001Good evening everyone. The board of education reconvene into open session at 5:14 p.m. Roll call, please. >> Isabella Kio, student board member, present. >> Rose Williams, present. Cleveland Johnson, present. Joanna Leila present. Brandy Clark present. >> Sammy Luna present. >> Alejandra Walava present. >> Espiranza Arce present. >> Robert Verie present. >> Susanna Lopez present. The board of education met in close session to discuss board deliberations regarding public employee discipline, dismissal, release, non-reelection, a conference with a labor negotiator, a conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation, and a conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation. The board gave further directions to district staff and took action on the following. A motion was made by Miss Clark and seconded by Mr. Williams and approved settlement resignation agreement with employee number 1 191833. This was approved by the
002board of education by the following vote. Five, yes. Zero, no. Sammy Luna, yes. Brandy Clark, yes. Joanna Leva, yes. Cleveland Johnson, yes. And Williams, yes. Next, we will have our pledge of allegiance led by Miss Carbio. Everyone, please stand. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. 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. Thank you. You may be seated. The Marino Valley Unified School District acknowledges that our schools and district sites are situated on the ancestrial homelands and traditional territories of indigenous peoples including the Kawia, the Gabriel Lino Tongba and Luceno as well as the Serrano. We honor their connection to this region and sincerely appreciate the opportunity to educate
003our students on their traditional homeland. Their continued presence, resilience, and vital contributions remind us of our responsibility to honor and care for this land and its people. Future board meeting dates are December 9th, 2025. It's a long list there. Next, we have the school report. Miss Carbio, would you like to introduce? >> Um, I would like to call up um Brandon Garcia to give our presentation. [applause] Good evening board president Luna, board members, superintendent Roava, and cabinet and community. My name is Brandon Garcia, and I am proud to share Vista Lava High School school report for November. This year, our school has continued to grow academically, strengthen school pride, and expand opportunities for all students. Vista Lago has seen strong academic gains. Our CAP scores increased in both English and math. Along with our district-leading
004college and career indicator, which highlights the hard work of our teachers and the dedication of our students, we've also strengthened our campus culture. The Raven's Nest has completely transformed Friday nights, bringing in record attendance and school spirit. Our new Renaissance program is celebrating academic excellence and motivating students to keep reaching higher. Across departments, teachers are aligning C courses and pacing while also building a sense of connection and belonging for every Raven. For athletics cross country, this was a historic season. For the first time in many years, we've fielded full varsity and JV teams for both boys and soccer girls. Boys and girls with 31 runners, the largest team in school history. Highlights include Sahed Thomas, league champion. Nicole Valdez, first team all awesome bell league and CIF qualifier. Joselyn Beran, second team awesome bell league
005and CIF qualifier. Our football team finished seven to four, earning our sixth consecutive CIF appearance. Key contributors include quarterback Josiah Dupri, standout player Jaylen Brown, Nhemia White, Romeo Baldwin, and Jeriah Holtz. Our girls tennis and volleyball. Girls tennis had an impressive season finishing 15 to7 and winning round one of CIF against San Bernardino. Girls volleyball showed grit, teamwork, and sportsmanship and celebrated five senior during five seniors during their emotional senior night. Our VAPA programs have include have been active and visible across the community. Create club hosted its first staff and family art fundraiser. theater performed where where there's a will there's a murder in mid November. Students volunteer all at diia fiesta by faint by face painting for families. And this December, our students will help decorate Pasadena tournament of roses parade floats. ASB continues
006to be a heart of our school spirit. This semester they hyped up the Raven's Nest at every football game, put on a successful homecoming dance and pep rally, organized fun spirit days, hosted the Halloween costume contest, helped with trunk or treat, kept lunches fun with ongoing activities. ASB is helping build a positive connected school culture that students feel excited to be part of. This fall we hosted a cash for college workshop supporting families with FASA and KATA. Our senior progress is 217 seniors are on track for CSU coupons. 59 seniors have started their UC applications. 132 seniors completed at least one community college application. We also we also hosted college representatives from across the country including CBU, UC Irvine, John Hopkins, Columbia, Yale, and the University of or Oregon and UC Berkeley. Our high achieving
007juniors and seniors visited Pomona College to experience a selective liberal arts environment. Our health academy continues to offer powerful hands-on learning experiences. 10th graders participated em on EMT skills in the forest on Palm Springs Tram. 11th graders visited UC Irvine CSU Fullerton, including a behind the scenes of the of the university's nursing lab. We also held a health academy paranite with over 200 attendees welcoming families into the program. MCJR MCJRTC program surpassed the required enrollment again with 124 cadetses. Their accomplishment includes ranking second in the region of the Raiders fitness, completing 620 hours of community service, participating in 20 public affairs events, earning 48 academic awards, receiving 42,600 scholarships and enlistments. Our cadets continue to model leadership, service, and academic excellence. Our PBIS team earned platinum recognition and is on track to earn it again
008this year. Their work focuses on targeted interventions, resorative support, and building student success across all tiers. AVID students participated in AVID Olympics, building teamwork and community. Avid N scholars visited Cal State San Bernardino and UCR, gaining insight into competitive universities and strengthening their collegegoing mindset. We're excited to share that the new Ravens Health Center is NF building is now open. The building now includes a full ambulance simulator for EMT students, a brand new mural, and a ribbon cutting ceremony will be held during second semester. visit to the Lago continues to grow in academics, student leadership, and school spirit. Our accomplishments reflect on the dedication of our students, teachers, staff, and families. Thank you to the board for your continued support and for helping our Ravens soar higher each year. Thank you. [applause] And if you
009guys have any questions, please feel free to ask. >> Don't leave yet. >> You can turn around. >> Great job. Thank you. Can I go? >> Yeah, go ahead, Mr. Johnson. >> Yeah, great great job. Uh uh I've got a question though. Any scholarship offers for the football team players? >> Oh, >> yeah. We have two actually have two sophomores right now that have been early offers. So, we have our quarterback and our wide receiver. >> Quarterback's received probably 10 plus offers. >> The biggest school right now probably on the board is Arizona State. >> Cool. And we have a sophomore receiver that just got offered from Colorado State. >> Cool. Thank you. >> Yeah. Well, just so you'll know, I asked that question on purpose because there are people who watching it, you know,
010what's happening tonight. >> And so I'm figuring if I ask you the question, I already know that we had some scholarships, but I want to make sure those folks that's at home, they see it. And that's going to get them to come out next year so they can start supporting us more than what we're getting right now. That's why I set that up. So, thank you guys both for for that for that answer. I appreciate that. >> Brandon, >> um on page two, um you spoke about 217 [clears throat] seniors are on track for CSU coupons. >> What are coupons? >> Uh I think they're fee waivers. >> Fe waver? >> Yeah, fee waver. Yeah, they >> I didn't didn't know. Yeah, so I thought I'd ask. >> Good job. >> Excellent job. Thank you,
011Brandon. You answered my question and great presentation. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> We picked the right guy. >> Miss Leva, did you want to say anything? >> I just want to say, you know, thank you for coming and presenting. I know that it's kind of like nerve-wracking to be here, you know, but um just want you to know that um I feel like you know, like Mr. People's presenting because you know, we're asking my they're asking questions and you right on top. So, I want to congratulate that. That's really nice. That's awesome. So, thank you. [applause] >> Thank you for a great presentation. I'm really excited about your uh FASA completion and helping all the families complete that. It's very, very important. And again, for having a a huge enrollment for your ROC program,
012that's pretty amazing. So, keep up the great work. And I like for you um I liked all your facility updates as well. So, thank you for for your presenting. A job well done. >> Thank you. >> Yes, good job. Thank you so much for your great presentation. Vista Delago is obviously doing great things and we're really looking forward to the ribbon cutting. So, thank you for being here tonight. Miss Cario, >> I'd like to thank you for presenting great presentation. And something that caught my eye was um how some of your students are gonna be involved in the um the Rose Parade. Yes. Uh in Pasadena. I think that's really important because um it increases a lot of creativity and it keeps our students involved in the community even though it's far. I feel like
013um that's important for the students to um kind of just step out of their comfort zone and explore new places. And thank you for good great presentation. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. >> Next we have the superintendence report. Dr. Ruvakava. >> Thank you, President Luna. I I am always um happy to instead of reading the vision, the mission, and the portrait of a graduate student, have a student like Brandon basically reflect everything that's up there. Brandon, great job. I think you exemplified um how we want students to be p future ready and positively impact the world. um especially how you are how you exhibited a lot of the behaviors of the portrait of a graduate in your presentation and you were not ready for questions and you adapted and were able to answer them.
014So good job and thank you for that. Um a personam a personal example is better than me reading the slide. So thank you again Brandon. Um I am very happy to welcome to the uh microphone uh Mr. Peoples and his team because we have a audience full of folks who are not here because they enjoy board governance. They're here because they want to be recognized and celebrated for their accomplishments. So, Mr. Peoples and Cody and your team, if you can come up and we're going to be sharing our PBIS awardees for this year. [applause] All right. Good evening, board president, members of the board of education, superintendent of schools, Dr. Rubakaba, and MVUSD families. Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. We know schools that implement positive behavior, interventions, and supports with fidelity
015see significant reductions in discipline referrals and suspensions. This happens because PBIS focuses on teaching positive behaviors and not simply punishing misbehavior. I want to just restate that again. PBIS focuses on teaching positive behaviors, not simply punishing misbehaviors. And so with that, I would really love to turn it over to the the the person who kind of runs the show for PBIS [snorts] and really works with our schools. Uh, I want to give it up for Miss Cody Harvey. [applause] >> Thank you. Good evening, Board President Luna, board members of education, superintendent Dr. Rubakalva, and distinguished guests. Um, my name is Cody Harvey, as Mr. Peebles just um, introduced me. And I wanted to share too, as a district, we have been intentionally analyzing and refining our positive behavior interventions and support systems as part of
016our broader multi-tered systems of supports. During the 2024 2025 school year, our schools engaged in a comprehensive review process that included staff and student interviews, classroom walkthroughs, tiered team assessments in a seven component application that examined the implementation of our schoolwide systems. So today we celebrate the work of our site PBIS coordinators, their teams, staff, student and school community and district departments who support this work to build systems at each of their schools. This is an everyday commitment. It is continuous long-term systems work that includes planning, implementing, evaluating, revising, and implementing further. Each of these schools tonight have invested time, collaboration, and devotion to get here. So, I want to thank you. Your faithfulness that ensures PBS is not a program or a tool, but a sustainable and systemic part of how we create consistent
017academic learning environments for our students to thrive throughout MVUSD. So, congratulations again for this well-earned recognition. And I do want to invite some of our partners here tonight from Riverside County Office of Education who also want to present something for our schools. So, Jasmine Fincher and Denise Granger. [applause] >> Oh, good evening, President Luna, Superintendent Rubikava, and members of the board. Um, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. Yes, I am Jasmine Fincher, and this is my colleague, Denise Granger. We represent the student engagement and wellness unit at Riverside County Office of Education. Um, at RCOE, we really are committed to supporting every student in Riverside County so that when they graduate, they're ready for success in career life and in any uh career path that they choose. >> So, as uh Mr.
018Peoples and Cody so well explained, PBIS is not just a program. It's not just a curriculum. It's a framework, a way of thinking. And so we're really excited to honor the 29 Marina Valley Unified Schools that earned PBIS recognition in 2025. Um there are four different levels as you can see and each one requires a little bit more. And so we're really really proud and excited for all of these schools to have to be honored here tonight. So on behalf of the Riverside County Office of Education, we'd love to present this banner to you. >> [applause] >> So, we appreciate that this hard work includes all families, staff members, students, and support from the board and cabinet. So, we appreciate your help. Thank you so much for having us here tonight and we're super excited
019to honor these 29 schools. >> Thank you so much for joining us. I don't know, Mr. peoples and Cody, can you be Vanna and hold up the sign as we call up our uh our schools? So, we're going to start with our silver awardees. Armada Elementary, Badger Springs Middle School, Bear Valley Elementary, Honey Hollow Elementary School, Moreno Elementary, Moreno Valley High School, Ramona Elementary, Richest Elementary, and Senica Elementary. If you can come on up, grab your grab your hardware. [applause] Dr. RC wants you to come up in alphabetical order. I don't know how you do that, but good luck. >> Badgers are Valley. [applause] >> [applause] >> Elementary School [applause] Elementary. [applause] >> Okay. So, I need to check with my boss, Claudia. Are we doing one full picture or do we want to do
020>> one at a time? Okay, perfect. So, we're going to do one picture. I'm just double checking. [applause] >> Uh ma madam chairman [cheering] m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m madam chairman, before they be seated, I would like to shake somebody's hand and tell them thank you. >> Oh, we Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Good. All right. I just thought, man, they would get ready to take off. Okay. So, now we're going to invite our gold PBIS awardees in alphabetical order. Cloverdale Elementary School, Creekide [applause] Elementary School, Edgemont Elementary School, La Hoya Elementary School, Sugar Hill Elementary School, [applause] Sunnyme Elementary School, Sunnyme
021Middle School, Sunny Meadows Elementary School, Towngate Elementary School, and Vista Heights Middle School. [applause] Cloverdale. [applause] [laughter] I know we're not als [applause] Sunny Middle School, [applause] I'm sorry. Yes. >> [applause] >> Okay. And now our platinum and bronze PBS awardees. Bayside, Butterfield Language Academy, Landmark Middle School, Mountain View Middle School, Northridge Elementary School, Palm Middle School, Serrano Elementary School, Valley View High School, and Vista Delago High School. [applause] [applause] >> Yes. Yes. What are we missing? Oh, and Midland. >> No. >> [applause] >> Five. So we are also very proud to recognize our employees of the year. This is an amazing school district and it's always very difficult to recognize our amazing employees, but even though it's a challenge, um, we do find a way to really identify those individuals that are going above
022and beyond. So, as I call you up, I'd like to you to please come up. We're going to have you as a group and then we're going to ask you if you're if you would like to share some words. You're not obligated, but you can if you'd like. We know that some of our employees um are a little bit shy, but we would really appreciate if you did share some words. So, our first one is Lorena Degrete, who is our confidential employee of the year. Lorena, if you can [applause] come up. I thought she was here. I guess not. our school counselor of the year, Jared McConnell. Jared, if you can come on up. [applause] Okay, I know this one is here. Our site support person of the year, Terrence Outlaw. Come on up. [applause]
023our classified administrator of the year, Carlos Trujillo. Carlos, come on up. [applause] And our principal of the year, Dr. Selena. Dr. Amanio, come on up. [applause] and our certificated administrator of the year, Shelley Crannle. Shelley, if you could come on up, too. [applause] So, one of the things that impress So, we do a road show. cabinet goes out along with their media team and we visit all of our employees of the year at their sites because we want to make sure that they're recognized with their peers and by the the sites and the departments that they support. Every single one of the folks that we visited was so humble and so surprised like me. How could I be employee of the year? Um, one, we appreciate the humbleness, but second, I think you need to
024do some more reflection and really appreciate how much you do for our school district and for our kids and for our colleagues. Um, we've yet to encounter somebody who says, "It's about time you recognize me." Uh, but I'm sure we will, but I will say that everyone that we visited was just so humbled and the words that we that everyone had to share about the work that they're doing, about their dedication to our students, about their dedication to our district were just amazing. So congratulations to both Terrence and Dr. Armanu that are here. If you would like to share words with the board, please do so. And then obviously if the board if you would like to share some words as well. Okay, got it. Well, thank you again. Um uh this is a this
025is not a job. This is something that we do as principles every day and it's it's just an honor to be part of a community, an honor to be serving our students, our our schools, our staff. As I mentioned earlier today, it's um you know what we do is bring people together and bring people together so we can see um you know the results of you know of our hard work but also support our families and our students and our staff, you know, to I mean to be able to be be better. But uh I love what I do and and I just um I'm always looking at uh you know how can I contribute uh to this uh to my school and how can I facilitate um what others do so they can be
026better at what they do. So uh I'm happy and I'm humble. Uh I you know I was totally surprised. I [clears throat] wasn't expecting it but um again thank you. Thank you again for um this honor. [applause] >> Uh I too am honored uh just to be nominated uh amongst the peers that I have the people in this room who make such a difference in the students lives. Um, as a product of Marina Valley, I attended Serrano Elementary as a fifth grader, moved on to Badger Springs, and then graduated from Marina Valley High School. Go Vikings. Um, it's it is my pleasure to give back to the community that helped make me the person that I am. Why am I getting emotional? Um, thank you. Uh, and [applause] like I said, it's it's just a
027pleasure to give back to um a place that's been with me my whole life and uh my mom still lives right down the street from Toronto and so I'm here all the time and I'm working here. So, uh it's hard to leave a place that has had such an impact on your life. So, thank you again. [applause] >> Thank you, Terrence. Dr. Dr. Armanio. Um I know he's not here, but I want to jive him a little bit just because it exemplifies how dedicated our um staff is. So Jared McConnell is our counselor of the year. He wasn't he didn't know we were going to go visit him. We stopped by. We arranged it with the site principal. Um and as we were going in, minutes before we we arrived, there was a student in
028need. And so he immediately uh responded to the student, said, "Hey, I'm here to support you. Come on into my office. let's talk about what's going on. So that's the best picture we could find because he was so focused on supporting the student that we were kind of he was he was I think he was definitely happy and and you know proud of the of the award but he was more concerned about the well-being of our kiddo than his own recognition and that just exemplifies the type of of staff member and team member that he is and that we have in Mina Valley. So, I know he's not here, but if we can please give him a big round of applause. And I know he can hear it. [applause] Thank you. Thank you. So, we
029also have another recognition and I'm going to ask um Trusty Williams to speak on this a little bit, but I want to invite up Jennifer Hooper who's one of our teachers at Marina Valley High School. So, Jennifer um I thought she had confirmed, Claudia. So um well Jennifer received a teacher grant from Cal RTA for this year and it's something that we've been doing in partnership with Cal RTA and I'm going let U trusty Williams share a little bit more about what Cal RTA does and the awards that they've been giving to our teachers. So Trusty Williams please if you don't mind. >> Yes. Uh KRTA is the California Retired Teachers Association and uh we're district 21 which includes Harupa, uh Riverside, Paris, Marino Valley and uh Elvour. And we work with those uh school
030districts um to bring retired teachers on board to work at the uh uh local, state, and national level. And um the Social Security Fairness Act was uh one of the uh big pushes that KRTA made for all those who uh retire with Social Security. uh you're going to be entitled to your total social security benefits. So that's just one of the things that Kell RTA uh is involved in. But in our particular district, uh we uh ask teachers to apply and they receive a grant for $150 that they can spend in their classroom. Teachers always need extra extra supplies, pencils, uh markers, what have you. and uh we know the need is out there and so uh we've set aside uh 30 teacher grants this year. Uh we also were involved in the uh science
031and engineering fair uh the last two years and uh we work with uh our students uh not only in the science and engineering fair uh but also the history day projects and we help those students who move on uh from the uh district level uh to the county level and to the state level. So, that's just a little bit about what we do. And, uh, Miss Hooper um has the opportunity uh to also apply for the state grant and uh the state will match the grant that we have uh if if she's selected. So, um, for all the teachers in Marino Valley Unified, uh, if you see this, uh, grant come up, five questions, you got to answer and you get a grant. So, I'm just giving you a little heads up. So, uh, look
032for the, uh, district grant from Cal RTA and also the state grant. That's pretty much what we do. >> Thank you for that time. >> Thank you, Trusty Williams, and thank you to K Cal RTA. Congratulations to Miss Super for um getting that mini grant. We really appreciate it. So, also want to continue um sharing some information regarding our amazing schools and the work that they're doing. We're doing something called Beyond the Bell where we highlight a few schools at every board meeting. And so, this this time around, I get to highlight quite a few schools as well. So, I want to start with Sunny Me Elementary. I want to thank um principal Sherrod for inviting me to visit her campus and tour the school. Um one of the things that really stood out to
033me was that the work that their teachers are doing on PLC, professional learning communities where they're working as team in teacher teams to calibrate practices both in instruction and assessment based on student needs. It's a way of uh addressing the needs of our students and really targeting standards in a more effective and collaborative way. You can see teachers engaged. You can see the students engaged in learning. And one of the things that was impressive is as we visited different grade levels, the teachers were all presenting the same content just a little bit differently based on their students needs. So I want to give a huge kudos to Sunnyme Elementary for their work on PLC and their teachers for that. So I I see uh Mur is coming in there. So kudos to you and to
034your team for that. At Ramona Elementary, um one of the things that Dr. for Choa has been really working on has been this the sense of belonging. So this year they're increasing the number of clubs that they have on campus. And for elementary schools, clubs are not routine. They're not common. So the types of clubs that they've included, they have a speech club, a gaming club, a theater club, a debate club. So those are just some of the examples of the clubs that students get to choose from. And we know that if students connect to someone or something on campus, they're going to be more successful. So kudos to Ramona and to the teachers for going above and beyond and offering these opportunities to our students. Again, clubs at elementary are not common, so kudos
035to them for doing that. Creekide has been doing some really unique things regarding in terms of their attendance. They've been trying to tackle attendance in a fun and competitive way. So, um, I see our principal from Creekide back there and I'm sure he can correct me, but let me try to take a crack at it. My understanding is that every week there's a competition for attendance and the grade level who wins gets a belt like if it was a belt, like a championship belt. Oh, and you have a belt with you to demonstrate. So, can you can you show it to the board so they can see what it looks like? So you know a attendance and chronic absenteeism is something that we are all trying to tackle and I think when our students understand
036the importance of attendance and they also get the recognition like this it's really impressive. So, can you imagine being the grade level and the classroom that gets to have that every week? That's pretty awesome. So, congratulations to the team, Dr. Zapeda and your team for coming up with a creative way of incentivizing attendance because we know kids learn best when they are in school. Uh, at Mountain View Middle School, we've showcased before their amazing esports program, but what a lot of folks don't know is they have a really accomplished music program. you can see that um the few of the pictures that are there that demonstrate their music program, but they are like highly highly talented um and great because they feed directly into our high school program over at Valley View. So, it benefits
037everyone. The other thing that you see is they really are leaning into a new initiative this year, which is um not fronting a classroom, basically having classroom spaces where teacher where kids are learning in different ways. So you see some of the the pictures there show students engaged in learning when they're actually doing group work, but they're not being directed by a teacher. It's not sit and get. It's students engaged in learning with each other. You can see they're trying to solve problems. They're working in groups. The problems are charted on a whiteboard. And so the teacher is able to walk around and support the students and also kind of check for understanding and retach at the same time. So kudos for Mountain View for doing that. Um, and lastly, I want to give huge
038props to March Mountain. Um, [clears throat] March Mountain is an alternative school. But I remember when I was growing up, the alternative school is where the bad kids used to go. And that is such a fallacy, not only just in general, but especially here in Marina Valley. March Mountain is a different setting for students. The comprehensive setting for kids is oftentimes not the best environment for them. For many of our kids, trying to survive and to thrive in an environment that has over 2,000 students can be very challenging. So, the fact that we have a school that creates a small learning environment for students is just amazing. and the work that they're able to do with our students. Um, we visit and I visit often and I talk to kiddos who are eligible to go
039back to a traditional school who choose not to go back because they found a home in March Mountain. [clears throat] In addition to that, I want to give kudos to Dr. Rice and his team. Right now, they have one CTE pathway, which is cosmetology. The board recently approved us applying for four additional pathways. So if everything goes well, we're going to be establishing a production and managerial arts pathway, a childhood development pathway, our barbering pathway, and a pharmacy tech pathway. So this is another opportunity for our students to learn uh realworld life application skills that are going to take them directly to a career beyond high school. So kudos to March Mountain for the work that they're doing. a few of the events that have happening that have happened um since we last met. We
040held trunk or treat on October 29th um at Marina Valley High School. Hundreds of families lined up around the blocks, not just one block, around blocks to uh get to visit with our departments who had uh different themes. We had a pioneer wagon. We had a a bunch of minions. Um, but it's a nice way for our community to come and basically be treated by us um for trick-or- treat for Halloween. So, thank you to our wellness department to put for who put this all on and to all of our departments and our staff who participated. It was a really fun event. Uh, we know we had board members there as well. So, thank you for those of you who attended. On the actual Halloween, every year we host Hendrickk Ranch, um, our early education
041kiddos, our TKers, and our kinder kiddos. So, they're able to come on to uh the district office. They visit every single one of our offices. Uh we put themes, we dress them up, um and they get basically they get to trick-or- treat with us. So, it's a great opportunity for our kids and our families to come and every single student was dressed up. So, it's so nice to get to participate with that. On November 8th, we held our football tournament where our kids competed against the top three teams at Valver Unified School District. Our kids put up a good fight and the first year we did very well and we're hoping to continue this not only year to year, but offering it in other sports as well, such as soccer and basketball and volleyball and
042track and some of the other sports that we have. Again, this is the board's um effort to expand athletic opportunities to elementary students, which again is not common in many school districts. On November 14th, we held our Bridges Walk to School Day. Uh for those of you who don't know, Ruby Bridges was a very brave young lady who was one of the first students who walked to school and basically protesting the fact that she would not be allowed to attend a school that was typically for uh all white students. and because of her um bravery, it paved the way for others to stand up to racism um and really opened the door and broke that that wall and that fence and that door for all students to participate and be able to go to their
043community schools regardless of their race race or ethnicity. So, uh November 14th, all many of our schools participated in Ruby walk to school day where there it was in the morning walking to school. We had our board trustees attended, a lot of our district office staff, but our schools also had lunchtime activities, lessons during the day to really uh recognize again this brave young lady and what she did um for future generations. Uh November 12th, Paul Middle School does an annual event which is the game of life. For those of you who remember doing board games with your kids, whether on camping trips or at home, there is a board game called the game of life where you choose a career and you choose a pathway and how many kids you have and you balance
044a budget and you get a mortgage and hopefully you don't go bankrupt. Uh although I've gone bankrupt many times when I play with my kiddos. But um Palm takes it an extra step and they do a real life one where they the students pick a career, they have activities and events. We have folks from the community stop by and talk about their careers and life and investing and all of that. And so it's a real world application of a game, but it's also preparing our kids for the demands and what they're going to expect when they become adults. So kudos to Palm Middle School for putting this on every year and for all of our community me community members and our uh district office team members who participated with that. Um lastly, we showcase every
045month our continued effort to improve our attendance. Uh here you see the rates with our elementary schools at 93.61. Our middle schools continue to lead the pack with 94.73 and our high schools at 93.67 for a district-wide uh attendance rate of 93.32. And also want to give kudos to our top three schools, Northridge Elementary, Vista Heights Middle School, and Butterfield Language Academy. So kudos to them. [applause] And just a couple of save the dates. Um, every year our wellness center puts on our bountiful harvest, which is basically a food giveaway program or food donation program for um, community members in need, families in need. That's going to be happening tomorrow at the wellness center starting at 1:30. And our next Saturday innovation camp, parents, if you want some babysitting and you want to go catch
046a movie or get a good breakfast and you want to drop off your kids with us, our next Saturday innovation camp is December 6th. They get to participate in fun activities and recover attendance if they happen to have an absence that week or that month. So we hope you will join us and that's my report for this month. [applause] >> Thank you Dr. Rivakava. That was a very nice report. Nice to celebrate our district. Uh, we are on to item 6A, resolution number 2025-26-37, Great American Smokeout Day, November 20th, 2025. Do I have a motion to approve this? >> Mr. Johnson, do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Miss Clark, seconds. Miss Cla, please call for the vote. >> Mr. Bar, member Carvalo, >> I. >> Mr. Williams, >> hi. >> Mr. Johnson,
047>> hi. Miss Leva I. >> Miss Clark >> I. >> Miss Luna >> I I motion carries and Trusty Williams I understand you'll be presenting. >> Yes. This presentation will be made uh to Omar Marquez, coordinator of child welfare and attendance. Come on up. >> [applause] >> The Great American Smokeout promotes people to quit smoking and help adults and young youth, excuse me, understand they should never start smoking. Our board is committed to promoting an alcohol-free, tobaccof free, and drug-free school environment. We know the use of tobacco products produces a health hazard to the users themselves as well as those exposed to though their secondhand smoke. We also know that smoking of cigarettes, vaping and the use of other tobacco products is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The Great American
048Smokeout along with other prevention awareness campaigns helps to reduce barriers to learning, providing positive youth development, school success, and well-being. We are pleased to recognize November 20th, 2025 as the Great American Smokeout Day. And here's the resolution, Mr. Marquez. Thank you. >> Few words. >> Good evening, board president, members of the board of education, superintendent Dr. Rubalaba, and distinguished guests. Um, as I stated earlier, my name is Omar Marquez, child welfare and tendance coordinator for student services. Thank you for the opportunity to accept this resolution tonight. The Great American Smoke Out on November 20th is the day we come together to recognize something powerful, the choice to quit smoking. And it is also the choice to reclaim your life. Every step forward toward quitting, no matter how small, is a step towards a healthier future.
049We're reminded of the real cost of tobacco with this striking truth. Tobacco kills over 7 million people each year, including about 1.6 million non-smokers exposed to that secondhand smoke. These aren't just numbers. They're parents, friends, co-workers, and loved ones whose lives were cut short by something completely preventable. But today is not about fear. It's about hope. It's about showing support for anyone ready to break free from addiction. It's about reminding every smoker that quitting is possible and help is available. And it's about encouraging all of us to create environments where healthy choices are easier to make. If you're thinking about quitting, let today be your turning point. You deserve a life that's long, healthy, and fully your own. And we are here to support you every step of the way. Thank you. [applause] Thank you.
050We are on to item 6B, resolution number 2025-26-38, Native American Heritage Day, Month, November 28th, 2025. Do I have a motion to approve? >> I'd like to make a motion to approve. >> Thank you, Miss Lea. Do I have a second? >> Mr. Johnson seconds. Miss Claudio, please call for the vote. >> Student Bo member Carvalo. >> I. Mr. Williams, >> I. >> Mr. Johnson, >> I. Miss Lea >> I >> Miss Clark >> I >> Miss Luna >> I motion carries and trusty labour I understand you'll be presenting this >> um I would like to call to the podium to uh Mr. Timothy Pacheco campus security officer from Valley View High School. Uh [applause] we believe that it's important that each student has an opportunity to understand the common humanity underlying all people to
051develop pride in their own identity and heritage and to understand respect and accept identity and heritage of others. We want our students to study and know the role and contributions of American Indians to the economic, political and social development of our state. We recognize that every tribe has celebrated heroes of their own in sports, the arts, film, literature, engineering, medicine, education, and environmental sciences. We also acknowledge that our schools and district sites are situated on the ancestral homelands and traditional territories of indigenous people, which is now recognized through our land acknowledgement and statement at every district meeting. Therefore, to honor the generations of American Indians who were here before the arrival of European explorers, we are recognizing November 28, 2025 as Native American Heritage Day. [applause] Thank you. Good evening uh board president, members of
052the board of education, superintendent Rubicabra and distinguished guests. As once said, my name is Timothy Beego and I'm a campus security officer at Valley View High School. Growing up as a Native American, you don't really see a lot of people who promote this. Everybody tries to point out that it's a stereotype or uh it's a a way of life that's gone along the wayside. But as most people don't realize, there are many still reservations. There are many still people working every day to show that they have pride in who they are. As a young kid, we had a program that I wish I would see in more schools that actually we would come out of class so they would teach us about how we were Native American, how we were how we used to make
053things out of things that you found on the land. There aren't many programs like that. I appreciate this. This is the second time I've I've received this and I take a lot of pride in showing my kids who where they come from. Because even as my uh my youngest didn't realize from when she was little, you know, why her hair is the way she is, why her size is the way she is until I took her to the pow-wow down at Morango. I am a third Morango Indian. Okay. And until I was in high school, I didn't know where it was even at. And that's the downfall. We always get the, you know, you're from Mexico, you're from, you know, you're from uh Latin America, you're from, you know, Africa or African countries, but nobody
054states where Native Americans are actually from, and it's lost in the society. My daughter was asked to receive this when she was a senior with three other kids or two other kids that were called to the principal's office and they had no clue what the principal was asking them to do which is sad. So I teach my kids on a regular basis where they come from it. It doesn't mean that I grew up on the reservation. And I grew up in Northern California, but there was a program that somebody would come to elementary schools and teach us about how jewelry was made, how they used to live off the land, and actually, you know, take a field trip to Sacramento where they have the Native American History Museum to see how people were actually raised
055back then. So, I really appreciate this proclamation. Thank you. [applause] Thank you so much for that. Uh, next we are on on to item F. >> Oh, did you want to say something, Miss Clark, on this or do you want to wait till it's >> I wanted to talk uh Oh, yeah. I'll wait until board comments if that's okay. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Um, item F, public comments on agenda items. Any person requesting to speak to any item on the agenda may do so at this time or when the item is addressed by the board of education. Individual speakers shall be allowed to speak for three minutes on any agenda item. The board of education shall limit the total time for public input on each agenda item to 21 minutes. Board bylaw 9323b
056section 5 per board bylaw 9323 twice the allotted time will be provided for a member of the public utilizing a translator. Miss Claudia, do we have any public speakers? >> One public speaker. >> Thank you. May I have I'm sorry. I I believe it's James Claybon to the podium. Thank you. Um I'm here to speak on an agenda item the multi-ter system of support um academic suspension and chronic absences. I am proposing perhaps u a proposal that the board look more critical critically into why children are being suspended um why children do not want to come to school and the multi-ter support for example um credit recovery independent studies and even the students that are becoming unsuccessful at what was designed to help them be successful in their regular classes And I'm hoping that you
057could come up with something that will encourage diversity and inclusion. Um, I know we say we have it. I know we were celebrating PBIS and all these wonderful programs, but I would like to see more of that where collectively and diversity the things are designed that include everybody on a more daily basis where kids can see this because a lot of kids when I talk to them they don't want to come to school and um they are afraid to share why they want to come to school whether it's bullying or whether it's they don't feel heard or seen they don't want to come to school and even the engagement in low is very low in the classrooms and nobody know why. So that's pretty much the gist of it. Thank you so much. >> Thank
058you. Thank you so much for your feedback. >> Next we are on to item G, public comments on non-aggenda items. The board of education encourages public comments during this section. Staff may briefly respond to statements or questions or may ask questions for clarification. The board may refer to staff or other resources for factual information, direct staff to report back at a subsequent meeting, andor direct staff to place the topic on a future agenda. If someone wants to lodge a complaint against an employee, the appropriate form may be obtained at any school or the community education center. Individual speakers shall be allowed to speak for a total of three minutes on non-aggenda items regardless of the number of issues to be addressed by the individual. The board of education shall limit the total time for public
059input on non-aggenda items to 21 minutes. Per board bylaw 9323, twice the allotted time will be provided for a member of the public utilizing a translator. With board of education consent, the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public presentation depending on the topic and number of persons wishing to be heard. The president may take a poll of speakers for or against a particular issue and may ask that additional people speak only if they have something new to add. For bylaw 9323 B through C section 5. Miss Claudia, do we have any speakers? No speakers on n on agenda. >> Thank you. We are on to uh item H, employee association reports. Uh California employee association, CSSEA. Do we have any representatives here this evening? I don't see any. Uh and then next
060we have uh Association of Marino Valley Management Personnel. We have representation >> all the way in the back in the corner. >> [applause] >> Good evening, president. Good evening, Dr. Wakaba and esteemed board members. Um, just want to share a brief uh update on ANVAM. So, uh, for one, I know we recognized already um, Dr. Amantia for being our uh principal of the year. So we're obviously we wanted to recognize her as well. We're very proud of the work that all of our administrators do and congratulations to Dr. Amanio. Uh we're also in the process now of notifying our 2026 AXA award winners throughout the school district. So that's also coming up right now. Uh and we're also currently working on our award criteria for the 2026 uh scholarships that we're soon to uh to
061work on with uh our students as well. So that's always something that we're very proud of. Um for the 2025 school year, uh we've actually already paid nine out of the 10 uh scholarship. So uh just waiting on that last one. But thank you all for your time. Have a wonderful day at night. Thank you so much. Next, we have are on to item I, comments from board members. I'll start with student board member Carbio. >> Hi, thank you. Um, I just wanted to point out the resolution just passed about um, Native American Heritage um, day and month. Um, Mr. PCO pointed out um how students were being taught things um like their heritage and I think it's important for students to be aware of that um and he highlighting he highlighted those classes and
062now that I come to think of it um you can't really learn such things unless you're taking that history class. Um, and for me, um, I've learned those things through signing myself up for those classes. Um, but a lot of students don't. And that just goes to show that, um, kind of what he said, they aren't aware of, um, these things. And I think it's important for them to um, learn and know the history um, without having to sign up for the class, like just it being a given. Um and then the second thing was on chronic absenteeism and looking more critically into student s suspension absences and um why our things are not being su successful. And this highlights um my the last board meeting when I brought up chronic absenteeism and like putting
063the actions like showing our actions. Um I think we need to start um by finding the solution kind of similar to what he said. Um and that's another thing that I highlighted. That's what I'm push trying to push for. Um and he pointed out how a lot of students don't want to come to school. And that was something similar that I said um we or we should have interventions trying to find out the reasons. And if students don't want to come to school and don't want to talk about it, we need to push towards the wellness center. We have people for students to talk to and I think um it's important to find out these why these problems are happening in our district and push towards helping our students more. But thank you. >> Thank
064you, Mr. Williams. Yes. Um, uh, I selected the Great American Smokeout, um, for a couple of reasons. Um, in in my recent history, uh, I've noticed different generations have quit smoking in various ways. And lots of times the reason people quit is because they get factual information. And I don't think we're putting out enough factual information about vaping um as it as it pertains to our young people, the chemicals that they're ingesting, uh so on and so forth. Um, I taught health science back in the day and the most one of the most effective um, teaching moments I had was I lit a cigarette up at one of our high schools and all the students went, "Mr. Williams, you going to set off the alarms? You're going to get in trouble? You lit a cigarette
065up in a classroom." And I had cleared it with the principal. But the point I'm trying to make is the minute I blew into this Kleenex, every kid went home that was concerned about their parent made them blow into the Kleenex. And what did they say to the parents? You know, this is going into your lungs every puff. I would run into those parents in the community and they go, "Mr. Williams, why'd you have to show my daughter that Kleenex trick? And so I brought all of that up to just bring light to this this uh situation. But I see commercials on TV, but we don't talk about the chemicals that these kids are taking in and what it's doing to their body. and we we have to continue to to attack this um because
066we're destroying the lungs and the lungs doesn't have a defense system for all the chemicals that are going into it. So, I just wanted to make that comment and talk about it. But generationally, we are doing less and less smoking. Um, the latest, well, the smoking statistics in the late '9s, if you did not start smoking by age 14 to 17, more than likely you were not going to be a smoker the rest of your life. So, um, when you present factual information, what was the largest crop in China in 1997? Anybody? Tobacco, not rice. Tobacco. And it was manufactured into cigarettes. That's That's >> Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Williams. Trustee Johnson. >> I heard that. Isn't a comedian that say that? That's my And I'm sticking to it. I forgot the guy's name.
067Okay. But anyway, look, um I I'll just be brief. One of the things I love the most is recognition. So, first of all, I want to I want to speak with speak to the people who recognized some of the folks that work with them. It's not the easiest thing to do when you have to recognize somebody that works for you. It should be, but it's not always because sometimes we think in our head, well, I got to sit down. I got to write this stuff up. But think about that person that you are writing uh and you awarding something to and you tell them how great they are and how much they contributed to the success of the schools wherever you work or in the office wherever you work. So I'd like to I I
068I would like to to just tell all those folks congratulations. Thank you for a wonderful job recognizing your folks and what they do on the daily on a daily basis. Um you I'm well I'm sure all of us know whenever you get an award no matter what it is. You're going to feel good about it. You're going to say to yourself, I can't believe they did this. Well, believe it. They a lot of folks can't believe what you did, but they're going to be watching you and they're going to be following what you did. So, I just want everybody to know that I love love love uh presenting awards and I love making sure that uh the deservant people are being recognized. And so, Dr. uh Rubikava, thank you for uh making sure that everyone
069know how we all feel about that because sometimes, you know, people go to work and they think, I just go to work, I don't I don't want anything. Yeah. Yeah. Believe that. hand it to them and I'll guarant even if you hand them this did not show that but even you show that I did that on purpose by the way it's a cowboy hat and I threw it back down but even and and I did that to make everybody laugh but here's the point though when you have someone and you want to recognize them do it don't be scared don't say you know what they don't like a c do it because that's going to motivate them even more just to know that you recognize them for the little thing that they thought they did
070but to you it was big so with that Being said, I just want to make sure that I tell everybody, I congratulate all you guys for doing everything that you have to do to make us a better team, a better school district, and and help our children to see the good parts of our lives rather than to see the bad things. And I'm going to close by saying this. The other day, I was around some some youngsters. I don't know how old they were, but they were smoking. I ain't like that. I started to bump to jump in. But I thought, hey, [laughter] I better not do that. But my point in saying that is we have kids that do that do that. If you know kids that do that, tell them, "Look, man, don't
071don't don't don't smoke." Tell your buddy no. No big deal. He might not like you for a week or two, but who cares? Tell him no. I did it. [laughter] Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Johnson. Trusty Lever. Thank you, President Luna. Well, you know, I was I had a few things to say, but then student board member Kio and Mr. Johnson already said it, but I just want to add something up. You know, um it is important that we recognize employees, you know, that we recognize um the hard work they do. Um and I think I feel that that's the most most important thing, you know, to recognize the work they do. um not because you know they need somebody to be telling them every day you know like you know like oh you're
072doing a great job which feels good you know not that that's what you do your job for but um because they need to feel appreciated they need to feel that you know what they do matters and um so I love you know recognition I remember when I you know before becoming a board member I always ask you know for um parents and you know students and um employees to be recognized and now that I'm a board member you know I keep you know bugging Dr. Ruba come up with the same thing like almost every time we meet I'm like we need to recognize you know people are our board meetings you know it is important to give a shout out you know and so they can feel appreciated and then the other thing um it's
073you know what Mr. Pacheco said and about maybe we can do a program where um you know we can support um our students so they can you know learn um maybe not only you know about Native Americans but the different you know cultures that we have because as I read you know in the proclamation we believe that it is important that each student has an opportunity to understand the common humanity underlying all people to develop the pride in their own identity and heritage and to understand respect and accept the identity and heritage of others. So I feel that he brought us a great idea you know so the um how we're going to um help the students to understand others and respect others if we don't show them you know the cultures the different cultures
074that we have here. Um and um so I feel that that that that maybe we can work something out so that we can provide that you know support that um our students need and well I don't want to take more time so thank you. >> Thank you Trusty Clark. I'll take some time for you. So, I'm going to go down a different pathway just a tiny bit and just to say that I agree with all my colleagues. Um, but one thing about something that we need to think about and what I'm grateful for and what I pray about and what I think about all the time is having this amazing blessing to be on the board and to serve our community, our students, our teachers, this entire district. And so we are the board of
075education. And what our role is in my opinion or what we know to be is governance and um policy. So when I hear someone that we're recognized tell me that they've been recognized over and over again but we're not hitting them in a heart or capturing some of us our students, I want to lean into that and I want to say well here we are. What can we do? We want to do this. I could see it in all of our eyes. So this is what I'm saying. So, at the University of California, Riverside in May of 20 May 22nd through 2024, they have a 43rd annual pow-wow. And I think that's the first thing we should do is start um sending our kids to uh local pow-wows, gathering about telling them everybody is welcome.
076We're going to send you there. Second thing we're going to do or I propose is we're going to learn. We're going to lean into our Native American people, our Native American citizens, our Native American, and we're going to bring them up and we're going to say, "Hey, what do you want to do? What does your kid want to know? Is it basket weaving? Is it bird singing?" I mean, there's a host of things, right? We are here. We're the board of education. Not only do we support academically, but emotionally and socially, we are here. This is our role. This is what we are supposed to do. So, I would say while we can't do it tomorrow, I definitely anticipate us doing it by the next school year. And I definitely think that we should bring
077some of our students to some of the powers that are coming out because they're all over Riverside and San Marino County. And I know we have ELOP funds to do after school things that [gasps] provide amazing opportunities for our students. And I don't know if I have spent the entire ELO budget at the last couple of meetings, but I I I plan on doing so. [laughter] You know, you know, so Susanna Lopez R. I'm sorry. um you know I'm allocating funds left and right or or advocating for them anyway but I just feel that it's very important and one of the things that I am grateful while I am here and I'm sitting in the seat and I have the opportunity is to listen to listen to hear to understand to value to appreciate and
078to implement so those are my board comments for that I'm gonna step down another road. Um, really quickly, one of the things I didn't get a chance. I just kind of slid Dr. Rubikava a note and asked him about one of our policies. One of the things I want to let everyone in this district know because I think sometimes things get lost in translation and there is a um there is opportunity or there is steps and ways um to get here and you have to follow all of those steps. But I do want to say that everybody in our district has the opportunity to speak to the board if they're going through something. They could e do either do it here at the podium and depending on the situation and the avenues that you've gone
079through or the steps that you gone to because we want to make sure we're within policy, you can speak to the whole entire board um in close session if it's a personnel issue. And you know, I believe in transparency. That is our role. I never want anyone to feel like we are not here and that they don't hear us. We work for this amazing district, but I want to share that we work for our community. We work for you, right? So, we have the opportunity to sit in the seat in this district. We are partners and we work with the district, but ultimately we work for the people. And I want everyone to understand that our role is to take care of you. Whether you're a student, a teacher, a community member, we are your
080voice. We are your advocate. So, please remember that and know that this entire board of education, our superintendent and cabinet, we're here for the district. Seriously. And I don't want to keep up any more time. I know I've said a lot. Um, I went to a lot of places. They were great. The kids are always wonderful. I really like flag football. That's a I like it. Yeah, it's really I mean I used to think tackle was all the way, but these babies with the flag, so they were really rocking and rolling this year. So anyway, I'll pass it on to you, Miss Luna. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. >> Thank you, Trusty Clark. Um I definitely share all the same sentiments that all my colleagues did. uh culture is important and if I
081could just you know piggy back off that you know uh I'm sure we have students of other cultures that would love to learn about other things and you know if we could provide opportunities for that as well I mean you know I'm sure we could we could go on for for days about this but yeah culture is important I feel like this country is built on many different cultures And um of course, you know, our indigenous people were here before anyone. So that's definitely very important to learn. Um since our last meeting, I just wanted to mention a few of the things that I attended. The trunk, I'm a little embarrassed to say that was my first one, but it was amazing. And I am so sad that that was my first one because I
082should have come to all of them. They're a lot of fun. and everyone uh dresses up and um you know I got to give a a shout out to uh to the superintendent's office and the cabinet. They were especially Dr. RC, you were in character the whole night. She was in character the whole night. It was every time I saw her, she was she was Well, you what were you asking me for? Where's Where's what? >> Where's Cinderella? >> Where's Cinder? [laughter] Where's Cinderella? Yeah, that was funny. Um, but everybody did an amazing job and um I I I don't know. I was kind of concerned that we couldn't get all the cars through. I don't know how how we how do we work that out because I hate to leave people out. I don't
083know. Maybe we could talk about that. But it was great. It was a great event. Hopefully um if you haven't been, you'll go next year. Uh, and then also I had the [clears throat] pleasure of hosting a listening circle at Canyon Springs High School. Thank you, Kenyon Springs, uh, for allowing me to be there. Um, I had, um, a few community members as well as some teachers uh, expressed concerns and, um, uh, thank you uh, Dr. Dr. Bouvakaba and Claudia for for being there and Miss Robin, thank you for being there to support. Um, I would thank you, Mr. Williams, for the idea. I think it's good for us to be out there and be available to um our constituents and our community and our um our our students and our teachers and our parents.
084like just for them everyone to know you have an opportunity to speak to us just as uh Trusty Clark was saying you know if you have concerns we want to hear them so please don't don't be shy come out I wish we would have had more people there but it's okay maybe maybe next semester we're doing it again yeah next semester so um also I had the honor of attending Valley View High School theater production. Um I brought the the um program to remember is to live. It was very very moving. I did I wasn't expecting that. Uh me and Trusty Leva were balling our eyes out throughout the program. Great job. Great job. Kudos to everybody who who did that. Um the the students were amazing. very talented. We have some very talented students
085here. And then finally, I want to mention I also attended the um city of Marino Valley Veterans Day event uh with Trusty Clark. Uh thank you to our veterans. Thank you to all of you who have served. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Um we appreciate you and um we always want to celebrate our veterans every day, not just on Veterans Day. So that's all I have. Dr. Ruvakaba on to you. >> Thank you uh President Luna. So just a couple of things that I want to share with the board regarding what came up especially especially the topic of uh first people studies, Native American studies, indigenous people studies. It is going to be part of the ethnic studies curriculum that we're going to be implementing at the high school. But I agree with um our speaker
086that by the time our kiddos get to high school, it's too late. that we need to work at. How do we implement more of the the awareness and the studies at our elementary grade? So, that's something that our team will start working on so we can develop a curriculum or framework, a scope and sequence of how we can present more of those opportunities so we can really learn about the contributions of our first peoples um especially contributions to our local community. So, thank you for bringing that up. Um, in terms of trunk or treat, unfortunately, we do always have to turn some folks away just because the line keeps growing and growing and growing. Um, I have already debriefed with Arwana center and Mr. Garcia and we've come up with some ideas on how we
087can improve it. Uh, for next year, I think some of it was us. Um, I think we could be a little bit more efficient in how we hand out the candy and, you know, I think we were all channeling our inner um, our inner Mr. Johnson and we wanted to talk with everybody in the cars and that was kind of delaying and backing people up. So, we obviously want to be polite and respectful and build community, but we also want to get our folks through. So, we have to balance that a little bit, too. Uh, but we are working on some plans for that. Um, and then lastly, um, to student trustee Carbio, you know, you've brought up the the chronic absenteeism and attendance that that's that's kind of like the panacea. That's that's what
088we keep searching for. How can we continue to engage our students in a meaningful way so that if they have a choice whether to come to school or not, they opt to choose to come. Um I think because of the pandemic, we've made it too easy for kids to be able to stay home. Even some of the structures that we put in place like independent study, which is supposed to help us recover, attendance, I think in some cases has also made not attending school easier for families. So we need to balance how we do that. Um and the the particular dynamic of kids not feeling like they belong is something that we continue to tackle. I think as we turn as we look at different programs whether it's athletics or the arts or our clubs
089and activities or leadership opportunities whether it's our mentorship programs where it's connecting them to adults on campus that care about them. U whether it's identifying a peer group that they're going to be able to support and be with. I think all of those things are things that we need to continue to support our kiddos with because um even though the numbers slowly creeping into the better, last year we ended our chronic absenteeism rate at about 24%. And to date, this year we're at around 21. That's still not enough. That means one in five kids are missing more than 10% of the school year and that's not okay. So we need to continue to do better. So we're we're in a better direction, a better path, but we are definitely going to continue to do better.
090So that's all I have. >> Thank you. Next, we're on to item K, presentations to the board. Uh K1, Citizens Bond Oversight Committee 2024 2025 annual report and presentation. Miss Lopez Hi, good evening. I'm President Luna, members of the board, superintendent, and Dr. Ruel Cava, cabinet, members of the audience. I am Susanna Lopez, chief business official. And if I can call up Jake Romero, our director of facilities, as well as Virgil Chansy, our chair for the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee. Come on up. And just as a reminder, uh, with the passage of any general obligation bond, in our case, we have measure M and the recently passed measure X, uh, one of the requirements is to form a citizens bond oversight committee. Um, so what we are presenting this evening or what will be presented
091to you is one of those requirement items. So with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Romero. >> Good evening board, President Luna, members of the board, Dr. ABA cabinet and uh community members. I'm just going to do a quick introduction. Um Mr. Chance, he's our chair this year for the CBOC, our citizen bond oversight committee, and he has the uh annual report to give you and then also has a little presentation just kind of uh highlighting a few sites that they were able to tour this last month in October. So, I'll turn it over to uh Mr. Chancey to not only introduce himself, but also the other members from the board. Okay, >> good evening. Good evening. Um, like, uh, Mr. Romero said, I'm Virgil Chansy, but I'd like to recognize, um, before
092we get into this, the other members, uh, and a couple are here, one is here, uh, Steve Thornton, member. Pete Cervantes, Haro Ruiz, Christina Patruse, which is here. She's supporting us right here. Vivian Jones, Denise Mennez is vice chair. Uh, good evening board members, superintendent Dr. uh, Alejandro uh, Ruval Cabba. >> Been working on a little bit. And cabinet, it is my pleasure to bring you the annual report for the Measure M, Measure X Citizens Board Oversight Committee. I'd like to acknowledge um, all the members again. So, thank you. and the members in the in the audience. Let me move this this way so I don't have the the back there. Um why don't we go with this right here? I don't want to read to you, but I'll add to the slides as they
093come through. Measure M and measure um measure X. As you can see, your dollars at work. And again, thank you to the uh to the voters that support this. and we'll get into later what those dollars have done for you and the community and for our children. These are the uh few of the places that we toured uh this past October on there. And as we get to the slides, I elaborate on those the innovation center and on there we we brought up as far as um how we can what we can do at innovation center and I'll just put in their cultural affairs for our elementary that they have there to school there. I mean that's that's the best time. They're they're the young ones and they have theirs and what they're exposed to
094and what we can learn from them. um the modernization for uh Mountain View Middle School. We when we get to that, we'll go there. As far as how they've made the the classrooms more, what can you say? Bring the students together with the white boards and the way they have the tables in there, etc. Vista um that is that health center and how they're using that. Um I'll elaborate once we get there. the elementary school and the modernization that they've put in there that library and everything else the uh the tables, the chairs and how they are interacting with the with the students right here back the innovation center. Look at this right here. And this is what we're talking about as far as their library audio visual. They have a green room and these
095students, what grades are we talking about? Third, fourth grade >> through fifth. K through fifth grades and they're learning how to make um different presentations and different things with the green room. Again, cultural affairs, you bring them in because we have a diverse community um on there and see what our little ones are talking about. Then we enhance that. That is a beautiful, beautiful place like the um slides that were done earlier. And thank you because it just led right into this. Missing school is missing out because of opportunities that are being given for our students to be successful in career paths. It's amazing. So do not miss school. Make sure they're there because the tools are being given. modernization of science labs uh for the STEM. It's amazing what these uh these students will
096have available to them and what they can do with that. Again, missing school, you're missing out. Get them there. Get them in a career path. Oh my goodness. Career technical education. This is the Lago. I remember when we took a tour when they were just building this and framing this up and now that's going to be opened up here soon. But board, cabinet, uh, superintendent, that is amazing on what they're going to be doing and interaction and engaging with that as far as um, EMTs, just the public health in itself and the collaboration that the school board has built up with our neighboring health centers, construction, construction, etc. Kudos kudos to that. Again, we're talking about construction and what they're doing, but the uh the kitchen expansion that they're going to be doing at the
097different sites around um so that the schools themselves can have that there um hot and ready for them. Um it's it's uh you should go back to your neighborhoods, talk to your peers about what is being offered to the students here. Look at this right here. Um cultural arts center. I mean, and the type of equipment that they have in there, what they're teaching the students um to do career path on there rather than just serving food. They're preparing it. They're learning how to make menus. Uh diets you um you were just talking about the art center. This is a high school. Look at this place. Look at that. And the type of things they're learning far as production, the type of uh performances that they're giving. You miss school, you're missing out. There's no
098need. You have the tools that are here. the welding and uh over Canyon Springs their cyber security. I mean, we're talking about serious career paths, people. Before we finish this up, I just like to um give and if you could to Jacob and his team because with that we're talking about oversight committee. Yes, we're a group of uh residents that get together and look at how the monies are spent um and ask questions about that so it does done properly. But what is very important is that you have a crew that Jacob and his team has is that they've gotten the grants in. they have monitored how these um different projects are going to happen and to make sure they're done without the wasting of money and being innovative as far as how they can
099use those monies to add it to other things that we probably didn't even know about. But once you see the end results and what is available, we are very very very fortunate for what Jacob and his team has done. So, thank you. And one thing again, if I may, as far as talking about our culture and our inclusion in the different cultures here, please, please, please talk to your children. Talk to the little ones and bring them up. Like we're saying, they get in high school, then they're the ethnic studies. Yes. But get them small. Bring in the communities that we have in our in our district here. Thank you much. Any questions please? >> If I can just say um you all I want to thank the entire um oversight committee. You guys are
100volunteers in the community taking your own time out of your personal life to do this for the district. And that's very meaningful volunteering and and doing things for your community for your for these students in this district. It's a big deal. I really send all the gratitude to all of you for doing that. So, thank you. I appreciate the presentation. >> Thank you. Any of my colleagues have questions? >> I have a comment comment. Um I just want to say thank you. we were we we had the opportunity to to go check out the facilities and um with you CJ and myself and um I just remember you know the faces and and the emotion ship that you show when you saw all the different you know um upgrades made and then especially the library
101and then when we went to the um Vista Lago to see you know the the building where they have the ambulance and and they have um all this medical staff and we're like and I feel I remember it was with you that I shared it. wish, you know, I would be back in high school and have all those opportunities that now our students have because it is it's just amazing, you know, and and and the passion that you guys have that's really appreciated cuz like Miss uh President Luna said, you know, it's volunteer work that you guys do and you really, you know, take it to heart what is it that you do and what you represent, you know, our our community members and making sure that the money is well spent. So I just
102want to say thank you. >> Thank you all for giving us this opportunity and thank you for allowing us time to present this. >> No, thank you. It's very challenging. [applause] Also want to say thank you to Mr. Romero and Miss Lopez for all your hard work. Uh, next we're on to the multi-tiered system of supports, MTSS. Uh, looks like I have Dr. Arce to do this presentation. You do and I usually go up and start the presentation, President Luna, but since the overarching theme here seems to be chronic absenteeism, what better person to present on this, who was also there alongside with me working with our principles that are going to be showcasing for you, not only owning that data, but also what are they doing about it. Um, so I'd like to turn
103it over to Mr. for peoples. >> Thank you so much, Dr. RC. As I was walking out, she said, "Where you going?" I just So, I've been here. So, I would love to invite up here and and thank you so much for allowing me to present. Uh again, I want to recognize real quick before uh we begin uh Mr. Clayon uh the speaker that came up uh and spoke. I just want to let him know that we hear him. Uh we definitely hear him. So, I'm proud uh to introduce four amazing school leaders uh that we have here in Marino Valley Unified School District. Uh our amazing principal over at Bear Valley uh elementary school, Mrs. Mariel Vega. Uh our new principal over at Box Springs uh elementary school, Miss uh Mrs. Christy Martelli. We
104also have Dr. Zapeda over at Creekide Elementary School as well as Mario Perez from Senica Elementary School. And so they're really going to be focusing on today their CER and A the claim, the evidence, the reasoning, and then actions. And this is really going to be focused on chronic absenteeism as well as suspension rates and uh math. We have two of our focus goals today. promoting academic growth for every single student. Again, remember it's not just for some students, it's for all students, as well as providing a safe, welcoming, respectful, and rigorous learning environment for every single member of the school community. So, as we dive into this, our claim, overall, Marino Valley Unified School District Schools improved chronic absenteeism rates on the state dashboard. However, continued focus is needed at several schools to support
105specific student groups, particularly our African-American students, students with disabilities, and our English language learners to sustain growth, the evidence. So, again, these are the preliminary results. Uh, and again, this presentation is really based off those preliminary results. We know that the school dashboard came out uh I believe sometime this week, but uh the information is uh based on it's it's updated. Oh, this is great. So, as you could see, we have some uh again chronic estimates. The three schools that are highlighted there uh did reduce uh their levels of chronic absenteeism. So, Box Springs, Creekide, as well as Senica Elementary School did red reduce um their chronic absenteeism rates. And then again, as you could see, we have Bear Valley that also reduced uh by quite a bit their chronic absenteeism uh rates. Um as
106you can see right here, Creekide did have a slight increase in their suspension rate. I believe it went from 04 to 0.5 uh percent. So it's a very slight increase, but it did increase. And then again, the distance from standard in regards to math, you can see a little bit improvement right there in with uh Creekide Elementary School. I believe, if I can see it correctly, went from 72 to around 69. Um, and so one of the things that we're going to focus on is evidence to the claim. And I'm going to just go to the right real quick of this rectangular graph and really focus on those areas that glowed. And over at Bear Valley, overall chronic absenteeism decreased by 5%. Box Springs, overall chronic absenteeism decreased by 4% and African-American decreased by 11.6%.
107Over at Creekide, overall chronic absentism decreased 4.7% and then at Senica overall chronic absism decreased by 6%. And where we're going to focus our efforts today is really those areas where we need to grow. Um Bear Valley having those courageous conversations and those honest and genuine conversations. Our African-American chronic absenteeism increased 2%. At Box Springs, the students with disabilities chronic absenteeism increased 2.1%. And then at Creekide, our African-American increased suspension rate 1.6% and students with disabilities, there was no change for math. And then at Senica, our EL increased uh chronic absenteeism 9% and students with disabilities increased chronic absenteeism 4%. So again, as we had this conversation, we were really focusing on those those areas and the reasoning. So I'm going to have the principles and the school leaders come up here and really talk
108about the the possible reasons for the areas that glowed. So again, the reasons for the areas that glowed and uh we're going to start off right here with Miss Marave. I love how they're already in line, you know, kind of like elementary. This this is really good. So Miss Maril Vega, come on up. >> Thank you, Mr. Peoples. Uh good evening, uh President Luna, prestigious board members, uh Dr. Rubalava, superintendent and cabinet, um and community members. Uh, so thank you so much for the opportunity to share some of the grows that have been happening, the glows that have been happening at Bear Valley. We've been working really hard as a new admin team there, Miss Griffin and I. And uh, we just were able to be open and collaborative with our staff to see how
109can we um, build on the strong foundation that already existed at Bear Valley. So one of the three areas that we felt uh were mentioned and uh shared with us were pivotal to our growth in decreasing chronic absenteeism. So we took a look at took a look at communication uh incentives and recognition of students and then our systems on site. So communication and how do we do that on a routine basis with our students and our staff. Uh we started off with morning announcements. Uh, I do a a morning video in collaboration with my assistant principal with sharing data. We share weekly data with our staff and our students so that they um also know where they're at. We also uh the communication also grows into our student data chats. And that stems into our
110incentives and uh recognition system of weekly certificates and recognition of data, monthly recognition of data and celebrations uh but also trimester and we incorporate a lot of fun with uh pie in the face for admin and teachers and they love that. So they love throwing pies in our faces and so um with that it really incentivizes kids to want to come to school and um with our systems as well uh we started growing our routines uh with the personnel that we had on site. So our personnel was uh somewhat um going through some changes and so we were able to bank on that through our internal systems of utilizing our key resources that we had at the time. So, how can we make it timely? Uh, through using our district CWA home visits and then
111also those routine phone calls and parent meetings, but most importantly, conversations with kids. They want to know that we care and that we're reaching out to them. So, that those are some of our glows here at Bear Valley. So, thank you. >> Hi, Christy Martelli from Box Springs. Good evening, everyone. Um, since I am new to Box Springs, I had to do a little research to find out some of the answers to these questions. And so, in my research, I found out that um, one of the amazing jobs of our attendance clerk, she had an amazing system that was effective with following through for all of our general ed students. So, she did a good job recapturing all that. Um, the next thing was the Saturday Innovation Camp. um we had a very much increased
112enrollment in that which was awesome to recapture some of those absences. And then finally with our African-American families, we have an amazing parent adv um ambassador, Barbara Gizy. If you've ever met her, she is pretty amazing. Um she was really effective in reaching out to our African-American families and offering support and help wherever she could. So those were some of our reasons for our glows at Box Springs. Thank you. Good afternoon, President Luna, um board, um Dr. Rubakawa, cabinets, and our community in Bern Valley. Uh my name is Dr. Hson, the proud principal at Creek Elementary School. Um at Creek Elementary, our goals is um we started doing um principal and uh we did the principal and the attendance clerk. We would do um weekly um home visits. Um, those were very important because even
113when I got to some of the houses or apartments and they were always shocked that I was actually there caring enough to [snorts] talk to them, they'll be like, "Yeah, you have the whole school and yes, I love my school, but their kid is very important as well too." So, when they saw me, I saw it was a very very big impact and that's why that's one of the things that I love to do that was amazing. Um, we also had our attendance team in the front front office. We would always call parents as well too um just to call them to make sure that they would come that we missed them. We even had little um like little postcards that we would leave behind saying, "Hey, we miss you at school. Please come back
114to Creek Side or call the school for we can hop out with anything." So, we would try to find different different ways to try to get parents back in or students back into the um back into the school. Uh we also um every morning we have our myself and my assistant principal when we're there. We're greeting students every single morning. with your students, say hi to the parents, we welcome them every single day. Um, it's kind of funny at times. I'll talk to a parent and kids will stand just waiting for me to give them a high five because they get it every single day. So, I know that's very important to them. And actually, another thing that we did which I showed you guys earlier, we did a attendance belt which is going very
115very well. A lot of kids love it. They love wearing it. I see them at recent lunch walking with it and it's it's pretty pretty amazing. I've even seen teachers walking with it too. I'm like, "Wow, I never thought about that." But it's it's it's pretty cool. We we doing a lot of awesome things at Creekide and we're going to continue doing awesome things there. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. President Luna, board members, Dr. Wava, superintendent, cabinet members, and estee audience or the few that are left. [laughter] My name is Mario Perez and I'm the proud principal of Senk Elementary. Um we reduce our chronic absentis chronic absenteeism rate by 6. So, it wasn't a great reduction, but things that we did that were positive were the creation and completion of independent study programs.
116We we did over 200 of them um and then some, right? Uh we also put in a system of daily calls home when we found that kids were missing uh consecutive days of school. Uh incentives are always uh important for our kiddos especially um to to incentivize them coming to school such as you know we had perfect attendance dances PTA donated gift cards for our kiddos. Uh we used the PBIS reward system and we call them hot points here on time points. So I would call morning announcements. Hey, you know what? Hot points today. So anyone that was there on time got points for being there. So we use these and and many other um systems to to reduce our chronic absentism. Thank you. So that was a great job from the school leaders presenting
117their reasons for areas that glowed. This next area is where we really had to dig deep and and really identify those reasons for the areas that we need to grow. And again, this is where we really have to kind of do that autopsy in our school. And I believe the schools did a great job in identifying those reasons for the areas that need to grow. So again, we're going to start off with Mrs. Mario Vega over at Bear Valley Elementary School. So um with our um reflection process, we also have to notice that our students are still chronically absent. So even though we've seen an improvement, how do we improve that? So, taking a look at specific student groups, uh, we were able to focus on our AfricanAmerican students and we noticed that our endofear
118results for our student group were, um, they were at a 28.4%. As of right now, November 14th, um, we have our African-American students chronically absent at 21.4. So currently we are meeting um our goal, but again it's only November heading into the holidays. So uh we really are intentional in keeping track of our student groups, not just our African-American, but our other groups that were really um expanding um on our um just our need to reflect as a school site. So when we take a look at our tier 2 and three system of support um in reflecting on generating an internal system of support and monitoring students, we also had to be realistic and the timely identification of our students uh was necessary and what students were at risk and then how do we offer
119the academic behavior and social emotional support uh so that you know we can do that concurrently with at the time lacking consistent personnel in in the front office and then also some movement with our staff. So, um it was quite challenging, but we knew that it was something that was needed so that we can create a routine that no matter who stepped into the role, we can empower them to continue the good work that was happening before them. So, that was um our reflection at Bear Valley to be able to need to grow so that we can start off on a great footing for the 2526 school year. Hello again. Um so during my research I was again investigating um this question as well um and our need to grow and I found out that
120last year Box Springs had um SDC mod severe classes on campus. This year we have mild mod. So that was kind of the change from last year to this year. So I found out that a lot of the mod severe students were med medically fragile. Um they were students that had doctor's appointments. maybe they didn't come to school because of those doctor's appointments or they had to leave early or arrive late because of the doctor's appointments. So, that really dipped into chronic ab absenteeism at the site. Um, it was also noted that the ISP program was either inconsistent or not in place to recapture those ST SDC mod severe program students. So really looking at that system for how we do it with general ed, we had some success there, but really focusing on some
121of the more medically fragile students and the SDC program students and going how can we make that program work for them as well and make sure that we're aware and that we're um coming up with solutions so that we can also um capture some of that attendance as well. Thank you. Um, for Creek Side, when we looked at our data, um, the increase of suspension for African-American students, um, we did go up 1.6. Um, we kind of attribute that to, um, having, um, lack of access to, um, school counseling. Um, also, um, limited, um, lessons to our digital citizenship. Um, when we find a lot of these situations that happen, it's a lot of stuff that happened over the weekend and it was going over social media stuff where kids would go on social media.
122they'll say stuff and then come back to school and then they'll try to resolve it or something there. That's where we find a lot of our issues were and this is why dig our digital citizenship that's something that we want to improve on as well too. Um but also for our students with disability we also saw that um we have lack of support in math. We do have a title one teacher the house of English language arts um phonics and other stuff. We have our speech and stuff that do a lot of English but we found out that we don't have a lot of it in math. So, we're that's one area that we're going to be working on to improve that. So, their scores could also go up as well, too. >> So, after
123uh a thorough analysis of why um why these students grew in chronic absenteeism, we came to the conclusion that the systems were not in place to early to identify them early and intervene early. Uh we also found that you know we were we were focusing on the student group African-Americans but we weren't nec we weren't necessarily focusing on English learners or students with disabilities. Communication with home also was not consistent and resources were not provided to students and families of these student groups. So again, those were the hard the hard the hard look, right? The conversations with their school staff and their and their teams. So now we're going to focus on actions and next steps. And some of the things that we're doing as a district-wide uh cohort is really focusing on again the
124three district priorities and then every school really diving deep into their SEO, their super advanced graphic organizer and the smarter goals that they have established within that SEGO. And if you go to the school sites, you're going to see a lot of those posted up in the front office or in the principal's office. It's beautiful uh thing to see when you have that visual of the goals that the schools are working on that that are really reflected in the in the district priorities. So again, we have the SIS really focus on the guiding coalitions. The district plans in math, the PLC, we're in year three of the PLC as well as our Dow team continues to provide that flex day uh PD uh to our school sites. And then what we're really excited for is
125the building thinking classrooms and and again really pushing that out to the school sites with that if you synthesize it down you could see and within our flex days talking about PLC's and effective checking for understandings our 15th day uh challenge and importance of data analysis and PLC's as part of our guiding coalition and with our math PLNS again data analysis it's really all about progress monitoring a consistent prog progress monitoring system to really focus on reducing chronic absenteeism, but again improving the academics districtwide. And again, you can see district level support and resources that we really focused on uh over the summer and into this year. And one of the things I really want to focus on here is that unconscious bias training as well as the trauma-informed care that was presented to uh
126our school leadership and district leadership teams over the summer. And again, thank you so much uh for uh RCOE coming out as well as Dr. uh McGawan for coming out and presenting on that unconscious bias. And then our alliance task force and our areas that we're focused on in our alliance task force. One of those uh area two, the heart of success, chronic absenteeism, missing school is missing out. Remember, every moment matters. And and the great thing is when when you talk to the kids, right? When you talk to the kids, they're going to say and and at our student LCAP meeting, 70% of students who attended LCAP meeting a couple weeks ago reported when asked, "What makes you come to school?" And I probably don't even have to ask our student board member because
127I already know what she's going to say. What makes me come to school is my teachers. It's my teachers. It's how staff made them feel and then their favorite teacher. And so realistically, we really got to burn in to that and really get into their heart uh when they come to school, welcoming them before they come on campus, welcoming them when they come into the door, and really getting them focused and make sure that they're loved. >> Sorry, Mr. Peoples. I want to add and the direction of the superintendent after we did this session with our students and it was so eyeopening. First thing superintendent said I want to repeat this session with the students that are chronically absent. So that is going to be our next step. We want to hear from them similar
128to these questions that we asked our students. >> Thank you. And again, just really piggybacking on that, you know, as part of our chronic absenteeism uh task force alliance, we we came up with this idea, actually NIE came up with this idea of having these cards, right? Missing schools missing out, but having these cards that we can give out to students if they're doing really good or just say, "Hey, I I appreciate you being in school today." and then writing a little statement, you know, and and so just giving something like that, something small like that to a kid really allows them to feel loved and appreciated coming every day to school. So, as we move on, our response to the reasoning actions or next steps or for the areas of growth and improvement. So,
129I'm going to invite each of the schools to talk about their actions and next steps uh for their areas of improvement. Go ahead. Hello again. So, um just piggybacking off of our first uh glow. So, we talked about communication. How do we communicate with um our students and our staff, but also we wanted to grow continue to grow and what our next step was to our communication is now uh reaching our community. So, all of the data and the information that we've been sharing with our staff and our students is now being shared through Parent Square. So our families now know the data. They know which classes are being celebrated every single week and every single month and every single trimester. And so uh we really want to make sure that we are sharing everything
130and we are seeing that parents are telling us they want to get to school. They they want to be the winning class. And so uh because communication has now expanded um a trifold uh we're really happy about that. but we're still reflecting how can we continue to build and strengthen our communication. Then we looked at our incentives and recognition. And so the pause up for success program was born um at Bear Valley this year. And so with PAUSE we have um our positive citizenship, academic excellence, wise choices, and strong attendance. So students have to qualify. The academic part of it though was something that we really wanted to make sure that it was inclusive, that there wasn't a bar set for students, that they're working hard and wrapping up, you know, finishing their homework and
131their assignments and coming to school and finishing their tests was a qualification. We didn't want to exclude anyone for not meeting proficiency uh or a baseline. So, that was something that um allows all kids to be part of our PASA for success. And students also receive a collectible Kodiak bear every single month of a different color if they qualify. So, you know, all the kids want to collect every single color of the entire school year. So, they've got them all on their desks and they're waiting for the next color reveal for the month of November. And then we wanted to continue to grow and reflect on our ISP attendance systems. And so establishing, we were able to establish, but we wanted to strengthen and now routinely monitor our uh our our data with admin, counselor,
132clerk, teachers, and make it timely so that teachers are given that information in a timely manner, routine manner, but also the visits and the phone calls and parent meetings. So, we want to make sure we brought in the parents so that we can see what's going on at home. Behavior is a form of communication. So, we also were able to bring in parents when we noticed that there were some behaviors happening with certain students because we know that they were asking for help and they just didn't know how to do that. So, um our our action steps are something that is just they're ongoing. They're never going to stop. And so right now with these three pivotal areas, we're trying to see how we can strengthen them for the next following school year. So thank
133you again. >> All right. So excited about the year. This is an exciting year, my first year here. So I'm excited to share with you some of the things we are doing. Um, one of the things we added this year was possum attendance program. So every time students are all present and in class, the class gets to color part of the paw. If they get so many um numbers on [clears throat] their paw, they get to have a big celebration and a class party. So it's that incentivizing kids to want to come to school and want to earn incentives and rewards for being there. We also celebrate them during our trimester awards, making sure we're focusing on giving out lots of those attendance awards to students. Um again with our ISP systems um really focusing
134like from learning from the past and learning from past years that increased awareness for our students that are medically fragile. Now that we have mild mod still there are students that could you know utilize a different way of looking at that and how can we meet the needs of students that do have medical issues and do need to be away from school. um communication, parent square messaging to families about attendance and rallying them to be to school and that school matters, every moment counts. I'm really excited this year. We ended up getting a a new not new to the district, but new to Box Springs School Counselor. We get to share her with Butterfield and she's fabulous. Um she's going to be creating a whole comprehensive school counseling program for our students. She will be
135focusing on attendance. She wants to get um create a student leadership team on our campus that can really build in some of the um fun activities during recesses and lunch recesses to really get kids motivated and excited to come to school and focusing on supporting those students that do have chronic absenteeism and really get down to the root of the cause and how we could provide help um to those families as well. So, she'll be part of that team. So, we're super excited to be working kind of a new team in a lot of ways at Box Springs this year, but a lot of great energy and we're super excited to see where we can go. So, thank you. >> So, for Creekide, we started um some social skills. So, I just I just actually
136printed it out, but we actually have social skills where it's for their entire school and it has it every month and they have they click on it and they have different videos that they will see and all the videos um we share them with with the teachers so that way they know exactly which which videos to share and the whole entire school actually watches them. So, that's that's one thing that we're doing with our social skills. Another thing is we're also increasing our school counselor um sessions for African-American students. I have an amazing school counselor. Um she does a great job and I know working with our students. I know I know the students are going to do awesome and blossom with her as well too. Um we also have um high impact tutoring. We
137have actually um amcor tutoring and we have hate tutors. Thanks to the district for paying that for us. So thank you guys. Um but um with that that's also going to help us increase and focus on supporting students with um with disabilities and small groups. But u we do want to target them. We want to help them out. We want to help them grow. Thank you. Okay. So what do we do? We need to pivot, right? And be flexible. So one of the things since we weren't reaching necessarily the parents of our students. So then we go seek our parents, right? So so far we have visited 26 households this school year. My assistant principal and I take a Wednesday every other Wednesday when she's at my site. We go and visit five households. Um
138and the goal is to visit 10 homes of our chronic absentee students per month. So far of the 26 households that we visited about and and we're progress monitoring the students, right? So before and after the visit about eight to nine of those students have improved their attendance, right? So we're going to continue doing this and continue monitoring their attendance as we go. We also uh incentivize students. We have a 95% student participation policy to incentivize students coming to school. Basically, you need to be at school 95% of the time to participate in fun events, uh, extracurricular events. Finally, we're also focusing on those two student groups that uh, grew in chronic absenteeism and we're focusing in the creation of independent study programs and we're also focusing them on uh, when we do the home
139visits, right? But we want to make sure that we're visiting the right homes to improve um their attendance. Thank you. So as we really focus on this and as you heard uh the action steps that the school leaders are implementing this year, uh behavior influences behavior and that starts with us as the leaders at the school site, as the leaders in the district. Um, that really starts with us and and behavior influences behavior. We need to be preventative and not punitive. And with that, I'm going to open it up to any questions. >> Let's start with student board member Carbio. You have any question? >> I have a question for um the principal from Senica Elementary School. >> Um, >> good morning. Okay. Good evening. Good evening. How you doing? >> Hi. Um, I just
140was wondering when you do the home visits, what is it that parents are like telling you? Well, first they're surprised to see the principal there, right? They're like, "I didn't know principles uh did home visits, right?" Um, so it's a a myriad of, you know, justifications as to why the students are not making it to school. Sick illness is one of the biggest ones. Um, you know, transportation on some cases. So, so the beauty of this is that we get to hear what the needs are, right? and we get to direct either try to solve the issue ourselves or direct them to the resource in the district. So, for instance, transportation. Well, we call transportation and say, "Hey, so and so student, um the route, there's no route for him or her, right? Let's help
141them out, right?" Um if they're sick, let's say they're sick. Well, mom, what you can do to recover some of these illnesses is attend our Saturday innovation camp or go to this front of the office and get uh independent study program for your student. So, we give them options. We give them resources that probably they weren't aware because some actually they are not aware because a lot of them are like oh you have that oh we can do this yes we can do this and this and that. So I think that that I I think that's the best thing that we're doing right now. We're actually providing households parents with the resources that they need. >> Okay answers my question. Thank you so much. >> Trusty Williams. >> Yes. Uh Dr. is a PA. >>
142Yes. >> How long how long does each class get to have the belt? >> For a week. >> So, it goes from Monday to Monday. So, every Monday I do the morning announcements and on Monday I always say this um this this um grade level had the best attendance for last week and then they just the teacher switch belts and then they had for the whole week. So, when they have the whole week, they could take it to the library, to recess, to lunch. They could walk out with it. Like I said, I've seen teachers walking with it. So, I told them it's your belt. you show it off, you fly however you want and and I I really think it's really helping. >> Yes. >> Thank you. And >> Philip, >> yes. >> Um
143you mentioned that 70% of our students say that their classroom teacher is most important. And we now need to talk to the kids who are chronically absent. why aren't you coming to school? So, what do you think allowed those 70% of the kids to answer that question with you at that time? >> Yeah, that's a great that's a great question. Again, 70% to me is still too low. We need 100% >> to answer that question that the reason why they come to school is their teacher um their the the the engagement in the classroom you know so we need to we need we need to increase that 70% up to 100%. Uh to make them uh uh come to school and feel engaged and supported in the school. Um so for the other 30% that's
144the area we need to identify um and talking to those families and why they're not coming to school >> and that 30% is interdispersed among African-American families and students with disabilities. >> I can get you that data. >> No, I'm just saying it's got it's all interpersed in that area. >> Yes. >> You know that uh they're not feeling included. They're not >> they don't see a reason to come to school. Uh they're disenfranchised. Uh nobody cares and it's it's a tough one. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, >> Trusty Johnson. >> Yeah, thank you. My question is kind of simple, I would imagine. I'm I'm uh I'm thinking about the parents. The parents knows what's going on. I'm sure they've seen the transition where the kids have start to do better as far as going
145to school, but what are they really saying? I mean, are they really uh laying on the on on the kids' mind, look, you you've got to to go to school. You you really can't miss, you shouldn't miss. And if you do miss, this is what's going to happen. Do we ever get with the parents just to find out what are they communicating to their kids? I just wondered something about that because I we we do have an improvement. I got that. But to me, once we start, we should just keep climbing. But to me, I'm thinking maybe the parents went to work and they didn't know the kid was going to stay home, you know, or come back early, what have you, whatever, what what it what have you. I'm just wondering though, how do
146the parents really feel? I'm sure a lot of them feel good because now they've got some discipline in the house and the kids are doing a lot better, but I'm still kind of cloudy about that. Yeah, I I think someone mentioned it before about like after pandemic, I think a shift in our the way that we think and the parents think and the priority that you know just going to school has is not at the top of their list, right? When when I go and we have these conversations, unfortunately, it's almost like, oh well, he doesn't want to go to school, right? I mean, he but it's okay, right? It's like I don't know. I mean, I I believe that these crucial conversations between parents and students and and their students are not being had,
147right? They're not having these conversations and therefore kiddos um students believe that, you know, >> it's optional. School's optional still. >> Yeah. >> You know, I just wondered too because kids, they know cars. They know a nicel looking car and I'm sure in their minds at some point they said, "Boy, when I'm when I'm grown, I'm going to buy one like that." But I wonder if they really are told you just can't buy it. You got to have a job and you got to show the folks where you're going to be working at that you're capable of working here, but you got to start here. I wonder if they I mean, maybe you guys have talked to parents, maybe they have told you. I I don't know. Uh I kind of drilled Well, I don't
148want to talk too much about mine. I drilled into mine. I told them I told them some things and they took it with they they took it and they they did what I asked. I was going to say that they believed it. Obviously, they did, but I don't want to talk too much about my own. I'm just talking about today's kids, though. >> Gotcha. And I wanted to really just comment on one of the the questions that you had in regards to the why, right? And and and the how, what can we do, what the what what can we do? Some of the kids at that student LCAP talked also about uh having more in-person meetings with parents and students uh to really figure out, you know, what's going on. Um but again, when the
149parents can't come to the school, that's when we have to do those home visits. Yeah. >> And that's why those home visits are so important because we get an understanding, right? We can assume. >> We don't want to assume, >> right? That's we we can't assume what what families are going through, what students are going through. Um, so allowing us to go out to the homes and visit where they live. >> Yeah, >> that's where we can see. >> And like, uh, Mr. Perez talked about, this is where we could then identify >> the specific supports that that kid and that family needs. They need >> Yeah. Because every family might be different and what they need and going out to the house, >> understanding, listening, >> um, what their concerns are and and how
150we could support um and really guide them to the right direction and and again if they can't come to us we need to go to them. >> Go to them. Well, I certainly appreciate what you guys doing. That's that's a hard thing what you're doing. That's tough because some of the parents, you know, go to work and stuff like that and they don't really have time when they come back home. Some of them do, some of them don't. But as you go about your doing your business with the parents and the student as well, um it's going to motivate them. So, I appreciate what you guys do, man. Thank you so much for that >> trusty labour. Well, many of the questions that I had in mind, you know, they already asked, but um do
151you do you think that the most common, you know, like reason why kids are not attending school, you know, besides the one that Mr. people's mention about you know the teacher could it be transportation or what do you think? So, in um many of my parent meetings, um there there's a percentage of our parents that actually have shared that they didn't know that school started at 7:45. And so, um the uh quiet parking lot, the quiet entrance to the school were was just not something that came to mind. And so taking the time to meet with parents to that shows them that they're important to us and we want you to know that yes, school starts at 7:45, but also uh preparation is key. So breakfast starts at 7:20 for our school site and getting
152them prepared um effectively to start their routine starts at 7:20 or 7:25 so they can have breakfast or socialize with their friends so that they are able to stand in line when the bell rings that starts the routine for them to for their mindset to be ready for school. And so explaining that to parents is important but part of the process also encompasses us calling them. We have uh actually imposed the four quadrants of support from our wellness center into a Google form and we use that that information to uh as a script for our phone calls and really are able to document this the needs of the families. So that information is inputed into um uh their Google form so that the the department is able to call and reach out to the families
153to offer the specific supports that they need because every family goes through different things that during the you know during every month. So it could be transportation one month, it could be the fact that um they they need laundry service, they need food. And so we're able to capture that data for our students and for our certain subgroups so that we are able to reach out to the wellness center so they can reach out to our families. So it's just a variety of things. It's just connecting with them. And even if it's a phone call, if we can't see them or they don't open their door, it's it's effective. We we've just got to reach them somehow. And that seems to really connect with them because we do want to connect with our families and
154we like the students to be in the parent meetings as well so that they know how important they are. Thank you. One more thing. Um I I hear from you know two different um principles if I'm not mistaken. Um Craigsai and um Seneaga I believe it was that um there was some kind of lack of support. what can we do because I know this is a teamwork you know we we play you know an important role so that we can support all of you guys but um what can we do to have that support that you guys need you know so that we can you know help and and support those students. Um I was part of the alliance task force and my the the focus of our group was chronic absenteeism and one of
155the things that we discussed as a group is um the home visits. We we did discuss home visits and how powerful they are and if we could put a little bit more um more funds into hiring more people to do home visits, right? I mean a principal and an assistant principal, we can do so many, right? But let's say we had people doing it full-time. That could also support us. I mean, what do you guys think? My colleagues. >> Yeah, I I think that would be one way of supporting us. >> And my last question, um, can we be part of the pie [laughter] contest? I don't know. You don't like >> Yeah, send an invite. You know, the students you know, whatever motivates the students, you know, you know, to come to school, you
156know, I'm more than happy to to support if that means to be >> I nominated [laughter] to represent the board. >> Yeah, I don't mind representing the board. [laughter] >> [laughter] >> That's >> Thank you, Miss Clark. >> So, we did have a motion on the floor. [laughter] Just kidding. Um, so first I really want to say thank you and I lead with this because this is really um tough, hard work and you guys are critically thinking through it. So when you come here and our job is done, you've already had the claim, you know, the the reason, the evidence and your actions. So very very grateful for that. I want to say I was thinking as you were speaking about the home visits and all the wonderful things that you do to um decrease
157chronic absenteeism. And I thought about, wow, when I walk into any space, if I don't feel welcome, I never want to go back ever right now. So, our kids need to walk into our spaces within this entire district knowing that they're wanted because they feel it. And if they feel welcome, they're going to want to come. The parents need to walk in and feel welcome because then they know their kids are in a safe space. It trickles down and they're going to say, "Hey, baby, you need to go because you're safe there and we want you to learn and you feel good and you can learn, right? Because this is MBUSD and it's the best." So I just want to say that that intentional support that you're giving the routine that you speak of ISP
158calling the houses visiting the houses the digital citizenship I hear all of that and I believe in you because you said it. I know it's going to happen right your mouth to God's ears. I hear you. So listen have I know we said that we're going to talk to the students um the chronically absent students and say hey what do you want right because I know kids love their teachers but they also love incentives and you guys have some great incentives. I was listening to a podcast because believe it or not I have it on my my my Spotify. I guess I'm just dropping all kind of brands right now and we're not even getting paid for it. But I have it on my Spotify like this board podcast. Believe it or not, I listen
159to it. It's really interesting. Board member podcast. And I was listening to one of these like really cool incentives for chronic absenteeism. Let me tell you about it. It's Nike. They have this design a shoe program. What? Yes. Our kids can design a shoe and they can say, "Oh my goodness, this kid from MBUSD designed the stripe on the Nike shoe." Why? Because they came to school every day this year and they get the opportunity to do the sticker. Whoa. I mean, I don't know if our kids would want to do that, but it is something I heard about. >> Yeah. So, keep up the good work. Thank you. So, >> thank you. Um, yes, all of my colleagues took everything I wanted to say, so I'm not going to repeat it, but um, thank
160you again for for being here, for being vulnerable, for sharing your data. Um, we really, you know, we value all the information because all of us want our district to grow, right? And we're all collectively working on that. One question that did come to mind because I think we all can agree and and so can you is we do like the idea of home visits. Um, but my question is, have you asked those parents when you go to the home visits if they use or have access to Parent Square? Because maybe they don't have a cell phone or maybe they don't know that Parent Square exists or maybe that might be we might have a miscommunication opportunity there. I don't know. Just thinking. >> I I actually think that's a great idea. Um, I think
161that we could uh, you know, in my shop, we can come up with a a script of definite questions we need to ask to get answers from. >> Yeah. And and we can like walk them through it. If they have a cell phone, walk them through how to get on there because as when I had students here, I would always get the notifications and I'm like, "Oh, yeah. I bet. Oh, I forgot about that." Yeah. You know, and so maybe even like you said, they didn't know school started at 7:45. You know, I know when you guys are sending out the messages, you guys are in, you know, telling parents, hey, school starts, you know, at 7:45 or we have a holiday, don't bring the kids or, you know, um, I think we all are
162signed up for the notification. So, we see all of them. But, um, that might be an opportunity to to to teach and educate our parents on parents card and even the kids, they could sign up for it. I know my son was signed up for it. So, we were both, you know, in the no. Um, also wanted to, um, point out, um, Miss Vega, you said something that resonates with me. Behavior is a form of communication. And I totally agree. You know, sometimes things are going on at home and we don't know. You know, same thing as adults. one of your co-workers shows up, you know, upset and you know they're not as friendly and you know something's happening, something's going on and you could just offer that listening air. So, thank you for recognizing
163that. I think we all need to be more cognitive of, you know, behavior. Um, and that that's an indicator. It's it's a flag. Hey, let's check in on this student or this friend or this adult or this coworker. We got to check on each other, too. Um, so yeah, that would that was pretty much all I had, but thank you all. You have one other thing. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> Thank you, Miss Luna. One of the things I forgot to mention was one of the investments they spoke of, and I just actually named it as I was sitting here, the hero, which is the home education resource officer or home visit education resource officer. You guys said you needed that. That might be a good a good um investment. I don't know. No promises,
164but Dr. Rubakava or is that something you can look into? Just someone dedicated to home visits. I mean, that might really be huge. I don't I don't know if it's doable, but you know, I like to think outside the box and I'm outside of it. >> All we need is consensus from the board and we can look into it. >> Yes, >> that's all we need. We'll look into it. >> Okay. You don't have to call it a hero, but it's I welcome it. That's a great [laughter] >> And I I do want to acknowledge that we do have three attendance specialists that do uh home visits every day. And we've actually been a little bit more intentional uh with their home visits and having them identify those students uh that are chronically absent within
165a certain percentage. Uh so we can then uh again get them find out what's going on, communicate back to the school sites um of how they could support. Um, so we do have those three dedicated and they're more intensely focused at the direction of Mr. Marquez. >> How long have you had those? >> Oh, since before I was I even when I think I was a counselor, they've been around for a long time. >> So the data is already reflected in the numbers that you gave us today. Yes. Okay, good to know. And so that particular position has probably made a positive impact or those positions made a positive impact as we can see overall. I was looking at the California dashboard. So it is healthy. So, is there some kind of thing? And I
166and I want us to be intentional. I know sometimes I make jokes and I smile a lot and it's funny, but I'm really serious. Like, I really want to see if maybe we can develop um actual job description and make it very intentional. I'm very specific on what we want to see and tracking the data maybe when when we do this like week over week, quarter over quarter, you know, what does it look like? What is our trend analysis? How is this impacting? What can we do more? Do the research. find these extra Nike shoe thingies, you know, that's out there to let our kids come to school, talk to parents, talk to kids. >> They do care about their teachers, but I don't think that's the number one reason they come to school, my
167personal opinion. [laughter] But, you know, that's just me. But I think they do come for food, for camaraderie, for love. I can name a hundred things they come for, but teachers, too, you guys. Teachers, too, of course. So, let's wrap around these kids and get them here. All right. Thank you. >> Yes, go ahead. >> Um just to that's what I think that's why I asked you guys what type of support you guys need from us because I do feel that um like Miss um Brandy was saying you know we need we need more people you know supporting that idea of you guys you know doing the home business. I know that we have had those you know people working you know and doing those home visits but I feel that three people is not
168enough you know to do all the work that is needed to improve our attendance and if we are a team we need to start you know working a little more as a team but before you know um anything else I just want to say thank you thank you for being here thank you for you know showing us you know your glow and the need to improvement. It is not easy to come and say you know this is you know where I need to improve this is where you know like things are not working you know great and it takes a lot and I know you know I had never seen that before like I said you know this is something new I have been coming you know as a parent to the board meetings and
169um I feel that this um this is something you know like recent that we hear you know not only the good things but the things that we need to do better so I appreciate you guys taking the time because you know just like like you know um principal know Dr. PA said, you know, like um doing the home businesses, but also having that, you know, belt, all that got me excited, you know, so I feel, you know, what the kids might be thinking and looking at that, you know, how inspirational that is. And also, you know, um our principal, um Miss Miss Vega, uh the throw in the P. I'm serious about volunteering for that. I'm not joking. Uh no, I'm not. [laughter] And also, you know, our principal from from from from Box Springs,
170you know, Christine Martelli, um, saying that the common thing that I hear, you know, doing the home visits, but something that she said it was utilizing her parent ambassador. That is something that that's really good because they work, they know the parents, they know, you know, their needs. So I feel that sometimes parents feel more um more relaxed, you know, more more confident to talk to another parent, you know, that works for the district and they are more open about their situation. So that's a great connection. So I want to say, you know, thank you for doing that. And then um our principal um from Senica, um Mr. um Mario Paris, you know, talking about the the the hot points. So, it was great to hear all the amazing ideas that you you have and
171that you utilize, you know, to to make your schools look better and for that instance, make the the whole district look better. So, thank you for that. >> I think that's it. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> All right, we are on to item L, consent agenda. If do you have something to pull, M? >> Yes, thank you. I'd like to pull a couple of contracts or can I pull A2526-285 for a separate vote? A25-260290 for a separate vote. a 2526 0296 for a separate vote, but 90 and 96 together. I just had a question. >> So, I'll say it again. A >> go slower, please. >> Yes. Thank you. I'd like to pull a 252625, excuse me, 0285 for a separate vote. together. I'd like
172to pull a 2526, 0290, and 0296 together for a separate vote. >> So, we have to vote on those separately. >> All three. >> Okay. >> So, 9096. >> So, we have 0285, 0290, and 0296. >> Yes. Okay. All right. So, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended? >> I'd like to make a motion to present the consent agenda as amended. >> Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? >> I'll second that. >> Miss Lea seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. >> Member Carvio, >> I. >> Mr. Williams, >> I. >> Mr. Johnson, >> I. >> Miss Leva, >> I. >> Miss Clark, >> I. >> Miss Luna, >> I. Motion carries. And now I would like to call on for a motion to approve A25260285.
173Do I have a motion? I'll motion. >> Thank you. >> And do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Okay. Mr. Williams seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. >> Student. B member Carbay. >> I. >> Mr. Williams. >> I. >> Mr. Johnson. >> I. >> Miss Lea. >> I. Miss Clark >> abstain. >> Miss Luna. >> Uh I uh so motion carries with five yes and one abstension. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh next I would like uh a motion to approve A25260290. Is there a way for discussion first or do we have to make the motion and approve before we discuss? >> A first and a second before discussion. >> Thank you. So, I'll motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Miss Carbio. Please call for
174the vote, Miss Claudia. >> We have discussion before the vote. >> Oh, sorry. >> Thank you. No worries. Thank you. I just had a quick question on this particular um contract starts 716:30. This is a ratification of the agreement for the prof professional consultant. And my question is, have there been any charges already to this contract or any services on this contract? And are they a one on the record that they are in compliance with board with policy district policies? >> Miss Lopez. >> Yes. Thank you, Miss Clark. So for both of these contracts um 0290 as well as 0296 yes services were provided at the beginning of the school year. Um for the one contract um it aligns with our fiscal year of July till June. That one is late. The vendor has not
175been paid. Uh we've been withholding that payment because the contract was not approved on the second contract. those dates don't necessarily align with the fiscal year which um we will be working on aligning that with the fiscal year. So this one actually would start tomorrow. So the services that were already provided fell under a prior contract. But in both of these cases we have had discussions with the respective departments so that we can ensure that this does not happen in the future. So just for Okay, thank you for that. For clarity on two on 0296, even though it starts 1119, which is tomorrow, services have already been rendered on that particular one. >> They have been rendered this fiscal year with a contract that crossed over fiscal years, which we shouldn't we should avoid those.
176>> No worries. Thank you for the clarity. >> With that said, I'd like to make a motion to >> I think we already have the motion. >> Oh, we have the motions. Yeah, 90. >> So, we have to complete 90 since there was a first and a second on that one. >> Thank you so much. >> Um, >> call for the vote on this. >> So, yes, call for the Sorry, >> member Carbio. >> Hi, >> Mr. Williams. >> Hi, >> Mr. Johnson. >> Hi, >> Miss Lea. >> Hi, >> Miss Clark. >> Hi, >> Miss Luna. >> Hi. Wait, you you still >> Yeah, I just had a question. Oh, >> okay. Motion carries. >> Um, all right. And >> are you are you going to have are you gonna have a question on
177this one? >> Uh, actually, she has her file. Okay. >> All right. Do I have a motion to approve A25260296? >> I'd like to make a motion to approve. >> Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? >> I'll second that. >> Miss Lea seconds. Miss Clauddio, please call for the vote. >> Student Barbara Corvalo. >> I. Mr. Williams. >> Hi. >> Mr. Johnson. >> I. >> Miss Lea. >> I. >> Miss Clark. >> I. >> Miss Luna. >> I. Motion carries. Thank you everyone. Okay. Okay. Now we are on item M M1 that is um educational services discussionform informationational items. Looks like we have letter A first reading of BP 5131.8 mobile communication device policy and Dr. Arce. Thank you very much Miss Luna. This is a long awaited board policy. So, this
178board policy is new both for the board policy and the administrative regulation. Um, the board, this is the first read. We want to reassure the board that this has gone to all of our union leads, but it has been very well vetted through student groups, parent groups, um, yes, and educators. So we would love any feedback that you have for the final read which will come in December. Um and this is an aligning with uh the the new law of assembly bill which h we have to provide a board policy administrative regulation to regulate the use of mobile devices on in our schools. >> Thank you Dr. RC. Any questions colleagues? No questions, but a comment. I did have the opportunity opportunity to read the policy. Um, I think it's it's it's really simple, easy
179to read, and it's it's very clear. Um, I I I [clears throat] just want to make sure that we market this well. Well, I was trying to find the best way to say this because we need to make sure that everyone's aware and they have the fair opportunity to make sure they're follow this policy and they're aligned with this policy. >> So, I think this is uh one example where where we got the horse ahead of the cart or the cart ahead of the horse. Our sites knowing that this was going to come have already started working on that. So, I think the communication is going to be probably a lot easier when we actually enact it fully. But we agree we definitely need to do a really good communication campaign to make sure that
180there's awareness. >> I have a question well more a comment than a question. Um I know that um I have received notifications you know for my kids stating you know the new policy on um on cell phones but um I know and explain over here um how if you have an IP of you know medically needed that they can have the phone. How can we assure that the parents you know have that information? how they can access, you know, um, that information. And not only that, um, you know, the the procedure so that they can have, you know, that IEP or that meeting so that they can, you know, settle that down and not have their kids um, have any, you know, problems when they're using a device because it's a medical reason or because
181it's um, something on their IEP that is requested or needed. >> I think that's going to be part of the communication plan. I mean, we have to communicate with our families the policy itself, but also that there are special circumstances that would necessitate students having to have those devices. So, it's going to be all part of the communication plan for the adults, for the parents, but also for our staff members so that they don't feel like they're going to punish um a student for having something that they legitimately need to have. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Uh on to M2A. First reading of deletion of board policy 3315, relations with vendors, deletion of board policy 3360, vendor relations and administrative regulation 3440, inventories. Miss Lopez. >> Yes. Thank you, President Luna. Um we are
182continuing to go through our board policies to make sure that they're all in alignment with CSBA. In doing so, we've come um across some that there is no language with CSBA. Uh that is the case for the first one, policy 3315, uh which we have defined as relations with vendors. It's literally like a paragraph, a couple sentences. Um it's unique to our district, doesn't align with CSBA. Um and the reason being is that it is actually included in other language u board policy 3280. um and that's where that language is incorporated. And so we're [clears throat] recommending that we delete 331 3315. The second one, uh very similar. This is board policy 3360. It's um detailed vendor relations. And if you look at the policy again, um it's just a sentence um a unique to
183our district, not really in alignment with CS CSBA policy. And again, this is um board policy that we have that is included language is included in board policy 3600 and that language is addressed there. And then the third update we have a recommendation that we have for first reading is administrative regulation 3440. Uh this is having to do with inventories. And for this particular administrative regulation, um, we have something that's been, um, in effect since 2008, hasn't been updated. And as we work on our conversion to the new county financial system, asset management is a key component. And so that um, forced us to take a look at this policy to make sure that we are in alignment. And so we are including the language that is recommended by CSBA. um having to do with
184our inventory, what the inventory thresholds are, um how we would conduct the inventory, the fact that we would need to have a physical inventory done every couple of years, um and then guidelines for doing that as well. And so that is all new language that we are recommending uh be updated for this administrative regulation 3440. Again, these are all the first reading and our plan is to bring them forward for second reading and approval at the December 9th board meeting. >> Thank you, Miss Lopez. Any questions, colleagues? >> For me, >> um maybe I just don't So, when I read these when we get them, like for example, you say you're going to delete 3315, right? and you say it's it's language already in another policy and then I say can I see the other
185policy where is the other policy please I I don't know where it is and I and I thought I asked for this in agenda review so maybe I'm missing it policy oh because it's not attached the old version is not attached >> we we wouldn't attach 3280 necessarily because it's not being changed but we can make sure that it's in a Friday update So you can compare and what we can do is we can highlight the language in the deleted policy in the new in the existing one so you can see a clear reference between the two. >> Yes. Because I must share that I missed that. You know what I mean? I read this but I missed I missed it. It's in there. Thank you. I missed that. >> I thought it was this
186is first reading. This is first reading. So first we're not up for a vote just yet. So, I'll make sure I'll go back and look at that. >> I didn't see >> I will double check to make sure that it is in the Friday memo, but we should be including the backup. >> Okay. So, I will make sure. >> So, just so you so just for clarity. Um, I will go back and read it and also I see that it's referenced here too, so I could look it up in the the assembly. So, thank you very much. >> It's in the folder and it's highlighted. >> Thank you. >> I appreciate it. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. We're on to item NA, approval of the readoption of the governance handbook. Dr. Rubakawa. >> Thank you,
187President Luna. So on October 25th, our board of education engaged in a governance um workshop where we evaluated our handbook and how the board is adhering to the attendance of our handbook and our operating procedures as a governing board. I thought it was a great morning, a great actually it was all day uh because we did ethics training in the afternoon but I thought it was a very productive session. Um and along with that the board um took action to add a couple of um pieces to our governance handbook. So we're presenting the governance handbook for formal adoption. Um at this time >> like to make a motion to approve the or to readdopt the governance handbook as uh presented. >> Thank you. Do I have a second? >> I'll second that. >> Thank you,
188Miss Leva. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Student board member Carbayo. >> I, >> Mr. Williams. >> Hi, >> Mr. Johnson. >> Hi, >> Miss Leva. >> Hi, >> Miss Clark. >> Hi, >> Miss Luna. >> I motion carries. All right, we're on to item 2A, approval of resolution number 20252640, approving the form of a preliminary official statement in connecting with Marino Valley Unified School District uh 2025 general obligation refunding bond series B. Miss Lopez. >> Yes. Thank you, President Luna. Um, this resolution is to approve and the updated preliminary official statement. So, this is the official statement that is in conjunction with our general obligation bonds, measure M. If you recall earlier in the calendar year, the district uh was able to refinance the series A of those bonds and the board took
189action allowing the refinancing to take place. For transparency purposes, we are coming back because now we are going to be refinancing uh series B. Um happy to report that this would generate up to a million dollars um are the projected savings. Now, this is over a 14-year period. It's spread out over all of the households um in the district. Um but the bottom line is is that in conjunction with the earlier refinancing for the calendar year, it's $2 million in taxpayer money that we are saving. Um there's no benefit to the district. There are no funds that we generate. Um but it would it just goes back um as savings for the taxpayers and and so um we have also gone through the process of going through the credit rating credit rating. The district maintains
190a strong um double A3 finance rating uh which we're moving [clears throat] forward to and we have pre-pricing scheduled for the first week of December. >> Thank you Miss Lopez. Any questions colleagues? It's all good news. >> All right. Do I have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Miss Clark. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. >> Student board member Corbio. >> I. >> Mr. Williams. >> Hi. >> Mr. Johnson. >> Hi. >> Miss Lever. >> Hi. >> Miss Clark. >> Hi. >> Miss Luna. >> I. Motion carries. And we're on to item B. Approval of the authorization of the parent community booster club. Mustang Kappa Booster Club from Marino Elementary School. Miss Lopez. >> Yes. Thank you.
191Um, President Luna, uh, this evening we have a booster club that has met all of the requirements for the operations in 2025. We know it's late in the school year um but there has been a change in the leadership of the booster and so they've been working closely with our business services teams to make sure that they are in compliance and we want to make sure that um everything is notated and so that's why this evening we are recommending approval of the Mustang Kappa booster club from Marino Elementary School um who have met all of the requirements um to operate as a booster organization. Any questions, colleagues? No. Motion to approve. >> I'd like to approve the authorization of the parent community booster club Mustang Kappa pres Kappa booster club as presented. >> Thank you.
192Do I have a second? >> I'll second that. >> Thank you, Miss Lea. Miss Clauddio, please call for the vote. >> Student board member Herbayo. >> I. >> Mr. Williams, >> I. >> Mr. Johnson, >> I. >> Miss Lever, >> I. Miss Clark. >> Hi. >> Miss Luna. >> I. Motion carries. >> We We got a [applause] round of applause from >> I think Congratulations. >> I think that's the first. We got a board. The board got a round of applause. [laughter] >> Next, we are on to human resource action items. Approval of the first and second reading and adoption of administrative regulation 1312.1 complaints concerning district employees. Dr. Verie. >> Thank you, President Luna. This is a policy we're bringing back uh for a minor update. The board has approved this previously on October
193the 14th when we made sure it was up to CSBA standards and we had other updates in there, but there had been some omissions that pertain to other related policies as a cross reference. So tonight, we're asking the board to please approve this update with those new policies or those other policy numbers added to 1312. Again, there are no substantial changes at all to the intent or to the text other than the addition of those policies. >> Thank you, Dr. Verie. Colleagues, any questions? >> Nope. >> Do I have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. A second. >> I'll second that. >> Miss Lever seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. >> Mr. Barber, member Carvalo. >> I. >> Mr. Williams. >> I. >> Mr. Johnson. >> Hi.
194>> Miss Leva. >> Hi. >> Miss Clark. >> Hi. >> Miss Luna. >> I. Motion carries. Now we are on to acknowledgement items. Uh acknowledgement of the notice of intent to operate a countywide charter school, Altus Schools, Riverside County. Dr. Ruvakava. >> Thank you, President Luna. So the district received notice of intent from Altus Schools Riverside that they're going to operate a countywide charter within our county. Um it is a routine process that we know that we acknowledge the notice that they provided to us. So basically we're presenting this just so that the board understands that we're going to be acknowledging their notification to us. >> Any questions colleagues? >> I have a question. Do we know where it's going to be? >> We have there's several in the county and there's one that already
195operates now. Dr. is that the one on Alessandro? >> Yes. So there's um Atlas and and Odell are the same. So they're trying they're doing this proposals because they want to bridge everything. So it's the online um Odell charter that that we have within our city. Um we did connect with the county and the county said that they're they don't believe that there's an intention to add another. They just want to bridge the one they have in San Diego with the one that they have here and they're called different names. So they just want to have it under the same umbrella. >> Okay. Thank you. Do we have a motion? >> No motion, just a motion. >> Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. Sorry. I'm ready to pass it. [laughter] >> Um, okay. We're on to
196item P, future agenda topics. We'll start with student board member Carbio. >> I have no future agenda topics. >> Trusty Williams, >> I have none at this time. >> Trusty Johnson? >> No, ma'am. Thank you. >> Trusty Leva, I don't have any at this time. Trusty Clark, >> I don't have any at this time. >> And neither do I. >> Did you have anything to add? It looks like you have something to add. >> A new agenda item. >> Okay. >> And it's going to take us about three hours. >> Oh, thank you. >> Good. >> So, um this is a new uh but it's a good news. I hope uh the board will see it is that as our transportation department is increasing services not only internally with the addition of our of a
197almost completely electric fleet we've also started to provide uh transportation services for neighboring school districts the board recently approved agreements with Banning Bulmont and Valverde and our team has already started providing services for them so this has um become an opportunity for us to generate revenue to our district as we contract become contractors for other districts. We uh our long-term goal is to generate as much as $7 million uh annually to our district as we um provide services for other districts. But for in order for us to do that, we need to increase the capacity of the transportation fleet. Basically, the operation the Paris operation center is running out of space. We have too many buses, not enough space. And the Paris operations center also includes our nutrition services, maintenance and operations, grounds, uh facilities.
198I mean, it's it's pretty much the entire um working infrastructure of our district. So, we would like to ask the board for permission for authority to move forward. And we are thinking of actually now purposing the west lot which is we are here. So it's the lot right behind us. Um it's about 4 and a half acres and we believe we can create um enough we believe there's enough space there to add a building of about 20 2500 square feet. uh about a 100 parking lot parking spaces for our transportation drivers, about 105 um spaces for our buses, a solar array and battery storage, and our superchargers to charge our buses. And so the way it would work is the POC transportation would be our internal transportation for intrause and the west lot would be
199our interuse which is our contracting out transportation services. The team believes that we can do this for approximately $20 million and um the cost would be borne by grants and revenue that we collect from our um contracting and from our services. So with the board's permission, we'd like to engage in kind of a more thorough study and bring you back some schematics, some drawings, and some um kind of numbers cost as well. uh as a formal presentation so then you can give us direction to move forward at that point. So at this point we just want consensus so we can move forward with the study. >> I'm all for it as a transportator here. >> I like that idea too and especially saying that you're going to bring us information so we can see you
200know the actual cost and and when it's you're saying that it's not going to cost us money because it's going to come from grants and so that I like that better. >> [laughter] >> Everybody likes that better. You know, I think uh we know that Mr. Bolerson has done a really good job of seeking out grant funds. We were just we we just shared that we were recipients of the AQMD bus um grant about $4 and a half million dollars from Epic that's going to go that came from the California Energy Commission that can be used for this as well. I mean various grants of 500,000 300,000 and so on. another four and a half million dollars from AQMD. So all of that adds up so that we're we believe we're going to be able
201to make a pretty good dent. And even if there is some uh contribution from the general fund, we're going to see that in a return as we um rent our facilities, our transportation to other districts. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Williams, you had a question. Um, with the addition of the grants, um, and us starting to, uh, charge the other districts, we're going to be able to decrease that time we break even on our investment for the $20 million versus what we generate in the black. >> Absolutely. I I that's exactly the point. I think the other piece as well is um this is an opportunity for us to hire more drivers to increase the number of CSEA staff members to give our drivers who have only partial hours more hours. Think about the bus monitors
202as well. Um so it is all in all I think a really good idea >> and it's also good for the environment. >> It's good for the environment since we're using electric buses. Mhm. >> Um, and you know, one of the things that we want to continue to do is market all the amazing things that are happening in our district. And what better way of doing that than our buses being in Banning and Bulmont and Balverity transporting other kids. >> Exactly. >> Creating more job opportunities for our community. That's just a plus. >> Absolutely. I'd like to put like a LCD screen on the side of the bus that says, >> you know, come enroll in Marino Valley Unif. uh the department of transportation may have some issues with that but uh you know I
203think just just this is a great opportunity for our district and again kudos to Mr. Bowler for his leadership in this. >> So we will bring back something that M. Trusty Williams >> you know it always comes to me when when we start making money like this. How do we get our kids to be the mechanics in this new facility? >> Uh be the transportation managers. >> How do we how do we do that? >> See because that's real. And that's the future. >> That's what I want to see >> out of this. >> You're you're you're already anticipating some of the conversations that we've had. Uh Mr. Burles has talked about developing a um bus driver kind of pathway, a CT pathway >> that you know something like that where we can create um
204a connection between our automotive program at Valley View >> to uh the E needs the E mechanic needs of our bus fleet. So there's there are a lot of opportunities here. Um I mean think about the Shine internship program. Imagine our students being able to be shine, be part of the shine program at the transportation department, whether it's in the busing, whether it's in the office, whether it's routing. So, there's tons and tons of opportunities there and we will bring those back to you as well when we present in terms of benefits to financial benefits to the district. I think personnel benefits to the district as well and al obviously student benefits to the district as well. So that means that we need to like make the driving class, you know, like bigger. It's not
205going to be, you know, enough 20 students because if we're going to have more job opportunities, you know, >> we need to to make it bigger. >> I don't know about the driving class. >> We can work on that. >> No, it doesn't work like that. >> No, you're talking about class A drivers. >> But there's definitely >> somebody's got to go to school first. >> Yeah. And we can but we can absolutely explore that. Uh even if it's partnering with some of the big companies that teach that with our with us, we can do some of that as well. >> Yeah. You just can't go to transportation and say, "Okay, teach me how to drive." >> How do I know? I was a transporter for 100 years. I ought to know. >> I think
206Mr. Johnson's going to be part of the steering committee for it. >> Sounds like it. >> Dr. Ver, he came out there and recruited me and brought me here. So, I'm done. >> All right. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Anything else? Okay. Thank you. All right, with no further business to come before the board of education, this meeting is adjourned at 8:19 p.m. >> Have a good evening, everyone.