001Good evening everyone. The board of education reconvene into open session at 5:21 p.m. Roll call please. Roads Williams present. Cleveland Johnson present. Joanna Ala present. Randy Clark present. Alandava present. Especi Robert Birdie present. Susanna Lopez present. Sammy Luna present. All right. Report out of close session. The board of education met in close session to discuss board deliberation regarding public employee employment appointment conference with legal counsel. Existing litigation conference with legal counsel. anticipated litigation, settlement of claims, and superintendence evaluation. The board gave further direction to district staff and took action on the following. A motion was made by Miss Clark and second seconded by Miss Leva and approved the denial of settlement claim 0624025. This was approved by the board of education by the following vote. Five yes, zero no. Superintendent evaluation. The board conducted its
002annual evaluation of the superintendent, Dr. Alejandro Vuvakava, and received a positive evaluation and the following new employees were approved in close session. Uh, a motion was made by Miss Leva and seconded by Mr. Johnson and approved the new director 3 of elementary education, Dr. Emily Price, with a vote of five yes and zero no. Dr. Verie, did you want to say anything about that? Thank you so much, President Luna. Um, Miss Price is traveling this evening, but but um she wanted me to pass along her her thanks and her gratitude to the board and to Dr. Ruvokava for their confidence in her taking on this role as director of elementary education. Uh she's going to be a great member of our team. She is uh currently coming from another district. We are glad to have
003her join our team and she has been very successful uh as a principal and going to be a great addition to educational services. Thank you. We look forward to having her as part of our district family. Uh number two, a motion was made by Miss Clark and seconded by Mr. Johnson and approve the new director two of purchasing Miss Sylvia. Vote five yes and zero no. Dr. Very. [Applause] Thank you, President Luna. We are excited to welcome another uh new member to the Marino Valley family. Uh Sylvia Hosa did a tremendous job throughout a a very uh very interesting recruitment. We had a lot of great candidates and she definitely rose to the top. She is uh leading uh with another district as their director of purchasing. We are happy to have her take on
004that role uh for us. And just a couple things that we found out about her through the recruitment process. She's an excellent communicator. She excels at customer service. She has a can do attitude. And because she has worked at the site level before in her career, she brings that that connection and that empathy to site leadership to make sure that she's helping support in any way she can. So with that, I'm going to welcome her to the podium to say a few words to our board. [Applause] Thank you. I just wanted to take the time uh to thank the board uh cabinet, Miss Lopez, for the opportunity of providing me with this opportunity that uh for of being part of a team that I could already see is just an amazing amazing district, amazing team,
005and I'm so excited to be here. And um I plan to serve with integrity, with intention, uh transparency, and compassion. And you know, I could do that only because I have a great support system at home. And with that, I wanted to publicly thank also my husband who's here supporting me. Um, no, thank you for allowing to do what I do. And I'm just here to serve. And I want to um thank you. It's an honor to have that opportunity. Congratulations. It was a pleasure meeting you and um you're going to fit in right right in with everyone here. you you seem like a a wonderful person. So, we look forward to working with you. Thank you. Congratulations. I just want to say that some of the things that stuck out when you were um
006speaking with us and I could it exuded from um your soul that you are a servant leader. Um you're very collaborative. You have a can do attitude. Uh very positive and just ready, willing to work. One of the things you said that was really inspiring is I'm I'm ready to get in and roll my sleeves up and and and move forward. So congratulations again and welcome to the family. Thank you so much. I would also like to congratulate you. You know this is the best place that you could ever be at, right? You knew that, right? Like the first time I think I saw you, I I knew right away that you were going to be on our team. So, uh, I just knew that. But congratulations and we're looking for some great things from
007you. We've heard a lot of great things already about you. So we just we just ready ready for you to roll and start showing us your your great talents. Thank you very much. Thank you. Welcome to Marino Valley and u we are the 25th largest school in Riverside County, entire state of California. I think the third in Riverside. Welcome again. Thank you so much. Um I just want to say welcome and thank you for choosing us. Um one of the things that I like that you said it was that you enjoy working with others and that's very important you know when you come to a big district. So thank you. Oh thank you. It's a pleasure. Thank you so much. [Applause] And last but not least, President Luna and board members, a familiar part of
008the Marino Valley family. She has served seven years as a teacher with us and seven years as an administrator. Dr. Verie. Yes. We want to do the announcement first. So, oh, sorry. It's okay. Sorry, Dr. Verie. Sorry. Throw your thunder. I'm so excited. I know. I know. So, it was uh it's a pleasure to announce a motion was made by Miss Clark and seconded by Miss Leva to approve the new middle school principal, Dr. Hillary Reynolds, at Palm Middle. [Applause] Approved five yes, zero no. Thank you, President Luna. So, again, we're happy to to see Dr. Reynolds uh taking this next step in her educational career journey with us. Just a couple of things again to kind of share that we found out and recognized and have recognized in Hillary and her journey with us.
009Her great experience as a elementary principal and middle school administrator. She has experience in course planning, team leadership. Uh she has certifications in transformational leadership, the international baloria program and the national institute for school leadership. uh she has completed her doctorate very positive leader very inspiring leader and she's all about students and again congratulations to Dr. Reynolds so she'll come forward please [Applause] thank you so much I see one of my Sugar Hill families right here and they were like I know I'm sorry um okay so good evening to the board Dr. Revocab and our amazing cabinet. I am truly honored and humbled to accept the role of principal at Palm Middle School. I want to begin by thanking the school board, the district leadership, and the selection committee for placing your trust in me.
010I know it's not an easy task. This is not just a professional milestone for me, but it is a personal one as well. Middle school is such a unique and critical time in a student's life, as it was for me. and middle school starts or middle school students need strong, compassionate, and consistent guidance from the adults around them. And I am fully committed to providing that guidance to our students, our staff, and our families. I would also like to recognize my amazing Sugar Hill staff, students, and families. I can't go without saying um for always believing in me and for shaping me into the leader that I am today. I would not be here without their continuous support. Last but not least, I would like to thank my amazing family who is watching at home
011and my husband and sons, Colton and Cooper, for always pushing me to follow my dreams and understanding that this is more than just a job for me, but it's a calling. And I want to thank you again for this opportunity. I am very, very excited and I'm ready to continue serving the Marino Valley uh Unified School District in this new role. Thank you. Congratulations again. It was so great to talk to you upstairs and and hear a more personal story from you. Thank you for continuing your professional journey with us. Uh we're happy that you're you're staying with us and continuing to share your knowledge and your best practices. Thank you. Thank you as well. One of the things that really um stood out to me was you knew that you wanted to be a
012middle school teacher, a middle school teacher in middle school, right? And you started your career as a 101 aid. I think that's so important for everyone to know the compassion that you have. You were humble enough to tell this board of education about an experience that you had that you needed to grow and you did it with such drive and passion and I am so grateful that you are here with us and you are moving into this position because this is exactly what middle schoolers need. They need someone who leads from the heart but is also an uh wants them to succeed academically. You went on and on and every time you spoke a word your smile just got bigger and so I want to say thank you. Um, it it's I know we approved
013it as a board, but I just want to say thank you for giving us a chance to see your amazing leadership at Palm Middle School. Thank you. And uh I'm glad that we are able to give and and offer you an opportunity to uh share your expertise at another level. Uh middle school is very difficult. Uh it's hard to retain good people who who are willing to work with uh six through eight. And um thank you again. Nice to meet you. when we had to make a decision on what we're going to be doing. Once we saw your resume and we saw what you've done in the past, it was a no debate. I know I shouldn't tell you that. I should tell you that it took us about 45 minutes to decide. No, it
014didn't really, you know, we we really appreciated what we what we've seen and what we read and we just want to tell you thank you. Thank you. Thank you for wanting to stay here and then growing in our in our district. Congratulations. We're very proud of you. Congratulations. I'm glad that you staying here with us. Something that you know stay in my head when you were like talking to us. It was that uh question that it was made to you about what you know the students need and you said consistency, compassion and understanding. Um that talks a lot about you. So, thank you for having that mindset and understanding that um our kids need, you know, all these different um supports. So, congratulations. [Applause] Next, we are on to the pledge of allegiance. Um our
015student board member couldn't make it, so may I ask Mr. Johnson, do you mind leading us in the pledge? Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Item E2, future board meeting dates are as follows. July 22nd, August 26, September 9th, September 23rd, October 14th, and October 28th. All in 2025. Next item E3, superintendence report. Dr. Wakaba. Thank you, President Luna. So, it is my pleasure to share all of the amazing things that have happened since the last time we met, which was last week. Um, but there has been a lot happening, so we want to make sure that we spotlight that. As always, it's important that we start with our why as we are welcoming uh new team members to our family and those who are going to the next level. Um, it's always important that we ground
016ourselves in our mission and why we serve, why we are here to serve and who we're here to serve, which are our students and our community. So, our vision, our mission, and our portrait of a graduate really exemplify that commitment to our community and to our kiddos. Uh, as we look at our goals, you can see the alignment between the goals and we would commit to do to what we promise our community. And we're going to share some of that as we go through the updates. So, it is my pleasure to welcome to the podium the Johnson family who is here to recognize three amazing students who are recipients of this year's uh Johnson award if you want to share more about that and we'll talk about the the students when they come up. Okay,
017the forum is yours. Thank you so much. Oh, it's not on. Oh, all right. I thought I could just project my voice. I'm loud. So, but thank you, uh, Dr. Muocaba and the rest of the board. Um, so, as he was stating, yeah, we um what what the origin of this is that we um our dad is Cleveland Johnson and he's on the school board, Marina Valley. He's been serving for several years. and we thought, you know, because of his dedication to the district and our our deceased mom, what could be a good way that we could give back to the community? So, we wanted to set up a scholarship. So, this is our first year in doing so. Uh we're total noviceses at this thing, right? But we gave it a go and uh
018we got some great essays from students. Uh, and I said scholarship because it was initially supposed to be just one, but as we read the essays, it was just really hard to not award something to the other deserving students. And so that's why we have several here. So, first of all, I want to thank you for that opportunity and so to do that and we'll talk about them a little bit. But this is my sister and brother. Do you guys have want to say anything else before I introduce this the students? Um, my name is Miranda and I'm also an educator. I work at a high school. So, it's um this is an amazing opportunity for the up and cominging high school students that are going to be graduates. So, um I congratulate all of
019you guys. We thought it was such an amazing thing to do um in representation of my mother and my father um who have instilled such great um things in us and um I just we just we're just excited to be able to do this and we hope we can continue to keep it going. Hello board. My name is Darren Johnson. I'm the uh the youngest. Yes, I am. I'm the youngest and really really happy to be here. So So this is really it's about my father, but it's really about our mother and what she did. Just as an example, I mean she put she put uh college funds uh away long time ago before my sons were born, before his daughters were born. And so when they got to the age of going to college,
020it really really helped. My son graduated Arizona State. Uh he's getting ready to go to law school. My other son graduated from Howard University. No bills, no everything's paid off, so he's good to go. Uh Marcus' daughter, uh Nala, just graduated from Oregon. She's working on her masters at San Diego State. And Leah will be next. She'll she'll be graduating from um Hawaii Pacific University and working on her masters as well. So, we all know as parents, funding really helps. Scholarships really, really help. So, so we were very fortunate. We wanted to pass it on. Thank you. Right. So, all right. So, I'll announce our initial uh scholarship winner for $1,000, and that is Leila Deppmore. Come on up. And so, as she's coming, I'll say a few things about her. So, uh here's some
021just some quick facts. So, she's a 2025 graduate of Canyon Springs High School. She volunteered at the Red Cross Hospice and a a student sports medicine trainer. So, school activities. Okay, got to take a deep breath. She was Cougar Council student rep and Cougar Council president. She was in sports, high school, and club volleyball. Okay, here's listen to this. She was a scholar athlete, MVP, first team all league, MVP, first team all league, and then she had a three I mean, I'm sorry, a 4.3 GPA on top of all of that. So amazing. And her future dream is to be an emergency room surgeon. So needless to say, I mean, with that kind of drive and determination, we are sure that you're going to reach and achieve your goals. So congratulations and good luck at
022San Diego. Oh no, she she's already got her. She just give her her Okay. Yeah, that's hers. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. And I at the end, can we get a a group photo at some point? Okay, Ila, if you can just hang out with Okay, you're right over here. Thank you. Thank you, Laya. Okay, so next and as I mentioned, we we had other compelling essays and so we talked about it amongst ourselves and said, well, what can we do? And so we said, you know what? We're just going to we think we should offer these students something. And we came up with a $500 scholarship. And so our next recipient is Taylor Blake. And so some quick facts about Taylor. So she attended Vista Delago where she had a 3.8 GPA. She's a
0232025 graduate of Marina Valley Online Academy with a 3.4 GPA. She's also impressive in volunteering, too. She volunteered with RNL Enterprises, SBC Mime Company, and Pathoflife Homeless Shelter. So in high school, she was also part of the Vista Deago Magicals, which is the choir. She played volleyball and her future dream is to be a preschool teacher and a daycare owner. So, and I'll say in her and Taylor, your particular story too is touching because you know she's been through a lot of things in her life, but one thing that stuck out to me was that she's got courage, strength, and resilience. and she mentioned that it was all a testament to her strong faith in God. So if you maintain that on your path and you nothing is going to get in your way and
024we're sure that you're going to be very helpful and you want to it touched our heart that you want to give back to children in your community. So congratulations. [Applause] Oh okay. Yeah. And then next, last but not least, we have Kayn Wllo. [Applause] So, facts, quick facts about Kayn. She's a 2025 graduate of Canyon Springs High School. She too was a student volunteer. All all of these ladies just Isn't that wonderful? They volunteer in the community. Student volunteer for One Well One Health. She was a babysitter and a nanny. Also an athlete. She did JV varsity I mean JV and varsity cheer. She did concurrent education in Marina Valley College getting her ass into the associate degree program with a 3.9 GPA. And she graduated Canyon Springs High School with a 4.0 GPA. And
025mom says a little higher than that. Oh, is it 4.49? Oh, okay. Um, can we uh strike that for the record? 4.49. four nine. All right. Wow. All right. Duly noted. All right. And then also too, we have another future MD in the house, she wants to become a neurologist. So, um, and and one thing that she said too was that she learned that, you know, in volunteering and working with people that it was most important to make a connection with people, building trust and confidence in treating everyone with dignity. And so, and I work in healthcare and that's really important when you're facing the public and people the first thing you want to do is give them confidence and let them know that they can trust you and you treat them with dignity. So,
026that's important. So, we know that uh whatever you choose to do in life and in college, you're going to be super successful and we're just so happy to give you this scholarship award. Oh, okay. There you go. So, those are our our recipients. And again, we want to thank you the board for the opportunity to present in front of you and have all the families here. We appreciate all the work that you guys have done for the students and and encouraging them to apply for this. And like I said, it made our job very difficult in reading them. And I'm telling you, these essays were really something else. So, thank you very much. So, so do you want you want to say anything? Oh, okay. Well, now is there someone who can do a a
027group before we get to that, Mr. Johnson? Um, so Leila, Taylor, and Kayn, it is a practice that we allow you to share some words if you would like. I know we're putting you on the spot and I see the the eyes got a little bit big. You're more than welcome to take the mic. If you want to thank anybody, if you want to say anything, it's entirely up to you because the next part is we're going to take a big picture. So, all right. Okay. Um, so my name is Kayn. I transferred to Canyon when I was a freshman. I did transfer in the middle of the year. So, I was very intimidated by the whole idea of transferring and being into this new school, but uh at Canyon, I did learn so so
028much. And I have given I've been given so many great opportunities. And I would really love to shout out my mom. um she has been with me uh through everything and I wouldn't be able to do the change of different schools and just trying to get used to this, you know, new district and everything. I came from Riverside, so it wasn't too too far, but it felt so different, but I I've never been more supported and loved than I was here at Marina Valley. So, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And thanks to mom for keeping your stats correct. She should work for baseball or something. Okay, no pressure. Absolutely. So, let's if we could all do Poke go, right, Leila? Okay. Um, I want to say hi and thank you board and the Johnson family
029for hosting and allowing us the opportunity to apply for the scholarship. I'm truly grateful because college is hefty, so paying for it is Yeah. Um, I want to agree with Kayn. I transferred here as well uh to Canyon Springs. My freshman year I came here from Illinois actually. Um so it was a new experience totally. So it was interesting. Um I want to thank my family that's here and family at home. And my biggest supporters, my dad. He can't be here right now. He's in Pennsylvania. But I want to thank him for everything he's done for me. Um and my principal. He's here too, Mr. Robersonson. But yes, I got it. Thank you. Okay, good for you. You stand. No, don't succumb to peer pressure. Good for you. All right, so we could do a
030big picture, please. Okay. So, I spent 20 years in the military. And I'm going to say this, it's about God. 20 years in the military, 18 years with my family. I've never seen that before. 20 years, you would think I would have seen somebody who had the same fate that we did. So obviously today there's one person missing, but we still had 18 years together in the service and you can see how close we were back then and we still are today. I thought I thought I can be one of their brothers, but I guess I'm today I'm their dad. So a lot of y'all don't even know anything about my family. So now you know I've got three of them. And look, since since they put me on the front street, I'm gonna tell
031y'all something. I know she's not gonna like it, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. Anybody like the Clippers? Yes, you do. Anybody see the Clippers girls dance? Yes, you do. She was one for four years right there. Yes. So, I'll close with that. [Applause] Thank you. So, um just I want to share a couple perspectives. I think one of the things that we're very proud of as a district is modeling um what we expect our students to take away. And I think tonight we have a perfect example of that. We have the Johnson family who's sharing of their time, their talent, and their treasure to three amazing students who are also now dedicated to pursuing careers in the future where they're going to give of their time, their talent, and their treasure. So, thank you
032to the Johnson's and obviously, thank you to our amazing students. We know you're going to be incredibly successful. [Applause] Couple other things that are happening in the district. So, we had an amazing steam academy that happened from the 16th to the 18th. One of the things that we're very proud of being able to offer with the additional funds that we received from the state are these opportunities for students to be enriched. Um, we have a long day, but not long enough where we can squeeze everything in that we would like to. So, these are the types of enrichment activities that we're able to provide during the summer with those additional funds. and you can see our kids involved in handson learning, which is exactly what we know is best for our students. On June 17th,
033we held a uh prek conference to kind of get our prek teachers not only inspired, but prepared for what's to come in the new year. Uh interesting that we had just finished the school year, but we're already planning for next year. We had an amazing speaker who talked to our our team about the importance of reading, early reading, um, a phmic awareness, but also just kind of the nuts and bolts of the mechanics of how language is taught and how difficult English is to learn and to teach. On the 17th, we also had our summer sizzle, which is an opportunity to provide our staff with a conference type of professional development structure where they're able to choose workshops based on their interests. uh always have a great turnout and you can see our teachers engaged
034in what I think is one of the most powerful things is learning from other teachers which is colleagues teaching colleagues and I think that um we have the talent in our district to do that and I'm so thankful to our PD department for putting this on and for supporting that. At our last board meeting, we recognized um some of our students who are involved in our um mechanic auto shop pathway. And so we were asked, well, what about our other pathways? Well, we are very proud of all the different offerings that we have in our district. And these are just a sprinkling of some of the ones that you see that we have. You see, we have our cosmetology, our medical pathway, um engineering. As we go into a world that is more and more
035unknown and uncertain as it relates to the introduction of AI, we know that skilled labor is not something that AI is going to be able to replicate. So, if we can provide these opportunities for our students, we're going to better prepare them to be ready for a future that again remains unknown. So, we are so proud of the amazing CTE programs we have. I want to give a shout out to Miss Brown back there who's trying to hide who kind of supports our schools and our district in implementing those CTE programs. So, thank you, Mrs. Brown, for that. Couple of save the dates. Um, we have our summer graduation that's happening on July 22nd. And then we have a shine celebration. So, for uh many of our community who doesn't know about this, we actually
036offer opportunities for our students to intern with us and with our some of our community uh partners. So on the 22nd we celebrate all the students who are doing that um internship program internship work with us. So we hope that you're going to be able to join us and that's all for tonight. Thank you Dr. Rivakava. We are on to item F public comments on agenda items. Any person requesting to speak on to any item on the agenda may do so at this time or when the item is addressed by the board of education. Individual speakers shall be allowed to speak for three minutes on any agenda item. The board of education shall limit the total time for public input on each agenda item to 21 minutes. Board bylaw 9323B section 5. Per board bylaw
0379323. Twice the allotted time will be provided for a member of the public utilizing a translator. Miss Claudia, do we have any speakers this evening? No speakers for agenda items. Thank you. On to item G, public comments on non-aggenda items. The board of education encourages public comments. During this section, staff may briefly respond to statements or questions or may ask questions for clarification. The board may refer to staff or other resources for factual information, direct staff to report back at a subsequent meeting, and/or 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
038number 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 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 of 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 one public speaker. One public speaker. Okay. Thank you. Uh Mr. Fred Benuel. Okay. You see, a man walks up to a
039church in Michigan, decked out in tactical gear, armed to the teeth with a long gun and a handgun, ready to turn a Sunday service into a headline. And what stopped him? Not the police, not a red flag law, not a background check, a good guy with a gun. Actually, actually, scratch that. A couple of good guys with guns, and not a single one of them had a badge. What matters is your will to act. The church had a plan. More than a decade ago, they looked around at the world and said, "We can't afford to play the odds." So, they hired a professional security team. They trained their staff. They respected the Second Amendment, not as some antique idea, but as a realworld necessity. And when the nightmare scenario showed up at their front door,
040they didn't panic. They didn't beg. They didn't wait. They fought back. And because of that, people lived. This is exactly what it should look like. Not chaos, not confusion, not every man for himself. It was a symbiotic relationship. The security guard neutralized the threat. The armed staff held the line, and the police showed up to take over the scene. That's how it should work. But the anti-gun crowd doesn't want to admit that. They want it to be either or. Either you have law enforcement with guns or no one should have guns. And they'll go out of their way to create this imaginary line where police are the only people capable or allowed to defend themselves or others. But that's not reality. This Michigan church is reality. It shows what happens when citizens and law enforcement
041understand their role and work together. We don't need to live in a world where the government holds all the power and the people have none. We need to live in a world where the people are empowered, responsible, and ready. At the end of the day, this church didn't sit around waiting to be safe. They made the decision to protect themselves. And because they did, there wasn't a massacre. There wasn't a tragedy. There was a failed attempt and a dead shooter. So the next time someone looks at you sideways and ask why do you need a gun or why can't we just leave it to the police? Point them to Wayne in this story and then tell them the police didn't save them. Guns in the hands of good people saved them. What matters is your
042wheels. You when I first came here, you guys, you knew I wanted to promote gun safety. I mean, safety for everybody. So, I still believe that we need a good guy with a gun at every school when minutes, excuse me, when seconds matter, we don't want to wait minutes for the calvaryary to get there. And I appreciate that you guys uh I appreciate that you guys fix the flag. And that's it for today. Have a safe night. Thank you. Next, we're on to item H, employee association reports. Um, do I have a representative from CSCA here? Okay. Doesn't look like we do. Next, we're on to item I, comments from board members. I'll start with Mr. Williams. Yeah. I just wanted to um acknowledge the young ladies that received the scholarship. I wanted to acknowledge
043the Johnson family. Um, it really speaks to community and generational community here in Marino Valley. And um, it was it was nice to see that all of the recipients had volunteerism uh, as as a base uh, for their uh, education. and they're all going to learn how to build relationships with people through that volunteerism. And I just wanted to uh again thank the Johnson family, Mr. Johnson. Um that's that's great. And those kids are right. Education is expensive and they do need help. Every penny counts. Thank you again. My next uh Yeah. Thank you. I would be remiss if I didn't say something about what my kids have uh have done. And u over the years I remembered um oh by the way too uh I didn't mention this uh I have one that was
044born in the states in Arkansas. That was back in the back in the day. I'll say it like that. But then my other two were born in Europe. So um that was an adventure. to have two babies born in Europe and you had no family to help you. So if you think that that's easy, no, it was tough. It was just my wife and myself. And u I didn't mean to go this way with this, but I'll tell you when uh when my baby boy came, I had a Model T Ford. And you see me driving a Mercedes today. You should have seen me yesterday when I had the Model T Ford. And the Model T Ford was the one you used to have to crank. You couldn't just put the key in, you know,
045and turn it. you had to crank it. So, my wife was pregnant and she's gonna have a baby and it's getting dark. I'm thinking, "Okay, wait until tomorrow because it might not be able to make it." So, it it just so happened I had to take her and I had to crank the thing up and it and it started. We got to the hospital at Lake Heath Air Base. And when the baby came, which is my daughter, um that car never ran again. You there was no way you can get it to start at all. So, how did I get home? home. I had to hitchhike. But the point is what you see today is not what you what you would have seen yesterday. Everything today is because what the Lord did for us. And
046I was in the military for 20 years. I don't know anybody who had their family with them for 18. We were together 18 years and we could have been together 19 years. The reason we didn't do the 19th one because I had an assignment to Spain. And if I go to Spain, my oldest son couldn't go to school there because he had to be shipped someplace else. And because, you know, I'll say this too, I knew a lot of people. I knew a general who I played football for in Europe who always told me if I ever needed him, let me let him know. So I told him about my dilemma and he said, "Don't worry about it. We'll get you a different assignment." so your family can stay together. And we did. We didn't
047go to Spain. So, out of those 20 years, we were together for 18. And I don't know very many people that can say that. Yeah, we we're missing one right now, but that's just the way life is. But just know that I'm very proud and um and I'm glad I chose the the Air Force. Um, and then even coming here, I came here and nobody knew that I was coming. I came here because I knew this same general who told me years ago when I played football in Europe, when you get ready to retire, you let me know where you want to go and I'll get you there. And he got me in the march. And everybody said, "What? We don't have an opening for you." I said, "Don't tell me about it. I don't."
048And I I told God, "Thanks. I mean, I apologize for lying, but um but I did." And then I'll close by saying this too. I I' I've been really blessed uh with with the with the three kids that I have and the grandkids I have. But when I told the folks at March that I was going to retire after I got here, they were upset with me because they thought I was going to be here for a long time. And I'll close by saying this. Um I have never in my life seen a parade until I saw my own. And I'll close with that. I just want to say thank you to the Johnson family for being here and thinking about the students and giving back to our community. It means a lot not only
049to them but to us as a district, as a board um of education. Um thank you, Mr. Johnson. We appreciate you. Um I'm also happy and blessed that I'm able to attend you know um different events and the one that I attended was the professional professional development. It was really nice. I was able to go to the different classrooms and see you know like so many teachers. I saw Dr. Arer there too. Um it was it's amazing you know it gets you so excited the way you know they they they teach other teachers and um the different you know um uh ideas that they give you know that they can implement and and and and use it to to support our kids. It was really really really nice. I like that. And also I went
050to the other one for um prek and kindergarten. Um it it really you know like gave me the assurance the importance that our little ones go to go to school. You know how much it takes uh for the teachers to be prepared and and and learn new things. You know they could like I told them they could be anywhere. They could be at home watching TV but they chose to be there you know and have that training and support. And many of the teachers that I saw there are teachers that I know that are really good. They're really great that parents look, you know, to be in their classrooms, you know, not them, but the kids. And I see why is it that they're so great. So, I want to say thank you for that
051opportunity that teachers have, you know, to grow and learn. Um and also um the fun part of it also being able to be uh at the CSEA and administrators um um softball. What was it? Yes. Yeah, it was softball game. Yeah, CSEA lost. Um um Dr. Birdie, he's really good. Two two home runs. You want you want two home runs? Yeah. Oh my goodness. It was It was better than watching, you know, like a baseball game. I think he's better than Dodgers and Yankees and Yeah. Really? No, just a tint in a car. No, but it was nice to see them united, you know, having fun. Usually you see them all, you know, dressed up and, you know, like all strict and, you know, Yes. three piece suit and see them, you know, having fun
052together, you know, and participating and that was nice. I like that. So, thank you. Hi. I just want to say I had the opportunity to meet some of the Johnson family when Mr. CJ Johnson was honored and get provided the or presented with the the Martin Luther King Legacy Award at Marino Valley College. And it was an amazing event and I feel like I know you all because I hear so many great things about you. But what I want to share is today was a surprise but definitely expected because that is who you are. And I just want to say thank you for being a part of the MBUSD family. Thank you for sharing your family with us, Mr. Johnson. And thank you for loving on our kids. So it means a lot. And thank
053you again. Yes, thank you. Um, I didn't know you guys were going to be here, but it's an honor to see you and meet you. Your dad always speaks fondly of you, so it's great to put a face to a name. Um, um, Mr. Johnson, thank you too for for your all your service for our district. Um, I also wanted to to give kudos to Dr. Verie at this from the softball game. Um I I do want to mention which I don't think it was Dr. Verie, but as me and Dr. Rubakaba were walking up a softball barely missed us. I think someone is trying to take us out. Not accusing Dr. Verie, but it was just coincidental. Um I also um attended the city of Marino Valley's Junth event on Saturday. It was a
054very nice event and I want to give um kudos to our some of our staff who represented Marino Valley Unified. Um MissRandle, Mr. Peoples, Miss Ford, Miss Neil, and Dr. Verie. Um, thank you all for giving your time that day and um, sharing our district with city residents that may not even come across, which I think I I heard some stories that there were some people that we met that wouldn't normally reach out to us, but they reached out to us at the booth. So, I I would definitely um look forward to seeing us participate in more city events and and collaborating since we do have a huge district and represent a lot of of uh students and employees here. Um also, I just saw this yesterday or today, I can't remember. Um I want
055to send a congrats to our very own Jess Sanchez. Uh he was being honored at the state capital by assembly member Corey Jackson as a district 60s LGBTQ plus honore and as you know going to Sacramento and receiving award is a big deal. So kudos to Jess Sanchez if you're watching great job we're so proud of you. Um and that's all I have. And next is comments from the superintendent. Thank you President. So, I'm going to flip it a little bit. Um, regarding the Johnson Johnson family, I want to thank the Johnson siblings for sharing your dad with us. Uh, in just the one year I've had, a very very awesome opportunity to travel with your dad to many conferences and he is an amazing man. Um, so thank you. I we've shared plane rides
056and and cab rides and and it just been has been such a pleasure to get to know not only Mr. Johnson, but also you through him. So, thank you for sharing him with us. We really appreciate you. Um, uh, we started sharing with the board a little bit some of the data that's been coming in and it's not for public consumption just yet because the data is embargoed until it is official that comes from the state. But I'm going to ask if the background if you can start from the bottom and go to the bottom. There you go. Perfect. A little bit up. There you go. So, we've started to see some data and we are very um very very proud that we're going to see some strong academic gains in some areas and some
057other uh some more moderate gains in other areas, but we're going to see gains across the board at most of our schools. So, very very proud of the work that the team has done. Very proud of our students, very proud of our teachers and our support staff and our administrators for all the work they do. I also want to give a huge shout out to Dr. RC and her team for leading the work on the instructional side of the house because that's that's what we're here, right? That's that's where the magic happens. But um one of the things that we started a little bit late last year with my you know coming to the district uh in July is we didn't have an opportunity to engage with the board in some goal setting before um
058and we wanted I want to start that now. So based on the preliminary data that we've started from last year and just kind of informal um both qualitative data, dialoguing with our community, we've identified these six areas which we think um we would like to recommend to our board as priority areas for next year. One uh ma math academic achievement as I shared we are going to see some um good growth in math but not what we expected. So we are recommending that this be continued as a goal and priority for next year under college and career readiness. Uh honestly we think that this is a goal that should be prep in perpetuity because our goal is to get kids ready for that next level right whether they're from our early learners to elementary, elementary
059to middle and middle to high school and then eventually to career in college. that this is something that should be a continued focus for us under student engagement. Although we've done some tremendous work in chronic absenteeism, this is still an area of need because we know that students learn best when they are in in the classrooms with our talented educators and our staff. Um, obviously it is no secret that we had some rough financial times a year ago and as we are going into more stable times and we want to make sure that we continue to focus that as a priority. Um, Miss Lopez presented last week our continued worry about deficit spending. I've had some conversations with our trustees around the fact that that continues to be a concern and a worry of ours.
060So, we believe that this is an area that we want to focus on more strategically next year um and probably in perpetuity as it relates to um something that we want to keep a focus on fiscal stability. under human resources. We want to continue to engage in not only professional development for our existing staff, but also some more work on recruitment and retention. We are very fortunate we had that we had three amazing candidates that we welcome to the district and we're seeing transition to other levels and other areas of need in our district, but this is something that we continue to want to support. And lastly, but definitely not least, is community engagement in terms of effective communication. Um, so what does this mean? that if the board gives us direction to move forward
061with these then we would basic our team would engage in a process of developing strategic smart goals for each division department and school site that are centered around these areas. So give you some examples. Let's start with the community engagement and effective communication one. What does that look like when we oper operationalize this goal this this uh this area of focus at the school level? It may mean um increasing or improving communication with parents in the community at a department or division level. It may mean more opportunities for collaboration. So we're breaking down walls that exist. So now we're not working in silos. We're working towards a true interdependency of department and division. as a district level, it might be our um media and community relations department led by our PIO, Miss Anaheim, who's over
062here, really working on what are we doing to promote our district to promote the amazing things that are happening, marketing, branding, not only at the district level, but at the site level as well. So that's what it would look like that every division or department or school site would take this general focus area and operationalize it by developing a smart goal. When that happens and that becomes part of every person's goal for the year as part of their evaluation, it becomes part of my evaluation as a superintendent with our board. It becomes part of the cabinet's evaluation, our division, our department's evaluation down to the uh our principles. And ideally, it should be working with our classrooms and our students to develop classroom goals and student goals that are aligned to these priority areas. As
063a student making a commitment, I promise to be here 97% of the time. As a teacher making a commitment, I'm going to use manipulatives or CGI math instruction to make sure we're improving academic achievement for students. As uh somebody who's in one of our CT pathways, I'm going to commit to introducing more kids to our pathways in our schools in our district. So, that's what it would look like operationally. So, this is a part of a discussion. Obviously, I want we want to hear some feedback, but these are what we propose be our focus areas for next year. Anybody have feedback? Any feedback from colleagues? Or I could just start with Mr. Williams. Do you have any feedback? No, I I really like uh what you have to say about community uh engagement and and
064breaking down the barriers. uh between the the the parents and and the school board and the school district and the school sites. That's it's it's a key component to working together in a community uh to to raise children and to educate children and teach them to think. Mr. Johnson, you have any feedback? It's a never ending job. U but we appreciate everything that you've done and the things that you're already planning on doing in the future to make us even better. So I tip my cap my hat to you and tell you thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You've done a tremendous job in the in the short somewhat short time that you've been here. Uh and I know uh from many things that you've done in the past that we chose the right person
065for this position right here. And not only are you benefiting us here locally, but you you've also benefiting the people in our entire area as well as as well as Riverside. So, so thank you and keep it up. We appreciate that. I like where you have that. Um on academic achievement, do you think we can add um reading? And we can. So, that's one of the things that often gets confused. That doesn't mean that we're not going to teach reading. That's obviously a continued area, but what you're going to see when we share our results is we're actually doing a really good job of reading instruction already. Um, it's going to be a continued area of focus, especially as we introduce a uh reading and assessment tool as part of Governor Nome's proposed budget from
066last year as we look to um train more of our teachers and letters training and some new innovative kind of science of reading, science of in of pmic awareness and all of that instruction as well. Um, we're going to continue to do that work. we are more than happy to include an uh either a reading goal or an ELA goal as part of this because that's already part of what our principles engage in as part of um their evaluations as well. So we can definitely add a English language arts achievement goal as well. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Rubakava. I'm actually looking forward to seeing what you um develop and what's brought to the board and giving us the opportunity to take a look. This is great. So, thank you. As far as um for
067me, I would like to see somewhere maybe under student engagement mental health. Um I think none of this matters if we don't have mental health checks on our kids because they're not going to None of this matters. We have to make sure they're okay first. Absolutely. Um and I think that also goes for, you know, our staff. Um just something to to consider there. Um under human resources possibly could we maybe look at internal pathways for students to maybe if any of them are interested in becoming a teacher. We can have a pathway for that to like keep them here which would help with recruitment or even you know any position potentially that you feel like we could do a pathway for. I don't know, just a thought. Um, and then there was something else
068that I don't see on here and I don't know if it's a reasonable ask, but environmental commitments. We already have, you know, a significant amount of electric buses, which is, you know, good for our environment. You know, what else are we doing to positively impact our environment? Um, that's another important thing. I don't know if we can integrate that somewhere or I see a really good area where it would fall under which is fiscal stability because that not only impacts environment in a positive way but it reduces our our dependence and our liability as it relates to utilities use so we can definitely add that as one of our goals. Um so absolutely we we can make those part of that as well. One thing I I I just thought about just when you guys
069were um speaking, I do want to maintain um focus on suspensions. So I don't know. So we did so cabinet actually talked about that and one the only reason it's not here um or it's not singled out is that's already part of the focus area based on the um independent monitors work that we're doing. Okay. So we're that's not going to be put aside. Obviously, we have a courtmandated obligation to address that. So, that's why it's not included here. It actually we could easily include it because it's going to be a metric there no matter what. But, uh if you look at the top, this is where we would add the the specific pieces that you all mentioned under each so that you can see the alignment between the district goals and the board proposed
070board priorities. Got it. So, we would see under there. The the only piece that I want to caution is it's it's easy to add, but there's only a certain amount of of energy and talent and effort that we have. Um that I think the reason that we were successful this year with the three goals that the board adopted or the priorities is because there was only three. So a lot of energy went into that. I think once we start making everything essential or important then nothing becomes essential or important. Understood. So, but I think these are absolutely manageable because as a site, some of these things are areas that they're already working on. So, they're definitely manageable. So, you're committed to these. We are and we can definitely see how we can add obviously uh
071language arts um achievement goal to academics. That's already part of the work we do. We can add kind of green sustainability goal to that. Um, we can add obviously our suspension rate because it's already part of student engagement as a as part of the independent monitors work. So, it's work that we're going to be engaging in the mental and the mental health component and the mental health component. I agree. It's actually the umbrella if we look at it from the lens of MTSS. Okay. Right. We actually talked with one of the candidates um that we met with today around Maslo, right? And so if there isn't a sense of belonging and love as she put it um which I agree with then kids are not going to learn. Our staff is not going to feel
072welcome or like they belong. So it all starts with the idea of belonging which is something we focused on a lot this year and we're going to continue to focus on. Thank you. Of course. So then we are going to clean these up. I see Dr. RC making copious notes and then we will present them to the board as board priorities for action on the 22nd. Then we will then roll those out to to the district divisions, departments and sites to operationalize them as smart goals for the year. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you Dr. All right, we are on item K, item K1 actually, public hearing action item. We have a public hearing and approval to adopt action item or I'm sorry, to adopt the Marino Valley Unified School District's 2025 2026 bargaining
073objectives with the Marino Valley Educators Association. Do I have a motion to open the public hearing? So move, Mr. Johnson. And do I have a second? I'll second. Miss Clark seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson, I. Miss Leva, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries. 50. Uh, Dr. Verie, may we have some more information on this public hearing, please? Yes, sure. Uh, President Luna, thank you. As you mentioned, uh, this evening, the district is asking for the board to approve our bargaining objectives for the next bargaining cycle for the 2526 school year with our labor partners, MVEA. The usual reopeners for bargaining our uh, salaries, employee benefits, and school calendars along with evaluation, and we're also adding the grievance procedures, and transfers to our sunshine proposal
074this year. So in the next item, uh, President Luna, the board will be asked to approve those objectives and then further on, I'll be presenting those of MVAS. Thank you, Dr. Verie. Um, Miss Claudia, are there any speakers on this? No speakers. Okay, thank you. So, our next motion is to open the public hearing to close it. Sorry. So, moved. Thank you, Miss Clark. And do I have a second? I'll second that. Okay. Miss Lea seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams. I. Mr. Johnson's gone. Okay. Miss Lea, I. Miss Clark. I. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries four and one absent. Thank you. Uh next we are on to item K2, public hearing and approval to accept a motion. Okay. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the um negotiated adopted
075the items for negotiation? So moved. Okay, Miss Clark and a second. I'll second. Mr. Williams seconds and a call for the vote, please. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson's absent. Miss Lever. I Miss Clark. I Miss Luna. I. Motion carries four and one absent. Okay, we are on to item two, public hearing and approval to accept the Marino Valley Educators Association collective bargaining sunshine proposal for the 2427 successor agreement. Uh Dr. Verie, may we have some more information? Thank you, President Luna. So I I will speak on behalf of MVEA as they have submitted their uh sunshine proposal for the next bargaining cycle. As you mentioned these objectives were adopted by their representative council and uh along with the districts made available for review at all district locations along with the uh previously mentioned automatic reopeners
076of salaries, benefits, calendar and evaluation procedures. The association is also opening class size and hours and assignments. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Verie. Uh Claudia, do we have any speakers? Oh, okay. So, may I have a a motion to open the public hearing? So, Miss Leva, and a second. I'll second. Thank you. Miss Clark seconds and call for the vote, please. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson's absent. Miss Lea, I. Miss Clark. I. Miss Moda. I. Motion carries four and one absent. Now, Miss Claudia, do we have any speakers? No speakers. Now, I need a motion to close the public hearing. I'd like to make a motion to close the public hearing as presented. Thank you, Miss Clark. And do I have a second? I second. Mr. Williams seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr.
077Williams, I. Mr. Johnson's absent. Miss Lea. I. Miss Clark. I. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries four and one absent. Okay. Now we're on to item three. action. Accept. Okay. Now I need to Now I need a motion to accept the action. So Miss Clark and second Miss Lea seconds. Please call for the vote. Miss Claudia, Mr. Williams, I. Miss Johnson's absent. Miss Leva I. Miss Clark. I. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries four and one absent. So now on to item three. All right. uh public hearing presentation and approval of the special education 2025 2026 annual budget plan and annual service plan. Um I need a motion to open the public hearing. I'd like to make a motion to um open the public hearing as presented. Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? I'll
078second that. Miss Lea seconds. And may may I have a call for the vote? Mr. Williams, I Mr. Johnson's absent. Miss Leva, I Miss Clark, hi. Miss Luna, I motion carries four and one absent and Dr. Arce is going to give us some more information on this. And yes, Miss Luna, thank you very much. Board, this is our annual uh presentation and public hearing on special education um not only budget but service plan. And so in collaboration with business services and our SAPA department, we bring to you this presentation that not only uh highlights and delineates the budget for special education contributions from general funds but also the services provided to our students here in our district. Um I want to reassure the board that in this presentation everything is aligned to our vision, mission
079and portrait of a graduate and our five goals. All goals are impacted. All of our five overarching goals are impacted with this plan. And it also is aligned with the three priorities that the board of education adopted at the beginning of this past school year, which includes our math goal, um reducing chronic absenteeism, and improving our college and career. Um, in addition to what you will hear today, you can also be assured that everything that we've done, including our three, for example, our math professional learning networks with our teachers. We also included our uh teachers who teach our students with disabilities. Um, they were also part of our task force. We have an inclusion task force. So all the initiatives and all the services supports that we've done our um special education departments and teachers
080were included to impact our students with disabilities. So with that I'm going to turn it over to Jason Ramirez, our executive director for SULPA. And so take it away. Thank you very much, Jason. Thank you, Dr. RC. Good evening, President Luna, members of the board, uh, Superintendent Rubocaba Cabinet, and members of the community and staff here. My name is Jason RmIrez, the executive director of the SUPA here in Reno Valley. And it's my privilege to present to you today on our annual budget and service plan. Uh, if you want to, if anybody's here wants to take their phone out and scan that QR code or click on a link if you have the presentation, uh, we put combined all the documents into one handy dandy uh, resource for you. Um that's uh real easy to
081read and follow. So you can take a look at that. Um and we did have uh the notice of public hearing was posted at all school sites including the district office 15 days prior to the board meeting tonight. Our local plan uh consists of sections A through E and sections A, D, and E are expected to be done every year. And so that's what we're doing today. Let's first take a look at expenditures. Uh starting with a high-level overview. This pie chart gives a great representation of what's happening in relation to our expenditures. The majority of our expenditures are staff which are in blue. Uh the green piece of the pie there is uh mainly contracted staff uh students in non-public schools. So those are also services and staff that we provide for our students.
082So if you combine all the blue and the majority of the green, you can see that the majority of our expenditures are staff who support services for our students with disabilities. Uh here is the same expenditures with the dollar amounts shown. So you can actually see the amounts in millions of dollars. Um, and combining those areas, I told you there's over $100 million uh is provided for staff to give the necessary students services for our students with disabilities. Uh, we'll get back to budget in a second, but let me jump over to services. Uh, so here is a a list of all possible services available to our students with disabilities as reported in CalPAD. So those numbers there are Calpad codes. There are not number of students receiving services. Uh based on services that our
083students currently require and that were projected for next year, we are prepared to provide 35 out of those 46 services. Some examples of services we provide are listed here. We just pulled a couple out for you. Uh we provide Braille instruction. So, we actually have experts who are who know and know how to teach Braille. And it's like the oldfashioned typewriters. Um, if you ever want to see it in action, let me know and uh we'll set you up a vid. It's pretty cool. Uh, they'll spell your name out for you in Braille. Um, enlarge textbooks. Uh, so we have special machines and staff who enlarge textbooks for students with those visual impairments who are legally blind. So, the the print is large enough for them to see. Um, so they have their own special
084books that we make for them and we provide all these services in the least restrictive environment. That's what we're required to do. So some students may receive those in a general ed setting, uh, some in special day classes and some students receive them in non-public schools who require that level of service. And in, you know, school districts, we all know we serve students from TK through high school, right? But in special education, we also have infants. So we have little babies with their moms come in and we do instruction with them and we also have students who are adults from 18 to 22 years of age. Uh comparing us in comparison to other districts in the area uh you can see our percentage of students with disabilities is comparable at 15% and the range goes
085from uh the high 12%s all the way to 19%. In case you're wondering, the US average for students with disabilities that are enrolled in public schools is 15%. And California is just slightly below that at 14.6%. So, all in the ballpark. Uh, one thing to note is that enrollment is declining. So, when you look at total enrollment, if you were to look at last year's slides, uh, everybody went down. Um, Susanna Lopez just looked at me because this scares her. Why? because our funding is based on total enrollment. The other scary part is students with disabilities. If you looked at last year's column, every one of them went up. So, we have more students that need services. But how we're funded is on total enrollment, which is going down. So, less total enrollment means what?
086Less funding, right? So in comparison to other districts in the area, our local contribution is also comparable at 64% and that ranges from 57 to 81%. Uh the state average of local contribution is 60.4. So we're right in that ballpark. Um all districts except one uh had an in is projected an increase in special education expenditures. Um we actually maintained 64%. So from last year to this year, we're right about the same as far as projected expenditures. Across the state, we have seen expenditures increase 10% each year for the last three years. So when you're looking across the state, uh special education expenditures are 10% more from the prior year for the last three years. So over the last three years, a 30% increase is what we've seen um to support our students with disabilities.
087And right now the state average for a the state average cost for a pupil with a disability is $26,000. And we're right we're right in line with that a little bit lower. So when you look at um students are expensive to educate, right? Um well the students with disabilities are uh even more. So, at $26,000 per pupil. All right. Now, taking a look at the uh breakdown of our projected revenue. Uh the state will provide a nice portion of revenue. You can see up on top at a little over 32 million. A small portion by the federal government and the majority there in yellow is provided by our local contribution. Uh and you know, students with disabilities are general education students first. So, it would be natural to expect that um the general fund would
088cover a large portion of their educational costs, but uh there is a conversation about uh the state and federal funding uh not being where it needs to be. All right. So, at this point, I can entertain any questions. Very good report. I mean, I don't I don't have any questions. You were very thorough. Thank you very much for that. Thank you. Um, in regards to federal funding, I know we still very a lot of unknowns. Is there any contingency plan in the event that we lose federal funding? I know it's a small percentage, but still going to impact, right? Because we're not we're we're not fully funded. We have that conversation with Tano. So, but um is there any plan in place? Okay. Well, there there is no uh we are not expecting any um
089decrease in federal funding. So, we've been told it's status quo and that's that's what we're expecting. Um Susanna, I don't know if we have any uh you have anything to add to that. That's correct. That's what our understanding is right now is that for the upcoming budget year things would be status quo. Um but we still continue to monitor and every time we see um especially like PARs for positions just you know making sure we're aware. So um just proceeding with caution I think would be the best explanation at this point. I have a question. Um how many um non-public school students do we have currently? 31. 31. Correct. And what do we usually average like over the last five years as as far as those numbers? Uh we've when I got here we were
090quite a bit higher. So we've we've brought that down to 30 and that was um a collaborative effort of different supports for students focusing on you know doing functional behavioral analysis really looking at why the behavior is occurring how do we support the students and then supporting them and transitioning them back into programs that are ready to receive them. And what's the average cost per non-public school student or does it vary with the different schools? It it varies um based on student needs. So it depends. Do they need uh transportation? Do they need adult support during transportation? Do they need adult support during the school time? Every non-public school uh varies in cost quite drastically different actually. Yeah. So, um, we've from our lowest to our highest. So, I'm going to give you a ballpark,
091uh, 50,000 to 200,000 is is usually where I see the price range for per student. And Jason, can you can you qualify that? It's important that everybody understands that 200,000 is like residential treatment, right? It involves, you know, usually out of state. I mean, it's that's what we're talking about. So yeah, our residential students would be Yeah, it's actually a little over 200, but um we do have some students that require, like I say, busing, oneonone aids at school, uh and transportation and other services. So they it can get costly. Yeah. Do you happen to have last year's total revenue on you, the number from last year? Yes. for uh you want total revenue from all sources. Just wondering how so the the revenue matches last year's expenditures. For us it was uh 111 million.
092Okay. And then we're up to 115 million. Thank you. You said you were at 111 last year and we're up at 111,454 763. Thank And then now we're at 115 million at Can you Can you tell us what the projected federal revenue was last year? Um, I I don't have that. No, is it the same? The the federal revenue was pretty close last year. I think there might have only been the COLA increase, which would have been the 1.07%. So, it probably was very similar. And just to be just to be very clear, this is what we received. This is what we received in revenue because there was a discussion last year. I just want to make sure that you know there was some it was a conversation how we only get 40% of the
093funding. This is actual this is what this is the revenue that we received in the district the 700 million right so this is what we're seven million seven million seven million. Yeah. This is what we're projecting for next year. So what was our act? What do we receive? So pleasure and federal funds. This sorry this is the breakdown. So projected state is 32 million almost 33 million. Then we have about 8 million from federal and so though that is what we receive 40 million and we contribute 74 almost 75 million with a total of 115 million. Does that make sense? It does. I just I guess what I'm struggling with is that's because you keep saying projected. I want to know what we receive fiscal year because we're in 25. What we received in fiscal
094year 24? So the grant um is 76 million. Thank you. So this is you were talking about this past year and we have to say projected because this is for next year. Thank you. Any other questions, colleagues? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, looks like we have a public speaker. Uh, Wisha Wilkerson, please to the podium. Good evening. My name is Wesa Wilkerson and I am the parent of two students in the district who currently have IEPs. Um, I had a third one, but he graduated last year from Vista Delago. Um, he also had an IEP. So, um, forgive my nervousness, but I am, um, fortunate enough. I saw the, um, notice in this kids, uh, pickup window at their elementary school today about this conversation happening tonight. And I had a
095few concerns and questions because, um, over the last school year, I've had some concerns and I was trying to read through the budget documents and get understanding and clarity. And I don't know if this is the appropriate forum to present my questions, but I'm just going to put them on record. Um some of the services my children were receiving um my daughter was receiving um therapy services in her middle school and over the last year at one point she was receiving therapy services. Um then there was a change in services so she wasn't receiving services and they were telling us that the providers um were being changed and they couldn't guarantee consistency in provider. And the same thing was also happening at the elementary school with my son with his um services provider his in
096his um in school support for his general education supports. Um they were saying well we can't guarantee that it'll always consistently be the same person which with their um conditions consistency is really really important. So when I was reading through the report, I was trying to understand um and maybe this is maybe the report is there's a more detailed report that shows who the service providers are so that I can understand more about who the contractor is. Um that would be really really helpful for me to understand. Um, I understand there's been just like diff a different a lot of changes in the contractors. And I appreciate that Miss Luna brought up earlier about the importance of wellness and mental health for the students. And I think that's an important factor to be considered when
097um determining where the funds are going. Is it going to be long-term services that are provided to students, especially this vulnerable population of special education students? Um, and uh I think that was my only Oh, no. The other question I had was the report was really great. I appreciate the transparency. However, I would I wish there were more details about the outcomes and the achievements that are expected with the um expenditures that they're investing in this particular um section of budgeting. Um so for future budget planning, if that could be more accessible for parents, I would really appreciate that. Thank you for your comments. Um, can I ask that someone reaches out to her and answers all her questions? Absolutely. I see Mr. Amir's going to go walk over to exchange information so we can
098set up a meeting. Great. Thank you. Okay. Do we have any more speakers? Okay. So, now we're going to close the public hearing. Okay. May I have a motion to close the public hearing? And may I have a second? I'll second. Okay. So, Mr. Johnson and then Miss Leva. And please call for the vote. Miss Claudia. Mr. Williams. I. Mr. Johnson. Hi. Miss Lea. I. Miss Clark. Hi. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries. 50. Next. I need a motion to approve this item. So moved. Okay. Thank you, Miss Clark. And a second. I'll second. Miss Lea seconds. Miss Clet, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson, hi. Miss Lever, I. Miss Clark clerk, hi. Miss Lona, I. Motion carries. 5-0. And next, correct me if I'm wrong. Are we on item L, presentations
099to the board? All right. So item L1, presentation of the California dashboard local indicators and approval of the 202526 local control and accountability plan. Uh Dr. Arce, thank you again. So this presentation is also an annual item for our board. Um as you may or may not know, we have two different indicators. one is the dashboard indicators and the other is the local indicators and we have to present these in conjunction with um our LCAP so that the board can take action and approve our LCAP and I'll get into the LCAP in just a bit. So, first I wanted to thank um Jessica Axe and her team, Peter Whitmore. Um in the these local indicators, we have to look at facilities. We have to work with HR, educational services. And so, Peter um went and
100was able to acquire this information along with surveys and analyzing that data and again ensuring that everything's aligned to our vision, mission, portrait of a graduate and our five overarching goals. In addition to that, as you know, we have eight state priorities and those are aligned to our five LCAP goals. So, under the local indicators, um we have to look at those eight priorities very carefully and there are a certain number of metrics that we have to report to the state. So, for basics, we have 20 different metrics. State standards 15, parent engagement 24, pupil engagement 15, pupil achievement seven, climate um school climate six, course access 4 and other pupil outcomes um we have zero there and some of these are dashboard data dashboard indicators and others are local indicators. So the focus today
101is local indicators. We do not have dashboard data yet. We have preliminary as mentioned by our superintendent. We anticipate a dashboard data. Usually we get it in December, but the state is saying that we are probably going to get it earlier. We're hoping sooner the better, like October or even earlier than that. And so under um these are just the descriptions of the seven of the 1, two, 3, six, and seven indicators that align to our our local indicators. And again, five local indicators as part of our annual report and then um following each one. So under priority one looking at number of this is something where we work with human resources. So we want to thank them for that. One of the local indicators the state asks us is what is the percentage of
102miss assignments of teachers um of English learners or total teacher uh misassignments or vacant teacher positions. And so for that we're reporting a 2.9%. That's what we're showing uh misassignment. could be where you can have a teacher that may be teaching English learners, but they are in progress with attaining the right um credentials. And Dr. Verie can speak more on this if the board has um further questions. Percent of students without access of their own copies of standards aligned instructional materials. Well, we are part of the Williams Act, so we we better score zero here because we are 100% aligned there. And then um number of identified instances where facilities do not meet good repair and based on our Williams report again that would be zero. Under priority 2 implementation of state and academic standards
103we are reporting because we um we have approved and adopted state standards and all of our materials is aligned to state standards. So through uh language arts um common core alignment a five eld a five mathematics a five health education content standards a five and vapa a five in terms of priority three parent and family engagement um this is in which the we're rating the district's progress in developing multiple opportunities for school sites to engage in two-way communication. We scored a five. We do have parent square. We are constantly communicating. We are adhering to um any performance level at the elementary or report card um at the secondary level, but also parents are able to communicate with the school sites whether it's about behavior, attendance, etc. So, we do have a a strong two-way communication.
104When it comes to priority six, school climate, um we looked at there there are two main areas that we're looking at. And so our our school climate equity we're at favorable at 98% and then classroom environment is at 91% and this is based on our Kelvin survey for course as access priority 7. Um, this is where we show the state all the different ways and programs that our students have access. And you could see we have a myriad when it comes to just access at MTSS at tier 1, tier 2, tier three, steam, IB, DLI, AVID, inclusion, um, esports, AP, bar, junior scholars, CTE. Um, these programs are open and accessible to all students. Uh, one of the areas that we were found that we needed to improve was access for our students with disabilities
105in CTE programs. That has been one of our priorities this past year. We did receive the formal letter from the county and we've been working, Miss Brown and her team has been working diligently with that and we um we are going to be happy to report to you in September the data in our in our board study session on student achievement. And so we believe that when we're looking at state and local indicators, they work together. So, the state, the dashboard, and our local indicators work together to meet the mission and vision statement. And I always like to say that um if you don't see it in action, sometimes we can't really take it all in. So, we have a video, a short video to show you what how the local indicators and the state
106indicators work together to make our vision statement and mission statement come true. I declare this class of 2025 grad. [Music] If you asked us four years ago what this moment would look like, we might have guessed wrong. We came in wideeyed, unsure. Some of us carrying more than just backpacks. We didn't know then how much we'd grow, how much we'd have to grow, but here we are. It's like a pivotal point in our life. In retrospect, it's probably one of the biggest accomplishments. All the school years I've done from kindergarten to now, everything is built up to this moment. I'm really just proud of all my peers. I've seen all the grit and the everything they've been through. I've just I'm just really proud. High school isn't just about grades. It's where we learned how
107to show up even when it was hard. Where we found our voice, lost it, then found it again. There were moments where we doubted ourselves. Moments where we thought of quitting, but we kept moving forward to get there. [Applause] Valley. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] To our graduates, this moment is yours. Don't forget the people who often go unseen. Every person deserves to be seen, to be valued, and to be heard. As you go forward, remember where you came from. This isn't just a ceremony. It's a goodbye to who we were and a welcome to who we're becoming. We carry the lessons, the mistakes, the friendships, the parts of ourselves we finally learned to love. Be proud of who you have become. [Music] Class of 2025, you were shaped by challenge, but not defined by
108it. You've earned more than a diploma. You've earned your voice, your strength, your future. Whatever comes next, you're ready. [Music] Oh my goodness. They say there's an art to everything and um I just want to thank Ana and her team because wow the art of putting that together and get to our soul. [Applause] Thank you team. Um and so with that, we are also in conjunction with our local indicators, we are asking um for approval after um after um this session for for approval of our LCAP, our 2526. You did receive a copy of our LCAP on Friday. Um we continue to work with the county up until the last second. And we want to take an opportunity to thank Miss Brown and her team and the Riverside County Office of Education and their ongoing
109support because even until the last second, we are updating and over the weekend we had a a few updates that um the board of education was made aware of and so we are asking for approval of the LCAP um as amended. Are there any questions? Any questions? I I have a question. It's and this is just just me. I look at Steam, I look at AP, I look at esports, I look at DLI. And have you ever thought of how many students we touch through these courses of study versus those that never have any contact with any of these? Have we ever kind of looked at that? Because I know when I was at the site, I looked at different groups and how our kids engaged above and beyond their coursework. You know, how many
110students were um taking social sciences, how many students were engaged in athletics, how many were engaged in extracurricular activities, co that that was that was kind of my my deal. And have we ever tried to kind of calculate that? Absolutely. And we can provide to our board um some data on that. We through our Kelvin survey, we ask our students if there are engage in anything. And then we do pull reports on the amount of students that are unique numbers that for example are not um that are DLI but could also be part of steam. Well, those would be counted twice. So unique numbers. We can provide a full uh board presentation. I was just curious because there's a lot that we offer and I'm almost thinking every student in our district should come in
111contact with one of these courses of study, right? That's really a goal. Okay. Yes. Thank you. So, we can provide that to the board. Yes. Any other questions? No, I have a comment. Um, I was able to attend all your LCAP meetings uh prior of becoming a board member and then after that and um I see that as always you have included many of the topics and suggestions that the parents um gave you on those big white papers that you always give us. So, thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, colleagues? No. Okay. Do I have Thank you, Dr. RC. Do I have a motion to approve? As amended. We have to As amended. Mr. Johnson and a second. I I'll second. Mr. Williams. Second. And Miss Clott, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams.
112I. Mr. Johnson. Hi. Miss Leva. Hi. Miss Clark. Hi. Miss Luna. I motion carries 5. All right. Next, we are on to L2 presentation and approval to adopt the budget. Miss Lopez. Thank you, President Luna. All right, so I'm back. Last week, we had a pretty lengthy budget presentation that was focusing on just a lot of the visuals of just understanding of the budget. Um this evening we've got another presentation that is more focused on the 2526 budget. And so when we go through and we've talked about the goals really um from business services and the division really as a whole um we want to make sure that we're here to support so that that end result is that video that we all just watched. And so how do we do that? U fiscal stability,
113right? making sure that uh we are able to continue um to provide the amazing supports uh districtwide. So for the budget adoption uh this is actually a requirement by education code and then we're stating that here and by July 1st of each re year we are to adopt a budget and even the order of the presentations tonight are strategic because we need to ensure that the budget adoption occurs after all of the other components such as the LCAP and special education. Um, and then once this is approved, we have our office has five days um or no later than July 1st to get all of this information over to Riverside County Office of Education. And so that is uh the goal of tonight. Um, I did also want to point out and we spent some
114time speaking about it at the last meeting that we are asked to prepare a budget and it's based on information that was provided at the May revise uh because we don't have a state budget and so we as of June 19th uh Governor Nuome had not signed the budget. Uh late this afternoon, we started getting just a lot of information. It appears that uh the legislature has provided a budget back to the governor uh that um has been addressing some of the items that were up for negotiation. And so it looks like we could expect the governor to sign a budget any day now. Um and so that will be good. So then the next task is to determine if there's any material differences that have occurred because obviously we are going to be uh
115recommending adoption of a budget tonight. Um but if there are any material changes that would occur, we would then begin working on a 45day budget update for the board so that we could have that approved. So that's just the timing because I know that um in the next couple of days we'll hear a lot more from the state level. Um enrollment um Mr. RmIrez sort of touched on it. So it looks like um people get it right. We all know that enrollment is the basis of funding um and more importantly the attendance. Um again, no secret that we are a declining enrollment district and we will continue with our projected decline of 375 students as was mentioned last week. And on the attendance um again we have not uh finalized the 2425 attendance information just
116yet and so for now that is remains projected at 92%. Uh this is one of the components that will be involved as we close the books and we finalize all of our reports and when we present to the board the unodudited actuals uh that is when we will present to you what our final attendance is which would then translate to what our final um LCFF revenues will be for 2425. Um, again, eager. Um, there's a lot of good positive news coming from the state in regards to potential attendance recovery programs and what that can do for our district. And so, we are projecting increases in our attendance rate moving forward. And we're hoping that when we come back to present at first interim or second interim that we will have even more updated percentage and
117that those percentages could be even increased um at that time. This is a slide that we present with each of our interim and budget reports and it simply has to do with our assumptions and so being very transparent about what are we basing our budget on. Um budgets are just that they're projections and they're updated throughout the year. Um so we have included here three years for you. We have our 2526 which will be our adopted year but then we have projections two more out years. Uh we've talked about the fact that Assembly Bill 1200 AB1200 requires school districts to adopt budgets that not only include the adopted or base year but two subsequent years. And during the budget process and during our interim reports when we certify to the state that we are able
118to meet our financial obligations, we do so for all three years. And that's critical because um just like most districts, you see that the further out you're projecting uh it looks not as good as current year in most cases. And that's something that we've experienced here. Um but we need to ensure that as we are making recommendations to the board that those certifications are based on what that third year looks like. Um, so it doesn't matter how good years one and two look, it's really whether we're able to meet those financial obligations all three years. So we're presenting that uh all three years for you. Our statutory COLA, this is as of the May revise, uh, projecting a cola of 2.30 for the 2526 year. Not a high cola, but it's better than a 1.07,
119right? Um and then you can see that there are projected colas for the two subsequent years. However, we have added a row for MVUSD and this is our planning cola. And a couple years ago, the board did recommend that we only budget colas for the adopted year and then we keep 0% in the outy years. And why do we do that? Because if we were to bring up what the projected colas have been the last couple of years, um they change and in many cases that change could be significant and if we were to incorporate revenues in the outy years and they don't materialize then we're faced with having to make sometimes reductions in that year. Um, and so I think the approach of being a little bit more conservative and not bringing in that
120cola until adopted year is a very smart concept and one that is part of this fiscal stability. Uh, the third row, our unduplicated pupil percentage or our upp uh, we spent a lot of time on last week where we actually went through what the different categories are and how the percentages are generated. So, we do have the three-year rolling average here. The reason that you see a slight decrease in 2728, we're just being conservative with what the average is for the three years um in current year. Um there has been discussion that it could become a little bit more difficult um based on federal regulations to qualify for UPP in particular on the lowinccome designation and go back to actually requiring families to complete those actual forms uh versus just the annual information update. something
121that we as a district experienced um where we saw the percentages dip um and again it's just being conservative but as we continue to work with these numbers and we have more data as we move forward we can always make adjustments um RTK enrollment is reflected here as well as our attendance similar to the previous slides and then mandated block grant and lottery we talked a little bit about lottery last time um and the revenues that those generate the reason we include them as our major assumptions is these are numbers that are determined at the state level and not at the district level. And so this is what the allocations are. Taking a closer look at the local control funding formula and um if you remember that visual from last week where the LCFF is
122um just a very high percentage right um of our total revenues on the unrestricted side and that's why we focus on LCFF. Uh we just wanted to walk you through the changes in our local control funding formula revenues. So for 2425 those revenues were at 446 million. And then you can see that because of our um increase to our unduplicated pupil percentage as well as the increase for cola that 2.3% that is reflecting into increases for our LCFF. The challenge with this is that we always welcome new money. Um, but the reason we break it down into base, supplemental, and concentration is if you remember from last week, we talked about the increases generated by the unduplicated pupil percentage of foster youth, English language learners, and low-income students are funds that we need to account
123for in the LCAP and need to be spent on the students that are generating those funds. So when you look at this slide, even though we're seeing revenues go up by about 12 million, the unrestricted or or portion that you can use for anything would be the base and that's only 3 million. So the LCAP is growing, which is good. But sometimes if we introduce new programs or we introduce new staff and they don't necessarily meet the qualifications to be funded out of LCAP, it could provide a challenge, right? And so, um, it's always critical that we're transparent about this process because sometimes, yes, the discussion is there's more revenues, but sometimes the increase in your operational is not enough to cover the operational increases. Um, and so that becomes a challenge. um and one
124that we just want to make sure that we have provide an awareness um about. Now we focus on expenditures and we've talked about again similar format uh what are some of the things that would increase even if we did not make any changes. So if all staff remained the same, we have a step and column increase, which simply is the cost of people moving on over on the salary schedule either for years of experience and things to that nature. And so that alone is about a 1.5% which is about $6 million increase year-over-year. Thankfully, we're seeing a little bit better news on the increases to the retirement system. So the state teachers retirement system which is what most certificated folks are members of um it appears that that percentage has now leveled off and so
125we don't anticipate increases for that. However on the PERS side we do anticipate expenditures to increase in the outy years because those rates will increase. Uh the PERS is for the public employee retirement system that is what most classified u members uh belong to. So, now we're going to take a look at the multi-year projections. I know these slides are busy, um, but really we're just really trying to simplify that 150 page document that was attached to the agenda that goes into detail. Um, so I just want to go through the column so that we have an understanding. So that that column 2425 estimated actuals. Why do we call it estimated actuals? We know that the fiscal year ends on June 30th. However, it will take about 5 to six weeks for everything to be
126processed that truly belongs in 2425. So, I'll give you an example. We can have a school site that placed an order for a desk and that desk will arrive on June 30th. We probably won't see an invoice from the vendor until about mid July and then it will probably be end of August when that invoice is processed. That expenditure needs to be accounted for in 2425 even though it might have been paid in July or August of of 25. The same thing with payroll. We have summer school occurring right now. Um staff will get paid at the end of July, but we need to account for those expenditures in the years where the expense was incurred. So estimated actuals is what we know based on what we have today, right? So the business office does
127a great job going through on estimating um but we will come to you in September once the books are actually closed and then give you a variance of this is what we estimated this is what actually happened. So estimated actuals until we bring an audited actuals to the board. Why do we need estimated actuals? Because I cannot project the beginning balance without having the ending fund balance for 2425. So as we walk through for our revenues, we're projecting 473 million expenditures 357 other sources and uses which would be our contributions to our restricted programs. Um Mr. Ramirez was here talking about the contribution to special education, right? And then in addition to that, we have a contribution to our routine restricted maintenance program. Any district that receives state facility funds needs to set aside 3%
128of their general fund expenditures and contribute it for this program because the state says if we give you money for facilities, you need to make sure you have the money to upkeep it, right? To maintain it. Um, so those dollar amounts combined with our transfers out to other funds is 91.9 million is what we're projecting for 2425. And so when you go through that math, you actually see a positive, which is something that we hadn't seen in a while on the deficit spending. So it means we are not deficit spending for 2425. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that we're taking advantage of those one-time monies that were expiring in 2425. And instead of introducing new expenditures or hiring staff with one-time money, we use that money to offset expenses
129that we that qualified for use that were already in the unrestricted fund because we know that we had to address our deficit spending. And so this was really going to help us because now as we move forward, we've got a higher reserve. So we began the year Jan July 1st of 24 with an 85 million that is actual. And if we if these estimates are accurate, we will increase that reserve from 85 million to 109. So that is our beginning balance for 2526 and 2526. A lot of our onetime monies are going away. So we'll get to a slide where we look at that. Our revenues are 400 projected to be 483 million. Expenditures 388. Other sources and uses those contributions 101.3 million. So now we're deficit spending 7 million. But because we increase that
130reserve, it's okay, right? It's not a big number, but we're going to reduce the reserve by 7 million. So the ending fund balance will be 102. 26 27 27 28. We continue to have decline. We are now not including any cola, right? And so you're going to see that the deficit amounts get pretty high. 475 million in revenues 385 million in expenditures. Other sources and uses 112 million. So now we're deficit spending almost 22 million. Lowering that ending fund balance to 80 million deficit spending almost 23 million and 2728. So ending fund balance 57 million. We'll break down the reserve in the next couple of slides, but you can see that the deficit spending, this is part of the reason why we incorporated a goal about fiscal stabilization because we know that that's something that
131we need to address. on the restricted side, which from last week, this is where all of our grants live, entitlements, monies for specific purposes, our one-time monies. So, you're going to see that there's a lot more deficit spending here, but we did this strategically, and we did this purposely. So, we would rather deficit spend on the restricted, put the one-time expenditures there, but help our unrestricted. And that's what we did especially in 2425 where you can see the revenues 184 million expenditures 284. The other sources and uses are a positive because my contributions for special ed and routine repair maintenance are coming from the unrestricted. So they they're positive here. Money is coming in but I'm still deficit spending 13 million. Look at the decrease in revenues from 2425 to 2526. $50 million less in
132federal revenues. This is because those one-time monies are expiring. So when you're reading in the news or you're hearing at CSBA or you're hearing AXA, this is why a lot of the districts were faced with having to make difficult decisions this year because those monies were expiring. And if you spent it on people, you needed to fix that problem like now, right? So where we were moving expenditures that were not related to ongoing positions, um we were able to address that um in a much easier way. So we're still deficit spending in 2526 by 11.6 million deficit spending 2627 as well as 2728. But we have a slide where we're going to see that we still have one-time monies. And so as long as you have one-time monies, you're going to be deficit spending because
133they gave us those revenues early on. And then those monies are sitting in the reserve for the restricted side. So here's sort of a summary of one-time funds. These are the biggest categories. And so you can see we had SSRE 2 funds that expired in September of 23. SSRE 3 funds that just expired September of 24. We have expanded learning opportunity grants that are also expired September 24. An arts, music, and instructional block money that will expire June of 26. Educator effectiveness grant that is also set to expire June of 26th. and then the learning recovery emergency block grant June of 28. The total allocation for these programs alone for our district $235 million. So it's very difficult to absorb those expenditures had they all been ongoing, right? Um and so this is where districts
134had to be strategic about what do you use these funds for? um because you're introducing things and and even things that we might have introduced such as technology and so forth. We're still having to have those conversations of how do we transition that now ongoing, right? Because we know technology won't be around forever, just as an example. And and so we appreciate all of the one-time funds, but they also caused some difficulty, especially with budgets, because people are seeing the large reserves, thinking you can spend that money, not necessarily understanding that a lot of it, and you can see here, is tied to one-time funds. So, our fund balance and percentage, this is our combined general fund. And again, we've we've had this chart, this visual. Um, and it just really illustrates how the dynamics
135changed really leading to the pandemic and then coming out of the pandemic where districts were used to having a lot more unrestricted reserves, which you would see here in the blue. and then the restricted monies or your categoricals or grants would be in the yellow. But before COVID, we were going away from having categorical programs. And then when we started to get all this influx of one-time funds, it just seems to not be ending. And then all these new categorical programs were introduced once again, which we had gone away from. And so now you can see that we still have higher reserves, but they're restricted monies. And so it becomes difficult to do things when there's restrictions tied to those monies. For 2425, we are projecting to end the year with a 16.83% reserve. Um
136I think I had mentioned last week that school services um had shared an article about 17% being the average. um because again it's for that year but it needs to get you through the next two years. And you can see that because of our projected deficit spending we would be um projecting to have a reserve of less than 9% in 2728. But that's assuming we make no modifications. Right? The beauty of a plan and having a district goal that ties to fiscal stabilization is that we're able to have these conversations and these discussions with different stakeholders and be able to address situations so that by the time we get to the third year, the picture looks a lot better, right? And it's easier when you have time to do things versus you're having to make
137difficult decisions right away. I did want to show the breakdown of the ending fund balance. Um again agree when you look at for 2526 projecting to the end the year with 102 million it looks like a big number. Um but again there's some things that we've set aside funds for. We have a required 3% reserve that's mandated by the state for economic uncertainties. It's tied to the ADA of your district. we are below 30,000 ADA and so we have a 3% so that's about 19 million. Uh we have a revolving cash account that's 50,000 and then the board took action a couple years ago to commit funds for specific projects and initiatives safety and security. Um our vacation payable is a liability. Um and so that is also a required. uh the stirs and the
138pers was one of the committed categories as well as a technology lease and then future deficit spending. So that's what makes up the 102 million. And then if you were to fast forward to 2728, you can see that because the reserve is now only projected to be 57 million, there's some categories that you could no longer even set funds aside for because you would not have enough money to do that. Okay. So, our next steps, um, we have a, uh, we probably will have a budget that is going to be adopted at the state level. And so, that will happen in the next couple of days. Uh, if needed, we will be back with the board to provide a 45day budget. In September is when we present the unodudited actuals report um to the board
139and that's when we've closed 2425 and then we're back into interim reports in December with a first interim report and then in February coming to you with an audit report. So it's just a ongoing budget cycle in in the business office. And I do want to uh be able to thank um our director of business services Mr. Leuda who's there in the back probably listening to everything and taking notes of all your questions so that we can you know go do that. But um not only um Mr. Leuda but the entire team there in the business services department um because it's it's a busy time. Um we know it's summer but um obviously this is the time where they're especially working with two years worth and and they really take pride in all their work.
140So just want to give a shout out to the amazing team we have. So with that I can't answer any questions. Question. um you have a cola of 230 for this year. And so it seems to me that knowing your cola and understanding how that fits in projected down the road um allows you to make these projections. And um I I I just want to make a comment. I appreciate you breaking it down. You drill and kill us and you use the same term terminology over and over again. So, it starts to sink in, but it seems like the variable here is are the cola and restricted and unrestricted uh uh amounts. And so, It doesn't look good three years down the road, but you haven't put a cola in, so that's why it drops.
141Am I correct in that simplification? Yes. And and that's why we wanted to be very transparent about the planning cola. Um, and again, the only thing I always caution with is that there's been a big variance in the adopted colas versus what has been projected early in the year. Um and and I think it was a couple years ago where the cola was even less than half. Um this year for the 1.07 started at over 2% and so that's the only reason is that there could be a variance and and that's why we have the 0% and the outy years just being conservative but being very transparent about it as well. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Uh yes please. Can can we go back to slide 12 if that's okay? The onetime funds
142and specifically on the ELO funds on which funds I'm is it EOP? Is that the E expanded learning? Elo. Oh, the expanded learning that is ELOG. Elog. So, there's a difference between EOP and ELOG. I want to be very clear. Thank you for that. Yes. and ELOP um expanded learning opportunity program. We did not include on this slide because we are being told that that is not a one-time program. Those are actually ongoing year after year. Um it's restricted. So it still falls under the restricted side. Um but um it's been communicated to districts that that is a program that is ongoing. Thank you for that because I do see that it it is ongoing. um where are we accounting for those funds in this budget? So if you are looking at are you looking
143at the actual detail forms the sax forms that is just a bunch of numbers. No this budget the this your oh on the presentation on your presentation. So the e-log would be part of elop elop would be part of the total revenues on the restricted. So if you go to slide number 11, um that total revenue amount includes I believe the allocation for ELOP is about $32 million a year and so that would be part of the 184 million for 2425 and part of the 135 for 2526. Thank you. Any other questions? Ready to Thank you, Miss Lopez. Ready to make a motion to approve the 24 or I'm sorry, 2526 budget. Okay, Mr. Johnson. And do I have a second? I'll second. Miss Clark seconds. Miss Clott, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams,
144I. Mr. Johnson, I. Miss Lea, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries. 5. Okay, we are on the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Okay, Miss Clark, thank you. And a second. I'll second. Miss Lea, thank you. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson, I. Miss Leva, I. Miss Clark, hi. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries 5. On to item N discussionformational items. N1 is educational services discussionformational items. A first reading of board policy 6163.4 student use of technology and board policy 4040 employee use of technology. Dr. Arce, do you have more information for us? Yes, thank you. So, um these board policies um have been uh in need of updating for quite some time uh especially the the student one um well both
145of them but essentially the biggest updates um we were not aligned with CSBA. So we've aligned the board policy with CSBA and we also included uh the components of um artificial intelligence for example in the board policy um to give an example of some additions uh in addition to AI um we also did included the definition of district technology covered pilot policy um added language uh that included data privacy and cyber security language um acceptable use of personal mobile devices for safety in new addition to the policy. Um just a more in-depth example is in the old policy students were there was language of students shall not use the technology for any inappropriate behavior like use obscene um type of behavior. In the new updated language policy, it states that the district has a responsibility
146to create safeguards so that students don't access this and which um we we've done that as well. So those are just some examples. So this is the first read and any questions or updates we've also shared with our labor partners and um we will bring a second read in the next board meeting. I have a question on this policy if that's okay. one of the policy is and and I guess it's my understanding that the student uh um Chromebooks are designated with safeguards already, right? And so they can't access certain websites anyway. And if we do that, I guess my question is there's some language in here that we will warn the students about privacy, right? We'll give them we'll let them know, hey, there's no reasonable expectation of privacy on your on your laptop.
147But then there's something that says um that basically you can search at any time to uncover evidence of violation of the law which is fine but I I thought that there already safeguards. I'm just wondering how that correlates if we already have a safeguard. Do you think that they can break the system or I mean how because I know we have cyber security but I you know I guess my question is I just want to make sure that when we we approve this we're just doing it above board right so I know I think you answered your own question which is our kids are so savvy that there are always ways to work around our safeguards. So this the poor policy protects us on both ends, right? It puts the responsibility on us to make
148sure those safeguards are in place, but if somebody bypasses those safeguards, it has an accountability measure to make sure that they know and we hold them accountable for that. Thank you so much. Any other questions? I read this one and I can't and maybe I'm missing it. I'll just because this is the first reading anyway so I have some time so I will read it more carefully and come back with any questions should I have is it particularly to 4040 employee use of technology or 6163.4 student use of technology student use and I just want to make sure and then I wanted to you said that AI was incorporated and I just want to make sure I read that very very well [Music] yeah okay thank you so much Dr. Dr. RC, I'm kind of
149reading and thinking out loud. I do appreciate your patience with me. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. RC. All right, we are on to item O, action items. Uh 01, superintendent action items. Uh Dr. Ruvokava, do you have something? It looks like I do. Thank you, President Luna. So, board bylaw 9250 allows the board to provide authorization for the district to pay a trustee in the um in the case that there is a legitimate reason for them to be absent from a board meeting. In this case, we have one of our trustees who was absent from a board meeting for a legitimate reason. And so, we're asking the board to authorize this resolution so that it would allow us to to issue payment to that trustee. I'd like to make
150a motion to approve resolution number 202425107 as presented. Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? I second. Mr. Williams, seconds. Miss Clott, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson, I. You have to abstain, Mr. Johnson. You have to abain. Thank you. Miss Lea, I miss clerk. I miss Luna. I motion carries four yes and one abstension. Next we are on to item 02 educational services items um approve 2025 2026 LCAP federal addendum. Dr. Arson. Yes. Thank you Miss Luna. This is uh an an annual um item as well and essentially it's saying that we are assuring our community, our students, our staff that the LCAP is working in conjunction with um federal monies and this is under the umbrella of every student succeeds act the ESSA and this law ensures
151that every student is going to be provided with a good with a great education. Um, so using federal monies, how are they working in collaboration with local control monies and not in competition? So this is just an annual item for your approval. Thank you. Any questions? Do I have a motion to approve? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. I'll second. Miss Lever seconds. Thank you, Miss uh Claudia, please. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson. Hi, Miss Leva. Hi, Miss Clark. Hi, Miss Lona. I motion carries 50. Next on to item 2B, approved 2025 2026 single plan for student achievement updates. Dr. RC, thank you very much, Miss Luna. Uh, this is also an annual item for approval. And this is where not only as a district are we required to create a plan which is called our
152local control accountability ability plan our LCAP but every single school site has to also create with their school site council their SIPA. So once they create that we show minutes that they approve the the goals are aligned with our LCAP goals. Um we asked our board to approve this. You were also provided with an executive summary including every single site's goals, outcomes, um, and budget as it pertains to ALCAP and title one and how they're going to be utilizing that. Thank you. Any questions, colleagues? No. Yes. And thank you for providing those summaries. Uh, that was a lot of information. Thank you, Miss Brown, and your team. Thank you, Miss Brown. I appreciate that. I can't see her if she's right. She told me to deliver this. Oh, okay. Thank you. Uh, do I have
153a motion to approve? So move. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Williams, seconds. Miss Clay, please call for a vote. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson, hi. Miss Lea, hi. Miss Clark, hi. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries. 50. On to item 2 C, approval of the 2025 2026 Head Start grant application. Dr. Arce, another annual item um for our board to approve and this is to ensure the board that we do have a plan. We receive federal monies, Head Start monies. And so this is the um grant application on how we intend to utilize and continue the support that we're we're providing for our little ones. So again, an annual uh approval of the Head Start uh grant application. Thank you, Dr. RCA. Any questions, colleagues? Motion to approve.
154Move. Miss Lea and a second. I'll second. Miss Clark seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I Mr. Johnson. Miss Lever. I. Miss Clark. Hi. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries. 5-0. On to business services action items. Uh 3A recommendation to approve of the second reading and adoption of board policy 4112.42 drug and alcohol testing for school and non-commercial drivers transporting students and administrative regulation 3540 transportation. Miss Lopez. Yes. Thank you, President Luna. Uh the this is coming for a second reading and now approval. I'll start with BP4112.42. Uh this is to incorporate the new language from Senate Bill um 88 or SB88. And in summary, what it states is that now anytime students are being transported, um employees would be subject to the Department of Transportation rules, which is something that for
155example, our bus drivers already are a part of where you would enroll in that uh drug and alcohol test and there would be random testing. And so we want to make sure that we are in compliance with that Senate bill. Uh, one of the good things is that our uh, transportation department has already implemented the fact that even if it's only a small number of students that are being transported like some of our smaller teams like golf and so forth, um, it would still be a bus driver that has been transporting our students. And so we see that um we potentially could still have some folks that would be transporting uh for the required amount of time um but it's not going to be as significant as it is for other districts that really allow
156a lot more of their employees to transport already. Um and then going over to administrative regulation 3540. This is in regards to uh transportation language uh recommended by CSBA and this is just to incorporate the new education code something that was put into effect a couple years ago that requires school districts to have a transportation plan. Um so u when Mr. um Berles had presented about um transportation now actually being funded um 60% state reimbursement that came about a couple of years. One of the requirements was that we needed to have a transportation plan um that is reviewed every year by the board and so we are in compliance with that but we were not in compliance with the administrative regulation that outlined all of that. And so at this point we are bringing this
157forward uh for approval. Thank you, Miss Lopez. Any questions, colleagues? Do I have a motion to approve? So move. Okay, Miss Clark. Thank you. And a second. Mr. Johnson, seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson, I. Miss Lea, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries 5. On to 3B. Recommendation to approve of resolution number 2024-25-102, resolution of the board of education of Marino Valley Unified School District, approving amendment number four to the lease leaseback agreements for group one segment 3 modernization projects. Miss Lopez. Yes. Thank you, U. President Luna. So this is a resolution um specifically to two school sites that we are referencing here. Uh first we have Ridgerest Elementary and so the lease lease back agreements were previously approved for these projects and then we
158have um the contractor that goes and does the guaranteed maximum price which is what we bring forward to the board for final approval. And so in this case for the Ridgerest Elementary project, we have a guaranteed maximum price of 10.6 million. We're also recommending approval of the district contingency for 750,000. In addition to that, we have the guaranteed maximum price um being recommended for approval for Betterfield Elementary School. And if I could just note on that that the reason it's still listed as Butterfield Elementary School is that when the application was initially submitted to uh division of the state architects that was the name that was used and so we can't change the name of the school in the middle of the process. So we do know that it is now Butterfield Language Academy but
159for construction purposes still Butterfield Elementary School. Um and you can see that guaranteed maximum price of 14.6 million. and then district contingency of a million dollars. Thank you, Miss Lopez. Any questions, colleagues? Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Miss Clark, thank you. And a second. Second. Mr. Williams, second. And Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams. I. Mr. Johnson. Hi. Miss Leva. Hi. Miss Clark. Hi. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries. 5 Z. On to item C. Recommendation to approve of resolution number 2024-25-103 education protection account for fiscal year 2025 2026 general fund. Miss Lopez. Thank you, President Luna. This is an annual requirement um that um is in regards to our education protection account. Uh this is something that came about u back in 2012 when Proposition 30 was passed
160and that was passed sort of in the middle of the fiscal year and avoided mid-year cuts. Um so I know that that is something that a lot of folks still remember and then was extended by Proposition 55. Um and what it does is that even though it's not new revenues going to school districts, um it because it prevented the cuts at that time, um part of the um approval process is that we as districts needed to report every year how those funds were spent and they were they are referred to as education protection accounts or EPA. And so what you see there as the attachment is for budget year uh projected to receive $55.8 million in EPA or education protection accounts. There's specific ways in how these uh monies can be spent. Um and we
161spent it all on instruction related expenditures. Um so this is part of the LCFF component just a reminder but we there is a separate reporting requirement for it. Thank you, Miss Lopez. Any questions, colleagues? Do I have a motion to approve? Mr. Johnson, and a second. I'll second. Miss Leva seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson, I. Miss Lever, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries 50. On to item D. Recommendation to approve of resolution number 2024 2025106 of the Marino Valley Unified School District establishing temporary interfund transfers or of special or restricted fund monies. Miss Lopez. Yes. Thank you, President Luna. This is again another yearly resolution that we ask that we have in place in case that during the year we have a fund that
162might be in need of cash that it would allow us the flexibility to move cash from one fund to the other. Of course, that there's um restrictions as to when that would need to be paid. So, this isn't necessarily increasing budgets. it's more of for cash flow purposes because we do have some of our funds that are dependent or the or how they receive money um could fluctuate um within the school year and and so we want to make sure that we have the approvals in place in case we need to so that it doesn't impact our operations when you move the funds from one to the other. Um is that something that comes before the board or just it this is the approval right here? Yes, this is the approval. Um and again I
163it needs to be repaid within the same fiscal year. So what that's the key, right? So at the end of the year when information is presented, it wouldn't it would have already been repaid and so that's why it's really just for cash flow purposes. Okay. Thank you. Any questions, colleagues? No. Okay. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve? So move. Miss Lea and a second. Mr. Johnson seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams. Hi. Mr. Johnson. Hi. Miss Lea. Hi. Miss Clark. Hi. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries. 50. On to item four, human resources action items. Um 4 A is approval of the 202526 traditional school year calendars, Head Start, and state preschool calendars. Dr. Dr. Birdie. Thank you, President Luna. Uh, as you mentioned, we are bringing forward all of
164our calendars for 2526. I do want to thank our calendar committee that's comprised of management personnel along with our labor partners from CSEA and MVPA and the negotiations teams of course that uh brought these to the table and finalized them and we are recommending approval this evening. Thank you, Dr. Ready. Any questions, colleagues? No. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Miss Clark and a second. Second. Mr. Williams seconds. And please call for the vote. Miss Claudia. Mr. Williams. I. Mr. Johnson's absent. Miss Lea. I. Miss Clark. I. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries four and one absent. On to item 4B. Approval of the second reading and adoption of board policy and administrative regulation 4030 non-discrimination and employment board policy 4144 complaints and new administrative regulation 4144 complaints. Dr. Verie, thank you
165Miss Luna. this uh policy. These policies we uh had visited last time when we were together and uh based on the board recommendation, we have uh ensured that we have added the records retention board policy and administrative regulation to these complaint policies which have altogether been amended based on feedback that aligns with CSBA regulations. So again, we've uh brought it back for approval and made sure that we did include that component based on the recommendation. What? But I don't see it. It's board policy 3580, which is under district records. And that particular policy talks about making sure that we consult with legal counsel and district administrative technology staff to ensure that we uh maintain secure document management, storage, retrieval, archiving and destruction as necessary, including electronically stored information based on best uh practices. In the
166case of these types of u issues that are covered under this board policy in 4144, legal counsel does recommend that we keep these in perpetuity. And so the electronic system that we're actually now uh moving towards would be able to do that for us. Currently, we have either hard copies of these that we are scanning in to keep electronically or they're kept digitally in HR. Thank you so much. It's perfect. Thank you. You're welcome. It wasn't red. I didn't say on one of them. One of them was red, but one of them wasn't red. I go for the red. That's I wanted to make sure I pointed out that was the policy and and and it says district records, but that's the piece that covers the retention. I see it. Thank you so much. You're
167welcome. I'd like to make a motion to approve as presented. I'll second that. Miss Clark and Miss Lever. Miss Claudia. Mr. Williams. I. Mr. Johnson's absent. Miss Leva I. Miss Clark. I. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries four and one absent. On to item C, approval of the second reading and adoption of new board policy 4119.24, 4219.24, 4319.24, maintaining appropriate adult student interactions, updated administrative regulation 5145.3, and non-discrimination harassment board policy and administrative regulation 5145.7. sex discrimination and sex based harassment and new administrative regulation 5145.71 title 9 sex discrimination sexbased harassment. Dr. Verie, thank you. President Luna, the district is adding uh new board new board policies as you mentioned 4119, 4219, and 4319 that outline maintaining appropriate adult student interactions that do uh align with title 9 and CSBA guidelines uh as well as a
168non-discrimination harassment policy uh 5145.3 7 and 71. These all are broken down based on employee group and they will actually be taking the place of an older policy that covered this. We had one uh overarching policy that we had approved a few years back and so once these are approved we'll be eliminating that policy as these go into more detail and as I mentioned are now more closely aligned with those guidelines. Thank you Dr. Ry. Any questions colleagues? Do I have a motion? Um, oh, you have a question? Um, I I think it's addressed. It's addressed. I'd like to make a motion to Well, to approve as presented. Thank you, Miss Clark. And a second. Mr. Johnson seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson. I. Miss Leva. I Miss
169Clark. Hi. Miss Lona. I. Motion carries. 50. Next, we have item D, approval of job descriptions. in in I can't say this wordin itinerant art teacher, dance teacher, music teacher and theater teacher for visual and performing arts and speech language pathologists. Dr. Verie, thank you. President Luna, uh these positions that you mentioned in this uh particular action item do align with our commitment to continue to expand arts education and they tie in with the Proposition 28 allocation that our district receives. Importantly, this funding is designated as restricted and does not impact the general fund. And Prop 28 does mandate that 80% of these funds must be allocated to staffing directly to support our students. Uh these particular uh items, the itinerant positions for art, dance, music, and theater were also reviewed with our labor partners
170in the JFMC meeting on January the 27th. Also in this item, I just want to point out u the speech language pathologist position as well. And uh it's being brought forward as a brand new position. We had an older uh job description. This is a position that is a focus of the district as we move forward trying to recruit our own personnel in this area and not have to rely on contracted agencies. And so we're also presenting that as a brand new job description that is up to industry standard. Sounds good. Thank you, Dr. Birdie. Do I have any questions from my colleagues for Dr. Birdie? No, I have one for the speech and language pathologist. Um, how many positions are the district thinking about, you know, like opening? Well, these are one of the
171positions, Miss Lever, that we are unfortunately constantly having to recruit for because there's always a need. um we would love to have inhouse 25 of these folks or 30 of these folks if possible and be able to reduce the outside contractors that we have to rely upon. So um part of it is it's just a very competitive market. There are a lot of folks that work for private industry and sometimes they might be able to get a little bit more on the salary uh end of things, but it's it's a it's really kind of a focus countywide. when I talk to some of my colleagues in HR across uh across the county, they're they're really trying to bring these folks to be in-house employees. So, it's a it's an ongoing focus to try and bring
172them here. Thank you. Any other questions? Do I have a motion to approve? Okay, Mr. Johnson and a second. I'll second. Miss Lea seconds. Miss Clauddio, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Mr. Johnson, hi. Miss Lea, hi. Miss Clark, hi. Miss Luna, I motion carries 50. All right, we are on to item P, future agenda topics. I'll start with you, Mr. Williams. Do you have any uh future agenda topics? Um, not at not at this time. Not at this time. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Mr. Johnson, do you have any future agenda topics? No. Okay. Thank you. Miss Lea, do you have any future agenda topics? No, I don't. It's mine. Okay. Thank you, Miss Clark. No, I might um let me consult here. Okay. Um so brainstorming um with Dr. Dr. Ruvakaba, we
173were talking about water and um how um you know it dep I guess it depends on the research and who you talk to, but you know some some people say bottled water isn't safe and um personally I I most you maybe you all have noticed I try to drink out of my Hydro Flask. I fill it from tap water which is filtered from home or at work. Um, I work for a utility, so we have filtered water at the utility, but I was just thinking it would be nice if we would be able to maybe um, uh, have some hydro hydro stations. Is that I forgot if that's the right hydration stations at some of our schools. Um, encourage our students to bring hydro flask. maybe even have the students create a campaign to encourage
174other students to um you know drink filtered water from because you know I I don't know I just think that that's that's kind of also in line in alignment with you know environmental obviously water bottles are also not good for our environment so that's just something that I was uh brainstorming that maybe we could look into I think that's a good idea idea. I also think that the school district should fund them. Everyone can afford hydro flasks and you know or maybe maybe we can have the campaign for the students to get one at the beginning of a year or something like that encourage it. But I already already see an action related to sustainability which is one of our board priorities. But um before if you don't mind clearly about um Miss Lopez, can
175you share a little bit about mods and the inclusion of the hydration stations? Yeah. And um Mr. He scooted out. Did he scoot out? Um because I know that um during the pandemic actually the water filling stations is something that was introduced to our district. I believe that prior to that um it was very few sites and my understanding is that now every site has at least a couple of the water filling stations but I think that we can make sure that as we move forward in future planning incorporate a lot more of that. Um, I also know that we at the time had purchased um they're not the Hydro Flask, but they are plastic water bottles that um we've been giving out at a number of our events. Um I believe at um Moachella
176that we had some that were distributed to our students and our families and I know that we have um still a supply of those that we have left. And so I think we can go back and have a conversation about especially now that we have a new purchasing director, we can maybe task her and then our facilities and maintenance and operations so that we can have a collaboration to expand that some more. I I just wanted to comment like kind of the same stuff that Miss Lopez said because I remember that we did a big you know like um like um promoting those hydro stations and um part of it the parent ambassadors were the ones you know like um doing that work you know and uh bringing that conscious to not only students but
177also to parents. So, but it will be a great idea if we can have more of those stations at, you know, the sites because I know we do have them, but we don't have that many around the schools. I I I think it's a great idea. U Miss Luna and maybe in our future modernization we start to ask for those from the contractors uh and make it standard policy per per number of students on a campus and and what that breaks down to. And um I know when when I did modernization at Marino Valley um they put in a couple of them, but you know, we had over 2,000 students, but the kids were using them. And I I've seen them use them. And uh it it wouldn't be difficult to get a campaign to
178not use plastic, to reuse uh um uh containers and and try to dis get get away from uh the plastic containers and um it it I I I think it would be something we could sustain. So with the board's consensus, I think one first step might be why don't we do an assessment, a survey of how many hydration stations we have by site and then also what the plans are to incorporate them in our mods. Um Jake's not here but Mr. Romero, but I one of the things I can share is it's much easier to include them as part of future projects because it basically becomes a change order and goes to DSA at an existing site. Anytime you mount something that's over 20 pounds, it opens DSA. So that means we have to now
179expose ourselves to um a plan review for fire fire life safety and accessibility. Not that we cannot do it. We can still do it, but it gets a little bit more complicated. But I think a first step would be maybe an assessment of how many we have and then reporting that to the board and we can talk about like some minimum standards. So you mentioned you mentioned we mount them. Are there any other ways that we can have them? No, they have to be mounted, but anytime anything's mounted and it's over a certain weight amount, it has to go through DSA approval, right? So, that's asking. Yeah, but the nice thing about them is it's filtered and they're and they cool water, too. Y pretty obvious. So, um Oh, I apologize. Sorry. Sorry. I remember
180I I forgot we we were working back then in conjunction with the water department. Was it that it's municipal? Yeah, they were the ones who like um carry with the expenses of um installing them. if I can recall you know right so yeah I know that we use er funds for it um because for the pandemic that's what they were encouraging the water filling stations in le of the water fountains Mr. Romero um is texting me information. He's he's writing. So um so we currently have as part of the mod projects their combo stations is what they're referred to which are drinking fountains as well as the bottle filling stations. Um and so they're adding a couple during each of the mo is what's built into each of the modernization projects. And in addition to
181that, um it was M that did the initial project um with the ESSER funds and that was determined by elementary school, middle school and high school. So um we can do the assessment to figure out how many we have. Um and yes, it was also in conjunction with EMWD. So we can definitely provide the assessments and then um good to know that as we have future modernizations we'll see more of but I do think a campaign would be a great idea. So just a simple Google I see there are freestanding bottle filler stations for schools but I don't know maybe I don't know how maybe I don't know the pounds or how it looks but it did they do say they're they're standalone units that don't require wall mounting. I don't know if we've already
182looked into them like you know but and then there's retrofit ones also on pre-existing. Correct. So just no absolutely and I'm familiar with both of those. So the retrofit are usually the better ones to go. The freestanding ones you might remember are similar to the portable handwashing stations that we bought during the pandemic. Yeah. And so yes enough everything that goes with that. Yeah. Thank you so much. Uh the only other thing I'll add is through the water districts, they also offered um a refillable bottle where the bottle came pre-filled with water from the local district, but it was actually an aluminum bottle and then you could reuse it. So it was pretty you could write your name on it. So because of the issue with the plastics, of course. So anybody think of any
183future agenda items after that conversation? No. Okay. Do you have something? I don't have a future I don't have a future agenda item topic, but I just like to know where we are with the driver's education. So, that contract is coming to us, right? Thank you. And I already talked about my future agenda topic during my superintendent report. Yes. All right. Is that all, ladies? I'm going to adjourn us if that's it. All right. With no further business to come before the board of education, this meeting is adjourned at 8:10 p.m. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Have a good night.