going to miss this ever again." And I think that that applies to us here in this situation. We have to look forward and it's very important. The second thing, and this is by far the hardest thing I've ever gone through in my life, it was harder than going through a CHP

120academy in 32 with a whole bunch of broken bones. Uh, both my folks were killed in a car crash in 2007. I found out and I was devastated like nothing you could ever believe. I had a hard time getting up and uh my sister and I flew back to Wyoming. My dad was sick and uh he sorry he uh we flew back to get their belongings. He was sick. They were going to the Mayo Clinic. They were on a road trip and we went back. We met with the Rock Springs Highway Patrol in Wyoming. Went through talked to the lieutenant there for about 45 minutes. I don't remember anything of the first 40 minutes. I remember everything from the last five minutes because it changed my life forever. I went and uh he he explained

121to us that he was on scene with my post crash. They died instantly. It's all the good news you want to hear, right? That they didn't suffer. Then he got really quiet and he said uh he said that there was a memorial marker that they put up in the state of Wyoming. Put it behind my desk or and it's behind a picture of what is behind his desk. Took a deep swallow is the best way I can describe it. From that moment on, I remember every freckle on Lieutenant Newton's face. And he said, "I tell you this because there's a picture of that same memorial marker and it's of my 16-year-old daughter that was killed on the same section of the highway." I walked out and I quit a job that was probably better than

122the one I have now. And I walked out to the front porch and I called my wife with a flip phone. I was hold younger people. Uh, and I I let him know. I called my wife and I said, "I'm going to quit my job." I said, "This man just took 45 minutes of his time." And he was in his 50s. I was in my 30s. I was a grown man. I had a wife. I had a daughter. But that's me. I called my wife. I asked her to find out how to get an application for the highway patrol. I'm going to quit my job and I'm going to join the highway patrol. She said I was crazy. And and I did just that because when it matters and something's important to me, I see

123it through. And people mean everything to me. Kids mean everything to me. And that's why I'm here in front of you guys. And I know we have half and half have people supporting Keith or myself. And I know we're both here to support kids. That's where my heart is and my passion is. and I promise to be true to that. Thank you. So, um, thank you both. Um, the board has per code, we can reconvene where we can go to close session for 10 minutes and confer with one another and then come back out and have discussion about that. Um, so we're going to take I I think probably a little less than that, but a 10-minute little break and we'll be right back. [Music] I thought I think it's on. We're going to go

124ahead and close this video. Thank you. [Music] Chelsea, you had a clarified question. No. Oh, I wanted to ask if there was an opportunity to do it. So, I did not have one specifically. I was trying to process it, but I just wanted to see if there was an option to. So, as we as we discussed, I just wanted to see if there was an option to ask another question if it was available. There it is. I don't Okay, good. Would you like to ask another question? No, not yet. All right. So, some of the discussion that took place for us just now is we couldn't be more pleased to have two uh people in our community that are so engaged in supporting this effort moving forward. We're very pleased with that. We the three

125of us agreed that we weren't going to tell one another who our choices were in that room. We were just going to talk about what uh we we appreciated about what each of the candidates had to say and whether or not we had any concerns. Um really um I'll I'll speak for myself. Um you know I I have a few concerns that there's been things going wrong for years at a time and um there was no way to handle it until you felt like you could email, you know, one particular board member. I want to apologize if that was how somebody felt. Um I'm a person that when I hear there's an issue, I take immediate action and I don't stop until um something can be dealt with. and understanding that a lot of times

126there's more than one side of the story. So, it takes a little work, but it's something that I really want to own in this room tonight and make a commitment to anybody going forward that if you need assistance, you can reach out to me. And I'm somebody who will take action. Um, and I think I demonstrated that this September when we took some action at the executive level here at the the school district. Um, but again, I'm I'm very pleased with the two candidates um and and look forward to working with both of them um in any capacity. And so I'll let Cindy and then Chelsea um add to this and then we'll each tell each other who we have picked and the person who gets two votes will be on the on the team.

127So you let her go first. Oh, thanks a lot. That is I was kind of hoping for that little extra moment. You know me, I have to gather my thoughts. Well, same here. Okay. So, I it it is very difficult because I know throughout how to get a snippet, right? You got a visual snippet on a piece of paper and I don't hire that way and I didn't hire that way and um my hiring career is very limited, but it is very difficult to understand a person and get to know them on a piece of paper. So, which is why I appreciate the interview process. Um, but it also was very difficult in the interview process because they supported each other during the interview. It was not a debate. It was not a fight. So,

128that was no fun for me. Sorry, just kidding. All right, Keith, let's do it. I know. So, and as you can I tend to joke when I'm nervous, but and this this decision is a big decision. um I went unopposed so it was a really well I don't know if it was an easy pos or easy decision for me or or for the board at that time but um I I can appreciate the experience that both of you have and um I can appreciate where both of you are coming in from and wanting to make a difference because I I feel the same and just like you both agreed with each other up there is that what the end result what the point of the end result is. I think we are on a turn

129um a positive turn because we have already made some major changes recently and I am rambling because um I I feel like there is a couple of questions that I want to ask but I don't feel any of them are going to help because it really has put both both of you are on the same have same exper uh I don't want to say same experiences but you have different experiences to produce the same what you both want as the same result. So, how does how do we determine who is a better person to be up here to help make decisions and help be a part of? But what I am hoping for um that I have started in my own community is community meetings. And so that way there is a conversation with not

130just me. I can't learn it all. There's absolutely no way for me to understand everything that these ladies do and gentlemen at the district office. There is no way I can even come close to understand what every teacher does except for being raised by one and every what every classified person does. So I would love to say that it's this it's an easy an easy choice. So I don't the question is not coming to me now that I've rambled on for too long. So, I'm going to get over time. I have my three minutes. No, I have my three minutes. I love both you candidates. I think you're both great. But um I um believe um I regret to bring up an unpleasant matter this evening, but as a district board, district 2 board member

131and Christian, I think I need to follow my heart and my conscience. It concerns me greatly to report that a fair evaluation of the candidates for district 5 school board seat might be compromised. During our most recent meeting, not tonight, but our previous one, things were said about one candidate and not just what they run for, but really running them down and praising the um praising the other candidate, which I think could totally um upset the outcome of tonight. [Music] Um, I think as honest board members and community members, I think that what happened was unethical and potentially unlawful. Um, I did, um, write an email to the other board members explaining my concerns and I didn't hear back from either one of them. I except I did hear back from Jody. Um, in light

132of these concerns, I believe it's crucial that both candidates be given a fair and impartial opportunity to serve our community. Therefore, I propose that we postpone our voting this evening to address these issues more thoroughly. [Music] Okay. Transparency, honesty. Well, I have more of a question. So should again trying to understand the process. So with a with a concern that has been risen um and should there not be a vote tonight, what is the next steps? We can repost it. We can repost. We can repost again or the board can choose to readvertise again. There is a timeline and I'd have to get back to you exactly what that is. the board has to make a decision, but I'm sure you could operate within that. So, uh uh it it is up to the board

133to direct us whether we want to repost or revertise and that is different. So, we repost on the board agenda. So, we vote at a different time. So, instead of reopening, it's re we could just put it on a future agenda. Okay. What is the issue? Did you have a Did you have a recommendation in that sense to where it's just reposted? It's re with with the statement that you made. Did you have a recommendation associated with that? Cindy, I don't know because um you know sign of once a bell is rung it's hard to unring and um it will affect this whole board and this is a very important decision okay for district 5 um and I know is totally the process that we took um with this these two candidates are totally different

134than the process that was taken when I was appointed when Dave Keller stepped down. Mhm. Um both um Tommy and I were both interviewed by The Sun and and given our um we were both interviewed by the newspaper, The Sun. And um the community members knew fully well where we stood both educational wise um you know how basically kind of what these questions were. Um, we were also interviewed by the teachers association um and the union um separately and um and then they endorsed one of us. Um I think we're we may be beyond that. I don't know. I wish I could have both of you up here. which you know I you know but so I have I know you can't answer questions but a very bold statement was just made and both of

135these gentleman's just stood in front of you answering questions for this position. I want to know what this crucial situation is where we have to postpone and revertise and have the public reapply. What does that solve by posting the job application again? What does that solve out of what you just stated? So, Mr. Cross just stated that what we are going to do is refly this board. Correct. Right. Oh, postpone the vote and then we'll have to another meeting. Okay. So, let's talk about what these gentlemen just stated was transparency. What are we talking about? Yeah. You did something about me. You're more than welcome to say about Pat. I'm sure he feels the same way. These gentlemen both stood up and just spoke and advocated for transparency. And we obviously know it was something,

136you know, that affected Mr. Dale Monta or Mr. Barnett who both have the same goals. So, let's put it on the table now and let's talk about why we're postponing this situation. Yeah. Can I make my I I'm ready to make my my choice. And I think what Cindy's concerned about is we might have different decisions. And the comment that I made clearly made the statement that she does not feel comfortable because there is something that was said that is making this not appropriate to make the decision right now. So let's not just make the decision. Let's hear why. So I I would like to make a decision tonight, Julie. And I sorry, the board could also call for an election which cost the district several thousand, right? I'm not going to do that. Right.

137No, I agree. I'm just asking Cindy stated something that I think everybody felt here very I think Cindy's what Cindy's talking about and I'll own this and if I'm wrong then you can speak to that. I I made a comment in a closed session on who what candidate was my choice and why and I'm happy to say that in front of this room and Keith to you who we've never had really any interaction until tonight I I thank you and I appreciate the permission to speak freely. You know I I have some concerns about how you presented yourself on social media and publicly tonight. what you said I felt really comfortable with and I those concerns are resolved and I look forward to the opportunity to working with you if that's who the board chooses.

138Um I think Cindy's concerned that me making it really clear that Matt was my first choice in would influence Chelsea in a way that was unfair and I apologize for that. Right now I would be glad to work for either of you and I'm willing to abstain from any decision um if that's the case. I actually asked Jim and thinking that Jolene would be here tonight if we were 5050 split. How does it get decided? We just have you paper rock scissors now or what goes on? Um because I that that could have actually been the case. I don't know, you know, or it could have been 3-1 or it could have been all unanimous. I'm not sure. I didn't have that crystal ball, but I was I wanted to be prepared for that so

139that we wouldn't be stuck in this position. But I would be honored to work with either of you and I definitely appreciate tonight's interviews and I appreciate um how forthcoming you were and your willingness to work together. I think that it it I don't think we can go wrong. So and the reality of it is is that every board seat is up for re-election in 2026. That's right. Um and so I think that there you know that process will take place and you know there will be opportunities for others to run and and do this really needed work. And I'm I'll I'll look forward to that opportunity to hopefully be seated here again. And if not, I know that there's lots of people that want to do what's best for kids and want people to

140see what's best for this community. So, well, then why not? I I I personally feel that um the cards will be stacked against one of the opponents because um of of of things that were said um which shouldn't have been said. Things shouldn't have been said. Um and um It's up to It's up to you. You're You are who we work for. if you know I don't know if another election would even I mean another another vote if we put off another vote we're going to still remember everything that was said by each candidate or you know so I I don't know how that would work but I just think it's my duty to be transparent to everyone and to give everyone a a fighting chance to um be on the board and protect our

141community and our schools and our students. And I don't know if it was I don't think that was accomplished. You mind if I say one thing? Yeah, please go ahead. Yeah, being transparent. Everybody feel what's up. What? Okay. When I first heard that Matthew was the woman, I know Matthew, he's worked with me a little bit. We communicated stuff like that. I had one question and the only question was is if he could be boisterous with his position. As I walked up to this door today as we both walked in here, we both looked at each other and he said, "We're here for the same thing." And I told him exactly what I just told you guys that he said to me. And that was the only thing that was a question in my mind

142is because he holds such a political position if he could be boisterous against certain things. And he said he he talked to his commissioner and everything was approved. And I'll be honest with you guys. If you guys pick Matthew, he's a great person. I mean, I'm not going to be upset with you guys. Nobody's going to be upset with you guys. We're both want the same thing. We want the kids. We want the educators. And we want everybody in the district to be represented. That's it. We want to earn trust back with everybody at the board. And with that being said, I mean, if you pick him, you pick me, either one of us are still going to shake each other's hands and walk out the door. We don't care. We just want to make

143sure that the right person helps you guys represent what you guys need to represent. [Applause] I'd like to make a comment, please. I just want to So, first off, Miss Crim, I thank you very much for your transparency and speaking up. about something that you didn't feel right with. Miss Reed, I thank you for your honesty and for coming clean on what happened. I just like to advocate. Please, please, please, can we just follow the rules? There are so many things that seem like they get complicated and convoluted and then we get in these situations where things are uncomfortable and we might have to postpone and it wastes everybody's time and waste everybody's bike. Can we please just follow the rules? And if we're unaware of what the rules are, will we please raise our

144hand and say, "I'd like someone to teach me the rules." Thank you. Thanks. Yeah. I have one thing. Um, I appreciate everybody's time, honesty, transparency. I can tell you I'm going to run again if you guys postpone it. So, you're stuck with me. I think I can speak with you're going to get us both back. We'll be a little bit more polished this time cuz now we actually know what we're doing. Um but that's the reality of it. Uh so thank you. [Applause] Okay. And I did feel I was asking because Cindy was bringing up a concern and we are trying to or I feel the best policy is to try and follow the policies whether we know them or not. So that's why I do appreciate and um so I was trying to ask

145to what the opportunity was should we need to. Um I I also I came with no um pre decisions um because like I said paper doesn't tell story. So I wanted to see how things came out on um face to face and unfortunately it came pretty even. So but I am in a position to um vote if we are wanting to vote. I think we should. So I will start. Um Mr. Barnett is who I have chosen. Did I even say that right Barnett? Thank you. Okay. I have chosen Matt. I chose Mr. Barnett. Thank you very much. You will be um on Wednesday night in Is that right? [Applause] Is that already on the agenda? Is that already on the agenda for Last time they just put me right in. Right. It's on the

146agenda for Wednesday. Sorry. We have an answer over here. Sorry. I agree. I agree. It's on the agenda. She has the information if you guys want to do it right now. It's printed on the agenda for Wednesday in an effort of following the rules agendas. We're going to do it on Wednesday. That's what I want to make sure. Thank you. All right. All right. Is there any future agenda items? Chelsea any future agenda items though? No. All right. Not that I can I am going to adjourn the PCE PSD special governing board meeting. I look forward to seeing you in Chester. Give her one of your No, I'm not taking your Quincy ball at Go.