001hello everybody hi fabric we are going to start our first in-person meeting post covid so we're all very excited about that so this is the meeting of the board of trustees regular meeting agenda july 12 2021 and so i'm calling to order at um we are in the pack at fallbrook union high school at south stagecoach lane in fallbrook california so at this time i'll announce the we're going to have a closed session but these are the items that we'll be discussing public employment discipline dismissal and release government code section 549 then we have b the conference with legal counsel pending existing litigation and that one is government code section nine five six point nine d and one and um then the third one is conference with labor negotiations government code section five four nine
002five seven point six and underneath that we have district negotiator our superintendent mrs ilsa garza gonzalez we have employee organizations fhsta and seiu local 221 then the the third one is unrepresented employees classified management certified management and confidential employees then the last one is public employee performance evaluation for our superintendent opportunity for members of the public to address the board on any item described in this agenda for the closed session opportunity will be granted later for open session items this is under government code section 549 does anybody want to make a comment hearing none will close the session at 405 and we'll be back at we open at five o'clock 5 30. thank you very much all right we're here in person finally how is everybody tonight yeah this is the board of trustees um
003regular meeting agenda for july 12 and we're going to start out with our flag salute and it's over here would anybody in the audience like to be our leader i see chris back there that you come on up all right uh we're ready begin all right please allegiance to the flag 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 fabric we got real people in the audience this is like brand new system here in the big room so we're at the pack what we call the pack or our um auditorium and i'm going to start out with the roll call for the board of trustees diane summers president that's me and i'm here then we have eddie jones
004our vice president microphone talking to the microphone present thank you hear you better um ilana sterling clerk present thank you oscar carl olampio president thank you and lita tavish present she's our trustee two trustees oscar and lee that are our trustees um technically we all are but then we have our superintendent uh mrs elsa garza gonzalez present thank you all open sessions of the board of trustees are recorded and streamed in real time on www.fuhsd.net so informal review of governing teams norms the board of trustees approved norms are that we be respectful be approachable be open-minded be communicative no surprises be willing to listen be prepared and to be trustworthy i report from closed session i will verbally read for the microphone here all the different things in the closed session and give you a
005report first one is public employment discipline dismissal and release and that happens to be government code section 54957 on that item we have nothing to report for the conference with a legal counsel pending existing litigation government code section 54956.9 d one and on that we have nothing to report the next one is conference with labor negotiations government code section five four nine five seven six and under that is our district negotiator elsa garza gonzalez our superintendent employee organizations fhsta and seiu local 221 and the next one is unrepresented employees that includes classified management certified management and confidential employees the last one is public employee performance evaluation for our superintendent and on the third one the conference of labor negotiations we have nothing to report and we have nothing to report on our evaluation at this
006time so that brings us to our agenda that the board adopt the uh agenda for the regular meeting of um july 12 2021. i'll i need motion for that please i move that the board adopts the agenda for the regular meeting of july 12 2021. right second thank you so that's tabish and carl olympia so any discussions or concerns hearing none i'm going to ask for a vote we'll start out with we go alphabetically with this so we have we start out with mr cara olampio hi thank you mr jones hi thank you ms sterling aye thank you miss summers says i and mitt tavish aye all right our next section is public comments uh please be advised advised that this agenda item is provided to allow members of the public to make suggestions or
007identify concerns about matters affecting the district the fallbrick union high school district board of education encourages invites the public to comment on agenda or non-agenda items individual speakers will be limited to three minutes okay total public input on any one subject will be limited 20 minutes and may be extend extended on the discretion of the board president comments on non-agenda items will be heard at this time comments on an agenda item may be taken at this time or when the agenda item is discussed by the board speakers will be called in order of topic and when card was submitted the district silence should not be mistaken for agreement with public comments rather the board remained silent to comply with california law avoid legal entanglements and or to protect the privacy of those involved please be
008assured any serious allegations have been or will be investigated thoroughly any responses from the board will occur during board member comments so we got our timer going is it going to be in the back so our first speaker is chris potter with a band update come on up chris hello thank you very much for uh allowing us to speak um uh for those that don't know i am chris potter i'm the band booster president this will be my third year as the president and fourth year as a booster i'm also a graduate of fallbrook high from 1996. i'm sorry um so a little bit of an update on the band our booster program um was supporting the band to go to hawaii unfortunately we didn't get to go um so we got to the fantastic
009joy of refunding 39 000 to all of our families we got that all done earlier this year so that's a done deal wrapped and all of our family should be kind of made whole even though the booster program basically had to fundraise to make that happen as such outside of that the boosters have been working on a scholarship program and this year we had um two thousand dollars allocated to two students uh one for guard the color guard and one for the band the music program through a anonymous donation we actually were able to give away four thousand dollars one thousand dollars to each student so we got two guard students and two band students that was a lot of fun to be able to see their eyes and do that this year we're gonna
010have about a hundred students in the program this makes the uh the band and guard the largest we've seen in the last seven years pre-coded so this last year in covid we actually had more students but through moves covid issues we're seeing a little bit of a downturn with that because we're large and i can't see the timer so i don't know where i am but um we need instruments and coaches to be able to do this um because we have more students than we've ever had before our instrument um allotment has dwindled either due to very old instruments or um just more more population in the band than than what we had so we've asked for some instruments over the summer or in the spring we're asking again for some help there and as
011reported on june 21st from the national association for music education the us department of education recognizes the music education as part of the esser guidance so there's money out there for instruments four coaches to get us back to pre-code levels and give those students those experiences and that we desperately need so how am i on time you have like 10 seconds okay fantastic so our our banned parent ask is to be part of this conversation on how to utilize how to get that money and how to utilize that money to support the band program so not asking for the general but asking for getting the money thank you very much and for all your hard work thank you thank you for yours next please our next speaker is penny pongan from fhs band boosters hello
012i'm going to follow up on what chris just mentioned as far as the band booster program i'm penny ponion i have a son who's going to be a junior this year i have been the vice president of the band boosters for the past two years and this year i will be the treasurer so our band program consists of the marching band the concert season in the spring as well as the color guard we also provide support the band boosters for the winter color guard and the winter drum line as well which happen in the spring season our marching band both the guard and the band provide the marching season which is in the fall our competitions start in october but we are practicing we actually have our band camp coming up at the beginning of
013august so our season will run from august through the beginning of december and in order to have that program we do need coaches um to provide the movements that that the kids make in on the field we also need coaches for each of the different instruments uh for the different section leaders and that takes a lot of time um to be able to do that especially with now looking at a large band of over a hundred students we need multiple coaches and we really feel that art and having music in our schools is still vital it's vital for these kids to have an outlet to have a group that they can depend on and become a family throughout the whole year and through the season um in addition to the request for instruments that need
014to be replaced that are broken with the instruments also have to have cases and in order to protect the instrument so our cases are in very much disrepair we need to replace cases handles students are getting cut on their hands from the handles that are ripping and breaking off we have exposed bolts and things that are holding them together duct tape is holding our cases together they're very much in need of repair we have seen other programs get new equipment or new you know we got a new football field and things of that nature but our program since um at least since i've been here and i think for mr uh for chris and mr lee our band director it's been over seven years since we've had new instruments and again we are very much
015in need of those and through the ess er program we are asking for us as parents and the band booster board to be able to be stakeholders in those conversations to how do we create the programs that are already there and enhance what we already have rather than starting new programs we really want to build our championship band which has been leaders in our san diego community for many years so thank you i appreciate it thank you for your time thank you it's always good to hear about what's going on with the band next please our next speak speaker is marcia flowers regarding transparency hi i'm marsha flowers i'm a long-term time resident of fallbrook a businesswoman and a retired public schools teacher some of it in fallbrook we live unfortunately in a time when
016many americans have lost trust in many of our institutions they don't trust congress the nightly news media social media and unfortunately many of them are starting to suspect that our schools are not on the up and up this hurts me because of my background and i would like to see that changed is happening because there are many stories on the internet about critical race theory being taught under the guise of ethnic studies there are also stories about sex education classes having inappropriate lessons for kids in school we've heard about the stories we don't know whether they're true and we because many people don't trust the news it's it's hard to know where to turn to get the right story parents and teachers and people in the community truly want to trust you we know that
017you came into this job which has to be a thankless one at times with the best of intentions but without the trust in today's climate there has to be something done to improve the the trust that parents need to have in order to send their kids to school homeschooling is growing at the present time within the last four years i think i read it had grown tremendously like fourfold um i have some suggestions invite representatives from the pta the village news maybe others interested to come to teacher in services provide copies of new curricula like the new social what is it ethnic studies k-12 curriculum that people can get copies of i would love to see instead of you're on one side and we're on the other i would like to see discussions between school
018board and community members like maybe an informal town hall where we could meet each other know what everyone's goals are and learn to be team members we're on the same team is that possible or is it illegal somebody just mentioned that there's a law against you responding so you can't tell me if it's illegal because i asked a question apparently not okay thank you for your time we take notes thank you very much for your report next person please sherry wisehar lack of communication is the topic hello thank you um some of you know and many of you probably do not know i've had my children attending schools here in fallbrook for over 20 years i know i look quite young but that's the reality and i'm disappointed in the inconsistency and lack of communication
019that exists from this particular school district and this school site first and foremost the the one that's closest to me my son is eligible to be recognized by the california scholastic federation having maintained a 3.85 grade point average the entire time he's been here he'll be starting his senior year in the fall however he has not joined that organization because we were not aware of its existence despite the fact that the coordinator for that program was his math teacher for two full years it's disappointing to say the least for having him miss out on scholarship opportunities and recognition at graduation i did however receive six notifications from the school last friday about a power outage during summer while my children are not attending i got one notification to my husband's email about today's meeting i
020received additionally six notifications today about confirming data for my two high school students next year six notifications during a work day five weeks from the start of school i do not know what hours school will be held i do not have information about sports or club activities i do not know when my incoming freshman needs to be here to register for class so apparently the only communication that we get is the ones deemed important by the school and not know those that are necessarily important for the parents i work i have to coordinate a lot of things in my life transportation being one of those for my kids and not having the very basics of information to maintain some sort of consistency in schedule is is disappointing and on top of that to now have
021a school board requesting to get paid to attend meetings and not communicate shocking thank you very much and may we have the next guest please judy willis the topic is an opinion bored is our country systematically racist good evening since this board is responsible for approving what curriculum is taught in our high schools and also the activities that are implemented i think the public should know your standing concerning the topic of systemic racism in our country do you believe this is a fact that this country is systemically racist i request your opinions be voiced during the comment session or next meet next board meeting be put on the agenda thank you for your time thank you our next guest please mary featherstone on the subject of equity and equality hello um i have been a
022long time fallbrook resident 31 years both my kids went to fallbrook high school and in light of the recent decision by the national education association to promote the teaching of critical race theory nationwide i have deep concern for students being taught this racist ideology that skin color matters more than character that based on their skin color they are either oppressed or oppressors this divisive teaching will promote the racism that the civil rights act of 1964 sought to eliminate i want to differentiate between equity and equality equity is the opposite of equality identity race background and behavior are taken into account so everyone is treated differently there is manufactured discrimination in equity the goal of equity is to make everyone equally successful or unsuccessful the problem with equity creating identical outcomes for people requires artificially helping
023demographics deemed worthy although this is advertised as morality helping specific demographics means hurting and discriminating against others equity kills the drive to excel it re-just redistributes gain so no one has more than another i'm nervous equality equality means everyone is treated the same regardless of identity race or background there is no discrimination the goal of equality it gives everyone an equal opportunity for success it recognizes that each person is equipped with differing abilities and minds celebrating their unique makeup it does not judge based on differences but treats everyone equally and grants them equal access to success it promotes the drive to excel the words of milton friedman serve as a fitting caveat a society that puts equality in the sense of equality of outcome ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality or freedom
024the use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom and the force introduced for good purposes will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests and if you look at the just back at history of nations and countries that have promoted equity equal outcomes or social socialism proves that totalitarianism is always a dismal failure resulting in tyrannical rule and devastation and the loss of freedom of the people of that culture so a few questions are you teaching kids about skin color are you going to teach children that what matters most in life are things they cannot control or change skin color doesn't matter character skill commitment and personal responsibility matter these are things one can can control skin color is not something one can control just ask that
025you would consider those things thank you thank you for your opinion and our next person please heidi roderick and the questioner agenda item is education as a focus hello my name is heidi rodrick and i had a senior graduate this last year i have an incoming 11th grader it's going to seem a little odd but i'm going to tell you about my family vacation my grandfather passed away this last year and he was creole and we decided to go to louisiana to find out more about my ancestors and in part of that was visiting a place called the laura plantation it's the only creole plantation in louisiana it was fascinating i learned a lot and actually it was heartbreaking i learned that after the civil war was won many of the slaves that were free
026were required to be paid for their work uh but instead of giving them money they had these contracts they would have the slaves in a sign uh even though they couldn't read and they would sign these contracts and essentially they'd be paid with tokens that they could use on the on these plantations to buy their needs whatever they needed also their housing was included a lot of times in in these contracts and uh it just really bothered me and i thought you know why why would they keep doing this and so i asked the question why did they sign this every year and it just came down to they couldn't read they didn't know how to do math a lot of times the plantation owners would tell them you know that they owed money who
027knows if they did or not maybe they didn't there was no way to prove that they didn't they they had no education and i was shocked to find out that the last living family members and actually some of them weren't even family members they actually were freed slaves left this plantation in 1977. um i'm sharing this experience with you because i was really bothered by reading the draft for the lcap uh you know with our inside data showing that only 12 percent of our students can even meet math standards that bothers me it doesn't seem like it bothers the board or the district it's hardly talked about we've had this huge focus on solar panels we've had so many discussions about solar and and you know contracts we've had all these discussions about bringing somebody
028on uh for a new position it was the only thing discussed in the lcap for um restorative justice and unconscious bias training and i just can't help but think you know what an injustice to our kids that we're focusing on these things and not their education we're setting them up to be enslaved again okay thank you good report next person please margaret chapman on the solar project noted jason ewig on the solar array concerns um i'm actually reading for myself and for a member that's not here so can i get a little levity uh dan happens to be out of town right now so this is a letter excuse me can you read uh if you want the the extra time because we have dan's statement we were going to read that for him do
029you want to just i'm going to read it for the general public as well perfect okay to the fuhs board members i'm writing this email to all you as i am unable to attend public comment due to work related travel i am very concerned as a taxpayer parent and fallbrick-born graduate that is supporting the third generation of my family to come through the fallbrook school system the multi-million dollar solar project is creating concern again amongst many parents it is no longer within the initial contract award footprint and the initial footprint steals away usable land for current and future students there are proposed change orders to the plan and this may be a legal concern to the district as it no longer conforms to the original contract context the questions and concern is how a responsible
030leadership group can feel it is appropriate to place solar panels in areas that are currently in use have past history of use or have potential for student use land is a commodity that fuhs has no way to create at this location solar panels should be installed in only areas for historical parking or areas that are not possible for school growth building roofs soil embankments areas needing shade or areas that cannot be used for practice sports should only be considered covered shade areas expanded carport parking in the workshop areas and even the bus bus parking or bank in the upper football field should be considered the current proposed solar plan is beyond costly and the environmental benefit is not a direct benefit to any student attending this school as a board member your first question should
031always be is what we're doing benefiting the benefiting students and is this project benefiting them this project is eliminating historically used sports field the back pasture and is now encroaching on currently used utilized agriculture fields the agriculture program here is second to none in southern california it is a bright area with many success stories that is under recognized by most administration and staff and it should no way be encroached the practice field though recently abandoned because we've been in a pandemic for the last 18 months is still a viable piece of land for uh for other use for students even public asset access potential since the fencing of the track and football stadium it is the board's responsibility to not proceed with this project until all locations are evaluated in a manner that does not
032take away land that is usable takes away from outdoor activities eliminates options for the future scaling this project in areas that are only usable for solar should be priority one and then as public and transparent evaluations occur additional phases can be installed please evaluate the current project as it is now over two years long and do not take the easy road out as any contractor will encourage you to do do not pay change order fees for a project that has not even broken ground do not eliminate options for future growth for a green project that can still be completed with created a creative ideas and look to future for all as thank you as dan brown class of 1990. is my time up um sorry i speak publicly a lot um i guess this is
033gonna be my three minutes so for those of you that don't know me my name is jason ewig i am a electrical and solar installer contractor in this town i've been here for 22 years i have five children that have been through this program two that are still going so i took the time today to read the 55-page contract that you board members had and it's a pretty standard contract solar is coming it's great we need solar however i want to bring up some concerns that i know it's maybe a little bit late in the process or maybe feels a little bit late in the process but you know it's it's been a while and these are areas that need to be addressed so i want to take a very pragmatic and common sense approach
034to this contract that you guys are looking to approve and sign today and by the time i get to the end of this i'm going to urge you guys to table this to the next to the next meeting and maybe we ought to bring a representative from the con the contractor himself so that he can directly face that would be fair that he can directly face you know questions because as a contractor myself i got questions one we're going to put it is proposed that we're gonna put a parking structure covered parking structure over the two lots great uh my wife and i have been saying this has been a long time coming why haven't we had it yet you know this is great that it's gonna happen my first concern as a contractor we
035got a baseball field right there what are we doing about the foul balls now as a solar contractor i've replaced plenty of panels myself now we're gonna get eight to sixteen foul balls that are going to smash at any given time those those things has that been addressed are we going to bring up are we going to bring you know are we going to bring a net you know what are we going to do my first concern would be like we've got all this roofing available why have we not decided to take part of the array and put it on the roof that's one two we're talking about taking up the ground mounted part of the array and i see i got 60 seconds left the ground motor part of the array is going to
036take up two areas of pasture i know that this project has been under consideration for two years but we've been in a pandemic for the last 18 months and i know it's really easy to look at that green green field over there and go what are they doing with it we're not doing anything with it well historically it has been used for girls lacrosse it is frequently used for cattle right now we only have 11 cattle up there but we only had 11 kids this year in the pandemic that wanted to do cattle historically there's usually 20 plus not to mention the pigs not to mention also the goats so we should not be taking that area there should be other areas under concerned such as in dan's letter you know there's plenty of other
037parking structures that we can do liquefaction i understand that it's a that is a concern but there are ways around that additionally it is a civil engineering feat in order to get power from point a to point b to go back to that unused pasture i look at that contract and i go well why didn't they do it this way what i understand that there's a lot of infrastructure that needs to be upgraded but why didn't they do it like this why can't we do this i'm my time's up but i'm going to propose to you guys that you guys table this motion until the next session let's bring in a representative so that they can fairly answer the questions uh and and all of the concerns i think that's legitimate i don't think you
038guys need to vote on a 6.9 million dollar contract right now let's wait a little bit solar is coming we all need it but let's do it smart and equitably with a pragmatic and common sense approach thank you very much thank you and great report so anybody else yes liz schmayner schmeiner schmeirer on the ag department solar hi my name is liz meer i'm a graduate of 1996. [Music] my sister tracy correa she's a graduate graduate from 1986 my sister susie perry she's a graduate of 1989 and my late dad rod robertson graduate sorry graduate of 1961. he he's rolling in his grave right now so this is why i'm here and my daughter emily emily shmear she is going to be your 2021-2022 fabric high school asb president who i'm sorry couldn't be here
039to speak what do we all have in common we have all grown up at that ag department it's so disappointing that on this agenda you're going to vote on applying for this new agricultural grant and then in the same turn turn around and take that ag land to put your solar project up paul burke is special i think everybody at that table in front of me knows that we represent a large part of the san diego agricultural community if you want this farming community this town this school to be against you anymore because apparently nobody likes you guys sorry to break it to you this is going to be the way to do it except for mr jones sorry um i'm asking actually i'm telling you to find another solution because this one isn't it
040what's her name ms schumer thank you very much for your help heartfelt report next please no more public verbal comments so now it's the board that talks um we're going to start out with a carlo uh i'm sorry i'm sorry that was a lot to listen to um listen to mr carl olampio oscar um no report just want to announce that my last name is misspelled it's cara mapia it's all right no i'm saying i'm sorry i was a little frustrated hearing um that's just how i feel all right mr uh cara lumpio and i have mastered his name i just this was for anyway um he has no report so mr jones your report yeah um thank you everybody for the comments thank you for your your concern and and for doing the best
041you can to let us know how we can do better we've been i've been talking to a lot of board members last week or so on a lot of topics in no particular order i'm learning a lot about critical race theory um i'm learning that it's very confusing it's it's honestly above my my level i i it's a theory but and uh in follow-up conversations that we've had and a lot of the people up here um it's it seems that there's there's a uh understanding that it's critical race theory is something that we are trying to ram through or push through or or indoctrinate our students or something like that my comment is that that nothing can be further from the truth we do not have classes on on that topic that's not part of
042the high school curriculum here nor does it have any place here it's it's it's a high level confusing topic and i know it's also very politically charged um so the the the faculty that i've got up here or the other uh um superintendent and the other board members try to make our decisions based almost every decision we stop and say you know what what what's right for the community what's right for the students and that's where we're making our decisions we're not focusing on skin color we're focusing on opportunities and success of all of our students and there's a lot of areas that we can be doing a lot better math scores were brought up i think that's absolutely true graduation rates these are the things we're trying to focus on so again this board
043is working together the best we can to make the best decisions we can and we understand oh that's the last thing is the brown act because we can't comment directly on public comment it may seem like we're not listening uh browneck says that we we cannot engage in a discussion item on something that's not on the agenda so so that's why we're we're being very careful and not to reply back to public comments and things like that thank you for your understanding i hope that that she has a little bit more light on on what our focus is and what we're trying to do thank you very much thank you mr jones miss sterling i think mr jones said it all so um i don't have anything else to report thank you thank you and
044i'm miss summers the board president and i'd like to address the very fact that we've been under the pandemic um for many months is our first time actually seeing each other in person all together um [Music] just to kind of just something about critical race theory there is a class that the state of california would like us to implement it's called ethnic studies this is something that won't even happen for a minimum of two years minimum lots of discussion needs to be made there's i just downloaded a 350 page report on what the state of california is giving for suggestions to teach they want every district in the state of california to digest it figure out what they want to do and of course that is up to the social studies department the president of
045this the our board superintendent principles and at this level we approve what they want to do nevertheless i'm reading the 350 page report just so i'm have the knowledge so um just we're we're working very hard i've been here now for two and a half years and we started the solar panels with a great concept in mind bottom line to make sure we have energy for the school in the future and also to save money yes we did have to borrow money and we are dealing with johnson controls and much discussion has been about it and i really enjoyed those reports also i know the farm is huge in fallbrook it is the sixth biggest program in the state of california and that's saying something so we honor the farm we do everything we can
046to make it the best possible program we put a lot of attention that some of the bond money goes there they didn't even have bathrooms that were appropriate which we've already started to work on those during the pandemic things weren't available like wood and and lumber and all these i mean so many things so um prices are very high right now because of of the demand but they'll come down so even though things seem slower than we would like and the community is always welcome to give their input and we're always listening so um i would just say one thing about math scores the kids have not been tested for three years so the scores that you look up are from three years ago so we need time to get i i don't even know
047how kids would do high level math on zoom seems very difficult to me the kind of math these kids are learning but they'll come back they're going to be in person and we've changed the whole math program there's no more algebra geometry and then algebra ii it's all incorporated into this wonderful new math program that has been in the works for since before i was board member so we're working on that too always working so just be assured people that we're working on things and i'd like to turn like the microphone over to miss tavish i have just a real quick report to kind of lighten things up a little bit uh this saturday uh live oak parks will be celebrating their 101 year anniversary so anyone that is free on saturday and would like
048to have a fun event to come it goes from early in the morning to like believe nine o'clock at night so come on down to live oak park for their 101 year anniversary party that's nice to hear so that brings us to the agenda actually i have a brief report oh superintendent i'm so sorry it's our superintendent's turn yes i just wanted to share that our second summer school session has over 400 students participating this is the second week the program will end next week on june 22nd cdph i'm sorry the cd cdc last week updated their guidelines on masks in schools which stated that masks are optional for those that are vaccinated for staff and students while indoors we are allowed to not wear masks outdoors but the cdph california department of public health
049which are the rules that we follow has stated that they will continue to require masks indoors for students and staff at least for the start of the 2021-2022 school year cdph will also be providing updated guidance to schools so that will be available to you at the next board meeting and the california department of education also released their guidelines for independent studies which is something that we had been waiting for we are currently reviewing those in order to be able to establish our virtual learning options for students that are opting not to return to school in person just yet so that information will be going out to parents as well and i want to address a few things as i've stated tonight with the math squaring and the independent studies we are bound by certain
050laws both federal and state because we do receive federal monies and we are bound by the education code and it is the education code that changed what we are to offer what we're obligated to offer in our health courses as far as the ethnic studies course is concerned we do not currently offer the course at fallbrook high school as our board president stated that would require development of the curriculum it would require participation and approval through our instructional counsel and it would require board approval the ethnic studies curriculum is currently not required in california schools but just so that you are aware because that is where your voices need to be heard there is pending legislation that if passed and signed into law by the governor would phase in an ethnic studies graduation requirement so
051that it would be required in order to graduate from a high school in california beginning with the class of 2029-2030 and i also wanted to clarify that yes we are making many upgrades to our ag facilities they are not being paid for by bond monies it is actually through our developer fees thank you boy okay now we have an information item this is uh revisions deletions to board policies administrative regulations and exhibits the revision and delation's board policies administrative regulations and exhibits are being presented as an informal item for a first ready for a first ready and will return as an action item at the next board meeting any questions and again we bring board policies and administrative regulations and exhibits to the board to stay in compliance with california education code and all of
052these board bylaws administrative regulations and exhibits follow the california school board association recommendations it is only an informational item and will appear at the next board meeting as an action item all right action item number two revisions to bar board by law and exhibit remuneration reimbursement and other benefits may i have a motion please i move that the board approved the revisions to the board bylaw and exhibit 92.50 remuneration reimbursement and other benefits in the second reading as presented thank you all second thank you so that was uh tabish and jones so um at this time i'm going to ask for any clarifications questions or comments from board members yeah i want to share um i think i was in the meeting when a former trustee brought this up a while back and i want
053to reiterate what he stated that something that i agreed with he stated that it was a privilege to stay here for 45 hours with closed sessions without pay now this is so discouraging for a lot of many hard-working parents single parents who would like to become board members but cannot afford to lose four to five hours um voluntarily now for a lot of people two hundred and forty dollars may not seem like a lot but for a single household income or a parent from single household income that could be a bill that could be paid now the elections are coming up um what i'm stating is that you know um we could we should give everybody a chance to run and um folks from again single working households sorry a little nervous but um you
054know this could encourage them and then hopefully we could have some strong potential board members that um you know that could um that could uh file for for a campaign so with that i vote yay thank you and anybody else believe we've called for the vote yet no i know no i'm asking if anybody else has a comment or question nobody i do um there's been some concern about the benefits that board members uh get uh especially when it comes to health health care uh ms medford could you explain how um how the bylaw is explained was to me thank you yes the board members would be entitled to the same health benefits as current district employees are which is on the certificated side they are 55 up until 55 years old if somebody wanted
055to retire they are then eligible for the medical benefits for 10 years until they reach 65 which is the medicare eligible age on the classified contract it's 55 if you have 15 years of service 58 if you have 10 years of service so that's it and the benefits are not any better for the board members than they are for the certificated or classified staff members a miss medford i would like to make one correction the board bylaw states very clearly that board members who elect participate shall pay the full cost of premiums so they don't even receive the um the amount that we pay into our employee benefits and that was effective starting in the 2008-2009 school year so some people um will attach to the school their their programs that they have available to
056them because they're a large entity so sometimes a board member could if they wanted to attach to the school but they would still have to pay a premium could be anywhere from what it costs for a single person to a family uh ranges anywhere between maybe 700 to 1500 dollars a month that they have to contribute because the school district doesn't pay anything into that and so that's what it really is it's deceiving when you read this because it looks like you know you get all kinds of health benefits um to be on the board and you really don't you can attach if you want to some people do that and there's nobody on this board that i know of but they always have that opportunity anybody coming next year we we could have done
057that up till now if we wanted to any of us that was okay but back in 2008 when we had the um this stock market fell and everything was in such a mess and the state had very little money the board at the time decided not to um to take the money that was their decision but it is in the bylaws so for me as an example when i ran for the board i saw it in the bylaws and i thought i was going to get 240 a month and i'm retired and on a fixed income so i was surprised but nevertheless i've been here for two and a half years anyway so um you know it's just time to bring it up so that's pretty much my comment on it also here's another thing
058i'm sorry but all school boards in this area the elementary does get paid the all the school districts around us do it's just something that's being done here it was unusual and it's in the law to do it and so all this time they should have been or we should have been offered it it also mentions in the bylaw that you can choose not to take it if you don't want to so there you are but because of what was voted on in 2009 it's been on hold so i'm gonna unless anybody else has any comments or questions do you mr jones i'm just trying to get a little clarification of where we were before this uh is this the the compensation for board members is this something that is in the bylaws that should
059have happened or where were we before the the language that we have here so it is actually in education code where it states that board members can be reimbursed for the time on the board and that reimbursement or the stipend that is received is dictated by education code 35120 so for a school district of our size it's based on student population it is 240 dollars a month previously um before this was brought to the board for revision in um let's see the last time that it was looked at was in 2011 in september of 2011 the board at that time um felt that they did not want to receive the reimbursement and took that out of the board policy because it is optional but it is allowed under the law so we are now adding
060the language in that board members may receive the 240 dollar stipend that's allowed by education code and that board members who do not want to receive the payment can choose not to be compensated and if a board member misses a meeting they would not get the stipend for that month thank you excuse me is that clear to everybody okay then i'm going to go ahead any other concerns or questions and i'll give it a second okay hearing none i'm going to call for the vote mr carl olympia hi thank you mr jones hi thank you miss sterling aye thank you miss summers says i miss tavish i thank you passes five to zero all right then we'll go to action item number three revisions to job description athletic trainer may i have a motion please
061i move that the board approve in the first reading the revisions to the athletic trainer job description as presented thank you i second all right we have a first and second from um tabish and cara lampio and um do we have any questions or concerns with this item i do okay um is this position going to be a change from classified or certificated no the position will continue to be a classified position our job description was outdated and did not meet the qualifications that are outlined but by the national athletic trainer association which requires athletic trainers to have a master's degree our job description required a bachelor's degree and therefore the pay was considerably lower we had a job vacancy for an athletic trainer since october as everybody knows we offer a wide variety of
062sports and it is crucial that we keep up to date with industry standards and that is um the reason for the change so the only things that are changing um if you look at the attachment is we have removed supervises the security of the locker room that is the responsibility of the coaches we've updated training and experience to match that of the national athletic trainers association and we've also changed the salary range from a 13 to a 22 so that we are competitive with the industry and nearby districts and we're requiring a master's degree which most athletic trainers have if they're certified they have a master's because it's required else okay let's go ahead and uh call for the vote uh that'll be um mr carlumpio hi thank you mr jones hi thank you miss
063sterling aye thanks miss summers says i and miss tavish aye thank you all right that's action item number four new classified position supervisor of attendance may i have a motion please yeah i'll go ahead and motion that we go ahead and approve the new classified position supervisor of attendance as read okay that's jones and sterling for the first and second any clarification here because it is a new position i would like to read the background information contacting parents and students regarding attendance issues is a critical part of a student's education the student needs to be present to learn having a person be the liaison and have the ability to meet and confer on how to better assist and improve a student's attendance is crucial to their academic success and reaching the ultimate goal of graduation
064the new job description addresses the duties of the supervisor of attendance and how they will be working to improve a student's attendance communicating and meeting with parents and students having attendance difficulties will be helpful and improve academic grades the position will be paid with supplemental concentration funds with the cost of approximately forty nine thousand five hundred and sixty three dollars for salary and benefits including average medical of twenty nine thousand fifty two dollars for a total of seventy eight thousand six hundred and fifteen dollars this new position assists the district in meeting the needs of all of our el capital goals is everybody good any questions or concerns okay i'll go ahead and call for the vote on action item number four that would st we'd start out with mr cara olympio hi thank you
065mr jones hi thanks miss sterling aye thanks miss summers says i miss tavish hi okay action item number five passes that brings us to uh five johnson controls for the solar photovoltaic battery project sorry i mispronounced that may i have a motion please i'd like to go ahead and raise motion to discuss this item okay so you read the whole thing that it says underneath there i go out of motion to to get the board or to prove the updates on the changes to the jobs controls okay may i have a second please i yeah i deferred to second okay we have a first first and second now it's time for um yes i apologize but where this is a person from the audience because you are you representing johnson controls no i no this
066is mrs margaret chapman she is one of our agriculture teachers and during public verbal comments she asked to table her oh um comment until the agenda item thank you thank you okay good evening school board members and superintendent mrs garza gonzalez i am here tonight with concerns and questions pertaining to the solar project a change order that you will be reviewing and voting on here this evening for those in the audience that may not know i am one of the three teachers in the agriculture department and have been here at fallbrook high school for over 20 years recently it has come to our attention that the solar project that we were told would have little or no impact on the agriculture department has now been expanded to be built over two of the four pastures
067we have in the back portion of the department we understand a change was made back in september from the original plan however we were never informed had we known we would have come to you much sooner in years past we have found uses for these pastures grazing our student-managed goat herd student beef projects and growing vegetables with the hiring of an agriculture teacher less than two years ago and the adoption of our advanced floral design and advanced environmental horticulture classes we have developed ideas on the development of student-based projects for the use of those pastures to increase student engagement in our agriculture program we certainly hope that you can see the value of hands-on opportunities that will increase student connection to the campus needed more now than at any time future plans include the designing
068and implementation of a potential cut flower area and vegetable garden all plans that have been on hold due to the pandemic our department is wondering have other locations been considered that will not impact students or potential student-based projects it is my understanding that due to the inability to utilize carports in the junior parking and thus reducing energy production that the number of panels in the agriculture area was increased can other parking areas such as the district oasis parking lots student parking on winter haven or even the open field east of this district office used during graduation parking be utilized to compensate for these extra panels we are hoping that you consider tabling this agenda item and looking for alternative locations for additional solar panels that will not encroach upon any more of the agriculture facility
069we strongly encourage you to look at the overall impact of this project and its potential detriment to student engagement opportunities thank you for your time and consideration to this important matter thank you for your your comment does anybody on the board want to make a comment concerning johnson controls at this time before we make the vote i'd like to speak to the representative from johnson control madam president members of the board i just wanted to let everyone know that we do have dr russell garcia and renee goodwin from johnson controls and for any further questions we do have our legal counsel mr samuel santana who's also in the audience who will be able to address any questions the board may have so um you have proposed that uh the elementary district take over those two
070um meters are three meters i'm sorry that um they are utilizing that has been under the um payment from um the high school district um has the elementary school district agreed to do this miss mefford can actually answer that that question since it's outside of the scope of johnson controls the elementary district has agreed to take their meters and i am working with michelle white who's our sdg e representative on first separating those three and then we are working outside of johnson controls with sdg e on the meter consolidation project okay i have other questions such as we're going to be paying forty 35 dollars to thirty seven thousand six hundred and one dollars for your consulting fees but then again on page 28 it says that we are also going to be paying um
071for the hourly wage for any consulting person that comes out to work on our units so what is it are we paying a flat fee or are you paying the flat fee plus paying for their salaries on page 28 of your document it says that we are going to be paying um service for consulting and service fees we're also paying their hourly wage while they're here page 27. so i believe that is and i would have to go back and double check and and to answer your question directly but i believe that is the breakdown of what the hourly rate is so can you speak into the the speaker i cannot hear a thing you're saying i said i believe that is an hourly rate for the total amount but i would have to go
072back and review the contract specifically to those that particular item so we're paying both the hourly rate plus the consulting fee of thirty five thousand such and such i would have to go back and review the specific pages that you're talking about and then i could give you a straight answer mr santana since you've been working with the contract do you have any clarification on that particular item 28 and what's the other page good evening everyone yeah typically the uh the first number you mentioned the 35 000 this is with regard to the measurement and verification consulting services so the scope of that work is after the improvements are completed uh you would contract with jci to provide i believe it's three years of measuring and verification services to make sure that you're meeting the
073verification uh sorry for them to verify that you're meeting the savings um that are uh proposed in the agreement so that 35 000 is for measuring and verification providing reports providing you with the data that you need to verify the savings and typically the hourly rate that's associated with that would be if there's some work that needs to be done uh if there's damage to the equipment or that type of thing then you would pay for the hourly rate so as someone mentioned earlier i believe there's a baseball field nearby or something like that so if after the project is completed um there would be damage to the equipment that would need to be fixed in order for you to be able to reach the savings that you that are proposed then at that point
074jci would typically charge their hourly rates to fix that damage anymore yes uh to the uh johnson controls um can you comment at all or fill us in uh we heard the topic of uh or the problem of liquid liquid liquefication uh which was a problem with part of the soil and therefore we weren't able to put as much over the main parking garage or the main parking area um but i've heard now from somebody in the public and then i also heard this earlier that there might have been some alternatives can you comment on that uh uh i'm sorry alternative so that we can mitigate the liquidation problem but still use the same areas okay um just to comment a little bit expand on that all areas all the roofing all the parking lots
075all the empty fields were all evaluated at that time during the my first meeting here was january 30th of 2019 and the contract was awarded september 30th of 2019 the area that has been designated for the ground mount has always remained the same from the original design build contract and so the contract is a design build and we went through the design portion from september 30th until our recent adjustments the liquefaction area that you're talking about there's there were some arrays removed during the course of design due to the liquid faction and the cost of the cost of that but in addition the product that was in order to meet the original production request of september 30th or september 28th the board meeting then the production was taken back on february 19th to just under
076one megawatt and so you would have had to remove arrays modules anywhere since those were the easy ones to remove because the cost and we did evaluate and look at structurally what would have to be done through our geological reports and through the state of the state architects office and the cost of that was extreme but since they needed to be removed to get back to the under one megawatt that came out first and an additional row came out of the ground mount i'd like to clarify um and i don't remember the dates exactly but we do have board agendas the original project was for solar in the senior and junior parking lot in the carport the board that was going to give us anywhere between 60 to 70 percent i believe in this method
077step in um if i get get it wrong the board then requested up to 80 production and um the design that we received was the carports in the junior and senior lot and in order to get to that 80 percent production level um the ground mounts in the agriculture department and that was approved at that time at the february 19th meeting that was not a board meeting so you won't find notes um or minutes on that we were informed that uh liquid liquefaction um was an issue in the carport area and in order to reach the 80 percent production one of the suggestions was that we take up two more pens from the agriculture department as well as at that meeting we found out about rule which meant that a system that size would incur
078up to a 600 000 fee i made the decision at that time to not take up two additional pens because i said that would completely wipe out the agricultural department and to keep the system under the one megawatt to avoid kicking in rule 21. the two pens the two ground mount systems and the ag department remained because we lost some of the carports due to the liquefaction issue we did look at the grad parking lot that we use that also has liquefaction we're built i understand over a swamp so that's going to to be a problem we looked at ivy we looked at oasis obviously district office was our first suggestion that we look at those parking lots those are an issue when it comes to the fire department because they can't do the turns
079that that they need to we looked at mounting on the roofs we have a very old school that cannot support those systems and the suggestion was to mount them on the new cte steam buildings but that would mean that the 400s would have to first be excuse me modernized before we put the the solar up which those won't be modernized for probably another two two years this method and the new steam building is is even farther away from from that so we did look at all possible options um but the main goal at least for me was to stay under rule 21 and not kick in another six hundred thousand dollar um fee for being over one megawatt okay thank you for that clarification um i actually like to go back to the ag teacher
080uh regarding the pens and we also heard earlier about a place that used to be used for lacrosse training my question is is that old field that we used to use for lacrosse practice is that currently being used for agricultural pens or are the pens separate from that i consider part of the agriculture program and then there is an area yeah so so i think we talk about the same thing i think i'm sorry mr jones if if we could ask for input from johnson controls or our attorney or miss metford or myself if you would like to follow up with a meeting with the ag teachers we we can do so but um the board can only ask questions interact with jci and mr santana or the people that are here understood i apologize
081thank you okay so any other questions uh from the board to uh johnson controls or to our attorney so mr santana what do you think that our best course is at this point um well i mean i think at this point you know we are at the point where if there are questions this is the perfect time to get those answered before we move forward you know as the contract is structured there's a design scope which johnson controls has completed as was mentioned the next step is the step we're in now which is where johnson controls is putting together a construction proposal for the board to consider which is what's being considered tonight if that's approved then that would lead to a contract amendment and we would proceed with the construction however as the contract
082is structured the district can still ask questions can still get clarification can still get comfortable with all of the unanswered issues that you may still have and this is the perfect time to do that before moving into construction so if there are questions about location i believe there were some questions about the number of meters i believe there may have been questions about potentially battery the battery component and i think as well the architect who is designing the cte building had questions about a flood plain issue and how this might impact the jci project and the cte building so i think you know given all the uncertainty that um appears to still be kind of in the air you know as the construction contract is structured right now is the perfect time to have that
083addressed i think if we were to approve it tonight and still have those questions answered then that would be a lot harder to change it going forward whereas if we um you know kind of buckle down and get these answered i'm sure jci will make themselves available to answer those questions and the cte architect will make himself available to interact um with jci and get those answered then i think we can you'll be probably happier i think at the end of the day with less change orders and less issues with the construction of it thank you for that mentioning that um so does anybody else have any um questions for our attorney or for johnson controls um i'm not sure if this is really a question but i'm just very concerned with the contract in
084that um what we had agreed to originally we are getting far less for a much higher price tag and there's been a lot of changes that you're you know coming up with you're not going to switch out the meters uh the rule 21 just came up a few months ago we weren't notified about that you know a year ago when we were first getting into this and we had requested the 80 coverage of of solar at that point which you guys do this all the time so you should have been able to tell us about rule 21 back then before we were making this decision so i really kind of feel like this contract in general has been almost like a bait-and-switch kind of thing where we were told one thing at the very beginning
085and now you're telling us all these different things with more and more costs that keep adding up and it's just not making the sense that it did way back in the beginning so i i don't know if there's a question there but i just i'm very frustrated with the whole situation i don't know how you guys can how uh johnson controls can respond to that but if you want to say something because we need to go on to the vote yeah well i'm definitely sympathetic right to dealing with the headwinds and changes in a design build contract which this is and we're trying to arrive at a goal that the district has with a certain production of clean energy and plus storage so i'm sympathetic of the changing and the cost through the development there
086were four questions that were asked prior to the board that we were sent via email those will help uh answer some of that for you as far as some of the changes or as it relates to the size of the battery right changing to a smaller size because it's uh not as cost efficient to have the larger battery so actually went from a 300 kilowatt hour battery to a 1087 kilowatt hour battery but what ended up happening is we got a four hour battery instead of a two hour and this battery size configuration is the yield the most savings for the cost so that's always what we're trying to do is figure out what the lowest cost is around the design goal as it relates to the metering you know we you know did we
087look at reducing the number of meters meter consolidation and is that still happening no rather than consolidating the meter and we did an analysis and uh presented to the staff whereas concluded that it was more financially advantageous for the district to just do a rate change on those existing meters and there was a couple of clarifying questions as it relates to our execution delivery of the project as far as tying progress work trump progress payments to the work instead of time that's pretty typical on a draw schedule being tied to project scope and not just a time frame so yes to that answer and then will we have access to purchase statements from jci suppliers i don't see why not we provide these in an open book pricing like we've done here for this contract
088so really transparent with the cost and we were able to keep the escalation costs through from the start of this at four and a half percent when our other projects are around 16 percent so we had a lot of wins along the way to save money while trying to get to the production goals of the district and i do want to clarify that we have not committed to moving away from the meter consolidation that would happen if um that would be part of of the vote tonight but that decision has yet to be made i did not see a discount in the um contract for not doing the meter consolidation uh it seemed like the contract price went up instead of down um when you're no longer going to be doing the uh you know
089consolidation of the meters i don't understand that part and then the other thing is i would like to understand a little bit more about your pricing of the access road uh you would price that at like 490 000 to do an access road and then we were able to get a bid for 43 000 and so i'm wondering the buffering there i mean how much padding is going on with you know these different contracts can you explain the road at all i mean on the price on that okay i'm not sure which to address i was going to adjust mr santana's comment regarding liquefaction in the floodplain and your i don't know who the other architect is but i do know that that was all addressed during the course of design and so the floodplain
090all of the mapping all of that with the geotech has all been taken care of as far as the solar project and the battery and how to address the battery in a solar in a flood plain and all of that so that has all been taken care of with regard to the road we provided a quote the quote that we received to the district and to substantiate what we had we've discussed back and forth if you can get the road for that price that you should you should definitely take that and so that was credited back at the amount that we gave you um so to because our quote that we got was substantially higher and that was provided to the district at that time i'm trying to think of what month that was but
091it's been probably four months ago okay but the progress and to add on to what russ was saying because i am the operations leader i start at the very beginning so i was here for the very first meeting and i'm here up until the very end so i've been a part of all of the discussions regarding can you put it on the roof and what the structural issues are with the department of state architect for putting it on the roof for discussing liquefaction and flood plain and all of that has been discussed and documented throughout the course of design so it has all been addressed the documents have been turned in for the carport to the state they've been approved so the carports are ready to go at any time i did double check with
092the architect this morning to talk to him about the the ground mount and the battery it is under review they anticipate that they'll have redline comments back by next week and be scheduling an appointment for back check all right thank you and anything else good do you have anything else to say the only other thing i would add is that i did also discuss if there were any changes could we address those in back check or would we have to do a ccd and he said either option is available okay do you have anything else to say before you leave um only that you know we know that the the costs are rising for equipment and last month we took a hit on the solar it's about thirty thousand dollars that we're mitigating on behalf
093of the district because we're trying to you know hit this the original targeted price so those are some of the costs that we've been able to mitigate on behalf of the district and i also wanted to say to the attendees very sympathetic to the the ag space my wife's in ag so i'm gonna have a lot of explaining to do when i get home but we definitely believe in these type of clean energy projects and worked well with the district to do our due diligence here for cost space scope and delivery so thank you thank you very much thank you thank you my goodness lots of stuff here tonight um i think it's time to go ahead and call for the vote and we're listening to our attorney and to vote on this means we
094go forward or if if we don't vote for it it means everything's on hold and there we are with that so i'm going ahead and call for the vote we'll start with um trustee carl olampio what's your vote um nay thank you mr jones no thank you ms sterling no miss summers says no and miss tavish no yep okay and um needs more work so um now we'll hit the consent agenda um matters listed under the consent agenda are considered by the board of trustees to be routine and will be enacted by one action there is usually no discussion of these items prior to the time of the board of trustees votes on the motion unless members of the board request specific items to be discussed or deleted from the consent agenda may i have
095a motion please i move that the board approve has presented the consent agenda i second all right so that's uh tabish and sterling any questions concerns or anything okay i just want to clarify that i said nay not yay so that was a no yeah we got it we got it we heard you um so let's go ahead and call for the vote for the consent agenda so that's mr uh cara olympio aye thanks mr jones aye good miss sterling aye thank you miss summers says i am established aye okay so consent agenda passes that brings us to organizational matters this is the appropriate place in the agenda for members of the board to request the superintendent provide further information regarding items discussed at this meeting or request that new items of business be placed
096on future agendas does anybody have anything i would like to request a meeting with mr santana and go over different options for the solar project so if i'm understanding correctly you would like a special board meeting on the solar project yes okay is the rest of the board in agreement yeah i think that would be a good idea i would also like to ask to have a couple of different solar companies coming in to give a bid to see what it's out there since there's been so many changes noted um i don't know that that will be at the same meeting depending on how quickly you would like the special study session we might end up doing more than one all right i have something concerning the uh students for next year when we were
097doing covid um the kids it had been a tradition here at fallbrook that kids do this community service and um it was it was really um something that has been traditional and kids would work all kinds of places it rains and different things and um it was beautiful you know and maybe a little hassle at the end because some kids kind of left it to the last minute but it had really good intent and um during covid there was no way that the kids could go out and do that sort of thing so we dropped it there has been some discussion on reinstating that but with the new verbiage and we would like to have some kind of or let's bring it up how we can do something that has a certificate program and that
098miss miss kane at the career center has some ideas so about how to do that so that the kids aren't leaving the high school clueless of what they wanted to do that it's possible that because of a community service there's just something that you know clicked with them and they got excited and this is something they wanted to to continue with the rest of their life so if it just needs to be thought through ideas brought out and i think miss kane would be a wonderful contributor to designing that so that's what i'd like to see happen as soon as we could um i would like to see something started for the next school year that is not demanding for everybody but that works for the kids who want it so um again as clarification
099the community service was not waived um it is stillboard policy and graduation requirement we only waived five hours each semester that we were in distance learning so 15 hours from the seniors juniors and then i think it was 10 for sophomores and it would have been 10-4 for freshmen and what we had discussed previously is the state's uh seal of civic engagement so is the discussion that you would like to see is that the criteria for the seal of civic engagement take the place of community service and have that discussed in the board that's what we were thinking and um that's true i stand corrected on it but i know that we just didn't do it during covet that we had to put it on hold so let's uh let's get that revised so that
100we can all this just i really want to concentrate on the kids and focus on them for the new year with something very positive anything else okay so um there being no further business to come before the board the regular meeting of july 12 2021 was adjourned at 7 15 by diane summers the board president you