Pajaro Valley Unified School District Regular Board Meeting 05/07/2025

001Thank you. Before we start tonight, I will ask that everyone h takes a seat. Uh the fire marshall is here and we'll make sure that we have everyone seated. We can't have anyone in the um corridors or hallways. There's plenty of seats still, so please find a seat. Thank you. I will now call this meeting to order at 6:03. I would like to say good evening and welcome to the Paharo Valley Unified School District board meeting for Wednesday, May 7th. We have translation in Spanish. I'm not seeing her over there. Okay, we were we are going to work on our translation in Spanish. Um, sorry about that. Okay, so this meeting will be live streamed and recorded. If someone would like to speak to an item on the agenda, they must complete a speaker card

002and hand it to Eva Andrea prior to the agenda item. Eva Andrea sitting down here. This meeting is open to the public and we appreciate public attendance. Tonight we are accompanied by legal counsel as recommended by the Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Ferris Sabah. This recommendation is being taken to help ensure the board act actions remain consistent with legal requirements and provide realtime guidance on matters of procedure and compliance. Pursuant to board bylaw 9323, the meeting is being conducted in accordance with the Ralph M. Brown Act and the acceptable laws. As the board president, I am required to conduct board meetings in accordance with board bylaws and procedures that ensure the board to effect effectively consider issues and carry out the will of the majority. We will follow board bylaw 9323, which gives

003individual speakers two minutes to address the board on each agenda item. The board shall limit the total time for public input on each item to 30 minutes. And as board president, I am required to prevent any disturbance or willful interruption of board meetings. Um I having seen a lot of um comment cards, we can also um take a vote to reduce the speaking time to one minute to allow for more speakers. Can I make a motion to reduce the speaking time to one minute to allow more speakers? And we have we have and a second. We have a first and a second. All those in favor? I. Okay. Any opposed? Any abstaining? Motion passes. 601. And I will now move us to the pledge of allegiance. I will ask trustee Krasco to lead us in

004the pledge of allegiance. Thank you, Trusty Krasco. I will now move us on to item 3.3, our superintendent comments. Uh, Dr. Heather Contreres, our superintendent of schools, will make a few comments. Sylvestre, I think. There you go. So before I share some um student achievement data and some achievement data from our team, I would like to recognize that we have teacher appreciation week. Our teachers have worked Yes, I see Risa in the back. Woohoo. Our teachers have done a fantastic job uh this year as always um educating our students. I have been through hundreds of classrooms and see the joy that our teachers bring to the classrooms each and every day. The passion that they bring. Rea is one of the classrooms I get to go in. I've been in there so many times and

005see the expertise that she brings. Yes. And and many other people. Mr. Pells, I see him there and I've been in his classroom this year and I also see the persistence that he comes and brings advocating for what's right for students and um and so many others that are in this room. Uh I of course know that this board is here because they believe in students too and I know that everyone in this room is here because of the belief that education is the great equalizer and the thing that we believe in that our students deserve the right to have each and every day. So, I had stated at our last board meeting that from here on out, my my superintendent's comments would be used to showcase data around our student achievement. Our educational organization

006exists for only one thing and that is to educate our students and to ensure that when they leave our system that they leave with a diploma in hand but also that they leave ready for the next steps in their life. So when I was hired for this position, one of the things I guaranteed the board was that in this first year, we would have some areas that our team, the team that I would be working with um we would have some areas of focus that would that would have some deliverables at the end of the year. And so we talked about three things as a team. And so I have my team sitting in front of me and then I have the team of teachers also sitting in front of me. Uh and all of

007the teachers have worked on this together. And so Mike Burman, I'm going to ask you, what was one of our goals? 98% uh attendance. Yes. Claudia, what was the next one of our goals? Same percent graduation rate. Yep. 98% graduation rate. So 98% attendance, 98% graduation rate. And then I said this at the beginning of the year when I spoke to our teachers. I said the only way that we accomplish things are through relationships. That is that is the only way. The relationships that teachers build when their students walk through the door, the relationships that happen when a student step foot onto the bus, the relationships that happen when a nutrition services person serves a meal. the relationships that happen when a person steps foot in the office and a clerical staff greets a parent,

008a student, uh even a toddler who hasn't yet entered our system. That is the only way that we accomplish anything. So, we focused too on building strong relationships. And so today I want to share a huge congratulations to everyone in our system even our parents too because you get students to school each and every day because our attendance campaign had growth. We had some very huge challenges this year um in getting students to school. One of them was the battery fire that happened. We also had ICE that was really a huge barrier. We had norovirus and we actually had to close a school. Um but we still persevered and now we didn't hit our goal of 98%. That's a lofty goal. Uh but we did make growth. And for those of you who may not

009be aware, even moving a district of our size 1% over is tremendously difficult. And we did it more than that. We moved it more than that. So I'm going to show you in a minute. 98% graduation rate. Last year we were at 90%. That means one out of 10 students did not get a diploma. That's not something to celebrate. So, we're going to that's not like getting a you know 90% and that means an A on a report card. So, we'll take a look at that. And the other thing that we weren't noticing is that our employees deserve to be evaluated. Sometimes we think of evaluation as, you know, a little bit scary, but actually we deserve to to have employees that are evaluated because that's how we show them our appreciation. you know, we

010we should be giving people feedback and that's part of how we we build relationships and so we had a goal of evaluating people so that we could show the appreciation through the evaluation process. So Sylvester if you'll go to the next. So despite the challenges that we had, we raised our attendance by nearly at the midyear. So if we hadn't had the challenges that we saw with ICE, we raised our attendance nearly 3%. So I want everyone sitting here. Yeah, that's for you. You, all of you sitting here need to applaud yourselves because you all contributed to that. That that is teamwork. That doesn't happen without our transportation department. That doesn't happen without our nutrition services because they serve up a really good meal that I know kids um want to go to school to

011eat because my own children talk about that. They love the bagels by the way. Um that doesn't happen without teachers who create an environment that kids love to go to every single day. So, thank you everyone for doing that and parents for getting your children to school. That's not an easy thing to do. I myself had children who used to cry when I had to wake them up in the morning. So that's hard. All right, next slide. So graduation rate, we established a team called grit. It stands for graduation rate intervention team and we had that team many many people involved including teachers who said we, you know, one out of 10 isn't good enough. And so these are preliminary looks at who's graduating this year. We still have some more students. We're getting over

012the finish line. But look at this. Last year, Aptas High 94%. Pave High School 94%. Watsonville High 90%. When I say um the 90% that was on our final dashboard. That's cuz that's a little bit of a different graduation rate that we're looking at. It's a cohort rate. Um not the annual. These are the annual. It's a lot to explain, but look at what we're on now. Aptas High raising it one a little over 1%. That's hard to get. Pey High School a 3% improvement and they have more that they are catching of students who are going to make it across that finish line. And look at Watsonville High School 8%. They are almost at 100% graduation rate. That's huge. All right, moving to the next slide. So, we talked about the importance of feedback

013and this is classified employees because we don't have our certificated in yet because they're on a different evaluation cycle, but we do have for our um our classified. We moved our classified into a paperless cycle so that people can have instantaneous feedback and that we could see that it happened. And so we moved into a um an IK12 system that's paperless. And so you'll notice that we have about 98 employees who get um evaluated. And at the time we took this, we have more in now this data, but 755 employees got evaluated this year with 153 outstanding. That's because some of those 153 were probationary. they hadn't yet gotten into the cycle. And here's some feedback on how people felt about getting these evaluations. When I came in May, we were at like close to

014zero. And people didn't feel good about that actually. They wanted to have like how am I doing? I want to know how I'm doing. Um, and so this was a huge effort by not just our administrators, but also by the employees who, you know, kind of said like, I want to know how I'm doing. I I want to have that feedback and I want to do the best that I can. And so I I appreciate the employees, every single one of you who who said that was a priority because what you're saying is my job matters and I want to do good for the kids. That's huge. So this is a tremendous effort to make that level of improvement and you could see the feedback that's on there is, you know, we're happy to have

015this. So great job also to our HR, to our classified staff, and to just wanting to show up and do a good job for kids. So nice job. And we're not having public comments on that. That slide stuck in there. But I I just want to say a huge uh shout out of gratitude to the team who put who did all this effort to have these goals met. Um I remember you know working on these goals with um the initial leadership team and to be a year out and look at the progress uh is really exciting. Lastly, um this is our last board meeting of the school year and so this is teacher appreciation week. Next week is classified appreciation week and we won't have a board meeting during the school year to recognize our

016classified team. But you are a stellar team. I have had a wonderful time getting to know you and your work. Um you help run the district. You make it wonderful for our students each and every day and thank you for everything you do. I'm sorry these were long um superintendent comments, but I really wanted to share some positive work that's happened in PVUSD. So, thank you. Thank you. I will now move us on to item 3.4, our governing board comments and reports on standing committees. This is the opportunity for each board member to make a few comments and I will start with Trustee Navaro. Apologies, my son was dissecting me. Um, Lisia, were you able to pull up the the video that I wanted share? I can't see the screen. Yes, please. So, I just

017wanted to um briefly recap our trip on last Thursday to visit the schools and tour the facilities to see what we've done with Measure L funds and uh to plan on what we're going to do with Measure M funds going forward. We started off the day at the district office. Um food and nutrition services prepared breakfast for us, which was breakfast that we serve our students. And then we visited five schools, met with the principles, talked to students, and uh were able to identify what projects are in the works going forward. So it was a really great opportunity. I hope to have more of these in the future, and I thank Dr. Contreras for setting that up. So thank you. Thank you. And now I will move on to Trusty Flynn. I want to acknowledge

018two important truths. First, that comments made during the most recent board meeting, though not intended to cause harm, did result in pain for members of our community. And second, that the Jewish community is not a monolith. It is richly diverse, comprising of a wide range of experiences, ethnicities, political perspectives, and socioeconomic backgrounds. In light of this, my hope is that we can continue to use this moment as a turning point, an opportunity to foster meaningful and respectful dialogue that brings our community closer together. I have already begun these conversations with many of the members of the Jewish community and am committed to continuing and expanding them into a broader effort. This dialogue will be centered on cultural competency competency and root rooted in the principles of anti-racism. These conversations are often challenging requiring humility, openness,

019and courage. Yet when approached with a genuine desire to understand, they lead to greater insight, deeper empathy, and stronger connections. It is through this kind of honest engagement that we grow, not only as individuals, but as a community committed to equity and respect for all. And I am continue I am committed to continuing these conversations with those who are open and willing. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Flynn. Trustee Eskea. Good evening, everyone. It's hard to believe that my time as student trustee has come to an end. Thank these past 252 days have been the most incredible and transformative chapter of my life. A journey that has changed me forever. Representing over 14,000 students in our district has been more than just a responsibility. It's been a privilege, a calling, and one of the greatest honors

020I've known. Tonight, I'm wearing the same shirt I wore in August on August 28th, the day I was sworn in and stepped into this role. Printed on the back of it is our attendance campaign slogan. You can't achieve your dreams if you don't show up to chase them. Back then, I had no idea where this journey would lead, but I showed up. And I can proudly say I've been chasing those dreams every day since. On that day, I just knew one thing. I was going to stand up for what's right, no matter how difficult it got. I remember telling my mom the day before my oath, "I will always stand up for what is right, and I will never let anyone disrespect me or the students I will be representing." And I meant every word.

021We face challenges, including moments of resistance and difficult leadership. But through it all, I never backed down because I knew who I was fighting for. This role taught me about leadership, yes, but more than anything, it taught me about the power of community. It's that sense of community that carried me through the tough days reminded me why this work matters and helped me grow into who I am today. From school site visits to student meetings, board meetings to district events, every hug or handshake, every conversation, every story shared reminded me of how powerful our voices can be when we come together. I will never forget the words that this community has shared with me like you've been the best student trustee yet. And if I could vote you in as president right now, I would.

022Those words motivated me, inspired me, and reminded me that I was doing something that not not only mattered, but was actively making a difference within our community. I'm proud of what we have what I've accomplished and what we built together, leading three superintendent advisory committees, launching district-wide uh campaigns, speaking at public events, creating a civic engagement handbook to guide the next generation of leaders, and even successfully changing board bylaws so that future student trustees can make motions. That's real change and it belongs to all of us. This the handbook isn't just a project. It's a blueprint and stand for the next student trustee and set of civically engaged students, the next changemakers and the next group ready to turn hope into action. Now, I want to take a moment to thank someone who's had the

023most profound impact on me this year. Superintendent Contras. From the very beginning, you didn't just support me. You believed in me. You took the time to see my potential, to listen deeply, and to help me grow. Not just as a student trustee, but as a person. You were there for me when I felt unsure, when the work felt heavy, and when I needed the guidance the most. Whether it was helping me prepare for board meetings, encouraging my initiatives, or simply offering honest advice. Your mentorship became my foundation. You showed me what true leadership that true leadership isn't about titles. It's about integrity, transparency, and courage. Your strength and authenticity helped me find my voice and because of you I walk away from this role with confidence, clarity and a deeper uh deeper purpose. You are

024not just a superintendent. You are a mentor, a role model and someone I will always look up to. Thank you. Thank you for supporting me in ways that have lasted a lifetime. To the board, thank you for making space for my voice and uplifting me. You welcomed me not only as a symbolic figure head, but as a true trustee, one whose voice mattered and whose presence at the table meant something at every single meeting. Each of you took the time to talk with me, encourage me, and show me that this work is about collaboration. Your belief in me gave me the courage to speak up even during difficult moments. You modeled what it means to disagree, to advocate passionately, and to lead with heart. I will carry those lessons into every room I enter from

025here on out. To Jenny, Michael, Claudia, Eva, Peggy, and Julie, thank you for being my constant support system and guiding lights throughout this journey. Jenny, you are the sweetest soul I know. Seriously, your kindness, attentiveness, and ability to educate others are truly remarkable. Your strength reminded me that leadership isn't always loud. Sometimes it's felt in the in the way that you care for others. Michael, thank you for helping me lead every inner high meeting and always making space for student voices. Your unwavering focus on student success has reshaped how I view leadership and its impact. Claudia, working with you through the visionary network and student advisory was an honor. Your compassion and thoughtfulness showed me how curriculum can be a tool for transformation and how leadership is rooted in integrity. Eva, sitting next to you

026at every board meeting gave me comfort, laughter, and a sense of home. You're more than just a neighbor on this dis. You were a true friend and grounding presence. Alicia, from day one, you've been there guiding me through every step, every message, every moment. Your support behind the scenes made my work possible, and I will always be grateful for your patience, encouragement, and unwavering presence. Peggy, your ste your steady encouragement, and belief in meant more than I can say. Whether it was your advice, your support behind the scenes, you helped me. You helped lift me in moments that mattered. And Julie, thank you for being the driving force behind the student civic engagement handbook. Your mentorship and energy turned an idea into something lasting. And your belief in my potential helped me see it for

027myself. And to my fellow students, you are my why. You are the reason I stayed at every single board meeting until the very end. You are the reason I showed up. And you are the reason I leave this role filled with hope. As I look into the future, I will begin the next chapter of my life at the University of Southern California. Thank you. Most importantly, I'll be studying in Washington DC this fall. My representation for PBSD doesn't stop at our district lines. I promise to carry your voices, your needs, and your spirit into every room I enter, including those at the federal level. Before I close, I want to leave this board with a heartfelt reminder. Continue to continue to make uh meaningful space for student voices, not just by offering a seat at

028the table, but by truly listening with purpose and attention. When you power students, not just symbolically, but through real action, you help uh shape a stronger, more inclusive future for this district. Tonight, my term ends, but my heart will always remain with this district, with this community, and with all of you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for letting me serve. that was amazing. Daniel, I will now move on to Trusty Medina. You want me to? I can. Okay, sure. Um, I'll go ahead and go with this. We'll just go in line. Um, so um, tonight I'm going to keep my comments short. I just wanted to also um say thank you to Alicia and to all the staff that helped to put on the bus tour. That was amazing. And one of

029the highlights for me was when we were visiting HAde, we were able to see Swan Math in action. And it was great to see um these I believe they were third graders um at the fourth graders uh adding fractions and the teacher was asking questions and all their hands were going up. They were anxious to answer. So, it was amazing to see. Um, and then, um, lastly, I just want to wish all you mamas out there a happy Mother's Day and a felis de las madres that's coming up. Um, and thank you, Daniel, for this time with you. It's been amazing, you know, seeing you grow up since second grade has been uh just amazing to watch. You are are just an amazing student and I can't wait to see um more to come from

030you cuz I know there's a lot more to come. Thank you. I will now move on to Trusty Krasco. I'm going to be short. Um I wanted to talk a little bit about um I went to the parent meeting with um Miss Ruby Vasquez and I wanted to share how amazing that meeting was. Um it was run by parents and at that time an Anelica uh was doing a presentation explaining um our budget um issues in Spanish and I remember sitting there and just thinking wow like she is doing a wonderful job um explaining it um and for me to be able to hear it in Spanish too. There was things that I that um I learned as we were going through that process. So she's not here. Oops. She's not here, but um I

031just wanted to say that she did an amazing job. Um and that's all I have to report. Happy Mother's Day this weekend. Thank you, Trusty Turley. You know, we're all um not wanting to go after Daniel. So, that's what this little curve fluff. Who wants to follow such an amazing young man with with um some words that are meaningful to all of us? I'm going to be short as well. I attended the Watsonville High School production of the Adams family and was so impressed. We should all attend events where our young people are performing. They work so hard and they need us to show up and respond and laugh and sometimes cry. You know me, all cry no matter what. Um, I also attended Aptas High's production of Peter Pan and Wendy, which was also

032a very good production. And there is some some real shining stars there. We have some talent in our community. And again, get out there, show appreciation for our kids, and enjoy the entertainment. Thank you, Trusty Medina. All right. Well, omateo everybody and thank you for being here today and also for all your messages that you sent me. I really appreciate that. So, these past few weeks have um been about listening deeply and building stronger community connections. Recently, I hosted a transportation meeting specifically for parents in my district who unfortunately weren't able to speak during public comments because of the time limits. Families shared how transportation directly impacts their children's success. A big thank you to our wonderful community leaison Adelena and also Elsa for joining me in helping parents feel truly heard. And um we

033had uh a mistco speaker then I wanted to translate what they were saying for all of you. And this was the statement that they um stated. My children can't make it on time or they miss school altogether because we don't have reliable transportation. There are times when buses simply don't show up. When I call the district office, they tell me transportation is a service, not a requirement, but attending school is mandatory. So, no transportation is critical for us, especially those of us who don't have transportation. So, I just wanted to highlight that because these are the voices of some of the people in my community who are farm workers who wake up at 5:00 a.m. and don't have the sufficient transportation to even get to work, let alone bring their students to school. So, I

034think that's something that we really need to bring attention to. And they also identified routes 27, 28, and 32 as the routes that are consistently cancelled, don't show up, um, or are too full to even take some students. So, I think that's something that we really need to address. I'd also like to give a special recognition to Elsa from Hall Elementary, whose dedicated efforts resulted in establishing a muchneeded food distribution site right at Hall Elementary. So, all of our local families in that area will be able to come and pick up food for their families cuz we know right now eggs are too high. All right. So, if anybody would like to volunteer to do that, please email me um and we could get you to help volunteer and distribute some food over at Hall

035Elementary and Las Lass. Um I'd also uh visited uh Pahro Valley High School where students interviewed me about governance, philosophy, and our community's rich history. Um which was really fun and and they asked me what my favorite uh chicken sandwich was. Now, that was scary to answer cuz I know they were fishing for a response. Um, their thoughtful questions inspired me and reinforced why I'm investing in our future leaders really matter. Additionally, I visited Miss Jones class um at the former PCCS and shared my passion for sound design with elementary school students. We held an interactive workshop where students learned creative ways to add sound effects to their stop motion animation projects. And um I'm really excited to see the final product. Um because a lot of them um I'm sorry to the parents um

036if your student is consistently making sounds and using your iPhone to capture that. Um that was a skill set that they will go very far with. Um uh and speaking of films, I'm super thrilled to announce um I'll be teaching our very first video art class at Cababrio College. So, all of you who are taking video production right now, um, at PVUSD, we actually have a class where you could learn about industry practices that will be hosted at Cababrio College and we're trying to open it up for dual enrollment as well, so we could get those of you who are a little bit more highly advanced into that course. Um, so that's really exciting. And finally, as we celebrate teacher appreciation week, I want to give a heartfelt shout out to all the meestrosas. your

037dedication, compassion, and commitment shape the future of our students. And I'm really grateful for the work that you do and the lives that you really build up with your mentorship. So, I want to thank you all for that. And with that, um, I'll end my remarks. Thank you. And I also noticed that we do have Okay, so now I will move us on to item 3.5, our red apple awards. This will be presented by our PIO, Alicia Himenez. Thank you. Thank you. Hello community. It's a pleasure to be before you. This is the last um Red Apple Award of the school year. Uh thank you to the almost 500 individuals who nominated a peer. I want to give you a hand for taking the time and making someone's day. Um this time we had, if

038you can go to the next one, we had 72 nominations. 38 were for certificated staff, 26 for classified staff, and eight for administration. So, I'm going to go ahead and call the first one up, and what I'm going to ask if you can come up here with uh Superintendent Contras and President Olivia, and then I'll be taking a picture of you right there. Okay? So, thank you. Here we go. The first one, Daniela Salceo. She's a registar at Renaissance High School. Come on up, Dianiela. Daniela is a pillar of Renaissance High. She modernized our schools registars department helped lead and trained teachers during our transition from v variable credit to our past and no credit organized and brought to brought our site into compliance with all our classified documentation. Danella started a renaissance as a

039temp covering for the registar who was on medical leave and when that position became available she was by far the most capable and the obvious perfect fit. Thank you for joining our team and you are being honored for embodying the core value of integrity. Dianiela, thank you so much and congratulations. Everyone looks so wonderful. Thank you. Congratulations. And next we'll go to our certificated staff. Is Erica Boyd here? Where's Miss Boyd? Come on over. Miss Boyd is a teacher at Ratliff Elementary. She has the utmost integrity when it comes to her role as a kindergarten teacher. She stays true to her values and morals when it comes to teaching her students. Always thriving to striving to make sure her students know their worth, how to become a better version of themselves and above all teaching

040them how to show respect to one another. Her main priority is always her students. Etica goes above and beyond to get the best resources possible that will helps her students achieve. And on top of that, all she does, she also lends a helping hand to her colleagues, giving advice tactics to better help their own students and to make sure they too are heard. She never leaves anyone out, helping her community for the greater good is always in her heart. A stronger community means a better outcome that for that all students have a better chance to achieve their goals and dreams for the future. Core value embodied by Erica Boyd is unity. Thank you for being here. Boyd Thank you. Oops. Okay. I think I I didn't bring the last one. Okay. And the last one,

041it's our administrative staff is Georgia Tyrell. Are you here, Georgia? I believe she's here. Georgia is the program director for expanded learning. I'm honored to nominate Georgia Terrell for the Red Apple Award of Excellence. As the program director of our afterchool program at Marv Vista, she gets things done. She's incredibly understanding and approaches every challenge with excellent, thoughtful problem solving and grace. Her supportive nature and consistent leadership create a positive ripple of effect throughout our team and program. We truly love and appreciate Georgia and all she does for us and our program. Her dedication to PVUSD's expanded learning opportunity program is beyond measurable. We are all lucky to have her. And thank you, Miss Georgia, for embodying excellence. [Applause] If all the winners can just meet me out there so I can take a picture

042of yourself with the apple, that would be great. And anyone else that is here with you to celebrate with you. Thank you everyone for being here and joining the Red Apple Awards winners. Congratulations everyone. Alisia, don't move. I think we're we've got I'm sorry. So, now we are going on to our 3.6 recognition of ACSA winners. Our um PIO Alicia will be presenting this. Yes. Thank you so much. This is pretty exciting. Um I just shared a presentation with um Okay, if you can look for a presentation that AXA re region winners from me, that would be great. But while he does that that I want to let you all know that we had six of our wonderful administrators winning an AXA award uh AXA region 10 award in uh a category specific to their

043area and we're very pr proud because we do have a wonderful team of leaders. So congratulations to all six of them. And what I'm going to do here first call the uh first one is Miss Heather Bailey. She's a principal at Ratcliffe Elementary. And this is for the category elementary principal. Come on over, M. And I'm gonna have them come here and stand here uh while I call all of them. Our next um winner is Miss Claudia Moharas in the category curriculum and instruction administrative. And congratulations. Our next one is Mr. Daniser. Is he here? He is in the technology administrative category. And here he comes. Join the team. The next one is uh central office category, Miss Lisa Sandoval. Come on. She is a child development department director. Congratulations. The next one we have

044is Mr. Richard Araaniano and he is in the classified leader category and he is the director of purchasing. Congratulations Mr. Ariano. He is not here. He's not here but everyone knows who he is and we all appreciate the work that you do Mr. Ariano. You deserve this so well. And I believe the last one is uh Angelica Reeria who was serving as interim assistant superintendent of human resources and she is in the category of personnel and human resources. And while Miss Renteria was not uh uh able to be at that event on a uh on the 2nd of May to receive this award, her daughters um were there and received it in her uh in her place. So um congratulations to Miss M. Presidentia and everyone else, all the nominees and uh winners at the

045AXA regional 10 event. Thank you [Applause] everyone. I do also want to note one thing about the AXA region 10 awards. There are very prestigious awards for administrators and they are awarded this in a group of administrators throughout a very large region and of these administrators right here um all of them went on to be recommended for a state level award. Uh that is the caliber of administrators that you are looking at right now. So it's a very big deal. Good job to all of you and thank you for your um commitment to PBSD. And now I will move us on to item 3.7, recognition of our student trustee, Daniel Eskea. This will be presented by our superintendent, Dr. Contras. really am uh hesitant to present this because it means the end of an era

046and we just heard the most beautiful and eloquent speech that I think brought tears to all of our eyes. Um, in my first year of superintendency, it has been a complete honor to serve with Daniel by my side, and I've had the privilege to sit next to him this entire year to work with him to uh develop and create our student trustee position to be what it is, to uh create what our core six has developed into, which is leading the six students students who uh interviewed for the student trustee position to then create the inner high council which has been led this year by Michael Berman and then to lead our um student advisory council of 40 students. Daniel has done the most incredible job of setting agendas for these meetings, of helping to

047facilitate the meetings, of helping to lead the students to understand the importance of their voice. And teen students can sometimes um not understand that their voices are really important. And Daniel helped all of those students to understand that their voices matter, that their um voices do influence the system and how very important they are to the decisions that we made. And I think without Daniel's um influence in that way, uh we wouldn't have been successful in establishing a student voice in the district. Daniel also had the integrity and the vision to establish the uh first student trustee handbook to ensure that this vision will live on in our district uh for many years to come. And some of the things we accomplished, not just in getting that student handbook in writing so that it will

048live on uh was also to create some things that our students had asked for and getting those in writing such as our substitute handbook which will now help our substitutes to be more effective in the classroom. So those are some huge accomplishments. He also developed board policy. So that that is one of the main things that a school board does is developing policy for a district. That is that is one of the premier highlights of a school board. And as a student trustee, it is very rare that a student actually understands that that is uh the rule role of a board and then that a student can bring that role as well. And so um I've never actually I've been involved with school boards for 22 years. I've never seen a student actually create policy.

049So Daniel created a policy that our board adopted under his first year and that is the policy that a student can make a motion and not just have preferential vote. We've had that in our district for a while but make a motion um on an item. So that's tremendous. Uh that will live on also. and we ensured that Daniel's name will be in our board policies also so that that will live on. And so um with that I would like to present Daniel with this student handbook. It has two things that Daniel did. One is the board policy he influenced but also the student civic engagement handbook that he did. And so what we did is we had this um bound into a flat book um so that he can keep this and showcase it

050um as something that he really accomplished. That's so beautiful. We're really excited about that. So there is that. And then um board president Flores would also like to give you an apple which is our our representation of PVUSD. And you know we envision it sitting at USC in your dorm holding your papers down and that you'll look at it and think of us as you study hard to be, you know, something big that we know you will be. And um I was talking to your mom last night and I said, "You know, I remember one of the very first um things that we did together and that was the state of the district." And at the time I gave a um a speech and then Senator Leair gave a speech and then we had decided

051that we wanted our student trustee to give a speech and so you gave a speech and when I introduced you um I said to Senator Leairard the young man I'm going to introduce right now Senator Leairard is going to take your job one day. And you know at the time I was kind of saying it as a joke. Um but uh over the course of this year I firmly believe that you are going to take his job one day. So Daniel you are amazing. You have been a joy um and an inspiration and it is truly an honor to have worked with you. So thank you. Okay. So, we don't have a spot here for um comments, but I know there's probably someone will want to make a comment. Trusty Navaro. So, for item 4.1,

052we have Bobby Pel's Gil. Oh, sorry. Okay. Sorry. Oh, the I thought you I didn't know if you wanted to make a comment. Sorry. Moving on. Yes. So, Daniel, I have just adored working with you. Thank you so much for inviting me to the Inner High Council and uh for sitting next to me for so long. I was really disappointed when they rearranged our seats. I'm super excited that you'll be starting this fall in DC and what an amazing opportunity that's going to be for you. And like Dr. Contrarus, I can't wait to see what you do next in life. So, a deep heartfelt congratulations. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, I will now move us on to item um four, the approval of the agenda. And we do have public speakers to this item.

053Okay. Bobby Pel, Gilstein, Natlo, and Eli Davies. Thank you. Uh my concern is that there's an item on the agenda 12.13 which is on the consent uh agenda and it seems to me it should be discussed. It's for $190,000 almost 189 plus. seems like a lot of money to just pass through and without discussion and I believe that there's some legal issues as well with the contract that's with this newella company which is a company where uh they're making for according to uh the internet they make between 50 and hundred million dollars a year. Uh their biggest investors were Franklin Templeton. they put in 100 million and I just think that the public needs to have a little more oversight on that and not just pass it through as an as an agenda item of

054the uh of the consent type. Thank you. Um can I is it two minutes for this part or is it one? We were going to do one minute for the entire meeting just because there are so many. But uh Bobby Pearls, Watsonville High. Um I'm here to ask you to remove item 10.1 from tonight's agenda. Um this process hasn't met the standard of transparency or fairness that this board says that it stands for. The resolution was quietly added 24 hours before this meeting, only after concerns were raised. That's not how serious decisions should be made. A censor will not bring resolution. It will not bring healing. It will only make things harder. It will deepen the divisions that are already hurting this district. There doesn't have to be another decision that pushes people further apart.

055You can remove this item and send a different message that this board is ready to lead, not with punishment, but with purpose. Let this be the moment that we stop tearing each other down and start building something together, something better. Thank you. Hi net low area 7 I also want to um bring up the point that the resolution was not posted publicly until yesterday um and so it doesn't meet um you know the requirements of the Brown Act and transparency and it also it is not uh well one of one of the reasons for this for the censure was like you know violating the Brown Act. So I think like it's kind of ironic but also um this isn't just a simple censure and like the consequences of this are bigger and like they need

056the prop the public needs the proper time to like look at it and like I want to point out that that censure comes with the um the the the resolution to bar trustee Medina from the agenda setting committee for the rest of his term and that's not a small thing that was not done with Aostas um um re uh censure um and in fact some of the members of this board made her the president after this the the centure. So I you know just Yeah. Yeah. Eli Davies, I am echoing everything Nat said about trying to pull 10.1 the center of Gabe Medina because the process uh for 72 hours of the resolution being uh online was not followed. So we have a process issue. We have the overwhelming power in the censure that for

0574 years Gabriel Medina's been on this board for like five months. Um it it's overwhelmingly uh punishing in its language. That language was not there for Georgia cost a censure. And I think that when we look at this the resolution itself um who made this resolution to censure and who is getting censured uh you you just have to look at the power dynamics and it's very punishing. So please remove 10.1 from the agenda. Thank you. Are there any other comments? I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda with items 12.13, 12.17, and 12.26 being moved to action items. One more time. I'm sorry. 12.13, 12.17, and 12.26. Okay, I have a motion to approve the agenda, removing um removing items 12.13, 12.17, and 12.16 to action items. Do I have a second? Second.

058I have a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstaining? Motion passes. 6001. Okay. I will now move us on to item 5.1, approval of the April 26, 2025 board meeting minutes. Can I have a motion? I'll make a motion. Thank you. Point of order. I don't believe the minutes were attached to the agenda. At least I haven't been able to find them. If we haven't read them, I don't think we should approve them. Okay. Can we defer that until next? Can we defer this? Okay, we will defer this. And now I will move us on to item uh 5.2, Two, approval of the April 23rd, 2025 special board meeting. Anticipated litigation minutes. Can I have a motion to approve? Okay, that one wasn't either. Okay, so we will defer both of those.

059Okay, so now I will move us on to item um six. This is um our action and report on close session. Do we have any items to report? Yes, we do. Under close session agenda item 2.1, the board voted 400 03 to approve the recommendation from district administration for the full expulsion for student 2425010. Motion number one, close session item 2.2. I move to approve approve certificated personnel reports as presented by district administration on May 7th, 2025 with 85 and 31 additional action items. Thank you. I second. All those in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Any abstaining? Okay, that passes. 6001. Motion number two, close session item 2.3. I move to approve the classified personnel report as presented by district administration on May 7th, 2025 with nine and five additional action items. I second. Okay.

060All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstaining? Okay. So we have that motion passes 5011. In regards to close session item 2.7, a liability claim, I don't know if I read the number. 54956.95, the board voted 52 5002 to reject the claim identified in close session item 2.7. In regards to close session item 2.8, 8 an additional liability claim. The board voted 5002 to reject the claim identified in close session item 2.8. And then an announcement. Announcement number one. Paharo Valley Unified School District is pleased to announce the selection of I'm probably going to say this wrong. Deepika Siva Straa. Sorry. As the new director of steam. Hopefully I didn't mask her that. Um, she is accomplished educational leader with extensive experience in STEM education, curriculum development, and instructional innovation. She holds a master's

061of science and educational administration from the National University, a single subject teaching credential from UC Riverside, an advanced degree in physics and computer applications from the University of Luckno and the NIIT in India. Currently serving as senior adviser for C STEM programs at UC Davis. Topeka has a leadership role has held leadership roles including steam and innovation coordinator at Redlands Unified and STEM coordinator at Riverside Unified. She's taught at the University of Redlands as an adject professor and worked across multiple districts to advance K- through2 STEM initiatives, professional development and equity in education. Her work has earned her numerous accolades, including multiple Golden Bell Awards and national recognition for contribution to computer science education and teacher development. We are excited to welcome this highly experienced educator to PVUSD. Announcement number two, Parro Valley Unified School

062District is pleased to announce the selection of Javier Sanchez as the new principal of Minty White Elementary. Javier Sanchez is a dedicated educational leader with over two decades of experience in teaching, instructional coaching, and school administration. Holding a bachelor's of arts in sociology from the Pacific Pacific Lutheran University, a teaching credential from Cal State Teach, and an administrative credential from National University. Sanchez has demonstrated a strong commitment to student achievement and educator development. Most recently serving as the principal of Oak Avenue Elementary School from 2021 to 2024. Sanchez led strategic planning, curriculum implementation, and staff development to enhance school performance and climate. Prior to that, he served as an instructional coast coach and elementary teacher in Greenfield Unified School District, supporting steam integration, EL strategies, and 21st century learning. Sanchez is recognized for building collaborative

063teams using data-driven approaches and fostering inclusive, high-erforming learning environments. We are excited to welcome this highly experienced educator to PBUSD. Go Eagles. Announcement number three. Pajaro Valley Unified School District is pleased to announce the selection of Jose Roachcha as the director of migrant seasonal and Head Start programs. Jose Roachcha is a seasoned early childhood educational professional with over 15 years of experience in Head Start program leadership, coaching, and classroom management. He holds a master's and bachelor's degree in early childhood education and human development from Pacific Oaks College as well as an associate degree from Cababrio College. Currently serving as the interim director for PBSD's migrant and seasonal Head Start program, Roachcha oversees program operations, budgeting, compliance, and staff supervision. His previous roles include program operator, supervisor, and disability mental health coordinator with PBUSD, where he's

064led ED efforts in professional development, internal monitoring, and mental health support services. Earlier in his career, Roaches served as a site supervisor and quality enrichment coach with Encompass Community Services where he implemented curriculum, trained staff, and supported high-quality classroom environments. He holds a current California program director permit and is recognized for his data informed leadership, collaborative approach, and commitment to supporting children and families in underserved communities. Jose has been currently serving as the interim director, and we are excited for him to transition to the permanent role. Congratulations. and Misty. We have Jav. Sorry, we have Jose with us right now. Jose, we want to stand up and we can recognize you. We're so excited. And Jose actually has um graciously stepped into his role when Anelica agreed to help us in the HR position. Jose

065has been doing not only Helica's job, but his own job. So all year he has been doing two jobs. So, Jose, thank you. You have done splendidly and we are so glad to have you in the permanent role. So, thank you. And finally, Paharro Valley is pleased to announce the selection of Patricia Trish Anui as the new interim director of migrant education. Trish is dedicated and experienced educator with over two decades of service in bilingual and migrant education within the Paharu Valley Unified School District. She holds a masterers of arts and educational leadership from San Jose State University, a multiple subject teaching credential with Spanish bilingual certification from UC Santa Barbara and a bachelor's of science and bio psychology. For the past three years, she has served as the coordinator of extended learning for migrant

066education where she has overseen enrichment programs and supported instructional excellence. Patricia also has held roles as a migrant teacher, STEM coordinator, elementary literacy coordinator, and Alma summer schools coordinator. Known for her leadership, instructional innovation, and deep commitment to supporting English learn learners and migrant students. Trish is also an active community member with interest in storytelling, mountain biking, and science education outreach. We are excited to welcome this highly accomplished educator to her new role. And we also have Trish here. Thank you, Trish. We're so excited to have you in the position, too. Thank you. I will now move us on to our visitor non-aggenda items. This is the opportunity for members of the public to address items that are not on our agenda this evening. Please know that though the Brown Act prohibits the board from

067engaging in discussion for non uh for non-aggendized items, we are listening. The board also br um respects the rights of members of the public to speak to board regarding matters on on the agenda and other matters not on the agenda but within the jurisdiction of the board. It is important for members of the public to understand that derogatory comments against district employees or others made in board meetings can be actionable as defamation under certain circumstances. Derogatory comments made at a board meeting which are uh repeated outside the context of a board meeting board meeting also may be actionable as defamation. In addition, the board wishes to make clear that it is bound by the limitations set forth in government codes government code section 54957, which states that when specific complaints or charges are to be

068made against a district employee, such employee has the right to have such complaints heard in a closed session and be given pri prior notice that such complaints will be heard by the board. Therefore, members of the public who wish to lodge complaints against a district employee are reminded that the board cannot properly consider such complaints complaints without giving prior notice to the named employee. The board also would like to remind anyone who wishes to lodge a complaint against a district employee or program that there are existing adopted board policies in effect specifically for this purpose. These policies contain a comprehensive procedure for reviewing and investigating public complaints which includes a right of appeal to the board. This process provides a much more thorough opportunity for the complaintant and the employee to be heard and the

069merits of the complaint to be properly investigated. Anyone who wishes to receive a copy of these policies may contact the superintendent's office. And we will now go to our public comments and everyone will have one minute and we will go for 30 minutes. Thank you. We're going to start with our students. Maximilliano Barza, Excel, you told me how to say this right. Lordis is okay. Michelle Barza, Naelli Lopez, Kevin Ruiz, Alexis Rojo Cardinas, Vincente Gan, and Maria G. Um, all right. Good evening, board. I'm very happy that you finally listened to the community and passed the CRA contract. It's been a while. This is my 19th statement. Can you believe that? However, I'm nervous because some members of this board still carry the DNA of the last board and have been trying to silence us

070by doing things like limiting the amount of time we have to speak. And unfortunately, the members of the board who are fighting against power, fighting for the community are getting attacked. I wanted to take this time to show my support for those that are speaking their mind against power. Trustees Medina, Garasco, Flynn, and Turley. You all make me feel heard. I love that you stand up against these relentless forces of power that don't let us rest. It makes me believe that despite the past board haunting this current board, we will be able to collaborate more and get things done. Keep doing what you're doing. And thank you trustees Medina, Garasco, Flynn, and Tur. [Applause] Hello board. Uh, my name is Ishel. I want to thank Trusty Medina, Trusty Garasco, Trusty Shirley, and Omar from Barios

071Unidos, and everyone who came to my ethnic studies class to be interviewed. I felt like I learned a lot about you and you were very engaging. The person I was meant to interview was Trusty Flores, but unfortunately she wasn't very responsive and I didn't and we didn't get a chance to actually interview her. Thank you again for everyone else uh to everyone else for being responsive and working with us on this project. And another thing I wanted to say was uh kind of echo what uh my brother was saying. Uh, thank you uh, Trusty Trurley, Trusty Medina, Trusty Garasco, Trusty Flynn for being so um, for well I guess for speaking for the community and for actually like listening to us. Yeah. Thank you. [Applause] Hello board members. My name is Kevin Ruiz Martinez. I

072am a junior at Aptas High School. I am the vice president of a program that I'm in called Empower Watsonville. I'm here with some of my fellow uh Empower Watsonville members and we wanted to introduce slash reintroduce ourselves to uh the new board members. Uh Empower Watsimo is a youth group under PPSA Baharo Valley Prevention and Student Assistance. Empower Watsville was created to reduce youth tobacco substance use by uplifting youth voices through education, advocacy, and community action while also promoting mental health awareness as a key part of overall well-being and youth empowerment. We are very hopeful to connect with all of you to discuss the issues that our youth are facing in our community. And additionally, I would like to thank fellow board members Jessica Krasco, Gabriel Medina, and student trustee Daniel Eskea for meeting

073with us previously. Thank you so much. [Applause] Okay. Hello board members. My name is Alexi Roardinas, a junior at Watimo High. Um I am also here with Empower Wativo. I am here to present to you some issues my fellow um youth members and I have seen across our school campuses in the past and recent years our youth have seen um a rise on substance use within our um student body. Empower Watsonville youth conducted a survey that targeted youth within our PBUSD district and the results revealed that a large quantity of students have used substances at least once in their life. However, we have noticed that our referral rate for the DUP program, although al also known as tobacco use prevention and education have hasn't seen hasn't received as many referrals from PVUSD in comparison to

074schools from the Santa Cruz city um district. This brings a question about whether or not our PVUSD schools are connecting students to the necessary resources to receive help. Some current programs available through PVPSA are TYC, Tupm and Suds. Thank you. [Applause] Um, thank you for your time. My name is Vicente Gel Martinez. I am al I'm a junior at Pave High School and the current president of Empower Watimo. As my fellow leadership members indicated, we are here to build connection with you guys in order to build um to see improvement in our community. As young people, we directly we're directly impacted by these challenges. Whether it's substance use or mental health, these aren't just issues we hear about. They're happening every day around us. That's why starting these conversation is so important. These are these

075are just a few of so many issues that need attention and we're starting to be part and we're ready to be part of the solution by introducing ourselves. We hope we hope to begin building the bridge between youth and adults to make an impact in our community for the better. We're especially are looking forward to connecting with our new board members like Trusty Flynn. Thank you. [Applause] All right. Good evening board. My name is Na Lopez and I am a junior at Watsonville High School. I am here to take talk to um talk about the topic all of you are considering to censor Trusty Medina. Um how come we are censoring someone who advocates for students who actually listens to students voices and who was actually doing their job as a board member? Last time

076I checked that is something you should all be doing advocating for us the students and the teachers. Are we censoring him just because he is sticking up for us making us have a voice during these meetings? Trusty Medina has been a great support for all of us and a great addition to this board. Censoring him would be a big mistake in your part and I hope you all consider this because it will be crucial if you don't make the right decision. And for the people watching, I am not a mouthpiece and I speak for myself and only for myself. Thank you. [Applause] Um so for I also wanted to talk about Trusty Medina. I think that it's very unfair how you guys are treating this whole situation. and he is standing up for us and

077you guys haven't really been doing that. So, I feel like that really says a lot. You guys are just kind of silencing him when he only has been doing his job and I don't see the reason why and I fully support what Trusty Medina has said. Thank you. Next up, we have Gabe Barza, Lores Barza, Omar Diegas, Judy Yoko, Bonnie Moore, and Kaitron Bermudez. Good evening. My name is Gabriel Brazza. I live in Area 5. I thought that after almost two years fighting to get CRA back in order to allow the teaching of real academically supported ethics studies that I would be able to take a break and re-energize. I thought, well, we flipped three seats and we have one new trustee and Joy Flynn and our wonderful student trustee Daniel Escera who all listen

078to the community. To my dismay and disappointment, it appears that the leadership of the current board is starting to operate in the much the same way as the Aosta Sto board we replaced. Also, Superintendent Contras's promises of transparency seem to have been hollow. I will now say what I said back then that I will make it my focus to elect trustees that do not bend the knee to individuals with outsized power and influence who work against the collective interests of the vast majority of Bahad Valley students and community members. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening board. I'm Dr. Barasa. uh common move of the right-wing extremist is to attack their opponents using vile and threatening language. At the very same time, they decry any lack of civility that we may use in our tone or words.

079This is exactly what we have seen from the opponents of CRA and liberated ethnic studies throughout the last 19 months and especially since the contract was approved on April 16th. What many people in this room and I am sure some on the board may not know about is the level of hatred and literal death threats that have been made towards Trusty Medina, Trustee Flynn and Dr. Tintiango Kubales by the supporters of the cause championed by Ros Sharstein, Doug Kaplan, Ra uh Rabbi Debbie Israel and Gilstein. I'm sure that Ros Gil Doug and Rabbi Israel will say, "Oh, they don't represent my views." Well, that is another very common tactic used by extreme right-wing people and groups. The language used to attack Trusty Medina, Trusty Flynn, and trust and Dr. Thank you, Dr. Braza. Your time

080is up. The very hatred they claim and your time is up. Except our side. Except our side is Thank you, Lordes. Your time is up. We are speak what's really annoying because you have your time when you give us [Applause] turn the microphone on. Thank you. My name is Judy Yokal. I'm the immediate past president of Temple Bethl in Aptos. Last week, our Temple board of directors sent a letter to your school board expressing our collective shock and alarm at harmful and divisive remarks made by trustees Medina and Flynn on April 16th. As a result of those remarks, a shock wave of pain, fear, and anger has gone through much of the local Jewish community in response to being vilified and stereotyped. I'd like to thank and appreciate Superintendent Contreres and Trustee Flynn who have

081been having conversations with members of the Jewish community in an effort to increase mutual understanding. I agree with Trustee Flynn's statement that there is now a great need for constructive dialogue and bridge building between the Jewish community and the school district. Temple Bethl hopes to join with you in that process and to work on a path forward that is free of ethnic prejudice and name calling and instead is based in mutual understanding, learning and collaboration. Thank you. Getting down here. Hi, I want to thank the board for the work that they do. My name is Bonnie Moore and I am the Temple Bethl Executive Vice President. I've been an activist all my life fighting for justice and doing that here in this county in Watsonville and Santa Cruz. I've been a longtime union representative and

082I have actually driven your school buses here and I may have driven some of you when you were in kindergarten because you're way young. At any rate, I would like to also express how hurtful the comments had been to the Jewish community here in Santa Cruz. It is very, very difficult for us at this time to continue building bridges, which is what we really need to do here. You have a huge responsibility and part of your responsibility is to grow healthy students that understand ethnicities around the world. I just want to say that do not weaponize comments and violence. Thank you. And build bridges. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] I haven't started. Can I get my time reset, please? Please. Thank you. I am disgusted at the injustices that this school board brings to this

083community. The disservice you guys do to people who stand up to this for this community. It is not right. It reminds me of what I went through back in in the ' 90s coming to to to support and to fight for our rights. We're doing the same thing again. We're going backwards, not having enough time to speak our minds. If you can't do your job, you shouldn't be up there. If you can't lead like a leader, you shouldn't be up there. This community deserves better. Enough is enough. That's right. We need to be heard and we need to get respected. And I only have a minute, but Daniel Ska, I hope you come back to lead this board one of these days. I vote for you. Thank you for your [Applause] service. It's nice to

084see that everyone comes together for Daniel because I think it kind of represents that we're all doing this for the next generation. So that's that's very nice. Um, my name is Cat Bermudez and I'm here to represent Pahro Valley Education Foundation and on May 21st we are co-hosting the community partner awards. This award is a joint effort between the school district PBSD and the Ed Foundation PBEF and the award speaks to what Dr. Contrarus expressed this evening. Relationships are the only way these big goals that we have will get accomplished and relationships are dynamic. I see we here are in relationship and we are doing work. Um and PBEF is really excited to provide a space for every school and department to reflect on the relationships to choose a partner to honor. And I'm excited

085that we have 100% participation this year for all the schools and departments. So thank you everyone for answering relentless emails and I hope to see you Wednesday, May 21st. [Applause] Next up, we have Gil Stein, Tiller, Alpedo Rosendez, Aerys, Amy Thomas, and Bobby Peltz. I'll be very brief. Uh, Trusty Flynn, I was happy to hear your remarks and I am willing to meet with you again. Uh, you did not answer my emails uh that I email that I sent you a couple of weeks ago. So, I hope you'll find time to meet him with the in person. Thank you. Hello. Uh, my name is Dr. Alpita Rosendez. I work as an emergency physician at Selenas Valley Memorial Hospital. Um, know Dr. Navaro. I I'm a person that came here to school here in uh Hall

086and then graduated from high school here at Wasmo High. uh through the help of my teachers and some my staff went to college first one went to graduate school and medical school decided to come back after residency in that time um when I was living here it was very varied uh different varies and we all got along um the other thing I'm very proud that a lot of people shows up to these meetings last before I end um Dr. Maro has been a great person for our group. Um, she's a very a great fighter for the poor. 80% of our patients that go to the ER there are Hispanic. So, in terms of any racism, I don't see that at all. She's a fighter. She's an advocate for patients no matter what. Thank you for

087your time. Thank you. And I'm glad that all people showed up. Good evening. My name is Amy Thomas. As I close this chapter, after 10 years as principal and 18 years serving the Watsonville Charter School of the Arts, I want to express my deepest gratitude. It has been an honor of a lifetime to serve this incredible school community. A place where the arts and academics intertwine to shape not only well-rounded high school students of PBUSD such as trustee Daniel Skada, but compassionate, creative stewards of a broader community. Our charter, founded in 2001, was built on a vision of joyful learning through the arts. And I hope that PBUSD will continue to honor the values and traditions that make our school so special. Though I will step I will be stepping away from this role, I

088will always be a chameleon at heart. I respectfully ask that you continue to champion our charter, support our students and staff, and ensure that WCSA remains healthy and safe for many years to come. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Uh Bob, Watsonville High. Um, I wear hearing aids because I was born with a moderate to severe hearing loss. Uh, but I don't see it as a disability. I see it as a different ability. Uh, it's one that taught me the value of listening. Listening isn't just about hearing words. It's about understanding the emotion, the history, and the truth behind them. When I listened to the last board meeting, I did not hear anti-semitism. I heard pain. I heard courage. And I heard truth. I heard Joy Flynn, often the only black voice in the

089room, speaking to the imbalance of power that she experiences. And I heard Gabe Medina giving voice to a a long silence and overlooked community. Thank you both for having the courage to speak your truth. I hear you. To our Jewish neighbors, I hear your concerns, too. And so I'm here tonight to urge everyone to take it from the deaf guy. Listening is a gift. We should all use it a little more often. Thank [Applause] you. So we had Tiller and Aerys. Are they gone? Next we have Mark Roodner, Miriam Cohen, Chris Davis, Chris Webb, David Romo, and Marilyn Garrett. [Applause] All right. Good evening. Um, I had some prepared remarks, but just seeing how this is going, I just want to say I just want to make a few takeaways here. This I wear this

090sweatshirt. It says not in our name. says Santa Cruz Jews for free Palestine. It says not in our name because the genocide that's happening in Gaza is not in my name. And what Temple Bethl is saying about the Jewish community that is not in my name. And it breaks my heart honestly that a fear went through the Jewish community when this email was sent out alleging that two board members said anti-Semitic remarks. two, excuse me, but Gabriel said nothing of the sort. He was angry and I'm angry, too, because we're seeing children starving, 290,000 children starving, and yet we're still weaponizing false accusations of anti-semitism. And it's it's breaking my heart and we're looking past the fact that a lot of the things that Joy said were true and she was coming from a place

091of good intention. And I don't know if we're coming from a place of good intention and it's Thank you. It's really difficult to see. [Applause] Hi, my name is Mark and I'm here for the same reason as the deaf guy. I'm here to listen and I've heard a lot of people say that they believe in real leadership. They believe in the students first and I'm here to see if that matches up with what's been doing. And I look at my children's school, Watsonville Charter School of the Arts, which is like a prestige public school, but they can't play in their field. They can't play in their field because it's full of maybe it's full of like the same thing as like what's going on, why we're focusing on all of the wrong problems instead of

092showing real leadership and seeing something through. My kids haven't been able to run out on the field for 6 months. You know, the board didn't do anything about the other problems at the facility till the news got involved about they're finding rat feces on my son's desk. I have a feeling that the reason why good news doesn't sell is because it's full of the same thing as the field. I'm done. [Applause] My name is Miriam. I'm a PBUSD teacher, a member of the union's contract negotiations team, and an active member of our Jewish community. During uh during discussions around the ethnic studies curriculum, I was disturbed not by the decision itself, but by the rhetoric that surrounded it. Some of the trustees commentary included statements that crossed a line into broad-based attacks on Jews. This

093was not just uncomfortable, it was anti-Semitic. What troubled me just as much was the silence from other trustees in response. When any group in our community is targeted, it is the role of leadership to step in. Silence in the face of bigotry is not neutrality. It is complicity. Leadership means encouraging mutual engagement. Dialogue that flows in both directions, grounded in curiosity and respect. What we're seeing now is the result of a breakdown in that kind of dialogue. Instead of mutual understanding, we're left with hyperbolic and inaccurate portraits of Jews, of the board, and of our community as a whole. These distorted portrayals are what gain traction on social media, and they do real harm. They erode trust, deepen division, and make it even harder for people to truly see each other. That's not who we

094are, and it's not what we should be modeling. You all set the tone for this space in this district. You can do better. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Hello. Um, I'm a student from UC Santa Cruz, so I'll try to be brief because I'm not a member of your immediate student community. Um, I'm here to read a statement uh from Jews Against White Supremacy, UCSC, and San Cruz Jews for a free Palestine. Uh, we commend and thank the school board for deciding to reinstate the CRA contract after 20 months of the community having to defend their education from a few Zionist individuals who attempted to end ethnic studies for the entire district. We condemn these individuals for the blatant racism behind their anti-thnic studies campaign, which has continued in the barrage of death threats and

095hate mail school board members are now receiving following the vote. These individuals support for Israel, a country committing liveream genocide and scholasticide, should disqualify them from having any say in matters of community well-being. Finally, we soundly reject their claims that Zionism and anti-thnic studies stance is representative of the Jewish community of this county as a whole. We Jews know that ethnic studies is essential in school in our collective struggle to build a just world, one that includes a free Palestine. Thank you for your time. I'm Chris, a local business owner, not a parent, but an employer of students. Um, thank you all for renewing the CRA contract. I'm also here in support of Joy Flynn and Gabe Medina. Critical thinking was a part a pillar of my high school education, and I believe today's students

096should be given that same opportunity. Disagreements are not excuses for vitriol, hate mail, and death threats. When I tell you what Trusty Flynn has been dealing with lately has been absolutely unacceptable. I shouldn't be part of a police report. We have someone in the White House calling a member of Congress low IQ and somehow that's ignored. But expressing frustration on the lack of attention to a local community is not. Thank you. Um I want to thank Trusty Medina and Trusty Flynn for your your comments at the last meeting. They I think it's grossly a misstatement to say they were anti-Semitic. I feel like if you say that you're not really paying attention to the broader context. And one thing you might have missed, cuz I only saw it in the hall when this whole controversy

097first started was one of the four people who's been lying and making these anti-semitism change. I saw them um speak to Sto and say like, "Hey, you know, we got money for Mr. Serpa. We can get money for for you." And that's the first thing I thought of when I heard your your most uh spicy truth, Trusty Flynn. I thought of that reality that happened. Um all I I want to thank the whole board for having taking this moment that should be a really unifying and um finally coming through for the community, coming through for truth, taking an anti-racist move when we've had a lot of like racist pressures. So thank you so much. Thank you um Dr. Navaro for um bringing up how we have incorporated the concerns and we're going to be a

098better um we're going to be a better district because we are listening to all sides. Thank you. Thank Thank you. Good evening. My name is David Romo. I'm a member of the CWA, the Communication Workers of America. I'll be talking to you guys a little later. Um, I'm also a language tester. I've been language testing since um September 11th, two um 2001 911 and we had 1,600 kids to test at Watsonville High School. And that test was called the the SELt test, the California English Language Development Test. That test went by the wayside. Why did it go by the wayside? Because tests get boring. Very boring. And the kids get bored because they don't pass the test. Well, why don't they pass the test? Because you guys don't have the proper facilities for them to

099do well and excel. You can't stick five or six testers in one room and expect them to do their best. They are not going to learn and they're not going to master the language when you don't give them an opportunity to master the language. I would appreciate if you could email me some more information on that. Sir, can you email some more information? I'd like to finish that conversation. Thanks. Children don't live work don't work or learn well in a toxic environment whether it's from pesticides in this community or the microwave radiation from the Wi-Fi. We have an additional threat in uh lithium ion battery locations proposed for our county and we know of the Moss Landing fire. There were five of them. I hear you're the attorney for the district. This is a critical

100role to legally protect the school district, our children, our neighborhood from this planned toxic facility. The proposed several locations are behind Dominican Hospital next to Abdas High School, 90 Mento Road off of Green Valley. Thank you, Marilyn. And Thank you, Marilyn. Time is up. Thank you. Hi, my name is Shirley Flores Munoz and what I would like to say to this board is you have to be really smart to be able to see through what is really going on. You have to get to the deep throat, deep truth. And I want to say that Gabina does not deserve to be silenced or censured. Is this what we're looking at? 98% graduation rates so that we can have these people come and run for election and do a democratic process of what they did and win

101and sit at this board and then join people who have been struggling for 18 months and instead of being able to celebrate which I'm ready to do and enjoy it. We've got to go through more misery. Okay, stop that. You are the ones that are can band together and make the decision not to follow through on all of the complexities that you're going to be facing. Think about the real truth that we have here. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this time. If we were unable to get to you, please um send us an email. I am now going to move us on to item eight, our employee organization comments. Uh now is the time to hear from our employee organizations. Each will have five minutes and we will start with PVFT.

102Do we start with public comment or after? After. All right. Uh good evening. I want to start off by wishing all of our members a happy teacher appreciation week. Um the work we do is often thankless and it is certainly underpaid. Um, I do appreciate that the district had the foresight and wherewithal this year to not do something performative like give us a cookie at the same time you're laying people off. So, we do appreciate that. You know, I would have been upset about it. Um, because the demands that are placed on our teachers have only been growing over the past decade without anything coming off of our plates. We're all expected to be well-versed in trauma-informed practices, positive behavior supports, multi-tered systems of supports, and every other acronym under the sun. Um, to our

103members, I want to say that this is your union, and we need every one of you to be advocating for our students. The only way we can make meaningful improvements to our students learning conditions is by having solidarity and standing with each other. Um, it's been a busy last few weeks for the PVFT. Our presence was felt at the Mayday rallies happening in Santa Cruz and Watsonville where we stood in solidarity with our siblings across the labor movement. Um, I gave a speech and learned like at the last minute I was going to be the closing speaker. Um and the theme of my speech was um on uniting people across job sectors, across race, across class, and across um education gaps because when we're united, we can never be divided. And when we fight, we

104win. We also had members participate in an event with living legend Dolores Warta raising attention on the serious issue of pesticide use near our schools. And that's something that I hope that the district continues to fight against because there are literal poisons being dropped on this community. Speaking of the fights that we've waged recently, the board is set to vote on 8.6 6 FTE worth of layoffs tonight, which is down significantly from the 78 in cuts originally announced, the 48.3 FTE and cuts that you all approved on 24 hours notice after rejecting it, and the 30 layoff notices that were served. I want to thank all of our members who showed up to our rallies and to to who took actions to defend your colleagues. But make no mistake, next year is going to be

105an even bigger challenge. These layoffs impact our entire unit and our entire student population. If you chose to sit on the sidelines during this battle, I'm encouraging you to show up next year because this is your union. It's not my union. It's not the executive council union or site rep's union. It is our members union and we need you all to make your voices heard. Included in these layoffs tonight are the district's only CTE entrepreneurship teacher over at Pave High School. So, if you want to keep that program around, please rescend that layoff. We're also facing layoffs for VAPA and science release teachers at the elementary level. So, I asked the board to reject these layoffs and work with us on reassignments um and displacements. We've been in negotiations regarding the bell schedule at Pave

106High School. And despite believing that the district has the ability to afford a seven period day, we worked collaboratively and we agreed on a six period bell schedule framework that will better meet the needs of our students. It is unfortunate that during these negotiations, the district engaged in bargaining on the length of our basic workday, which was never within the scope of these negotiations, and only dropped their crusade to diminish the scope of our work after I served them with a cease and desist letter, making it clear that we'd be willing to file an unfair labor practice charged if they continue. I want to give a quick shout out to Todd Wilson. Um he's 30 years strong without ever attending a board meeting. So I know he's at home with his popcorn right now watching.

107Um we got this one over the finish line. And maybe you can find a way to get him out here to speak and break that 30-year streak. Um before stepping into this position, a former board member said something to me that I want to expand on. They told me that if I wanted to continue in leadership, I needed to focus exclusively on member issues and not get involved in any political issues. But that's just not who we are as a local, state, or national union. One of the earliest slogans of the AFT was democracy and education. Education for democracy. Education is political. There's no way around it. We're funded through the political process and we're constantly subjected to the whims of career politicians who would not last 5 minutes in our schools. So, the only

108way for us to move forward is to move forward together and fight the injustices and structural deficits that impact our students. I want to say this is like my fourth board meeting as president and it feels like it's been years. Um I want to encourage the board to do some reflection and ground yourselves in the belief that you are all here because you care deeply about our students. It is your collective responsibility to put your differences aside and work together. I hope this is the last time that we see a move to censure a board member because you all have the collective responsibility to lead by example. Put the fighting aside and let's move on together, please. Thank you. Also, just real quick shout out if anybody here has a Rolade or a Tom's. I

109got some heartburn. Thank you. And do we have any public speakers to this item? Doc doctor's getting you some over here. We do. Uh, Bill Beecher, Chris Webb, and Bobby Marches. And I think I have some Tums in my purse. Give me a minute. Well, good evening. At the last board meeting, I nearly missed hitting teachers who were picketing to save their teaching jobs. I also heard the new PVFT president defending cutting teachers. He did it again tonight. I'm confused. We have more teachers at FTE units than we did seven years ago, but we're down 20% in enrollment. Why isn't the PVFT president talking about how to combine classrooms and shutting down schools? Why is he trying to change the subject? And we heard some of that tonight. The teachers are highly educated people who

110can understand these issues and PVF is not being honest with him. Is this the PVFT's president trying to demonstrate how tough he is by standing up to the board in the administration? wake up and become part of the solution to a very difficult situation that could bankrupt the district and not be adding to the problem. Thank you. Good evening, Daniel. Congrats. You are a breath of fresh air. I wish I could wish I could say more, but I've got 57 seconds left. Um I am so happy that one of our staff who we were fighting for gets to keep his job. So, I'm thankful for that. But I am also very disappointed that we have other wonderful teachers that I know who are still losing their jobs and I will continue to fight for them.

111I also have concerns about uh some of the things I'm seeing regarding treatment of the site that I am a site rep at uh Watsonville Charter School of the Arts as a dependent charter. Um it seems that there are things that you can do to legally usurp our uh charter, but that doesn't mean I'm not convinced that you have to or should and I hope we can work together on that. Um, every school in this district has so much that's special about us. Ours is is special in its ways. And I think it's the wonderful staff, the wonderful students, the culture that continues to bring us to thrive even in conditions where we have a field shut down by the health department that when it rains, the feces still gets to our track that our

112students walk around, right? And we've been told we may have to pay for that. That should be the responsibility of the district no matter what. And I hope that is the case. I wish I could say more. I'll talk to you soon. Hi, good evening board members, superintendent. Uh, my name is Ian Lacat. I'm a proud educator at Diamond Tech and VP of charter schools for PBFT. And I'm here to first thank you for rescending the layoff of Mark Damiani. He is a great teacher at WCSA. And um, I'm also here to talk a little bit about concerns at both my school and WCSA regarding staffing. Essentially, we've kind of been frozen from hiring new teachers. I don't know if this is due to the district looking to see if they can place displaced teachers

113at our sites. Um, our sites have special needs um that uh focus on uh specialized programs and particularly for our site, it's CTE. So, we aren't always sure that the displaced teachers that might fit the credential would actually be the right fit. And we do have language in our charters asking that we can decide who gets hired at our sites. So, we're asking the district to please fly the newly created patient care CT position at our site and the three open positions I'm aware of at WCSA as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you. I will now move us on to item 8.2. Do we have anyone here from CSEA? We do. Good evening. Eddie Bartto Gonzalez, communication officer, CSEA Chapter 132. Good evening, President Flores, Trustee Dr. Contrus, and members of the board. With

114classified employee week approaching, we want to take a moment to extend our deepest gratitude to the dedicated classified staff of PBUSD. From custodians and bus drivers to instructional aids, clerical staff, occupational therapists, technology personnel, food service workers, and our maintenance and grounds crews. You are the heart and the backbone of our school district. to ensure our campuses remain clean, safe, welcoming, and well organized. Because of your tireless efforts, teachers are able to teach and students are able to learn and grow in a supportive environment. You perform your work with quiet strength, dedication, and unwavering commitment to our school communities. We see you, we appreciate you, and we thank you. As we mark teacher appreciation week, we extend our sincere appreciation to our educators whose passion and dedication shape the future by inspiring and guiding the

115next generation. Your efforts do not go unnoticed and we are grateful for all of you for all that you do. We are pleased to share that our first negotiation session with the district took place last week. The meeting was productive and encouraging and we are hopeful for the continued positive momentum in the weeks ahead. We would like to thank all board members, especially Krasco, Dodge, and Medina for your ongoing support for consistently advocating on behalf of classified employees. Your voice at the table matters and it is deeply appreciated. Finally, we look forward to celebrating our incredible classified staff and honoring this year's retirees at our annual classified employee celebration next Friday, May 16th. For more information, members may reach out to any chapter executive board member. Thank you for your time, your continued support, and

116recognizing that the vital role of classified employees play in PBUSD. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any public comments to this item? No, but I did accidentally skip over Ian Lacata for 8.1 if he wants to come. He can speak. Yes. Yes. Never mind. Nope. Thank you. Okay. I will move us on to item 8.3. Do we have anyone from CWA? Yep. Um, first of all, I'd like to um apologize for Mike for not being here. He's at a a meeting in San Jose with CWA. So, I decided to come back and make some remarks. I started coming to board meetings back in 2000. We started an organization called the South County Associated Substitute Teachers and uh we were successful. We organized with PERB and we were we were a successful union. We 99

117to1 we won. And then at that point we decided to go ahead and go with CWA to help represent us because they have the big boys and we needed the big boys at that time because at the time I think we were only making about $10 an hour and we had the responsibility of a classroom and it's a it's a lot. And I would like to acknowledge the person that I work with the most was Bruce Diamond. And I'm going to call this this this talk mining diamonds. Bruce Diamond uh was instrumental in getting our getting us going. He was a passionate. He saw injustice and he was a leader and I was right with him and I was the president and he was he was right behind me. And the last 10 years I

118had another he passed away during co and you know and that's that he's he's off to a better place and um we had another gentleman by the name of Bill Jameson and Bill Jameson was here working for this district. Unfortunately he took a um a long-term substitute assignment at a middle school here in this district that didn't have a teacher all year. And because he got them working, they accused him of doing something and he was out of there right away. No due process, nothing. And he was instrumental in our in getting our contracts for us. He was subsequently exonerated by the Watsville Police Department. The state of California did their investigation. He was cleared. But this organization made the mistake of not doing their due diligence, their due process and leading going with public

119opinion or wherever they were thinking about just listening to go going with the masses, they decided to not do that to let him go. And shortly thereafter, he developed a lung disease that was disabilitating and he passed away just in February. And I was by his side the whole time because friends stick with friends. And um I learned something very interesting during his passing. See, his dad was a professor at the University of Chicago and his job, he was a very famous professor and his job was to create diamonds. And one of his dad's professors was Albert Einstein. And so the connections are real. They're all around you. You see them every day. You might not notice them, but they're there. So I would like to share with you or advise you guys to mind

120mine for diamonds. That means you don't give up on people. You give your heart and soul to people. You never give up because you don't know when you're going to be attacked and your integrity is on the line. It takes a very big person to persevere and stand up in the face of public scrutiny. So whenever you see a sparkle, mine for that diamond because they're going to shine brighter than you think. Don't give up on people. Thank you. Do we have any public speakers to this item? Okay, I will move us on to item 8.4. Do we have anyone from Pavam? We do. All right. Good evening, President Flores, Vice President Dr. Navaro, Superintendent Dr. Conterus, and members of the board. My name is Brian Saxon. I'm the director of HR for certificated staff

121and it's my privilege tonight to be able to speak on behalf of PAVAM. Recently PVUSD and PVFT finalized our negotiations with a tenative agreement recently as in yesterday and um this was a result of collaboration between both groups compromise and being willing to work together for a common purpose. Without the input of various Pavan members, the PBSD bargaining team would not have been successful. Rich Moran, Todd Dennis Wilson, Katie Kriscunis, Heather Gorman, Jenny M, Michael Berman, Claudia Monaras, Kit Bragg, and Helica Renteria and our legal team, Sarah Katz. They all contributed greatly to our district negotiations. All of them brought a unique lens and a perspective to the various states of negotiations. The team had rich discussions when trying to solve problems, listened intently when at the table, and helped build relationships between the union

122and the district. Negotiations are never easy. Sometimes you have to lose to win, and sometimes if you win, you really feel like you have lost. Working with this team, I was able to see the dedication that they have for PBSD and how that translates into their day-to-day positions. It was a win for me to see the quality leaders we have and their impact on this process. I can only imagine the wonderful impact that they have each day on students, community, and staff in their respective positions. I would be remiss not to mention Lindsay Starks, our executive assistant in HR. While she's not a member of PAM, she's undeniably a huge support with all the logistics of making sure negotiations run smoothly. The least of which is to make sure that all of the Pavan people

123get a nice lunch. I also want to thank Brandon and his team, not the Dodgers, but his negotiating team for bringing open minds to the table, being willing to engage in tough conversations that remain professional and working with the district to finalize an agreement before we leave for summer. Yeah, you can clap, I guess. With that being said, I would also like to let all the Pavan members who are watching and are here know that we are opening the entire contract for next year and we will be looking for some Pavan members to join us in negotiations. The bar has been set high and we expect to keep it that way. Thank you very much. Thank you. Do we have any public speakers to this item? Thank you. Seeing none, I will move us on

124to item to our um sorry I will move us on to item 9.1 PBUSD's supplemental sunshine proposal to California school employees association csea chapter 132 for the 2425 2526 and 2627 school years. This report will be provided will be presented by William Kit Bragg, our new assistant superintendent of human resources. Thank you. And as you heard, we did have our first CSEA joint meeting for negotiations last week and we were delighted getting together collaboratively at the table. Uh for the purpose of this, it's simply to add the fact that we are including vacations in that sun, excuse me, sunshine proposal that the board first considered on April 16th. Thank you. Do we have any public speakers to this item? We do not. Okay. Do we have any public discussion for uh sorry, board discussion for

125this item? Seeing none, I thank you. And we will move on to our action items. I now move us on to item 10.1, our board discussion and potential action on resolution to censure trustee Medina. report will be presented by uh Roman Munoz from Lozano and Smith. President um Flores, would you mind if I made my comments at the beginning? We're going to go in order. Yeah, good evening everyone. Uh President Flores, trustees, Dr. Contes, uh cabinet members, and members of the public. My name is Roman Mos. I'm an attorney with the law firm Lozano Smith. Um, I've been asked to present board resolution 24-25-51, a resolution to censure trustee Gabriel Medina. I will provide an explanation as to what a censure is, explain the censure process, which includes providing trustee Medina with an opportunity to

126respond. There'll be receipt of public comment. There'll be board deliberation and debate. And then the board will consider the resolution as presented or with revisions. So let's talk about what a censure is. A a a censure is a formal action by a board officially reprimanding one of its members. This is a purely political action and there's no specific legal standards governing its issuance. However, the power of assemblies such as a school board to censure their members has been allowed and practiced since colonial times at every level of government, local, state, and national. Now, the censure process is done through a formal resolution which is presented and adopted by a majority of the board. The purpose of a censure is to condemn what the board deems is to be inappropriate or unlawful conduct. There's no established

127threshold for when a censure is warranted. It is ultimately left to the judgment of this board. Cases have been held uh upheld censures for a variety of conduct including profane or otherwise inappropriate comments and violations of the law. May ask why is this being conducted in open session? Um and the reason is is because the law requires that any sort of discussion about discipline or combination of board members be conducted in open session. Board members under the Brown Act are not considered employees. So there is no authorization to consider discipline of board members in closed session. Again, this is required to be conducted in open session. What I'll do is briefly go through go over the essential resolution. um and then with a focus on the actual factual basis for the uh for the proposed

128resolution. So in resolution 24-25-51 on pages one and two highlight the language or the the uh board policies and vi uh and regulations and bylaws that the board is referring to and asked to consider as to whether or not there has been a violation. As we move into page three and four of the resolution, we'll focus on the factual allegations or the findings as to the basis for the resolution. The first whereas uh that is specific to this resolution is on January 15th, Trusty Medina pulled from the consent agenda a standard agreement with the university to allow their student to become a student teacher at the district. Trusty Medina stated he objected to the agreement because it is with a Christian university associated with an the inval evangelical movement. The potential student teacher was taking

129online courses with this university. The potential teacher pleaded with the board that she would not, you know, preach and that she uh is here not to do anything bad. She cried when the contact contract was not approved. On April 25th, Trustee Medina posted on his Medina 4PUSD Instagram page a picture of an employee wearing a baseball hat with a political statement subjecting the employee to public scrutiny for expressing his political views. Specifically, Trusty Medina stated that he was disturb it was disturbing and unacceptable and the district must take immediate and decisive action to hold this individual accountable due to his political viewpoint. On February 25th, during the time allocated to board discussion, Trustee Medina seated his time to two community members to speak after being reminded that it was not allowed. This violated board policy

130on public comment, allowing additional time to selected speakers from the public according to their viewpoint on this issue. On March 16th, 2025, Trusty Medina stated in his newsletter um that the district's f uh the district's following of the statutory layoff process was discriminatory and the release of the employees was harassment. On April 16th, 2025, Trusty Medina referred to a group of Jewish audience members as you people, accusing them of coming to the board meeting so they can tell brown people who they are. He also said that the Jewish community members who spoke are segregationists working against brown kids. Whereas Trusty Medina's comments brought negative nationwide publicity to the district for what has been termed anti-semitic remarks. On April 16th, 2025, during a board meeting, Trustee Medina made a motion to censure a prior board meeting

131board member, which was not on the agenda. On April 16th, 2025, during a board meeting, Trustee Medina made a motion to direct the superintendent to issue an apology letter, which was not on the agenda. Whereas on April 23rd, 2025, in closed session, Trustee Medina yelled continually at fellow board members, repeatedly telling one board member to shut the up. Whereas on April 23rd in closed session, Trustee Medina repeatedly addressed a female board member as Barbie and shouted several times, "Come at me, Barbie." The board is uh the board has asked to consider this uh this resolution. Um, I know that there has been some comment as to whether or not this was properly agendaized. Um, what the Brown Act requires is that the agenda item, which was the censure, was placed on the agenda 72 hours

132in advance. The Brown Act does not require attachments to be um issued 72 hours advance. However, this was placed um I believe uploaded onto the district website um in advance of this meeting yesterday as far as I'm aware. Um as legal counsel I I will say this is that um these are very difficult issues to confront. Um a central resolution impacts board relationships and undoubtedly board operations. Again, I can't stress enough that these are these are very difficult discussions and a very difficult motion for you to consider or resolution for you to consider. Um, my hope is that the board will discuss this resolution in a civil manner. Let's all remember that the community is watching and focus focus on the relevant issues to this resolution. I I think uh board president, madame president, it

133would be appropriate if uh Trusty Medina would like to respond to this at this time. Thank you, Trusty Medina. Yeah. Um before I start, I have I do have a few questions. Am I allowed to ask those since I am being censured at this moment? this this time right now is for you to make the presentation or to respond to. And before I move, um I just want to double check that this is the Lozano firm, correct? I do work for the Lozano Smith law firm. Okay, cool. Um I just wanted to double check because um I know that Lozano himself was quoted, "I didn't know the Constitution says anything about public records." and also Lozano Smith's lawyers so busily handling mask and quarantine issues elsewhere were charging other districts and you're currently in a

134lawsuit right now correct with Monterey County? I'm not aware of that. You're not aware of that? But what I would tell you is this is that um again um you my hope is that to focus on the relevant issues here um if the majority of this board would like for a presentation to ask any issues related to Lozano Smith or any issues uh afforded that we'd be more than glad to do that. Again today is focus and then also did you have a hand in writing this censure? I worked as legal counsel in preparing this resolution. Yes. And who directed you to put on this censure? I worked with the board president on preparing this uh pursuant to your board bylaws. Great. Just wanted to put that on record really quick. Let me get my

135statements out. Um Oh, you're also the same law firm that said there wasn't a violation of the Lavine Act, correct? I don't know what you're referring to. Oh, okay. Just wanted to double check. Um, let me put up my um speech that I have because I know I'm being heavily watched right now. So, give me one second to load that. See? Okay. Um well let me begin by stating what many already know. This centure is not about ethics, policy or decorum. It is politically motivated attempt to discredit me for doing exactly what I was elected to do. Ask difficult questions, speak uncomfortable truths and represent my community without apology. The resolution cites board policies. Um, and I want to respond clearly and directly to each of the allegations and policies cited so the public understands

136how selectively and politically they are being applied. These policy citations are not being applied neutrally or fairly. They are being selectively used to manufacture justification for this censure. Each-sighted policies being twisted not to uphold public trust but to discipline a trustee who refuses to be silent. Below I am going to provide um rebutals that clarify what happened and the expose and expose the political motivation behind the resolution. You reference board policy 0410 non-discrimination. The board prohibits discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and other protected categories. I raised concern about partnering with an institution that had anti-alg positions. some that are actually my constituents. The previous board member actually stated, "Why is there a gay meeting happening at one of my schools?" That was about institutional policy, not about the student teacher herself.

137In fact, I later voted to protect that same teacher who received a pink slip. 9010 public statement. A board member shall clearly identify when speaking as an individual, not on behalf of the board. I used a personal email and social media account created before I joined the board. I have always spoken as myself. One post referred a public employee wearing a MAGA hat on school grounds. I didn't name them. I echoed parents concerns from a vulnerable workingclass immigrant community who is under attack right now. That is part of my role and my first amendment right. Expressing concern over community safety does not violate board policy. Silencing that voice does. 9010 confidential information. A board member shall not disclose confidential information received in closed session. Ironically, this resolution includes quotes from closed session violating the same

138rule. Selective enforcement undermines any claim to ethical consistency. 92000 limit of authority. A trustee shall not act on behalf of the board unless designated. I've never acted on behalf of this entire board. I've raised questions, concerns, and I spoke about my dismay with some of the decisions that have been made. I use my platform and I speak to the media when I, as a trustee, have something to say that I agree or disagree with. 9323 meeting procedures. The presiding officer shall not permit any disturbance or willful interruption. This clause is about disruption. I acknowledge a speaker to give us more information so we could make an informed decision. that was with uh PVST not cause and that did not cause a disturbance. I needed more information to make an informed decision because there was information

139that was missing from that comment. If that's a violation, then we should review every trustes conduct equally. Again, standards should not be applied based on political alignments. Board representatives. Trustee represent the board when assigned specific responsibilities. Removing me from leadership is not about ethics. It's about silencing disscent. Before joining the board, Trusty Navaro donated $500 to then Trusty Dura supervisor campaign. Dura's final vote installed Navaro as vice president. Now Navaro and her allies push this censure against me because I challenge the power structure they benefit. And you clearly heard from Lozana who's been asked about this that they don't know what I'm talking about. So let's pause and ask, if these policies are being enforced in good faith, why are they only applied when I speak? I If censure is the remedy for supposed violation,

140why wasn't it used when others acted with clear disregard for board values? Local logical consistency demands that rules apply evenly. When they don't, we are no longer upholding policy. We're curating punishment. When our student trustee was reprimanded publicly by a board member, there was silence. When a parent shared a bullying story, the current B board president walked out on their own constituent, not even following up about their concerns, I spoke with them and talked to them about what their student was going to because the person that they were trying to rely on wasn't there for them. when she publicly said she had a problem with me. Oh, my bad. When Navaro mocked me over a book, two other trustees saw her behavior and yet the president said nothing. When she publicly said she was a

141she has a problem with me, but not my constituents, then continued to spear me with personal remarks about my character. There was no response from the president, just silence. Even though Trustee Flynn and I were asking for the board to do her duties as president, when I request agenda items like lowering the voting age for our students, bullying that's happening in our schools, transportation that isn't coming for our students, and accountability that isn't given to our teachers. I'm ignored by this board and the two people who are set here to set the agenda. Those are things that we can't have discussions about because they don't put it on this board. Additionally, let's use some logic here. A superintendent's duty is to implement the will of the board, not shape it behind the scenes. if she

142is allowed to be quietly steer decisions through selective emails, political pressure, and unequally applied information as a as still functioning as a representative body or simply performing one. Board policy 2110 and governance standard 211 require the superintendent to support the board decision not influence them. Yet before I vote on ethnic studies, the superintendent had forwarded a Daily Wire article, a far-right source. She told the county super she told me the county superintendent was worried and concerned about our vote. Afterwards, she referenced Tony Thurman's concern. That is not neutral support. That is political pressure. According to board policy 2111, the superintendent shall not use the position to forward personal, political, or ideological agendas or influence trustee votes. Where is the accountability for that? The president and vice president would rather target me than hold the superintendent

143to policy. That's not leadership. That is complicity. Additional violations and concerns. What message does it send when I must hear about my own censure, not from this board, but from screenshots sent to me by constituents? If we're serious about transparency and lawful process, how can a trustee leaking information to outside individual individuals day before I'm formally notified not be treated as a grave violation? If rules are only enforced against those who challenge and question those in power, then they are not rules. They're weapons. And this board is choosing to use them selectively at the expense of its own legitimacy. I would be remiss not to raise one of the most alarming facts about this process. I was never officially informed of the central resolution by board leadership until Monday. And even then, I didn't get

144a phone call. I didn't get an email. I didn't get anything yet. Over the weekend, I received screenshots from constituents showing that a fellow trustee was already discussing the center without indivi with individuals on social media. The very thing that they're trying to censor me for. Look at that. If this occurred before the item was publicly posted or officially disclosed, it raises serious concerns about potential violations of the Brown Act, which prohibits serial meetings and pre-discussions of board actions outside of public meetings. If a trustee shared or conformed confidential action items with others before proper discourse or due process, that's not only unethical, it's unlawful. It is deeply troubling that this board appears more committed to disciplining me than upholding transparency, confidentiality, and the law. Yes, I did call her Barbie. You know why? She

145called me Donald Trump, flipped me off, and said f you under her breath. Why isn't that mentioned in this? It is selective, and you two should be ashamed to be our leaders and putting this forward, honestly. So, this resolution does not open up ethics. It is weaponizes them. I've never walked out on a constituent. I've never mocked a colleague. I've never silent student voices. But I have raised questions. I have voted independently. And I have spoken out for those without power. And if that is essential worthy of offense, then have then we have a bigger problem than my tone. In solidarity, thank you all for being here tonight. And those are my remarks. Thank you. I'll bring it back to you. Madam President, at this time you can take public comment and then you can

146have a a public debate. Thank you. Do we have any public speakers to this item? Oh yes. Maximilliano Barza, Iselle Barza, Omar Diegas, Lordis Barza, Gabe Barza, Bonnie Moore, Judy Opal, Lauren Le. All right. I wanted to come out in support of Gabriel Medina because ever since he got on this board, he's done many great things. He's pushed for public comments to be extended and also to allow more community voices to be heard during these extended public comments. He's been questioning motions, making motions of his own, and with collaboration with our incredible student trustee, Daniel Lea. He helped allow student trustees to make and second motions. In my eyes, there is no good reason to censure him. He's already done more than the rest of the old board combined ever did for us. And he

147fills me with hope and confidence in this board. Be rational and please think this through. What message are you sending to your community? Is it that you value respectability politics over good policy? That this veneer of respect is more important than listening to the community. Don't lose the plot. Don't censure Gabriel Medina. Thank you. Uh hello board. I I want to start off by saying that Trusty Medina is one of the one of the few trustees that I've seen on this board that have actually fought for this community when some of you on this board can't even respond to your emails. I'm talking specifically to you, Trusty Flores. You couldn't take 5 minutes out of your day to follow up and say that you couldn't come to be interviewed and you instead decided to ignore

148a message. But guess who did respond and showed up and got interviewed? Trusty Medina. I I support Trusty Medina because I honestly feel like he is one of the only people on this board fighting for the community and the people who cannot speak for themselves. I feel like he honestly thinks about what's best for the students and the teachers. And I want to say this on behalf of my friend Joelle who unfortunately couldn't speak today. You guys are setting a bad example for the kids. Imagine being a kid and seeing how Trusty Medina and Trusty Flynn are fighting for others and then seeing him and seeing them be silenced. You're teaching kids that it's not right to speak out for others and it's not right to speak your mind. [Applause] So, I had a speech

149written for this, but since I only get a minute, I'm going to say I've known Gabriel for several years now, and we get along great. We've had some disagreements about things, but we're able to sit and talk about them rationally. It's real easy to get along with Gabriel Medina. Step one, don't be dishonest. Step two, don't condescend. Step three, fight for the community for real, not just with pretty words. Don't censor Gabriel Medina. Don't send the wrong message. Don't act like the Aosta Sodto board because we will replace you two. [Applause] Thank you, Bonnie Moore. Um, so words have power. Words that are used against people have power. Whether it's in close session, whether it's in public, whether it's against each other, that has power. A censure does not eliminate your job and it doesn't

150stop you from doing your job. What it does do is let the community know that there are some things that people need to learn when they become a board member. One of it has to do with respect to the community that does show up to speak. The other part of it has to do is how do you speak to them. The other part that you need to learn is how do you speak and relate to each other. Again, you have a huge responsibility. When you don't show that responsibility so that your students learn to speak with respect for everyone, then that's a huge problem. This is a learning lesson. Being censured does not take away from who you are and what you do. Being censured is a learning lesson. And sometimes that's a lesson that

151must be learned when you're a political official. [Applause] Excuse me, Miss Navaro. Can you pay attention? I will remind you we have 30 minutes and so every time the longer you wait the less we get to hear from others. I would like to um make a point of order. Trustee, are you acknowledging me? Yes, Trusty Medina. I would like to extend a public comment to the remainder of the cards. We are not going to do that today. We're sticking to our 30 minutes. Thank you. I would like to challenge the chair on that. Since we have a Larry here, may I challenge the chair on that? under Robert's rules. I could have I could I have my book right here if you need it. We use Robert's rules. We'll go in with board policy. We're

152not Robert's rules. Thank you. Under actually uh let the lawyer speak because there actually is something we actually don't have official board policy that states Robert's rules. So, it defaults to Robert's rules revision, second edition. I I I don't agree with that, but I I'll look at your law right here. So, why why do we have a lawyer here that can't answer our questions? Medina, he's going to answer. You need to stop. Oh my god. This is the board can extend time for allowed public presentation. Uh the president may take a poll of speakers for or against a particular issue and may ask that additional person speak only if they have something new to add. So I would say that hey the board can extend time if there's a motion and a second. It's a

153secondary motion. Correct. It is a motion that is being presented right now. What is the type of motion that is being presented? It it could be considered a secondary motion since it is so as a secondary motion those could be stated at any time. Correct. During the presentation through your board bylaw. It allows this to be considered. So that is a yes. You made a generalized statement and I'm referring to your board bylaw as to your board bylaw specifically addresses that the board can extend time for public presentation. So great. So I can extend that. There can be a motion, a second, and a vote. Yep. So, I would like to make a motion to extend time for this agenda item to the remainder of all the cards. We have a motion on the table.

154Do we have a second? I'll second. We have a second. 33 cards. I That's like three extra minutes. So, that's I'll second. Okay. Oops. All those in favor? I Any opposed? Any motion passes? Motion passes. I'm going to I'm going to state the obvious. I'm going to state the obvious. It's obvious that Misty, this is something personal that you need to uh resolve with Mr. Medina. Mario has a great CRT program that we would be willing to offer you to sit down with Mr. Medina and see if we could work this out the proper way as adults and and get past all this, not bring it in public. We're wasting time here. There are more farther more important issues that need to be handled than to have your feelings hurt. Mrs. Flores, if you can't

155lead this board, you shouldn't be sitting up there. If you don't know how to run this board, you shouldn't be sitting up there, you know. And Mr. A lawyer, I was here. Where were you when we were attacked by the old school board? When he attacked our school's trustee. Where were you when they were attacking us in this audience because they were wearing the Magna hat and I got I was the one that they surrounded. Some of those guys are here. You know, where were you then? Thank Hey, if you guys are going to if you guys are going to do something, be equal all the way around. Thank you for Hi, my name is Lauren. I first want to talk about Kim Derpa, former board member who Trusty Medina improperly tried to censure. When

156I first met Kim, her children attended Valencia Elementary. She noticed that the playground wasn't accessible to all students. Kim then went on to spearhead and fundra for an accessible playground. This was way before the county itself installed one. Though being told there were way too many hoops to jump through, Kim persevered, got the permits, the ADA requirements, the funding. By the time the playground was built, her kids had long graduated from the school. That's the kind of person she is and the kind of person I want on the board. By the way, Kim advocated for ethnic studies before it was a requirement. After she found out the curriculum model the district had been using for two years was deemed inappropriate at the state level, she did her due diligence and researched and put a motion

157on the board not to renew the contract for a third year. Trusty Medina, that doesn't make her a right-wing Zionist. Thank you. I'm glad uh Dura was brought up again because Durpa is lying about the CR contract. She smeared Dr. Tintangok Kubales with no evidence for two years. We asked for the evidence. There was no evidence. And again, misinformation. There is no curriculum. There's a framework. Please get your facts straight before you come and attack something that you're not familiar with. And also, um, you know, President Flores, you are the only board member who doesn't respond to emails. Who doesn't engage with the community? I don't know why you sit there. I've sent you emails. You've responded to none. My daughter sent you an email for a school project. You did not respond. And then

158you sit here and try to send her somebody who actually engages in the community. Where were you when Sto was attacking our student trustee? Where were you when he was insulting the community? Where were you then? Why were you silent? All of a sudden, now you have a voice. This is this this censure definitely looks targeted. It doesn't look like anything else but a targeted attack. I'm so disappointed on all of you. I have important business to talk about. My kid's education. My kid being bullied at school and been nothing done about it. My older daughter has was bullied the entire time she was in this district. Now I take my daughter out of school because she feels like killing the kids in school. Because nobody has done anything about anything. Because there's no zero

159tolerance for bullies. And you're over here talking about an educated man who's holding all of you accountable and you're pissed off. Oh my gosh. I have an issue. My kids education is more important. And what are you doing? I want to know. 14 years I've been fighting the system. You're going to wait until my daughter grows up just a little bit more and gets a hold of a gun and goes and shoots everybody in school. Is that what you want? Is that what you're going to wait for? Really? You sit on those chairs and all of a sudden you forget where you came from. Don't forget that chair ain't there forever. You'll come down real quick. Let me tell you that right now. Thank you. Don't think you'll be there forever. Next up, we have

160uh Stacy Sambble, Eden Holt, Rabbi Des Debbie Israel, Gil Stein, Nat Lowe, Eli Davis, and Gabriel R. Hello. Um, in two in 2017, Unite the Right marched in Charlottesville chanting, "Jews will not replace us." In 2018, Marjgerie Taylor Green implied that Jews have a space laser that started the campfire. I have come to expect anti-semit anti-semitic language along with racism from the right. The right has long aimed to divide people. But this is not what I expect to see here. The language coming from members of the school board is ignorant, offensive, and disrespectful to the community. While it reflects growing anti-semitism, it amplifies and aims to legitimize. It is shameful and is dividing our community. As school board members, we expect you to act for all community members, bringing people together to educate our youth.

161To Joy, thank you for your apology. To those who have not apologized, please do and start serving the whole community. Thank you. [Applause] After the April 16th meeting where Trusty Medina treated community members horrifically and co-opted the agenda with his attentiongrabbing antics, did he apologize to the community or those he offended? No, he doubled down. He went on an online rampage, Mike. Oh, there. Is that better? Yeah. He went on an online rampage uh blaming the far-right Zionist for coming to get him. Um, and he didn't even bother hiding behind attacks on Israel. Instead, he posted a video from known Jew hater Eric Warsaw, who creates hate content on TikTok. This accused Jews of controlling everything from the court system to Congress. The video he shared specifically accused Jews of controlling the media and controlling

162all fact checkers. I have tracked white supremacist Nazi groups for years, and this is some of the most appalling Jew hatred I have ever come across. This has nothing to do with helping students. This is just blatant Jew hatred. There is no other explanation. Trustee Medina has aligned himself with extremists. He is no different than the Proud Boys. He has spread anti It's true. He has spread anti-semitic tropes from vile anti-semmites. Thank you. Thank you. I'm done. Okay. I would like to res I would like to remind this boardroom that it's not appropriate to be shouting out from the audience when people are speaking especially when people are not shouting out when you're speaking. Let's try to show our students how to have respect and decorum. Thank you. I'm Rabbi Debbie Israel. After being one

163of the Jewish constituents in attendance at the last board meeting who was personally attacked, I'm obligated to be here and speak this evening. Make no mistake, this is not about CRA any longer. This is about anti-semitism. I know you serve as a board member because you care about the students. They are your priority as they should be. However, when someone is elected to serve that population and goes off track, he must be challenged and corrected. Mr. Medina personally attacked me at the last meeting and online because I am Jewish and I was sitting near other Jews. Mr. Medina clearly made up facts about me, rightwing what to fit your stereotypes and used your bully pulpit to attempt to discredit me both at the meeting and online afterwards. I appreciate that the board does not condone

164this behavior. Do not let him bully you as you consider the motion to censure. I would encourage you, Mr. Medina to return to the work of an elected official behaving and speaking like a person who was elected to serve all of us not just those who agree with you. Thank you to the board for this conversation. I mean the one thing I have to say about rightwing is that if the shoe fits so net low area 7 um I continue to be disappointed to see that there is one set of rules for some people and another set for others just like the board president and vice president can watch trustee sto bully our student trustee the one that you all say you love so much and do nothing and sit there and do nothing no

165censure but you jump at the chance to write up a censure for the one trust trustee that the students consistently say makes them hurt and you say that students are your priority just like Trusty Flores in this resolution is trying to bar trustee Medina from the agenda setting committee for the rest of his term that the Lord didn't read that part out but like that that's in the the resolution that wasn't in Aosta's resolution and also she was too happy to like vote in anti- Georgia as president after George Aosta was censured for far worse just like trusted serpus potential violation of the Levane Act by refilling to recuse herself from the appointment of Trusty Navaro um around and other conflicts of interest around the CR contract were ignored but calls them out. The one

166who calls them out is Thank you. That's right. [Applause] I'm echoing everything Nat said and nothing could be clearer of the role Gabriel Medina plays in this room than what we saw here where he fought tooth and nail for the community to be able to speak. You saw that this is the norm for this this board. It's been the norm for the entire time I've been coming, which is over 20 months. And if you remove him from the ability to have any power, essentially what we're looking at with this censure, including removal of the committee board, the um agenda setting committee, you when he says it's political, you are trying to split a progressive voting block that we the people voted in democratically. This is what is happening. You're and we came from this MAGA

167board where Oscar Sodto his parting words were stop the woke agenda. The guy with the MAGA hat. I I have to say in the wording of the resolution you said he was expressing a political opinion. As a queer person, as a trans person, that is extremely offensive. Like that is hate speech. The MAGA, the homophobic shirt. He came the next time. Come on. [Applause] Gil Stein once again and you know we just celebrated Passover and in that holiday we sing the song Diana which means it would have been enough and it can that applies here. It would have been enough for this board to take action if Trusty Medina only insulted the Christian community by voting against a student teacher because she went to a Christian Bible school. It would have been enough he had

168only berated and insulted the chief financial officer who resigned shortly thereafter. It would have been enough had he only insulted senior citizens and grandparents. And it wouldn't have been enough he as he continuously violated the Brown Act. And it certainly would have been enough for disparaging the community, the Jewish community. It is now time to say, Mr. Medina Denu, enough is enough. Your conduct is unacceptable for a public official. It demeans the office. It inhibits the function of the board and causes additional costs for legal fees because of your inability to follow the laws and board policy. For all of these reasons and for many more, the board should stand tall and act. Show that Trusty Medina's demeanor and actions are not those of a strong, ethical PBUSD leader. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] If

169we continue to have outbursts, we're going to have to end up taking a recess and clearing the room. So, please stop. Carolyn K, Dr. Raj Shornstein. Andrew, sorry, I'm going to maser your last name. And Andrew G. Oen. Golden. Sorry. Kelly, I think you chose not to speak. Uh, Rabbi, I have you twice in here. and Ros uh Bill Beecher, Bobby Pels, Anastasia Torres Gil, Chris Webb, and Barbie Marchel. Okay, good evening again. I feel like this needs to be said one more time. And I'm I really wanted to come in the spirit of like unity, but I'm having a really hard time when I'm seeing the weaponization of accusations of anti-semitism happening, false accusations even. Um, I just want to go I would love to talk to you in person one day, Rabbi Deb

170Israel, but maybe you don't want to talk to me now. Um, her her Lookout um op-ed said that trustees use conventional anti-Semitic tropes. Trustees plural. And again, Gabriel did not say anything any trope. Like, I don't know why we're we're saying this and we're spreading fear among the congregates of TBE. like that's really not okay. And they showed little grace and openness. Yeah, he got spicy, but who else did? No one else did. Even as some quote, some board trustees use conventional anti-semitic tropes. Again, this is getting published in papers and it and it went it went crazy. And that's what happens when false accusations of anti-semitism are made. It creates chaos. And then he said, "Instead of pointing at the Jews in attendance, I don't know if you consider me a Jew, but I

171was also in attendance." And he definitely wasn't pointing at me. Like, he actually thanked me. He made a social media. Thank you for another Jewish perspective. I don't know. [Applause] You got to turn it back on. Uh, President Flores. Oh, yeah. Okay. President Flores, trustees, and Superintendent Contrarus, you have put the issue of Trustee Medina's conduct in violating board policies on the agenda tonight. Trustee Medina's discriminatory and bullying verbal assault on the three of us Jewish residents at the April 16th board meeting made me personally feel very unsafe. Many concerned citizens in the in the community have reached out to me and want the board to take a stand tonight because on April 16th, most of the board was silent in response to trustee Medina's tirade. In addition, ongoing verbal attacks on his fellow trustees

172by trustee Medina on social media and elsewhere compromise the ability of the board to function effectively in their work for the future of the children being educated in PVUSD. I hope you will decide on an appropriate response tonight. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, trustees. My name is Andrew Golden Crants. Um been living in this district for 40 years. Put both my kids through the district and I worked here for 10 years very happily. Um I think there's two issues here. for myself a a spicy conversation on difficult issues that has some uncomfortable commentary going on that doesn't bother me. I think there's two problems. One is can we go home and tell our kids that the board and the district are representing the qualities we expect from our kids. My feeling as an educator has

173been never hold ourselves we have to hold ourselves to the same expectations we expect of our kids. And I think the behavior that we've seen this last couple months has really violated that. The second thing is I spend a lot of time in Sacramento. I spend a lot of time at the county office. I spend a lot of time in DC advocating in my own field of science curriculum. I go into the governor's office. I go into the state superintendent's office. They don't want to hear about what I'm there for. All they say is what's going on down there in PVUSD. You've paralyzed what's going on in your communications externally in a way that you got to set this right one way or another. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening, Bill Beech here. This all started

174one and a half years ago and here we are still digging. This is a serious action by the board, but try to make it a teaching and learning moment. Yes, we all have the right to speak, but we also have responsibilities that go with that right. We have the responsibility to allow others to have their rights and opinions. We also have the responsibility to work with others and that is what we should be talking about. Gabe is bright. He's smart. He has ideas. He doesn't know how to work with other people. He creates controversy. I've watched it since January. I thought he was growing. He's an immature young man. He needs to grow up. Thank you. [Applause] Uh, well, first I'm going to say that I stand by what I've said over and over again.

175You should have pulled this item. I mean, clearly the if this was an attempt to bring us together or to turn the page, it's not working. Um, and I and I also want to point out that uh when you was when there was a motion to uh censor Kim Derpa, you you voted it down, but you know, Kim Derpa slandered Allison Santiago Kubal. She also used the agenda committee to prevent CRA from coming back. She abused her power and nobody censored her. Nobody even said anything there was anything wrong with that. Um and even though a lot of you weren't there, you still voted on that um on that motion. Same thing with Oscar Sodto. Two of you were on stage with Oscar Sodto when he bullied one of our students and you didn't say

176a single word. So what are we saying? that it's okay to bully people and slander people, but for some reason you have a problem with Gabe behavior. I think that's a double standard. And I also think that, you know, I was really hoping that this board would turn the page and look at new ways of doing things, but this feels like more of the same. You guys got to find a better way to do things because clearly what you're doing right now is not working. Thank you. Hello, my name is Anastasia Torres Gil. I am Jewish. My husband is of Mexican descent. He picked strawberries in Watsonville and his father was a Brero. My Latinx children are proud of both their Jewish and Mexican heritage. My Latinx brothers-in-law attended a Jewish university on scholarships. In

177our family, we try to raise each other up, not tear each other down. I worked as a legal aid attorney in Watsonville. The majority of the attorneys in the office were Jewish. I've also taught art to adults with disabilities in Watsonville, helped monilingual Spanish-sp speakaking foster and adoptive parents navigate the county system, and I volunteered in an elementary school in Watsonville. If Trustee Medina does not see Jews working for social justice, as he stated in the previous meeting, then perhaps Mr. Medina is not looking. His remarks were offensive, ignorant, and would be immediately condemned if directed against any other community. [Applause] This uh this measure is very disappointing. Um it's personal clearly. It's not professional. It's disgraceful. It hurts our district. It seems like just more favoritism at odds with the facts. Um Dr. Navari,

178I think you should recuse yourself when the voting comes. Um, the whole thing also I feel like has like echoes of like racism. It's like pick on the brown guy. Um, he had the temerity to fight for education that proud kids wanted and um you know this other part of the district that's known for certain certain uh ideas didn't like that. it. Um, as far as that comment, the the you people one like the like the member of the Jewish community said, he was pointing at specific people. And also with that, I've been at a lot of like social justice events in this community and I have not seen this um this contingent of people like in years. Like I never even knew you existed. I didn't even know Kim was a Jewish person until

179the this random thing came up. So which events were you guys at? Did you fight for pesticides? Did you fight layoffs? of you fall for our teachers. Where have you been? I am more often than not aligned with Medina and his goals and I do not always agree with him. Um, we've had some disagreements, a big one recently actually. I struggle with it, but Gabe, I am a Gemini and I hear that could be part of the issue. All right, but this is not okay and this should not happen. I'm glad someone mentioned the resolution. I didn't even know it was on there because it was snuck on yesterday. I read it in the seats over there and so much was taken out of context just like many of the comments from last meeting have

180been as well. You did not censor his predecessor after he dressed down a sketa at the dis and called us the community ignorant for disagreeing with him. I don't agree at all with the way that Medina has addressed you. I will say that on the record. Nor do I agree with comments about voting no on everything being immature or you posting about him on Facebook or snapping when someone calls him immature. It has gone both ways. This does not help the board move forward as acknowledged by the attorney himself. This needs to be a unanimous vote against and let's talk about moving forward for real, please. And let's stop fighting and come together against the actual systems that are oppressing all of us. Marilyn, I didn't call you up yet, did I? Go ahead. um

181having taught in this district for 20 years and retired in 2000 and come to literally hundreds of meetings of the Para Valley School Board. I see Gabrielle Medina as an exemplary trustee who work nothing that I've seen over the years like you and I mean that sincerely in representing the students standing for justice speaking out on this issue and trying to stop this toxic trespath like another moss landing right in our community and false charges of anti-semitism. What our government has is a real anti-Palestinian policy that is slaughtering people in Palestine. Next up, we have Anastasia Torres, Gil, Micah Pner, Michael Levy, Shirley Flores, and Providence. Did I Did I do these already? Oh, no, no, no. It's okay if everybody I think that's it then. It's all I got. Did anybody else not speak

182that put in a card? come up to the podium. My name is Micah Pner. I'm a Jew and I support ethnic studies. I want to thank all of you for your work in the community. I know you do it because you care about the community. It's certainly not for money. I've also been an elected official in Santa Cruz County. I was censured in 2015. It was a difficult process. My enemies took out their knives to get me and my allies wanted to fight them. It was really hard to get the space to actually think about what had happened or what I had done. In the end, I voted for my own censure. Um, but as a recipient of a censure, I have to say that in and of itself, a censure doesn't mean much. We

183have to learn, especially as elected officials, how to disagree with respect. We have to learn that as a community, too. Obviously, listening is important. In this case, I'd recommend mediation. I want to appreciate board member Flynn. She met with me and listened to the way in which one of her comments scared me as a Jewish person. Board member Medina, I view you as a natural ally, but I heard some of your comments as kind of divisive and inflammatory. Please speak with me with respect, and I'm going to speak to you in exactly the same way. Thank you. [Applause] Is this it? Okay. My name is Michael Levy. I'm speaking as a local Jewish person and congregation member at Temple Bethl. Jews and people of color are natural allies. Though both racism and anti-semitism has been

184used to divide us. What really scares the superw wealthy is if Jews and people of color get together in solidarity. I propose that we do that. That will require each group to do a lot of listening as well as educating. Censuring is of limited value. I encourage my fellow Jews to get curious about why the CRA curriculum is so valued by students and faculty in the district. I encourage all non-Jews to get curious about the often hidden workings of anti-semitism. I encourage the board and the leadership of local Jewish organizations to engage in a mediation mediated listening process to learn from each other. I can recommend several great mediators for this purpose. Thank you. Hi, my name is Shirley Flores Munoz. It continues to be the same. Um, I want to say that when I

185was uh when I got herd was going to Watsonville High School, uh, she went to Smith College back east and I brought her home for her junior year so that she could study with Murray Bombgarden and Peter Kennets to do the Holocaust class at the university. Okay, we are allies to Jewish people. All right, let's just say that. So, it's your job to sit down with this group of people who have fear and to negotiate with them around the curriculum. They need to see the curriculum, read the curriculum, understand that we are not going to attack them with this curriculum. I'm sure that that is what they're waiting for. When I have a problem with someone, I sit down with them. I want to hear where they're coming from. because if you don't want to

186do that, you don't want to resolve anything and you got to look at that. Thank you. Hello, my name is Max uh and I'm a Jewish student of critical race and ethnic studies at UCSC and a member of the organization Jews Against White Supremacy. I am here today to defend Trusty Medina from the handful of bad faith actors who think they can come into this community and to paraphrase the righteous words of Trusty Medina, if I may, tell people of color who they are. The history of ethnic studies is full of white people telling people of color who they are. In fact, one of the core reasons ethnic studies came into being was because students of color were tired of having whitewashed textbooks telling them who they are or erasing them entirely from history. I

187cannot stress how important it is to disregard the comments of people who support the state of Israel, which the International Court of Justice in July of 2024 ruled was an apartheid state. It has murdered 20,000 children in one and a half years and has blown up every single university in Gaza. Ask these people what country they support and they will say it's Israel. They must be disregarded for this reason. Thank you. Just waiting for my time. Thank you. Hello, my name is Robin. I am a Jew and I'm here today as a local ethnic studies educator, scholar of Palestine Studies, member of Jews Against White Supremacy, and Faculty for Justice in Palestine at UCSC, and comrade of those who have worked tirelessly for the past 20 months and beyond to ensure that the CRA contract

188for PVUSD is renewed. Today there are insidious efforts to undo this important work in the name of combating anti-semitism. The first of such attempts is through the proposal to implement the facing history facing ourselves curriculum which through a liberal Zionist framework attempts to completely disappear Palestine from the ethnic studies curriculum and equate anti-sionism with anti-semitism. An ethnic studies curriculum that upholds the apartheid state of Israel as democratic and denies its historic and ongoing land theft and genocide against the Palestinian people is an ethnic studies that cannot achieve its political imperatives. [Music] Is that the last of our public comments? Okay. So now I will bring it back to the board for discussion. May I? Yes. Trusty Turley. Thank you. I'd like to pause this topic and technically I think by pause I mean to table

189it. There were things Oh, here I go again. Um, things were said in an executive session meeting that were alarming to me. Things had been said to employees previously that I felt uncomfortable with. I'm a part of the agenda setting committee. When we met to talk about this agenda, I agreed to put it on. Although I had some reservations and stated that it was going to be difficult for me. Um I think in this instance it's unfair to villainize um trustees Flores and um Navaro um because I I too was a part of that. I was alarmed by what I had heard and I felt like we hadn't stepped up along the line to say I'm uncomfortable with what you're saying. I'm uncomfortable with what you're doing. I now have a pact with Gabe that

190when I feel uncomfortable I'm going to tell him I feel uncomfortable with what you're saying. You're making me anxious. Right. Um I'm probably going to go over my time and now I'm crying so I can't read. [Music] Um my goal is to end up with a highly functioning board. It's been pointed out that we're not there, but I want us to get there. And I feel like if we take this action, we're going to make it harder for ourselves to get there. We need to figure out how to work together. I don't believe that this will achieve our goal of working together. I think it's going to turn us backwards. The board is planning on participating in some training, coaching, and possibly mediation. I hope we end up doing some mediation because I think we're

191at the point we need that. I want to pause so we can allow space for this process. I ask that each board member, each of the seven of us, refrain from posting anything or making public derogatory statements about one another or members of our staff. And if it's not possible at this time to make that commitment in perpetuity to at least commit to we're not going to make those kinds of statements. We're not going to post things until we work through this process that we're planning and try to build um a coalition amongst us. How can we expect the people in our community to work together if we can't work? There's only seven of us and if we can't figure out how to work together, how are we expecting a larger group to do that?

192And we need to lead in that process. [Applause] In that training, I hope that it will allow time for each of us to step back, breathe, reflect on our own contributions or lack of response to escalating tensions. I would like to point out some of the things that were in the resolution. The student teacher, at least four of us voted in favor of that. Gabe wasn't out there alone on that. Um, we collectively left the room and allowed the caucus. Um, so I find it hard to blame just Gabe for that. Um, we all voted on the motion about um, Kim Durpa and the motion about a letter which weren't on the agenda. We all participated in that collectively. That's not just on Gab's shoulders and we shouldn't allow it to rest there. We are

193a team. We're not acting like a successful team at the moment, but we are a team and we win together and we lose together. So, let's find Stop it. Thanks. Let's find a way to support our team members. And in the words of my friend Tekashi, who I saw earlier, I'm not sure if he's still here. There's Tekashi. Tekashi says, and I have to agree, now is a time for reconciliation of our board members, the people we work with, and our community. And I'm hopeful that the rest of you, I know we all have strong feelings about everything. Everybody on this board has strong feelings. Um, but that you'll agree with me that it's a time to put this aside. I'd also like to point out that if there were seven of us here, this

194was either going to be a 34 vote or a 4-3 vote. And that's not a strong message that Asenture was was really called for. And I I at this point in time, there was a time I didn't, but at this point in time, I feel like there are other paths we can take to achieve our goals, work together better, and what are we supposed to be focusing on? [Music] Thank you. [Applause] What was that? Sure. Trusty Navaro. Thank you. Can we all just take a deep breath for a second because I'm not so much Black Panther. I'm more Bnee Brown. So, since I started on this board, um, I've actually been really upset by just the overall general demeanor and behavior that I've seen from not even not just our trustees, um, but also from

195the public. And we've been working really hard, Olivia and I and Dr. Condras and Carol to try to turn the temperature down in the room and to try to figure out a way to work together. I appreciate Omar your offer. Um, I can tell you that you probably don't realize that I have repeatedly reached across the aisle, so to speak, and asked to speak to Gabe, to have coffee with Gabe, to have lunch with Gabe, to have Gabe get to know me as a person. I bought him a book on tips on of being a good board member that I had read and put an inscription in it and he threw it back in my face. I have tried really hard. It's really hard when someone decides who you are without actually taking the time

196to get to know you. his um Medina for PVUSD account which he's blocked me from and some of my friends from but luckily I have a lot of friends so they keep screenshotting me and sending me the things. um his trusty account that's literally says Medina for PVSUSD has called me an Islamophobe. Someone who talks about [Music] someone who talks about black and brown people behind their back. A fact that my half Mexican brother really got pissed off about. Thank you, Eric, for watching. I have um dedicated my career to working with this community. Sorry, I'm not really a super emotional person normally. Um, I know that uh I present as a wealthy white woman from Apdos, but that came from a lot of hard work. I grew up like the kids from Pave and

197Watsonville. And I am where I am today because of education, because of teachers who encouraged me, which is the only reason I joined this. Gosh, Carol, you're contagious. Um, thanks for not leaving me alone. It's the only reason I joined this board. [Laughter] It would be a disservice to my children to not stand up to bullying behavior. It would be a disservice to the students of our community to not stand up to this bullying behavior. It's misogynistic. I got called Barbie. That's Dr. Barbie to you. Thank you very much. [Applause] in regards to a couple of specific things that got brought up. Um, what happened with Daniel at that very first meeting was my very first board meeting. And I was like, what is going on here? And I leaned over and spoke to Daniel

198and said, "What is going on? And I am so sorry that you're being treated this way." And I went and spoke to his mother afterwards. So yeah, I didn't censure or stand up to anybody in my very first board meeting when I was trying to figure out what was going on. Um, I cannot be responsible for things that happened prior to my coming on this board. I can tell you that we brought back the whole CR issue because we listened and heard from the community and have tried to be transparent and honest. This is not censoring. And I had a lot of I I answered every single email that I received up until like 4:00 in the morning yesterday and all through today because I worked till 2 a.m. last night. And this is not

199censoring. I actually think Gabe is very smart, very eloquent, very well read. I think how he speaks to people reminds me of Trump. And that's what I told him. He uses his social media platform to bully and intimidate people. I've had district employees, teachers, community members reach out to me saying that they're afraid to speak up for getting c in his crosshairs. That is not behavior becoming of a board member. And Carol, I'm really glad that you have a relationship with Gabe. But I've tried. You know how much I've tried. You've seen me try. Joy. You've seen me try. You saw him throw the book back in my face and you saw how it hurt me. He has also repeatedly pointed out that I am uh not elected by the people and I'm appointed and

200he has told Dr. Contreras that he will never work with me because I was affiliated with Kim. Trusty Troy Flynn actually has a much deeper and longer relationship than I do with Kim and was also appointed. Yet, he has never come at her. And tell me, what is the difference between the two of us? You gave her money. I think the difference between the two of us is I'm not a person of color. And racism is ugly and dirty when it goes both ways. Yeah. 100%. I'm just going to finish with one of the many many emails that I reached got from the community which really I got a lot of great emails supporting me and supporting the center and I responded to the few emails that I got in support of Gabe which and

201the one student dear super it's uh from Christine Allen dear Superintendent board members and student trustees. I cannot attend the board meeting on Wednesday to publicly comment on this agenda item, but wanted to share my thoughts with you. I'm well aware that there are likely things happening behind the scenes that I don't know about, nor do I want to know about. Nonetheless, I thought it might be helpful for you to know what one part of the public is seeing. Since the beginning of this calendar year, I've watched and listened to Trusty Medina in the recorded meetings and seen his written words in social networks. I've watched him bully Jenny M. In a way, he questioned her and commented on her findings and abilities. I was horrified that her resignation came a mere days after that

202meeting. I've seen him her and I've seen and heard him levy personal attacks on Trusty Medina at every opportunity both in public meetings and on his social networks. Similarly, I've seen social network posts where he accuses Trusty Flores of being strongly influenced by farright to the detriment of her constituents. Full name calling and unsupported accusations just fly out with no concern for how they land. Trusty Medina, your behavior can be quite cruel, and it makes me wonder why you're so unwilling to work with your fellow board members. You're a member of this board, yet you insinuate you're the only one who understands his responsibilities as a board member to the community. I agree with your position on a lot of matters, but it seems that whenever someone doesn't immediately agree with you, you shut down

203all possible voices of dissension by accusing them of things like acting for the benefit of their own interests, being influenced by outside factors, or having the inability to understand power structure or the oppressions of certain POC people of color. Sorry. You have really interesting things to say from a really interesting point of view, but a lot of the substance and potential for progress get lost in the hateful words that come out of your mouth. You can hold power accountable and amplify voices challenging the status quo without vilifying people who have different opinions. Even now, I wonder how you will receive this email if you even read it at all. Will you screenshot my message and blast it on your social networks accusing me of trying to police your voice in an attempt to suppress it?

204Will you disregard what I'm saying by assuming that I've assimilated and bought into white culture? I actually don't have an opinion on whether the boards should censure trustee Medina. According to his latest Substack post, he believes everyone else is unfairly maligning him, but doesn't seem to hold himself accountable for how he treats people who have a different opinion. So, I'm afraid if you censure him, he'll refuse to believe it's actually because of his conduct. He will use it as more fodder to continue making baseless accusations and his supporters will continue to believe them. On the other hand, something has to change before the bo board implodes. All of us are in a all of you in a position of leadership and your modeling behavior from which our students including my own high school student learn.

205I would love to see our trustees display some level of humility like when trustee Dodge was open and honest in speaking with the community and especially the Filipino people. Instead, I see Egos taking priority priority over PBUSD matters. Watching the dysfunction of the board makes me sad. We have lost the ability not only in our country but apparently also within our community to try to communicate with each other and at least try to listen to each other without compass with compassion and without judgment. I'm going to end with a recent quote by basketball player Draymond Green. He said, "You can't be a leader and not be accountable. You call other guys out when their stinks. Then you better say when yours does, too." It's never too late for any of us to step back and

206honestly self-evaluate what we do, why we do it, and how we do it. And then if you think you could have done something better or differently, say that and then do that. Thank you for your consideration, Christine Allen. The last thing I'm going to say is this censure really doesn't do a whole lot. I'm disappointed, Carol, to see that you're waving because you you know what's been going on and that nothing's going to change unless we actually send a strong message that this is not acceptable. I'm hoping that this will be the wakeup call, Gabe, that you need to try to work together as a board and remember this isn't about you. This is not the Gabe Medina show. This is this is a board that we should be acting in the interest of our

207students, our student success, our student achievement and your politics and your views. The place for them is the rallies and the protests. It is not this boardroom. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you to Krasco. Trustee Krasco was next. Thank you. I know, but I'm making a point of order. Yes. Yes, the secondary motion. And unless you want to verify with the lawyer, what what was that? I don't know. Point. What? What was that? Point of order. What are you asking? Um, is it fair for a trustee to use defamatory language um on this podium and also lie um for some of the things that they were saying. Um I just want to know if that is allowed on this board. This is It's okay. This is debate. I mean, and discussion. I think that we had

208another trustee scheduled to speak at this time. You'll have an opportunity to respond. Thank you, Trusty Krasco. I asked myself, how does this item help our student, staff, and teachers? Or how does it bring the board together to work more effectively? I truly wish this was not how we ended the school year. We're all human and we all make mistakes. The previous board made many mistakes and so did the board before that. I have to ask, where was the same energy when a board member verbally attacked our student trustee last fall or when a previous board fired a superintendent without transparency? If we're going to hold people accountable, we need to apply that standard fairly and consistently to everyone, including ourselves. We can't criticize one trustee for going on social media and then turn around

209and do the same thing. We can't apply rules to some, but ignore them for others and then wonder why there's division. We're often reminded that we need to work as a team, but I worry this will deepen the divide. I'm okay with being uncomfortable if it leads to meaningful progress for our district, but this feels more divi divisi divisive and than productive. I have to ask, what do we gain from this? What do our students, staff, and teachers gain? It seems like a formal statement of something everyone already knows. We don't always agree. Anyone watching our meetings can see that. We don't need that in the agenda. Issues from close session should be handled in close session. At the end of the day, we are wasting valuable time and energy that should be focused on

210serving our community. This tension distracts us from the work that we are elected to do and it's draining and it's holding us back. I know Trusty Medina raises difficult points and I recognize that many of his concerns are valid. He highlights issues that often go unspoken but need to be addressed if we want to move forward. Do I agree with how the points are delivered? No. and that needs to improve. But I believe Trusty Medina is capable of adjusting his delivery while continuing to raise important concerns in a constructive way. We all have moments of emotion and passion that's human. But we can and should strive to express ourselves in a way that fosters collaboration. I believe he can do that because I've seen it. My final thought is that we all need to do

211better. myself included. We need to refocus on why we ran for these positions. For me, that means creating more interactive hands-on learning opportunities for students and launching a reading campaign in schools that I represent that I've been talking about and I have not started. That's where the focus should be. Connecting with students, staff, teachers, and parents to straighten our schools. This is a challenging time for everyone, not just in our district, but across our country. So now is the time to come together and stay focused on what truly matters, and that is our students. Mistakes will happen, and that's okay. But let's not tear each other down. Let's support one another so we can keep our attention on serving students. We have incredible students. Even teachers from other districts have told me there's something truly

212special about them. That's where our energy needs to go. Let's shift our focus back to the students, staff, and teachers and hold all of us ourselves accountable with respect and integrity. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Flynn. I don't have any prepared remarks. Um I do have some questions for you. You had um said that censuring goes back to what time frame Okay, that um is a problem for me. Um I um am a proponent of restorative justice practices. Um colonial times did not call for those types of practices. This bureaucracy was built on a platform of supremacy. It's inherent. It's in everything. Um I'm not here to maintain the status quo. um and feel strongly that um we have an opportunity to turn this into a teaching moment for our students so that we can

213maybe even create a policy for how we um handle um interpersonal relationships on the board. Um I think a message is being sent that something needs to change. So I completely understand that the um the agenda setting committee felt like they had no other recourse. So I want to acknowledge that um and recognize that because of the framework in which this bureaucracy has been built, there hasn't been a place for a new way of accountability. Um, I personally, um, was recently criticized openly, um, and wish that I would have been met with restorative justice. And I feel like I now have the opportunity in this leadership position to call for that. Um I agree with both trustee Karasco and um Trustee Turley. Um, I would like to also pause. Um, I would also like to

214um see if how we might be able to um instill what it is you you mentioned about postings. Um, so that this um this thing that has been going on back and forth can have some sort of reset. Um because it is you know both sides and and there have been times where I too have felt uncomfortable. Um, I think there was a board meeting where I felt like the kid between parents. Um, and but I I I want to acknowledge um that there's been harm on on on both sides and um that that they're they're both real um and both have been engaged. Um so again in a call for some sort of unity and um an opportunity for mediated um snippets of conversations to build um I'm not looking for friendship. I'm looking

215for um the ability to work together because I do want us to model how we um expect our um students to be able to get along with other people as well. And in doing so, it's supporting our teachers to be able to um recognize what options they have. One of the things that's been really hard um and I see it playing out is um you know being a a black woman in an elected position the um expectations are much higher than um maybe my white counterparts and that's just the way that it is. I understand that. Um but then when there's a misstep or a mistake, what the the backlash is far greater. We also see this reflected in the students um and our schools where we have black and brown kids who are um

216uh have more detentions and you know more punitive um um what's the word I'm looking for um protocols that that come into play. If there's anything that I can do on this board, if I can have any way of of changing that, I feel like this is the moment where we can lead by example and call attention to that so that um we can really get down to root causes. Um and again um you know bring in restorative justice practices. I sat on neighborhood courts in um in Santa Cruz for a year and it was a a really incredible um experience. Um, and so if I can again maybe help make a new policy for how we as a board deal with um, interpersonal relationships and um, having an alternative to censure yet still have

217some accountability. Um, I think that's something that we should talk about. Thank you. Thank you. So, this has been a very difficult time to be the president of the board. Um, I've seen things in the last 5 months that I hadn't seen in the last in the two years prior to that. And even when I'm watching other boardrooms, um I see a lot of similarities, but the the bullying has been something that has been really hard for me um to work with. um in January when um we had someone a a teaching student, you know, want to work for our district, um I was shocked and caught offguard by the comments made by Trusty Medina and I was silent and um as well as the April 16th meeting, shocked and caught off guard. Um, I

218am a slow processor. I can't just think on my, you know, quick on my feet like that. But also, I am intimidated by the bullying. And, um, I'm not the only one who has been, um, has felt it. We've had staff members feel it. Um, staff members when they come to present. Um, and so the other night though, that was that was uh for me the final straw. I have never in my entire life been treated the way I was treated that night. And I can't I can't stand here and allow someone to speak to me that way and let it go un unchecked. And so because of that um we as representatives are entrusted with the responsibility to uphold the integrity, transpar transparency and ethical standards of our school district and our and for

219our students. It is imperative that we hold ourselves and each other accountable to the policies and values that we have are sworn to uphold. The actions of Trusty Medina outlined in the resolution presented represent a clear violation of established board policies and expectations of conduct. These actions have not only compromised the trust placed in this governing body by our community but also undermined the collaborative and respectful environment necessary for effective governance. The conduct of Trusty Medina has not only violated board policy but has created a hostile and unsafe work environment for my colleagues as well as staff. I along with others have been subjected to yelling, threats and treatment that is completely unacceptable in any professional setting, let alone one that serves children and the public interest. Such behavior is not just unacceptable, it's damaging.

220It's it damages the integrity that this board of this board and destroys public trust and it sets a dangerous precedence for how we engage with others in this community in our community. We must be clear that this is not how we lead. This is not how we govern and this is not who we are. Censorship censorship is not taking censuring is not taken lightly. It is a formal expression of disapproval meant to reaffir reaffirm our commitment to ethical stand leadership and to ensure that behaviors unbecoming of of this office is publicly acknowledged and addressed. Now having said that I agree that we can take steps for resolution. I hope I hope I'm going to stay hopeful that there are steps that can be taken for resolving the conflicts that we have on this board. and

221a few items coming up you will see you know we have we hopefully we will have the support we need and I hope that all seven of us can come to these trainings and really give it our all not come for half day not come you know come for the whole time give it our all and really try to do what's best for our students and get back to exactly what it is we all took these seats for which these last few months I haven't felt like we've been doing that. So to like we said in the beginning of this, this is a time for us to decide if action is going to be taken or no action is going to be t taken or if we are going to propose something new like Trusty

222Flynn was mentioning. Trusty Flores. Yes. Even if this doesn't pass, I'm I need to distance myself from the words that have been said. And unfortunately, when Trusty Medina speaks, he forgets sometimes that he's speaking for all of us, for the board. And I for that reason I'm gonna make a motion to censure trustee Medina even if it doesn't pass. Thank you. Thank you. I have a trusty Krasco say something. Um I want to remind us too to this board. You guys, we all came in here to have to solve three big issues that we inherited. That is a lot of stress on all of us. I want to remind you all and we're learning to work together. And on our first day, we had to cut $5 million. That's a lot. So, I want us

223to realize that we're doing a lot of things all at the same time very quickly. And it's it's been hard. And yet, when I go out in the community and I talk to people, they have said that we are moving things faster than any other board. And we're a little dysfunctional. Yeah. But we are trying and I see it in in bits and pieces in all of us. So yes, we're not perfect, y'all. But we are trying to work together and we inherited a lot of stuff that I want to remind everybody that we did not do and we're trying to do the right thing. if I had a dollar for every single time someone said I don't envy your position Krasco. So I just want to remind everybody that. Thank you Trusty Menia. Sorry.

224Thank you. Um so many things but I will admit you have tried reaching out but you also have to acknowledge the way that you do it. The way that you say things, the way that you do that does not make people feel right. So, how am I going to set up a meeting when somebody sends me an email that states if we do not figure out a way to have a common goal together, you you are not serving your constituents. Put the pettiness aside and figure out a way to communicate effectively. How am I supposed to respond to something like that when it is so demeaning and you constantly pick on me? And do you notice that at all? Do you notice the picking on me that happens? The enticing that happens. Barbie was a

225response because I was flipped off. I was told, "F you." And I was called Trump. Somebody who's deporting my people right now. So, how do you think that made me feel? I didn't go as far as calling somebody a more derogatory term than Barbie. That was to highlight the privilege that you need to recognize that you have. That's why that was said. When you give somebody a gift and they don't accept it, that is not a way to criminalize them and say, "You don't like reading books. Is that it? Oh, I've read more books than you. I'm 15 years older than you. You're picking on a 33year-old. How old are you? You continue with your lies. This is not true. Let let him speak. Trusty Navaro. And I stood here and heard the same lies

226that you were spewing. And you know, I I am very concerned because as somebody who's had ADHD, as somebody who's always had to fight for myself, to tell people, "No, I'm not angry. That's just how I talk. That's just how I process information." It's not the same as a neurotypical person. And when you're constantly picking on a neurode divergent person to get a response out of them and you don't like that response and you continue to cry, I'm being picked on. Did you realize that I also have ADD and I don't attack you? Trusty Navaro, let him speak, please. And I'm I'm This is just proving this is exactly what happens. I state something, she comes in, she says something that isn't true, and she wants a response. She's egging me on right now like

227she does all the time. So, where where is the transparency? Trustee uh Flores, you're the president. You're not supposed to protect one person. You're supposed to protect all of us, even your friends that are picking on other people. And I appreciate you telling me at our first meeting, I'm sorry for treating you like that, but you went back into your ways and you didn't even recognize that. So that's all I have to say. I think this center says a lot more about the people who put it up than it does me. And I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Did you want to speak? Okay. So, we have a motion on the table to censure. Do we have a second or do we have any other comments? Okay, I will make a second. I know

228it's not going to pass, but I think just out of to follow through with what is on our agenda, I'm going to make a second and I will call for a vote. Sure. Wasn't there a motion by Trusty Turley to table or to She did not make a motion. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, all those in favor? No, we're just going to do a vote. I I All those opposed? No. No. And so that that motion fails for sorry no two four zero one. Can I say something please is am I not typically we don't once the once the vote is taken we but yes yeah I just and we could keep it curious. So, so that is a no. But then, so what happens? There still needs to be, you know, well, hopefully we will

229learn to work together as a board and we hopefully will approve some training coming up and be able to have some conflict resolution and move beyond this. Okay. I mean, so the vote fails, correct? Yes. I said the vote fails. Thank you. Okay. Order, please. Order, please. Thank you. I'm now going to move us on to item What time? Um, item 10.2, resolution 24-25-46, Jewish American Heritage Month. Um, report will be presented by Michael Berman, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services. Um, I Good evening, President Flores, Dr. Contrarus board of trustees and PVSUSD community. It is my honor to bring forth resolution 242546 which recognizes May as Jewish American Heritage Month. If you would indulge me, I'd like to read a few highlights in this resolution. Whereas Jewish Americans have made significant and lasting contributions to

230the arts, sciences, businesses, education, civil rights, government, medicine, law, and military service of the United States and have helped shape the nation's identity and ideals. And whereas PBUSD values the the diversity of its students, families, and staff and recognizes the importance of inclusive education that reflects the histories and contributions of all communities. And whereas PBSD is committed to promoting a safe, respectful, and equitable learning environment free from discrimination, including anti-semitism and all forms of hate. Now there be therefore let it be resolved that PBSD board of trustees hereby recognizes May as Jewish American Heritage Month. And be it further be resolved that the board reaffirms its commitment to fostering an inclusive and respectful school community that stands firmly against anti-semitism, hate and discrim discrimination of any kind. And with that, I ask for um adoption.

231Thank you. So now I will see do we have any public speakers to this comment? Oh. Would you mind doing time? Sure. Okay. I will call you up and please proceed to the podium. You will have one minute. We have Rabbi Debbie Israel, Gil Stein, Gabriel R. I don't Are those the right ones? Oh, sorry. 10.2. Um, is those say 10.2 on them? They say 10.2 on them. This is for Jewish Heritage Month. I'll put a card for Yeah, I haven't got to everyone yet. So, if I've called your name, please come up. Gabriel R. Gil Stein, Rabbi Debbie Israel, Caroline K, Eli Davies, and Nat Low. If I've called your name, go ahead and proceed. We might have some people that have left. All right. Well, I didn't leave. Uh I'm still here and

232I think that this is an important resolution. It's not only through this board can say something about Jewish Heritage uh month. It's been adopted by the Santa Cruz County Libraries, by uh the county board of trustees. It's been adopted all over the country. And I don't see why this board can't do it to show support for the Jewish community and for the students who are Jewish who live and learn in the community. Uh we can learn from each other as it's been stated here before. Let's follow through on that and learn about Jews, the Jewish contribution to this community and to the state and to the country and learn to respect each other. I think that's what you're talking about. Let's do it. Please state your name. My name is Gabriel Robinson. I am a

233resident of Santa Cruz County and I am an active member of its Jewish community uh in regards to this measure for uh Jewish American Heritage Month. I just wanted to add some uh clarifying history real quickly. So the history of American jewelry has long been tied to radical movements and the dream for a better world for all. Zionism is a recent imposition fundamentally tied with the cold war era political ambitions of US geopolitical strategies for which American Jews have been used as a pawn. As conditions continue to worsen for people in the US, it is only by allying with and supporting presently and historically oppressed peoples that American Jews can have a safe future from the rising tide of Christian nationalism that dovetales so clearly with fascism. Thank you. Um I think I had some

234slides for this. Can they get pulled up? Okay. Uh, not that one. It's the different slide. Yeah, it's 10.2. Okay, thank you so much. Um, hi NLO. Um, area 7, can you like reset my timer? But like, net area 7, I want to support this resolution as someone who has worked and stood and marched beside and learned so much from my Jewish friends and comrades. Um, but I want to take the time to ask also who Jewish American Heritage Month is. Is it for all Jews or is it for only the ones that support Israel? So, I actually went to college with one of the the directors um of this film um Erin. And this is a film completely produced by Jewish Americans telling the stories of young Jewish Americans who I don't usually see

235a lot at this meeting. Um, and yet it screenings were cancelled and attacked over and over last year. Um, next, next slide, please. Oh, cool. Sorry. Okay, so local anti-Zionist Jewish. Thank you, Nat. That is your time. She didn't get a whole lost because they lost about point of order. So local anti-Zionist Jews have been erased by our lo local media which has either like omitted the the fact that um Jewish Americans were the ones who present who organized the protests against the Zionist film or erased their Jewish identities entirely um because they they just refused to say that though they were Jews um protesting that thing and and so there is erasure and I'm going to ask you thank you Nat that has now your time. Yes. Okay. To vote. Who is it really

236for? Thank you, Nat. No, it's fine. I am speaking in support uh to follow up on the points Nat has made. Um the the ethnic cloud class that I took actually taught me that there were so many Jews that were involved with the Freedom Rides and Freedom Summer um in the late 1960s. And so I I support this measure. There is radical um resistance to state violence within Jewish heritage and it should reflect also the young Jews that are here tonight who are also resisting state violence who who risk uh losing opportunities, education and risk violence to continue in this uh tradition. Thank you. Um, oh, it's What was your name again? I'm sorry. Max. What was it? Max. Matt. I did not Let me see. Let me grab Find your card here. Uh, I

237don't have a Matt. Max with an X. Matt. Max with an X. Maxi a card for this item. I think so. I don't have one for you. We'll give you one minute, though. That's fine. Um, I, as a Jewish person, am not opposed to a Jewish American Heritage, History Month, whatever it's called. But I do want to tell a story about how when 30 of us anti-ionist Jews went to Temple Bethl's Hanukkah celebration, they physically moved the manora out of our way several times so we could not take a photo with it. These people want to say they care about Jewish heritage and celebrating Jewish heritage, but they care about celebrating Jewish Zionists. What I mean by that is Jewish pro-Israel heritage. As soon as Jews speak out against Israel, we can't take pictures in

238front of the monora. We can't participate in their events. I personally have been cut off from my parents for not supporting Israel. So, we really have to ask ourselves, what does it mean when we're saying Jewish American Heritage History Month? It means that we have to acknowledge the fact that there are Jews that support Israel and there are Jews who do not. Temple does not speak for our Jewish people. Thank you, [Applause] [Music] Rabbi Debbie Israel. The fact that there's any controversy about this is indication of why we need this. the um I'm a rabbi so I'm very conscious that this week when we read our Torah and I promise I'm not bringing religion into your meeting but when we read our Torah what we're reading this week is the holiness code and the essence

239of the holiness code if you're familiar with Leviticus is about how we treat one another. The core essence in Leviticus 19 is to treat one another as we want to be treated. And I think that's a very valuable lesson for the board, for all of us here in the room, how we listen to one another, how we speak to one another. And I think passing this resolution or motion is a very good first start to healing in our community. And I for one will appreciate it. Thank you. Do we have Caroline K? Yeah. So, we're talking about passing this resolution or not to have it. Is that what's on the table or we just talking about Jewish things? Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm just going to talk more. I don't really know exactly what. Okay.

240Um, I was actually just outside talking to Micah and some Jewish people in the community from Temple Bethl that I haven't met and I just wanted to really it felt really good to actually be able to talk and I wanted to thank them for instead of writing an op-ed and a letter to the editor to talking to to Joy um in person rather than escalating the situation. And I feel like we talk a lot about wanting to create unity and I really hope that we can actually talk to one another and not escalate things and put other people who are historically oppressed in danger. That's all. Thank you. Up next we have uh Dr. Ros Shornstein Tekashi Mazuno. So, Koran, Marilyn Garrett, and Bobby Marshaalt. Um, thank you to Assistant Superintendent Berman and Superintendent Contraras

241for your support for the Jewish American Heritage Month and to the trustees for putting it on the agenda tonight. I hope that you will join the city of Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, the county of Santa Cruz, and the Santa Cruz public libraries in resolving to celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month in May. If this were any other heritage month, I don't think we would be having the kind of comments that we have been subjected to. Um, I think uh that uh it shows how important it is to educate people about Jewish American heritage and anti-semitism. This community really needs it. Thank you very much for voting for this. Six, five, four, three, two, one. Oh, good evening. I'm Takashi. I'm in support of this resolution. And first of all, thank you

242very much for trusty Carol mentioned about what I said. I propose to you and trustee Medina and Trustee Misty and Trustee Joy. The word which I used is deescalation. But you you interpreted reconciliation. Yeah. What we need really now is just deescalation. Deescalation. Yeah. And anyway, wow. Only to 25 seconds. And I'm thinking about former superintendent Mr. Sheekman. He kept saying to me that there was no anti-semitism in in the ethnic studies program of PBUSD. And so many students came to board meetings to advocate for the contract of with Shere. One of them is Jewish American students from after high school there. Thank you, Tekashi. Yep. I do love to hear your comments though. um Jewish American Heritage Months, not Zionist Israel, Jewish American are not for that. And you say recognize the diversity of

243students in this community. Do we have a Yuga Slo American Heritage Month? Do we have a Japanese American Heritage Month? Do we have to recognize diverse culture here of Palestinian American heritage month? We have many different cultures represented and to just I think we have to recognize them all. To be fair, how about an AfricanAmerican history month, MexicanAmerican History Month? We could list more. Thank you, Marilyn. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening again. Um trying to decide what to speak to tonight. I've never put in this many cards, but it's a stacked agenda tonight. Um I just uh wanted to be here to speak in support of of this agenda item. Um you know, one of the She mentioned diversity, and one thing we see tonight is within every community, there's a lot of diversity,

244even within the Jewish community. And I've mentioned probably maybe too many times before my my other career as as a pastor who does a lot of interfaith work. And as a result, you know, I do have friends who spoke on both sides tonight, right, who I I respect. I have my own opinions. Um, but I just want to say I I felt it was important as somebody who has spoken for our ethnic studies contract and for CRA also to acknowledge that uh I'm grateful for times that we can acknowledge the dignity and value of all the people and this is absolutely one of them. and we have lots of these that we do and I'm grateful that we continue to recognize as many of our students as possible. So, thank you. Uh I have so

245so or Sue Keron has left. Okay. Okay. So, I will now um bring it back to the board for discussion. I'll make a motion to approve. Thank you, Trusty Eskea. I second. Okay. Do we have any discussion from the board? Trusty Medina. Yeah, I am totally in support of this. But I also think we need to recognize that a lot of the students from UC Santa Cruz who were defending Palestinian rights, who are educating us on anti-Zionism, who have been attacked over and over again, also deserve recognition during this time. And I want to res thank you all for showing up today and for talking and educating us. Um, I don't think too many people know this, but we have something similar um with the political ideology within our community, and that's called being a

246cho. Mexicans are chicanos, but not all chos, right? So, that's how it is. And, um, it's really interesting um, to see that. And I just want to thank you all for what you're doing during this time because we're it's a generational divide that we're seeing right now that we're having to battle. And it's hard. Believe me, I live with my boomerita. I can't get nothing past her. All right? I love that woman to death. So, um, I just want to acknowledge that I see you all. I see the hard work that you're doing and I appreciate you for putting yourselves on the line so that way we could acknowledge what is happening right now in the world. So, thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any other comments from the board? Okay.

247I would like to say before I um express my support of this, I want to acknowledge and express my sincere regret for the times that I have remained silent when I should have spoken up and for not stepping forward to lead when leadership was needed. In those moments, whether out of hesitation, uncertainty, or fear of retaliation, I failed to contribute in a way that I should have. I recognize now that my voice and actions could have made a meaningful difference, not just for myself, but for others who are looking for guidance and support. In recognition of Jewish American Heritage Month, I affirm my support for honoring the rich history, culture, and contributions of Jewish Americans. Celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month strengthens our collective commitment to diversity and ensures that all communities feel seen, valued, and

248respected. So, we have a motion on the table. Trusty Flynn. Um, I want to second what you said about the contributions of the Jewish community, um, you know, locally and abroad, learning today that my favorite author was Judy Bloom, um, who is a Jewish author growing up. Um, so I am definitely hearing all the sides. Um, but giving um, space for people to be seen is what I'm wanting. So, um, let's continue with the motion. Did you have a second? Oh, sorry. Okay. So, we had a first and a second. And Dr. Navar, you had some comments. Um, I just wanted to echo your sentiment about not speaking up at the last meeting. Um, I think part and I want to apologize. Um, I think part of it is Olivia and I have gotten a

249lot of hate and grief and so I in order to avoid any further attention on us, I think we stayed silent which in retrospect was not the right choice and so I want to apologize for that. Um, I think that this recognizes all Jewish people and I think we need to, you know, focus more on all of our students and if there was unfortunately there's only 12 months in the year, so maybe we might have to start combining some of these. But thank you. Thank you. Okay, so we have a first and a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstaining? That motion carries. 6001. Yes. Yes. Trustee Eskea. Just Just because it is 10:05 now, I'll make a motion to extend the meeting to uh to 1:00 a.m. I'll second. We have

250a motion to extend our meeting to 1:00 a.m. And we have a second. All those in favor? Are we sure we'll be done by one? Do we want to It's a safety. I feel like we can We could always extend. No, you can't extend it once. We can only extend it once. We need to Yes. And we can't keep our cab. We We have lots of staff here that needs to be up and to mentor our children tomorrow, our students tomorrow. So, we have a first and a second. All those in favor? I I Any opposed? Any abstaining? Motion passes. 6001. All right. Pressure's on. Hurry. She's opposing. I'm opposed. I don't I don't think we'll end. I mean, I don't want to extend, but Okay. So, before we move accountability Okay. All right. We're

251going to I'm going to keep us moving. Trusty um Garasco would like to make a motion, though. Um yeah, I'd like to make a motion to move agenda item 10.7 up so students can go home and study for their AP exam. Okay, I'll second that. Perfect. We have a first and a second to move item 10.7 up to now. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any obstaining? Motion carries. 600 one. So now we will move on to item 10.7. Resolution to recognize LGBTQIA plus pride Harvey Milk Day and to fly the progress flag report will be presented by Christy Mlean, director of equity, state and federal programs. Good evening board. Good evening, President Flores, Vice President Navaro, and Dr. Contraras. I am not Chrissy Mlan. Chrissy Mlan had a class this evening. My name

252is Katie Chris Kunis. I am the proud principal of Lake View, she her pronouns, and I am an ally to our queer community. And I am joined this evening by two Quaila, those are queer youth leadership award. Uh, one's a nominee, actually two are a nominee, Miss Jen Selenus Holtz. Also, we have Evan from Abtos High School. Evan Jackmains and forgive me Izzy as I do not have your last name. Leon. Izzy Leyon. And Izzy Leyon is a Quila Awardee. So, without further ado, I present this resolution to you to recognize the LGBTQIA plus Pride Harvey Milk Day and fly the progress pride flag resolution. Izzy, thank you so much. I will keep this brief and thank you uh Trustee Krasco for helping us move this agenda item up. We already lost one of our

253student presenters who had to go home. Um my name is Jen Selenas Holtz. I am a PBUSD staff person who works with LGBTQ plus students. I'm also a PVSUSD parent and um I am here on behalf of all of our LGBTQ plus students and um I really appreciate you all being supportive of our queer and trans students um and sorry I have some notes here. I'm also um a member of the LGBTQ plus community and um a person who appreciates seeing pride flag at schools. So, I emailed you all with some history about our pride flag resolution in this district. Uh, it was it this is our fifth year raising the pride flag. And after PBUSD voted to raise the pride flag in 2021, the county of Santa Cruz followed suit. So, now we have

254schools all over the county who are flying pride flags at schools. And as you know, it's not without controversy. But um this is a meaningful show of support and visibility for our students who are a vulnerable population. Queer and trans students are um more likely to experience bullying, harassment, discrimination, bias, have suicidal ideiation, self harm, family rejection. So it's really important that we stand up for these vulnerable students. Um, and I want to remind you all that the Queer Youth Leadership Awards is this Saturday, the 10th. It's a great opportunity for the community to show up and show support for LGBTQ plus students. Um, and I will not read all my comments, but want to just remind everybody that when we support LGBTQ plus students, we improve educational outcomes for all students. So, this is

255not just about a small percentage of our students. This is about creating safer and more welcoming schools for everyone. So, thank you. And now I will present Izzy. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you, Jen. Um, so I will be reading part of the resolution. So whereas the the progress pride flag rooted in the original 1978 rainbow flag represents the diverse identities within the LGBTQIA plus community including the inclusion of black, brown, transgender, and non-binary individuals and has become an international symbol of inclusion and pride. Whereas Parro Valley Unified School District, PUSD stands in solidarity with the LGBTQIA plus students, staff, and families, affirming their dignity, safety, and right to thrive in all school environments. Whereas the hate and discrimination have no place in PBSD schools or communities. Oopsie. And acts of bias against LGBTQIA plus student,

256LGBTQI plus individuals will not be tolerated. Um whereas California education codes section 20 200 and 220 or 220 affirms every student's right to education free from discrimination based on gender identity, gender expression, sexual and sexual sexual orientation and encourage encourages free encourages inclusive educational practices. Whereas PBUSD board policy 5145.3 strictly prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression and promotes equity and access for all students. Whereas Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Harvey Milk Day is observed on May 22nd in California under education code section 37222. Um honoring the legacy of a civil rights leader and encouraging school communities to engage in educational activities promoting LGBTQIA plus visibility and history. Whereas the state of

257California and the Library of Congress recognized June as LGBTQIA plus Pride Month and October as LGBTQ history month with October 11th observed as na nationally as coming out day. Whereas inclusive education that affirms LGBTQIA plus identity helps create safer, more welcoming schools and is linked to improved academic outcomes, higher engagement, and lower rates of bullying and suicide. Whereas research, including a 2017 study by the UCLA Williams Institute, shows that over 10% of California secondary students identify as LGBTQIA+. highlighting the importance of inclusive policies and symbols of belonging. Whereas flying the progress pride flag signals PBUSD's commitment to diversity, inclusion, and the emotional well-being of all students and staff. Now therefore be it resolved that the Parro Valley Unified School District recognizes May 22nd as Harvey Milk Day, June as LGBTQIA plus Pride Month, and October

258as LGBTQIA plus History Month, including October 11th as National Coming Out Day. Be it further resolved that the district will fly the progress pride flag at school and the and district sites from May 22nd through the end of June and during the month of October to celebrate and affirm the LGBTQIA plus community, inspire equity, and foster safe and inclusive learning environments for all. Be it finally resolved that this resolution shall be distributed to all PUSD uh schools as public affirmation of the district's values and ongoing commitment to diversity, inclusion, and educ educational justice. And with that, we seek your adoption of this resolution. Thank you. Do we have any public speakers to this item? Uh we have three public speakers to this item. Uh Natlo, Eli Davies, and Bobby Marsha Salt. This way first. Okay,

259we need to move the meeting along. I'm sorry, Nat, you have your one minute. Let's restart. We need to restart. This is a tech problem. All right, I'm going to wait. Okay. So can remember to turn their mic on when they come. Okay. So net low area 7 I want to strongly support this resolution and all the students that come came out. Um I also want to point out that one of the stated ress for the censure of um trusty medina was for bringing scrutiny to an employee for political beliefs and I want to point out that the employee in question was wearing a MAGA hat and and a um a homophobic shirt. And I think that, you know, it doesn't follow that the board both prioritizes the the the safety of LGBTQ students and

260considers homophobia a protected political belief to the point that you censor a queer board member for calling it out. So, if you say that you want to support LGBTQ students, you need to actually stand up for them and not attack the people who do. Um, I also, you know, I'm sad that there's no slides because I wanted to to plug the ways that, you know, um, you can support our youth, which which is, as Jen said, come out to, um, the queer youth leadership awards, the ne um the youth march in Santa Cruz next Tuesday, and also Prism Club, which happens every like second and fourth Friday um, at the rises. Thank you. I uh agree that we need to be making sure that um when homophobia and it's very clear that MAGA hats fall

261under the tier of homophobia, MAGA hats fall under the tier of transphobia. Um that we don't treat that as an expression of political beliefs that is hate. Um so please pass this resolution. Imagine, if you will, lovingly crafted slides with rainbows um and information on where to plug in with the local queer community because there is queer community here. Uh there are there are groups that are here to protect you as things become more repressive and more dangerous. And I hope that this board can continue to push back against anti-trans, anti-dei, anti-quer things coming from the White House because they will be coming everywhere and you need to continue to stand up with real purpose and real activism behind it. Thank you. Hi, Bobby March Salt. He him. And as a teacher, parent, and uh

262ally, I want to fully support this motion. So grateful for awesome colleagues and students who uh do the work to put this forward and for you all for for standing for it. As a teacher, since I should have worn my classroom, everyone is welcome here shirt today. Um you know, I I really strive to make my classroom a safe space for for all of my students, but particularly for those who've been marginalized and uh who don't feel safe. And right now, you know, at the top of my list of of those who I want to feel safe in my school and in my classroom are immigrant students and our LGBTQ plus students. And uh there's a lot going on in the world. And so it's great to be able to partner with you as a

263teacher for you to to to put that symbol up to say, "Hey, we are here for our students." So, thank you. I have no doubt it will pass, but I So, thank you. Thank you. And I will now bring it back to the board for discussion. Trustee Medina. Um, I just want to thank you, Jen, for all the work that you're doing. All of you, the club, everybody. I remember attending Watsonville High School and I was just so scared to be myself because of the machismo, because our students are um, you know, some folks just didn't understand that this isn't a choice that we make. It's something that we're born into. And to see you all organizing, having these meetings, keeping it sustained, keep it up. I envy this generation. so much because you all

264could be yourselves. Whereas a lot of us in the past had to really hide that identity. And when we revealed just a little bit, you know, we felt the criticism and we heard the homophobia. Um, and I will always stand up to protect you all because man, if y'all have ever LGBTQ plus, y'all got to do it. All right? Just saying that out loud. Um, and as one of the board members who's representing this community, um, thank you Watsonville in itself for really helping us out and fostering this community of acceptance. And it's so good to hear teachers like Bobby coming up and saying that cuz that's the type of teacher that I needed when I was in school to say that there is nothing wrong with me. So, thank you for the work that

265you're doing. And with that, um, I'd like to move to approve this resolution. I second that motion. We have a motion to approve and we have a second. Trusty Flynn. Yes. Yeah. Um I wanted to second that. Jen, you are such a champion for the LGBTQIA plus community. Um our students need trusted adults. Um and that is so super important. Um, and then to also see themselves reflected um, in leadership is really really important. Um, I'm a really um, proud past Quaila judge um, and a really proud auntie to a trans student. Um, I'm so I'm so proud of you. Can I I I just want to Can we Do you mind standing up? Thank you. This is Evan. I have known you since you were a little kid and have had the honor to

266just watch you like blossom and and literally transition and become this amazing amazing human being. um who I I just I just am so honored to be able to have this moment with you as you um as you exit Aptos High as a senior um and to be sitting in this seat and um yeah, I'm just I'm so proud of you. I'm so honored to call you part of my chosen family and um yeah, so thank you, Jen. And um congratulations on your second nomination. Thank you. And to make sure we That was the three minutes I saw for the board. And to make sure we finish this meeting by one and are able to get to all these important items, I am going to keep us on this schedule. Uh so I do appreciate

267you keeping track of time. So we have a first and a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstaining? Motion passes. 6 01. Thank you. And now we will go back to item uh 10.3 contract facing history and ourselves report will be presented by Claudia Monas assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and professional development and all presenters I'm going to set the time if we could try to stick with it that'd be great. Thank you. Uh good evening president Flores board of trustees uh Dr. Conturus. So, um, our curriculum and instruction department is bringing forward the previous contract that wasn't voted on, the one that's facing history and ourselves. Um, the purpose of this is to, uh, be able to round out our, um, ethnic studies offerings, uh, professional development offerings for next year.

268Uh, this would deepen, um, relationship that we have with the facing history of our facing history and ourselves. We currently use some of their items already. they're linked into um some of our current um scope and sequence. I I do want to add a little bit that this is being brought back from our April 16th meeting in which we had three contracts in the ethnic studies um item and it was part of a recommendation to have a well-rounded and balanced approach to our ethnic studies offerings. But this item didn't end up it wasn't discussed at all. So, this is just being brought back because it was never part of the discussion. Thank you. Do we have any public speakers to this item? Trusty Navaro, do we have any public speakers to item 10.3? Handed multiple

269things at once. Yes. Uh Robin G. Xander Max Natlo Raj Shornstein Tekashi uh Gilstein Bobby Marchalt Dr. Barza and Caroline K. Okay. In an interest of time, I just ask that you line up and you know go for it because we need to All right. Um hi, I'm I'm Xander. I am a student at UCSC and I'm a member of the group Jews against white supremacy. Um, hi everyone. So, I'm here to provide some context on facing history and ourselves, the billionaire funded curriculum which is being proposed as an outside alternative to the existing framework on e ethnic studies. Um, so I hope the reasoning for this is clear. The people who seek to impose this new model are doing so because the current ethnic studies framework teaches about Palestine in the historical and current

270context of apartheid and settler colonialism. Facing history and ourselves claims to teach an enlightened liberal framework on anti-racist movements. Yet any any substantive mention of Palestine is noticeably absent. While it teaches myths about Israel's founding. The current ethnic studies curriculum on the other hand does teach about Palestine based on more than 50 years of rigorous academic research. And there's no reason why that should be thrown out. I would like to end my time by relating this to uh endeavor to impose a new curriculum to a larger statewide effort which also happens to be supported by the far right including our current president. This ever is bill AB1468. That is AB1468 which seeks to place guardrails on ethnic studies curriculum statewide. The president would love for this to happen. Do you? Thank you. Go ahead and

271and approach. We don't need to go in order. We just need to President Flores trustees and Superintendent Contrarus. I really appreciate you're considering facing history in ourselves on the agenda tonight. I support facing history as a coste effective way for adding more voices and perspectives to the ethnic studies program and ask that the board approve them. This is not replacing what you already have. It's not replacing any of the other two consultants. It's adding an additional view and and you're already using some of their materials. The cost is exeminently reasonable. And I think that the objections that the other people are putting forth are specious and um um and and are actually um uh censoring uh alternative views. Thank you. Um the only thing that facing history and ourselves censors is Palestinian life. So unless

272this board wants to help Israel in its quest to wipe Palestinians off the face of this earth, it will oppose adding yet another contractor to ethnic studies that will broaden or whatever word they're using the curriculum to include a pro-Israel take on ethnic studies that demonizes anti-ionism as anti-semitism. If you look into where the money um you know comes from for facing history and ourselves, they receive millions of dollars in funding from pro-Israel groups. This takes a simple Google search to find out. Um and you know, it's no wonder that the people who support Israel in this room support adding this as a contractor to ethnic studies. It is because the CRA fa they failed to beat the CRA. And so this is a way to ensure pro-Israel voices get into ethnic studies. [Applause] Netlau

273area 7 I had evidence of what I'm going to say on my slides, but you know you can go look at them afterwards. So I wanted to bring back some of the concerns that I voiced the last meeting. thing I will say that AB 101 requires an ethnic studies class, not history, not literature, not civics, not anything else. And it is a specific field that is rigorous and has frameworks. And so I looked at the proposed contract and two things stand out. One, they say explicitly that they are not ethnic studies consultants. Two, they say that staff will work with our teachers, but there's no info on who those staff are and who what their qualifications are. So, and I couldn't find it in the contract. I couldn't find it in the website. So I

274went digging around in their old job postings to figure out like more and so I found you know postings for senior curriculum developer like I said these are on the slides um and you know these would be people who are direct develop the curriculum and content that that they use in their trainings and I was surprised to find that you know you only need a bachelor's degree and maybe not even that um and you don't need to have any studies you don't need to have studies experience consult. Nat, your time's up. I don't want you turn it on. Mic. No. Turn on button. Hi. Okay. Hi, I'm Caroline again. I am a member of Joy of Jewish Voice for Peace. I just got back from the national members meeting um which is amazing in Baltimore.

275Angela Davis was there who spoke, Rashid Talib, Blinda Sersour, a lot of amazing amazing people. And I think one thing we all agreed on is that anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism. And I believe that facing history is going to say that anti-ionism is anti-semitism. Um liberal Zionism, conservative Zionism, it all says that. So, I don't think that that's a great thing to be teaching because Palestine again has been erased in history. And I don't know if we all know how dire the situation is getting right now, but the New York Times headline that I'm reading right now says, "Air strikes pound Gaza. Israel announces plans to displace more residents. We are in like a holocaust stage of this genocide." I just want to ground us in that right now. Once again, Gil Stein speaking. And it's

276interesting when we tried to ask for a curriculum regarding what CRA is teaching, we were told that doesn't exist. Apparently, some of the speakers before me have already stated that they know what it is and it teaches Palestine. So, I'm a little puzzled by that. I Jewish. It doesn't matter. This is a community and it doesn't matter whether people are Jewish or not Jewish. We're talking about the education of our children. And board policy states that if there are controversial points of view presented, they should be presented by both sides. That's board policy. It's state policy as well. So if we're only going to have curriculum that demonizes Israel and the people who support it, that doesn't that is not in keeping of board policy. I don't know exactly what's for uh in all of

277the curriculum here, but I think it deserves a second look and I think it should be supported. We'll take it. No shouting from the audience, please. Thank you. I'm not in support of this resolution. Why? We have Palestinian students in our district. We have Palestinian families in our community. And I recently had a chance to uh watch a film, No Other Lands, directed by Palestinian young director and uh Israel Jew young director. And I recommend you to watch this video, this film. Yeah. And we already have made a decision to have a contract with CRA and Dr. Rodriguez. And Dr. Rodriguez has worked with Mr. Jose Sanchez who is a main researcher of Brasero project and he's my friend. He he was a farm worker in Par and he's very valuable in our community. Thank

278you. So, my number one question is, have you talked to the ethnic studies teachers about this contract? And that's what I'd like to know. If um have you talked to those teaching it? Have you talked to those who spearheaded it? If they are for it, then by all means, I will support them, but as them being the professionals, and I just want to make sure you've asked them and you've talked to them. Um, I don't if they don't I don't think putting teachers through more time and training that they don't think will be helpful for their subject is helpful to us as teachers on teacher appreciation week. By the way, um, as I do hear some of the arguments, I I just I thought at the last meeting there were three contracts. Honestly, I thought

279we were picking one. We went with two. I didn't think that this wasn't discussed. I thought that we decided on one. Um, that was my understanding at least. Um and uh to some of the points being made, I just I think we went with CR because we did not find any anti-Israel, Jew hatred, any anti-semitism. So there do we need to do this? That's just a question that I would present. Thank you. I'm asking why are we spending money when we're complaining about the budget? Why are we spending extra money on something that isn't ethnic studies? And how is something that isn't ethnic studies going to make it better rounded? So do we include uh physics and chemistry to make it better rounded? Those are not the same subjects. Neither is is facing history. It's

280history. It doesn't belong in ethnic studies. Ethnic studies again please understand it's about teaching about systems of power that have historically disadvantaged people, marginalized people. It's not history. So facing our history has it in this name. That's not ethnic studies. So don't put something that's not ethnic studies in ethnic studies. I don't understand why that's so difficult to understand. Also, we're talking about inclusion. Why are we going to get something that erases another another group of people? And I also want to know why has an apology to Dr. Tintango Gubalis not been agendaized? Oh, and by the way, there's already a a law that says we teach anti-semitism. It is code section 51220 that was made it was made in 195. Thank you. So now we will um I will bring this back to the

281board for discussion and just a point of clarification. So at the last board meeting it was actually the recommendation of the district to go with all three unit to go with all three contracts. That was a recommendation of the union of the district. Also, this is is this not the preferred um contract that the for ethnic studies for the state of California? Yeah, it we were recommending all three because each fulfills a different part of in our district for ethnic studies. One it CRA is training administrators and new teachers. The one that we um approved with Dr. Rodriguez is to work with the community and forming a committee and to do different things with the community around ethnic studies and facing history and ourselves is more of embedding curriculum into our different integrated course courses

282and we already do use facing history and ourselves embedded into our um ethnic studies our English one courses. Yes. And um to answer the question about funding, this is coming from our ethnic studies grant that we had of which we have $200,000 that is only allocated to the development of ethnic studies and can only be spent in that way professional development or curricular uses. Thank you, Trusty Navaro. Hi. So, just a quick AI Google search because it seems like we don't Oh, sorry. We don't always fact check while we're actually in here. So, uh, no. While facing history and ourselves uses historical lessons to combat various forms of bigotry, including anti-semitism, it does not promote explicitly promote Zionism. Uh, it says, however, no shouting from the point of order is our turn to talk. Point

283of order. primary focus is on themes of empathy, understanding different perspectives, and challenging hate speech. The FHA uses Holocaust as a case study to explore human behavior and dangers of unchecked prejudice. Critics argue that FHA's approach can be interpreted as promoting a particular view of Israel and Zionism and that is that its curriculum may not fully address the complexity of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Some argue that the FHA's approach can be seen as limiting the historical breath and perpetuating narratives that reinforce existing power structures. Zionism is defined and this has been an interesting thing because I am still trying to figure out the definition of Zionism because everybody's defining it differently. Zionism is generally defined as the belief in the self-determination of Jewish people and the establishment of the Jewish state. This is something the

284Jewish community has said over and over again that that is that is the the president. I'm I'm not. So anyway, if we're talking about cost, it's $5,000. There's plenty of money as Claudia Mahares said in this grant and I think it's actually a really big step towards our Jewish community to show that we are being inclusive of all things. We brought Stop shouting out from the audience. Thank you very much. We already brought back the CRA contract. That is that is done. The recommendation of the district was to approve all three. And so in that regards, I'm supporting the the recommendation of Dr. Contrarus. Are you making a motion? I'm making a motion. Thank you. And now I will come to Trusty uh Medina. Yeah. Um I'm glad you did a Google search, but I

285actually read the lesson plan on Islamophobia. So let me go ahead and share some facts about that. Um, well, first I want to start by saying that I recognize the effort behind this lesson. Teaching students about Islamophobia, its history, its presence in our institutions, and its impact on our on real lives is not just important, it's absolutely necessary. I stand firmly behind the idea that our classroom should be places where students learn to confront prejudice and understand systems of oppression. But we have to be honest with ourselves. If we're going to teach about Islamophobia, we can't do it selectively. This lesson focused heavily on the UK and on certain Western policies, but it leaves out some of the most visible and painful realities facing Muslim communities today. Realities our own students and families are witnessing

286in the news, on social media, and through personal connections. And so I have to ask, what message are we sending when we teach about religiousbased discrimination but skip over entire groups currently enduring it? What kind of critical thinking are we fostering when we avoid examples that may politically uncomfortable but are undeniably relevant? As a board, our job isn't to choose what's safe. It's to choose what's true and what prepares our students to think deeply, ask hard questions, and understand the world as it is. That's why with respect, I will be voting no on this lesson plan in its current form. And um I also would like um to make a a a second recommendation to read 100 Years of Palestine um to this board um in order to educate yourself and what's going on. Um

287because I think it's absolutely necessary and when you do a simple Google search that has been coded to put out a certain framework um if you're in tech, you understand that. Um you know how things are manipulated. So um that's why when we do Google searches we need to verify those sources um in order to do so. So um that's what I would like to say. Thank you. Thank you. And trust just in interest of time I'd ask that you just as quickly as possible. Um so uh Claudia I had a question. Um for the grant money are we able to use that for field trips books posters and documentaries or memberships for documentaries? Yes part of that grant is allocated for that and we have been using some of that money already currently. Okay.

288Um this year and last year towards the end of last year we did I remember years ago there was this big talk of being able to do like a field trip to include all of the high schools that had ethnic studies. Um do you know by any chance and I know this is like random how much a discovery buses? I don't I we'd have to ask department okay cuz I remember when we did these Yeah. We can get um when we did these field trips, one of the biggest um block that we had about doing this big field trip including Renaissance PV High, Watson High, Appto High was transportation because the Discovery buses were so expensive. Um and I asked that because I would really like to see that with this money. Mhm. I would

289really like to see a unity within all of the high schools going to museums and and and and doing what ethnic studies teachers were talking about um and and uniting. Um I've talked to a lot of PB High students and how Watsonville High has thesemies. I don't even know if Renaissance goes on field trips, which is a good question, right? Um and they've expressed how they don't really go on field trips either. Um, so again trying to refocus on one of the things that I had set myself on is on hands-on learning and and getting kids outside of the classroom. Um, I would really love to take this this opportunity that we do have some money to be able to do something like that where we take all of our high schools. Um, and just

290an FYI, I had to, as a teacher, I had to buy a lot of documentaries and we would share within teachers and we always talked about having a membership for documentaries for teachers so that we wouldn't have to be paying out of pocket, buying stuff on YouTube and I feel like that would help a lot of the ethnic studies teachers in the long run because then they wouldn't have to be paid that out of pocket. Agreed. That is actually one of the things that our coaches have been talking to teachers about. Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Trusty Krasco. And now we'll go really quick with Trusty Flynn. I I appreciate you trying to move the um the meeting along, but I also don't want to feel pressured to get through something that's important. But if we

291don't get through this, we're going to lose some really important contracts at the end of our meeting. So, that's why I'm I'm beating this up. So, I'm I'm feeling the pressure and I don't want to make decisions like that. Okay, I understand. Um I and and that's why I voted no on the ending at 1:00 a.m. because I I felt like these things needed more time. Um, so, uh, Claudia, um, are have you heard, cuz that was a question of mine, what Bobby brought up about what, you know, what the teachers, um, how they feel about it and, um, and now that I'm feeling pressure, I'm forgetting some of my my questions. There was um yeah um that that was one of them. But um um I I'm feeling like I like we did this

292already and because it said clearly that it wasn't a part of uh it did it wasn't an ethnic studies program. I I thought I voted on this already. Um so and I don't have the minutes to go back to to look at. Um, so I would like to make a motion to um to move this to to discussion the next meeting if that's possible and then I could get more information around how the teachers are feeling about it. Am I able to to do that? We we have a motion on the table. We made other motions. I'm still learning this. I know. Yes, I know. But we do have a motion on the table to approve this contract and I will second this that motion. Um, and we can vote tonight or we can, you

293know, pass. Yeah. But this this is what the state of California recommends for ethnic studies. So to say that it's not an ethnic studies, I point of order. Um, Trustee Flores. Yes. Trusty Medina. Um, can you ask the lawyer if that's a stated fact um what you're stating right now about that being approved by um California? I can ask Dr. Contras. It it is a recommended on an approved a recommended Thank you. corre curriculum by the California Department of Education. Okay. It's the same California Department of Education run by Tony Thurman. Correct. He is the state superintendent for the state of California and who receives certain benefits from certain groups. Correct. Okay. I'm not aware of what benefits. I think that's part of the research that we need to do when we're making these decisions

294is looking at the money and and you know, and this is what I get reprimanded for, y'all, for telling people like we need to do our due diligence, not send Daily Wire articles that are very right-leaning. Um, because this is the type of stuff that slips by without critical thinking. So, I think it's very important that when we're stating things that California has stated or have done that we're also looking at their donors and their sponsors and who is supporting them in this. So, I'd ask you to please do your research when we're doing these. Thank you. Trustee Medina, one of the resources that superintendent are directed to use is the framework that is recommended by the state of California. That is what we are mandated by educational code to follow. And so this framework

295that is on the California Department of Education is the guideline that we are mandated to use. And so when those recommendations are on the website as resources for us, we consider them vetted and and recommendations that we are supposed to follow. Okay, thank you. So, we do have a motion on the table and we have a second. So, I'm going to proceed with a vote. Um, all those in favor, I I All those opposed, no. Okay. Motion fails. Four. No, sorry. No. Two 4 01. Okay. I will now move us on to item 10.4. agreement with effective school boards. We still have more business to conduct. Thank you. Uh point of order, Trusty Flores. Yes, Trusty Medina. Um we just approved um respecting our Jewish community and I don't think that pounding of the gavvel

296is showing them respect for vocalizing themselves. So it asks that we when I ask you we need to I it is my job to keep order and keep this meeting going. We cannot have people shouting from the audience. I'm sorry. I cannot I just ask that you be a little bit more respectful especially after passing our resolution on June Heritage. Thank you. I am moving on to item 10.4 agreement with effective school boards. Report will be presented by Dr. Heather Contras, superintendent of schools. So effective school boards is the agreement in the contract to work with AJ Crayville, author of um great on their behalf. This is a contract that I did find grant funding for. So, this would not be coming out of the general fund at all. Um, it would be coming on

297grant funding that can only be used for professional development. So, this would be professional development for the board. We are also partnering with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. So, they would be assuming some of this funding uh so that we would be able to host co-host a two-day workshop and the other amount would be for us to be able to receive coaching and do work with AJ Crayville as part of the development of our board that we referenced earlier so that we could develop ourselves. So, I'm asking for approval to um engage in this contract work. The first day that we would begin uh work with um effective school boards would be June 13th. Thank you. Do we have any public speakers to this item? Wilma Gold Gus Gold Dr. Barasa. Uh Dr.

298Barasa then. Okay. Well, I hope it teaches um equity and fairness because what I've observed tonight has been a lack of equity. Um Bill Breacher always gets to present his powerpoints. All of a sudden, Dr. Natlo can't. That doesn't sound like like it's equitable. Um, also most of us didn't get to say what we wanted to say, but I figured out now that if I email my statement to Vice President Dr. Navaros, she'll read it all for me. So, I think that's what I'm going to do next time um since that's the way that I get to be heard. And lastly, I I hope that um some of the training does talk about what it's like to engage the community because when you give us 60 seconds and then you yell at us that we've

299had our time, it's very disrespectful and condescending and that's not engaging the community. So, I hope that this training addresses some of those things. Thank you. I will now bring this back to the board for board um discussion. And I would like to also just state that the county superintendent did recommend that all trustees uh complete additional training and governance, ethics, and educational law. Dr. Sabal also suggested possible training in an area of conflict resolution or request the services of thirdparty facilitators to um or governance uh or governance experts who could provide the board with actionable um advice and support. these recommendations would be given uh proper consideration with uh if we were to proceed with this contract. I do feel that um this group can definitely help us with some of the issues we've

300been having. Trusty Flynn, I'd like to make a motion to move this forward and to approve. To approve. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I have a motion to approve. I have a second comment. We have a comment from Trusty Turley. Are the dates set in stone? Um I think Dr. um Navaro is on holiday as am I. Well, I leave evening of the 14th. I told her I'd come back for it. When is So there's one on the 13th. When 14th? It's the the 13th and the 14th. So it's just those two days and we already talked about those two days. Both are from 9 until 6. I will be packed and as soon as we're done, I'm on the road. Okay. Okay. So we have a first and a second. All those in favor?

301I I Any opposed? Any abstaining? Motion passes five 0002. And I will now move us on to item 10.5, adopt resolution 24-25-43, recognizing May 18th through the 24th, 2025 as classified school employee week. report will be presented by William Kit Bragg, assistant superintendent of human resources. Dr. Contterus, members of the board and public, thank you so much for the opportunity to present this resolution to the board this evening. Whereas the classified employees of the district support a positive instructional environment in a variety of ways each day and whereas the contributions of classified staff are invaluable to the PBSD. Whereas almost half of the employees of the parro valley Unified School District are classified workers. And whereas the PV uh PVSD has almost 1,000 dedicated and hardworking classified employees. Now therefore, be it resolved that the

302Parro Valley Unified School District salutes its classified employees and declares May 18th through 24th, 2025 as classified employee week. And be it further resolved that the board of trustees of the parro valley Unified School District urges students, parents, and community members to take measures to give special meaning to that this excuse me significant celebration. Thank you. So I will now uh ask do we have any public speakers to this item, Dr. Navaro? Seeing no public speakers, I'll bring it back to the board for discussion or a motion. I'll make a motion to approve. Thank you. I second the motion. We have a first and a second. If there's no discussion, I will do a vote. I will call for a vote. All those in favor? I I. Any opposed? Any abstaining? That motion passes. 6001.

303Thank you. Okay. I will now move us on to item 10.6, Six, adopt resolution 24-25-44 recognizing May 5th through the 9th, 2025 as National Teacher Appreciation Week. Report will be presented by by Kit Brag, our assistant superintendent of human resources. Well, I am equally delighted to present this resolution. Um and it reads out whereas the contribution of teachers is crucial in the lives of the students of Bajaro Valley Unified School District and whereas the economic political and cultural well-being of this nation is enriched through public education and its teachers. And whereas the Paharo Valley Unified School District has over 1,300 certificated employees. And whereas the board of trustees and citizens of the Paharo Valley Unified School District are gratified by the dedicated hard work of our teachers. And now therefore, be it resolved that the

304Par Pajaro Valley Unified School District salutes its teachers and declares May 5th through May 9th as National Teacher Appreciation Week. And be it further resolved that the board of trustees of the Paharo Valley Unified School District urges students, parents, and community members to take measures to give special meaning to this significant celebration. Thank you. And do we have any public speakers to this item? Trusty Navaro? No. Okay. I make a motion to approve. Oh, Chris Webb, go ahead. I was surprised. Oh, thank thank you. Um, I want to express my appreciation for for the teachers of our district and our our whole society. I feel like it's especially important to be a teacher now. I've I've never been more scared to be a teacher than I have in now. Um, so I really salute our

305our teachers for um, you know, doing the job. And it's it's hard with um with the current federal administration, but then also because sometimes um and you've heard me say this before, we deal with these cultures where it's where it's um favorites take precedent over fact. I feel like I I keep I've been thinking about that all night. I've been thinking about that with the CRA. I've been thinking about that with my um experience of Renaissance and with the people who I've seen in this district who get to keep their positions and then who doesn't. like sometimes it doesn't always seem to be based on like merit. So, as far as like meaningful ways to celebrate this, one thing I would bring back is um is as a as an educational piece, as a financial

306piece, um as a I bring back just like we did in the aftermath of COVID, um even when we were back in the classrooms fully that liability form so that if a teacher has like a kid who has like no no babysitter, they can bring them. Thank you, Chris. Do that. Thank you, Mr. Webb. So, now I will bring it back to the board for discussion or a motion. Can we just make a motion to approve, please? We have a motion to approve. Second. And we have a second. All those in favor? I I Any motion passes. Motion passes. 6001. Okay. And we already did 10.7, so I'll move us on to 10.8. accept supplemental sunshine proposal from PVSUSD to California uh to California school employees association CSEA chapter 132 for the 2024 2025 2025

3072026 and the 2026 2027 school years. This report will be will be presented by Kit Brag our assistant superintendent of human resources. Thank you. Thank you. And again, uh, this is just an opportunity to take action on what was previously presented regarding our update on, uh, CSA negotiations and sunshining, additionally vacations. Thank you. Okay. So, do we have a motion to approve? We have a second. We have a motion to approve and we have a second. All those in favor? I Any motion? Motion passes. 6 0 0 1. Thank you. And now I will move us on to item 10.9. Adopt declaration of need for the 2025 2026 school year. This report will be presented by Brian Saxon, our director of human resources. Good evening, President Flores, Vice President, Dr. Navaro, Dr. Contrarus, and members

308of the board. I'm Brian Saxon, director of Certificated for HR. Each year the district needs to submit what is called the declaration of need. This allows us to potentially hire um teachers who have to have an emergency permit such as an STSP or a PIP. And so this is required each year. It's just something we do. It does not mean we will hire them, but it gives us the opportunity to if the need arises. So we uh respectfully request your approval. Thank you. Do we have any? We do not. Okay, see none. I will bring it back to the board. Approval. No, there's none. Oh, is there one? No. Mr. Marshall, did you want to speak to this? You didn't get a card from me over there. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know. Um, sorry.

309I'll be I just wanted to I mean, I'm sure it's going to pass, but I just want to take this opportunity because uh to Oh, I'm sorry. You did. I just Oh, cool. cool. Thanks. Just to uplift how great some of our stip and pipped teachers are. I think sometimes we uh look down on that or we say, "Oh, you need to go get a credential," which a lot of them you have to eventually. Uh but they are some of the strongest teachers who are excited to be in the classroom. And I just want to recognize that that this isn't even just the declaration of need, but man, we've got I mean, it's it's some amazing teachers. And so, I just I think that's important to recognize. Thanks. Thank you. And so, did I hear

310a motion? Okay, Trusty Trurley made a motion to approve and Trusty Krasco has seconded. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstaining? That motion passes 6 01. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I will now move us on to item 10.10 adopt resolution 242549 designating a senior management position of the classified service at P at PBUSD. Report will be presented by Dr. Dr. Heather Contrera, Superintendent of Schools. This is a resolution that I recommend the board adopt. This includes a um job description as well as placement on a salary schedule for a position that would be a senior management level position classified that is a coordinator for the community schools grant. Uh this is a position we found a need for to help us to coordinate our community um school um our community school leaison

311positions that were we added at each of the elementary schools that have the community schools grants. uh these the positions at the elementary schools are there the community school specialists sorry are there to um help facilitate the grant to be leaison to the community um kind of a bridge to community uh services uh trustee Medina spoke of of some great work that's happening out at Hall District bringing food bank into Hall District an area that hasn't traditionally had good access there so that position um is clearly clearly working out there. But what we found is that we really need a lead person um to help coordinate those services and help teach other communities specialists um how to bridge that work. So this is a position that we've developed to help lead that. It is a

312grantf funded position. The idea with a community schools grant is to develop capacity for our schools to work as a hub of um the community so that when grant ends we've developed a way of being at the schools. So when the grant ends hopefully we have created this philosophy of how we do business at our schools and the positions go away although the work continues. So this will have a position end at the end of the grant. So I'm asking for the approval of the position job description and on the salary schedule knowing this is completely grantf funded not out of the general fund and the position will end in 2028. Thank you. Do we have any public speakers to this item? See okay seeing none, I will bring it back to the board. Trusty

313Medina. Uh yeah. So the um I think the reason why I was really successful with Elsa um Adilena um is because I had great insight to the community and what worked and what didn't. Is this position going to be hired locally because it would be a disservice to hire somebody from outside the community who doesn't know the area? Um I know we've kind of outsourced to outside positions already. So, I'm really hoping that we could have that commitment to make it local. Yes, you bring up a very good uh question. This is a classified management position. We do have a personnel commission as well as a merit system. And usually this would go through the personnel commission, a merit system and u an assessment process. This is part of why it comes to the board

314as a resolution because we will be looking for a particular set of skills that would include someone who is deeply connected to the community, someone who is bilingual and biiterate so that they'll have all the skill set just like what you described who would be able to be most successful for the needs we have identified um for that position and for the vision that we have. Yeah, good great question. Thank you. Cool. Yeah, I just I just want to make sure that Yes. And it's also considering geographical location because that is super important for something that's titled community schools leadership. Yeah. If you look at the um deeper dot job description that's built into there as well as someone who's been in the community for many many years. Perfect. Thank you. Do I have a

315motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve. Thank you. I have a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second. Okay. All those in favor? I I Any opposed? Any abstaining? Any uh motion carries 502. Thank you. And I will uh now move us on to item 10.11 final action on resolution 24-25-48 and um determination not to be employed certification employees sorry certificate c I can't talk today certificated employees for the 2025 2026 school year report will be presented by William Kit Bragg assistant superintendent of human resources is thank you and I'll be deferring to Brian for this report. Good evening and uh Dr. Contrus and board members. So this is the um the final piece of our layoff um resolution. This resolution is asking for you to approve

316what's called the final layoff letter. So uh in the resolution we have 8.6 6 FTE that is in on the second page there or maybe closer to the third page. Um I would like to point out that we started this with 8.6 when this was posted but since that time we've been able to bring back three more people. So we're down to 5.6 staff that would receive a final layoff notice. I am one resignation away from trickling that down to about three people. So um I'm just waiting on someone. So, my hope is that by in the next couple weeks, we will have most of these people brought back based on resignations and stuff, but we do need your approval to send out the final layoff notice for these 5.6 staff that are still um

317don't have a position yet. So, I this is the final piece and uh I do request your approval. Thank you. Do we have any public speakers to this item? We do. Bobby Marchel Hello. For the last time, I think you know what I'm going to say. I've been against these layoffs from from day one and we've had concerns about the process, how it went and um I I'm good news to know that we think it'll be none. So, hey, it's a great opportunity for you to, you know, make a vote of no and hopefully it all works out anyway. Um, you know, I I know I hope that one of those people is a friend of mine who I know moved out from out of state to for for their job here amazing teacher in

318our district. And I guess part of the question would be especially because I think we can do the process better next year. I know we're going to have to go through some hard stuff. This was talked about as something that was the same what the way I heard it at least was that you know this was the same thing we'd done behind you in close session in the past and we need to do it in open session but obviously it wasn't quite the same thing cuz we didn't have pink slips before. or we didn't lay people off before. And so my question is if we're talking about just a couple of positions, you know, is that enough to make it worth doing this now versus doing it right next time? And so uh you know,

319let's save those positions. This is this is just one more opportunity uh to do that. So thanks. Thank you. And now I will bring it back to the board. Trust uh Estan Trusta. I just kind of wanted to shout out uh Dr. Contreres throughout this whole process because upon doing research of you know a variety of different school districts in California I think all of the school districts do these layoffs in close session and this only you know contributes to the transparency that she has brought to our district. Um something that I am concerned about which we had discussed in our core 6 meeting is I believe starting for the 2025 to 2026 school year 95% of our budget will be to salaries which is um alarming because you know as we continue the layoff

320process next year um from the students perspective you know if the salaries or you know those positions are not cut within the 5% what will we be cutting you know there so that is just a concern I have moving forward um because you know as um Jenny presented you know at the board meeting or the previous one you know a lot of school district a lot of school districts only spend around 87% 88% um so that that is just a concern I have um moving forward thank you any other comments from the board I'm going to make a motion to approve this item I feel like five sounds a lot better than 80 and 60 and I'm glad that you know we've been able to whittle it down as far as we have with some

321creative thinking on the part of our district. So in that spirit I'd like to move to approve this. Thank you. I would like I would also like to just assure our community that I I would hope that you know this is the first time our district has had to go with this and we are going to do better and we have our new uh superintendent of HR and who's coming in now and I think by the time we um get here again I would I would hope that it's done um to the satisfaction of PBFT and to you know all those who we um support. So I will second that motion. Any other discussion from the board? No. Okay. Oh, sorry. Okay. Um, we have a first and a second. All those in favor? I.

322Any opposed? Any abstaining? We motion passes. 5 0 No, sorry. 01. Okay. Thank you. Thank Thank you. I will now move us on to item 10.12 final action on resolution 24-25-48 um and sorry and determination not to re employee certificated employees for the 2025 2026 school year report will be presented by William by oh um sorry I'm so so late Pam sack sorry Pam I know that I'm like so by Pam Saxton. Thank you. Pam Shanks. I'm not Pam Saxton. That's all right. Very sorry. That's okay. Um good evening, President Flores, board members, and Dr. Conturus. I am Pam Shanks, director of classified personnel. Um I am presenting the final action on resolution 242550, which is the determination not to re-mploy certain classified employees for the 2526 school year. Um, in February, the board did

323approve the resolution to reduce particular kinds of classified services. And this item tonight is the action in order for us to issue layoff notices um by May 15th to those classified employees affected. Um, the affected FTE are on the exhibit shown in the back. Exhibit A shows that there are three people um who took layoff. Um, and then there were also four employees who took a reduction in hours voluntarily um in order to not be laid off. So, I just respectfully ask the board to adopt resolution 242550. Thank you. And just a little point of clarification, um my my paper does say certificated and I was wondering why it was exact same thing and that it should have been classified. So, that um also threw me off a little bit. So, I will now ask

324do we have any public speakers to this item? Okay, seeing no public speakers, I will bring it back to the board. Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve. Okay, I have a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. I have a first and a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstaining? Motion passes. 51 01. Thank you. Okay, I will now move us on to item 10.13 adoption of a May 14th and May 22nd, 2025 special board meeting uh to sorry, special board meeting to the board schedule superintendent evaluation. Report will be presented by Dr. Heather Contrera, superintendent of schools. So I am asking to add two dates to our board meeting calendar. May 14th, which would be and both are closed session items. Superintendent evaluation is

325always closed session. Um both dates would be from 4:30 to 6. Um May 14th, which would be a presentation that I will give to the board on my progress towards the goals. Um and then May 22nd, which will be the a time for the board to deliberate. Um Olivia will be presenting the compilation of your comments around my evaluation and then um I will come back in and and then you'll present to me your your evaluation of me. So we're asking to add those dates. Um I had previously kind of asked if those worked and it seemed that they did. So with your approval, we'd like to add those. Thank you. Do we have any public speakers to this item? We do not. I'd like to make a motion to approve. Okay. On a time

3264:30 4:30 to 6. Okay. I have a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. We have a first and a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposing? You're opposed to either one. Oh. Okay. And any abstaining? So, so motion passes 5101. Oh. Oh, but so okay. Sorry. Yeah. She so you could she said she couldn't be there. And so what I said is I'll I'll do present her with all the information. Okay. And then the template, there will be a template and then she could get that template to you. Yeah. So that she'll still be able to participate. Perfect. Yeah. She'll be there for the choice. Okay. So your your um vote is to approve. Okay. Perfect. So that passes now 6001. Okay. And now we need to go to those three

327items that we've pulled out of consent to bring into action items. So, we will start with item 12. Did I skip one? I'm sorry. We Yeah, we got to do these action items. So, we'll we'll start with item 12.13, the newella contract renewal for 2025 2026. I'm not sure who will present. Hi. Uh, that's me. Start. Okay. So, um I know this one got pulled. This is um a contract that we've had for years. Um it's been around forever. Um it was previously way more expensive. Um one of the things that we've been implementing this year with all of our instructional technology is or our instructional programs is to uh do what we call program evalu evaluation. Sorry, it's late. And um we've been monitoring usage uh tracking data whether or not the program is

328being used um completely and then um doing reductions in contracts uh working with those or working with the companies to reduce the contracts to match what we're actually using. So, the reduction in costs here still allows access to the two collections that get used the most, which is the language arts collection and the social studies collection for our 3rd through 12th grade students. Um this gets used a lot especially in the elementary world because of the fact that um our current social studies text is um old and as we know from year to year events happen and so it's hard to stay on top of those things. So, these are great opportunities for teachers to bring in text that can be integrated in during their language arts time and or used for social studies discussion.

329Um, it's also used um well, it's used in middle school and in high school too, but elementary and then high school use it a lot too. Perfect. Do we uh have any public Well, well, no, we don't have public. We do have public comments. Oh, we do have a public comment. Okay, that's why I pulled it. Gilstein, Brandon Denise, and Chris Webb. There. Does that work? Okay. $190,000 is a lot of money for a district that has to lay teachers and other staff off, including uh psychologists that are badly needed in this district. Just because it's been done in the past doesn't mean it needs to be done now. I've heard that before uh today. Uh this company was founded by venture capitalists and it makes a lot of money off the backs of students.

330Now, my other concern has to do with the legality because in the contract in section 3.1 and 3.5, it talks about exclusivity and non-disclosure and things like that. So, I want to know from legal counsel if I file a P to get information of what's being taught, am I going to be allowed to do that or are they going to stick the contract in your face and say you can't do that because it's private? And I I think we need to know that answer before we vote on it. So trying really hard to limit myself to my PVFT time today. And when I saw this one got pulled, I was like, well, damn it. Now I have to come up because I I use this curriculum and I I stand by this curriculum and if

331there aren't enough people using it, let's remind them that it's there because we're constantly getting so many things thrown at us that it can be hard to keep that balance. But what's great about New Zeal, but you can differentiate that across the students in your room. And there's so many different topics. I remember once at Lake View, there were some students who were abusing the seagulls on our campus. They were throwing oranges at them. And I had that that moment where I was like, I'm upset and I want to confront these students, but I don't want to be that angry person. So, I actually looked up New Zeala and I found an article about how the giants and A's had put up like these scarecrows basically to keep the seagulls away. And like I brought

332this article to the students and I said, "If you read this and if you pass this quiz, I'll hook you up with a Gatorade." And then we talked about why they shouldn't be throwing things at the birds, but it's a great curriculum. Has so many different options. Like, let's put it to use. Thanks. Um I've also used this um and I think it's good to have but I'm inclined to agree with Gil actually and partly because um as some of my colleagues have have told me and and requested comment on this is um you know one thing I learned from the the district office tech team which is very good is that we have all these AI tools now and I feel like um for free we can use some of those tools to get

333the same things. Um, also because I'm going about to go, I just want to say on 111, um, thank you for hiring Kit. Um, I I'm hopeful about that and I know that just the how long it took probably you had like pressures, Dr. Cadura, so I I think you did well and I'm very hopeful. Um, also I I just hope that um with I I applaud you for doing FICMAT as well and like really exploring it, trying to make things better. Um, root out those hostile cultures that exist in some spots. uh make sure we're not doing favoritism um and that we're we're like speaking with integrity whenever we deal with parents and staff and students. Thank you. Thank you. And I will now bring this back to the board and I would like

334to start really quick. Um I actually have seen a lot of New Zella um articles with helping my kids with school. Um WCSA uses it a lot and I I find them very interesting. They're very colorful. Um lots of pictures. um it presents like almost like a a magazine article or newspaper where it has different different paragraphs. So it's not like reading out of a textbook like you know what I remember. Um so I and I and I'm pretty sure I've seen it in almost every grade level. So yes, did you want to speak to this Daniel? Yeah, I ju I just really wanted to highlight what Brandon talked about because I think it is really important when um kind of evaluating the different reading levels of students and um you know those articles being

335accessible to all students is really important. Um and I think uh students can also level up too through um different like quizzes and tests. So, um that's also kind of an incentive for students to continue reading and I think it's um great to incorporate within um elementary schools and beyond everything that trusty floor said. Thank you. I just wanted to echo that I also have seen this these materials from my own kids and read the articles and I actually find them and did you know some research on online and went to the media bias uh website which put this as like the lowest level of bias pretty much out there in any sort of curriculum and so um anyway I found it really useful and interesting and helpful with my kids. Thank you Trusty Flynn.

336Um thank you Mr. Stein for pulling this so I could learn about it a little bit more. Um because I don't know that I I mean I would have looked at the contract and heard from my colleagues and um so I have my question is um if we were to how long is the contract is a year two years? No, we do annual contracts. So the contract includes access to what they call collections. So, it's the language arts collection, the social studies collection, and then professional development for teachers on how to use it in the classroom. Um, and it's not only just reading text, but there's it um when kids are using it online, it actually helps them with the computer skills for annotating and highlighting. There's um comprehension questions that come with it. There's

337like a short written response. So very similar format to what they would do on the ESPback test. Um so it kind of helps prep them for those type of the technical piece of of reading online. Okay. Um and something was mentioned about there being free um I mean I don't always believe in free because you get what you paid for. um and uh things that are available instead of this that might be like AI driven. Have we researched any of that? Is that something that we could do in the future to be able to maybe save I don't know that's why I'm asking. So, if you think so, if we're looking at how we would use or how somebody could use AI to create text, yeah, you could like you could even just use something

338as simple as chat GPT and put a title in and have chat GPT give you a a essay format basically for students to read. The difference with that is that you don't have the ability to then monitor the kids progress online because that's one of the big things that we want to be able to do. is be able to track how they're understanding um and show growth, right? AI, right? So, the AI piece wouldn't help us with that. Um the other thing that um we're paying for with the cost of this is they are constantly adding um more text based on what's happening out in the world or like new discoveries. And so, there's always text that's being added. there's just this growing library of of information. So, um I do know teachers that use

339AI to create short text. Like you can put in um uh text using uh phonic sound fill in the blank, right? And then they'll give you a little piece of text. But again, that's like for fluency practice. That's not really going to give you comprehension practice. Thank you. It sounds like this is multiaceted and and in a lot of different areas. Thank you. Okay. So, do we have a motion to approve? I just want to say real quick, I'm really appreciative that Mr. Stein asked me to pull this because I was able to do my own research and look into it. And I think it's really important that we look at all of the contracts and curriculum content going forward to see where we can save money. Um, and I do hopefully Roman, did you

340figure out the answer to the question about whether being able to see the lessons? Yeah, you'll be able to see the lessons. We just couldn't like sell the lessons to third parties or anything like that. So you could come in and review them like you could with any other sort of curriculum. We just couldn't give them away for free um or even sell them uh to third parties. It's subject to a P. Uh it well you would have the ability to to review them as any other curriculum. It wouldn't be subject to a P because we wouldn't give them to you so you could take home or anything like that. But you could come in and review the curriculum um as any other member of the public could. Point of order. Yes. Uh I know

341that I was reprimanded for getting questions from our audiences in the censure. So we can ask people within the audience to clarify when uh when someone from the audience asks us a question. when it comes down to board discussion, we can then in our discussion seek clarification on that. Not going back to um the audience but with amongst our board members or our cabinet. Okay. I just wanted to clarify that. Okay. So, we have a Do we have a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve. Okay. Oh, sorry. I have a question. Okay. One more question. Would we be able to um give him PDFs of what this is? You wouldn't be able to give them to him so he could take them, but um what we would be able to do is

342he would be able to come in and review them. U like like um a parent could come in and review curriculum. I I remember there's a choice. So I used to use it a lot and you can make PDFs. So I thought would that be an easy way for him to Yeah. But we they they don't want those to to be able to be like given out, handed out to to third parties without Yeah. through their copyright. Obtain the intellectual property then. It's cuz too many mics are on trusty. So So we retain the intellectual property for that document. Correct. Or does the company own the intellectual property? That's right. Hi. Um No, that's okay. I can answer this one really quickly. So, um, we do not own the intellectual property. That's part of what

343we're paying for. But, so to to the point of addressing a P, it's they we could have somebody request to view it. These items are all online. Teachers are able to download a PDF, but we can't disperse that PDF. We aren't authorized to hand those out because we're paying for our exclusive use within the district. So, if somebody wanted to see it, they could come in, set up a time where they can actually we could log in and show them um what we're using, but we wouldn't be able to just pass it out as a PDF. Thank you. Okay. So, I'm sorry, I can't remember. Do we have a motion on this? I did make a motion, but just as a point of clarification, are you saying that teachers aren't allowed to give these out

344to students as PDFs? They can use them in the classroom. We're authorized to use them in the classroom. like they can download it in the classroom, but we can't share it outside of um district employees because we're given um a certain number of licenses within the contract. Okay. But it's okay that they give them to the students and they take them home because they're using it as instructional materials. It's different than if there's a PR like a request for information type thing. That's not within the contract. Okay. Got it. So I made it would be analogous to like taking a textbook and copying it and then handing it out. Got it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, we have a first and I will second the motion. I um I had a question. What percentage of student

345uh teachers actually use this? Um I'll have to go back and look at the exact number. When we were developing the evaluation process, we needed to meet a threshold of a minimum of 55%. This one was well over that one. Okay. So, um well over that for the language arts and social studies collections. So the other collections that we were originally paying for, we dropped those because it was like minimal. It was way less than the 55. Got it. Okay. Cuz my only concern the price um and seeing that AI can be utilized pretty effectively, but I understand that you would need to build out the LLM in order to track um progress and stuff like that, which could be a little bit more intensive. Um but if you have the right people in place

346to build out those things, I think it would be more beneficial. Um, I don't feel quite comfortable approving something this large without knowing the percentage of teachers that are actually able to access it because if it's a few amount, maybe we could look into alternatives that are more geared towards that those teachers that are utilizing it or maybe a smaller plan to just really get a license for those that actually need it so it's more cost effective. um because seeing that this is one year and we would have to renew it every year um that is very worrisome. So I can I can address that as well. So this is um we did this with all of our contracts. So a lot of the other ones that are in consent we've dialed back on the

347contracts. Um what we're trying to do is not completely shock everyone. So we're doing a slow roll. So this was the first like layer of we're cutting down to this. So now what happens next year is then we say okay these are the these are the two that we're using right and we continue to monitor that and then we dial back again. But what we didn't want to do is just tell all of our third through 12th grade teachers suddenly no one has access um because we know that there's a high usage and there's no like light version of it because I know companies sometimes usually do that as well. This is the light version. This is the light version. This is the light version. This um Rich Moran, our director for language arts, he

348was definitely going back and forth with them multiple times and got almost $100,000 off the contract. So, and this includes like a a educational discount, everything. Wow. I gave him parameters, make it happen. You know, I I agree with Jill Stein on this one. I'm going to say it, but this is a very costly contract. Um, okay. I I I think I'll be I I I would love more information honestly on the percentage use. Um, that way we could see if it's actually cost effective. So, I'll be voting no against this. What can I add one more thing on cost? Um we had uh one of the things that we want to um look at long term is um particularly the social studies part of this for us to do an adoption of curriculum you're

349looking at at least 2 million for just your standard curriculum for a grad span. So just to kind of put that in perspective that this is giving us more current text for our students to access for like a minimal fraction of that. So just to you know [Laughter] Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So we had a first and a second. So I believe we're ready to take a a vote. Okay. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? I'mma abstain. Okay, we have one abstaining. Motion passes 5011. Okay, I'm sorry. Let me get my bearings here cuz Okay, so now I'm going to move on to item 12.17, Measure M, Bond Program Management Services Stacked, Inc. Contract. So, the reason this was pulled was because uh the contract didn't arrive to us in time for it to

350be um on our agenda. And so, what I actually need from the board is I need a motion to delegate authority to the superintendent under ED code 17604 to negotiate and execute an agreement for bond program management services with Stacked, Inc. I'll make a motion to approve. Thank you. Okay. So, we have a motion. Do you does second? We have a first and a second. Any questions? Just to remind the board, this you you saw a presentation. Actually, a couple of them. This is the bond management company that we're recommending for hire to help us oversee the bond program because it is such a large bond. Okay. So, we have a first and a second. All those in favor? I Any opposed? Any abstaining? Did you? Okay. Okay. Sorry. So, motion passes. 6001. Thank you.

351And then we have one more of those. Let me see. Let me write this down. I think it was 23. Uh, no. Now we're now we have 12.26 to look at. And this is the resolution uh this is resolution 2425 uh45. This is bond assurance A. So we need this needed to be pulled because it needed to be an action item is our Jenny MRCBO is going to talk to us about this. Good evening board of trustees, President Flores, Superintendent Dr. Contrares. Um before us we have resolution 242545. This is our um our general obligation bond measure M um authorization to issue our first uh issuance of dollars um called series A um from the 2024 election. This resolution of the board of trustees um providing for the issuance and sale of PVUSD general obligation

352bonds 2024 election series A in the principal amount of not to exceed $80 million. Prescribing the terms of the bonds and their sale, approving the form of bonds, authorizing execution and delivery of a bond purchase agreement. Authorizing delivery of a preliminary official statement and an official statement with respect to such bonds. authorizing execution of certain documents and agreements in connection with the issuance of such bonds, making certain findings and determinations and taking related actions. Um so staff respectfully asked for the approval of resolution 242545. We are um estimating that the timeline would be um receiving our first issuance um sometime in June hopefully. That way we can really get going with um our projects over the summer. That's exciting. Thank you. It is. That is exciting. Do we have any uh public comments to this

353item? Trusty Dr. Navaro. No. Okay. Seeing none, I will bring it back to the board for discussion and approval hopefully. Um we we we I know we we talked about this at the last meeting, right? Okay. Um, I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second. Yes. Sorry, I didn't let you do that. Discussion. Okay, Trusty Turley. Um, just a couple of questions. Um, I should know this, but I don't. Um, how many years will this show up on people's tax bills? My understanding is 40 years. 40 years. Um and we're able to get the money in increments over what period of time? Um it can be um over any period of time. Um typically though for a bond management program um you want to really finish up all the projects within the first 5 years

354due to the escalation in cost. So the first issuance would be for 80 million. Um working with their bond management firm. We would establish a timeline of what the projects would look like um and what the cost would be year-over-year. So, um likelihood would be probably in um another year and a half to two years, we would come back for um a second issuance at that point and then um likely a third issuance. All right. Thank you. Okay. Do we have a motion to approve? Oh, wait. We had a first and a second. Okay. Thank you. I'm late. Um all those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstaining? Motion passes. 6 01. Okay. So, that concludes our action items. I will now Can I make a motion to approve the remaining consent items? Well, f

355first we're going to do our report and discussion item. Okay. So, we are now at on item 11.1. Our final report report from Fickmat for the human resources department. Report will be presented by Marcus Rrek. I'm sorry if I got that wrong. Um, okay. Before Marcus gets started, I just want to say a couple comments. Um Marcus came in gosh, it's been a while, October. Um to uh study our human resources department and look for ways that we can begin the work of um improvement in our human resources department. I do want to remind everyone that Fikmat um operates from a deficit model. So that means that they're not here to say what we're doing right. They're here to look for ways that we can improve. And with that, I do want to um really

356commend our human resources department for participating in this process. It takes a lot of courage to know that you're being studied um and that you're being participating in a study that does operate from a deficit model. um our human resources department and also our payroll department and benefits was part of that as well. Um have been incredibly forthcoming with information so that we could um really be proactive in in in making improvements. And so I want to say that and recognize that and I'd like the board to really recognize and know that they were commendable in their participation and also commendable in their uh reception of the report and really working from October on to uh make some next step improvements immediately. And so we've already made great gains um in improvements and you saw

357some of those tonight when I shared going paperless with the classified evaluations, our classified personnel wanting to have feedback and then um having these great gains in tracking our evaluations. So um just before Marcus gets started, I just wanted to make that really huge commendations to our human resources payroll and benefits department. So, and Marcus, thank you very much for working with us and, you know, helping us in our timelines and and also waiting to make a report at 11:45 at night. My vision's starting to go, but that's okay. Uh, board president, members of the board, uh, thank you for having me tonight. Um, I'm just going to go kind of I I think I might go a little bit faster than I initially planned just because of how late it is. Um, my name

358is Marcus Warwick. with fiscal crisis and management assistance team. I want to reiterate though I'm we're not here for fiscal crisis. We were here we were asked to come in on the management assistance side to to take a look at this. A lot of the report that you see before you is a reflection of um I think previous administration, previous superintendent and so on. So it's not a reflection of what current staff was in there. Uh I think it was Anhelica who was there uh when we were there and she I think when we talked to her she's like I'm three weeks on the job and I you know I was like sorry sorry that we're here. So um there's a couple things I just want to talk about real quick as to who Fikmat

359is. So we are actually a state agency. Um we were primarily funded in 1992 when the first school district in the state of California went bankrupt. And so from that point, the state created an agency to assist school districts in fiscal uh fiscal distress, operational deficiencies and so on. Since 1992, those services have really expanded to less of the fiscal crisis and more of the management assistance. Uh we offer a lot of professional development. Uh we do a lot of management assistance with districts, a lot of training, um uh fraud investigations as well and so on. And so we feel as the state funds us that that if we can educate the field and educate staff, you know, we get involved less on the the um insolveny side for school districts. Um our administrative agent

360is Kern County Superintendent of Schools. The most of our staff is all throughout the state of California. I'm in the central valley. Uh my colleague was actually from the Bay Area. Uh I think the one area that we don't work is our home area. Outside of that, we kind of travel throughout the state uh at various school districts um anywhere from Southern California to to all the way up and I just finished up a job up in uh Weed California or or Syscue County. So uh so that's who who we are. Um I want to talk about the scope of the work and and reiterate what Dr. Contrera say said. When when districts bring us in, it's the deficit model. uh we are specifically looking for problems for some concerns and so on. And so

361what we're looking for are basic indicators that that we've developed over the years. You will see a tool that we have that I will or that the report references our fiscal health risk analysis and really that's the tool over our 30 plus years working with school districts common indicators when school districts have gone into fiscal insolveny or or fiscal distress. And so you see a lot of us referencing that because that's also, you know, a best practice. And so as we're going through the report and as we're reviewing various things throughout the department and so on, we're comparing it to ensuring, you know, is it relevant federal, state, local law is followed, board policy is followed, and then industry best practices as well. And so that's where we're coming from in terms of when we're

362finding things. Um, it's it's a very involved process. I think after everything's all said and done, uh there's over a hundred uh couple hundred documents that we've actually requested. So, it's not just we show up. I mean, there's a lot that we do as we're reviewing this. We're requesting documents. We're conducting interviews. It was three days of interviews with with uh human resources, some business staff, um customers of the human resources department and other departments that also have worked with the HR department and so on. Staff were great. Staff were happy to see us. I think one of the things that they asked uh is this report going to be public? I'm like, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Whether you like it or not, yes, it's going to be public. Uh Figma is a public agency. So

363at you know whether or not it was presented to the board, it will at some point end up on our our website. So we other departments are included because we don't work in an environment where just we're siloed where one department works solely by itself and doesn't work with either you know specifically with HR work with payroll or the business department and so on. Uh a comment was mentioned about personnel. Personnel makes up 85 to 90 95% of a district's budget. And so if business and payroll and HR aren't working together correctly, uh that's really a a quick ticket for for us to come in in another type of engagement for fiscal crisis. So So that's why you'll see those references and so on. One of the other things that we look at too is

364is a customer service aspect. Um you know, uh the the employees are are HR's customers, right? Our our internal customers. uh ultimately they're hired on to serve really what we're here for to serve serve kids, our community. And so and so that's what you'll see. The the report as we go through each section will have recommendations. That's what they are, their recommendations. You can choose to implement them immediately. You can choose to uh stagger them. You can say, "Hey, great. Thanks." But we're not doing that. That is okay. But know you know where those recommendations are coming from, right? We're not just saying it just to say it. It's we're saying it because we've seen other districts go down a certain path or not do something a certain way and we've seen the end result

365as as things occur. So I I wanted to make sure that those are a reference. Um as we interview people, we triangulate in terms of what the documents say, what interviews say, uh what our notes say, what your board policies indicate and so on. So if somebody tells us something, you know, unless we were hearing it multiple times and documents can verify or board policy can verify as well, that's where we will hone in on on on some of those items. Um, in terms of our recommendations, I I wanted to highlight just a couple things and I think that that will hope um uh bring some uh awareness as just some some key issues especially in the HR department. there was turnover in key positions. Uh which which when we see that consistently and that

366actually is an indicator when there's senior executive positions that turn over frequently uh it leads to erosion of process and procedures and and so that's that's a concern uh when that occurs. Um there's other issues in terms of leadership. Um we if direction is not given uh consistent from uh specific supervisors um or one supervisor gives a direction and the other one gives a completely opposite direction. I think we found a case if if if if I could use this term if if mom says no, you go ask dad, right? And and we kind of ran into that and we saw that and and that was a consistent comment from some of us. And so uh which tells us that there's not communication at the higher level in terms of the assistant soup. So that's

367where that consistent position at the assistant soup level is important because you know things just start breaking down over time. Um, I'm not going to go through all this, but I I I do wanted to go through one specific one on position control. Um, so position control, because this is actually a big one for for us at Fikmat. This actually applies to business, HR, and and business. So position control is every allocated position within the district h should have a unique number. So if we would ask payroll or business, hey, how many positions do you have certificated and classified? you know, can you tell us this information? We were finding that that that answer differed depending on what department we talked to. And that's concerning for us because if you're an event where layoffs have

368to occur or you're devel you're doing budget development or you're paying people um if staff don't know where your personnel are uh or departments have different forms that they're using or just there's a different number as to as to how many uh FTE are there. Uh that's a problem, right? that that's that's that's really an indicator for us indicator of fiscal distress. So I I want to make sure that I pay attention to that because that also involves HR payroll as well as the business department really to work with each other to ensure hey um you know do we have these many vacancies or the vacancies at this site? I know as when I was a practitioner at a district every year I would send out my my FTE report to the sites. I want

369to verify that this is who you have at this site. This is their hours. this is their FTE. These are the blocks that they're teaching and so on and so forth to ensure I was accurate and then I would report that information actually the CBO and I would would send that information out. So that's vital, right? And so that was a that was one of the key findings that we have and it was really just due to the lack of communication between the the the departments. Um, I will say on on staff handbooks, you will see a lot of this in the report and because it's vital when people come into the district. You know, you have board policy, but who really goes to the board policy to figure out who do I talk to

370if I need it? if I have a question on benefits or who do I have a who do I go to if I think my my salary is incorrect or I'm new to the public sector and I'm new to schools who do I talk to regarding how my paycheck you how come I don't get it every two weeks you know I used to get it every two weeks and now I only get it every month that doesn't make sense to me right um an employee handbook is is key those are easy to develop uh your law firm typically will have them and provide them um there are countless samples out there uh but that is one thing that we see is just that that again that customer service of like hey these are the general

371you know the most specific FAQs that we get from new employees on the certificate and classified staff because a lot of them don't understand what is step and column like what do you mean by that right or you know um what uh what benefits are am I entitled to when do they kick in and and so on and so forth so these are kind of some basic things that that we found as moving along I'm not going to mention employee evaluations because I did see that uh that note on the beginning. Um, I do want to talk about human resources and the payroll department. Um, from a customer service standpoint, it's not welcoming. I, you know, if if you were to ever visit the district office when my colleague and I were there, when we

372first went to the HR department, there was a door on the exterior that said, "Please go to the other door inside to enter the HR department." We go to that door and then that door said, "Go to the door outside to enter the HR department." If you're a new employee or a brand new teacher or somebody from the community that has a question or trying to fill position, that's that's that's not we're all we're creating an environment where it's more difficult for us to hire positions when we already struggle as it is. And so it's just not welcoming, right? And so those are some basic things. Uh same thing with payroll. Um they had a window, the window was blocked and so you couldn't see in. So if I had a question regarding my paycheck

373or hey I don't think this is correct or hey where is my paycheck? I have to knock and from what we heard sometimes people are there sometimes people are not. Again it's it's this welcome environment this customer service that really needs that that you really need to hone in with that. And so those are some things that that we really uh took key. my colleague and I actually took pictures of it um so you could see it in the report like you know it kind of helps when you see those those closed those closed off doors where it's like this isn't really welcoming right so moving on to I want to get to um lastly cross trainining and training or not lastly but cross trainining and training so whenever there's turnover in HR departments training

374in itself is vital Right? If we stopped training staff, especially in these key areas, they work in an environment where a simple mistake can be very costly and latigious for the district. And so when we ask staff, hey, you're new to HR. What kind of training you've had? Oh, uh, I I none like, okay, like surely you've had something. Tell us anything. None. And so, you know, as we're talking to staff in in terms of leave management and so on and so forth, um, we talked about the importance of how structured training is good. Sometimes that training schedule needs to be developed, especially for your new staff to support that. Again, because you're wanting to train your staff to ensure that when your customers, your employees come in, they can get their questions answered. It's

375it's a resource to go to the HR department, not necessarily a burden to to to go there. Um, a concerning comment that was made from from one of the managers that we interviewed was, "Well, we don't believe in cross trainining because it really doesn't work." I understand that, but that's a best it's industry best practice, right? Because if you have somebody out um that you know, I I will use the example, fact, we've changed the example if somebody wins the lottery and they just, you know, we always tell people if you win the lottery and you have to go to Maui the next day. I accidentally one time used the example of somebody was hit by a bus and the person I was talking to was actually hit by a car on a crosswalk. Uh

376so we we kind of changed that example. So if somebody won the lottery but you have to go to Maui or Tahiti, wherever tomorrow, who would do your role? Who would know what you're supposed to do? And a lot of the responses that we get, well, well, no one. I'm the only one, but I trained soand so for three hours, so they might be able to do it. Do do you understand where the the problem would arise? And so what also that creates is if bad habits were created that just exacerbates any other issues or issues of efficiency and consistency in terms of well I got one answer from this person and another answer bless you uh from from uh another individual. The last thing I want to talk about is your staffing for the

377department. Um, now you are a merit system district. Uh, and so I tried to as we developed this report in terms of determining the FTE and what's appropriate and what's not appropriate. Ultimately that's a local decision for for for you guys to make that determination. Um, but the data is there in terms of what that looks like. There are districts similar size without a personnel commission. Um, and I left that in there because the function of recruiting for classified still exists at those districts without a personnel commission. Uh, and then I had districts in there for comparison. I tried to find the same same size ADA uh, that had a merit system. Either way how you look at it, it does show that there could be some some additional support there for a district your

378size. Um, you can take a look at the data. The data is there's references as to where the data was received from. uh um and it's actually other districts throughout the state that report data to to FICMAT uh through our one of our other divisions. So, but again, like I said, these are all recommendations. There are some things that you could choose to implement immediately. There are some things, hey, this is a three-year plan, this is a five-year plan, uh and so on. It is really just your uh your purview as to what you decide to do. Um but again, they're recommendations for a reason. There there's a reason why they were in the report and so on. So, I don't want to belabor anymore, but are there any? And I went through that fairly

379quick, but are there questions? Do we have any speakers to this item? We have one. Okay. Amy Thomas, if she's still here, Miss Thomas has gone home. Okay. So, then we will uh move on to board discussion. Trusty Flynn, can you go back to the last side, please? Yes. Um, first of all, thank you. Sounds like you traveled far and you're staying up late. So, I just want to acknowledge that. Um the the so the reclassification would deal with a position that already exists and the other three are additional um positions. So, there's a couple things with those positions is to make sure that they are so add additional support, right? Um, in in terms of that, make sure those job descriptions are clarified because there was a section in there that they were somewhat

380vague in terms of what qualifies as a HR technician, what qualifies as a HR specialist, and so on. Um, and then there's the department secretary. I modeled that based off of similar size districts and you could see there's a proposed org chart uh that would meet what that is look uh recommending. Okay. And then um this is for Jenny. Do do we have an idea of what the co if we did follow this recommendation what the cost of that would be and would the reclassification mean that there would be a change in the pay of that particular person that's reclassified? Yes. Uh the reclassification would mean um likely um it would be placed on a new range. Um just looking at the positions and where these positions currently are on our salary schedule as well

381as the average cost of health and welfare and statutories. Um I'm estimating minimum probably 2 200 to 250. And where would that come from? The general fund. The general fund. [Music] Jenny, thank you. Jenny, do you know how much money we're wasting by not having the proper staffing in this area and redundancy of it's a hypothetical I'm sure, but so I think um one of the things that um Dr. Contrarus and I saw when we first came on board is so I'm going to talk about position control because that was the primary reason why the decision was made to invite VicMat. So the history of position control and position control isn't just the positions that are in our system. The system of position control really starts from understanding what are what is our enrollment, what

382are our pro programmatic needs at our site and how do we calculate staffing. that ties back to our contractual obligations and ed code. So the um process of position control and the position that does position control many many years ago used to live in finance that got moved to HR as along with the FTE years ago. Um when we started we um brought that back the the job duties back to finance um because position control has been identified as a finding as and as an issue. Um I believe that has contributed greatly to the fiscal distress that we've been experiencing the overstaffing and the rate sizing that we've had to do this year and we will have to continue to do. um when we are not in alignment with staffing to our enrollment and to

383our needs, um that is going to contribute to what um student trustee Daniel Skada said. Um we are greatly um overspending I believe in um wages and benefits compared to other districts. So for a district of our size or any district to be spending between you know 93 to 95% of our unrestricted general fund on staffing and wages that leaves very little for operations and for um for spending on other needs for students. So the cost it's pretty great. Um especially I believe in HR and payroll because so much of our budget is spent in those areas. I will say this though too just from from FickMat's experience working across the state, you are not alone in terms of reducing employees because it's somewhat of a perfect storm out there right now. Uh there's a

384lot of one-time major one-time funding that is expiring uh and that has expired over the last couple years and school districts typically would put that money towards personnel, right? And so, you know, when that money expires, there's not a lot of room to either hire them and then that's when it becomes really a local decision as to what are we going to maintain, what are we not. we only have you can only spend that dollar so many times before you run out, right? And so know that that you are not alone in these resolutions and these layoffs. We are in an environment, especially with the cola being lower, uh that that it's it's getting tough out there. Thank you. Do we have any other discussion from the board? Okay. I'd like to thank you for

385uh your report and your time and I look forward to seeing you know how much our HR department is going to improve. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. So now and I want to apologize for eating but my blood sugar just dropped and I had to get some nourishment in me and I didn't want to miss it. So I ate out here. I'm sorry. Did I miss the opportunity for comment? Oh no no you can comment. He I mean he's walking away but we have cabinet here. Okay. Um I just wanted to express um appreciation for Superintendent Contrarus and the cabinet for taking this on. you've discovered in the 12 months that you've been here a lot of catastrophes and um attacked them headon and this was possibly the biggest one I think at

386least the most significant risk to the district of if we didn't get control of something that had been for a long time I think a big problem. So thank you for that. Thank you all of you for that. Trusty Medina. Uh, yeah, this is not so much a comment for Figmat, more of a um, my Apalita's nurse called and you heard that. Okay. Um, yeah. So, I'm going to have to excuse myself uh, for the remainder of the meeting. Um, cuz the nurse needs to leave. Um, so I'm going to excuse myself. If anything comes up, um, let me know. But I'm hoping I'm not missing anything on the consent agenda. If so, table it. Okay, cool. Uh, thank you guys. And I'm so sorry I have to head out, but yeah. If I could

387just say one more thing, I just wanted to acknowledge Dr. Contreras's oneyear anniversary with the district and say thank you for all that you've done in the last year. It was really um when we did our bus tour and you did your presentation to all of us about everything that you've done in the district, it was quite impressive and I was really excited when Olivia and I got to see SWAM math in practice. It was it was really fun and those kids were really engaged and I'm hoping that maybe that is one of many programs that will help move the needle on our student achievement. So, thank you. Okay, thank you. So now we have gotten we have um we are at consent agenda. Consent items are routine items come in before the board. Before

388we do that, do we have any public speakers to the consent agenda? We do not. We do not. Okay. So are there any items the board would wish to defer? Yes. 12.4 because I believe we have a conflict of interest. Okay. So, um, would you like to make a motion to approve our consent agenda item, uh, consent agenda with the removal of item 12.4? I will move approval of the consent agenda with the removal of 12.4. Thank you. Do I have a second? A second. Jessica, are you involved in 12.52 or just 12.4? I don't think 125 is. I second. Okay. All those in favor? It's yours. I. Any opposed? Any abstaining? Motion passes 5002. Okay. And now we will move on to our deferred consent agenda items which is item 12.4. Um approval of

389the PO Valley High School mural. Move approval. Okay. We have uh Trustee uh Turley has made a motion to approve. I'll second. We have a second. All those in favor? I I have We have four. We're good. Um any opposing? So motion passes. 4 um zero three. Okay. So So motion passes. Motion passes. 2. Thank you. And I'm enjoying these pictures. Yeah. Beautiful. Thank you. Okay. Go back. No, don't close it. So, now that brings us to our upcoming board meetings. Our next board meetings are special board meetings for our superintendent evaluation. We will have one on Wednesday, May 14th at starting at 4:30. It is a close session um special board meeting and then we will have another on Thursday, May 22nd um same time and also a close session um special board meeting.

390Our next regular scheduled board meeting will be on June 11th here in the city council chambers. And with that, I adjourn this meeting at 1211. Thank you.