MVUSD Regular Board Meeting Board of Education 08/26/25

001Good evening everyone. The board of education reconvened into open session at 5:04 p.m. Roll call, please. >> Isabella Carbio, board student board member, present. >> Johnson, present. Joanna Lea present. >> Brandy Clark present. >> Sammy Luna present. >> Alejandro Wava present. >> Espiranza RC present. >> Robert Verie present. >> Susanna Lopez present. >> And uh Roads Williams for the record is absent today. Report out of close session. The board of education met in close session to discuss board deliberations regarding public employee employment appointment, public employee discipline dismissal release non-reelects, conference with labor negotiator, conference with real property negotiator, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, settlement of claims, and superintendent evaluation. The board gave further directions to district staff and took action on the following. A motion was made by Miss Clark and seconded by Miss

002Leva and approved settlement claim number AB96 and was approved by the board of education by the following vote. Four yes and one absent. A motion was made by Miss Clark and seconded by Miss Leva and approved the deny six one. This was approved by the board of education by the vote for yes and one absent. Following new employees were approved in close session. A motion was made by Miss Leva and seconded by Miss Clark to approve the new director 3 secondary education Dr. Nar nar sorry if I butcher that Gonzalez Dr. Verie would you like to introduce us >> Narada >> thank you Miss Luna and board members Dr. Ruvakaba. It is my pleasure to introduce you to our new director of secondary education that the board just approved. Dr. Gonzalez comes uh to with

003many accolades from her her previous district where her super educational strategic collaborative and a relentless advocate for join the Marino Valley District family. And so with that, I'll bring Dr. Gonzalez to the podium. Good evening board. Um first of all I just want to thank um the board opportunity and Dr. Rubakava. Um I am humbled and honored to have this opportunity to serve as director of secondary. I'm truly grateful to be standing here. Thank the board the confidence and the support and also Dr. Dr. Rubikawa for your vision and your leadership. I am deeply humbled by this appointment and I take thisly um to the students and families of Valley. I want them to understand that student success is work that I'm Shepard. O want to thank my support Ethan and Mark and Pablo. their

004unconditional support provide me the strength to do anything again to the board and for this incredible honor with dedication and passion. So thank you again. [Applause] >> Thank you Dr. We are so happy is such a pleasure um talking to you, getting to know you and hearing um how much you value Marino Valley Unified. So, we're so excited to work with you. Congratulations. >> To meet you. Um, your positivity and your um, acument just exuded from you. I want to say your heart for kids and welcome to the team. >> Um, I just want to say thank you, you know, for welcome. you know with you and getting to know you a little bit and why is it that you want to here with us so congratulations. >> I too want to say congratulation we

005mentioned passion I saw that when you were speaking but that's so appropo I mean she's talking about passion and then she she's demonstrating it. So congratulations and welcome aboard looking forward to a lot things from you. So thank you very much. Congratulations and Marina Valley Unified. >> So, I want to start by uh introducing you to a few of your team members back there. We have three of our high school principles in the audience. There's than anything one of the stood out when we met is you're choosing to come to us. There's happening in Marino Valley. Thank you for choosing us and we welcome you to our team. So congratulations and thank you. [Applause] And we also had a motion made by Miss Clark and seconded by Miss Lea to approve the elementary school principal

006Christy Mart determined. Dr. Verie. >> Thank you, President Lyn. And it's my privilege to uh bring to the podium at this time our newest principal. Miss Martelli's been a member of team already for a short time principal for us, but she comes to us with over 10 years of experience as a principal from another district. So once again, we're really excited to have a top-notch educator join Marino Valley team. And with that, we'll turn it over to Miss Martelli. [Applause] so much. Good evening board and Marina Valley committee. Nice. It's wonderful to be here. It's with deep gratitude and great excitement that I stand here today to of principal. I want to thank the Moro Valley Unified School District leadership and this board me with this incredible opportunity. I'm truly honored to join a district

007so deeply committed educational excellence, equity, and community. I also want to thank everyone who supported me through your comp means more than words express. Taking on this role is responsibility I do not take lightly. I am fully to serving valley with integrity, purpose and heart. I want to focus on putting students first. Every decision I make will center around what is best for our students. their academic growth, emotional well-being, success will always be at the heart of our work and be able to empower educators. I deeply believe in the power of teachers and staff. I am committed a culture of collaboration continuous shared leads strengthen school community partnerships. I look forward to building strong trusting relationies ensure that the school is a welcoming inclusive learning environment where every child is seen, valued, rated. I'm ready

008to listen to learn side by side with our and families to ensure every student has the opportunity to thrive. So much for this opportunity. I'm honored and I am so eager to get started. Let's do things together. [Applause] Congratulations. It's obvious that your dedication and your um shine and and that's why you are thank for everything you do and look forward to working with you. >> Congratulations. I am so excited about you joining our district. Um I can that just seeing and meeting you and seeing how you're to go over and it shows what you're willing to do for our kiddos. It shows your flexibility. Um you're thinking outside the box. You will do whatever it takes to make the kids in this district successful and I see in you. So and thank you for

009joining our team. Congratulations. Um I really enjoy chatting with you to you with you today. Uh it is really um amazing to how excited you know and you're already working and you're in a new position and and that's really good you know and I like that. So thank you for um for and congratulations >> and I too want to congratulate things integrity purpose and heart. Did I hear that from you? That's what I do it >> right. That's what I thought. Okay. Well, that's exactly what we're looking. So thank you. Thank you. that up and letting us know that we now know where to go for the integrity, purpose, and heart. We know you're going to do a great job here and doing in a new position. I mean, so thank you. Thank you. Thank

010you for uh accepting it member of our team. We're looking forward to some great things from you and our our students are looking for the same thing, but with integrity. You're welcome. Thank you very much. um saying congratulations and I really admire how you pointed out um how you would like to encourage and students because I think that's very important and wait to see what you can do. I'm very pleased to have you here and welcome and congratulations. >> So I'm going to share a little bit of the the happens in the background. So Miss Martelli actually comes to us from of turning around schools and making a significant impact she has served in. So we asked her to take a chance on us knowing that we were potentially going to have a vacancy in

011the near future. And two weeks into the school year, here you are. So thank you for taking a chance on us. Congratulations. President Luna, if I may, I just we have a a member of the audience who the board has not met yet. He's one of our newest assistant principles, and I'm going to He's really excited. I'm putting him on the card now. Mr. Podium. This is Mr. Anthony G. You know, he was dressed so nice we had to call him to the podium to to say hello. And he is a new assistant principal working for us, part of Miss Kentar's over there. and he's already making a an impact and they're really going to be a good team for the students here. So, Anthony, if you wanted to say >> okay, just um hi,

012I'm totally unprepared to speak right now, but um I just want to say thank you for um taking on me. I was new to the district. Um I came with some experience from before. Um and I've really enjoyed working at Edgemont and getting to know the community and working with the students. And mine's nearly as polished as everyone's, but that works. Thank you, Yeah, we didn't mean to put him on the spot, but Anthony was a experienced teacher and assistant principal from We'll let remain nameless, but we we we recruited an educator to our joining our team. Anthony, thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. If you remember, I met you. I was dressed as Cersei on the first day of school, but you were you were doing some work. Anyway, it

013it's nice to meet you. Welcome to the district. We're happy to have um to open session uh pledge of allegiance. Uh Miss Carbio, would you please lead us in the >> Yes. Um thank you. Everyone, please stand. Hand over your heart. Ready. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible. >> Um, a new one added October 20 October 28th, November 18th, December 9th. Any questions about that? On to item E3, approval of resolution number 2025. Acknowledgement presented to the Kawia, Tongba, Lucen, Luceno, and Sorrano tribal nations. Um, did you all have a chance to review this? >> Yes. Um, M. President Luna, >> do we have any discussion? >> I don't have any questions. >> Okay. >> I'd

014like to make resolution number acknowledgement as presented. >> Thank you. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. >> Student board member Carbalo. >> IA. >> Miss Luna. >> I. Carries. Yes. and one absent. >> You want to say something about that? >> Thank you, President. So, going forward, um, we recognize as a school district that we are situated some of the original peoples in the Americas. It's important that we recognize and respect the fact that we continue to inh them. So, our land statement is going to be included in every and all meetings that we hold at the school district. as a means to respect the first peoples of this area. >> Thank you. I I just want to mention that a lot to me and I'm sure a lot of other people for superintendence

015report back to you Dr. Rubakava. >> Thank you, President Luna. So this evening I have an opportunity to share some of the happenings that have been going on since our staff most of our staff started returning back to our traditional calendar year school year. Um also want to make sure that we give respect and credit to our CSCA staff making sure that our schools run and they're getting ready during the summer to welcome back kiddos at the beginning of the year. So, thank you to those team members who go above and beyond every single day, 12 months a year, doing everything that's right for our kiddos. We always as a practice that we start with our vision, our mission, and our portrait of our graduate. Not only is it important to be rooted in our

016why, promise to the community of why we do what we do to make sure that we are sending out to the world student to be contributing citizens to our not only our local but our global as a whole. These uh vision and portrait of graduate are also rooted in our goals for the district and they are encompassed here. So some of the district highlights uh at the beginning of every school year we start with a pre-leership summit. This is an opportunity for our leadership teams to get together and review some of the data that we have in terms of our student academic achievement from the previous year. Do some goal setting but more importantly do some community building. we had a lot of new members to the team and so it was nice to get

017together and get to know each other but also to start looking at what are some things that we want to focus on. One of the the pieces that really guided our work this year were the board adopted district priorities. So that was very helpful to have those ahead of time. So I want to thank the board for that because they really rooted our work in terms of the purpose and where we want to go and what we want to focus on for this school year. We also do a great job of presenting our Shine Summit. Um, I do a lot of talking, so this is a great opportunity to let the video do the talking. So, let's go ahead and click on the video. [Music] >> Hello, I'm Smiley Basencia, the director of professional development

018and digital learning. We have hosted our annual Shine Conference here at Marino Valley High School. Our Shine Conference is a an opportunity for teachers and classified employees to come together to learn about strategies to help students in the classroom and also to teach our clerical staff how to build their capacity in the I think it's really important to collaborate with the team and come up with strategies and ways that can access mathematics through the use of manipulatives and hands-on uh so that they have a true understanding understanding of any of the mathematical operations >> really know that what I do and what I say truly matters and that I can change students lives and to so I feel like very uplifted positive and I have a really good outlook for this coming school year we'd

019like to thank the board of education and the union leads for supporting this event they came together should look for an opportunity for all of our groups to learn together and and grow and and better serve our students. So, we want to thank not only Smiley but his amazing team of PD specialists, our bargaining team unit members, our bargaining team leads for supporting this amazing, it's a conference style day where educators get to go and uh attend workshops uh led by fellow colleagues and that's amazing. I mean, we're teaching each other. We know we have the talent here. So, it's really neat to uh be able to learn from each other. So, just thank the team for all of their hard work on that. >> This is our joint leadership summit. >> Hello, I'm Smiley

020Vencio. I'm here at the joint leadership conference at Reno Valley High School. We hold this event every year to kick off the school year. It's an event where we bring all of our union leads and our management teams together to learn together and also to goal set so that we're prepared to help our students and potential of our employees. Something that stood out of this event is that there's a collaborative aspect of when we were meeting with others in the breakout sessions. I felt like everybody has this purpose in their mind with data at the forefront to try to help students and I felt that um more than ever like it's unified and all the teachers all of the uh reps that were here all the management that was and the classified staff that was

021here is actually shining together pushed forward to make the the best uh decisions for students and you can feel it in every single it was packed everyone was engaged and focused and the questions were very uh targeted and directed to try to help our students succeed. >> So again, thank you to our um PD department and for all of our staff that participated in the pre-leership summit. A lot of work goes into that and I know it was recognized and valued by those who attended. At the beginning, the night before we start school, we have an ice cream social. This year we held it at Valley View High School, not only to change the pace we usually do at Marina Valley High School, but also to um kind of informally christen the new cafeteria and

022kitchen area over there. We had an amazing turnout. Um Robin, we ran out of ice cream, right? We ran out of ice cream with how many people showed up showed up at our ice cream social, which was awesome. So, it's great opportunity for families to get to know our principles, get to know the each other, and again, just an opportunity to to come together as a community. I want to thank specifically Robin, who's sitting in the back, who did a great job of coordinating that. [Applause] She's my boss, so I have to make sure that I give her kudos as much as possible along with the one to my left as well. Um, but also to our maintenance and operation and our nutrition services team for making everything just go so well, so smoothly. Thank

023you. Thank you for making it such a successful event. And one of my favorite times of the year, the first day of school. It's always incredible. So, let's play that video. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I mean, if that doesn't say it all, I mean, come on. That's pretty awesome. So for I know our board know this knows this but some of the folks that are watching um via the internet also some of those are new to our community and the audience. We have a tradition that the our leadership team dresses up as superheroes and we welcome students at the elementary sites. We've thought about doing at secondary but I'm not sure how a high schooler would feel if a Batman is welcoming them as they walk in the front door. But we can always

024try. It's just a really neat uh day and more pictures of um at our elementary school coming in through their front doors. It's just a really neat neat event. So, we have um something that we want to start bringing back which is recognizing um individuals that go above and beyond and what they do for not only our district but our staff and our students. So, we have one of those with us tonight. Um, I'm gonna ask Ramro Montes Compos to come on up to the podium and I'm going to walk down to the podium as well [Applause] with me a little bit. Okay. >> Okay. So Ramiro is one of our custodian. He has been with us not only as a student um but as an employee working with us starting as a substitute custodian

025um and then a permanent custodian custodian member at our Mina Valley High School and their team. So he's known for his strong teamwork and somebody who consistently follows through that every detail gets done the way it's supposed to takes pride in it and it's recognized by everyone that works with him. Not only uh his school leader who's sitting back there, Mr. team and his colleagues, the other custodial members of our Mina Valley High School team. His upbeat spirit just you can tell by just looking at his smile. Um he's here with his family and we want to recognize him both because not only member of our students he graduated from Canyon Springs High School our team that that works in our district chirps a lot and that little birdie told me ever diploma? >> Yes.

026>> So, you never actually got to hold your high school diploma? >> No. >> Mr. Rosson, can you come up? >> And Mr. Kinto is going to join as well. So, Ramro graduated from Canon, walked on the stage, but for some reason through some mishap, this thisable amazing document that is through hard work to your hands. So to make sure that we gave you the opportunity to celebrate you and to hand this to you and to apologize for the fact that we think it was our mistake. We never gave this to you. So we hope that you take it with pride and you share it with your family. >> Thank you so much. >> Did you want to say anything with Thank you everybody. This is amazing and I feel so proud of myself and

027my family and you guys for giving me the opportunity to be here. Thank you so much. [Applause] So clack the school and a recognition but I think it's a lot this Thank you Dr. RC for letting Um, Ramito, is it okay if we take some pictures? I want the board to take pictures with you and then we can have the family come up to you. >> Yes. >> Perfect. Perfect. Canyon Springs. We should So, Mr. Roberts to go back and modify that graduation rate from 2006. So, that's right. Uh, have some pretty incredible news and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. RC who's going to share about uh the golden bell for one of our programs in our district. Dr. Thank you. Um, I know this is it's it's a formality, but every

028year we get an opportunity to submit up to three possibilities for Golden Bell. This is through the California School Board Association. And all the districts in California are able to submit up to three programs, exemplary programs, whether it's at the site level or district level. and the hope and we cross our fingers that we at least get one and only the the max you can get awarded is one program but many many districts don't get awarded any and so last year in 2024 we actually were finalists for one of the programs and got awarded through our esports program this year we are finalist um and so we have a validation visit coming up in September but we are finalists for our dual enrollment and just overall work that our high school principles have done to

029impact the numbers and seeing the data just that came out in terms of what's coming. Very proud of the work. Thank you high school principles for this and we support these innovative ideas. Crazy ideas, but they're pretty cool for kids. So parents, if you're listening, get your kids into enrollment. Our commitment is that we want to get our kids into as many college courses in high school so that the more college courses they take in high school, the least amount of time they actually spend paying for college and they can get into their viable career, which is our mission in our district. Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you, Dr. RC. I just I'm not going to go over in detail all of the data, but you can see just at a glance that not only

030are we beating other districts that are like-sized in our county. In many cases, we're exceeding districts that are larger than us in terms of enrollment and completion. So, that's pretty amazing. Again, just look at those bars for our district. They're above some of the larger districts in our county. So, it's just amazing that we're able to provide our students these opportunities. And like Dr. RC mentioned, the visit is a formality. We're very confident that we're going to be awarded the Golden Bell. Um, but again, it's a testament to not only the talent of our students, but also our amazing educators, teachers, classified, and our leaders for supporting this this work. Just look at the numbers. It's just amazing. So, so we will let everyone know when we uh get the official results. As always, our

031focus is on uh making sure that our kiddos are in class. We know students learn best that when they are with us this year, our student services team is launching a campaign which is missing school is missing out. And you can see that it's already for the first few days of school, we're already seeing some pretty good gains and um attendance rates districtwide, but also at specific sites. So kudos to Northridge, Vista Heights, and Palm Middle for leading the pack in terms of our attendance rates so far. So great job to them. Give him a big round of applause. [Applause] We as usual we uh give a facilities update but we want to again thank our community because without their trust and by not only passing measure M but measure X we wouldn't have these

032funds to upgrade and renovate our facilities. So here you see the innovation center at Midland Elementary School. It's an amazing space that's going to allow for students to engage and learn in new environments. Not only indoor environments, but they have an outdoor classroom space as well, which is very cool. Badger Springs Middle, you get to see kind of the before and after and then the in between. So, as we continue to do the work of that, you're going to see Badger Springs start looking like Landmark. There you see the finished space up on the top. And like Mountain View, you get to see the finished spaces on both of those images. amazing learning spaces with flexible furniture and uh a 360deree classroom which is whiteboards on all walls to really focus on one of the

033things that we're um working with our teachers on which is vertical classrooms really teaching our kiddos as they stand in uh flexible groupings Paul Middle School you can see the upgrades there again amazing spaces Vista Heights I mentioned Valley View and we held our ice cream social there. There you can see the kitchen area which was completely renovated but also the kind of the galley the entry where kiddos can come in and pick and choose their their um food items. We mentioned this often but um it's worth mentioning again Valley View continues to be our highest enrollments high school yet they had the smallest eating space and serving space of all the high schools in the district. So, this has done a tremendous job of supporting that. I was there the first day of school

034and there was a lot of confusion in with kids walking into this big old space and not knowing what to do, but there was a lot of space, which is great. Uh, Vista Delago's um health academy building is almost complete. Having a little bit of a hiccup with the elevator issue there, but we're going to get it done and we're going to make sure that that gets open as soon as possible. And just a couple of save the dates. Our H.B.CU college fair is coming up along with Dia de Fiesta and our senior college and career fair. That's all I have for tonight. Thank you so much. Thank you Dr. Rubakava. That's a great way to start off the school year. Don't you guys agree? Um so now we are on item number five recognitions

035communications and event approval 2026-06 parent teacher association membership month in September. It looks like student board member will be tonight. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Can I get a motion? >> I'll second. >> Okay. Mr. Johnson and then Miss Clark seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. >> Student I. >> Mr. >> Hi. >> I miss >> I. Motion carries and one absent. And Miss Carbio. >> I ask um Kim Calvin, principal of Sugar Hill um elementary school to accept this resction. The association commonly known and families. It is committed to pro promoting parents and family engagement in children's school. Research consist consistently shows that parent engagement has impact on student academic achievement across all socioeconomic groups. The Marina Valley Unified School District Board of Education supports our PTA groups and is pleased to recognize

036September 2025 as PTA membership months and to support district schools through the PTA by becoming members coming school year. We also invite all parents to to please log your hours in our care portal. We know your time is val valuable and by logging your volunteer hours you have on our students. It's a way for us to truly see and celebrate everything you do. Thank you. >> Good evening board president, members of the board of education, superintendent Dr. and distinguished. My name is Kim Calvin and I am the proud principal of Sugar Hill Elementary School. Thank you for this opportunity toolution this evening. I'm proud to celebrate this resolution as we all vital between families and staff. It helps create meaningful programs, supports student success, and builds a strong sense of community. So for that, we

037are grateful. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh item 5B, approval of resolution number 2025-07, recognizing childhood cancer awareness. 07 as presented. >> I'll second it. >> Thank you. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. >> Member Corbio. >> I. >> Mr. Johnson. >> Hi. >> Miss Eva. >> Hi. >> Miss Clark. >> Hi. >> Miss Luna. >> I. Motion carries five and one absent. And I understand Mr. Johnson, you'll be presenting this this evening. >> Yes. >> Chris. Oh, there he is. all about. We have enough here more than 15,500 children under the age of 19 United States are diagnosed with cancer occurs regularly and affecting all and ethnic groups suff uh socioecon and geographic re equally and the last 36 new drugs have been approved by the FDA. day. This is why family

038givers, charities, research groups across the United States recognize September cancer aware cancer and survivor programs raise awareness and genary funds for family. So therefore, the board of education officially September 2025 month to honor the coverage of every adolescent young adult currently battling cancer to remember the lives that were lost too soon and to celebrate the strength and resilience cancer survivors. We invite everyone in our community to join us in this observance by wearing a gold ribbon, playing the gold lights and participating in educational events and in addition an initiative designed to raise public awareness about cancer. So I present that with you with Mike Glasman. Congratulations. Thank you as well association want to be awareness for child cancer awareness month. Um it kind ofs of our community folks members and it should really be early

039detection because early detection is the best way to catch uh child can to cancer but to diagnose it and to treat it effectively. Um, and so by having child cancer awareness month, I'm trying to make sure I get say it all correctly. Cancer awareness month awareness lets our families know to uh go to those doctor appointments, take okay to go to those doctor appointments. We offer indiv. So I would see those things with students um you know in my career in the classroom over 20 years uh you know I've had to work with families and students who were battling cancer and to imagine young going through a lot um be dealing with canc they're brave and have lots of courage as mentioned in the in the board resolution. So, let's continue to support our families

040um but also support our colleagues as well and what they're going through um and continue to do so. So, I thank the district so much for bringing that up and let's continue to Thank you. >> the board like to shake your hand as well. >> Oh, we'll do that. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you. welfare in attendance. Uh, Miss Rachel Rashelle, did I say that correct? >> Rachel. Okay. Uh, Kintanar, principal of Edgeman Elementary School, and Ryan Palomino, principal of Santos Elementary School, will be accepting this resolution. The link between attendance and student achievement is well known and our district is committed to dedicating resources to reducing chronic absentism. Attendance gaps become achievement gaps. Missing 10% or more of a school is a predictor of academic travel and dropout rates. Improving attendance and reducing chronic

041absences takes commitment, collaboration, and tailor approaches. Chronic absentism can be reduced when school families and communities collaborate to promote good attendance and address the barriers that prevent children from attending school. Therefore, the board of education recognizes September 2025 as attendance aware awareness month and is happy to announce the district's campaign message that was developed by students and for students. Missing a school is missing out. We want families to know that if there are any challenges they may face, we have resources and support available. Every student in our district deserves an opportunity to learn and thrive in our schools. Good evening, board president, members of the board of education, superintendent Dr. Rubalaba, and distinguished guests. My name is Omar Marquez. I am the child welfare and attendance coordinator for student services. I'm honored to accept this

042resolution tonight and grateful for the opportunity to oversee attendance across our district. In remote in my role, I've seen firsthand just how critical attending school is for our students and families. Many face incredible challenges, whether it be battling cancer, which happens to be coincidence I bring this up. I should have read the agenda. Um, navigating mental health struggles, experiencing homelessness, or countless other obstacles, yet they still find ways to show up. Um we one example is u I know of a student that is in secondary one of our comprehensive high schools that has not attended school for almost a whole year due to battling cancer. Well yesterday and today our first full days back and just the battle that some of our families go through. Um it it just you know and and it takes

043a team like Miss Leva said it has to be collaborative. So I know with this specific student from putting him in a home hospital from the home hospital teacher communicating with my secretary to and cleaning me in to asking for a 504 to the 504 team providing accommodations to the counselor reaching out you name it and you know it it's just incredible to see the uh effort that these students are trying to do just to feel a sense of normaly by coming to school. So, you know, that makes my job easier every day to come in and, you know, my attendance got to get better when I see stuff like that. So, um, I did bring a couple of people that were responsible for huge gains at their sites. I don't know if they want

044to say something, but Edgemont Elementary and Sunny Meadows had the largest gains in ADA and biggest reductions in chronic absenteeism in the district last year. So, I want to make sure they're recognized. Distinguished board, President uh board superintendent Rubikava and distinguished guest, it is an honor to be here. Uh we are so thankful. I want to give a big shout out to our attendance team. Anna, if you're watching, uh thank you for all you do uh to support our students. Our students are like sponges. So we got every day matters. So we are glad when they are there and we will continue to make every effort to get them to school. Thank you. I'm Rachel Kingar, principal at Edgemont, and we're excited to accept this resolution on behalf of Edgemont and all the hard work

045that we have put into getting our kids at school. Missing school is missing out is definitely something that we embody, and we've worked really hard last year, the attendance team, and all the staff to make Edgemont a place that kids want to be, and that's why I think we were successful in reducing our chronic absenteeism. So, we'll continue the work this year, and we're excited to to see our progress for next year. [Applause] Thank you. >> Thank you so much team. Next we have item D, approval of resolution number 2025-26-09, yellow ribbon youth suicide awareness and prevention week. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved, >> Miss Clark. And do I have a second? >> I'll second that. >> Miss Lea seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. >> Student board member

046Carvalo. >> I. >> Mr. Johnson, >> I. >> Miss Leva, >> I. >> Miss Clark, I miss Luna. >> I. Motion carries five and one absent. And I understand Miss Clark, you're presenting this. >> Thank you, President Luna. Can I please have Mr. Raphael Garcia and Mr. Philip Peeles to the podium? Um, so youth suicide is one of the most disruptive and tragic events a family in a community can community can experience. California is the leading state for youth suicides with at least one youth suicide every week. However, research shows that youth suicides are preventable. It's a matter of awareness, education, and action. The Marino Valley Unified School District Board of Education proclaimed September 7th through 13, 2025 Yellow Ribbon Youth Suicide Awareness and Prevention Week. This designated week encourages schools and community organizations to

047raise awareness about the issues of youth suicide and how to prevent it. We urge all of our parents, staff, students, and community members to join us in recognizing this critical challenge and to help us prevent youth suicide by raising awareness among all people affected by this tragedy. For anyone who has lost someone to suicide, we are so sorry for your loss. Mr. Beles, Mr. Uh, good evening, President Luna, Vice President Clark, distinguished members of the board, Dr. Rubel Kava, Superintendent of Schools and Executive Cabinet. No surprise that it was you, Vice President Clark. Thank you for always supporting the work that we do in mental health. Um, anyone that spent a moment uh with a student and family in crisis or in the aftermath thereof of youth suicide knows that it is the most tragic

048thing a parent or family member can experience. But like you said in the resolution, it is also something that is very pres preventable. And so for me, this resolution is two-part. First of all, it's a call to action for us to mobilize our staff to have our students feel that sense of belonging every single day. And to all of our staff out there, thank you to our therapists or social workers, teachers, administrators, instructional aids, bus uh drivers that have an impact on the on the well-being of our students every single day. I just want to say thank you. And this work is is I know often part oftentimes on mental health. We see our students when they're often in crisis. Um but I'm so proud of the work that we've done with Mr. Philip Peoples

049and student services, Mr. Jason Ramirez and Selpa to really coordinate these efforts so that we can meet students before they get into crisis because like you mentioned in the resolution, these are highly preventable instances. And so we want to thank you for continuing to recognize and raise awareness in this resolution every single year. Thank you. >> And thank you, Mr. Garcia, for all that you do. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Yellow Women Week, Suicide Awareness and Prevention Week, a time dedicated to raising awareness through schoolwide activities on the importance of kindness, inclusion, and mental health. Yellow River Week is a reminder that every student deserves to feel safe, supported, and values, and we can make that difference in the lives of our students. committed to building a culture that sense of belonging, the

050respect, the empathy, the compassion should guide every action that we make. We are encouraged everyone to be supportive, be courageous, and we have a new banner out there hanging on schools. Be kind. It takes all of us. Families play a key role in re reinforcing these values at home. We encourage you to take a few moments to talk with your child about the importance of kindness, standing up for others, and letting trusted adults know when you need help. Thank you for your commitment and acknowledging Yellow Ribbon Week. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you all. On to 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

051to 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 section 5 per board bylaw 9323 twice allotted time will be provided for a member of the public utilizing a translator. Miss Claudia, do we have any speakers? >> One public speaker. >> Thank you. Mr. Fred Benuelos up to the podium, please. Hi everyone. Um, safe school plans you're going to be talking about tonight. Every time you talk about the school safety, I feel it's my duty to remind you how I feel about that. You know, I spoke at Valverde City Council and here in the past, I've told you about the church threat, how armed uh guards took out the threat within seconds. And when

052seconds matter, we shouldn't have to wait minutes for law enforcement to take out the threat. We need a armed guard at every school. Uh those will act as deterrence. Uh you guys, when I see you at here, most of the time you have an armed guard or at council meetings, I'll see an armed guard. Uh the state of the city, I saw armed guards there. Why do you guys get to have the protection but our kids don't? I never understand that. I want to get rid of soft targets and I wish you guys would help with making that a deterrent in this school district. I would like you guys to take the lead with protecting our kids. Um I want you guys to be proactive. You have like I see a fire extinguisher right here.

053that fire extinguisher will stop the threat when it's small and stop a fire from happening. Why can't we have I mean, I'd love to see law enforcement, but I don't think that's going to happen here at every school. I want at least an armed guard at every school, a good guy with a gun to take out the threat. Um, my uh grandson lives in another state and I am so happy that he has an armed guard at his school to take out any threats. you know, I don't want to have to come back later after a tragic event and say, "I told you guys." Um, I I wish somebody would listen and see that you need to protect our kids. And with this uh superintendent safe school plans, I would wish people would realize that

054we need to protect our kids. Um, I don't know how you feel about it. You know, you're a student. Um, it's just we had a a a a situation I think in Arkansas where last I heard it was incredible, but there's crazy people out there. And uh I think that we have if we have an armed guard here, it'll be a deterrent that people won't go to our district. They'll go, which I don't want to happen there, but they'll think about twice before they come here. they'll go to another district and cause evil there. So, anytime again that you guys talk about safety, I just want to remind you how I feel about it. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Item G, public comments on non-aggenda items. The board of education encourages public

055comments. 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 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 input 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

056the board of education consent, the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public presentation depending on the topic and the number of persons wishing to be heard. The president may take a poll speakers for or against a particular issue and may ask that additional people speak only if they have something new to add. Board bylaw 9323 B through C section 5. Miss Claudia, we have any speakers? >> There are two public speakers. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Fred Benwells, please. >> Well, hello. Um, I kind of noticed that we have a deputy here. There's our armed guard to protect you guys. But moving on to something else. Um, I want to thank you for not canceling of any of your events that are coming. I appreciate that. Um, I was at the city

057council meeting recently and they are not cancelling theirs. So, I'm so appreciative of that. I I think that we still need to have our our um community events and I'm looking forward to the Elgto. Uh any events that you guys have, I'll try to to make and but I'm really glad that you're not cancelling any of the events. Uh the other thing is uh Marino Elementary School in Mason. You have three flag poles over there. Um I only see the United States flag flying. I'm not sure if it's the California state flag and maybe the school flag, but the United States flag is in the center. And uh when they're all the same height, the United States flag should be to the observer's left. So I'm not sure why it's flying in the middle right

058now. Um so if you can't uh take a look at that and make sure that it's to the far left. I see that you've corrected the issue with the flag here on the deis. I appreciate that. But um I'm then I'm kind of wondering why are the other flags that are on the second and third poll not flying. And that's it for today guys. I thank you. Appreciate it. And keep those events going. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next we have Roy Blecker to the podium please. This is just me, but to demonstrate my competence as board members and administrators and school uh employees, I would contact Mr. Fred Banoas and have him come out and inspect every one of my flags and make sure that they're all properly displayed because I'm sure he can

059tell you if they are or not. and then you won't have to come up here and listen to this each and every time. I point that out because even as that is a serious issue, you still as a school board do not address why three out of four kids are not at grade level. It should be your number one priority. You should be here every day running meetings and figuring out why that isn't improved. You talk about the future of our kids and all this. Tell me how your words have any meaning or feeling behind them when we see the results. And while I applaud, I watched the last meeting and saw, well, you know, we're going to bring back drivers education or we're looking at it. It's symptomatic of how our education system has

060went totally swirling down the drain by any metric. We're not teaching kids what they need to succeed in the future. how that big red flashing light sitting out there. Everyone just keeps walking around is astonishing to me. I just cannot wrap my head around it. You want an example just look at today Mr. El Presidente seventh cabinet meeting held out there in the public with the press the most probably access most powerful and the most accessible accountable probably public official we've ever had. Why isn't that instituted here? Why can't you start with you got the template? You don't even have to come up with anything. Just copy it. That's why your words based on your actions have no meaning because you don't practice what you pre preach and our f kids future is in peril

061because of it. >> Thank you. Uh, next we are on to item H, employee association reports. Uh, first we have CSEA. Mr. Joshua Kavan, are you here? >> Hello. Thank you. Come excitement. Dr. Ruvacaba, board president, ladies, Randy, Donna, CJ, and newest member. Thank you for being here. Cabinet and everybody else that hung out. Thank you. NVA, I see you. All right. I had a whole list of things that I felt like I needed to say to start this school year off, but as Dr. Rubikava mentioned, we didn't start our school year off. So, I just want to say you took my piece. So, thank you very much, though, because it meant that much because we don't stop. We're 12-month employees. There's quite a bit of us and and we just don't stop. So, thank

062you for that acknowledgement. That really means a lot. It does cuz as I said at the summit, you know, we we go all day, all night into the hour. So, thank you for that. Um, and then the special recognition, he left, but woo. Are you kidding me? Thank you. They seen that. I know I'm just one standing here, but there's about 2,000 strong and we seen that. And that means a whole lot. One piece at a time, acknowledgement that we part of the team, that meant a lot. So that's why I had to take off. I had like seven things. I took off three because So that was great. One was for you. No. Um I'm here. Same purpose, same different solutions. If those don't work, um opinions, more members, more opportunities. Um we try

063to come with something rather than just trying to fight. And please understand that it's it's it's it's um my business to uh fight for my people. Um the people that serve this community, the people that serve these students, and as you all know how many students I got in this district service mine. Um so let's consider looking at and really addressing workload issues. That's at top of my priority. And let me let me back up one sec. That'll be number two. We know number one is health and welfare salaries. We're in negotiations. My people can't take a 14% increase. It'll break their bank. We got to figure out and come up with a better solution. And I know it's not easy when you got a budget. Um but there's ways to find money. And some

064of those ways is looking at every single contract that comes through. We do need some services. My people, you hear me out there. Some services need to be rendered. Our kids need these services. We do not provide some of these services. IEPs call for it and many other scenarios why we have contractors that work with us. So, those aren't going away, but we can dig deep and look at the ones that are not needed and look at my people first. My people know these kids, the community, most of us are from the community graduated. Our kids are graduating. So, we have a lot invested um in what we do besides just this position. So, um look at put putting my people first, increasing hours, whatever we got to do to keep that same with these

065children as they go from each level to after school programs and everything in between. Um, we're an asset. So, um, I just want to end with we're close. We're just not that close enough. So, let's get a little bit closer. And thank you for your time. >> Yes. >> Before you leave, if you don't mind, I've had a question. Could you please explain the services again, please? >> Services. Services from all all aspects. services from maintenance side services from educational services any kind of service that we meaning classified >> or MVA or any of the people that you have here servicing this community >> can get involved in um example sports program or going to outside agency there's an example for you >> okay >> I don't think it was looked into about what our

066people do for that um sports program we got athletic directors and this just This is my opinion just how I speak. Um maybe we could have attacked that in a different way than outside agency cuz I know a lot of our people teachers classified that after they work day they they go and coach these um teams at these high schools and all these other levels. So maybe we could have looked at that's just one example and maybe not it could have been done but it could have been looked into. >> Okay. >> And so yes sir. >> Great. Do you have a contact that you do face to face with >> as far as contact >> on these items you that you're talking about right now? >> Oh yes, >> you do have Okay. >>

067Yes. >> Okay. Because if you didn't I was going to say okay I'll volunteer to get with you and we'll give Superintendent open door for Dr. Rukaba, Dr. Verde, Susanna, Dr. RSA. >> Okay. So you've got the help. >> Yes. Yes. And so just trying to connect dots now and and not point fingers on what we're doing wrong. just point fingers and hoping to better it and pull that money into >> who is here. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you guys. >> Thank you, Mr. Kavan. Next, we have MBEA, Mr. Chris Pas. All righty. Good evening, members of the board, educators, staff, and community members. Uh so, welcome back for the 2526 school year. We're off and running and we're looking forward to a great school year. Uh I'd like to

068start by introducing our new CTA executive director, uh Craig Hardesty. He's shy, but he's in the back. So, thank you, Craig. Uh so he will be joining us this year um as our CTA uh representative uh to assist our members, assist with bargaining, problem solving, um all the good things that that we do here as a district. So um I'd also like to thank our schoolboard members that have taken the time to meet with us as an association. Uh thank you Miss Luna, Miss Clark, and Miss Leva. Thank you very much for taking the time to meet with us. uh uh your busy schedules, but we feel like it's very important to hear from the advocates of our educators in this district. And so we thank you for taking that time to have those those

069conversations uh so that you guys can make well-informed decisions. And uh Mr. Johnson, we're looking forward to meeting with you tomorrow at 1:00, so at our office. So please uh we we look forward to that opportunity as well. So thank you. Um, we also want to thank the district for their support in supporting and sending our members to uh three different conferences this year. Uh, they are educational conferences that provide high quality professional development. Um, I'm a little biased, but I do believe it's the best in the state that best that I've ever attended as far as professional development. Um, and they are really good as far as conferences. Uh, and they are really good. Um, our first one is our special education conference. We're going to be uh we're proud to say that we're

070going to send uh 10 of our educators to the special education conference. So, thank you for the district and supporting that. The other two conferences uh will be later this year. The first one is the new educator weekend, which is for new educators that are new to the profession. I believe it's three years or less. So, we'll be connecting with some of our new educators to see uh who we can send. And again, high quality uh professional development that's being offered at those events. Uh some of those uh by the way some of those professional development sessions that are off that are are done at those CTA conferences are actually done by members of ourselves. So either members or members of our own professional development team as well. And then the last one is the

071good teaching conference which is an excellent excellent conference as well. So we're looking forward to working with the district to send uh our folks to some high quality conferences this year. Also, we're looking forward to the alliance task force, the brand new alliance task force, the I call it the super group, the super meeting because uh um and we're going to have 40 of our members attend and uh be part of that and have conversations um regarding different areas and different goals that that we are working together with the district on uh to support our students. And so, we are looking forward to that opportunity. Our first meeting's uh coming up this Friday. Um, so we're looking forward to that to work collaborative with the district on some of these uh u goals and and

072items that we were always working towards for our students. Um, on Friday the 29th, we do have our first bargaining session and as Josh uh Mr. Kaban, the president for CSEA has has shared the number one item is health and welfare benefits. Um, we understand that in the county uh benefits have gone up 7 and a half%. um the out-of-pocket costs have doubled and some of them even tripled in some of the plan offerings that we have offered to our our members and our employees. So uh we deeply believe as an association in the value of collaboration especially when it comes to negotiating the upcoming health and welfare benefits for our members. The educators that support our students and community and who help make our schools thrive. Our educators support our students, our staff members

073and administrators, and who dedicate themselves daily to the success of our students in this community. They do this not for accolades, but because they believe in the power of education. In return, they deserve the commitment from the district and this school board that their health benefits are going to be protected. Let us lead by example and show everyone that transparency is a practice. NVA expects productive negotiation sessions because we believe a re resolution is in sight. And if we work together and focus on our common interests for the betterment of our educators and our students, then we can provide affordable health care to all of our employees who take care of our kids each and every day. And with that, I just like to say thank you and look forward to a productive uh bargaining

074session on the 29th and working with all of you this year. Thank you. President Luna, if I may. >> Yes. >> So, thank you to Josh Kaban and thank you to Chris Faras for coming by and speaking. I want to share a little bit about what did you call it, Chris? The mega task force, the super test task force. We presented this idea to the board last year, which is one of the things that we're noticing is that we have a lot of really good folks doing good work, but they're doing it in isolation. And so a lot of times what happens is we have competing initiatives. You may have the um special education task force and the cell phone policy task force and the attendance task force and the um all these different task

075force and they're all engaged many times coming up with really good ideas but they're working kind of in silos. So this Friday is the first opportunity to get everybody together to align all the efforts that we're working on as one big group. So there'll be an opportunity for some kind of big thinking around the group as a whole as a district but also breakout sessions so the individual groups can then do some uh work on their particular areas. So one of the things that came up was well inviting the board. So the challenge becomes if three or more board members are there then becomes a board meeting. So we definitely would like to have you there. But if we can coordinate when you can stop by so that we don't have to agendaize it as

076a board meeting, then we can do that. Um, but that's just the first session and then we can work on the next sessions that come after so we can coordinate your schedules to kind of see you there and when you can attend because it would be great to have you there at least for part of the session. All right. Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much to our to Mr. Kaban and Mr. FIAS for your presentations and for coming tonight. We appreciate you. On to item I, comments from board members. Uh we'll start with Miss Carbio. Do you have anything? >> Yes, I do. Um I just wanted to point out that student safety should be um top priority. And a great way to start is um like he said having an official

077at every school site rather than um having one once in a while um solely for student safety. and it would also allow parents and students to feel safer to attend school. So, I think um that's important. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. >> Yeah, thank you very much. Uh I do want to thank everybody who's here and folks that was here earlier and left. Thank you guys for being here um and getting a chance to see what we do firsthand. Uh, but I'd also like to uh ask the folks that are probably at home watching TV uh and or watching us on TV, should I say, uh, and then those who are busy doing something else, stop by on Tuesdays. We'd love to see you in here. Uh, sometimes people think that, well, I

078may have some something that they may not like to hear. Well, what? We can't fix it until we hear it. So, don't you worry about that part. The only part we want you to do is come up and let us know so we can make things better for not just for you but everybody in our community and especially our children. So I'm inviting folks who sitting on watching TV you can come out just for a few minutes if you if nothing more just speak at the mic and then retreat but please come out and uh and let us know that you care. Well, we know you care already but we want to see you when you do that. Okay, please. That's all I have right now. Thank you, Miss Leva. Um, I like to, you

079know, listen and see. Um, and as a classified employee that I was, you know, I I feel that it's important that that we support our community. Many of our employees are, you know, from our own community from here from Marina Valley and um and they give a lot to us and I know that for a fact because we go doesn't matter if you're MBA or you know administrator, anyone you know who loves their job and likes to serve our kids and want the best for them. you know, we go above and beyond and we do more than it is suspected from us and it's important that we recognize that work. Um, and I do agree with you, Mr. Josh. You know, we need to look within our own employees first before, you know, we look

080somewhere else. Um, give them the opportunity to grow. Um and you know the superintendent knows that I have always you know since becoming part of the board asked for for that support you know to to train to to facilitate you know our employees to move you know if you're a CSA you want to become an instructional assistant you know to provide the tools for our employees to move up and um if you're an instructional assistant you want to become a teacher you know, start helping them out. Even, you know, if you're a teacher, if you want to be, you know, a coordinator, a principal, provide those tools, that support, you know, and we were talking about it. Um, because I I I I feel that it's very important that we hire within. I'm amazed by

081the people who been being hiring lately. You know, they're really amazing. But um you know I was telling him that if we see that maybe our current employees they don't possess the skills that we can train them so that can later on you know in the future we are able to to give those positions to them. So I just want you to know that the most important thing should be for all of us is the students because that's what is important for me you know to provide them with you know quality education and the only way that we're going to be able to provide that is that we work all together in unity you know yes we want this but what are we willing to to give to you know so that we can be

082able to to achieve our goal but um I feel that that's all I have to say right now. I don't want to take more time. >> Thank you Miss Lea. Miss Clark. >> Thank you President Luna. I am just so pleased to see the energy and support uh surrounding drivers education in our school. We know that this is more than just a class, but it's a vital safety and life skill. Uh therefore, it's all it's also about equity as well because the cost sometimes creates a barrier for our kids in our community and we want to ensure that everyone gets the training and that's why MVUSD are innovators and that is why we have brought drivers education back here. I also want to take the time to say that, you know, I said it before,

083but I'll say it again until I see it, but driver's training is the next step. And since we are, you know, pioneers, let's move forward with drivers training next. Thank you, Dr. Arce, Susanna Lopez, Dr. Birdie who um and also I like to talk about universal meal programs. Right now, our district um we feed all our children no matter what, but we know that there are things that's going on with federal funding that may impact that in the future. So, I wanted on the record that I would like MBUSD to commit to always, even without federal funding, finding an allocation in our budget to continue to feed our kids throughout these years, no matter what. And lastly, I'd like to speak about Oh, thank you, accounting team and Susanna Lopez again. Uh, I also like

084to um say that back to school night was a success. I visited several schools and to see the turnout, to see the community, to see the parents partnering with our our schools, our teachers, our administrators and staff alike. It was phenomenal. It was heartwarming. Um, and I think that the I am Marino Valley statement is really resonating. I think we feel it. We own it. And that is who we are. And so, thank you parents for coming. Thank you teachers, administrators, principles, everyone who attended cabinet, everyone. Superintendent Rubocava for another successful CSEA team. I mean, whoa, you guys rocked it. And our kids were happy and thriving. Even though you guys did not go to the secondary schools in costumes this year, they they held it down. So, uh you know, it was awesome and

085and I am just so excited for this academic year. And I want to wish everyone a good evening. And that's all I have to say. >> Thank you, Miss Clark. That was awesome. I'm going to quickly give gratitude for all the events I was able to attend since our last board meeting. Uh the new teacher orientation, that was great. The ice cream social, that was my my first time going to the ice cream social. It was a great turnout. So nice to see and meet meet parents and and students. Uh, I had the pleasure the first day of school at Edgemont. I was the Marvel character Cersei from Marvel Eternals. I'll be honest, I didn't know who she was. I had to do some research, but I had a lot of fun uh dressing up

086and and handing out pencils to the students. I think they were too um too distracted with the first day of school to be even realize that I had a outfit on. So, but it was okay. It was still It was still fun. Uh I also had the pleasure of attending flag girls flag football uh Canyon versus Paulie on Saturday the 16th. Uh we we did not come out victorious, but it was still we put up a good fight. It was great to watch. Uh I definitely am going to go see some more flag football games. I do enjoy that. Uh I had the pleasure of doing back to school night at Hidden Springs Elementary. Thank you, Dr. Reed for hosting me. Uh also uh at Northridge on the 21st. Thank you, Mr. Stagger. And uh

087last night at Canyon or I'm sorry, Canyon Springs football versus Southwest I went to on Friday night. Great job, Canyon Springs. They blew them out. Uh back to school night at Canyon Springs last night. Thank you, Mr. Roersonson, for hosting me. One final thought I have. I was gonna do it for future agenda items, but I don't think there's enough time, so I'm gonna bring it up here. So, civic engagement is very important to me. I think you know this. I've brought it up many times. And I feel like we have an opportunity with our students um 16 and up to uh get them registered to vote. And um today is uh I believe women's women's national equality day um which is acknowledging women's rights to vote. So I think this today is an appropriate

088day to bring it up. Thank thankfully we're having a meeting. But I would like to um propose that our students maybe the ASBs at each high school engage in a competition to see um who can get the most registered voters. Um, I think uh we can like open it up on National Voter Registration Day, which is September 15th, and do it till whatever the final day is to register to vote. And just um I I'll be more than happy to help figure out details and and whatnot. Um, but I just I just think especially in this uh time that we're in, it's so important for people to realize how how and why they need to engage in uh the voting process um and why it matters. And I think starting with our our youth um

089I think would be great. So hopefully that's something that we can do. Um but that was my last thought. Any anything else? I guess it's next to you. So item J, comments from the superintendent. >> Thank you so much, President. Sounds like we have a homework assignment. Actually, sounds Dr. RC sounds like you have a homework assignment. >> So, thank you. I just want uh to share one message which I think is important that we continue to reiterate to our community. You know, throughout the summer, we received a lot of calls, uh, emails, and inquiries about what our district was going to do to protect our students in light of what's happening with the ICE raids in our communities. And we've held steadfast that not only were we going to protect our kids, we firmly

090believe that the safest place for kids is in our schools because we can protect them. We can keep people who don't belong in our campuses outside of our campuses and we continue to do that. So, I want to reiterate that and just send a huge thank you to our community for trusting us again uh with their kiddos. If our attendance and enrollment is any indication, we're not seeing a significant decrease in attendance. Uh based on that, we're actually seeing some pretty decent rates based on what I showed earlier in my superintendent report. But I also want to reiterate to our community to continue to trust us and send us any messages, any inquiries, any questions you may have. We have a protocol in place to make sure our kids are safe at all times, including

091preventing officials from accessing them without an official judicial warrant. We've trained our staff, we trained our principles, and we've trained our office staff in terms of how to um meet any potential issue that comes up and obviously we would respond immediately to support our sites in case that ever happens. So again, I just want to thank the community and continue to appeal to them to continue to send their kids to us because they are safer with us than they are out in the community. That's it. >> Thank you, Dr. Rubakaba. We are on to item K, presentations to the board. K1 is cell phone policy update, Assembly Bill 3216. Dr. for our sake. >> Thank you very much, President Luna. Uh good evening again to our board, uh to our community. Uh this evening we

092are we have prepared for you a presentation, a short presentation on AB 3216 under the direction of Mr. Peoples. I want to make a connection before we get into the presentation on the board resolution um earlier today on on the importance of mental health and especially um suicide prevention. Um there's so much research that's linking more and more to our the impact that um smartphone cell phone use has on the brain brain activity especially of our children our most vulnerable. the impact that it has in their education, their behavior um linked to attendance, their whether it causes depression or any other mental health. And so um as the board listens to this presentation, um we would we we want to be able to um share with you that we've done and Mr. Peoples actually and

093his team have done a great job of looking at this legislation comprehensively but also seeking input because the ones that probably need it the most are our students probably don't really like it but we have some schools that are have already piloted for several years the removal of cell phones at the school level and it has impact in a positive way student achievement and outcome overall. So with that I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Peoples. And again, thank you, Mr. Peoples, for all the work that you've done, you and your team around this. >> Thank you, boss. Uh, actually, that was uh it's Cody. I want to give, you know, shout out to Cody and Omar right there for really leading uh this charge. Um, I'm just the face of it real quick.

094So, I'm sorry. Hello. You know, I just wanted to just throw that out there, right? How did you feel when I grabbed one? He's like, "Is this guy serious? >> He's getting a phone call right now. Can you imagine what our teachers go through on a daily basis or even our staff go through with students, you know, or or anybody answering phone calls. Um, it it it can be distracting. It could be very distracting. So I'm glad I'm up here. Uh thank you Dr. RCA for allowing me to present uh this most important topic. So realistically when you look at our goals you know we highlighted two of those promoting academic growth for every student right again not just some but for every single student which is very very important and I know Dr. RC

095just uh just mentioned that. But what's even more important for students to be successful academically, you have to have an environment that is safe, welcoming, and respectful. Again, we just talked about suicide awareness and prevention week. That should be all year, every day, right? And so again, those two items are very, very important when we talk about the use of smartphones, mobile devices. So when we look at our our portrait of the graduate, we're going to have to be adaptable. I mean, we are realistically we're we're going to be, you know, uh we're going to be doing some stuff that maybe kids are not going to be used to, but we have to be adaptable to it. We have to really communicate what our intentions are, and then we're going to have to persevere through

096it all. So what is AB 32:16? Well, the old law authorized it only authorized again governing bodies, school districts, county office of education a policy to limit or prohibit uh the use of pupils and smartphones. So really just authorized. So AB 3216 as amended really now requires requires again the governing body of a school district, the county office of ed, charter schools a policy to limit or prohibit the use of its pupils of smartphones. So again you're looking at authorizes now requires pretty solid. So the information and research when you look at it our US surgeon uh surgeon general advisory those students or adolescence spend three hours per day double the risk of that depression and anxiety of what we see now me personally I don't I'm not on Facebook I'm not on Instagram and

097I'm I I think I'm doing okay I think I'm doing okay 95% of youth ages 13 to 17, more than a third saying they use social media almost constantly. So when you look at the three hours a day and then you look at students 13 to 17 almost constantly that's a huge impact on students mental health and again the reason why we have 3216. So, some more impact when you're looking at the use of cell phone and social media. I remember back in the day when we didn't have cell phones. We were out there riding bikes, going fishing, running around the neighborhood. We didn't have any of that. We didn't have cell phones. We didn't have anything to keep us at the house. And I get it. And I really wanted to reiterate what Dr.

098Ruvakaba talked about. Schools are one of the safest places students can be. That's where they get love, where they get care, they get food, health, they get all that. So again, we went from a playbased to a phone-based environment. Students are on their trust. I see I see students are on this phone. Deprivation, attention fragmentation, even addiction. You know how hard it is to try and get somebody off the phone off Instagram is difficult. And if we could work on something in the school setting to help promote that playbased mentality, that active mentality, which I'm glad we have those programs after school to really get kids out there in the environment to play with each other, to talk with each other. It's huge. Sleep disruption, but most importantly, we've already hit upon this, the mental

099health of our students. the increased the increased risk of depression and anxiety. You're going to see on this next slide, nine and 10 public schools report occurrences of cyber bullying. Nine and 10 90% you see schools report occurrences of cyber bullying. And then four and 10 public schools report that student learning and teacher morale are negatively impacted by the unpermitted use of cell phones. So when you look at 2000 the year 2000 I it wasn't that long ago 25 years ago I guess 6% of 6% of youth reported online harassment. 6% 2% said it was distressing. But when you look all the way down the bottom 20 25 point I'm just going to say 54% I'm gonna round up 54% of adolescence ages 13-1 17 reported experiencing cyber bullying linked to PTSD. And that is

100why it's so important that we have a great wellness, mental health, and community outreach program. A program that can help support our families and students and the trauma that they're going through. Because the most important piece about trauma is what you do right after the trauma occurs, not waiting six months. So you could look at the United States and I want to compliment uh Dr. RSE. Uh my boss in regards to this, she she did some magic on this slide and she pulled this map out. So you could see the the different states that have the school day ban like Oklahoma, Nebraska, North Dakota. Those who have the instructional time ban like Utah, Iowa, Kentucky, and those that require recommend. Now remember, California with AB 3216, it's required now required to instill or or or

101pass some kind of board policy in regards to something that limits or prohibits the use of mobile devices. So there are exceptions. There are exceptions in case of an emergency or a pursu a perceived threat or danger. When a teacher or administrator or school district allows for reasonable use, I really want to make sure we understand that that term reasonable use, right? And so that's very very important in this language that if a teacher or administrator authorizes that, it's for reasonable use. If a licensed physi physician or surgeon determines that the student needs it for health reasons or the smartphone is required in the student's IEP, those are four permitted uses uh for this the mobile uh communication device. So we talked about it today putting students first. We really want to put students first.

102So we we grabbed these pictures. These were the most recent graduates, class of 2025. Focus on learning, improving the mental health, reducing cyber bullying at school, strengthening academics, and then thriving in an engaged and supportive community. You can't get better than that. You cannot get better than what we're going to ask of our schools to be. So, what are our actions and next steps? So, there is a link there for our actions and next steps of an updated timeline, but we want to take our show on the road to the schools. So, we're going to be visiting the schools, showing them, expressing to them what what we're we're looking at and and hearing from them. And then we want to bring back our first reading in November to you so you could look at that.

103Um and again review and incorporate any feedback and finalize uh forwardboard policy and AR ad administrative regulation in November. This is the mobile communication device policy BP 5131.8. It's a great policy if you've gone through it. Very comprehensive and it really outlines the importance of this mobile communication device policy. And then we would like to come back in December for that second read and final approval. And then this next slide, I love this next slide because we want to blast off in January. We want to launch the policy. We want to monitor the impacts and then we really want to update at least every five years. It doesn't really have to be the five years. Again, this is something that we can continually continually look at for what's best for students. what's best for students.

104So there's M Valley Unified School District principal that said the opportunities here are worth it. The opportunities in school are worth it. There's a lot that every staff member gives to our students. So keep your head high, your phone away, your mindset ready, and your drive turned all the way up. What a powerful message. U we listed some sources there. The anxious generation. I know that that Cody really looked through that book um and uh really highlights that book as a good read for people. Miss Leva, you're acknowledging that. Um so, thank you so much for allowing me to speak here tonight. Are there any questions? >> Phil, can you just summarize what the general recommendation is that is as stated in the BP right now? I think the way we read it was TK

105through eight, no cell phones at all during the day. Out of sight, out of mind. >> Yes. >> And then high school, it's non-instructional time, right? Oh, I'm sorry. Not during instructional time. >> Correct. Something like that. >> Yes. Actually, we did a survey for every single um school leader and uh TK through 8th grade, they do not allow cell phones >> during recess, during lunch, during passing period. TK through eight. Matter of fact, some of them I even wrote it down. Uh not at all. And then never, another one wrote. So TK through eight. Uh they're already practicing this right now. Uh again, no cell phones. They're packed away in their backpack. Um but again, not allowed during recess, lunch, or passing period. high schools uh again all uh but I believe one one

106again uh doesn't allow cell phones at all uh during passing periods or lunch but the other high schools do allow it during passing periods um and lunch not not during uh instructional time they allow so the cell phones need to be packed away and not brought out during instructional time >> kids carry phones and their parents contact them so what parents the same because I mean I know the parents don't have to contact >> but some of them do that and you you saw more than I >> Yeah. No, we and so we do have those those permitted uses, right? But I know I presented at a parent meeting. I believe Miss Leva was there at our parent meeting and I think uh and again you could tell me if I was wrong but I

107think they were they were understanding and very willing and uh you know were happy that we were moving forward with a cell phone policy >> um or a mobile communication device policy. Again, we do have those permitted uses um in regards to perceived threats um the uh the doctor the health orders or even IEP. But again, the teacher can allow it for reasonable use. Yes. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. You're welcome. >> Thank you, CJ. That was going to be my question, but but I also would like to know do and we might be too premature, but do we have a policy on the disciplinary action or the consequences uh if the policy is violated or you know, what does that look like? And will we make sure that we let everyone

108know that these are the consequences ahead of time so no one's caught off guard? >> Yeah. And that's what we're working with. And I want to thank not besides Cody and Omar, but we're working with our DDRC, our district discipline review committee, and that's actually one of our next projects to build that out. What is that going to look like? Is the first offense going to be, hey, a warning, let's make sure you put it away. Second offense could be a parent phone call. So, that's what we're building out right now >> um to where um we get that message out ahead of time before we submit this board policy and administrative regulation to you. >> Thank you so much. I know we were talking about the 2000s, but back in the 2000s probably they

109would take the phones away from the children and they would keep them the student, you know, away from the kiddos and keep them and the parents would have to pick them up. Remember that? >> Yeah. And that could be part of that process. That could be part of that process. Uh again, we're going to build that out and present that to you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> I have uh questions. Um so you were um talking about that um the phone will be able to be used you know if it's necessary in an IEP or health you know related um issue. So how will you or h how will a parent be able to have that in their kids IEP you know? >> Yeah. So again, that will be an IEP decision. >> So

110that will be um something that they'll talk about through the IEP to make sure that that is one of those things that can benefit the student while he's in the classroom. >> And that would be an IEP decision. >> And there are also some instances where a student who's not on an IEP and they have a health plan. >> Yes. >> So we live in a world now where uh a lot of individuals have devices on them that are monitored through their phone. >> So we obviously don't want to jeopardize somebody's health because of that. So if the health plan says, you know, my kiddo has a diabetes monitor and it's connected to the phone, then we can't take the phone away from them. So there are definitely going to be those instances we're going

111to have to make those accommodations. >> Yeah. And again, those are written in those IHP's individual health plans. Matter of fact, I'm buying a couple mini iPads right now uh to support students with what Dr. Rubikawa was just talking about. That's what I was asking because I, you know, I know people and people in my family do they have those little monitors and they need to have, you know, those devices and they need to have cell phone. >> But also because, you know, I know that >> I was um talking that with Dr. Vocaba that I know some kids have ADHD and sometimes music is the thing that kind of calms them down. So that's what I was, you know, trying to inquire. you know, you know, how will you be able to accommodate, you

112know, those students with this uh cell phone policy? But also, um another question, so do you already have a plan or how are you going to um monitor, you know, like um the benefit of them not having, you know, the the cell phones. So, so part of our DDRC team is we do request data on a monthly basis for any kind of student discipline. Um, and so we look at that data to make any adjustments to our seems like it's loud to our sequential intervention and discipline guide. Um, and so we do look at that monthly u behavior data through our DDRC team that each of the schools are meeting for uh every month. Along with that though, are are there any plans to um maybe train the students on why cell phones are bad?

113Like you know, not just the discipline aspect, but hey guys, this is why we're doing it. This is >> mental health, you know, you know, all the things that you told us. Is there a way that we could let them know that this is impacting you and this is how you can benefit from this? >> I think that's a great idea. Matter of fact, I got Omar and Cody here taking notes and we could work with our PIO team and even creating because part of it is going to be marketing, right? I mean, we're going to have to get the word out. Uh hopefully, you know, when when December comes, we're going to have to market and get this message out so everybody knows from staff to students to parents to the community what our

114expectations are going to be in the classroom. And so I think that's a great idea to put some kind of video and some marketing campaigns out there uh to support that uh with that that information on the impact of mental health. That's a great idea. Thank you. >> One last question. So you were talking about the consequences and how you know um some high like some high schools have some you know like policies and others have the different one. are we going to have, you know, like just one, you know, like regulations and or or consequences that is not just, you know, applies to this one high school. It's like for all of them. >> Yeah, I'm I'm so glad that you said that. So, again, this is going to be, you know, board policy

1155131.8, uh, mobile communication device policy. Um, so we will be presenting that November and then that will be the the policy, the the lay of the land, I should say. uh for mobile communication device policy and then again we'll work with our DDRC team and our members uh through that to really build out a comprehensive uh tiered system really of support um because knowing the impact of cell phones and now we're asking kids not to be on it, you know, it's we're going to have to give them that support um and that guidance and part of that is going to be the marketing, the the the talking to them, but also supporting them uh through that guidance at our schools with our counselors. social workers, mental therapists, and even our administrators um and working with

116them. >> In add in addition to that, we're going to do staff training because u one of the concerns that came back as feedback is the inconsistencies within a school site from classroom to classroom. And so we don't want to m send mixed messages to our students where if I'm with that, you know, class I can use my phone, but if I'm with that one, I can't. So there's going to be training and there's going to be consistency so that we can uphold um the discipline progression. >> Thank you. >> Um I just want to include that how you mentioned like the benefits. I feel like students rather hear the good things that they're gonna like that come from this rather than the bad things because a lot of the times they don't want to

117hear >> um certain things. So I think it would be >> um important to include the why you guys are doing this and >> um what can they benefit from it? What's the good to come? >> I love that. I love that. like such as um like extracurriculars or um how you said like get them outside. >> Um like I think it's important to include things that will interest them when they're not on their phones. >> Yeah. And I'm I'm going to call you so you can when I go to your school, you can kind of help us out with that message. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. ASP teams. Thank you. I think we're good, Mr. Peoples. I appreciate that presentation. Thank you so much to the team. >> Thank you for your guys' leadership on

118this. Thank you. Next item, K2, budget and enrollment update. Miss Lopez. Thank you, board president Luna, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Dalgava, members of the audience. Uh this evening we're going to go over a brief budget and enrollment update. Today is day 10 of school. Um we had uh we've been having daily meetings as we've been monitoring class sizes. Um and we're like it's day 10. It feels like we've been doing this a little bit longer, but um we want to give you a little bit of an update of where we are. Uh the last time we presented to you was when we adopted the 2526 budget back at the end of June. And so a couple of things have happened since then. Uh first of all, our state budget at the time that

119the adopted budget for the district was presented was still not signed at the state level. So happy to report that that took place on June 27th, 2025. And as we had expected, they fully fund the statutory 2.3% COLA. Uh we were fairly confident that that was going to occur and so we had incorporated that into our 2526 adopted budget. But I think some of the things that are happening at the state level that we had just been monitoring is uh the fact that at the state they're utilizing some of the items that they discourage districts from using such as utilizing uh your reserves in its entirety. Um and that's exactly what is being done at the state level. There are no there's not enough ongoing resources at the state level. Um but they really felt

120it was important and so one of the things that they did is they fully utilized that rainy day fund in order to be able to support and to be able to fund that cola. In addition to that the 2526 budget at the state level incorporates deferrals. So what are deferrals? Deferral simply means is that when the money is owed to the district and we have a percentage a set percentage of when we receive funding from the state the state will not be sending that payment. So for example next June of 2026 the money that is owed to us will not be sent to us until a further date a later date. Um, so deferrals might sound like, you know, it's no big deal. You're going to get your money. Um, but think about it at

121just like you would a paycheck, right? We are pretty much in tune to know that if we receive a monthly paycheck, we know that at the end of the month, you're going to receive those funds. And when the state is saying, school district, you're not going to receive your June paycheck. you're going to receive it now at the end of July. It's a pretty big deal. Um, and what's a little bit scary is that there's some folks like me that have lived through years where the deferrals were not just 30-day deferrals. Sometimes they were six-month deferrals. They could have been almost 12-month deferrals. Um, and that's not a good thing because it starts impacting a district's cash flow. And so we're going to start to look at our cash flow for next year in particular

122as we get closer to that June uh 2026 date um to make sure that we don't have to look at um resources like borrowing from other funds and and things to that nature. So I just wanted to put the deferrals out there because I think it was sort of snuck in as a it's not a big deal. Um, but it's something we need to monitor because it could turn into something significant down the road. On slide number five, just wanted to review our assumptions that we used to build our adopted budget for 2526. Our statutory cola, the 2.3%, as I mentioned, was already built. And then for our outy years, we do incorporate the 0% colas. our unduplicated pupil percentage. The reason we like to bring up this slide in particular is because right now

123is where there is a full on effort districtwide to have families complete the annual information updates. Um and if I could just quickly give two shout outs to uh first of all Bear Valley Elementary that is at 100% completion. Um so good job Bear Valley. So that means that all 725 students have completed that form for Bear Valley. And then just within the last hour, I received a text message from Mr. Robersonson, Canyon Springs High School. He is seven families away from reaching 100%. So that means he's completed over 2,00 um 2,250 already, just has seven more. Um and so again, all of our schools at the back to school nights, I think a lot of you saw the tables that were set up. Um, so we really are putting in a lot of effort

124because we want to make sure that we collect as much of these applications as possible to have a really accurate unduplicated pupil percentage um, moving forward. Um, we'll talk about our district enrollment in the next couple of slides as well as our attendance. And then the last two lines were the mandated block grant and lottery. These are allocations provided at the state level. So, we like to um present um usually in August about where we are now that school has started just so that we can start to um do a little bit more research so that we all have an understanding of what the numbers mean. At the next board meeting, we will be presenting to you our unodited actuals, which is when we close the books. But for this presentation, we want to focus

125on enrollment. And so this slide is the slide from our 2526 budget. This is what we used to prepare our budget. And you can see that in the gray is all our historical enrollment. We see the decline year-over-year. So we are we know we recognize we are a declining enrollment district. And then um based on just forecasting um and and really what I do is looking at trends um taking into account any new development but then looking at what's offset by schools that have decreased you come up with projections for the budget year. And so in June that number was 30,574. And as of 300 p.m. this afternoon, our enrollment is 30,477. So we are almost 100 students below enrollment. Um and so right now a couple of things going on is we are first

126of all um constant communication. Mr. Peoples will tell you that I'm probably one of the ones calling his cell phone the most. Sorry. Um but just trying to determine are do we still have waiting list trans what's the status on transfers what is the volume of folks you are receiving in your office um because as we are looking at there's a couple of trends that we have identified um overall to be within a hundred of projections is good I I would rather though it would be 100 higher right not 100 lower so that's not good But two grade levels stand out. Kindergarten enrollment um as of today is more than 200 below projections and our TK enrollment is much higher than projections by over 100. And so that has forced us to take a look

127at um collapsing some of our kinder classes but being able to add TK classes. And so there's been constant communication with a number of school sites. I think we are up to nine school sites where we have converted or added TK classrooms. We have a handful of school sites where now we have three TK classrooms at the site. If you recall um last year most of them just had the one, right? Um but there's a lot of challenges with that, right? There's communication with facilities about the gates, about the restrooms and so forth. So we are working as fast as we can to to try to do this early on um because we don't do know it impacts uh the classrooms. So we are we are trying to get ahead of that and making sure

128we have everybody in line. The second piece is typically we start with lower enrollment but usually by the third week and and definitely by Labor Day our enrollment should stabilize. And so right now, I'm just going to anxiously be looking at this enrollment every day and and hoping that we can get to um the 30,574 because if we don't get there, when we bring forward our updated financial reports for 2526, we're going to have to make modifications to our budget. Um so right now we still have a little bit of time. We're still monitoring, but definitely something to look at. and enrollment changes every day, but the snapshot that the state uses on comparison is what they refer to as census day or cowpads day, which is always the first Wednesday in October. So the

12930,949 from 2425 was the October that census day enrollment and that's what we will compare in 2526. So just wanted to be transparent about that. The second thing that we monitor especially the first five days because we have enrollment and enrollment means that we have the paperwork they are in the system they are scheduled to come to class. The second piece that happens is who is actually showing up because a lot of things can happen in the summer. We have an influx of students registering wanting to come to our district but we've also have some students that are no longer attending our schools and maybe they did not notify us that they were moving. um did not notify us that they were going to a different district. And so what occurs the first couple of

130days again u just great communication um Mr. Marquez sends the information the instructions to all of our school sites about completing what is referred to as a warm body count. So warm body count means that if you show up for the day, that first day, you are marked present and you count as a warm body. On day two, you will be marked present whether you showed up on the first day or the second day. And that's how warm body works. It's commumulative and it's just a record of who are the students that have shown up. So you can see that the first day of school 28,615 and it increased. We knew that the Monday was going to increase by a larger number because for some reason we it's again a pattern, right? You're not even

131though school starts on Wednesday, they're not going to come back to school until the Monday. Um and then Tuesday was the last day that we tracked warm body counts. And you can see that on Tuesday we had only had 29,812 students shown up. Again, comparing that to our enrollment of 30,574, that means there's over 760 students that we had still not seen by Tuesday. So, what are we doing now? um working closely collaboration, student services, technology innovation and assessment, um a district attendance specialist, making sure and verifying that the schools have followed the process so that if they know that a student is not going to be attending that they are properly dropped. Um and then continuing outreach on the folks that are still enrolled so that we can um reach our our figures because

132ideally your warm body needs to match your enrollment, right? And if it doesn't, we need to be able to explain why. 762 students is a lot of money. It's about $12 million less and LCFF revenues. So again, we're hoping that this is something that we continue to work through. Um a a pattern again at the beginning of the year. Um I know there's been a lot of communication that has been sent out about when the first day of school is, but we still struggle to have our families show up right from the first day of school. So that does have an impact on our overall attendance. So on our district budget um we did receive a draft letter from our COE and again our COE is the agency that is responsible for our fiscal oversight.

133So all of our budget reports are then submitted to our COE who will review them before they send off to the state. And on the draft letter, which will be um emailed to our superintendent as well as to the board president, I am guessing in the next day or so because we did um sign off on the numbers. Um states that both our LCAP and budget were approved, which is a good thing. Um so it was approved and the document goes on to give a summary as well as to give some areas to monitor. So, I'm going to flip to the adopted budget section. Um, and they just state that they concur that the budget was prepared utilizing the assumptions that are in line with what was provided by the state. However, they are including

134areas for the district to monitor. The first is on enrollment and average daily attendance. Again, that's the reason why we do those warm body counts, why we continue to monitor enrollment and attendance because we know that if there is any variance on that, we would need to incorporate into our financials at the first interim. The second component that they address is on the unrestricted deficit spending. And so the budget reports that were submitted are including deficit spending amounts which means we're spending more than what we're bringing in for all three years 2526 2627 and 2728. So, and I'm just going to read the statement. Just say as office strongly discourages districts from committing to additional ongoing expenditures without offsetting reductions and stresses the need to continue identifying solutions to reduce a potential structural deficit. I

135say that because it doesn't say you can't add anything and it doesn't say you can't spend money. It just simply says that whatever we do, we want to make sure we offset. And so, I think that's been the message, right? looking at what are some of the things that you potentially don't need to continue with and using that to to increase. So, I I I want to just stress that because I'm not saying don't do anything or don't add anything. And then the third thing is the one-time funding. Um, and so they do also mention that our multi-year projections are incorporating the use of one-time funding to support some ongoing expenditures. We've been transparent about that. we do have a uh the learning recovery block grant that uh those funds continue through 2728 that we

136do have positions tied to. And so they're just saying that they recommend that the district analyze what the impact would be of those positions continuing. So a couple of highlights, but they do thank the district for um the the report. So I wanted to share that with you and again you'll be receiving that letter in the next day or so. So, what are we doing? Um, at the district, we are, as I mentioned, we're monitoring enrollment. We're making sure that things align with our staffing ratios, evaluating the allocation of positions. I think when Mr. Kaban was up here and and talked about workload, um, I know that for some of the departments that I oversee, we've been looking about possibly allocating things a little bit differently, right? I mean again going back to is there

137higher need in some areas than others and being able to reallocate that and then continuing to monitor expenditures, reviewing of all purchase orders and contracts. So wanting to really thank the board because I know that we provide you with the link and you guys are asking questions that means you're reviewing items, you're questioning. So I want um folks to know that we're not just saying we're we're providing all this to the board. The board is reviewing that um questioning that and we will continue to do that. Um reviewing travel and conference requests. I know President Luna has talked about that a little bit about you know really taking a look at who's going can information be brought back being strategic about not just attending every year the same folks but being able to spread some

138of that. So we wanted to put reviewing travel and conference there overtime extra duty again things two big areas that we continue to monitor. Uh one thing is you know to be able to offset salaries when there's vacancies but when you're not we we need to really determine why the need for the overtime extra duty and then the impact of employee absences leading to substitute costs. So uh just areas that we will continue to monitor. And then finally, our next steps. As I mentioned, at the next board meeting on September 9th, we will be presenting to you the final 2425 unodudited actuals. Business staff has been busy over the summer closing the books and we're that close to being done. So, I'm looking forward to presenting that report at the next meeting. Then in December,

139we have our first interim report, which is the first snapshot of the 2526 budget. uh January our audit report which will take a look at all of our 2425 financials and you've got a third-party auditor coming in to make sure that things were done in alignment with um the audit guide as well as the um government code second interim in March and then May is May revision then we're almost to the end of the next fiscal year. Thank you for that. And I'll take any questions if you have any. >> I have a couple of questions if that's okay. Um, did you want to go first? >> Okay. Um, a couple of questions and a suggestion. >> So, the first question is I just want to make sure I heard you that we're submitting a

140budget where we project future deficit spending. >> Yes. Should we do that or is that is now the time to say hey these are our programs but we're going to stay within budget during those out years. So we on the deficit spending and that we don't have a multi-year here but I'll I'll just um so when we presented the 2526 budget um so two things that we know would have created some deficit spending and we strategically did that because we wanted to paint almost a worse picture we did not incorporate colas remember for 26 27 and 27 28 so we know that those revenues will be higher um but again we wanted to plan almost for that worst case scenario. So yes, part of that structural deficit um was because that the colas were not

141incorporated. The second component is that we also utilized uh for 2425 if you recall at adopted budget we talked about we have a large number of one-time funds and those one-time funds we've received and it's almost like that forces you to have a structural deficit because those funds are in your reserve and now in order for you to spend it it's going to show you're spending more than the money you're bringing into current year because you have the reserve. So we always say we need to monitor that structural the structural deficit especially if it gets too high but the key thing is you want to make sure that you would have enough in your reserves to cover to offset the structural deficit which we do for the threeear span that goes through 2728. >> I

142think that's kind of dangerous and the reason I say that is because what happened is in my opinion just doing simple math is if then we do get the cola, you're already taking it away from the employees prematurely in the years out and that's what the unions fight for. That's just on the surface that's what it kind of looks like. >> So I think and in my head what I think is if we have $100, if that's the carry forward or that's what we're bringing in, then that's what we should budget for $100. And if we have to save the 3%, right, we should budget within the 3%. We our budget should looks like should >> should not show that we're deficit spending. That's just my opinion. And then the second is also can we

143incorporate in your in your action items. I think like reviewing the travel and overtime extra duty. I think there's another component that I see that people that are on um admin leave with pay and how long they're staying on admin leave with pay and reducing some of that to offset the cost. And then if we have a lot of substitute cost then perhaps are I mean I'm sure we are but just something to think about um revisiting who's absent why you know and follow our board policy and ed code so that those absences don't occur right and and we talked about a sub um protocol about um even a I believe it was prior to co it was x number of days. Again, we're just talking about non-classroom positions. Um that you had to be

144out x number of days before subs were able to cover those assignments. So, we have had discussions about that in cabinet. Um and so that can definitely be something that can be implemented, some substitute guidelines. >> Mr. Johnson, any questions? Okay. >> Thank you, Miss Lopez. Okay, we are on to item L, consent agenda. Uh, do any of you have anything to pull? Um yes I have um L4 C um 9 for a separate vote. >> Okay. And I have L4C7 for a separate vote. >> L4 C7 >> C7 and C9. >> Yes. Do I have a motion to approve as amended? >> Yes. So moved. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? >> Okay. Mr. Johnson seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. >> Student board member Carvio. >>

145Um, I abstain because family member on the list. >> For this one, you want to vote yes. Oh, when we call for yours, then you want to abstain. >> I thank you, Mr. Johnson. >> Hi, >> Miss Lea. >> Hi, >> Miss Clark. >> Hi, >> Miss Luna. >> I motion carries five and one absent. Now, I need a motion to um I need a motion to approve L4C7. I'd like to make a motion to uh approve the consent agenda item L4C7 as amended. >> Thank you. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Miss Clio, please call for the vote. >> Student board member Carvalo. >> I. >> Mr. Johnson, >> I. >> Miss Lea, >> I. >> Miss Clerk, >> I. >> Miss Luna, >> abstain. I have a

146family member on that list. Okay. So, that was four yeses, one abstension, and one absent. >> And do I have a motion for item L479? >> It's 79 or C9. >> I'm sorry, L4C9. My apologies. >> I'd like to um make a motion as presented. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Johnson seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. >> Student board member Carbio. >> I abstain because I have a family member on the list. >> Thank you. Mr. Johnson, >> hi. >> Miss Leva, >> I. >> Miss Clark. >> Hi. >> Miss Luna. >> I. Motion carries. Four yes. One abstension and one absent. Thank you. All right. On to letter N. Action items. in one superintendent action items. Dr. Ruakava. >> Thank you, President

147Luna. >> So, this is a discussion item that we're bringing forward for board as a first read of the board policy regarding student board member participation on the DAS. We previously um the board previously approved the policy to allow us to provide course credit for student more members for their participation as student board trustees. There was a request that we research the ability to provide financial compensation for our student board trustees. We are able to do that. that's codified in ed code and Miss Hari did a great job of looking at some other districts that do it and so we were able to come up with the policy that's there before you. The policy incorporates the ability to not only provide course credit to our student trustees but to also compensate them um for their

148participation. So in our research, most districts did either 50% of what the board trustees received or onethird of what the board trustees received. So currently board trustees receive $1,000 and change uh per month for being on the board. So now the discussion and what we need direction from is what compensation you would like to agree upon for our student trustees. It does not have to be decided today. This is just a first reading. So you can give us any feedback that you want individually and then we will compile that feedback based on your um input and that would be incorporated into the board policy that we bring forward for second reading and adoption. Any questions on that? >> I have a question. Will this apply to the previous um um student board members that we

149had? >> We were able to determine that we can go back retroactively one year. Right, Claudia? >> That's it. Yes. >> That's unfortunate because >> I know we >> we have trailblazers. >> I know. I know. >> Right. >> And I would just want to give all them. They could use it especially if they're in school. >> I'm sure they could, but based on our research, it was one year back. Any other questions? So any input that you have, let us know and then we'll incorporate that into the board policy that we bring forward for second reading and adoption. >> Thank you. On to item M2, business services discussion. >> Thank you, President. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Letter A. I'm sorry. Uh, go ahead, Miss Lopez. >> So, we have a number of policies. I'm

150going to break them up um so that I can give a little bit information on each. The first one is board policy 3301.2. This is in regards to the purchasing authority as well as then also administrative regulation 3301.2 also in relationship to purchasing authority. Both of these would be new. Um, so this is policy that CSBA had in language that we just felt we should incorporate into our policy as well. So we have um a job description that gives authorization to sign our purchase orders up to a dollar amount, a specific dollar amount, but we just felt it needed to be captured um in board policy. And so this is what this policy as well as the administrative rag would do. Um, again, this would give that designation an authorization and this would follow the

151job description that was previously approved for this position on in March of 2015. Also, just want to state that we still have to follow the proper district uh purchasing procedures um for that. The second one is regarding our bids and this is board policy 3311 as well as administrative regulation and this would um we are updating to utilize the language from our public contract code as well as government code. So even though we had a policy and administrative regulation that went through the bidding procedures, we wanted to make sure that we incorporated again based on CSBA recommendation um and tie it to the actual public code and government contract code so that as those change um they are aligned. And then our next set which is board policy 3311.1 as well as administrative regulation 3311.1.

152This has to do with the uniform public construction cost accounting procedures. Um both of these are new again following the recommendation of CSBA and incorporating the new law from 2024 in regards to utilizing the uniform public construction cost accounting procedures. Um and again we just we especially with a new purchasing director um this was one of the first assignments making sure that any of these regulations associated with purchasing were in line with what we're doing and and so the reason for all of these updates uh this is a first reading uh information has been shared with our bargaining units and we will bring this forward to the September 9th meeting uh for a second reading and approval. >> Any questions? Um I recognize that the first one 3301.2 the purchasing authority although it's not related

153to CSDA will will there be some policies that um they reference at the bottom of the board policy like in other board policies. So at the bottom we always see what um what board policies um connect with this current policy. Will there be any there? >> We can take a look at that and add any that apply. >> That's all. Thank you for So, thank you. >> And Miss Lopez, just to make sure that the our trustees are understand these policies do not change our current practices. All of our practices are already aligned to all of these policies. They're just cod being codified uh into board policy and administrative regulation. >> Correct. Any other questions? Okay. >> Thank you, Miss Lopez. >> All right. On to item N, action items. Superintendent action items. Do you

154have anything, Dr. Ruba? >> I do. Thank you, President Luna. So, we are presenting tonight for board consider consideration and approval the 2526 safe schools plan. Uh, we present these annually consistent with ED codes 32280 and 32289 as well as 35294.21 and 3594.25. These uh plans provide an overview of how our schools are going to address uh safety incidents uh and uh situations on their campuses. they're aligned to the status uh and also include data related to um incidences on their campuses. >> Any questions, colleague? >> You know, I hate to be the one to keep speaking, but here I am again. So, I I did review these policies and I spoke to Dr. Ruboc about this. One concern I have and the only concern I have at this time is the signatures on the

155policy. They're not identifiable. I'm not sure who who signs them or who is responsible. And I think as a um a contract that's or a policy or you know we need to be able to identify who is the liaison or the person who's signing these. So I'd like to make a motion to approve the safe school plans 2025 2026 but require an amendment >> prior to >> so the board can approve them as is and we will give direction to our school sites to update the signature list that includes the names of all of the members of the um plan of the safety committees. >> So will that be on the on the actual plan that's signed before they go up to the website? Yes. They'll we'll update that >> modify. Okay. Thank you. >>

156Well, with that said, I'd like to Oh, sorry. >> That was your motion. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve. >> Thank you, Miss Clark. Second. >> Mr. Johnson, seconds. Miss Claudia, can you please call for the vote? >> Student board member Carvalo. >> I. >> Mr. Johnson. >> I. >> Miss Lea. >> I. >> Miss Clark. >> Hi. >> Miss Luna. >> I. Motion carries. Five yes. And one absent. On to item N2A, approval of resolution number 2025-26-03. Miss Lopez. >> Yes. Thank you, President Luna. This resolution is to approve the lease leaseback agreements for the Paris Operation Center electric bus upgrades project. I'm very excited. Um again this is for installation of our charging infrastructure that is needed for additional electric buses uh as well as solar panels and a battery

157energy storage system. And so for this specific project uh we are recommending the lease lease back agreements. And so what is attached is the four agreements which include the pre-construction service agreement, the site lease, the leaseback agreement, the construction services agreement. Um and this would authorize district uh to enter into this agreement with West Coast Air. um who was the selected vendor for this project. And just want to also share that this is the first step and this is to award the lease lease back contract but then at a future board meeting the way that lease lease backs work is we would come forward with the guaranteed maximum price and at that time is when you would um approve that amount. So I received a question from a trustee that I think it's important that

158we share with the rest of the group and Jim's back there so he can correct me. So these are 50 buses. 43 of them would replace 43 of the current fleet and it would be seven additional to that. Correct. >> Any other questions? like to make a motion to approve resolution number 2025 2603 as presented. >> I'll second that. >> Thank you, Miss Lea. Miss Kia, please call for the vote. >> Student board member Carbio. >> I. >> Mr. Johnson, >> I. >> Miss Lever, >> I. >> Miss Clark, >> I. >> Miss Luna, >> I. Motion carries. Five yes and one absent. On to item B, approval of second reading and adoption of board policy and administrative regulation 3260, fees and charges. Miss Lopez. >> Yes. Thank you, President Luna. So this is the

159second reading and we are asking for approval for board policy as well as administrative reggg 3260 um which um is for fees and charges and we want to make sure that we are aligned to education code 49014 um and so that states that we cannot bill the current or former district for accumulated debt or take adverse action against student or former student because of debt. In addition to that, there is a new law um that came into effect in 2022 which prohibits charging the parents of any of our unduplicated students any fees for things like transportation, um technology. Um, and so I I want to just point out that that's another reason why we want to make sure that families are completing the annual information update because that is what determines whether they qualify for

160the unduplicated pupil, um, status. And so, um, and we also have language that reflects the new law from 2021 that would that requires districts to provide the free breakfast and lunch daily to all of our students. And again, these are things that practices that we had in place. Um, but now we want to make sure that it's captured and we're updating the policies and administrative regs to align with it. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve the second reading and adopt the board policy and administrative regulation 3260 as presented. Fees and charges as presented. >> I'll second that. That was Miss Clark and Miss Lea. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. >> Student board member Corvio. >> I. >> Mr. Johnson, >> hi. >> Miss Lever, >> I. >> Miss Clark, >>

161hi. >> Miss Luna, >> I. Motion carries. Five yes and one absent. Thank you. On to item 3A, human resources. Uh, approval of second reading and adoption to delete board policy 4019 1. I'll hand it over to Dr. Verie. Thank you, board president Luna. Uh, at a previous meeting, the board had adopted board policies 4119.24, 4219.24, and 4319.24, all aimed uh regarding uh maintaining adult student boundaries that happened on June the 24th in the board meeting. These updated policies replace the old language in policy 4019.1, making it obsolete. And so part of this package of second readings is to delete that old board policy. We are also updating board policies 4244 and 4344 regarding complaints and adding new uh requisite administrative regulations to align with CSBA guidelines and recommendations from our uh legal council. The

162district is also presenting the second reading and adoption of board policies and administrative regulations 4244 and 4344 that are again currently aligned with all the up-to-date title 9 regulations which took effect on August the 1st. >> Thank you Dr. Vy. Colleagues, any questions? >> I just have one. Dr. Vy, it's very simple. Um I I I understand that we have which is the title 9 sexual harassment complaint procedure. We have 42 44 complaints. >> Yes. >> I just don't feel like why is there a need to delete it? Because it had great information professional and adult student boundaries. >> Okay. So you're talking about 4019.1 Miss Clark. >> Yes. So the the it it so that same information is expanded upon in the new policy, but what we did was we we broke it out

163by employee group. So rather than just having one overarching policy that had been under 4019 previously, what those three represent that you mentioned, uh 19 and um excuse me, 4119, 4219, and 4319 are for certificated, classified, and management personnel. So, it's a little bit more specific than the older policy. So, rather than just having two that don't necessarily make sense together, we now have three just very specific policies for those employee groups. When I when I read them, there were certain things in the professional adult and student boundaries policy like you know like appearances of improparity that's not captured in the other policies like for example invite one of the in the policy that we're deleting one of the things in the appearance of impropriy would be inviting ing or allowing individual students to visit

164the adults home. I don't see that in any other policy now. I like I guess what I'm saying is I'd like to pass the other policies, but I'm not sure if we need to delete this policy, >> but I don't know. I've honestly I really like this policy. I think it spells it out. It's very clear >> and our expectations are laid out and I think that we you know, we're in the business of >> Yeah. we're in the business of protecting our students. So I personally feel that we should keep this policy as well as adopt the other policies. >> So and and again just to clarify, Miss Clark, so those previous ones, the 4119 43, those those had been adopted previously. So we're just bringing the deletion forward as kind of a the

165next step. Um, I I don't I don't see a clash with them. >> If that's the direction the board wants to go in, though, I don't see any any problem. >> So, the only action is the deletion, >> correct? >> And then the updated title nines, correct? That's that's the other part of this action. Yes. >> So, here's my motion. I'd like to approve um professional adult no, excuse me. I'd like to approve the second reading of the adoption of the board policy and new administrative regulations 4244 and 4243 4344, excuse me. Complaint second reading and adoption of the new administrative regulations 4119.12 4219.12 4319.12 title N sexual harassment complaint procedures as presented. I did not move the deletion. >> Understood. Do I have a second? >> I'll second that. I agree with Miss Clark.

166I don't see the need of deleting that. I feel that it it speaks very clearly many you know um things that are important that we need to keep in place. >> Thank you. >> Did you have feed feedback? >> Thank you Mr. Johnson. >> Yeah. >> I don't see any competing interest or competing language between the policies. So I think it's completely appropriate to keep 4019.1 if that's the board's desire. >> Okay. So the motion basically is approve 42 44 43 44 and then the series of 4119 4219 and 4319 as presented. >> That would maintain 419.1 as is. >> Correct. >> I will second that. That's why I as you >> miss they got ahead. >> Oh I thought >> can't take ownership for somebody else's second. So they got a a first and

167a second already. Mr. Johnson. >> All right then. >> Miss Clott, can you please call for the vote? Well, thank you for explaining. That's what I wanted. >> Student board member Carbio. >> I, >> Mr. Johnson, >> I. >> Miss Lea, >> I, >> Miss Clark, >> I, >> Miss Luna, >> I. Motion carries. Five yes and one absent. Thank you, Dr. Verie. >> You're welcome. Now we are on to item B, approval of resolution number 2025-2612, elimination of certain vacant cert certificated management positions for the 202526 school year effective August 27th. Dr. Verie, >> thanks Miss Luna. uh particular action that the district is recommending is to eliminate a vacant alternative education principal position uh full-time equivalent or FTE. It's it's very similar to the actions we bring forward sometimes uh with classified positions

168or certificated positions that have been vacated and that the district is not going to be backfilling. This does not uh impact any current staff members. Uh again it is vacant and we are just removing it from the budget. >> Any questions colleagues? >> No you already clarify my question that I always ask. So I need to make sure that nobody you know it's been >> yes >> left with no position. So you already clarified that. >> No problem. Absolutely. I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution 2025-26-12 as presented. >> Thank you. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Johnson second. >> Miss Claudia, please cover the vote. >> Bar member Carvalo. >> I. >> Mr. Johnson. >> I. >> Miss Lea. >> Hi. >> Miss Clark. >> Hi. >> Miss Luna.

169>> I. Motion carries. Five yes and one absent. Now we are on to item O acknowledgement items. Number one, acknowledgement of the classified management job description. Supervisor 2, central registration manager. Dr. Verie. >> Thanks, Miss Luna. There are just a couple of updates to this management uh job description to bring to the board's attention for acknowledgement. Uh previously in years past this particular supervisor had reported to the director of facilities which is where a lot of the uh student numbers enrollment and things that that Miss Lopez was talking to us tonight about uh were housed. But now this person is part of the student services team with Mr. Peoples. So, we've changed that on this particular job description as well as some updates to the technology that this team uses to monitor student enrollment and

170our uh attendance. Thank you. >> We're not taking action, but do you guys have any questions? >> Okay. Thank you. We are on to item P, future agenda topics. Any future agenda topics? I'll start with our student board member. >> Um I have no future agent atomics. Thank you. >> Mr. Johnson, do you have any future agenda? >> No ma'am, I have none. Thank you for asking. >> You're welcome. Miss Lever, >> I don't know if this falls into future agenda topics, but I have talked about it with uh Dr. Ru Kava. Um we have had in the past you know and when I was part of the CAC for parents to attend to a conference for special education. We don't have any parent that I know ever attending a conference for special education. We

171have Gaza, we have Cave, but um and I'm not asking, you know, for like every single parent, but at least the committee that we have to attend, you know, uh the special education conference that it's going to be happening in March of next year, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, to give them the opportunity to that they deserve to, you know, learn and understand more how to um support their kids and how in that same, you know support our district. >> Thank you. Do you have anything else or is that it? >> Okay, Miss Clark, do you have anything? >> Not at this time. >> And I don't have anything. Thank you. >> I have one which involves the the board as a whole. So, um, President Luna and I think Miss Leva were part

172of a conversation about restarting the Riverside School Boards Association. >> And so, just wanted to share with the board that currently we're part of the joint San Bernardino and Riverside um, county um, school boards association. And so, there's been a push for Riverside to have its own. So, we want to present that information to you. Claudia has already had researched some information. she's trying to get a little bit more information, but we'll put it in a Friday update as something that's coming. Um, and if that's the case, I would highly encourage our board to be part of this new um this new organization, which I think is going to better focus on the unique needs of our Riverside County students. >> Yes. And just to add to that, um, collaboration amongst other districts would definitely

173be valuable to all of us. we could share best practices and um it's it's like you know districts well it's board members supporting each other but I I see it as districts supporting districts and collaborating so um hopefully we'll be able to uh bring that forth and uh be a part of that if you all agree I do I feel that is very important we were able to attend one of the meetings Miss Luna and myself and it helps you understand sometimes as a board member ever um you have questions and and and concerns but because of the brand act we cannot ask each other. So by having the possibility to you know um get to know other board members that are close to us and have that um support that we need you know

174to learn and grow um it will be very you know good if to have that opportunity. >> Perfect. So, as soon as we gather all, we're just missing one piece of information, which is the cost of membership. Once we have all that, we'll send it out in the Friday update. >> Thank you. >> And then the last piece is we are now members of the California Latino School Boards Association. There was a hiccup with the membership, but you should be getting an email soon that says welcome to CLSBA. So, >> thank you. Anything else? All right. Well, uh, I just have one message to everyone. Be kind and have a good evening. This meeting is adjourned at 7:53 p.m. [Applause] >> Is that a new record? What is heat?