001Mhm. >> Good afternoon. I call to order the regular the regular board meeting on April the 14th, 2026 at 3:30 p.m. Roll call. Mr. Mark Anderson. Absent. Absent. Ms. Sherry Block. Here. Mr. Bruce Landri. Here. Mr. Jack Turner. Present. Lori Campbell. Present. Do we have public comments regarding items to be discussed in closed session? We have no public comments. >> No public comments. We will be convening out of this room for closed session and then we will come back and reconvene after closed session. The items for closed session are employee personnel matter pursuant to government code section 54957, closed anticipated litigation government code section 54956.9 and finally closed session personnel matter employee discipline, dismissal, release government code section 54957. These are the items for closed session and we will now leave the room for closed
002session and reconvene later. Okay. Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Amen. >> Mhm. >> And no action was taken. Just received information from our CBO and our superintendent. So, welcome everyone. We are ready to get started again with our regular board meeting now that we have finished with our closed session. So, we are ready. Um do we have any public comments now for the regular meeting? Yes, ma'am. We have one public comment from Safe Abraham um in regards to school culture. Um I'm Safe Abraham. Hi, I'm Safe Abraham and I just wanted to talk about my school and um about like my principal because I feel like my the students, right? are like not getting trust from their principal because as a principal, you're supposed to have trust from your principal, right? And I just have
003a lot of problems cuz I don't want to say any students' names or anything, but I'm speaking on behalf of the students. Some students are getting accused of having marijuana on them. And um some students are telling me that um the principal said that she bring the I don't know cops with the dogs to sniff all those students to see to see they have any marijuana on them. Either they say they said they didn't have any of that stuff on them. And also I want to talk about at lunch time every lunch time and the principal stands in front of the bathroom, right? Leaving the doors of boys and girls bathrooms to be open. You're all standing in the middle leaving them open which I don't have a problem, right? But some people, right? When
004they see that, how can they feel trusted to go inside the bathroom while the doors are open? Like they want to use the bathroom. They might feel uncomfortable be like, "Okay, I'm not going to use the bathroom." And that's bad for them for their health and their bladder. So and also there has been a lot of problems going on between students and students and as a principal you're supposed to be able to what deal with these problems against these students. Like if they're having a fight, if they're having I don't know problems with each other if they don't like each other or something or they might just How can I say? Feel emotionally afraid or something from other students. Cuz one student might say, "Oh, cuz there's like no principal to handle this, right?" Um
005one student says, "Okay, I'm going to do this and this and that." Right? Like what's the worst word? Assault them or hit them or try to uh try to make them afraid or something. But, what I wanted to say is that also, there's like freshmen that have been missing out on classes. And one of the classes are the science classes. And the science classes, right? As freshmen, there's like a way every freshman that goes inside of CCS High School have to attend these classes. And we're already in the second semester, and these students cannot be missing out on education because the teacher is not coming. And the principal is supposed to deal with that. If the teacher is not coming, another substitute is supposed to come. If it's If he's unable to come or he
006has something or he's not allowed to come. So, that's all I wanted to talk about. Thank you very much, and your information will be taken consideration, and it will be looked at by the superintendent and cabinet. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Any other? That's it. No other public comment. Okay. Thank you. Welcome, everyone. I don't know if I said that before, but welcome. We're so glad to see you, and thank you for being here to this evening this afternoon. Must be afternoon. I've kind of lost track of time. So, with that, we are going to move right into our board agenda. And we will start off with the superintendent's update. Are you ready? I'm ready. All right. Uh thank you, Madam President and members of the board. Good evening, and
007welcome to our board meeting to everyone. Uh first of all, I'd like to start off by taking a moment to recognize and celebrate uh we are moving into the Lao, Thai, and Cambodian New Year. So, again, another opportunity for us to celebrate. Actually, one of our administrators, there we go. Uh, Angie Praxaysombat Briones is Lao, and so I I I got the one right, right? Yes. Thank you. And so, we just wanted to uh take a moment and celebrate uh our many staff as well as family and uh our community uh who are Laos uh Thai and Cambodian. So, happy New Year. Uh, last month, board, I had the opportunity to attend the California Association of African-American Superintendents and Administrators Conference. Uh, it was a great opportunity to spend some time not only with other
008superintendents and leaders across the state, but also with uh the president of Sac State. And uh we were really proud to be a part of an announcement that uh Dr. Wood made uh at the conference as well as uh across uh the organization of CASA, uh which is a subset of ACSA. >> ACSA. And our uh our wonderful board president, I I believe probably had something to do many years ago with the beginning of CASA and uh bringing that group together. So, here's one of the things that we're really excited that came out as a result of the superintendents of CASA and the uh president of Sac State, we all signed a joint agreement uh that would uh offer students who meet CSU requirements uh will receive priority admissions and access to support programs that
009help them transition and succeed in college, uh as well as guaranteed admissions into the Black Honors College at Sac State. Uh, and that is just a direct partnership with uh us and the uh president there at Sac State. So, really proud of that. And so, as a result of being a cost of members a member in a member district, our students will have access to this program uh starting immediately. And so, we're really uh excited about that uh opportunity. Over the past 2 weeks, I have visited every school site and I still have a balance of some that I'll be visiting the next few weeks for our spring presentations as I'm calling them the budget roadshow. I've given a overview of our current budget outlook as well as steps that we're taking to right-size the
010organization, protect classroom instruction, and continue making thoughtful decisions about our students and how we keep our promise as organization to ensure that we are fiscally sound and solvent. Um and so, really excited about that work as we continue. I want to just highlight that last month our professional learning team hosted our annual math bowl competition. There they go. It was really nice to see our students from across our schools come together and compete. Math does not always get the kind of competitive energy that you know basketball, wrestling, all that, but it it belongs right up there. So, it was nice to see our students get into it and enjoy. I want to just offer a huge congratulations to our teams of this year's winners. For fifth grade, our first place winners were COA Elementary School.
011HEY! The Eagles! Second place was GIS Grizzlies and third place was HLA Eagles. So, congratulations to COA as our first place winner for the fifth grade. Eighth grade, our winners for the eighth grade it Epic Owls. Is Dr. Cashin here? I thought I saw him. Yeah, he's here. There he is. Epic Owls. So, congratulations. I will tell you I see Dr. Cashin the coach was. I understand now. If you have never visited Mr. Cornejo's class, you need to go there. You you will see math in an entirely different light and I think it's it's a model. So, congratulations to Epic for first place for 8th grade. Second place was COA Middle School, go Huskies. And third place was HLA Eagles. In the high school area, I'm like, "Woah!" Our first place for high school was
012CCCS. GREAT JOB, Angie and team. Our second place was Futures Knights and then our third place was the Salva Sabercats. So, I want to take this opportunity to affirm our professional learning team for organizing such an exciting, engaging event. Again, we have the sports, but I really love our academic competitions and I think that those are done well. COA had the opportunity on April the 9th. I think you'll see me up there with a lab coat to attend the COA family STEM night and science night. It was a great opportunity to see our families building and problem-solving together. I think I saw some kids making slime and a group of fifth graders showed me their what was it, Ms. Lewis? A snake trap? Where they trapped a snake and so very It's a fake snake,
013not real, but it was exciting to to to see. I also had the opportunity to attend the CCCS Spring Festival. It was a great event. You may even see that I took a photo with a bunny, but I believe you may see at some point that I took a photo with another animal. So, we'll see what happens down the road with that. But, it was great to to be there, to be with our students. More than anything, it was really great to see our students and families enjoying the event together. Uh finally, on April the 10th, I had the opportunity to attend the Superintendent's Student Advisory Council meeting where our students are getting ready for their board presentation next next month, which they will come and share their recommendations. Our students also have the opportunity
014to discuss our phone-free act, and I'm really excited with some of their suggestions and thoughts that they are looking forward to bringing forward. With that being said, that is the Superintendent's report. Thank you, Superintendent. Board members, any comments, any questions, anything for the Superintendent on this report? Yes, Mr. >> I I mean, really, congratulations on the agreement with Sac State. Uh that's that's really a major And I know you're going to start advertising I hope so promoting that. Yes. I appreciate that. Thank you. And I want to acquiesce to the math bowl. Um it was a great job. You guys were tidy. It looked really good inside, and I was very impressed. So, thank you. Thank you for the hard work all of Miss Dr. Bow and everyone else there. It was very rewarding to
015see. And congratulations to our winners on behalf of the board. Thank you. Anything else? Seeing none, we continue with our study session. And our first study session is GCC board recognition, Futures High School Hydrogen Grand Prix Global Race and Movement. Are you ready? Yes. ready. I'm just making sure these guys are ready. >> All right. Uh good evening, everybody. Uh thank you for giving us the opportunity to recognize some students at Futures High School. Uh just a quick backstory of uh what you're looking at the Hydrogen Grand Prix and where this came about. Um my So, my wife's a lobbyist uh here in California, and she tends to go to a lot of conferences. And one of the conferences she went to was around energy. Uh she represents the Almond Alliance group, and a lot
016of that comes with agriculture. So, a lot of what they're looking for is different sources of energy that will support the farmers here in California. Uh so, it just so happened as she walked into the floor looking at all the different vendors, she came across a group, the H2GP um group, that's a foundation that provides uh education um around renewable greener use of energy. And so, uh what drew the attention was uh stock It was a stock with a car. She thought that she could buy something for the kids cuz there was a car and a remote. You know how little ones are with that. And uh and she went and had a conversation with one of the representatives there, and she immediately texted me, called me, said, "Hey, I have a connection for you.
017I want you to look into this. I think it'd be awesome for your school, really neat." Okay, Aaron. I will do this. So, uh that led to that led to a Zoom call, led to a conversation with the professional learning team, led to a conversation with um our community schools team uh Ramone um about maybe after-school program. That also led to a teacher conversation with our engineering teacher at Futures. And uh what tend to be kind of like, "Uh okay, let's see where this goes." turned out to be something that just completely blew out of the water and seen so much success and so many great things so far have come from um our students and the team. And so, that is what I wanted to just make sure that we are aware of just
018how our students are constantly surprising us and really showing us everything that they have with opportunities that they're given even as simple as something like this that was given to us for free. But for that I want to bring up our team captain teacher advisor Miss Lefkowitz briefly talk about our students and then go off with the rest of our presentation. THANKS. ALL RIGHT. GOOD EVENING BOARD MEETS UM LET'S SEE members of the board and everybody else. Uh my name is Miss Lefkowitz. So I am teaching PLTW at Futures High School for 19 years already. And uh when I heard about this so we accept the challenge and I think we did the right thing. Uh it is my honor to take a moment to recognize our exceptional group of students. Our team recently competed
019in a hydrogen Grand Prix international STEM competition and um charged the students to design, build, and write a hydrogen powered After countless hours of testing and commitment to learning far beyond the classroom, these students rose to the top and they won. Uh so what makes it this achievement even more meaningful is not just the victory itself but the journey behind it. Uh it is perseverance. They showed the collaboration in every step of the process, the curiosity that pushed them to keep improving and improving. I would also like to highlight contributions of each team member. Uh Daniel um as a team captain showed outstanding leadership, coordinated both the technical and logistical aspects of the project, maintained clear communication, and inspiring confidence in the entire team every every single day. He even called me today like Miss
020Revco, don't forget the car. So, he's a good manager. Michael, our team mechanics exceeded all expectations with his technical expertise and persistence ensuring that the car performed at its very best and solving challenges with creativity and precision. You should see his working table. It's a little bit messy. I mean, it's a big mess, but you know, we we have a great results anyway. Avenir, our driver, so showed exceptional focus and control guiding the car with a steady hand and remarkable composure under such a pressure. I'm very impressed. Kelly brought incredible attention to detail ensuring that the car was not only high-performing but also polished and present present presentation ready. Nikita, thank you for jumping in at the last minute notice and helping our team to win. Together they have represented our school with excellence and
021demonstrated what is possible when students are empowered to explore science, engineering, innovation in meaningful ways. We are incredibly proud of their accomplishments and I ask that you, the board, and the principal to support us in our efforts to continue with this kind of project where students take full responsibility and enable them to succeed in the future. Thank you. We have a video. Okay, great. Thank you. Hello everyone. We are Hydrogen Knights and we are part of the stock category in the H2GP race. This is a 1:10 scale 100 RC car. The 100 enters the fuel cell stack while the anode splits the electrons and protons. The electrons, which pass through an external circuit that is electricity, powers the motor while the protons pass through a membrane and combine with the oxygen to form water. What
022we have right here is our hydrogen process. It goes into the PEM cell and it makes and undergoes a reaction called reverse electrolysis. What that reaction is is it takes oxygen from the atmosphere and combines with hydrogen that we have in these sticks. When you combine hydrogen and oxygen, you have two products, water and energy. products. Energy is goes into the ESC and goes into the motor in addition to the energy from our battery. Good afternoon, board. So, what we have here is the hydrogen car that we raced and taking off the top, which is designed by Kelly, it looks intimidating at first, but it's made up of three parts. The first part is the mechanical part. You have the steering system and the motor as well as the battery as well. What we decided
023to do as an innovation is we changed the steering system completely. We decided to make it more simple, more reliable and Daniel actually threw your plan on this blue part that you can all see right here. It makes the steering just better. Uh the second part is the fuel cell that we talked about in the video. If you look at this silver thing, this is what has all the hydrogen reaction, which combines the hydrogen and electric to power the car. Uh the third part is these wires right here. This is what we call telemetry, and simply it's basically the same or equivalent to the speedometer on your car. On your car, it tells you when you have to change your oil, how fast you're going, and when you have to refuel. In the same way
024that we have sensors on this RC car, it tells us when we have to change out our hydrogen sticks, when we're going too fast or too slow, and also when we have to change out our battery. That's basically how the car works, loosely. Okay, next. Uh hello board. My name is Daniel Z. I'm a part of Futures High Schools. I'm currently in 11th grade, and I want to say thank you for inviting us over, letting us say a few words, and thank you Michael. You did a great speech, and thank you Miss Lapkić for everything you said, too. And back to what I wanted to say. Uh this whole, I guess you could say, um this whole group that we're a part of, H2GP, is not only benefiting students, it's also benefiting the board, too,
025and this whole school body, since Let's just start off with the student group. We are able to implement our problem-solving skills. We're able to be recognized. We're able to build things, and our engineering teacher was teaching us this in the first engine two engineering courses. I took the first engineering course in my freshman year, where I was taught the base where I was taught the basics of 3D modeling, of mostly and of programming, too. And then, in the second engineering course, we were taught more how to work with our hands. We were taught how to build things, use power tools, all of that type of stuff. Everything that basically added up to where we are right now. This all helped us with with the 3D printing, with 3D modeling, with general uh problem-solving skills, and
026we got recognized for it, and also we are you could say adding to the school's reputation, too, because um last week on Tuesday we were on the radio announcing that the that we were um going to nationals, which is located in Switzerland, and uh we all had a lot of help not only from the teachers, but also from uh all of our what is the group members. I want to say thank you for everyone for helping us out, and how it affects Well, how it helps out the school board and the schools. We are It's almost like an advertisement, you could say. We are promoting the school. We're promoting um what we're strong at, and we're really strong in the engineering course. We are able to um One of the things that we could do
027is Well, I think I said this too many times. 3D modeling, of course. Uh I'm just good at it. I like it. That's why I'm probably saying it too many times. And um we're also good at programming, we're good at building, we're good at problem-solving, and our engineering teacher taught us all that. And that's all I'd like to say thank you. THANK YOU. HELLO. HI BOARD. MY NAME'S KELLY KESSLER. SO, most of us probably got here today using a gas-powered car. But every time we drive, that fuel is being burned, and it releases carbon monoxide into the atmosphere, which pollutes the air that we breathe every day. Not only that, when you burn gasoline, it also releases carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, basically meaning it contributes to global warming and also climate change.
028So, this is where hydrogen comes in and hydrogen-powered vehicles. Um clean hydrogen has massive potential as an alternative fuel source, NOT ONLY JUST FOR CARS, but also for entire industries. When used as a fuel, hydrogen produces water vapor instead of toxic chemicals like fossil fuels. That makes it an incredibly strong alternative for reducing greenhouse gases in the environment and cleaning the air that's polluted. It's also extremely abundant. Hydrogen is present in all the water all around the globe. So, this is really um important. We need this abundance as gas prices are rising and global conflicts cause gas shortages. So, if we want to reduce the impact of climate change, it's important that we make this switch to renewable energy sources like hydrogen. So, as the demand for hydrogen technology is growing, so does the need
029for engineers and innovators in this field. Actually, a McKinsey report estimated that by 2050, um about the hydrogen industry is going to produce about 750 billion dollars a year and also support around 3.4 million jobs. So, that's why it's so important that programs like H2GP give students like us an opportunity to not only learn about the potential of hydrogen, but engineer a car with it ourselves and be in this future now of um hydrogen-powered It's also amazing that we also get to use these hydrogen this hydrogen powered cars in a race, see in action, and compete. So, by supporting our team, you're helping invest in students who could go on to contribute to this growing industry in the future. That's all. THANK YOU. GOOD MORNING EVERYONE. MY NAME IS NIKITA ADAMOV, AND I WOULD LIKE
030TO talk about the market demand for the hydrogen cars. The current production of hydrogen cars are expected to keep up with the California laws mandating that all cars or all passenger cars are to be zero emission by 2025. This would include hydrogen cars similar to ours, just bigger. Now, um in August of 2025, there are 61 hydrogen fueling stations with a plan to expand these uh factories to 100,000 and in April 2025, there are 14,128 hydrogen cars registered and with an increase projected increase of 15% by 2028. Uh while the growth may seem uh slow, it is also or there's also a company the ARCHES or the Alliance for Renewable renewable uh sorry about that. Uh Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems that is helping lower the cost of of hydrogen, thus also making more affordable
031and we've seen that affordability is also one of the leading drives or factors to purchasing these hydrogen cars. As in 2021, when Toyota had an 89% spike due to government incentives incentives and discounts. Um sorry about that. Additionally, in in uh sorry about that. Additionally, additionally, with the increase of gas prices in both global and state markets, it is becoming more viable to buy these hydrogen cars and all the jokes about oh, it's going to switch to Tesla's actually becoming more more of a reality if it hasn't already. Um sorry about that. Now, what else was I going to say? Is it fine if I quickly take out the text just to make sure just to make sure I'm not, you know, missing anything? That would make me a little calmer. over achievers and I
032know, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh so, according to AAA, the average gas price for unleaded gasoline in Southern California is $5.41. That would also make assuming you fill up a 50 gallon car, $80 a visit. And that is also not accounted for larger vehicles or cars that uh premium gasoline or diesel. With the current With the current technology over pacing the quantity market demand and also or with the current Yeah, with the current technologies over pacing the quantity market demand the market demand is also expected to spike up once the current surplus becomes cheaper. Thus, this is also one of the few teams that gets to show its technologies to the world. That is all. Thank you. THANK YOU. GOOD AFTERNOON, BOARD. MY NAME IS ABHINAV KARPE and I didn't memorize anything, so I'm going
033to be reading it off the phone. And for the past 6 months, we dedicated ourselves to learn more about the car the hydrogen car and figure out its functions. Our hard work allowed us to get this far to get to nationals through winning the state competition. And we also got an invitation to Switzerland. And we know it's a big ask, but we ask the board to allow us to experience this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we won't let you down. That's all. THANK YOU. THANK YOU VERY, VERY MUCH. Thank you, Mr. Panina. Um of talk there for Switzerland. We heard you. We heard you. Board members, I know you have comments. Anyone? Did you, Bruce? No. No? No comment? Just impressive. Very impressive. We're very proud of you, very proud of your accomplishments. We're proud of what
034you did at the finals. And we have heard about Switzerland. So uh it has certainly been taken into consideration. Is that right, superintendent? >> Madam President. That is correct. Anything else from you, superintendent? Uh other than just definitely number one proud of our students. Uh and your presentation, good job, guys. So uh we would like to uh have you bring the car up and take a picture with the board and we have a certificate for you that we'll give to uh your coach who uh can uh give those to you later, but if you would just join us on the stage uh for a quick picture and again, great job with your presentation tonight. Congratulations on We're very proud of all of you. We really are. Okay, thank you. Yeah, I saw that. Waiting for
0353D printer to work. Yeah. Thank you once again, but Thank you, sir. Uh principal, before you leave, I believe we forgot to mention that we had a WASC visit at your school, and we enjoyed the superintendent and I visited, as you well know, and it was very well put together, and thank you so much. So, I just wanted to mention that uh for the minutes that we did a 10-year WASC meeting, and thank you for your hard work. And the students just gave me a new native thing, so I'm going to put that here tonight instead. So, yeah. The class from the garden career is there. I didn't get mine, SO I YOU GOT A REQUEST. CAN I PUT THOSE orders in? Yeah, we have a few kids who are going to jump over and
036head over to a volleyball game. Three of them are on the volleyball team, so they got to head over to Sac World High. That's why they're leaving. Thank you so much. Thank you guys so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Take care, sweets. That's the cocoon kids. Great presentation. Great presentation. And now we are ready for our second grade presentation. Sacramento Academic and Vocational Academy, SAVA, annual school report. So, we're looking forward to that. So, Madam President, as Director Ash comes up, I want to share with the board this is the time of year when we'll start our annual reports to the board. Uh board, you may remember last year we changed our model a little bit instead of bringing every school every year, uh we have split them up in half, and so we're starting
037the second half of our reports. Uh last year you had three schools. Now we're starting with our next group of four schools, excuse me. We're starting with our next group, and so the first one tonight is Director Ash and the Sacramento Academic and Vocational Academy's team. So, Hello, welcome. Thank you, Superintendent Sample, board members, cabinet members, everybody else here in the audience, and our staff and family and friends who are out in the online platform. Thank you um for having me tonight to present the 2025-2026 end-of-year report for SAVA. As we jump in, I want to start with good things. Uh of course, looking at all three SAVAs this year went into renewal, and all three were approved for renewal for another 5 years. Um in addition, we are continuously working on our multi-tiered systems
038of support implementation with academics behavior and SEO support. We've been able to expand that more broadly and dig down deeper into that. And then we have our literacy goal for this school year, which I'll talk a little bit more in a different slide around informational text. And we've just seen documented student improvement already. And we continue to work on our 5-year strategic plan for 100% of our graduates to be college and career prepared. And this year we were awarded the Sustainable Business Award. We were one of eight businesses in Sacramento County and the only school entity. Just want to point out the pictures and that first picture to the my left, I'm assuming it's your left as well, is the folks at our Sacramento Unified School District Board Meeting. All the families, staff, students who
039came to represent at renewal. And then the picture on the right is at the Sustainable Business Award. Jumping into solid learning, looking at our cast and school dashboard data. As we look at that data, I wanted to present to you the last 3 years. >> did Sava pay it on the IXL platform for our local assessment and for interventions. I did want to highlight I don't have growth data yet because it's still school time we don't have the end of the year data, but I did want to highlight our IXL students time on task. You can see how much time they're spending and the math and the English skills that they're mastering. So those are skills that they have knowledge gaps in that they're now mastering and that they are now able to move forward
040with. I do want to affirm Principal Smith with some strategic planning around IXL. She worked on looking at her IXL data, students that were on the needed. Continuing with Sava's DOS data. Sava is a dashboard for alternative school status and meeting one of the criteria to the right and 70% or more of students are eligible for DOS when they meet one of those criteria. So as a DOS school Sava you with our authorizers, GCC with our authorizers all look at different ways that we can show growth. Each of our district authorizers have a slightly different way that they're measuring so I put all the measurements up there for you all to see and they also look at comparable schools within the area. So if you see our one year grad rate, our CCR prepare, our
041chronic absenteeism either matches or is better than our surrounding similar schools. And then when you look at our ELA performance, our math performance, it's a 5% increase and we're hitting those marks for all three of the Saba schools. And our retention rate is either is to be at 70% or more or increase 2% and we've hit that those marks as well. So as you can see, all dots indicators are being met. As we continue with learning, I want to talk about Saba's school learning plan. And of course, you all know that we have a five-year strategic plan that all of our graduates will be college and career ready by the time that they graduate. And that goal is still ongoing. But what was interesting going into this school year is we really wanted to change
042up our academic focus. So we took a deep dive into data, we took a deep dive with our partners to get input. And we talked to our families, our students, our staff. And they really said, you know, two main areas came out. Really, our students were falling behind in writing and our students were falling behind in reading. And then when we looked at our CASP and our iReady scores, it said the same thing, but it really said the that our students are falling behind in informational text. And to me that was surprising because we we are here for CTE, career technical education. That's in our name, that's in in what we do and our students are struggling reading that material. So after we took that deep dive, we decided that, you know, you can't be
043a good writer unless you're a good reader. So as a school, we're focusing on and you can see that area for improvement. That's the standard. We're citing strong and thorough textual evidence. You can continue reading that and really focusing on informational text. I want to really thank the professional learning team for their support with this. This is a school-wide initiative, so all of our instructional staff, all of our teachers, are being professionally trained, professionally developed in this learning target in all four of these learning targets that hit that standard so that they can, no matter where a student is, if they're with their AIS teacher, if they're with their math teacher, if they're with their CTE teacher, they're getting this knowledge. Um and it's been a school-wide effort and from the students' experience, that's what
044they see. They go everywhere and they hear about this. And what I do want to point out on this slide is you can see we have pre-assessment data and then right now we're on benchmark three. So you can see from learning target one, if you look at the orange, that's proficient, we've increased about 10%. Learning target two, we've increased about 4%. Learning target three, we've increased almost 20%. So you can see that from the beginning of the school year till now, we're seeing positive growth. We don't know learning target four cuz that's what we're in right now. And then we'll have a post-assessment data that will show the full growth. So really excited and happy to share that with you all tonight. For Salva, we always love to build capacity. We want to thank our
045vice principals, Michael Mendoza, Michael Cerda, James Stoops, and Rupinder Blueford for implementing our positive behavioral intervention and support. We are in our first year of implementation, so we're in tier one and our vice principals have been leading our staff and attending all of the professional development around that. So really proud of the work that they're doing to support our students in PBIS. Um at least one staff from every Salva campus is also part of Gateway Community Charter's Empowering Leaders Program. Um so that's just a huge highlight in terms of building staff capacity. And then um for students, I'm almost going to say we're going to level up with futures here in a minute, but we we're going to continue to do design build our competition. So, this is the first year that we're really expanding
046our competitions. And I can't talk about how we did in them because none of them have happened yet. They're all this month and next month. But, we're going to be also participating in the NorCal Fire Muster where students will show off their skills and you know, throwing the hose, how fast they can get into their equipment. Um we will participate in the SMUD solar car race and they have to design a car using renewable materials that is solar power powered and then they're going to race it. And then the SMUD culinary competition. Our culinary students will be competing with an electrical stove and that's the real key piece there is that it's electric. And they'll be cooking up some dishes and having a competition with that. So, and then of course we participated in the
047GCC math bowl and that was just amazing for our students. For all of these, the team building, the focus, the academics behind it, it really comes into play. It's that work-based learning all coming together. And then over the summer, we had a group of students attend this Smithsonian Folklife Festival to really show off our EV lowrider. And I think, you know, listening to the students' stories, one of the highlights from that was our students when they got to be on the discussion panels. There was over 3,000 people attending this festival that they got to interact with and talk to. And when they would get up on the discussion panels, there was hundreds of people listening to them. And they were asked questions about our vehicle, about who we were. And you know, they nailed it.
048And having those experiences outside of the classroom really just brings the learning and the curriculum to life. All right. Our SAU special populations really looking at our increase in dual enrollment participation from last year to this school year. As you all know, research shows that students that are at risk, at promise, if they participate in dual enrollment, which is what who they are who dual enrollment is made for, then they're more likely that they will participate in higher education. So, getting an opportunity for our students to participate, to engage in dual enrollment, to feel success, that is a key for them to possibly continue on with that education. So, really seeing those increases in numbers um really shows our growth in our part participation. And then you can see the special populations and the percentage
049of students that are at that are participating in dual enrollment. Um so, still working on increasing that, but just a really great data from last year to this year. Um we also have increased our internship um participation. We've got just to name a few, we have internships at Eric Guerra's office, Triple R Adult Care, Hyatt with the lead chef. And I just want to affirm our college and career ready team. They've done tremendous work to get our partners, make sure we have all the paperwork done, and really make sure our students are having a fulfilling experience. Um one of just a quick story, last year our one of our students um Julian participated in the Len- R Construction internship, and he was with the Rescue Electric. So, he learned all the electrical side of it.
050Well, just a couple weeks ago he reached out and he let us know that he is now in the Navy as an electrician. And it just makes you feel good. Um those are the success stories that come out of these dual enrollment and internship opportunities that we our students have. SAU SEL supports for staff and students. I really want to highlight our resource fair. Over 400 families attended our resource fairs across SAVA. I want to thank the community engagement department for supporting with those resource fairs, for supporting with extra donations for our families, for supporting their time and being there. And just me as an observer, seeing the needs from our families and how we can help provide our families just some of those basic necessities. Um in addition to, I mean, a group donated
051a bunch of little kids' purses and some of our teens grabbing those purses and being like, "Oh, I'm going to give this to my little sister for Christmas." And having those extra resources for their family. Um you could just see how much that filled their bucket. Um I want to also highlight our partnerships with Sac Youth Center and Pro Youth Support with our mental health services. And then I want to affirm um Principal Stafford with her hard work um in her fitness and recreation pathway at her Twin Rivers campus. She's supporting learning outcomes with increasing fitness and nutrition as she continues to help build capacity with students and staff there. As we look at our SAVA program offerings, um we I just want to highlight a couple of these areas. We've had great um success
052with our cohorts. And when I say our cohorts, our true 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders that are cohorted through our system. Um just to highlight one success at SAVA Power Inn, we have six 12th graders that are in the cohort um graduating and they've already been accepted to Sac State and going in the next school year. So those huge accomplishments for accomplishments for those students. I also want to affirm Principal Lorenzi at Sim Center leading with our early childhood our early childhood education pathway and our Build Your Future implementation. She's really supported that pathway especially with the tie with the city. We're in the works right now of starting an internship program with the city and her work and her connections there have really helped lead that lead that. One of my goals going
053into this year was also having all of our career technical education have industry recognized certifications in every pathway and we're there and that's very a big accomplishment just to name a few manufacturing students get OSHA 10, culinary students get safe serve kitchen management, ag students get natural resource management and I can list you know 15 more so. But it's just a highlight of what our students are getting. Not it doesn't stop with their diploma. After their diploma, what is it that they're they're going to do next? Those certificates, those industry recognized certifications are going to help them get that next job. I do want to highlight we have worked with a company to get our students a drone pilot cert. That's the FSA 107 certification and there's a huge need for drone pilots out there
054and drone pilots are making $100,000 a year and it's a great business and we're going to look at that at public safety with fire, with ag and with media arts. And I mean just to give a quick statistic of just Walmart alone cannot fill their drone pilot vacancies and they need pilots and they're paying $100,000 a year so that's one company and that's not even the company that we're aiming our kids to go to so it's it'll be a great opportunity for our students. Solving engagement Um, I want to thank the College and Career Readiness team for making sure that all of our CTE pathways have advisory meetings. They've either had them or they're having them in the next couple weeks. Um, I I've sat in all of them and one of my favorites has
055been um, that picture right there. That's the manufacturing advisory team. And we've got um, industry partners, students, parents, and it's really fun to hear what our students need from the industry partners, but it's also fun to hear that from the students what they're learning. And in that moment, um, that industry partner was like, "Hey." Our student was talking and was like, "Um, let's I got an internship for you. Like, I've got a job for you. Let's make this happen." And so, in the moment, he's making a connection for our student that was on that panel. Um, our patient care advisory, um, we had a representation from Kaiser and Unitek and we've already seen them come back to the school, give um, these speakers, and we're continuing to build upon those partnerships. So, so small what
056seemingly might be small advisory leads to more more outcomes for our students and our staff and our school. So, thank you the CCR team. Um, I do want to highlight that other picture is um, over the winter holiday with our fire pathway, our fire instructor dressed up as Santa, our students were in their uniforms, and they went around to the GCC elementary schools and was able to show off Santa um, at most of our elementary schools. So, that was a fun event for our students. And our staff. And then, um, I do want to affirm we've been um, increasing our clubs on campus and I want to affirm Principal Warburton for just her innovation on increasing students on campus. And one of those ways is to build clubs. I mean, have the things that the
057students enjoy doing, get them on campus, and then take it from there. And she's really been um an an innovator in that way. And what's next for SAVA? SAVA will continue to work on our 5-year vision of 100% of our graduates leave college and career ready. Um as the SAVA becomes more individualized to meet the needs of each student population in each of the school, we're really looking at how that looks per SAVA school. So, SAVA Charter's really going to be jumping into the academy model next school year, where they'll have two teachers and a CTE teacher wrap around a cohort of students to provide all the necessary content knowledge, support, intervention, and CTE, and really have a team that guides them from 9th grade to 12th grade. Our SAVA Elk Grove campus is really
058focused on students on campus more. Um they're going to be implementing a 4-3-2-1 model, where there there will be a lot 4-3-2-1 means the days on campus, and there'll be a lot more days on campus for students. And one of those other tweaks to that is that our CTE will become a 1-year progression with an increased time on campus. And what that allows also is our patient care pathway students to receive their medical assistant certification. And then SAVA Sac City, we plan to restructure and grow our cohort model with movement of all cohort of students to power in, and focus on true higher students at SIM, so we can dedicate the time and the resources for each group. Um we will continue to look at that we'll continue to have the remodel for our suite
059at SAVA Elk Grove to house our 7th through 9th graders. As you see more students on campus there, um we need a little bit more space. And then um the continued grow goal to increase enrollment and capacity across all the SAVAs. And then we're looking forward to um not next school year but the year after the WASC full self-study. All right. Thank you. And do you have any questions? Thank you for your good gifts, staff. Summer, I want to thank you for your in-depth presentation and particularly on the data because I think what's significant if you look at it historically on a timeline that the learning losses during COVID we're still struggling to to get that fully back uh with those students. I like the idea the professional learning team concept. Uh appreciated the comments
060there and and the learning plans that you have. Uh Keep the connection up that Sac State uh connection. That's really nice. You have said six students who already been accepted into the program. And it it just hit me. I can't imagine, you know, a year ago who would have thought that being a drone pilot is a career path. Uh I shouldn't you don't tell the military anything about this but the I it really does it is. And you watch anything on the media now, there are drones everywhere doing the the TV shots. And obviously they have to train those people because I keep thinking one of them was going to fall out on the crowd somewhere. So, uh that's I really appreciate that being a clear path and and your thought pursuing that as a
061concept. Again, I just keep up the good work for Sacramento and I really appreciate your presentation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Trigg. Anyone else? Board members? Thank you. Uh I know you have some staff here. Can we see all the staff people? And we appreciate the work they do because you cannot do it by yourself. It's because of them that you're having the kind of success that you're enjoying here. One thing I want to know in your data processing and the dashboard, you mentioned IXL. IXL. Yes. So, IXL is and you would you'll hear some of our other GCC schools talking about i-Ready, the platform that they use for the diagnostic tests. IXL is another platform. It provides diagnostic tests and it also provides intervention support. And it does amazing I think their highlight is
062the intervention support because it really drills down on the gaps in student learning and provides supplemental instruction and support for our students. And so, that's the time that in the one slide that you'll see, time that students are spending extra. They're not getting credits for, they're not getting but they're spending extra time so that they can fill their knowledge gaps. And then you can see the skills mastered in English and math. Those are the ones that they now mastered and they can now move forward with. So, our intervention teachers and our intervention time is are really utilizing that as we move forward. And then we are using that right now as a pilot for the diagnostic the local diagnostic test. I know the academics has been a strong component lately making sure that students are
063meeting the academics along with all the CTE programs Okay, any other comments board members? I Yes, so just a few comments. Definitely want to affirm Summer and the entire Summer Summer team. Summer team. Really the Summer team and the entire Summer team for really their work to increase, you know, students on campus more, the dual enrollment work, the work around I call it redesigning the school for the future. So, a lot of great work has happened there and I just want to make sure the board knows that from my seat. And then Leslie, how is my funeral science student doing? So, Leslie has a dual enrollment student who is going through the funeral science program as part of her dual enrollment. It was one of the most fascinating students that I met this fall because
064I never knew we had a student going through funeral science. But again, very Yeah, it's a job that never people are dying to get into. Sorry John, I was I was leaving the bad jokes for you. I've got a few. She set you up so well, sir. But I do want to just say that I am really happy to see the work that especially that slide around dual enrollment and that connection because I think that's the next level for our students especially in communities that traditionally have not had college as an option. So, great job Sabateens. Let's keep up the good work. THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT. I WANT TO GET THIS BACK ON TASK. Okay board members, we are now down to consent agenda items. And we have here. Approval of adoption of GCC board
065meeting, approval of personnel from the consent agenda, purchases over 30,000, 2026-2027 salary schedule and positions update or revisions, memorandum of understanding with Yolo County Office of Education for EPIC, California Interscholastic Federation CIF League Representative, and approve resolutions. And we have resolutions for collaborative charter, counselors resolution, that's what it is. Uh Futures Community Outreach Academy, Gateway International, Highland Learning Academy, and Solano Sacramento Academic and Vocational Academy. All of these are counselors resolutions. And so, with that, I will entertain a motion for Did I miss one? Just additionally, you have item eight, which is >> Oh, approve field trips, okay. Approve Solano EIA counselors and COA middle school week rehabilitation project extension agreement. So, all of those were under approved. Did I get them all? Yes, ma'am. Okay, great. Move approval. Move approval. Second. Second. All right,
066we have move approval on all of the consent agenda. Any discussion? I have one question. One question, okay, sir. Director Block, we need to check in on those comb books. Are we paying $550 a piece, so we need to find some way we can find some better deal. Okay. Yes, just to to address that, Director Block, we did look into it. This current is actually $62 less than our previous order. So, we are going in the right direction in terms of our our technology costs, but we did look in terms of increased cost for these goods and materials, but we are being very aware and staying on top of that for you. Okay. All right, the roll call. Ms. Arriaga Here. Mr. Bruce Landreth Yes. Ms. Turner? Yes. Will the camera yes. So, the consent
067agenda has been approved unanimously with those board members present. All right. Moving into the next item will be curriculum and instruction. Uh and we have open hearing on this. The board will now open public hearing on the independent study compliance report and annual review. Uh Mr. John Gamble, are you ready to present? >> you. All right. Kate you ready? All right. So, the red button is the button I want to push but it is. All right. Uh good afternoon Superintendent Sample, President Campbell, board, executive cabinet. I'm here to talk today about um not just at the public hearing for uh reviewing our independent study policy, but to give you an afternoon about some of the actions I've taken in the area of compliance for the current school year. I have a question. Can you You
068do. You have a question. All right, there it is. All right. So, uh like I said, um I'm just going to start with you sharing with you some of the the tasks I have accomplished in my new role as director of independent study compliance, uh talk about the focus of my work uh up to this point in the year, uh share specifically a couple of the action items that I have accomplished, and then end by sharing some of the future goals, which will also include a discussion around the requirement to update our board policy on independent Excuse me. All right. Um so, um I just want to give you some specifics and context about independent study law to help, you know, understand some of the work that our our schools and our teachers are required
069to do in regards to determining attendance for independent study. Um you know, back to my first days as a independent study teacher back in 1999, um there really hasn't been a lot of change to independent study law. Uh the most significant was a letter cited in 2004 by the CDE that established what we call the two-step process for determining independent study attendance. Those two steps being the first step where we have to ensure there's engagement on each school day and assignments assigned by a teacher. And then we have to make sure that there was a completion of work during the learning period. A learning period can be a period of 10 days for students grade PK-5 and the 20 for students grade 6-12. So, um And then what you see here is there's 10 audit
070areas that we have to take into consideration where evidence could be requested as part of our audit, which is actually starting next week. So, and then specifically to area one under board policy, today we are here to review our board policy to determine if any changes are needed per education code. So, um in other areas we've been working on this year include uh our attendance reports, work samples, daily engagement log which you're going to hear about, and our tier re-engagement process which was new uh last school year. Um so again, some of the work that I endeavored into this year really started with trying to engage and explore uh with our independent study school staff to make sure I truly understood some of the practices and procedures we were using to facilitate our compliance process.
071So, I didn't want to go in and assume. Of course, I was somewhat familiar with what we're doing at CCS, but um as I did come to find all sites were doing something a little bit unique. So, um you know, that work led us to uh providing a um level of uh professional development for for multiple staff including the um December 1st training done by our uh legal representative from Young, Minney & Corrigan Lisa Corr. Um I got to say that I I just love working with Lisa Corr. I remember her from some of the days of our initial charter renewals that she would come to the end and tell the board, "Here's why you guys can't deny this charter." Yeah, she said so. Uh it was great time working with Lisa. All right, but
072um in addition to that we also continue to attend trainings and webinars to I develop my own skills and knowledge and then got a little bit deeper ideas as a site administrator. I just wish I truly understood um some of the changes that occurred over the past years, and especially in 2021, 2022, and 2024. Um I established some site leader meetings with all of the IS leaders to try to trickle that down to them, and then we did some either site level meetings with all teachers, or in some cases site wide focus group meetings, so we could dig a little bit deeper into the training and build some new understandings um based on the guidance that we were receiving. So, um in addition, you're going to hear about some pre-audits that I did. Um I
073worked around our initial administrative policy for independent study, and really how we tried to focus on taking some of our practices just from good to better to best. That's the plan. All right. So, starting with pre-audits. Um um Now, I conducted these uh very comparably to how we would uh experience our our actual audit next week, where I provided sites a list of students of 20 or 40 minutes or hours before. I identified areas I was going to be focusing on. I didn't do all 10 areas each time. Um and it was just a process for me to learn a little bit more about what they were doing, and help, you know, grow their understanding of what's going to be experiencing each area. And, you know, the positives is that we were able to establish
074what we call the daily engagement tracker. This is something that we use to kind of more specifically and consistently track that step one of daily engagement and academics on each school day that I had worked with before. Um and then also, I was able to get some really good feedback on our tier re-engagement process. I want to affirm my director Julie Solier and her team for our work in that to really make sure that we were, you know, following all the requirements of the Ed Code, and how we were attending to re-engage students. Um and that feedback helped us, you know, kind of streamline the timeline, and make sure that we were having all the required answers, and or sorry, all the required actions, and so having a good impact on that. Um and then
075the opportunity or the kind of next step that you'll hear me talk more about as far as what I want to do moving forward, was that we really should be providing individualized trainings for groups of staff that we have some, you know, classified staff, teachers, administrators who are doing something a little bit different in the process, right? Our master agreement, the second one there, is something that we have many classified staff that are doing that. And so, what what is their understanding of the law and make sure that, you know, they're aware of that so they can make sure that's in happening within their work. So. Uh the next thing is a few internal practices that we focused on this year. Again, part of taking things from uh good to great. Uh we started by
076uh working to implement a fully digital master agreement including all of the signatures. E-signatures were now, you know, allowed last year a couple years ago back in like in 2021. And especially with the growth of our virtual programs, especially Connected Academy, um you know, we were able to put this together. I really want to affirm our our data department between uh this process and one of our parent notifications, um which is the second bullet there. Uh they really work to continue to find that next right answer and overcome challenges again and again. Um you know, working with areas and times that can be a little bit of a challenge, so um it was great uh to work with them. And I really want to affirm Adam and Shawn for their work. So, um again, we
077talked about the daily engagement tracker and kid reengagement. Um I just want to I want to highlight here. Um yeah, just really do the data partners supported us throughout. So, and I think we want to affirm the site leadership of all the SAVA and CCS sites for their work in just being flexible and, you know, working to find the next right answer that uh work with us to solve all of these uh and these challenges. So, um moving forward, the focus for our next school year I am going to work to complete my API in May. I've been waiting cuz I wanted us to be able to go through the audit next week and get some feedback from the auditors as far as um you know, what their vision is on some of the things
078that we're working toward. Uh the advice Lisa Ford gives at every training that I've been with her probably ever is check with your auditor, right? So, that's what we're going to do next week. I've been working with uh Valerie here and she's not here now uh this afternoon to make sure that we can, you know, put that together. Um I mentioned putting together a series of trainings for leadership. So, certificate certificate and classified staff. And so, um really on after next week I'll be putting the rest of that together. So, um really the main concept that I want to keep in mind in this work is that it is clear and echoed in multiple places that we must be establishing programs that are of quality and quantity to a site-based school. And so, there's a
079lot of area that encapsulates even the content beyond the work of compliance, but I'm really trying to take that um into account as I move my work forward. So, um so, again, my last slide here is just a little bit of a paraphrase um part of what will be kind of part of my API of what the board is supposed to do on an annual basis, um which is requiring us to have a public hearing and completing update of our independent study board policy. As you know, there are no changes on the education code, so there really is no changes going to be required of our policy. And I'm not going to read this slide to you, but we are required to have a public hearing and do this annually prior to June 30th of
080this school year. So, um again, I appreciate your support and approving this position and I'm going to open it up for any questions before we move to the public hearing portion. Yes. John, I wanted to thank you for your presentation. I I think I need to to comment that given your career, you're probably it with independent study, you're probably one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the state. After the last few months, I I can't disagree with that now. Although I'm not I'm not a lawyer like these gentlemen trying not to be. Well, exactly. He's got a law degree. I'm sure. But, I I will say we do know that the the independent study programs are have been under the microscope with the legislature and even on the national level. But, those of us in
081the room here who deal with education know that truth truly independent study, homeschooling, whatever else is out there, virtual academies, everything. They're really on the cutting edge of what's happening in traditional education. They're never going to put the traditional education model back together. It isn't going to happen. And it's for a variety of reasons that we could spend an hour now talking about what's changed and with everything dealing with the whole environment for education in the state. I really appreciate your presentation. And And again, I appreciate us having this information here. Yes. Because I think we'll probably want to You know, I go out on a limb and say this. I think if any board in the both traditional or charter school boards, we're probably the most informed and truly understand how it works and
082how it should work. Mhm. Correctly. So, again, thank you. >> Great. Thank you, Dr. Knight. I just want to add that um in a training with Lisa Quarter That Mr. Coyne and I attended um in February, that one thing they alluded to was that they're going to be asking more of auditors, really you know, giving more to them as far as what they should be looking at with us. I think that there's sometimes an understanding that auditors aren't educators. They do they understand everything they're looking at? And also, you know, you know, the the idea that teachers are are able to make the determination um even an administrator shouldn't question it, which is in the code. Um you know, it does make it, you know, sometimes challenging to understand exactly what we should be uh
083providing to auditors, but you know, we're going to put our best foot forward and I'm You know, to me, I think part of our our practice to go from good to better to best is in response to knowing that there's a microscope under charters and independent schools and independent schools and we're both. Or we have both here. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Are there any members of the public uh who would like to comment on this item? We have no public comment. We have no public comments. All right, at this time I will close the public hearing and I believe this is an item for approval, public hearing and approval. So, I need a motion Move approval. Approval. Second. Second. Any other discussion, comments? Yes, ma'am. President, just so that the board is
084clear, what you're approving tonight is that you have reviewed the current board policy and you're reaffirming that the policy does meet the requirements of Ed Code and law. And also the board has been provided the 2026-2027 master agreement that we will uh use as our guiding document for next year. So, that's what you are Correct. And that's also that the master agreement is not uh required of the board to approve as part of this process, but because the board policy and the master agreement language is so aligned, we've been one of reviewing them together. If we were making changes to the board policy, we would be also making changes to the master agreement and have the usual board and our team reviewing that uh for sure to make sure that we're you know, being allowed
085to do so. Okay, so we heard what you said we are approving. So, with that roll call Mr. Harry Blount. Yes. Miss Ruth Mandrick. Yes. Mr. Jack Turner. Yes. Billy Campbell, yes. So, item has been approved and thank you so much for your work and your directorship and being part of this organization. Thank you, Jack. Really appreciate it. And did you have any other staff here that's working? Well, I'm a I'm a department of one now here. I will say we have Joy and Dean and our team department, but yeah, I got the 2015 with Hannah. All right. I just wanted to acknowledge that I see you. I just want to see you. That's what we're trying to do is try to acknowledge you cuz All right. Okay, we are now at item 12, Central
086Administration item. And this is approved the Superintendent's Student Advisory Council recognition resolution. Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Annually, uh staff we come and ask you to approve a resolution recognizing the young men and women who serve as students on the Superintendent's Advisory Council. Uh the board president and myself will present these items to the students, uh I believe at their end of the year luncheon in the month of May. And so, uh again, this is just something for those students to be recognized for their commitment, their dedication, and the time they spent this year. So, we're seeking a yes vote. Okay. Move approval. Move approval. Second. Second. Any other comments or discussion? Hearing none, roll call. Harry Block? Yes. Bruce Mandrick? Yes. Doug Turner? Yes. Lilly Camble, yes. So, that uh
087Advisory Council recognition resolution has been approved unanimously. Thank you very much. The next item for approval is the GC bylaws and articles of incorporation revision. We received that uh in our packet. Anything else, Mr. Uh Just board, this item uh is really kind of what I call cleanup language as we are continuing to do uh our work. Director Bergin, myself, and legal counsel have been working in terms of our uh CalSTRS work. And so, what this does is it just talks about upon dissolution a school or an LEA, excuse me, uh where those assets would be would be housed. And so, we needed to more clearly uh delineate that and define that in our bylaws. Uh once the board has approved both the bylaws and the articles of incorporation, they will be then filed with
088the California Secretary of State's office. Uh we'll do those on a more immediate basis uh so that they'll go into effect sooner. Okay. Any comments or questions on this item before we approve? Hearing none, may I have a vote? I mean a motion, I'm sorry. Excuse me. Move to approve. Move to approve. Second. Any other discussion? I got ahead of myself. Hearing none, seeing none, roll call. Mr. Aaron Block? Yes. Mr. Bruce Mandrake? Yes. Mr. Jack Turner? Yes. Lilly Campbell, yes. Thank you so much. That item has been approved unanimously. Thank you. All right. We are now down to board comments. I know we have some comments. Board? Oh, yes, we do have some comments. Yes. Yes, sir, Mr. Mandrake. Thank you, Madam President. Um I would like to make a public announcement tonight um
089that I will be leaving this board. Um my choice, um but I am hoping not to um leave GCC. Uh I've been talking to my fellow board members and talking to Jason to see if there are some other ways that I can volunteer my service uh with GCC. And so, while I will be leaving the board, I hope that I will be seeing all of you in some other capacity as we move down the move down the road. GCC has a number of different boards and committees and so forth. So, this is something I have discussed with the board. Um, been an extremely rewarding experience. Uh, I I would like to talk just a little history for those out there that may not have been here as long as a couple of us have been.
090Um, I was with the Grant High School District um, back in the day, as they say, and I was the uh um, chief business official for the district uh, when the district was approached by a charter school that had been abandoned because the law changed requiring uh, charter schools to be in the territory of the LEA that was sponsoring them. And from a school district perspective, we weren't real excited about charter schools. But, the uh superintendent, uh Dr. Buchanan, back then said, "Well, you know, let's work with them. Let's Let's really give this thing a a go." And so, uh as the chief business official, I was heavily involved on developing the first MOU between that charter school and um, and the district. And that was a dependent charter back there, which meant that the
091superintendent, Dr. Buchanan, could appoint the first board. And the first board that was appointed was three member board and Jack Turner was one of those original board members. So, he he goes back a little bit further than I do. But, he was there uh when it was formed and he and I and the attorneys worked out and the superintendents respectively uh worked out the first MOU and the first agreement between the charter schools and the uh and the district. And then a few years later, uh Jack found himself as remaining board member of those three. Uh one board member had moved along and the other unfortunately had passed away. And so, it was up to Jack at that point to reform the board uh and to bring it back up to um its full membership.
092Uh I was retired at that point, but I was still working with the district and approached Jack asking him that I telling him I was interested in perhaps getting on the board. Uh we had a number of very interesting discussions back then. He coming from the charter school side and I was of course coming from the public school side. Uh but, after a while he decided to take a chance and I appreciate that and thank you for that. And I was the fourth board member uh appointed to the board and then the two of us and Jack appointed the third member at that point. At some point a little bit later, that was expanded to five members and I don't remember the exact timing on that, but uh uh as it stands today. So, um
093Like I said, it's been a real rewarding experience and I want to thank all the board members those that are here and those that aren't that have been part of the board along the way for their support. Uh thank the superintendent. He's been more than supportive as was the former superintendent, Dr. Cindy Cindy Peterson. And I really want to stand thank all of the staff members district wide. You know, this started as a small enterprise with one charter and a couple hundred kids and a few employees. And you just have to look where we are today with I think a thousand employees, over 5,000 kids, nine different charters. I'm not even sure of the final number of sites that we have out there. They keep growing and multiplying. But it's been a fabulously well-run uh
094from a staff level uh district and that's why and both educationally and uh administratively and financially uh we got where we are today. So, uh the community and I thank you for all the things you've done there. And like I said, it's um it's not goodbye I'm saying here this evening. It's more auf wiedersehen or hasta luego. I will be around and uh be working with uh many of you I hope in the future. And check the video. Thank you. Yes. Um Bruce Jack. I just want to say Bruce, it's it's been an honor to serve with you. I And I think you're you're modest because the GCC would not be where it is today without the truly financial intellect that you brought to this organization, but just that there's I over the years and
095it's we served together for a long time. I I look for an opportunity and I hope I work with the superintendent on this that I have an opportunity I love to speak. So I have an opportunity at some event later on to talk a little bit more about our background and that first meeting that we had and the creation of the uh the Grant Community Charters and um yes, it it's it's and I can I feel your emotion also because it's it's truly turned into um it's hard to put into words, but it's been very very successful. And again, I it's I really appreciate having the students come because that constantly brings me back to the reason we do this. And therefore their past and where they're going and so forth. So Bruce, again, I
096I really it's an honor to serve with you. Thank you, Jack. I don't know how many of you know that, but it's because of Bruce that I'm here. I don't know if he remembers we were at a mutual friend's birthday dinner. And he came to me and said, "Hey, you want to think about coming to board member on the charter school?" I just retired. I think yeah, I think I had retired from uh the Rio Linda School District and the Grant School District cuz I went to the Grant School District. And and I looked at him and said, "I don't know a thing about charter schools." But it's a new learning. Yeah, maybe I will do that. Well, what I found out later was that the superintendent told him to check out me. So that's
097what I heard when this all happened at Grant Elementary. But it is because of Bruce that I am here. And I am very thankful because this has been one of the greatest experiences along with all of the others that I've had. I have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy working here. And I am very thankful and blessed to be here. And thanks to Bruce. And Bruce, we're going to miss you. But we know you'll be around. We know you'll be doing some other things. But we And we really appreciate you because whenever there's finances, we look to him and say, "What do you think? You know, what should we be doing? How should we do this?" Because what we try to do is use the skills of each of the board members who are sitting
098here. And that's what makes this board a great board to with which to work because we utilize the skills of the people with whom we are sitting. So, thank you. And we We're not saying goodbye. We're just going to say we're going to miss you from sitting right here. That's okay. Um I see you, Mr. Bruce. Yeah, I got to say something before I go. Bruce and I go way back a long ways, too. When he was at Grant Elementary, I was there. Disturbing people cuz I was on the Dale Paso school board. And then when he resigned and made it all Twin Rivers, we made from Grant to Twin Rivers, then they started looking at me. And I said, "Oh, Lord." So, they said, "You can't quit now." But, you know, Bruce was part
099of my life, too, so I used to go to Bruce for good advice about how we manage money and so forth and so forth when he was on Grant. So, we've been together for a long time. And his wife used to see me all the time cuz I was on the Dale Paso She ran there for a uh school. She was a superintendent there. So, we go back a long way. So, you know, it's good to see you. And Bruce, you'll be missed. I know that for sure. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. So, I definitely have to to share a few things just from staff and then I'm going to split my time with Elmira, uh, our CBO because of course she'll want to say something because Bruce, you've made a huge
100impact on this board. Uh, I won't go as far back as everybody, but uh, at one point in history, uh, I had the opportunity to be your board member and then fast forward you're my board member. And one of the things that every superintendent wants is a board that is supportive, a board that holds us accountable, but also a board that brings wisdom and knowledge. And Bruce, that is what you have brought to myself personally as well as to this group. And so, you're going to be missed and yes, Jack, we're going to have some kind of, you know, shindig where we can all, you know, road star something. You know, give me about an hour. Give me about an hour. Okay. So, we'll we'll make sure whatever we do, we'll give, you know, a
101good chunk of time. But Bruce, you've made your mark on this organization and you've made your mark on this board and that mark continues. And so, I'm excited to see what that next chapter is. All right, Elmira. Putting on the spot for the last time, um, just want to thank you for the expertise that you've brought, in support of my work as CBO of this organization and um, it's been some difficult years and um, learning obviously as the first CBO in this in this charter, um, I appreciate everything that you've provided both Jason and I in terms of guiding us through situations and um financial um pieces that come with uh running an organization this large. So, thank you. And we will miss you, but we know you're not going too far. It's Joyner. Yes,
102a lot of people don't realize how complicated uh an organization like ours is. Um these people manage nine different school districts. It's not like one school district. Each report that any school has to file, we have to file nine times. And um yes, it's kind of run as a school district. In fact, my fellow board members are saying we're finally a school district. Um but it is extremely complicated on all levels, the administrative level, um especially the finance and business level. And hopefully and I know that individual charter schools see themselves working with all the other schools and principals. So, it's it's a little you don't see it sometimes how complicated it is out there, but it really is. I'm Ms. Joyner. Thank you. I found myself getting suddenly emotional when you started announcing your
103departure, Rose, but on behalf of many of the staff who were present during that time when the charter school came to you asking you to approve their charter, um we say thank you. There are many staff who've been here for a really long time who have relied upon your steady hand, your calm presence, and your level-headed decision-making. And on behalf of the staff and administrators, thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU. SO, UH MADAM PRESIDENT, UH A QUICK NOTE with this announcement what I will do is I will communicate to the board via our Friday letter just whatever timelines or next steps may be. So, if you'll give staff a couple of days to to pull that together, I will make sure that we share that. And you speak You're speaking in terms of replacement and
104looking at a board member >> be correct. to take his place. Okay. I just want to make sure that we understand that. Yeah. Okay. Anything else for the good? Let's see. I don't want to miss anything. Any more board comments? Hearing none. All right. What am I missing? So, one more comment just for the board to know. I've already asked our Director of Student Services, Director Dylan, to follow up with the student comment earlier. So, she will Okay. follow up and report back to me and then I will share that information with the board. Thank you very much, Ed. Appreciate that. All right. Announcement of our next board meeting. Yes, our next board meeting is going to be Tuesday, May 12th at Sorry, 4:45 here. May 12th. All right. Any other closing comments? Anything else?
105Thank all of you who are here, all of you who stayed through all the presentations and Saba for doing your presentation, Mr. Campbell, for doing your presentation. And I got you. And all of you who stayed around, thank you so much. And have a This is Tuesday. Have a great week. Thanks, Ed. Thank you. And so, with that, I will entertain Oh. Oh. Sorry. We're not quite finished. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Move that we adjourn. Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. The ayes have it. Thank you.