MVUSD Regular Board Meeting of the Board of Education 06/17/2025

001Good evening everyone. The board of education reconvened into open session at 5:18 p.m. Roll call, please. Rose Williams, present. Joanna Lea, present. Brandy Clark, present. Sammy Luna, present. Alejandro Walcava present. Esparonza RCA present. Robert Birdie present. Susanna Lopez present. And student board member Falconee and Mr. Johnson are absent. All right. Report out of close session. The board of education met in close session to discuss board deliberation regarding public employee discipline dismissal release non-reelects conference labor negotiator conference with legal counsel existing litigation conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation and superintendent evaluation. The board gave further direction to district staff and there was no action taken on close session agenda items. All right, we are on to the pledge of allegiance. Miss Label, would you mind leading us tonight to the flag of the United States of

002America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Miss Leva. Item E2, future board meeting dates are as follows. June 24th, July 22nd, August 26, September 9th, and September 23rd, all of 2025. Next, we're on to E3 Superintendence Report. Dr. Ruvakava. Thank you, President Luna. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, trustees and visitors. It is my pleasure to share some of the great stuff that's been happening since the last time we met. As always, we like to start with our why, our vision, our mission, and our portrait of a graduate student. And you'll get to see in the slide deck why we adhere to these principles and ideals because we really believe that we are uh that our work is to produce the

003best citizen we can to make sure that they not only are meaningful contributors to their own families but also to our community as a whole. Our goals are as follows and again we'll reference these as we go throughout the presentation. Very happy to share that we have a very special person with us Sherry. Um, I'm going to ask uh Josh Kaban from our CSEA Dwight and we have some visitors come on up. And Josh, if you don't mind, I'll read. Do you want me to read what you presented or Perfect. So, congratulations, Sherry. On behalf of the California school employees association and its Marino Valley chapter 410, I am honored to formally acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding achievement of one of our very own Sher Regal who was named the region 33 member of the

004year for 2025. Applause. Now [Applause] Sherry was recognized for exceptional dedication, service, and contributions to our district and the broader CSCA community. This prestigious award was presented to her on May 3rd, 2025 during the CSCA member recognition and classified school employee week celebration held at Quake Stadium in Rancho Cukamonga. Classified school employee week is a vital time of the year when we honor the essential contributions of classified professionals who support the educational mission of our schools. From maintaining safe and clean campuses to ensuring students are nourished, transported, and supported in countless ways, classified employees are the backbone of our school communities, CSCW provides a meaningful opportunity to recognize the hard work, dedication, and often behind-the-scenes efforts of these vital team members. Sherry's recognition at the regional level is a testament to the values upheld by

005our classified professionals. We are very, very, very proud to have Sher represent not only the chapter, but our district with such distinction. Congratulations, Sherry. [Applause] Thank you. Go over there. Can we have Absolutely. Would you want to say yours? Absolutely. Okay. Okay. All right. My name is Nancy McCall. I'm a CSEA regional rep, which is a volunteer position. I'm not like a labor rep. Don't do that. I help chapters with governance issues. I am also a retired member. I've been retired for 20 years. I used to work at the RCE County Office of Education. That's where I met Sherry. She used to work there. And there's maybe 5,500 members in region 33. And out of that region pe these people nominated Riverside Unified, Marino Valley, Riverside Community College, Valverie, and RCOE. Those are the three

006chapters in my region, and they all, you know, could nominate people. So, and I I say real quick, I'm so happy that somebody that works in in something that's not recognized. people that work in accounting, you know, they're in these little cubicles and they're working all the time. They make everything work. They pay the bills, they pay payroll, they do the budget, and they're unsung heroes. I'm so happy she was recognized. Thank you. And that was a wonderful speech or two. I love that, the recognition. Thank you. I just want to recognize the team. Good evening, Board of Education. Dr. Ruvakawa. Um, we have our president here, Josh Kaban, of course, our chapter secretary, Nora Pñena. You all know Sher, what an amazing job she does. She is our chapter treasurer, and she's an amazing

007at that and everything that she does. And so, from the leadership, of course, we have Priscilla hit on also who is very active in our chapter. And Sher, we just appreciate you everything that you do. come into the office on Saturday way late nights, you know, we see seven, eight, nine o'clock at night and they're crunching numbers and telling us, "Well, you guys can't do that. We can do that." So, you know, so we appreciate Sher and all that she does and thank you guys for acknowledging her for her uh recognition with CSCA. Oh, yes. Mom and sister, thank you guys so much. She really is an amazing person. She really is. Yes. Wait, I want a picture. Congratulations again, Sherry. Other great stuff happening in the school district. very very proud to share that

008we had 634 level four ELPAC students who all qualify for reclassification on the first try. No retakes. This is amazing and unprecedented. It just does not happen except here in Marino Valley when it happened. So we're very happy to not only the students but all of our team members who support their work and their learning. So, congratulations to everyone. Over 2,500 students graduated from our amazing high schools last week. We know that because some of our elbows and shoulders are still sore from shaking all those hands, but it was a great celebration of a wonderful journey for all of our students and families. Every single one of the promotion commencement ceremonies u district-wide, not only from the little ones promoting up, but the ones graduating was amazing. Well done. Thank you to everyone, especially a

009big kudos to our principles for their leadership and our maintenance and operation team for all of the behind-the-scenes work for getting those ready. So, thank you. Thank you to them. One of the really neat things that we have in our district is an opportunity for our high school seniors to visit the elementary schools where they came from and actually walk the hallways and kind of reminisce when they were way back when young uh 12 13 years ago. But it's also a great opportunity for our elementary school students to kind of see this is my future, right? If it's six, 12 years from now, this is going to meet me reflected in the students that are here walking. So, we do this every year. All of our high schools participate. And again, it's a great opportunity

010for our kids to reconnect and for our little ones to know their purpose and their why in terms of education. We also celebrated our saladans and validictorians at a special dinner we held here in this room. It's a great opportunity to recognize our top scholars. Those are the ones that are kind of leading the pack in terms of academic achievement and also are already prep well prepared for their future endeavors in higher education and higher learning. Now there's another uh component of what we do that is not recognized enough. So, I'm very happy that tonight we're recognizing one of the pathways that we're very proud of because it leads directly to employment for our students. So, I'm going to ask Principal Gilead and our amazing shop teacher, Mr. Esmond, to come on up to the

011podium. [Applause] We have two of our four students with us that we want to recognize, but if you could talk a little bit about the program, what you do, and actually we have the results right here with us. Get that mic. Well, thank you so much. And um as much as I'd like to, you know, enjoy some of the prestige, I'd like to share that the students who landed a job this year, it was 100% on them. Um, even though you I've taught my fair share of the autoshop curriculum in their first year and the first half of the year, um, really my my job is to fade away as a facilitator once they begin their internships. If any of you guys have seen uh the standup bit by comedian Kevin Hart when when the

012dad watches the children, they just kind of watch for things. That's that's been my role as facilitator. But um uh Alex, who's here tonight, he's only 16 years old and was able to articulate his way into a job. And um Edwin was hired on by Premier Hyundai, which is a full-fledged Hyundai dealership. So congratulations, boys. [Applause] Alex and Edwin, can you we're gonna we're gonna put you on the spot. So come on up to the mic, please. just two two just simple questions, but you know they're never simple when you're on the spot. One, what are some things that helped you in terms of the program that prepared you for what you're doing? And second, what's it like now being on the job? Um, well, I'd like to thank Mr. Esmus really. Uh he was

013a really good teacher and uh he really prepared us to how the industry really is like um how the pace you have to do it as you know the the pressure you have you know it's um automotive it's a lot of pressure and uh now that I have the job it's u it is it's hard you know it's tiring but I think we had the good a good coach to help us get there. Thank you, Alex. Uh, I want to thank Mr. Asma. He helped me a lot. Like in the beginning, I tried to join that team for many years. He helped me like every time I have a question, I asked him and he helped me a lot to do things that I never how to do it. And now I'm probably going to

014start working on Hyundai. and thanks to Miss Desmas. [Applause] So, congratulations. So, maybe later offline we can talk about the markup on tires because I just paid like $1,000 for tires and I think I got robbed, but that's that's for later. But congratulations. We're so proud of you. [Applause] Um, lastly, we want to recognize as always one of the initiatives that we've been pushing all year. This is something that we know works as is evident by our two um scholars here with us which is attendance matters. When they're not when kids are not in school, they cannot learn. So this is something we pushed all year. Happy to share that at the end of the year. We're able to report unofficially yet, right? Because it has to go through CDE and Calbads and all of

015that that these are the attendance rates for our schools. Um we are very proud of the work that we've continued to do and we continue continue to see a rise from the lows uh post pandemic especially want to recognize the three schools that are kind of leading the pack. Northridge Edgemont and Butterfield Language Academy. So kudos to them. And lastly, just a couple of save the dates. Summer graduation is coming up on July 22nd from 9 to 10:30 at Marino Valley High School. And our shine celebration for all of our intern students is on the 22nd as well, 11:30 to 1:30 at Marino Valley High School. That's all we have. Thank you, Dr. Wakava. Now we are on to item F, public comments on agenda items. Any person requesting to speak to any item on

016the agenda may do so at this time or when the item is addressed by the board of education. Individual speakers shall be allowed for three minutes on any agenda item. The board of education shall limit the total time for public input on each agenda item to 21 minutes. Board bylaw 9323B section 5 per board bylaw 9323 twice allotted time will be provided for a member of the public utilizing a translator. Miss Claudia, do we have any speakers? Uh, President Luna, we have a total of five. Two of which like to speak now and the other three when the items being considered and then we got one comment for each public hearing. Thank you. Okay. Uh, Roy Blakeer to the podium, please. We'll start with the future board dates since we have two new members on

017here that hasn't been around a long time since I've been bringing this subject up for decades. I would hope in the future and you two new guys and gal You want to join your other three colleagues in wanting to suppress free speech, making it more difficult to we the people address our government. There are three public meetings going on in the city. Valverde school district you and the city today one of the two meetings I had with the Rube I said with the one thing you could do is just straighten that out that's very simple so we have LCAP and budgets on two how do you speak at Valverie and here at the same time I I think the evidence is very clear. So, I'm giving the two newest members a chance to put this

018on the agenda and rectify it. You have a super two superintendent and a city manager. You have 15 board or council members, only two of which have even brought it up. Miss Kirkland from Valverde and Miss Baka at the city of Marino Valley to try to rectify this situation. The other 13 on the board and three executive staff members have given us you know what finger. We the people. So if you want to cooperate sometimes if you want the heat turned down a little bit like I've heard. How come we can't abide by a simple request that should be done by everyone? No, you double down on it each time. So, we'll see if we're going to get another crack at the apple. We'll see if we can rectify this in the future because this

019is a strong evidence to show exactly what's going on. And if you don't, just like Joe Lyn Neil, the former CSA president said, kids emulate what the adults do. They see you doing this stuff. How are you going to tell them they can't do it at school or to you? So, we'll get to the superintendent's comments, having attended the Aleandro Junior High, the original one, and the first over sixth grade school we ever had in the school district. I can tell you firsthand in junior high, in junior high, you had wood shop, you had metal shop, you had drafting, and you had electrical. Junior high. How many of our junior high schools today are teaching the trades? And you see the results. You just saw the results of how that works. The earlier you get

020this training or education or experience, the better off you're going to be. They should not be starting when they're 14, 15, 16, 17. That should be starting when they're 10, 11, 12. If you want to know why, in my opinion, and I think the evidence is overwhelmingly clear and it states it more every day, this is why you see the declining student achievement because you're not providing a well-rounded education. This has been going on for decades. It didn't start yesterday. Of course, it's not going to get fixed. This is the stuff you should be putting on the topics of the table. This is what you should be having. You should be having two study sessions a month talking about this stuff. How we move these things forward. If you're really concerned about the future of

021the kids, whether they be your own or the 30,000 plus that are in the school district, that's what you would be doing. And if you have a different opinion or you have a different thought, I will invite you in again to prove me wrong. We'll go at it till the cows come home. Because that's how you ultimately get to solutions for the betterment of everyone is if you have honest discussions about with not my way or the highway. I'm going to use a hammer to beat you down. That's more of what if if you truly wish your intention was the betterment of everybody, that's what you would be working for every schoolboard meeting. Thank you. On to item G, public comments on non-aggenda items. The board of education encourages public comments. During this section, staff

022may briefly respond to statements or questions or may ask questions for clarification. The board may refer to staff or other resources for factual information, direct staff to report back at a subsequent meeting, andor direct staff to place the topic on a future agenda. If someone wants to lodge a complaint against an employee, the appropriate form may be obtained at any school or the community education center. Individual speakers shall be allowed to speak for a total of three minutes on non-aggenda items regardless of the number of issues 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

023may increase or decrease the time allowed for the public presentation depending on the topic and the number of person 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 per board bylaw 9323 B through C section 5. U Miss Claudia, how many do we have on non-aggenda? A total of two on non-aggenda. Thank you. Uh the first one we have is Roy Blacker. Picking up on the theme I just finished with. This is some of the things you should be putting on the table for the next upcoming school year. What you should be discussing is how we are going to raise the student achievement in this school district. How are we

024going to not have three of our four of our kids not at grade level? Maybe we can stop making excuses about this because I can gu I can guarantee you and it's been like 50 years since I've been there. And I'm not trying to denigrate anybody, but the skill level that students coming out of this and practically every school district out of California and the achievement and the ability was much higher. There's a lot of things that we do. Get to our legislature. Tony Thurman, failed superintendent. watch things go downhill. I know he was out here a couple years ago or three or four and things get worse in our schools. We can always highlight the successes. There's always going to be successes in any almost practically anything that you could highlight. What you can't

025deny is what the overall picture statistics are. A lot of people want to denigrate this, but I will submit to you this. Since 1968, there's only been three presidents who've had real wage job growth. It's Richard E. Nixon and Donald Trump one or two. Well, that's what you should be teaching kids in school is how to build more wealth, more opportunity, not trying to perpetuate the whole atmosphere that's been going on far too long. It's what the data, it's what the science says. So maybe one day the school district will get its act back together like it used to have. Thank you. Fred Benuelos to the podium please. Let's try this again. There we go. Hey. Hey, so I started coming back here a few years ago wanted to speak about school safety. And if

026uh you still had the videos up, you could see me, but they're all deleted. Um I would hope by this time that we would have armed security here to protect the kids, everybody. And I'm kind of disappointed that that hasn't happened. Uh we just had a recent incident in Boulder, Colorado where we had an active threat and uh we had an illegal alien uh use Molotov cocktails to injure people. When seconds matter, we don't want to wait minutes for the calvaryary to get here. So, um I would still wish that now maybe you guys, the board members would do something about getting armed security at every school, not just the high schools or wherever you have them. Every school. Uh the other thing I want to talk about is uh flag day. Flag day was

027just Saturday and I'm very disappointed when I see our flag burnt and no one's respecting it. At a lot of these protests, people are flying the Mexican flag, waving it. They love Mexico, but it's kind of ironic that uh no one loves Mexico like the people who live there. Um I respect our flag. I'm Mexican. Excuse me. I'm an American with Mexican descent. I bleed red, white, and blue. And I respect our flag. There's certain ways you display our flag. Um, a few years ago I made comments about this issue and if uh there was videos we could all see me talking about it when you're up at the deis our American flag should be to the left. The last couple of meetings I noticed that it's the wrong way. So whoever is in charge

028of that please get it right. I've been watching this on our schoolboard meetings and that's where I felt it compelled that I had to come down here. I'm kind of upset that there's two other meetings going on. I'm going to try to go meet uh run over to the council meeting. Uh you guys were a little bit late. I'm sure there's uh reasons for that. But now I'm going to try to rush over to Mareno Valley uh council meeting and get there to speak. But again, get the flag right, guys. Um I'll be watching. All right. Whoever's in charge of it. Thank you. Now we're on to item H, comments from board members. Mr. Williams, do you have any comments for this? Oh, I'm so sorry. I don't Oh, did he? Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm

029so sorry. Um, comments from board members. Miss Williams, you said you didn't have anything. I have no comment. Okay. Miss Leva, do you have anything? I just want to say that I was really excited to see so many students graduate. um see the families, you know, the emotion, the the the the support that they get, um the energy that they um everybody ate. It was it was really nice. We were screaming with them. Um I saw Miss Brandy all excited, jumping up and down. Um, so you know, I I I'm really grateful to be part of it and see it um in a different way and um just having that opportunity to be there. I just wanted to to share that, you know, it was I'm very proud of all our students. I'm proud of

030the support that they get from the parents and I'm proud of the support that they get from their teachers and everyone who is involved so that they can um receive that high school diploma. Um thank you for you know for that opportunity. That's all. My comments will be very short and brief. And I just want to say congratulations again to the class of 2025. I'm looking forward to a great new academic year, an amazing new fiscal year, and all that holds uh with it. It's been uh great. And um yeah, the graduations were amazing. We experienced um um celebrating the class of 2025 at all the locations, even in middle school promotions. And again, that was fancy and fantastic. So again, short and sweet and have a great um I have nothing. I have nothing.

031I have nothing. Thank you, Miss Clark. Um I want to say happy Pride Month to everyone. Um, and also I wanted to um let everyone know if you don't know already, the city of Marino Valley is hosting Junth this Saturday at 400 PM at the Civic Center. Um, it's going to be a great time. So, hope you all can come out. Um, and uh, also I would like to share the same sentiments. Congrat congratulations to class of 2025. Um, what an honor it was to be a part of all of those graduation ceremonies. Um, the the positive energy that exuded all last week was just amazing. It was something I had never experienced before. Um, and and I felt I felt so special to be a part of it. Um, one of the other things

032I wanted to mention was how seamless everything went. And I know that doesn't happen like by accident. There's so many people behind the scenes making that happen. And everything looked beautiful and it was just so well organized. I just I appreciate everyone that that had a part in that cuz that was amazing. Um took my breath away every time. So, thank you everyone who contributed to that. Um and that's all I have for now. Um, it looks like we have a public comment. That would be Yes. Oh, Mr. Williams, you want to say something? Yes, I Okay, go right ahead. And um I I felt really bad not having any comments. Um because of my limited mo mobility, uh I I just didn't didn't didn't really recognize what was going on. and and um I

033had forgotten about all the beautiful things I saw on the stage and um how grateful the students were um in receiving their diplomas and thanking us and um that's the comment I forgot to make in the beginning and um it was beautiful to to be at the graduation I was at Valley View, uh, um, Bridges Learning Center and and and March Mountain. Um, but, uh, I've been really focused on on my my foot injury and it just it's it's one day after another, but I apologize for that. But congratulations to all graduates. And and the other thing I want us to appreciate in our alternative education schools, we had a comprehensive number of students graduate. So as people spoke, you brought me back to the to the fold. Thank you, ladies. And uh I was

034I was kind of kind of distant, but I I had that to say. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Williams. All right, we have a speaker, Mr. Roy Blacker, to the podium, please. So, we went everywhere from a no comment to a comment to emotion. That's right. To amazing academic and fiscal achievement to pride and the value of a high school diploma. What does that really mean today? I can tell you what it used to mean. You used to tell an employer that you met a certain amount of skill level that you had basic English communicating speaking and writing skills, mathematical skills, science skills. What does that value hold today? You should you should summon employers and have them recite the things they do. At least they communicate to me by the thousands of the product,

035the student achievement all of our schools in California are turning out. And I'm not saying this to try and degrade anybody or that, but you're not going to fix these things unless you bring out what the problem is. What I see in a lot is, and I see it just from the comments here, in order to fix a problem, you must first identify it. Then start working for the solutions. And those solutions come from a lot of different areas. If you have a vibrant community, if you have a vibrant schoolboard, if you have a vibrant student population, you would see the energy that used to be here, used to be here in these and down the street, the chambers down there. What's really sad is to see that go away. But like the late comic

036George Carlin said. All of you up on the deis didn't come from somewhere. You're us. You represent what this community is today. The good, the bad, the ugly. Thank you. Uh item I comments from the superintendent. I have no comments. Thank you, Dr. Vocaba. Um now we are on to item J public hearing. J1 disclose tenative agreements between the Marino Valley Unified School District and the Marino Valley Educators Association. Um, I need a motion to open the public hearing, please. So moved. And a second. I'll second. Okay. Miss Lea. Um, Miss Clotty, can you call for the vote, please? Mr. Williams, I. Miss Lea, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries four and two absent. Uh Dr. Verie, I understand. Yes. Thanks, President Lun. I'll just kind of speak to introduce the item

037that is going to be actually uh we're asking for approval in the subsequent item this evening. There are 10 uh negotiated tentative agreements that are brought before our board of education tonight between Marino Valley Unified School District and our labor partners with Marino Valley Educators Association that close out the 2425 school year. You'll see that the 10 different articles run from duration and termination, benefits, the school year calendar, salaries, hours and assignments, the teacher safety article, class size article, evaluation procedures, leaves of absence, and our induction and peer assistance and review programs. Thank you, Dr. Ry. Uh, we have a a speaker on this item, Roy Blacker, please. Again, interesting to see the brevity of a report like this of closing out the year on that, especially with the salaries part. There's been a contention

038and while anyone I don't begrudge anybody getting a raise or anything like that if it's deserved as you will see in order for a raise to be sustain sustainable on a salary is you have to have a subsequent equal or over amount of production for that raise in salary. So if you get a 5% raise, you should be putting a 5% or more output in production to justify that. So and this is what you would learn in the private sector. This is what you used to learn in the school district. Basic economics 101. If you ask for a 5% raise and you do not put out 5% plus on the production, eventually the company goes broke and you no longer have a job. These are the concepts that never get talked about hardly except to

039very few of us. and if they were addressed properly and honestly, you wouldn't run into the conditions like this school district has been in for a while. And as I recall when it hit, oh, this just came out of the blue. We weren't told sometimes, and this is what I'm saying. Look at the no comments. Look at the brief reports. And this is where the hijacking of the system goes. Five of you elected to represent. You're supposed to be on top of this. Ultimately, you're supposed to you are our voices to staff to make sure that this stuff is all working right. So when we come up with these challenges and this and then all of a sudden everything looks hunky dory the way you present it until you know what hits the fan. Thank

040you. We're on item JB to close the public hearing. Do I have a motion? I'd like to make a motion um to close the public hearing as presented. Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Williams seconds. Miss Claudia, can you please call for the vote? Mr. Williams, I. Miss Lea, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Lona, I. That's four yeses and two absent. On to item J2, approval of the adoption of the tenative agreements between the Marino Valley Unified School District and Marino Valley Educators Association. Dr. Verie. Thank you, President Luna. So, just to again touch on the the articles that I mentioned during the public hearing portion, we were able to uh work through 10 different tenative agreements with our labor partners in MVA. uh the first duration just briefly

041we were able to close out the majority of the contract through 2027. That does not include reopeners. So we'll continue to bargain the automatic reopeners every year as required by law. Uh also covered in this agreement what we had uh negotiated earlier which was the one-time credit on the benefits and the onetime 1.53 off-schedule payment to those in the unit. We also updated our calendars to be more inclusive of all of our new special programs in the district. I want to thank the calendar committee for their hard work with that. Under hours and assignments, we were able to eliminate some of the memorandums of understanding that we've had with MVA for a number of years and incorporate new programs into the contract in that particular area. We did greatly expand our safety article and really

042brought that up to industry standard. We worked with MVA, Mr. Scott and his team and compared CBAs in neighboring districts to really make that more adequate for our certificated staff members. And we also really worked on our leaves of absence and evaluation process to make sure that those are both uh association friendly but also district friendly in terms of making sure that we're treating employees fairly and they're being evaluated in a timely fashion. So those were some of the highlights from the tenative agreement that the board has been presented with. Thank you Dr. Verie. Um do you all have any questions? I do. So I had the opportunity to read all the changes um in what was presented. But I do have a question just out of curiosity, a knowledgebased question. and that is they're

043already signed between you and MDA or the district and NDA. We just do this as a formality. The board just I mean there's it's just a formality. It it's actually uh it's part of the process for it to actually be approved into our contract, Miss Clark. So our contract is with MVEA and so some of these that were signed earlier in the year like the benefits component for example um and the salary piece we did have to work on memorandums of understanding in order to implement those in a timely fashion but they're still presented here to be recognized in the contract. Um, I guess as far as the process goes, if the board did not approve any segment of the tenative agreements, we would be violating collective bargaining law and they would actually be able

044to file an unfair bargaining uh uh complaint on us. But this is actually part of the process. So, we sign off at the table, but nothing actually gets permanently changed in the contract until the board of trustees approves it. But then if the board of trustees approves it, we could potentially be in breach, right? If we if the board did not, then we could be in breach. So I just I'm just wondering. So it's a formality. It's Well, I don't think they would look at it that way. The association will look at it as part of the process. Just out of curiosity. So we're just attesting to that. We saw it and we we we we read it. Sure. So there's a step that's missing in the process. Um negotiations happen at the table. So

045each of the teams gets an authority from each other's larger bodies in terms of what we're willing to negotiate and accept. So our associations will work with their bargaining unit team members, their membership to identify these are the things that we want, these are the things that we would like to negotiate. The district does the same thing in conversations with our board and those conversations happen in close session and then the teams go at the table and they basically negotiate the language with an agreement and understanding that there is an authority to arrive at those decisions and those agreements at the table. Just thank you. Thank you. Colleagues, any other questions? No. If not, we have a public comment on this uh before we take the vote. Correct. Mr. Roy Blacker, please. I want to

046thank you all for giving me further evidence improving the thesises I bring to you, not only here, but out in the public airways. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the tenative agreements? So moved. Miss Clark. And do I have a second? I'll second. Miss Lea seconds. Miss Clotty, can you call for the vote, please? Mr. Williams, I. Miss Leva, I. Miss Clark. Hi, Miss Luna. I motion carries. Four yeses and two absent. Next, we are on to item J3, public hearing and presentation of the draft local control accountability. Um, it looks like I'm sorry. Oh, I guess Dr. Do you want to open the Oh, I'd like to make a motion to open the public hearing to discuss the local uh control accountability plan, the LCAP, please. Thank you, Miss Clark. Do

047I have a second? I Mr. Williams seconds. Miss Claudia, can you call for the vote? Mr. Williams. I Miss Lever. I Miss Clark. Hi. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries. Four yes and two absent. Okay. Dr. RC. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Luna. Uh so this is um an annual uh item that we present to the board and essentially in our next board meeting, we will present to you the finalized uh version of our of our LCAP. Um, we've been I just want to commend Miss Brown and her team. They've been working with Riverside County Office of Education. Um, and you know, even though she says, "This is my first year. This is my first year." She's been doing a fabulous, fabulous job. And so today, you'll just receive an overview. We presented to

048the board. As a matter of fact, we provided you like a one-pager overview on some of the changes. Some of it is um allocation of funds. others is more significant like the learning recovery grant that needed to um block grant that needed to be part of the LCAP. So here as just to attest that everything that we put in the LCAP is aligned to our vision and mission. Um we also want to uh assure the board of education that we go through every um element of the strategic plan within the ALCAP which includes having that vision, the mission, the core values, doing a SWAT analysis with our students and our parents um presenting our annual actions and then our yearly objectives. Um this year as you know we have the three priorities that we worked

049on. We also um ensure that everything is aligned from not only from that vision but the actions within the alcap with by each goal and then the additional for example we received the equity multiplier and those turn into goals in and of themselves. So in the alcap you see that the board the board of education not only adopts or approves our goals but we have to make sure that they are aligned to the eight priorities of the state of California. So this visual, you've seen it before, gives you that alignment of what goals are aligned to what state priorities. And so in this LCAP, we um include in here, and this is a template from the state, it includes our LCFF budget overview. It includes our 2425 LCAP annual update, which in this case um

050is what we did last year. This is a three-year plan. So we are concluding our first um we're going into our second of third of three years. Um, we also include how we engage educational uh partners, our goals, our actions, and our improved services, especially for those three student groups that the ALCAP must uh we must address, which is our foster youth, English learners, and lowinccome. And so, here's the timeline. Um, those are all the meetings that we had this year with our pack. That's one of the requirements to get to this point. Um, I want to reassure the board that every time that we met with our parents, any suggestions that they gave us, we either already showed them that it was addressed in the LCAP or we included further allocation um to meet

051their for example tutoring. That was another big thing. And so ensuring that next year we are going to have a tier uh three tier tutoring program for um our intense students that need more of that onetoone then small group which is a tier two and then for all students which is a tier one and then our student meetings we met with our students virtual and in person and then all the feedback that they gave us as well. So, the next process we've been meeting with Riverside County Office. Um, so again, this is a timeline and then the last board approval uh will be in the next board meeting and that's um that's the the official approval date. If anybody wants to see the draft, this is not this is going to continue to be a

052draft until the board of education approves. There's the bit.ly, there's the um QR code. they can go in there and they can see by goal, by action how what our plan is to meet um the student achievements. And you know, although we're it's not official, we are seeing a lot of gains in different areas, especially within certain schools. Um we're excited about the data coming in. We're still in we're improving, not where we want to be, but we are moving in the right direction. And again this um just at a glance everything that it includes which I already went over especially our budget overview for parents as you know that we have the entire district money which you're going to hear from Susana in a bit but then the portion of the LCAP that for

053the most part educational services over um overseas which is aligned to every single SIPA which is the student plan for student achievement at the site level. And so again, this is another um view of that the the monies received through ACAP and then any increase because our UP may have an increase, any increased allocation, we have to reflect that and report that out as well. And um these are just the different things we did all year long to ensure that we have a comprehensive ACAP meeting with educational partners, meeting in in director's meetings, meeting with you all in an interactive study um session as well and the different task force across the district um and an extended cabinet in cabinet just reviewing uh parts of of the LCAP or more intensely providing that direct support.

054um working with teachers. For example, our fifth our fifth grade, seventh grade, and IM1 PLNs in math. This is um a a quick um resource where anyone can go in there and they can click on not only the digital ACAP, but how we got input from our educational partners, the dashboard data, which the only one that we have is as of spring 2024, but we are hoping we get the new dashboard data sooner than December. So we want to get it the sooner the better. And then our internal progress monitoring when anyone asks how do you know that you're moving in the right direction? We have Renaissance star we give that to our students three times a year and we are we are able to pull something called the student growth um percentile report where

055we can actually see by student how much they've grown. And this report is aligned to our CASP data. So we we don't wait for CASP. we already can we know if our students are making progress and gains um by school by student. This is an overview of the budget summary um by each one of the goals and then this is the the equity multiplier goals as well um that we were identified as needing additional support and in here for example chronic absenteeism we have identified schools that didn't make progress and so um we have to identify this as well in our LCAP. So just some of our next steps is we continue to seek in input. This is why we have a public hearing right now because anybody is able to provide input in hopefully

056they read the entire LCAP. It's important to read the entire LCAP in order for people to make you know suggestions or feedback on the LCAP. Um so we are seeking board approval on June 24th and we will also bring the local indicators. So along with the dashboard which is the metrics used to identify improvements and growth, we also have something called a local indicator. So you'll see re be receiving a presentation for that um next time. And then um and again just um included opportunities here, additional funds and how they work together for improved student achievement. So any questions um they can bring them my way or bring them to Miss Brown and her team and she'll be more than happy to address those. Thank you very much. Any questions, colleagues? Any questions for Dr.

057Common? Oh yeah, go ahead. No, I just want to say thank you Dr. Russ because I have seen, you know, I have been able to be part of the LCAP before prior to becoming a board member and I have seen how you have taken into consideration um the parents, you know, points of view and suggestions. Um I have seen the growth now that we see Miss Brown and Mr. Peoples, you know, um taking it over. Um parents are really happy with it. The way they're like they're doing it and mainly what they're um happy about is like um continue to take that, you know, their points of views into consideration and making it part of that plan. So I just wanted to say thank you on that. Thank you very much, Miss Lea. Miss Clark,

058did you have anything? No. No. Okay. Thank you, Dr. RCE. Uh, do Oh, we have a public comment before we close the hearing. Uh, Mr. Roy Blecker, please. At what point do you scrap a plan that hasn't been working for decades? When you look at the LCAP and what it was supposed to be and when you see what it's become, what you don't address is we are not creating an environment where students can s succeed in the 21st century. Just like with the shop class part, another thing that's been and they're doing a lot of studies on it's becoming more is you don't you keep talking about students with anxiety and bullying and all this stuff. One of the things that has been shown that that is the lack of physical education, just letting kids

059go out there and play and deal with some of this stuff, taking dodgeball out of the schools. This is the kind of discussion we don't have. We could we could lead a renaissance back here and break the chains that have shackled our kids and will continue to shackle them in the future. It's like I've been coming up here for almost 20 years and talking about how we needed to retool our facilities to provide the education for the 21st century. That's the same as the skill sets and everything else. While that may change, fundamental human behavior has not. And if you try to run this safety bubble that we can protect you from everything, we can solve every wrong, it ain't going to happen. And even if you do, there's going to be a day when

060they're not going to be dependent on this school district or you or parents or anybody else. They're going to have to make it on their own. That's what this process is supposed to do to prepare them for that day. That's where we've been failing a lot. That's what's not being addressed. That's what should be discussed in the presentation. that should be the focus of the superintendent and the board of education. The fact that it's not, at least to me, is very disturbing because like I've said, the thing that breaks my heart the most is the kids today are not going to have the same opportunity we did. And that's a cry and shame. Thank you. Do I have a motion to close the public hearing? Miss, I'd like to make a motion to close the

061public hearing on the LCAP. Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Miss Lea seconds. Miss Clark, can you please call for the vote? Mr. Williams, I. Miss Leva, I. Miss Clark. I. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries. Four yes and two absent. Uh next, uh we're on to item four, public hearing and presentation on the proposed 2526 budget. Do I have a motion to open the public hearing? I'd like to make a motion to open the public hearing on the proposed 2025206 budget. Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? I'll second. Um, Miss Clotty, can you please call for the vote? Mr. Williams, I. Miss Leva, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries. Four yes and two absent. And Miss Lopez. Thank you, President Luna, members of

062the board, Superintendent Dr. Dual Cava, members of the audience. Um this evening we um have a presentation. Um this is a public hearing for our 2526 adopted budget. And I just want to start with our district goals. I know we've seen this slide already a couple times this evening. Um but I think it's really important um because coming from the business side, we want to make sure that we have accurate information. um because one of our goals is to have the fiscal stability so that as a district we are able to meet all these goals and to be able to provide goals. So just wanted to mention that um a public hearing. So what is a a public hearing? Uh we've had a couple this evening. Um these are requirements and so prior to the

063official adoption of our adopted budget which will take place at the next board meeting, we are required um by education code to have this public hearing. And um for the budget side, the process is it's actually advertised in a newspaper um and it um stated that our budget forms were available for public inspection between June 10th through June 13th, which we did. And so for the last couple of the months, uh the business staff has been busy working on the U 2526 budget. I do want to thank the board because you have been um had provided the direction of having the budget updates at each of the board meetings and so we've been giving you updates about May revision and any changes we hear from the state and so it's made it a little bit

064easier because we don't have to capture all of that uh tonight which would normally be the process and so this is the last step for us to be able to receive um any feedback on the budget before we finalize it. So after tonight, um we will be finalizing those budget forms so that we can put together our information and present it to you at the June 24th meeting for formal adoption. So, I want to just take a a little step back um and I know we've got some new trustees and so there's going to be a little bit of a budget 101 component so that um next week when we review the budget um in a little bit more detail um we're all comfortable with the information that's being presented. I know this slide in

065particular is a slide that you have um seen in the past um but this is the first time that you're actually seeing one new fiscal year. Um and so just a reminder anytime we talk about budget we not only talk about the budget year which in this case would be 2526. we always discuss two subsequent years um because AB1200 actually requires that when financial presentation is presented and adopted um that we include those multi-year projections. So we're seeing 2728 and we are continuing our projected decline of 375 students and I always say this is the slide where I hope if I'm going to make a mistake it's here and that we don't lose this many students, right? But I think just looking at our trend and you can see this going back the last 7

066years uh where we've gone from a district that's been close to 33,000 um to 2425 where we were just under the 31,000. So it's a trend that we're seeing um in the state. We're seeing it in the county. Um but quite honestly the decrease in our district is not as high as the decrease in some of the surrounding districts and their smaller districts. Um and so yes, we are still a declining enrollment district, but um we're benefiting from the fact that there's still growth occurring in the city. It's almost like we have two dynamics in our city where you have one end of town with experiencing the growth and then the other end of town where you're experiencing the greater decline. So that in itself um presents challenges as well. And then the second most

067important thing would be attendance, right? So we project our enrollment and enrollment is key because then we can project our attendance. Enrollment also is used um for our staffing which is also pretty critical. And when you look at the attendance I do want to point out that we still have 2425 is projected. This school year just ended um but we know that we need to go back and make sure we collected all the information what staff does internally as we do internal audits. um because we'll we know that we have external auditors that will be coming, but we want to make sure that by the time they come, we have reviewed the information and and have cleaned up as much as we can. Um so making sure that we've accounted for all of the makeup

068in attendance, so all of the independent study contracts that everything aligns. Um and so we still have that 92% as projected. And I think if you looked at an earlier slide in the superintendence report, it showed that districtwide it was 92.08. So, we know it's pretty close. Um, but we're not just ready to lock in that final one until we submit our attendance reports. Uh, which aren't due actually until the end of July. And then for 2526, we are um knowing that we continue to to make progress and I think um this year we learned a lot with the independent study contracts and then we are hearing from the state level that there's going to be additional methods for us to recover attendance. So, I know Mr. Peoples, uh, Dr. Arce, and then the entire

069ed services team is really excited about that um because we're going to have other opportunities to recoup attendance um other than what we're doing right now. And so based on that, again, because we don't have all the details f finalized, we don't know what it's going to look like, we're going to be a little conservative and and we're going to project a half% increase for 2526 and then um up close to right around 93%. Again, we need to estimate based on the information that we have today. And then with each interim report that we present to you, if we're seeing things, the trends are looking different or we have any new information, we would make adjustments to our budget. And that's what our budget is, right? It's a living document throughout the year. So then

070I want to talk a little bit about local control funding formula and I Dr. Arce presented some of the information on the ALCAP. Um, and so just how do we get these numbers? How are these numbers calculated? Um, again, we have a base dollar amount that we receive per ADA and and that is the same dollar amount um up and down the state. So, that is um the same, but then there's adjustments that are specific to each school district. There's adjustments for grade levels. So, there are grade spans that receive additional funding. uh the K3 grades span is one and then the 9 to 12 grade grades span is another and then the demographics it's almost like if we were to circle this the amount that is generated for the demographics is what translates to

071your LCAP so as was referenced we take a look at our lowincome English language learners and foster youth that is what our unduplicated pupil percentage is as a district and the higher your unduplicated pupil percentage, the higher amount that you will receive in supplemental and concentration funds. And those are the dollar amounts that we need to account for in our LCAP. And so when you look at it, um you know, this is a funding formula that came about about 12 13 years ago now. And from the very beginning, they wanted us to account for these additional funds. So the reasoning behind it is if these populations need additional services, you need to tell us how you're going to spend that money and why. And so that is really how how the LCAP came about. Um

072but ED services is dependent on business because we do the calculations. And so I do want to thank the team um because it has been a collaborative effort. Um and and we just with new folks over on educational side. So Miss Brown and then Mr. Leuda on the business side. Um I think we did a great job uh working together to make sure that our numbers were in alignment uh so that when we're presenting information to you, it aligns. So this is just another visual of the local control funding formula. So again, you look at that level of that first row. Those are the base that's the base amount and it's by grades span. So, this is where the attendance piece is critical because we actually have to track our attendance by grade level. Um,

073and we do that so that we can report this information. Then there's additional add-ons for your grade level. And then depending on what your demographics are, that's where you're generating the supplemental and concentration funds. This unduplicated pupil percentage um number is critical because I think it was about three years ago that I was standing here um and we were having some discussions about the fact that our LCAP revenues were decreasing and that had to do with the fact that our um collection of information um was we did not do a good job coming right back out of the pandemic if you recall um there was initiative and that's when universal meals were introduced which was a great thing but what did that lead to that led to people saying I don't need to fill out

074this form anymore because I'm getting free meals whereas prior to that um you needed to complete and meet those income guidelines in order for you to qualify but it taught us a lesson right that we needed to again come together as a district and work on a way to be able to collect this information number one Number two, to educate our parents and our families about why we needed this information and the fact that it was not only a free meal that your students would be receiving, but in fact it tied to overall the district's funding. Um and so each year um again thankful that we are able to have these discussions in every single principal or leadership meeting. Uh we actually have information that is communicated weekly by technology innovation and assessment that will

075have every school site and where they are in the process of collecting it. And I know that the principles take that information go back to talk to their staff and we monitor it. Why did we do that? Because when you're looking at um our single year and you look at for example 2324 and the reason we're showing you three years is that that rolling is a rolling three-year average. So for 2324 the single year collection was 87% but the three-year average was only 80% because 2223 was a low number. Um but as a district I think we now have a formula that works. Um, but we need to make sure that we carry that momentum and the annual information update will continue to be a a topic that will discuss at our leadership meetings. I

076know that our JFMC committee actually has representatives from technology, innovation, and assessment that go to every meeting to give the updates on where they're at. MBA, CSA, they've always said, "What can we do to help so that people know that we need to collect the information?" because that translates to revenues. Um the second piece of that is that our collection for last year we had over a 95% collection rate which I think was amazing as a district. We always strive for 100% but it can get tricky because remember this is a period in time. So if a student was enrolled on Cabbed's day or Cowpad's day, which is that first Wednesday of the month in October, and then they leave, they're still going to count for our data, but the students no longer here, there's

077going to be no incentive for that family to complete the form. And so when we've talked about are we ever going to collect 100%? Probably not because of those um changes. But I think 95% and above is means that we're doing a great job and that the information we have is pretty accurate. So we have just uh this is really the only slide that has budget figures because the rest of them are going to be more of visuals just to show you where percentages align, but we wanted to show you where the the budget information came from. So as of right now our unrestricted budget for 2526 shows us projecting revenues of 483 million expenditures of 388 million other financing sources and uses. This is where we see our contributions. We've had a lot of

078discussions about the fact that we have a contribution for our special education program because we are underfunded at the federal level. Um, and then we also have a required contribution for routine restricted repair maintenance. That is a requirement for anybody that receives state funds for facility projects, which we do. Um, and so when you take a look at that negative 101 million, that that's what that corresponds to. You can see that for 2526, we're projected to deficit spend 7 million. Um, our beginning from balance is projected to be 109 million. Our ending from balance 102. I want to state that we as a district um set a goal a couple years ago that we did not want to be in a position where we were where we were going to have to deal with going

079through layoffs and and so uh the board actually um gave direction that for the outy years we were going to be conservative which means we budget 0% cola. We are keeping that format moving forward. And so this is a conservative budget, but it has allowed us to really explore and make use of one-time monies and grants without adding expenditures, but instead using that to offset expenditures in our general fund so that we can relieve that general fund and build up this reserve. Because I think for a couple years, I think we would agree we were living on the edge in the budget year. I think we're still living on the edge, but now it's that third year out, which quite honestly, show me a district that shows that they're flourishing in that third year out,

080it's going to be very difficult. And so I think um when we have plans in place um and we've we've committed to that and we continue to monitor expenditures, positions, and so forth, we're seeing the result that gives us a little bit more flexibility and at least that stability that is needed to maintain our programs, number one. And then number two, be able to prepare to things for things such as all this uncertainty that we're hearing right now at the federal level especially and not knowing how that's going to trickle down to the state level. Um so just wanted to mention that even though we are still deficit spending um I think it's a little bit more contained um for the budget year which is a good thing. So when we take a look at

081just the big picture, so so why is it sometimes difficult, right? Um this is a a large budget, right? We we talked about it um being $600 million budget. That's that's large. And so where does this money go? And so I wanted to spend a little bit of time um talking about some of the expenditures and some of the percentages because I think sometimes when we see things visually, it helps us understand a bit. So this first um pie chart is our revenues broken down and you can see that most of this is in this blue royal blue color right and so these are our LCFF this is our local control funding formula and this is why attendance is so important 95% of our revenues on the unrestricted side which is our operational budget is

082tied to enrollment and attendance this is why we spend so much time um focusing on this. I know that you know sometimes you hear folks saying well you know schools have all this lottery money um right and this is how you stay in operation. So lottery is a state revenue and you can see that it's less than 3% of what we're projected to receive and lottery is only a component that's not all of the state revenues and then you see that dotted line and and that's that's where the breakup is for supplemental and concentration. So out of that LCFF sources about 20 23% would be the supplemental concentration the LCAP. So it's it's a big portion but you can see that the unrestricted budget is just much bigger than that. Okay. So these are the

083expenditures for unrestricted and we've broken this down by certificated salaries, classified salaries and management salaries. Um, and then you can see employee benefits. When we look at employee benefits, this includes not only retirement. So, we've talked about stirs and pers and and at the adoption meeting, we'll go through what the rates are and those rates have increased over the last couple of years. It also includes the contribu the uh district contribution for health and welfare benefits. It includes um like workers compensation. So all of that would be captured under employee benefits and that's just all groups lumped together. But when you add up all of the salaries, uh the 40% for certificated, the um 16% for classified, 6% for management, and 24% for benefits, 86% of our unrestricted expenditures are tied to people. And so

084many times when we are having to face difficult decisions and and we you know we talk about what other things can we look at. It's very difficult to look at other things when so much of your budget is dependent on people and and this is again just another reason why we want to make sure that we have the stability so that we can continue to to maintain that. Um and you can see that books and supplies 3% services operating expenses 9%. And then capital outlay 1% as well as other outgo. So just what you know when we look at books and supplies that amounts to about a little under 14 million districtwide for unrestricted. And so when you just we sort of spelled out here what books and supplies are. Um and so this would

085be everything that is library books, materials, supplies, equipment, technology. So laptops, computers, printers, all of that is captured in that category. And just we put some dollar amounts up there just as information only. So textbooks, it's about.7 million. So 700,000 is what we've budgeted in 2526. Materials and supplies 11.4 million districtwide. and technology supplies and equipment 1.5 million. So they're big numbers um but it's a smaller percentage of of that the total expenditures on the services. This would include everything such as utilities, any contracts, consultants, legal services, field trips, travel, communication. So just some dollar amounts. Um the utilities, I know that always surprises folks. as a district, our utilities are projected to be about 11 10.9 million for next year. Um, so it's a big component of our budget. And just like at in

086your household, you can't do a lot to control it, right? When you were getting notices, just like we get notices at home about electricity going up x percentage, we do too. And so we need to make sure that we account for that. Um, we have rentals, leases, repairs districtwide, about 5.9 million. Software licenses, that's about 6 million districtwide. Travel and conference, about 1 million districtwide. Um, so I think when we look at at the numbers, they're big numbers, but then you look at the fact that it's districtwide. Um, it's just quite astonishing that we're able to do all this because it that's what we're doing. and we're having to look at each category and and make sure that at the end of the day we can balance our budget as much as possible. So now

087we'll shift focus and leave unrestricted behind and now we're going to look at restricted. So this is where all of these monies with strings attached, right? All of your grants and entitlements. And you can see that when we look at revenues, this looks very different than unrestricted, right? Um there's no LCFF. So LCFF has nothing to do with our restricted revenues, but instead you're seeing a high percentage of state revenues and you're seeing a about 22% in federal revenues. Um the majority of the state revenues, a lot of it would be special education and then we've got some of our one-time funds that are also in state revenues. Um our ELOP funding is now under state revenues. And so that percentage of state revenues has actually increased in the last couple of years and then

088federal has slowly been decreasing. Um and that's pretty common across the state. So what do we see when we talk about federal programs? So these are all programs that were usually created by legislators for specific purposes, right? So title one very specific as to how the money can be spent. Title one, we're projected to receive about 12.5 million next year. And so, um, title two, $1.25 million. And so, whereas unrestricted is mainly used for all of the staffing, when it comes to restricted, uh, you're seeing a lot of these plans, right? You, the dis the board receives a con app that shows how much money we're going to receive. Um, there's different grants that will come to you throughout the year. And in each case, there's an grant award and then there's a budget plan.

089So there's not a lot of flexibility um because all of the expenditures on the restricted site have to qualify for the specific grants, right? And so uh we're always thankful for additional revenues, but there's not a lot of flexibility on the state side. just put some information on on restricted lottery because we get unrestricted lottery but we also get restricted lottery and then some information on uh the career tech education incentive grant and the expenditures on the restricted side also look much different than on the restricted side and that's because some of these might be one-time monies and we've always said that we don't want to spend onetime monies on ongoing ing things. And so you're going to see that when you look at your salaries on the restricted side, it's 64% of the expenditures.

090So unrestricted was 86. Now we're dealing with 64 because a lot of these grants um are designed to do special things. And that's why you see, for example, your services are now 30%. So a little bit higher um because we're needing to do specific items versus just hiring staff. um just follow the same format on the restricted side for books and supplies. It's about 10.4 million. So you can see that we're spending a little bit more on technology supplies because a lot of the grants like title one allows you to do technology for um title one. So you can see that's 4.1 million materials and supplies 8 million equipment 800,000 and then on the services another operating expenses 6 million for rentals leases and repairs districtwide uh software licenses 1.6 million and then travel and

091conference 1.6 million um a lot of these grants allow for the travel and that's why you're seeing travel um a little bit higher on the restricted side. So overall, I know that was a lot of information. I know everybody doesn't get as excited about budget like I do, but um we have just to wrap things up. This is what we're projecting that the adopted budget will look like. And you can see that for 2425, which we will have to there it's we will be presenting estimated actuals. The fiscal year closes June 30th. And so right now we have to go through the process of estimating how we think we're going to end the year. It won't be until um probably early August when the books are closed and we can pay all the invoices and

092pay all the staff for work through June 30th. But right now we're estimating that for 2425 you can see there under that year um to finish with a reserve being uh 16.83%. Interestingly, school services, who is an agency that gives guidance to districts, um has shared that like an ideal reserve would be 17%. Um and so that was exciting to see that we're there, but then you can see that for the multi-year projections because we are deficit spending, you're seeing the reserves that will be dropping. And so again, information for us to have because we know we need to continue with the practice of of reviewing the expenditures. Um um and then evaluating everything which is something that you know the board has also asked us to do. Um evaluate the expenditures and make sure

093that what we're doing is working and if it's not working we need to change it. Um and and so that's the goal. Um and so like I said, we will have a lot more budget information at the next meeting. Um so our next steps is on June 24th. So one week from today, we will be presenting and recommending for adoption the 2526 estim um adopted budget as well as the estimated actuals for 2425. um we're going to adopt this and um I know that Governor Nuome has um a bill that or language that the legislators presented to him. Um I don't believe he has signed anything at least as of earlier today. Um and sometimes that happens where we are asked to approve a budget and the state hasn't adopted a budget and if they

094adopt it adopt it and there are things there that would that would have an impact on us which are material we would be coming back to the board um either in July or August with a 45day budget update to incorporate all of the changes and then in September we will be presenting to you our unodudited actuals which means now the books have been closed for 2425. We present the information to you. This is our true test. How close did we come to those estimates um because we need to make sure that we align our our beginning balances because right now they're just projections. And then at the December board meeting, we will be presenting a first interim report. And so just want to thank the entire team in business services um because really they are

095the ones that are day in and day out um going in making sure that everything aligns so that we have information to present to you. So thank you. Thank you. That was a lot. So uh Mr. question. Um, in our projection, in our spending as it rolls into the the upcoming years, uh, of deficit spending, what would you attribute most of that deficit spending coming from? Is it coming from the federal government? Is it coming from the state? Or is it increased costs? It's a combination of a lot of things, right? So we continue to decline enrollment. So our revenues are not increasing. Um so that's big. The second component is that even if our personnel stayed exactly the same, there's going to be additional costs for step and column if retirement increases, things to

096that nature. And then secondly, inflation, right? I mean, we have to build into our budget. Right now, we're building a 5% increase each year for utilities. if the increases come in higher, we need to make adjustments there. Um, other significant increases to our insurance premiums, right? Again, just just things that we deal with for our individual budgets, we do as well for the district. So, a combination of items. Thank you, Miss Lea. Do you have any questions? Miss Clark, thank you to you and your team. Always a great job. I do have a couple questions. The first I wanted to know if you could share um some of the other opportunities that help us. You spoke about um capturing attendance. Do you have any idea what that looks like? I know it's not finalized, but

097can you share? Yes. So um the information that we received is that we're going to be able to now capture attendance um even by the hour. So things like tutoring um the afterchool tutoring. I know that through ELOPF there's also going to be opportunities for us to capture some of that. So right now those programs which we have don't do anything to help us with attendance. It's really just the independent study. Um and then the Saturday school if they've already made up an absence and then the second component my understanding is that where right now the system is set up to where you have to have an absence in order for you to recover that now you're going to be able to bank. Ah that's really great. Um and then I don't know if Dr.

098Arce has anything else to share. Yeah, it's uh and you are welcome. We can provide more information Friday communication. It's called the AR attendance recovery program from the state. It starts July 1st officially. We need to have a certificated staff. Um and it and it anything like for example our summer expanded learning as long as we have a a certificated staff on site with the students and we meet a ratio of 1 to 20 for example we can recover the attendance of the students in summer even though they haven't been absent yet if that makes sense. So it is a gamecher and um we'll be keeping a very close eye on it as well. Thank you. The second if we could go back to slide two I just want I mean 10 excuse me 10.

099I just want to make sure I I understand this correctly. So if we look at slide 10 and you have your total revenue for the year and then you have your beginning fund balance. That's your carry forward from the previous fiscal year. Correct. Yes. So 109 would be what we're projecting to end 2425 with. Okay. So your your beginning fund balance is what you're projecting to end 2425 and then I would start 2526. So this is what I would start with my reserves. So that is in your reserves. Yes. Ah got it. So your total revenue for the year was 482. Your expenditures was 3.88 and then that gets you to what like about 94. And then your financial source your other financial sources are what? my contributions to special education to routine restricted repair

100program as well as a transfer out to our property and liability fund which then leads you into a deficit for F7. Okay. So, to make sure and then you project your ending fund so you have a beginning fund balance that's going to carry forward into the fiscal year 26, right? And so then your ending fund balance then what is that? So my ending fund balance for 2526 is simply my beginning balance and then you add that amount that I'm deficit spending for the year. So I'm going to reduce it by the 7 million. So I would end June 30th, 2026 with 102 million. Okay. Okay. Because I capture all your revenue versus expenses and get your same 102 balance. I just didn't see how we were doing that. But I get it. So your 109

101is what you are projecting to begin to begin. And then if you add or you subtract the 7 million that your deficit spending, you get the 102. Yeah. So really though, you're really beginning your fiscal year 26 with a 102. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the clarification. And um remember that um and we'll talk about it at the next meeting, but then our ending from balance is broken down to like the 3% required reserve. Sure. And then we have commitments. And so we'll break all of that down for you because I know the numbers look high, but as our revenues get higher, just that 3% reserve is 20 million. Um and so it's sometimes it's a little deceiving because it looks like a lot of money. Thank you. I had one more question

102because because you brought up after school programs may help us with attendance. So our program for um u elementary students um el the think with think together think together would would that then become a a new revenue source? It it would it would um the only condition based on the AR is that there has to be a certificated staff and so right now in our afterchool program we'd have to open that up there. There's conversations that we would be working with Dr. Verie and his team and and our labor partners in it. If you want to add more just want to clarify that this is not official yet. It's still in the conversation phase. Not. It's something we've heard of potentially happening, but it still has to be approved by the state legislature and signed

103by the governor. And we have what grades for think together? K through TK through eight. Okay. On the attendance part, do we know how often a teacher will mistakenly mark a student absent? because I know we had this conversation last week and I was just wondering I remember I recall that it was easy to report an absence on the app but I don't know if it's easy to report that there they were mistakenly marked absent because I know my son was marked absent mistakenly a few times and I had to ask him hey I thought you were at school I was you know so um I I'm wondering if we get dinged maybe a lot on that on errors I don't know So, one of the things um is that we have an attendance specialist

104in the business office. That that's what her job is, right? To go double check everything. She works with the school sites. Um she looks at trends. Like for example, a student was, you know, here all day, but they were marked absent in a specific period and then working with our attendance clerks to have those conversations. I know that technology innovation and assessment also has um some trainings for the attendance clerks. So I think that is an ongoing critical piece. Um and then we also do audits where business folks and then folks from um student services. Mr. Peebles will have folks that um will go to the school sites and they are looking at like let's look at your procedures like what would how would you handle this? looking at how they go and and utilize

105like the um independent study contracts. What would you do now to to correct that to ensure um and then again just making sure that we double check and and that folks understand you know this is you're you're signing off on it um verifying that things are accurate. But we do have a number of measures in place to try to catch any of those items. Um sometimes when we have substitutes for example they're actually taking manual attendance then you have attendance clerk entering that information. So um just do as much as we can on our end and if we know that there is somebody that is new at a school site um make sure that we invest a little bit more training so that these things don't happen. I think a lot of the challenges just

106that reminding communication, right? Especially when students are um field trips, extracurricular events um because the teachers, yes, chances are they're not physically in the class, but making sure we have the process in place in the attendance office because somebody needs to verify of these students all went on the field trip, making sure that the attendance is corrected. So, as much as we can, we do. But um anytime we need to look into additional staff, we we we're glad to do so because it is revenue for us. Okay. Anything else, colleagues? Yes, I have a question. Um it has to do with the grace period um for a student to arrive to a classroom, you know, late before marking them absent because I have seen that happening, too. like you know they're late but they have

107to be you know like you know like these minutes late before they mark it absent even though you know they're still there but they're late. Yeah. And that is like the tardy policy and I don't have the tardy policy. No, it actually works the opposite way. There's no grace period for students to arrive late to be counted. There's a minimum amount of minutes that they should be in school in order for us to count the entire day. Okay. So it kind of works but we will provide that in terms of the formula and the minutes in a Friday update. Okay. Thank you. And for attendance purposes if they're there any part of the day they are considered present. Okay. Thank you. Anything else? All right. Thank you, Miss Lopez. We have a speaker on this

108item, Mr. Roy Blacker. still living on the edge. Quoting Miss Lopez just a few moments ago. If that doesn't make y'all up there in the day as say stop alto pelgro I don't know what will you look at the declining revenues we're back to where we were a couple years ago when everybody said oh how did we get in this financial crisis when you see the reserves going down deficit spending probably not surprised more sad of Mr. Williams question. Well, how did this happen? Economics 101. When expenses go up faster than revenues, you're in trouble. It's called bankruptcy. You're out of money. 86% salaries. And the this is the proper term, the general slush fund of about $500 million. That means basically what three votes on that board says it goes. You have a little

109over a hundred million that you got a few strings attached. But if I did the math in my head right, 82% of all the money is going to salary and benefits. You will not address the elephant in the room. You keep walking around it. You keep not wanting to address it. just with the negotiations and stuff. And I've talked to both this superintendent, the one that's sitting over here that was and ones before. It's called a lack of guts, a lack of honesty, a lack of accountability, a lack of transparency to tell the truth of what's going on. The reason everything else or you don't have this or this isn't is right there in front of you. in that percentage of where the bulk of the money is going. And if you want to us

110to have faith in your numbers and your presentations, and I don't know how many times I've have have to say this, but I will say it again. There is nothing free. Somebody somewhere pays for it. And if you ain't paying for it, you're getting somebody with a gun to point it at you and take the money out of your pocket and give it to them. We didn't used to have to do this. It goes from all of the stuff that's going on. We do not deal honestly in 98.7% of the cases. The demonstration just went on here and that's why we're are where we are. and future generations will suffer for it. Thank you. Do I have a motion to close the public hearing? I'd like to make a motion to close the public hearing

111on the proposed 202526 budget as presented. Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? I'll second. Miss Claudia, can you please call for the vote? Mr. Williams, I. Miss Lever, I. Miss Clark clerk I Miss Luna I motion carries four yes and two absent. Now we are on to consent agenda. Item K. I'd like to make a motion to approve the uh following consent agenda uh with the exception of A-24255868 for a separate vote. Thank you. Do I have a second? I'll second that. Thank you, Miss Lea. Um, Miss Clauddio, can you please call for the vote? Mr. Williams, I. Miss Lever, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries. Four yes and two absent. Uh, do I have a motion to approve? Do I have a motion to approve as presented with

112polling A2425-68? No, we already as amended. So for clarification, you've already approved. So we're now we're just going to approve the contract. Correct. A 2425 5868. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Correct. Do I have a motion to approve? I I pulled it. So I So just for clarification, the reason that I pulled it is because it belongs to the University of California Riverside and I'm an employee. So if I I'd like to not Thank you for clarifying, Miss Clark. So I like to make a motion. Thank you. And second, Mr. Williams seconds and we can call for the vote. Miss Claudia. Mr. Williams. I. Miss Lea I. Miss Clark abstain. Miss Luna I. Motion carries. Three yes, one abstension and two absent. Now we are on to item L. Is that correct? All right. Uh L1,

113business services discussionformational items. We have the first reading of board policy 4112.42, 42, drug and alcohol testing for school and non-commercial drivers transporting students and administrative regulation 3540 transportation. It looks like Miss Lopez is going to present. Yes, thank you, President Luna. Um, we have a board policy 4112.42 and this is related to drug and alcohol testing for school and non-commercial drivers transporting students. So, we have Senate Bill um 88 or SP 88 that will take um in effect on July 1st of 2025. And so, we are required to align our board policies um and incorporate the language for this Senate bill. Um this is actually a a Senate bill that um even though we did not have um or have board policy to do this is something that we've been practicing and the fact

114that we have our own transportation department has allowed us to do this um to the point that um anytime that we have um it's mainly athletic events but we have uh the transportation of students taking place uh we will assign on a bus driver. So, even if it's in a a van, it will be a bus driver. But we do encourage um folks to utilize the bus. Um but what the Senate bill would do is that in the case that um somebody other than a bus driver, because our bus drivers already uh comply with the drug and alcohol test, they would need to be enrolled in this. And so this is some an ongoing discussion that has taken place already. Again, the biggest group of folks that this would impact would um be our coaches

115and so athletic directors have been presented this information um that if we were to be in that instance or scenario where we have folks that are not participating in the drug and alcohol test that they would need to enroll in that. So that is the first board policy and then we have an administrative regulation 3540 that also is for transportation and this is new administrative regulation that incorporates language related to our transportation plans. Uh so this is actually a requirement that came about a couple years ago where districts were required to formally adopt a transportation plan and then for subsequent years uh we need to provide updates which we've done um in previous Friday memos to the board. And so at this time we are incorporating all of that language for that. Um and so

116you see that there is a lot of additions because this is all new. Um and again just being able to um align with education code 39800.1 that deals with the transportation plans and then also additional language about um having transportation contracts which we want to incorporate as well because as you're aware um that is something that we are looking to do here in the near future is be able to provide transportation contracts to to other school districts. Um, and so this evening we are presenting these for a first reading. Thank you, Miss Lopez. Colleagues, do you have any questions about this? Okay, thank you. We are on to item L2, human resources discussionformational items um, regarding the first reading of a new board policy 4119.24 24 4219.24 and 4319.24 24 maintaining appropriate adult student interactions

117updated administrative regulation 5145.3 non-discrimination harassment board policy and administrative regulation 5145.7 sex discrimination and sexbased harassment and new administrative regulation 5145.71 uh title 9 sex discrimination and sexbased harassment. Dr. Verie, thank you. President Luna, I'll take that the first batch uh that you read off 4119, 4219, and 4319. These uh in effect would replace our current board policy of 4019.1, which was adopted back in 2019 as it pertains to appropriate adult student interactions for all of our employee groups. So, the way it's broken down now by CSBA is a little bit more specific to certificated, classified, and management. So that's what those three would be replacing should the board approve those at our next meeting. And then the others uh really deal with title 9 updates as well as CSBA recommendations for industry standard. is

118really just clarifying the role that Dr. Lewis has as our title 9 coordinator and then what my role is in HR. And then the remaining policies on there deal specifically with discrimination and sex-based harassment to align to again the most current changes in title 9 law and the CSBA guidelines as well. Thank you Dr. Ry. Any questions colleagues? No. All right. We are on to item M action items. The first is superintendent action items. Looks like we have approval of the second reading and adoption of board policy and administrative regulation 1340 access to district records policy. Dr. Vuvakaba. Thank you, President Luna. So, these are the policies that we presented for first reading at our last board meeting. 1340 was changed in a couple of ways. First, um, much of the language that was in

119the BP, the board policy, has now been moved to administrative regulation because it deals more in terms of how the management team is going to implement the board policy. Now, as it relates to the AR itself, it was updated to clarify several things, including better defining what items are disclosable and not disclosable. To summarize, very few things are not disclosable anymore. We have to now disclose as part of a P for example an initial bargaining proposal from a bargaining unit me bargaining unit team. We have to disclose specific vendor information just making sure we're redacting private information. We have to disclose uh other information related to um contracts for example. In addition to that, it uh included a the implementation of a new law which prohibits the disclosing of a public of an individual who

120is public office, their home address or personal information without their written consent. And then lastly, it clarifies what a district does when there's a P in the event of a state of emergency, which means we have the ability to respond uh with a prolonged period of time because we have we are impacted by staffing. Thank you. Any questions, colleagues? If not, may I have a motion to approve? Um, I'd like to make a motion to approve the second reading and adoption of the board policy and administrative regulation 1340, access to district records policy as presented. Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? I'll second that. Miss Leo seconds. Miss Clark, can you please call for the vote? Mr. Williams, I. Miss Lever, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries. Four yes

121and two absent. Now we are on to item M2, educational services action items, approval of the 2025 2026 consolidated application for funding categorical programs. Dr. Arce, thank you very much, Miss Luna. Um, this is also another annual item that we seek board approval. Um, and this is a formal application process that allows our district to access federal funds, um, educational funds. And with your approval, we're ensuring that there's oversight, that there is accountability, legal compliance with the federal and state education regulations that include title one, title two, title three, etc. So, there's two releases. This is a spring release showing our board um it's a two-year commitment how we intend or how we've been using these funds, and then there's also a fall release. So, we are seeking approval. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. RC.

122Do we have any questions, colleagues? Okay. If not, may I have a motion? I I have a I have a question. Um there um funding for private school participation. What does that mean? What that means, Mr. Williams is if a one of our students that lives in our boundaries attends a private school, they have we have a legal obligation and they petition um it could be a a private school or a charter and we receive those title ones funds. They can petition for us to allocate those title one funds to their private school because the student counts on their their even though they're supposed to come to us. They can petition and then we we provide them with the monies. We transfer the monies. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. May I have a motion

123to approve? So moved. Miss Clark and a second. I'll second. Miss Leo seconds. And Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams. Hi. Miss Lea I. Miss Clark. Hi. Miss Luna. I. Motion carries. Four yes and two absent. Next we are on to item M2B. Approval of the second reading and adoption of administrative regulation 5125.3 challenging student records. Dr. Arson. Yes. Thank you. Um so we we updated with the as you remember we brought the first reading in the last board meeting and then there were some suggestions for further uh revising of the AR and so we did that and uh we included the hearing panel. Um we had a we had an excerpt there already addressing the hearing panel but we aligned it strictly with CSBA recommendation. So at this time we are

124asking for board approval to adopt um the regulation 5125.3 um as presented. I just have one question. Um usually a BP comes with AR. Is there something different about this one? Why is it just the AR? Just out of curiosity. Sometimes um board policies it's only an administrative regulation if it's for example ED code. A lot of the times it's already aligned um to ED code. So, it's just how does a district going to enact that ED code and so in this case, CSBA didn't have a BP um and only an AR. So, we're following that. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions, colleagues? May I have a motion to approve? One more question. So, does that mean that if it's AR, if this AR is if we're out of compliance with this AR, that's

125fine because there's no BP or is it does it hold as strong as a BP? It's the same. It's the law. Yeah. And it's our policy, so it's just Thank you. And for the record, thank you. I'd like to make a motion to approve as presented. Thank you, Miss Clark. Do I have a second? I'll second. Miss Lea seconds. Miss Claudio, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Miss Leva, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries. Four yes and two absent. And now we are on to item 3A, approval of the authorization of the parent community booster club, Valley View Football Booster. Miss Lopez. Yes. Thank you, President Luna. So, we have received an application from the Valley View Football Boosters um which states that they have um met all of the

126requirements to be in operation for the 2025 calendar year. Thank you. Any questions, colleagues? Yes. 2025 calendar year meaning they've been out of compliance for six months or does this carry is it a fiscal year? No. So, we approve them for calendar for the calendar years. Um, and so this is an application that they started the application it looks like back in October, but there were items that were still missing and that we needed them to work on. And so, um, this was early May when they submitted the information and our office signed off on it. So, um, back in May, but we're bringing it for approval now. So we can say that there has been no fundraising for from January to May. Hopefully. Yes, that's hopefully. Right. So because we re the paperwork that

127we received um certifies that. But I Oh, so the paperwork certifies that there was no fundraising from January to May or even to current because right now and are we backdating this approval from January 1, 2025, December 31, 2025 because it's calendar year. No, we don't back date because we usually just will wait from the board approval. on. So if this is approved tonight, then we would issue a a letter to the booster saying that you're now approved to be in operation. They submit um a list of projected fundraisers. And the message we communicate is you wait for approval before these items take place. That's why I say hopefully because we're hoping that everybody's following the guidelines. Um and so to our knowledge, um that is what has occurred. And if for example there were

128not worst case scenario, is the district responsible in any way for that fundraising that was happening on our campus or for our football um team? Are we liable for anything? Well, there shouldn't have been any because if we didn't give the approval, there shouldn't have been anything taking place. So um the boosters are separate entities um from the school district. Um, but I do know that in instances where things occur on our property, um, that's where potentially the district could be liable because obviously it's it's on our property, but that's where we would need to look for, uh, where was there communication to utilize the property and so forth. Um but um we encourage events to take place outside. Like I know a lot of like um some of the most popular things like car

129washes and so forth would be things that occur off our properties because they are separate entities. And we always stress that they also need to make sure that they're communicating that it is the actual entity itself that is fundraising and not the school or the school district. Thank you. Any other questions? Do I have a motion to approve? I'll motion to approve. I'll second. Okay. Miss Leva and Mr. Williams. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Miss Lever, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries. Four yes. and two absent. Next, we have item 3B, approval of resolution number 2024-25-100, resolution of the board of education, Marino Valley Unified School District, approving the guaranteed maximum price for the Bear Valley Elementary School modernization project and amendment number two to group one,

130segment two, modernization project lease leaseback agreements, Miss Lopez. Yes, thank you, President Luna. And so we are continuing the work um and making sure that we are implementing um what we said in that facilities master plan. And if you recall, one of the very first items was to continue with the modernization of these schools. And so we have in this case Bear Valley Elementary School, which was part of that group one segment two uh work. Uh this was a project that was awarded to Nef Construction and we've completed the guaranteed maximum price for this Spare Valley project um at 12.3 12,352,262 which is what we are um seeking approval for in addition to a district contingency of $750,000 for this project. Thank you. Any questions, colleagues? No. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve?

131I'll make a motion to approve. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Do I have a second? I'll second. Miss Clark seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Miss Lea, I. Miss Clark clerk. Hi, Miss Luna. I motion carries, four yes and two absent. On to uh number four, human resources action items for a approval of resolution 2024-25-101, elimination of vacant classified positions for the 202425 school year effective June 18, 2025. Dr. Verie. Thank you, President Luna. uh item is for four vacant classified bargaining unit positions that are on the agenda this evening for position control purposes. We bring these periodically for elimination and processing. So there are four positions that are the full-time equivalent of 4.25 positions total. Uh as as always, we sit down with our labor partners in CSCA and discuss

132the impact of this action to make sure that no employees were negatively impacted with loss of hours or loss of employment. Thank you, Dr. Rudy. Any questions, colleagues? Yes. Um just want to make sure so nobody it's like um currently taking these positions is like correct. That's correct, Miss Lea. So there there was a situation in one of the positions where someone was uh slated to be in them, but we actually found them a position with with more hours. So uh if there was any reduction of hours or if someone was going to be laid off, we would have to explain that to the board and of course to CSA as well, but that's not the case. Okay. Do I have a motion? So move, Miss Clark. Thank you. And a second. I'll second that.

133Miss Lea seconds. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Miss Leva, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries for yes to absent. Next, we have uh item 4B, approval of the second reading and adoption of board policy and administrative regulation 4030, non-discrimination in employment. board policy 4144 complaints and new and administrative regulation 4144 complaints. Dr. Verie, please. Thanks, Miss Lun. As as the board is aware, we've we've worked pretty hard to get these policies updated and make sure that with all the changes in law this year that we are compliant and it also allowed us to look at some other areas that we could maybe add some board policies or administrative regulations to to solidify our our uh practice of non-discrimination in employment. So the first one that you mentioned

134board policy and administrative regulation 4030 deals with non-discrimination in employment including processes and procedures in pre-employment and these are CSBA recommendations that we are now updating and uh asking for approval tonight. And then the second set 4144 uh again aligning with CSBA current regulations and uh this particular one sort of complements that previous one that I mentioned in terms of non-discrimination in employment and also handling uh complaints and the complaint process and procedures and this actually uh aligns with our title n complaint process and procedures as well. Thank you Dr. are very very important. Any questions colleagues? I have a question but it's just it's uh it's just in relation to the 4144 on complaints one 123 third paragraph and it says any document communication or employee uh record regarding the complaint shall be placed

135in the separate file. It should not be placed in the employees personnel file. That's good. I just want to know is that a electronic file? Do we save these and do we have a retention on policy on there because I don't see it linked. We are we are in the practice of keeping these electronically and and and our retention policy right now with that Miss Clark really is to we just hang on to them for perpetuity right now. We don't we don't delete these files. Um since I've been here, we initially had what we call just like hard copy complaint files that were kept in in storage. But now we're moving towards an electronic process and transferring even some of the old files to electronic files. So we want to hang on to these and

136maintain these electronically. Would it be possible to approve this but ask for one update just to add the code, the retention code to the policy? That's it. Can we do that? I would recommend that we just bring it back at the next meeting. Okay. And if you can provide the feedback to our team, we'll incorporate that. Which which one in particular? 4144. But if 40 but if 40 um if 4030 just look this remember that one being fine. I think it's just 4144 unless you see different Dr. We have our Why don't you allow us to take both of them back? Okay. And since both of them deal with complaints, there is going to be a a retention component in each. Okay. We can reference our retention policy in both. That's all. Sure. Thank you.

137Thank you. Any other feedback on those? Okay. Mr. Williams, you look like you're thinking about something. No. Okay. Okay. All right. Uh we will they will bring that back to us next time. So we are now on to item C. Approval of job descriptions. Certified teen parenting teacher. I'm sorry. Certificated teen parenting teacher. Certificated district level counselor on special assignment. Certificated management director three of enrichment and expanded learning and classified management board certified behavior analysts. Wow, that's a mouthful. Dr. Verie. Thank you, President Luna. So, uh tonight there there's some extensive changes and updates to some job descriptions before you as well as some new positions that have gone through our JFMC process and have been uh negotiated with our labor partners. The first one that you mentioned is an update to the teen parenting

138teacher and district level um counselor on special assignment positions. The teen parenting teacher position we've had of course in our district for many years. Uh this with the the actually the the person who just retired in that position I think had been working for us for about 30 years. And so uh as we looked at the position and want to go out and fly it, of course we look at you know updating it and making sure it's up to industry standards. So, that is included in here as kind of a result of that. And then the counselor on special assignment job description, we're excited about bringing forward uh to address a issue, a concern, a need in our district for sort of a lead counselor position to support at the different levels. Um, as as

139the board knows, we have lead positions or head positions in the unit in certain areas, but we haven't had sort of a a department chair type person or a professional development type person that comes from the counseling field and supports their fellow counselors. So, this job description that we're asking for approval tonight. We were happy to work through with MVA because we think it's going to really enhance our counseling program and support our counselors at all three levels, elementary, middle, and high school. And then the last one I believe you mentioned uh President Luna is the the director three of enrichment and expanded learning position that is before the board this evening. And a lot of this came from board uh feedback as well as looking at a current position and transforming it into something

140that we felt could address several several needs for the district including some additional support for our VAPA program and some uh additional needed athletics oversight to really support our athletic directors and the athletic programs at our schools and of course our afterchool program which is a very robust program that uh ELOP helps to fund. Thank you, Dr. Ready. Any question? Oh, go ahead. I'm I'm really glad that we're speaking about this. Um, and the director three position uh is even more important since we lost uh Dr. Black uh at this particular time. And uh I would like to recommend that we um strongly consider uh looking at this director three position and uh requiring in uh that position principal experience of 3 to 5 years. Uh and I say that because uh that person is

141going to deal across the district across uh all levels of principal ships and um has to have a very good uh and solid background uh in after school programs uh elementary, middle and high school and um I think we need to fill this position as soon as possible. And I would like to make a motion uh for a further agenda topic to uh recommend Dr. Anthony Rice uh for that position uh moving forward uh with his uh uh skill set will with what he's been able to produce. I had an opportunity to work with that man um 24 25 um and I saw how he brought the students, the staff, the parent community together and uh I think he needs an opportunity to show his abilities and u uh bring some uh core values uh

142and commitment to excellence. uh to a position uh that has a lot of different components uh that I think he he possesses. President, if I may. Yes, please. So, I I want to point the board's attention to page three first. So, Trusty Williams, you you mentioned wanting us to consider including a minimum amount of experience. It's already in the job description. It requires a minimum of five years of successful administrative experience at the school or district level. So, we believe that would satisfy potentially that requirement because it would have a good understanding of kind of the scope of the work that's required. Um, if you would like us to clarify that further, then that would delay this. We would have to bring it back and it would delay us our ability to post the position.

143So, just I want to speak to that. Second piece is we have to be very mindful that there are standards for recruitment and employment. And so we cannot as a board predetermine an individual to be considered for that position. When we speak of employment, the board speaks of that in close session. And when we fly positions, they need to be made available and open to all candidates who are willing wishing to apply. So we can get ourselves into serious trouble with the uh EEOC if there is even a inkling that there is preferential treatment to one candidate over others. So absolutely if any individual would like to consider be considered for the position it's going to be open to all. Our practice is that we open the positions both internally and externally and then uh

144that way they can apply for for that. In addition to that, um we have had a lot of um feedback from community partners and and specifically members of our team that feel that in the past positions were not made available to everyone on an equal or fair basis. And so we want to and the team has really done a good job of trying to be very fair and consistent to make sure that all positions are open to anybody who's interested and that no one is going to be given preferential treatment um one way or the other and and I understand what you're saying. Uh but most recently we've had a number of appointments to positions to so be mindful those those discussions happen in close session and so we just have to be mindful that

145we cannot discuss those openly. So yes if there if if if as a team we have the ability to recommend an appointment outside of the the um hiring process but we have not done that. every board, every individual that we brought to the board since I've been here, aside from the first few at the beginning of the year because we had to make some quick moves, they've all gone through the interview process, every single one. So, going going back to the original question, did you uh to your first question, I'm sorry, did you want us to spell out the years of experience even more that it has to be site experience? Is that a recommendation or principal experience? So it says right now minimum of five years of successful administrative experience at the school or

146district level. Yeah. Is that is that sufficient? And again it would have to be consensus. The only reason I say principal ship that that means you're totally in charge. You've dealt with every aspect of the school, uh the school community, the the the parents, the students, the staff, and and you you you have a breath of knowledge in that area, which then translate to the district three position where you you have to be able to take that on uh um and and hit the ground running with that because your your classroom is now the district. It's not just the site. And I think that's an important uh qualification. So again, by consensus, if that's the board consensus, we can go back to the drawing board and can you can you give me uh what administrative

147encompasses? Sure. At at one of the things that we'd like to do is we want to we want to make sure that we're c we're casting a broad a broad net a wide net for candidates. So five years of experience could be four years as a site principal and one year of director or one year coordinator. It could be two years of assistant principal, three years of coordinator. So there's a there's a lot of combination. What it does is again it gives the ability for us to cast a a wider net. Um sometimes when we are um more I guess granular with the descriptions, it it can really limit the candidates that are going to apply. We may have some really excellent candidates, but they may not have three to five years of principal experience.

148So they would be automatically excluded from the candidate pool. So So let me go back to to our notes with regard to the director 3 ELO position will have the coordinator of VAPA under them. Correct. They already have that. And so we're looking at potentially adding some kind of lead position in athletics. Okay. And and then a coordinator of VLOOKUP and after school and steam program. Again, we were looking at some kind of lead potentially in that area, right? And so if if we're looking for a person to be the director three, we want somebody to have all of some some of some of that experience in all three of those areas. and and to the best of my knowledge, the best way you get that is is being a site principal and by and

149and having that as a qualifier. So, Mr. Williams, to just to just kind of piggyback on what Dr. Ruvakabo was saying about the the way these are written. We we tend to like to have the scope of the job descriptions a little broader. But when cabinet actually sits down and we just did this recently for another recruitment, the first step we do in looking at screening criteria, when we actually screen that first pool of applicants and I jot down what those are and I put those in the recruitment file that we agreed as a cabinet, this is a screening criteria. We could look at a pool of applicants for this position and say, you know what, let's focus on principalship experience. And maybe we'll get even more specific and say high school or middle school

150principal experience only, whatever those those criteria are to help us select uh from that pool the best candidates to go to the next level of the recruitment. So we we can start broad, but then when we start to screen and really look at the needs of the district, the position, and the the strengths and weaknesses of any given applicant pool, we have that ability to say, let's look at let's give priority to folks that have actually sat in the principal ship position. Yeah. and and the you know the coordinator director of athletics you know we would like that person to have some a district or or site athletic director experience so we we can definitely do that as we look at that position we we you know we work with our with MVA because we're

151looking at obviously since it's athletics and probably teacher related it's probably going to some kind of certificated position. It may be something like the KOSA, which is what we're presenting today, the counselor on special assignment or the lead counselor. We may do something like a lead ad to serve at the district level. And so in that case, it would exactly have all that criteria, right? So going back to this again, the rationale for us is to cast a broader net, but if if the direction of the board and the consensus of the board is that we get more granular, we're more than happy to change that. just know that it may limit the applicant pool. I have a question. I know the principles they have experience of, you know, like working um with kids that

152are in the special education program. Are we able to be like as specific um you know, like requirements to apply for this position, you know, to be experienced? So when writing a job description, we can be as granular as we want to be, but again, the more granular you are, the more restrictive you are in terms of the candidates are going to be eligible to apply. Like Dr. Verie mentioned, um we prefer job descriptions like this because we we get a lot of candidates to apply. Once we have the pool, then we can develop criteria. Okay, we're looking at years of experience. We're looking at somebody who has knowledge and this is a director position that's going to oversee a lot of things. We want somebody who has experience with visual and performing arts, somebody

153who has experience with extended learning programs, somebody who has experience with athletics. And so that's part of the criteria when we screen the applications. So that that works a little bit better for us. And obviously knowledge of special education, working with students with special needs is another criteria that we can use that as a lens to filter the applicants. I'm just saying just because you know like um many of the students we were talking about it when we were like planning the agenda that um I have seen you know the lack of of participation of our students that are in the special education program. So I just want to make sure you know absolutely th this position because it's going to be ELO funded it has to include somebody who's going to be working at

154targeting students at the elementary level because ELOP is primarily TK through 8th grade. Hi. Um, I just can't recall, forgive me. Do we already approve the jobs or is this just a job description? Because what I'm reading are just job descriptions right now. Is there job descriptions, but not the actual job posting? Well, I'm not going to post it because I'll I'll post it once it's approved because I I fly these positions with the approved job description. So, I because I'm just reading it. It says we are approval of job descriptions. These are job descriptions that went through the JFMC process. So the the unions are on board with us adding these positions or making these updates. Okay. And then Yes. And then once board approved, I'm going to tell my team fly them and

155attach these approved job descriptions with the recruitment. And just to be clear, this is a a redesign of the director 3 EOP position. So it's not going to be an addition to it's in place of. Right. That's that one. And then the other ones are yes. We would then once this one is in place then we would work with our bargaining units to determine the lead athletics potentially. It has to go through JFMC and all of that and then potentially the lead um elop kosa kosa sorry but cola cola no kilo some something like that. We'll come up with an acronym later. official site. We'll come up with a with an acronym. So, will the board have an opportunity re to review all the job descriptions? The board approves. The board approves every single job

156description. So, that's what we're doing. I mean, actually see. Yes. That's what we're doing right now. Correct. Right. Absolutely. I I I'd like I'd like to make a motion to approve the job descriptions as presented. Do I have a second? I second. Great. Miss Claudia, please call for the vote. Mr. Williams, I. Miss Lea, I. Miss Clark, I. Miss Luna, I. Motion carries. Four yes and two absent. All right. Now, we're on to item N, which is future agenda topics. I'll start with Mr. Williams. Do you have any future agenda topics that you would like to present? Well, that's what I thought we were on. Future agenda topics. We were on Dr. Verde's um Yes. piece. Well, I've said what I have to say, so Okay. Thank you, Mr. Williams. I just want to clarify.

157So with the approval of that job description, this job will post tomorrow, right? We will immediately start the recruitment for this director's position. Sounds good. Thank you. Well, yes, Mr. Williams. I would really like to to to have a little more uh granular look at it. We just voted on it though, Mr. Williams. We already we just passed it. Okay. Okay, Miss Lea, do you have any future agenda topics? No. Miss Clark, I do. Um, I have a couple, but the first I believe that as a baseline standard, all district paid employees should possess a high school diploma or equivalent. I'd like for us to discuss that because unless they're a student worker actively en or actively enrolled in school, um, they should have that requirement. I think that's this helps ensure a foundational level

158of academic achievement while still providing opportunities for students to gain valuable work experience. So I'd like for us to talk about that. I I missed it. So can you repeat the criteria? High school diploma or equivalent. If you are in a paid position in this district, you should have a high school diploma or equivalent unless you are a student worker. I'm talking about future employees. I don't know how that looks. I don't want to go back, you know, but I think you say if there's any employees now that don't bothered in. Yeah. But this is this is something for a discussion, a topic for us to discuss. I'm just saying I thought we already have that in place. I don't know for sure. I believe that's already in place, but we can do some research

159for you. I was just as you brought that up, Miss Clark, I was thinking, are there any positions even even non-classroom related like on the classified side house? I believe every one of our job descriptions as a as a minimum requirement has just what you described, but we'll confirm that for you. We can even include that in a future uh board memo first. Thank you. Sure. I mean, I think the piece to look at is the equivalent part. I think the board would want to know because um Vice President Clark and I had this conversation. What is what is the equivalent mean? So, is it GD? Is it uh experience in the field? What is the equivalency part? Okay. Yeah. Thank you. And that's all I have. Oh, I thought you had two. I did,

160but you know, you decide not to. I'll hold on that one later later date. All right. Thank you, Miss Clark. Um, I do have something. Um, I wanted to bring forth to the board to consider um inclusion of land acknowledgements at at our district graduation ceremonies and other major district events as part of our commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion as well as cultural responsiveness. Um, and so that's what I would like to add to future agenda. I like that. to to clarify land acknowledgements at celebrations. I I I mean as many events as possible, but I was thinking about it during graduation. I thought it would have been nice to have some land acknowledgements at those ceremonies. So, um what I what we've so and I started doing some research and what we've seen

161is in order to avoid confusion um a district or a city will adopt it that it happens at all activities. So there is no confusion about and so we would develop a script. The script becomes part of every presentation template so that at the beginning we would you know acknowledge in this case it would be the koa. Yes. Yeah. Ka srano. But we can work on that and we'll we'll include some sample language in a Friday update. Sounds great. Thank you. Did anybody think of any other topics? Yes. Um we had the um African-American back laurette and um we had over 200 students recognized and it was nice to see the board represented. Uh, I just wish that more of the high school uh uh uh administrators came uh because those are their kids uh

162that that are that are receiving the cloth and um uh going through the ceremony and um I I just thought we need we need to show that unity. Um, we're always trying to find ways in which to get, uh, African-American males involved. And, um, I think we need to start looking at, um, who do we bring in to work that they get to see every day? And I just don't see a lot of people that look like me being hired. I'm I'm just being straightforward, you know, on the diversity piece, the equity piece. And um I've gone through that. I've been uh shunned in 1987 from a transfer from the middle school with a master's degree to go to Canyon Springs and open a new school. And I was told I wasn't to be trusted.

163And it was all a fabrication, but it was allowed to to take place. So when we talk about what's going on with our our males and our males of color and why they don't respond because they don't see people that look like them. So I was just trying to pick up on your diversity piece and that's what uh is bringing me forward full circle. I can count on one hand how many black male administrators are in this district. However, 13% of the population is African-Amean. That's something we need to deal with. If I may. Yes. Go ahead. Because so we will provide in the Friday update uh a listing of all the staffing including their ethnicity. You will find that it's more than 13% Um but I do also want to speak to the balorate.

164So we we have to be mindful that we still live in a country where there's a the ideal of separation between church and state. And so as an institution I can ask we can ask administrators to attend certain things but they have to be non-secular. if I cannot force an administrator to attend a religious event because it may go against their convictions. Um, now I'm just saying that to put it out there. Not that our administrators would ever do that. All of our administrators were asked by me. The ones that could attend did, the ones that couldn't, uh, send somebody in in their place and two had legitimate reasons, including one illness and one personal celebration, why they could not be there. Mhm. But just being mindful that we can ask but we cannot force.

165and and the only reason I brought it up is because I didn't see that representation and I attended the first meeting of the uh back laurate and the feedback I get back I got from the students and from the parents was overwhelming and so it's it's if you send somebody to represent you and you can't go that's even better. But I think we need to show not only the school board being there, but those individual sites having a representative there. That's that's all I'm trying to bring forward. And I will agree with you 100% that it was a beautiful ceremony. Uh wonderful speeches. The one young man that uh that did the um knockknock was amazing. Uh so it was a thoroughly enjoyable event. I told him to patent pending that he's he's has a

166future in public speaking that's for sure. Anything else, colleagues? I have a couple. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. So, let's let's add about an hour to that clock right there. Um No, no, two of them should be pretty easy. So um at the request of a couple of board trustees we received um a request to do ethics training in person. I understand that the eth ethics training module online was a little bit difficult to follow. It did not uh provide the participants an opportunity to ask questions or for clarification that it was a little impersonal and it felt rushed. So with the consensus of the board, if everybody would like to do so, we can arrange um that. So all we need is consensus and but it just means an extra meeting or adding some

167time to a future study session. Do we need a motion? All I need is consensus. It cannot be a motion because it's not an action item. Okay. How long is it? Isn't it like two or three hours? We have to do a minimum of four hours. It's four. So you would want to add that to a study session. We could do it as a separate study session. We could do it as a Saturday. Now, here's the other part. At our board retreat, the board had a conversation around doing a board self-evaluation study session. So, one of the things that we could do is if we could if we commit to a Saturday, we could do both. We could do the ethics training and then begin the board self- evaluation um training as well. I support

168that. And so, that way it's one day. Um I I've I enjoyed very much the board retreat that we did last time. I thought it was a really good way for us to kind of get together the our purpose, our shared purpose and our wise. I thought was the most powerful part of of the day. But uh I think in that sense we could also invite cabinet because they have to do their ethics training as well um to be part of at least first the first part of that. Um so we could do it both in one day and kind of get it out of the way. I support that. Colleagues, do you support that? When is our um retreat? So, we don't have one yet because we're still trying to work out finding the

169the consultant, right? When do we have to have it completed? We are. It's We already This is January of 2026. Six months. Wait, we have to have another ethics training complete by January 2026. We're in compliance. We're just doing it over because people didn't have questions, right? That's good for two years. Oh, did you already do yours? Yes. Oh, I didn't do mine. Oh, yeah. Not everybody did theirs. Oh. Um, but there's also going to be one offered at the annual conference in December. So, just in case we don't get the ethics training. Um, but it there's also other available workshops at that same time. So, you will have to choose between the ethics training and the other workshops that are offered that one day only. But anyhow, um, we are trying to get the

170consultants to come out and try to do this training so that you guys can all do it. You are supposed to have it completed by January of 2026, January 1st of 2026, and you have to repeat it every two years. Okay? So, if a trustee already completed her virtual one, then she wouldn't be required to attend unless she wanted to talk about the she could come later to the other part, right? But the perk is if you have the training completed, you have an opportunity on that day to take some other types of training instead of doing the required training at CSBA. Yes. At the CSBA. So if we could get that training ahead of time, we would have the opportunity to make some other choices that day, that Tuesday before the conference. That's how

171I understood it when you explained it. Yes. So with consensus of the board, we can have Claudia continue to do some research, maybe identify some potential dates and we can send those out before the Oh, before CSba, of course. Yes. Wanting to get that done as soon as possible. I support that. I I'm in favor. Sounds like everybody's on board and cabinet looks like they're excited about ethics training. Yes. One question. um the professor who gave us um been giving us the trainings at the Howard University. Do you know he gives that one? Because he's really good, you know, like Dr. Joseph, Dr. Wayne Joseph. Oh, yeah. I don't know. Does he have a a JD? Maybe you can. We can check. We can ask. We'll ask. I'm on the board. I can Well, Claudia,

172you could check. I want to do Okay, we'll check. Yeah, because we can also have um Huff, our lawyer, do it, too. Yeah. Did you have anything else, Dr. H? I have one more. Okay. So, at about three Fridays ago, we presented information to the board on the number of students at March Mountain that would be ineligible for participation in athletics if they were still using the the no Fs for participation. It was a small number. So, we met with Dr. black. I had a conversation with Mr. Kintterero, had a conversation with Dr. Rice as well. This is something that the team at March Mountain, the staff um feels is something that they want to hold on to because in their mind they're thinking students who are at March should be focused on on academics

173first with athletics as kind of a secondary incentive for them to be there. And again, I'm just relaying the information that that was shared with me by these three individuals. Um, Dr. RC, I don't know if you want to share anything more about the history, but one of the things that we see is is making a change to that right now is not going to impact a lot of kids. I think based on the numbers we gave you, it might have been three three or four kids that were on that cusp. Yes, three, but only one of them would be eligible. So, really, it's a minimal one. Um we just want to know what direction the board wants us to go in in terms of that policy. Um but just know that it is something

174that that that team holds very dearly and Dr. RC you can share more about that. Yeah that's exactly in our in our work with them in especially speaking to past principles and current principles. It's something that they feel very strongly about because they feel that our students coming into alternative education are already very much behind in credits and if they have a failing grade and we allow them to participate, which again it's not that many students. We really did an analysis and it was only one that would be impacted. Not to say that they were interested in athletics. Um but let's say that we move forward with that. Uh it is a strong feeling and belief that we are going to be sending the wrong message and that instead of our students focusing on catching

175up and going back to tra traditional schools that they would now be allowed to participate and then maybe furthering getting further behind in their um progress to to high school graduation. So just so we're clear, a yes consensus would mean keep it the same or a no consensus would mean keep it the same. So we actually never never even got to that. I think we the subject was broached. You the board asked for more data. We provided the data and so this is the next step. Um obviously we wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't come with a recommendation. We would we recommend that we kind of delay a decision on on this until we have an opportunity to engage with the staff at March again and let's come up with a win-win. Can

176we come up with something that satisfies their desire to still hold academics as like the primary function of what they do, especially as an alternative, and then maybe look at some different criteria, some maybe different probationary language. I I'm just kind of throwing things out there as potentials that would maybe satisfy both not unduly penalize a student by not allow not allowing them to participate in activities or athletics but also maintaining the accountability for them to continue to focus on their academics. And we just want to do that because I think we know that that team is so passionate about this that we feel an obligation to go back to them to at least come up with some kind of solution. you know, I' I' I'd like to speak to that. And um in 2021

177and 2022, I was the basketball coach there, and my expectation was for all the students to have a B average. And the athletic director laughed in my face. And through the course of coaching over there, I met with a lot of resistance from the staff. I had people come up to me before a game and ask my students to participate in a blood drive when they're going out to the to play the game. or if they had a deficient grade, the teacher wouldn't mark or or or grade their work for several weeks. There were games I played with three students and I was looking for a statistics guy and I brought him on to my team and he had B's and C's and then the next week he had two Fs. So the policy was

178weaponized and the kids lost out. And that's the only reason I brought this up. And yes, they do want to maintain this policy. And I've seen people weaponize and pencil whip students. And I don't want to see another student go through that. But unfortunately, we're going to allow teachers to continue to uh restrain students. They need pro-social behavior and they need to stop failing and we need to be able to get the kids. I would tutor the kids, try to help the kids. Meanwhile, the teachers were keeping their grades at a 58 and a 59% so they couldn't play. That's the only reason I brought it up because nobody else in the district has to get all passing grades but the kids at March. To me, that's archaic, draconian. And I realize that kids come

179their credit deficient, but when are they going to get a break? when are they going to see the light at the end of the tunnel? But what some of those kids went through was criminal and they knew the teachers were whipping them with that pencil. I even asked to speak to the staff. What do you want us to do? Do you want us to spend extra time with these students and help them in their deficiencies? Because that's what we tried to do. And the kids were working hard, but they could only get 57.3%. Haha. And the season was over March 1st. That's when all the teachers turned in their grades. I have never in my teaching career seen adults take after 13 kids like this staff did. I'm done. You can hold on to that,

180but I don't agree with it. Just want to be clear. This is not a decision that we're making. This is of a topic that you brought up. It was came to the board for discussion and part of my job is to be as objective as I possibly can. I just find it really hard to paint with a broad stroke and assume that every teacher at any site is engaged together in an activity for the detriment of a students. Uh I understand your experience and I'm not taking that away. I just want to be very careful that we are not that this board does not send uh the wrong message to that team and devalue the work that they do to benefit the students at at our alternatives as was evidenced by the graduation ceremony. There's

181a lot of care and compassion there and I do not want I would just would caution that we do not send the wrong message to those teachers and to those students. So again, our recommendation is not that this is going away or not that we're accepting anything. Our recommendation is that you allow the team to go back and have a conversation with the team at March and we can explain this is what the feeling is. This is the rationale behind the discussion. Can we look at an alternative? Um, I just want to share I don't I don't share the same sentiment as Mr. Williams. I appreciate your experience, but I trust the staff at March to make the best decisions for their kids. And the fact that this would only impact one kid. I mean,

182of course, each kid matters, but I don't I I don't think it's fair for us to make that type of uh force them to do something that they don't think is going to work for their school. They know best. I I believe I don't want to I don't want to go above what what they already know. So, um I I'm just saying because he I don't want Mr. Williams is not speaking for me. I don't feel the same as he does. So, that's not that's not how I feel. I don't know if Miss Lever or Miss Clark want to say anything, but that's that's how I felt. Well, I'm just telling you what my experience is. And for kids that are in an alternative situation, they need to have some pro-social behavior that's successful for

183them. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. But you understand what you're concerned about is impacting possibly one student. No, it impacted several students. No, but we're talking about now. We're not talking about the past. We can't change what your experience is. We're talking about now. But does it need to continue? They could maybe look at the history and look at the history and see what what has transpired. But you don't believe my history. If I didn't say that, Mr. Williams, you don't agree with me. I don't You don't think it's possible? I don't agree with us changing March Mountain now when their staff clearly told us that they don't feel like that's the direction they want to go. They know best for their students. You don't trust that the staff at March Mountain knows best. I

184mean, you just advocated for Dr. Rice. You don't think they know? Well, what what I'm trying to get you to look at is students that go through failure do not continue to be surrounded by failure. They need to have some activity that's successful for them. So the best thing we could do at March Mountain is make as many activities around the school available to them instead of restricting what they can do because they get a failing grade. They've been failing their whole life. Can you tell us if when a student is failing at March Mountain, what what type of intervention happens? Does any intervention happen? We have restructured the day at March Mountain so that we have a shortened day for our students. March Mountain abides by the 180 minute rule per day. So we're

185we're above that. Um they attend five period days. They also engage in after school tutoring so that they could be shortened days. We also have provided them. We have a um through Miss Brown's office, we have a reciprocated approach where any student in March Mountain who wants to participate in any CTE program in any of our districts, they may do so. They could come in a little later to March Mountain, they can leave a little earlier. Um we've didn't have that before. Um a new thing that happened just as the last two years is we have an agreement with MVC. Our students at March Mountain can now attend MBC and concurrent enrollment. Um they are one of the schools that have progressively improved over the last several years. And I mean they're almost at 90%

186graduation rate and for a continuation school that is outstanding. We have four next year we will have four to five CTE pathways. Unheard of in a continuation school when we talk about and I work personally Mr. Williams because I I been here um since 2018 and in 2020 I started working with the March Mountain School um and then after that co hit and then after that we continued to work with them. That site that staff and I get the chills just thinking about that. I have never experienced such passion and love for students as that staff has. They are a family. And when I say a family, you go in there in front of them and they are a family to the point that we gave them a problem uh some of the of what

187you're expressing and they were rolling up their sleeves and said no we are going to show the world what we are made of and they have they have received full was accreditation. They are a continu a model continuation school for the state of California. Um, I can keep going because I work very closely with them and we have programs now that did not exist five, six years ago and it's because of the advocacy of the staff. Uh, so I believe what you're saying is true. That was the experience back then. I I don't think that that is the experience now. Um, and so the only thing I caution is that if we remove their advocacy to this point that they they may feel that we're not trusting them and that is a very difficult place

188for us to be in, not having trust. Well, I I I I want to express to the board that what I'm explaining wasn't really directed at the the kids. It was directed at me. I needed to be a failure as a black man coaching that team. So, the kids were used and shown that I wasn't getting the job done because the minute I mentioned I wanted the kids not to have a C average, but to have a B average, the adult laughed in my face. That's not going to happen. And it didn't. That's the crazy part. I'm not I'm not silly here. I'm talking to one of the staff members and he's laughing because I have an expectation for a B average. See, I'm not going to deal with that. And that's why I bring

189it up. But I'm supposed to fail as a black man in anything I do. That's what society has deemed for me. And I haven't failed in my life. And I've had success, but I'm not going to deal with ignorance. And that's what I was dealing with over at that school with the adults was ignorant behavior that was directed at me, not at the students. But I don't ever want a kid to go through what some of those kids went through trying to be a part of the school, trying to get some activity and they would beat down, but it was directed at me. They wouldn't they would leave stuff in the gym so my kids would have to move it and I'd ask the the adults to move it and they'd leave it there in

190the middle of the gym. Total lack of cooperation. But I knew what was going on. I had been through that my whole life. So they got what they wanted. They got a group of kids beat down. But I finished the season, went to the playoffs, but I didn't get any kids eligible until after the season was over March 1st. So that's all I have to say. On a positive note, I watch the suspensions or monitor that data and Marshme Mountain suspensions have gone down tremendously. That's kudos. They're always amazing. Good night. Miss Le, did you have anything? No. Dr. So, it sounds like at this point there is no direction. We're going to let the matter go. Or does the board want us to engage with the staff again? I don't want you to engage

191with the staff again. I don't see a need for it. I trust them. I just feel like we need to I understand everything that has been explained by you and cabinet. Um I understand what the you know like um the staff and the principal. I just feel that that we need to be equitable like because we talk about that and um and if we don't do the afro to other schools why do we do it to that one school but um that's all. So is that a yes or is that a no? That's to to proceed with the conversation. So we already to me it's a yes. So we already have a no consensus because there's two and two. So to me it said yes. So maybe we should table it and bring it back

192to CJ. Yep. We can do that. Okay. So we're tableabling it and bringing it back when CJ's here. Okay. Sounds good. Anything else? Dr. That's all I have. Okay. All right. With no further business to come before the board of education, this meeting is adjourned at 8:21 p.m. Good night, everyone. Good night.