0012026 4:45 p.m. Welcome call to roll call. Mr. Mark Anderson >> here. >> Mr. Harry Block >> here. >> Mr. Bruce Mandre >> present. And please note that board member director Jack Turley is participating in today's meeting via teleconference due to just cause circumstances permitted a minute >> permitted by the Brown Act Government Code section F2A and one and Lily Campbell present. So all board members are present and accounted for. Thank you. Welcome everyone. My goodness, it's so good to see so many faces and to welcome you. Those who are with us tonight, this afternoon rather, and those who are watching us virtually. We appreciate you being here and we thank you for being here. So with that, we continue with our board meeting. Do we have public comments? >> Yeah, we will. I have
002no com have no comments. No public comments. >> No public comments, >> Madam Chairman. >> Yes. >> Uh seeing that we have our auditors with us this evening, I would suggest we move them up to after the superintendent >> after the superintendent's update. >> Although they're welcome to stay the rest of the meeting. I'm sure they have >> other things they would like to do. Do we have any board members who object to that? So by consensus we will move up the uh audit report uh after the superintendence update and before study session. So please keep that in mind that we will be moving that. All right. And so with that we are now ready to hear wonderful things from our superintendent. >> All right. Thank you uh madame president. First of all, I want
003to say to uh the board as well as to everyone, happy new year. Uh this is our first meeting of 2026. So uh we're really excited to kick off another uh new exciting calendar year. It feels weird in education to say, you know, a new year because we go so much with the school calendar, but we welcome you to a new calendar year. Um to all of our audience members, welcome. We're really excited. Uh I know we have everybody here that wants to hear the audit report, but really we're going to recognize some students here in a few minutes and uh really happy to see them uh here from Epic tonight. Uh definitely hope everyone had a restful and joyful holiday season. Uh I want to just take this very brief moment and share that
004January is schoolboard recognition uh month. And so I want to on behalf of staff to recognize and to thank our board of directors for really your support, your guidance, your commitment, the time that you give. Um it takes a lot of time and energy to visit our school sites, to read the materials that we give you and every day you show up for this work with heart and truly you are champions for the work that we're doing. And uh on behalf of staff and our students that are here, we just want to say thank you. So if you will join with me and give our board a round of APPLAUSE you for all you do. Thanking you. >> All right. So, uh, even though we're now past the holiday season, I did want to share
005with you, and you'll see some pictures up there, uh, that, uh, we had a really special holiday season. And I want to recognize a special moment that we had before winter break. Our Sava Fire Science Pathway students teamed up with Santa Claus to visit our elementary school sites and students. Uh for one of the visits, we even had our partners at the Sacramento Metro Fire uh to join us and really making it meaningful uh not only for our high school fire science students uh who had a chance to spend some time with professional firefighters but also they got to experience a real world moment of you know having that connection uh in the field that they themselves are preparing for. So really proud of that work. I believe I heard someone say that this is
006the first annual. So, we'll see how that how that that happens. Uh we continue to do a lot of work with our community schools uh partnership. Uh on uh last week uh Assistant Superintendent Elliot hosted at Sava uh the community schools community of practice uh meeting where we had uh team members and partners from SAK City Unified as well as the county office of education, our regional technical assistance uh providers at both Skoey and Plaster County uh come out and not only do a tour but also just uh participated in a panel discussion. You'll see the picture there, the full group uh there at Sava just having the opportunity. I am really proud of the work that we're doing with community schools uh as we continue to show ourselves as leaders in this uh area.
007Uh we officially kicked off uh our coffee with the uh cabinet series. Uh we had our first round with CCCS TK8 and then COA middle school. I was trying to figure out what that picture was in the middle, but then it hit me. I uh actually was playing soccer with a kid in front of the school, which we probably shouldn't have, and uh probably got in trouble, but that's okay. Uh these visits really have created a great opportunity to connect directly with our staff, hear their uh thoughts, their ideas, and better understand what's happening. Uh this morning we spent some time at GIS and that was a again another wonderful exciting opportunity with our staff just sharing with them firsthand uh what's happening. Uh I look forward to visiting the remaining schools over the course
008of the next couple of weeks. We do have a couple of upcoming events. Uh one we have our SA midyear graduation that will be happening this Thursday at SAK State. really excited to be recognizing our Saba uh midyear graduates. We have our community school summit which will be coming up February the 5th uh at 4:30 and that's going to be hosted at our uh Dudley C uh building. And then uh our next kind of big major organizationwide event will be our May 1st uh breakfast uh which is our portraits of promise. And this is an event that uh really we're excited to be showcasing and highlighting uh our students and the work that they have done as we fulfill our mission uh of our portrait with a graduate. Uh the final item that I would
009like to really which is the most exciting anytime we get to do something with students uh I want to recognize our student athletes from Epic. Uh these students, my goodness, they are that they are middle school volleyball champions. So, let's give the epic Owls a big round of applause. Uh these students had a phenomenal and outstanding season season, excuse me. Uh showing teamwork, discipline, and determination throughout the entire season. So, uh if you'll join with me and Hey, how you doing? You're just in time. Stay right there. Come on in. Uh we want to welcome our epic student athletes to come to the I don't perfect timing to come to the front. Uh and uh again we want to to recognize so Dr. Kosh can you come up to the podium first and maybe introduce
010your coach uh oh you have a a paper there so come on. Good evening. >> All right. Good evening everyone. I'm Dr. Kosh, the principal of Epic. And on behalf of Epic and Coach Molly Evans, who unfortunately is not able to be here, I'd like to congratulate our volleyball team for their championship. Uh the students demonstrated great skill, perseverance, and sportsmanship and made Epic proud. So, uh, yep. Let's give them all a big round of applause and we'll take a picture. We're good. I'm glad we get more and more trickling in here. All right. Awesome. So, thank you, Dr. C. I would like to invite the Epic Volleyball team and coaches to come on up here and we want to take a picture uh with you and the board and I know uh parents will
011also want to Dr. Kosh, I'm going to give you certificates to give the students back at your school site uh recognizing them. the board, if you'll join me up here. Students, come on up. We're hold after she takes her photo. We'll hold so the parents can all take a quick photo. >> Got it. >> Mr. Crush, you didn't want to get in the photo? Okay, then the parents can take a photo real quick. Did everyone get a photo? >> Do you want a photo? >> Just want to make sure. >> Oh, wait. We got one more. One more. >> Oh, man. What did I do? Sorry. Good. >> Thank you. >> All right. Certificate. >> Yes. So, he'll give those back to you at your school sites. >> Sure. >> You can keep them safe
012if you go out the door. >> Sounds good. All right. Thank you. >> Congratulations. Thank you for coming. And so, uh, Madame President, member of the of the board, what a best way to end your superintendent's, uh, update than with students. And that is my report. Okay. Thank you again, students, staff, parents, parents, would you raise your hands? those who are still here, thank you so much for being here because without you, none of this would happen. So, thank you so much for your being here and coming out with your students. Thank you. All right. Any other comments from board members about the superintendent report or anything? Hearing none, seeing none, we shall continue. At this point, we have moved up our audit uh report. So, yes, Mr. Ammyra. And while Mr. Amra is coming,
013I think this is a good time for us to wish Miss Amara a happy birthday, which is coming up tomorrow, I believe. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> So, a big big happy and wonderful birthday to you and thank you for all you do. We really appreciate you and love you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Um I want to take this time to thank our um audit firm Gilbert and Associates. We've been working with them uh quite a bit of time and um and to our director Valerie Rogers that was actually taking on the audit uh the lead on the audit work uh while I was on vacation. So I want to thank her for that. And uh I will leave you with Raul um that will be here to present
014our uh 2425 audit report. >> Hello. So I'm Hernandez, senior audit manager at the time, now shareholder with Gilbert CPAs. A little bit of an audit overview kind of before I jump into the actual attachments. Um, historically, charter schools are nonprofit, so they haven't been um required to switch audit shareholders or partners, but there is uh some potential ongoing bills that could change that. So what Gilbert CPA did this year just in advance since we were reaching that seven-year typical life for governmental entities to align with that we did switch shareholder this year from your typical shareholder had been historically Sarah Ellis to Bob Green this year who was the shareholder in place of Sarah Ellis and he is very familiar with nonprofit charter schools as well. So uh smooth transition overall this year and
015then a little bit about the actual audit process. So the audit's broken up into two actual portions. There is an interim portion during April while class is still in session for the actual year under audit and then there is a year-end portion late September as well. So during that interim portion in April, what we do is we focus on the internal controls of uh the charter or in this case the home office, the CMO, right? So we make sure to to test the controls surrounding significant transaction cycles like dispersements, payroll and cash receipts. Um there's a little bit of risk mitigation with the involvement of the county treasury. So it is mainly uh applicable to the actual payroll and employees and the cash dispersion. So we test those pretty heavily during the April time frame.
016And then we also really focus on that state compliance. Uh the education appeals panel releases a new state compliance guide every single year and we ensure that we perform our testing in order to align with that guide. And then there is also a federal compliance guide. So we do start some testing related to that in April but we mainly have to finish that up at year end just based off of when that um guide is finalized. this year was a little bit unique in that that guide was actually not finalized um with the government the federal shutdown and uh it wasn't able to be finalized until I think the day before Thanksgiving. Um so so there was still a little bit of work that needed to be done early December just making sure everything aligned
017with the final compliance supplement. We were still fortunately able to issue by the statutory December 15 deadline although most typical eleas and charter schools were uh easily given extensions due to the delays caused by the federal shutdown and the finalization of this guide. But uh we were there weren't significant changes from the draft version that had been made available earlier to what was finalized in uh late November. So there was just some a little bit of additional work that needed to be done, but no significant like additional testing or anything that was done in December. So I'm going to jump in. >> Yes. >> Okay. So I'm going to jump in first into our required communications. Audit standards dictate that we as our your independent auditors communicate this with those charged with governance. So first
018we always like to stress our responsibility versus the responsibility of management. Our only responsibility is to issue an opinion on the three specific uh areas that are identified there. The financial statements, state compliance and federal compliance. So we issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements and on federal compliance. Um, the way that the state compliance guide and the required reporting works, it's unique in that federal compliance, there's a lot more leeway. Same thing for financial statements. For state compliance, no leeway. If you look through the guide, it says you find one student out of 250 that you tested, you need to report a finding to the state controllers's office. So, unfortunately, it is a modified opinion, and we can touch on that a little bit more as it relates to state compliance, but no
019um issues that arose to a material weakness or significant deficiency as it relates to state compliance. It's mainly just required communication in accordance with the state compliance guide. And then although we always do like to stress that although we do assist um management uh by importing their financial data into our system and everything's presented within our typical Gilbert CPA standard formatting. These are management's financials and the only component of the auditor's report that's ours is the included opinion letters for the financial statements, state compliance and federal compliance. So, with that being said, if you have any super difficult questions, please direct them at management. Uh, we're just here to issue an opinion. Um, a little bit on the significant accounting policies. There were no new accounting policies, which was fortunate. In the past couple years,
020we've had some pretty significant ones like leases where it brought on a pretty material right of use and lease liability uh balance. no significant transactions or any transactions that were entered into by the by the organization where there was a lack of authoritative guidance and nothing really unusual came up during the year. Um, inherently the preparation of financial statements uh includes specific accounting estimates and the most significant ones were required that we uh became aware of during the course of the audit to communicate to you and the most significant estimates are the estimate of the fair value of investments, the estimate of the collectibility of receivables. uh the estimate of the useful life of property equipment. Um the selection of the discount rate used in the measurement of the operating lease liability. So discounting it
021to um present value and management basis for allocating functional expenses. All of these we ensure that we include sufficient audit procedures in order to address these significant estimates. And for the most part for things like investments there are external thirdparty statements that also help um support the valuation of investments and collectibility receivables just based off the inherent nature of the organizations receivable. They're typically from governmental entities where there isn't really kind of a historical um or history of uncollectibility. But we do ensure to make look at to look at all these estimates and we found them to be uh in line with industry standard and no issues. a little bit of the plan scope and timing. I touched on that a little bit as well, but we were able to meet that December 15 statutory
022deadline even with some of the federal delays. So, all went according to plan. Um, we like to stress that we're uh in addition to just auditors. We are advisers during the year. So, we're available. We we say 50 weeks out of the year we're your adviserss. Those two weeks or so that we're actually doing the audit, um that's when we have to ensure that we maintain independence. Once we come in and actually start looking at all the financial data and the close were we to identify any errors at that point we need to ensure that we remain independent and if any findings are identified to communicate them right but management does a great job as questions come up during the year and looping us in looping us in in meetings even if it relates to
023things like state compliance I think I was a part of a call like a month ago there was a training that was going on I think related to ELOP just making sure that the auditors on board with potential um transactions that may come up during the year so management's always great about that and that really limits kind of those potential errors that come up during the year. And same thing with leases. Leases are pretty significant. Management's great on new u agreements that are entered into just sending them over throughout the year ensuring that we're aligned with the correct treatment of them. Um but we need to stress as well that our communications with management are not um a condition of our attention. So there were no uh instances that came up where if were we
024to disagree with management um they would make us feel like we would have to agree with them in order to be retained as auditors. So that didn't come up during the audit. And then there were no disagreements that came up during the course of the audit. And then we also do need to request certain representations from management. Uh there is always um that risk that were there to be fraud or collusion that would be pretty hard to detect through an independent audit. So we do also rely on some of management's representations. So we obtain a letter from management that just um affirms to us that they've been forthcoming um that everything that we believe needs to be made available as part of the audit has been made available whether it be employees that we need
025to talk to and nothing has ever been withheld from us when we've requested to see specific transactions or support. So no concerns there. no difficulties encountered during the audit. Management like uh Omira said, Valerie is really the main point of contact this year for the year-end portion of the audit and they always stayed on top of all our requests. Being that it is nine individual sites, um for the most part, the audit is an audit of nine independent entities. If you look at the consolidating statements, we ensure that each site's activity is being tracked within the correct site. So, it's really nine audits, which is a lot of work. Um like like I said there is a there are some findings reported as it relates to state compliance but we'll touch on those um on
026one of the further slides. This risk assessment process box here is new in the past few years. We've tailored some of the language in the past couple of years because initially the way that was being communicated in accordance with audit standards was a little bit harsh. We're not communicating um fraud as it relates to revenue recognition. What we're saying is audit standards dictate for us to assess this as a significant risk. So we're going to include sufficient procedures in order to address the significant risks as dictated by audit standards. So management override of controls and improper revenue recognition. We always have to ensure to address and communicate um to governance meaning that we're going to ensure that we hit revenue a little bit harder, right? Because that would be most success susceptible to fraud or
027um misappropriation. And same thing for management overrider controls. were there to be anything unusual, it would typically be through actual manual journal entries. So, again, make sure that we focus on those specific audit areas. Nothing came up that would be required to be reported. Um, but we're just communicating that um we did address them. So, there was a proposed audit entry. Um, proposed meaning that it came up during the course of the audit, but with management's um assertion and our concurrence, it was not recorded. uh it was a a debt agreement for the home office for some expansion work. And the way that the financials of Gateway Community Chargers work is that everything is allocated out from the home office. So in the grand scheme of things, this total liability would be allocated out to
028each individual site and um even in total it didn't exceed our audit thresholds for it to be a material misstatement or something that we would really push for management to correct. So with their uh with their agreement, it was just posted as a proposed entry with no actual impact on the financials. And the activity as it relates to this is still being flown through individual sites. And because um one of the schedules that I include in one of the further slides, the way that gateway community charters for the most part records everything is more so uh akin to modified acral typical LEA. There's no real change in how it would be recorded on the day-to-day. It would just be a conversion entry or auditor entry that comes in at the end of the year in
029order to record that full balance of the debt. But as far as the actual recording of transaction, there would be no change either way. There is some supplementary information also being included uh as dictated by the K through2 audit guide. Um we issue an in relation to opinion. So in relation to the audited financials, we found these to be u materially correct. Other information we don't issue an opinion on. It's just being included because it's required. But were there to be kind of material inconsistencies that came up during our review, we communicate those with management as well. So I've included here um the financial statements to go over um as far as form and presentation. I I think the most important things to be aware of as you're going through and reading through the financials
030would be those differences when you probably um receive that data throughout the year. What are the differences when receiving the overall financial statements at the end of the year, right? So the main things would be property and equipment, the right of use asset, operating lease, um and then the rel lease liability for operating leases. So um these two specific items wouldn't be typically recorded as like an asset or liability on the typical fund data that would be received. It would be recorded as an expense and then at the end of the year uh management does retain external providers for fixed assets. I believe it's asset max and crunchify formally lease crunch releases. So they're they they have all this data um easily available but it's just uh a change in how the data is actually
031presented at the end of the year. And then at total net net assets at the end of the year is 143 million which overall very healthy in comparison to the organization's total. And then net assets withdrawal restrictions at 22.9 million. This would be your state um fund balance grants. So this is things that would be uh restricted to specific educational programs. typically nothing real unusual came up during the course of the audit as it relates to like specific uh transactions. So, same thing with a statement of revenues and expenses. Um the the main difference would be that items that had been recorded to expense like these payments on the operating leases now would be pulled out of expenses to be incorporated within the audited balances on the statement of um on the statement of net
032position. And then nonprofit uh standards dictate that on the statement of activities, the expenses be listed programmatically or functionally. And then here, the statement of functional expenses is how you would most typically see your natural classifications going down the left. And then you can see the total for certificated salaries and classified salaries and employee benefits in proportion to the total, which is really kind of in line with industry standard. Um and then uh it's listed within the typical um LEA kind of accounting structure. Statement of cash flows I won't touch on too much because it is indirect method. Um so it it's mainly kind of just reporting the differences between the the balance sheet changes from year to year and nothing really unusual changed here. So this schedule here I think is very useful when
033trying to reconcile maybe some of the data that you had seen throughout the year versus what is being presented on the audited financial statements as it starts with a in essence the unodudited actual fund balance at the top and then it adjusts for those items that I said are considered conversion entries in order to bring on that full balance of assets and liabilities. So there you can see the property and equipment line item by site. Same thing for that right of use asset and the right of use liability. So the net adjustments and reclassifications, these are not um audit adjustments. They're just required to be reported to the state controllers's office when it differs from the submitted um data previously. Were there to be audit adjustments, it would be included within that second line, though
034um which is blank. And then um the actual summary of the audit results if you skip to the back of the auditor's report I didn't really include any specific footnotes since like I said there was no new standards there was no unusual transactions that came up during the audit. Um so it was pretty consistent with how it had been in the previous year and then the summary of auditor uh of audit results gives you a summary of each uh individual section. So first is the financial statements which we issued an unmodified which is the best opinion we can issue a clean opinion. Um because it is a yellowbook audit due the typically when you're receiving federal funds you're required to have a yellow book or governmental auditing standards audit but because charter schools are actually
035required by law to receive this audit. So we are also reporting on internal control over financial reporting. So were there to be material weaknesses or significant deficiencies identified during the course of the audit, they would also be included in me here as well. So a little bit more restrictive on how things are communicating if they come up during the course of the audit. But there were no material weaknesses and no significant deficiencies identified and no non-compliance material to the financial statements for state awards. Uh like I mentioned there were some um findings being disclosed just in accordance with the state audit guide but no material weaknesses and no significant deficiencies meaning that since the individual findings that are being reported are so small we don't find them to be a pervasive issue that would affect
036the programs as a whole. Um unfortunately just due to the very little leeway that is given they're being included included as reportable findings. And for federal awards, um, again, no material weaknesses and no significant deficiencies reported and an unmodified opinion is being presented for that as well. And then at the very bottom, there is a check mark in the no under the audit qualified as a low-risisk audit. What this means is that within the previous two years, there was a material weakness identified, but this had been corrected now. So, it's not being included as a material weakness or an update to a previous year finding. So, this would have been two years ago. So now going forward um it will qualify as a lower risk oddity. By not qualifying, what it means is there needs
037to be pretty much double the amount of testing as it relates to federal compliance as far as actual coverage. And then for the following year, um I think for the first time in about 15 years, there was an update from the OM uh office. So the $750,000 threshold is being include updated to a million dollars to kind of align with inflation. So the type A programs which are typically the ones that are set for being tested every single year in accordance with the standard um did get increased a little bit and then this year the the federal program required to be tested was title one. The past couple of years there hasn't been much leeway there as well with all the COVID relief funding. All of these were classified as high risk by the federal
038government. So these are almost tested every single year but now it can go more so to a typical rotation based off a risk assessment process. Like I said, no financial statement findings were reported for the year ended June 30, 2025 and no federal compliance findings either. So the state compliance finding being included is related to education uh protection account funds. Um, the way that this is tested is in essence 100% of the expenditures are tested since it's easily identifiable within the actual account details of these specific programs based off of how detailed management maintains the books. By aligning with the the actual um California schools accounting manual where everything's being tracked on a resource basis, an object basis, you can easily identify I mean it's almost like harsher, right? because if I look at a
039detail, I can easily identify anything that looks unusual just based off of how detailed the account structure is. Through this, we were able we identified one transaction of $6,500 that didn't uh align with the EPA um conditions. So, so that is being recorded here. And then just based off of um the actual expenses expenses or the organization, the organization did have sufficient expenses in order to cover this $6.5,000 amount. So, management did correct that, but unfortunately is included here. And then, um, the finding looks longer than I think it actually is because management always provides very detailed responses and corrective action plans, which I actually really appreciate because it it shows me that they're working and taking any sort of finding pretty serious. There's definitely been other entities that we work with when there are
040these small kind of state compliance findings where they'll provide like one or two sentence where like hopefully it gets corrected in the future years but it makes me conf confident that management will look into these. And then for immunizations this is actually a repeat finding that has come up I think maybe in the past few years now but again this is very specific um testing and most of these uh testing errors are really outside of the control of management. they can do their best in order to provide u training right and uh suggestions but this is mainly kind of handled at the site level as uh students are admitted. So there was one student identified of hundreds of students that were probably tested that didn't meet the conditions for um claiming attendance based off them
041not having the required immunizations prior to that the the lapse of that 3-month conditional um attendance period. So the finding that's being reported aligns with what the state controllers's office dictates in the CDE as far as the calculated penalty. But again it was just one student uh and then the dried value of ADA is obtained directly from the CDE and that's how that penalty is being calculated. And then uh like I said no prior year financial statement findings at for 24 or federal for 24. So that material weakness that was identified during 2023 will um with not having any findings now that were material weaknesses will go away for the next year's audit. And then there is an update on previous state compliance findings. Uh in the previous year there was um one error identified
042during attendance reporting. Uh I think it was really just reporting it. The the codes that were used within the actual attendance reports had to be corrected as part of the audit. But there was no similar instances that came up during this year's audit. And then there was unfortunately a similar instance that came up during the course of last year's audit audit related to immunizations in that conditional um attendance being uh past the conditional period. So that is it as far as the results of the audit. Any questions? Anything you would like me to go a little bit more in detail on? >> Board members, any questions? Anything that you want more questions, details on those, anything? >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Well, my goodness, thank you. Thank you so much for your report
043and all the >> Yeah, like like I said for for the size of the audit, it is really kind of an impressive feat to not have any form of uh findings as it relates to financial statements and even the state compliance findings that are identified with the breath of testing that is conducted on each individual site with for I think I think one thing important to be um for the purposes of state compliance each site is their own individual opinion unit. So each site is tested individually for state compliance. So that's why there is typically a lot more that comes up during those state compliance procedures because we're testing each individual site, meaning we're going out to each site, testing their absences, testing their transitional kindergarten. So that's typically why this is the area with
044the most um identified recommendations and findings. >> I think Bruce Yeah. >> And just want to thank you for your work. It like you said, it's a very complicated audit. I've uh been through a lot of audits and uh which also means it's a very complicated budget and practice and so forth and the fact that there really is nothing material at all to report um just says >> yes >> that the whole staff is doing a good job throughout the whole organization. I mean the audit covers virtually everything in the organization. So that just means everybody's well trained, working hard and and knowledgeable and I really appreciate that. It's great sitting at this level and >> knowing things are being taken care of as well as they are. So thank you all for that. >>
045I agree with everything Bruce has said. We are sitting here on the board feeling very good about what has happened in this organization and we thank you for the report verifying what we thought should be and we're happy to hear that our thoughts are correct. >> Definitely. Yeah. Good team in place. Always happy to work with them. >> Good place to be. Thank you so so much and thank all of you for working so hard everyone. We appreciate it. anything. Thank you for being here tonight and we appreciate your report. Thank you. Have a safe travels. >> Okay. And now let's see where we are. >> Madame President, before we move forward, staff would ask that you um do vote on item 71, which would be the uh acceptance of the 2425 independent audit report.
046Thank you very much for bringing that. >> Yes. And so I will need a motion to accept the uh findings of the independent audit report. >> I'll move approval. >> Second. >> Okay. It has been moved and second. Any other discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Mr. Mark Anderson. Yes, >> Harry Brock. >> Yes, >> Bruce Mandrek. >> Yes, >> Jack Turner. >> Yes, >> Lily Campbell. Yes. So, the uh audit report has been approved and accepted. Thank you so much for reminding. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And now we are at charter oversight review updates. All right. That's yours. Uh, Superintendent Boyd. >> Okay. Good evening. >> Board President Campbell, board directors, and Superintendent Sample. I'm here to present to you about another type of audit or what really felt like an audit this year
047with all of the changes that we've had, and that is our charter oversight um process for this school year. So our goal for GCC is really to be open and transparent with you, our board, about this process as well as to the public and share how this process is changing for us, for our schools with the new climate um that we face for charter schools. As a reminder, California Ed Code requires chartering authorities um to provide oversight for the schools they authorize. They almost also must ensure compliance with the charter petition petition and anyUS that are in place between the school and the authorizer. California Ed requires that they identify a school member as their contact that they have an annual oversight visit. Um, technically they may inspect or observe any part of the charter
048school at any time they request, but they're required to have an annual visit. Beginning last year, one of our authorizers, Twin Rivers, actually added a goal that not only will they make one visit a year, they will actually visit every site. Um, that had them going throughout the state um for their schools. Um, for example, instead of visiting CCCS just one time last year and this year, one site at the main campus, they actually visited all five sites for CCCS. Authorizers must also ensure compliance for any reporting that is required by law for the charter school, including the LCAP and the annual report for it. This accountability piece is what expanded this year due to our political climate and districts wanting to ensure their due diligence that they are following this requirement for oversight and
049also they monitor our school's fiscal condition. So looking at that piece that was extended and expanded this year is documents that were requested and reviewed by our authorizers in five major areas. So first is governance and compliance. Um that's really about you and our board policies um which are all publicly available as you know but we also still uploaded them and directly gave them to our authorizers for financial and fiscal oversight. We of course submit all budget reports, all audits, all attendance calendars and monthly attendance reports as well as this year they asked for ASB, associated student body documentation including accounting of cash and deposits. And then in terms of academic oversight, they reviewed all testing data, our professional development plans, our MTSS plans, our instructional minutes, and our federal program requirements for our TR
050visits with their school site visit. They also required us to complete previsit forms and give them assurance statements and submit safety plans and maps. They are also reviewing our admissions policies, our admissions processes, our enrollment, and our attendance policies. So, I just want to pause on this side. While it looks like just a lot of bullets, it actually represents a lot of work that we've done this semester just to kind of admire it for a minute. And I want to thank the people who have supported us and submitting all these documents to Twin Rivers specifically. I want to thank our school site staff who have spent a lot of time um gathering these documents and submitting them to us for us to submit to TR our principles our vice principles our admin assistants registars clerks
051and to here at our central office our CBO Dr. Gold, Assistant Superintendent Elliot, our directors, VVA, Cal Rogers, and our coordinators. We have all spent countless hours gathering and supplying documents to Twin Rivers for our five eleas. In addition, our other authors also have asked for additional items, but the process for Twin Rivers this year was very intense. But we have one special person we need to thank and that is Melissa DeMarco. She would be presenting with me tonight but she's not feeling great. But she really is the person who has kept us all in line and on track. She has created very detailed spreadsheets for us and systems that have helped us stay organized and submit this information in a timely fashion in the format that each district requests. So Melissa, thank you. We
052appreciate you. And um our goal is to kind of ensure that we distribute this work so it doesn't all fall on on one person. And thank you again to the sites. So how do we submit all of this documentation? Each authorizing district has their own system as well and their own preference and so we have to of course follow what they request. So this slide illustrates how each district wants us to submit. Twin River Liver, Sax City, and Elkrove all use online platforms, all different because of course it can't be the same. Smart Sheet, DTS, and Epicenter, and San Juan ask us to submit by email, and Yolo County has us do a presentation in person every year and submit through a digital binder. We submit these documents to Melissa who then has access to
053these platforms or to superintendent Elliot who also has access and they submit to the authoriz authorizers on behalf of the schools. In addition to all of the document review online um Twin Rivers as part of their process this year added in on-site document reviews. They asked to review a sampling of student CUNE files, home language surveys within those CUNE files, specifically um individualized education plan files, IEP files, school site council and DAG documentation and then they actually came to GCC to review our personnel files with our H human resource human resources department. So overall, our documentation review yielded mostly accommodations with just a few suggestions for improvement and in response our special education team and our student services has already instituted um updated processes and trained our site staff on these requirements and maintenance of
054their folders. So strong commendations came from Twin Rivers to our human resources department, Director Baragun and her team and they recognized their exemplary organ organization and maintenance of our employee personnel files. So before you tonight and attached to the board agenda, you have the five um site reports from Twin Rivers for each of our five schools. Um this is the second year we have received these reports from Twin Rivers. So, I'll share with you some of the commendations and recommendations for each school authorized by Twin Rivers and also share if we have received any formal uh notices of complaint or concern. Um, but while the process was more intense for Twin Rivers, I do just want to also say that it was still a very pleasant experience. Um, Arch Wind River's Charter contact is Sher
055Man Warta and she is always a pleasure to work with and to communicate with. She's very positive, very timely, very detailed. And in addition, Twin Rivers contracted with Ryland SBC to support them in this work. And the Ryland consultants were Scott Lumen, who you might know, a former superintendent of the area, and Dr. Nathan Herszog um who is currently the dean of school of education for Biola University. So just having them be present at our school sites you know when we get accommodations from people like this it means something. So I'll start with community collaborative charter school today. Some of the commendations um to highlight was the wide range of flexible learning models that community collaborative school offers. Uh Twitter calls them the kitchen sink of charter schools. They they offer pretty much anything you
056would want. CCCS offers that. Um they have had growth in students and enrollment this year, but they've also grown their dual enrollment and their CTE programs and credit approval for students. That increase was notable. And of course, launching connections at Gateway was also noted by them as a response to community needs. A couple of the recommendations to highlight was addressing the facility issues at TKA site and the HVAC there and addressing the enrollment decline at some of the sites. We did receive a notice of concern from Twin Rivers for CCCS last school year and it was in relation to site locations which is what led to us submitting a material revision making sure we update um our charter petition to reflect connections at Gateway looking at community outreach academy. Um is that where we are?
057Yes. for COA. They definitely commended them for their strong community engagement. We know this about COA. They're commending things that we we also commend COA for. They have a very strong reputation in the community and both sites, the the elementary and the middle school maintain weight list. They have innovative instructional practices that was observed consistently across all classrooms. It was very interesting in our debrief at the end of the day. Um, Mr. Reman actually cried. He got a little bit choked up when he started talking about the wonderful things he saw at COA because he was so impressed with the high level of instruction that he saw in every classroom and the care and concern from the staff. So, I just want to make sure that we commend them for that. And really the only
058recommendation was find a way to offer COA to more students who are on their weight list. >> Yes. For Futures High School also um for all of our schools, more recommendations than recommendations, but um they were especially impressed with the expanded academic and extracurricular offerings of futures. um even though they had a slight um drop in enrollment, they still managed to offer really um innovative practices for reaching students who are at risk or below grade level. And they do this through their NTSS processes, their quest time, and their differentiated courses that they offer for English language learners. And they noted the community schools grant as being a very strong positive impact on the site. They did recommend for futures just doing a deeper dive into why they might have dropped in enrollment which the site
059has already done with Dr. Gold and our data department for higher learning academy. Um they recognized that the program we offer for higher learning academy a full day program is definitely of benefit to that community. In addition, it's the only international balora program that is offered in that location in that area for students. The robust NTSS systems and tiered academic supports were also of note. They did um recommend strengthening IB training which the site has already done. we did on January 5th and um monitoring the California dashboard for academic results which of course we're already doing as you know with their school improvement plan and then looking at SAVA specifically for Twin Rivers some of the accommodations from TR what's the strong support that and the option that Sava is to students who don't usu
060who don't thrive in traditional school settings. Saba is providing a great option for these students where they can come, somebody knows their name and they noted that the site is very proactive. The small class sizes really helps to build relationships between the staff and those students. And of course, they noted their CTE, dual enrollment, and the opportunity students have to come on campus for live classes. So the recommendation was to consider the middle school. It has low enrollment. What is the viability of middle school? Um should we continue to invest in it? Should we do something different? Just really taking time to dive into that and consider it. We did have an official notice of concern for SA Twin Rivers from Twin Rivers Unified themselves regarding SAVA academic reporting and in response to that we
061have already provided independent study training for all staff and this site also had a complaint um regarding a student and five-year graduation which the board is aware of. So, I'm going to stay with SAVA about moving on to another authorizer. So, with Elk Grove, um I'm just excited, of course, that um this semester we've been very busy, not just doing site visits for our annual visits, but also charter renewal on the other end. So, SV El Grove received a unanimous renewal vote on November 18th. So, we we celebrate that. It's easy to say, but there was also a lot of work that went into that. Their annual oversight visit will take place in the spring, but it hasn't been set yet. However, the district staff did visit the site multiple times through the process of
062the charter renewal. They did receive positive feedback from Elgrove on the 2425 annual report with no concerns noted. El Grove does have a new document submission platform that they are implementing this year, but we don't expect any other significant changes in charter oversight from them. They did have a complaint regarding attendance reporting and GCC has already provided follow-up and conclusion documentation regarding that complaint. Again, Staba, they have three authorizers. Looking at their last authorizer, SAK City. Um they also received a unanimous renewal vote on November 6th. Their visit will be in the spring. Also, board members and district staff visited Power N and Sim Center through the charter renewal process. SA did meet or substantially surpass all of the areas in the oversight report and there were no um areas of review from them other
063than the complaint that they received which was similar to Elgrove for SA attendance reporting and their staff was also trained. Let me just pause with SA and affirm assistant superintendent Elliot for his work for the charter renewals for SA and on behalf of the students of SA. Thank you. And then our authorizer, Yolo County Office of Education. They had an annual oversight visit on October 22nd and they brought about six or seven people from Yellow County Office of Education to come visit us, including their board member, Shelton Yip, was present with us. Um, they always have positive feedback for what they see at Epic. um they love the visible learning that they see happening at Epic every time they visit. And for YOLO, we go to their board and we present every year an annual
064report to them. Um which happened on November 18th this year. The feedback was positive, including commendations for how EPIC provides intentional supports and resources for students and their efforts to diversify the student population. They also complemented our annual report and presentation. And our last authorizer, San Juan Unified, they have a visit in the fall, which happened on October 30th. And every year we submit a written report to them in the spring by May 1st. During the visit, um Mr. Gunter expressed um that they were happy with our visit, happy with what he saw in the classrooms and no areas of concern and they are possibly moving to a more detailed oversight process um just like Twin Rivers or our other districts. And just to note, GIS is our next school up for renewal next year.
065So, we've already begun proactively writing the charter um for next school year for them. So in summary, across all of our authorizers, our schools receive strong commendations for flexible and innovative instructional models. Um implementation of multi-tered systems of supports, a high level of staff commitment and positive school culture across sites and accommodations for our expanded CTE dual enrollment and enrichment opportunities before and after school for our students. Our next step is to continue to plan and support for timely submission of these documents and distribute this work. Strategic planning related to enrollment and facilities, monitoring our school dashboards, all nine of them for academic outcomes and continuing to train our staff where needed regarding compliance. So overall, we are very proud of our schools. We know we have great schools. We know we have great staff
066and every time we have a site visit, we're happy to brag on what's happening at our sites for our students. So, thank you for your time and I available for questions if you have them. >> I don't have questions, but I certainly have comments. I was so pleased when I kept reading and kept reading and kept reading the reports and I kept thinking who did the reports? who who who did the summary of everything. I just the schools have done wonders. You guys have done wonders. I am so impressed with you the the minor findings that we experience compared to the work that we do each day and with the students that we have. I I was blown away. I really was at the work that went into the report. Number one, the findings that
067went into it. All of the positive reactions that were given, it was it was good reading. It's the only thing I can say was good reading. Yes, I'm sorry. Okay. >> I I concur. I was very pleased to read those reports and the feedback that they got from the students, the teachers, >> parents. Um, you mentioned the various modems for teaching was was spoken to. Uh, I was I was just pleasantly surprised. Not surprised, but it just reinforces what we're doing in our schools as a board member understanding the breadth of it and how we address it. Um, one question I had, Joy, do do does every school have a student council? Does every school have a student council? I believe so. Um, it's required for high schools for federal programs. It's not required for
068middle schools, but most of our middle schools do have it. >> Yeah, because I noticed on some of them there were comments about that from the feedback from those councils and the receptiveness of the uh administration of listening to their concerns and addressing them. Um, I just think that was a great additional piece of information that was shared in those reports. So, >> thank you. >> Great job. A great job to the principles >> and the administration for making this all come together. It's a lot of work. >> Thank you. >> We have another Mr. Bruce. >> Yeah, I concur with statements from both. I know it's a lot of work to go through this whole process, but I think it really puts us in a great position because when you come up for renewal,
069you not only have our data to to fall back on, you've got their reports to fall back on. So, it makes us uh puts us in a very very good position. I did have one question on the uh Twin Rivers uh visits. How many staff did they involve in in the different visits? Just kind of generally. >> Correct. So, Mr. Anderson remind me reminded me that I didn't share the specifics of the visit. It was actually rigorous. So, uh the admin was involved in scheduling the visits, but they wanted to see and visit a classroom at every single grade level. And then they wanted this year to meet with staff, a group of staff and a group of students. And >> next year they may meet with parents and staff. This year they met with
070certificated and students and next year we'll probably do classified and parents. And when they met with the students and the teachers, we were asked to leave. Um kind of like an IB or a wasp visit. >> How how many were they? >> The three um well they split up during the schedule. So on this one day where they would visit a school, um Sherry would look at all of the documents, files, IEP files. She would review those and then Scott would visit classrooms and Nate would visit classrooms and then Nate was responsible for meeting with the teachers and the students. sometimes depending on the schedule and how many classrooms they had to visit. Um they would combine for the and both Scott and Nate be present with the staff and students, but they had to
071split it up because there was so much which is why Twin Rivers is bringing in help for the visits. >> This reminds me of the old monitoring review. I don't know how many people went through it from the state department where you had certain groups and certain people met with some groups and others met with others and what have you. Those who were old as as I am remember the old state monitoring review for federal and state funding but uh this kind of reminded me of that >> we still have those but most of them are in virtual and online now. >> Yeah. Well, that's when we met with groups. I I want to applaud you every time I look at Miss Georgia, assistant superintendent and and an so thank you for your support and
072your stick tuitiveness because that's exactly what it took to accomplish the reports that we have here. >> Thank you. >> Very pleased. Very very pleased. >> Thank you. So uh this is not an action is this is this an action item? >> No ma'am except just acceptance of the item. Okay. >> And madam president I just want to make note that uh the board is receiving as a review andformational item the five oversight reports for Twin Rivers. Those have been attached. No actions necessary. >> Yeah they in the board. Okay. All right. Now we're moving on to consent agenda items. Uh everyone, so I just want to make sure you're with us. And the consent agenda items along we have adoption of GCC board meeting minutes 12925. Approve adoption of GCC special board meeting minutes
07312925. Approve personal consent agenda. Approve purchases over 30,000. Approve 2627 school year calendar. Approved 2425 school accountability report card. SAR and they all listed there for all of our schools. I don't need to go through all of them. We have them listed there. And for the uh record for the people, it's all of the nine schools. And we're approving the accountability report card stock. So those are the items uh for consent agenda items. I will entertain a motion. >> Move to approve. >> Second. Second. >> Okay, we have a second. Any other discussions or questions? Any discussions? Questions hearing? None. Roll call. >> Mr. Mark Anderson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Harry Block. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bruce Mandre. >> Yes. >> Mr. Jack Turner, >> yes. >> And Willie Campbell, yes. The consent agenda items
074have been approved unanimously. Thank you, board. Thank you. We are now moving to um we've had the independent audit report. We're now at curriculum and instruction. approve secondary data agreement and direct admission partnership with California State University Sacramento. And we have another one under that if we can take both of them together if that's okay. Approve secondary data agreement with Los Rios Community College District. So those are the two items under curriculum and instruction. Uh >> move to approve. Move to approve. Thank you. >> Second. Any other discussions, questions, comments on that item? >> Hearing none. Seeing none. Roll call. Mr. Mark Anderson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Harry Brock. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bruce Mandreick. >> Yes. >> Mr. Jack Turner. >> Yes. >> Millie Campbell. Yes. So curriculum instruction two items have been unanimously
075approved by the board. Our next item is under central administration and those areus approved Twin Rivers Unified School District MOU uh for U the schools that are under futures HLA CO A Sava CCS and I think that's it there are five of them uh MUS and you have the information. So I will entertain a motion for approval under central administration the NUS of memorandum understanding. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Move to approve and second. Any other discussions? >> Yes. >> Have they modified at all or the MLU's pretty much boiler plate what they've been in the past? >> I didn't understand the question. What was >> I was just if there were any >> turn your mic on um start >> just a question about the theus was there any um adjustments made
076to them were pretty much the same boiler plate as we've had in the past. >> Very minor adjustments that were all reviewed by our staff and by legal and agreed upon by both sides. So we are very comfortable with them. >> Good. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Okay. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none. Roll call on theus. uh for Twin River School District. Mr. Mark Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Harry Block, >> yes. >> Mr. Bruce Mandre, >> yes. >> Mr. Jack Turner, >> yes. >> And Mel Campbell. Yes. So, the uh central administration approved the understanding. Approved unanimously. Unanimously. All right. We are now under personnel board comments before we move into close session. Yes. Uh I just have a comment. I attend the basketball game at Futures and watch those kids play,
077girls and boys. It was a really great day. One. That's all I can say. They was great. >> Very good. >> I even saw somebody's son there that I know. >> How do you do? He made a couple of threes. >> A couple of threes. That's great. >> He's all right. >> Yeah, he's good. Any other comments from the board? Um, I will be attending the SAVA graduation on Thursday. Thursday night. Yeah. >> With the superintendent. >> Are you going to be you're going to be there too, Mr. Mark? Great. Great. So, that's coming up. Uh, anything else that we need to be aware of? Uh yes, Madame President, just two two items of of kind of personal privilege. Um, I would like to tell the board while it just was approved without much fanfare,
078uh, you really should be proud of your uh, agenda item under curriculum instruction 81 and two uh, which is the secondary data agreement, also known as SDA's and the recognition's partnership with SAK State as well as Los Rios Community College District >> because with your vote, you became the first charter management organization to get through the entire process uh for these partnerships which really solidifies our work that we are doing with higher education and I see director Madden back there. Uh I think I saw uh Mr. O'Neal very proud of the work that our CCR team is doing. uh this this is huge uh for us and so I just don't want that moment to pass by the board uh of just how huge this is for us to meaningfully partner with higher education. Uh
079this is a big thing and so uh hopefully our good friends uh Juliet SAK State will make a big deal of this because we're going to make one. Um but really proud of this and I will tell you Melissa will share this with you. we have given all types of information. So we were well vetted uh to get through this process uh to to get this uh opportunity. And then also uh another just item that I'm very proud of, we as an organization as well as Futures High School will be participating as well as uh one of the uh key supporters of the Martin Luther King Jr. March. Uh that will be happening this Monday on the 19th uh of uh January. And uh for those who are very familiar with the area, the MLK
080uh march has been uh a huge part of the north area for a number of years. And so we're joining some of our other educational partners and Twin Rivers and Rob Unifi. Again, being that uh that first charter system to get out there and and also again show our support of the community. And so, uh, if you're not doing anything on, um, Monday morning, you can join Mr. Block and I, we're usually out there. Uh, >> we used to march a lot, but Mr. Block catches us at the end of the march. >> Yeah, it's 8:30 in the morning. So, but, uh, it is a way to >> I'll think about >> uh, spend our money. So, thank Monday. I'll think about it. >> Thank you so much. >> I really would and thank you
081for that information on the curriculum instruction. uh we voted on it but just to have the extra information. Thank you very much. Okay. And so with that we are now going to move into close session and items to close session anticipated litigation government code section 54956.9. close section conference regarding real estate negotiations pursuant to government code 54956.8 and personnel matter employee discipline dismissal release government code section 54957. Those are the items that we will be entertaining when we go into close section and we will be coming back to report out. So with that we shall take a break for close session. Thank you. earlier. We we are back in session from our close session and uh we the superintendent provided the board with an update on the following items. personnel matters anticipated litigation one case
082and the third one is real estate negotiations and gave the superintendent directions regarding finalizing ongoing properties. So those were the findings in our uh close session and now uh >> yes you have last minutes. I do, Madame President and members of the board. Uh tonight, uh we also provided for you um as of January the 1st, 2026, uh we are required to make sure that the board has a copy of the Brown Act. And so you have the latest copy of the uh Ralph M. Brown Act for your reference as well as your ongoing uh good governance. And so we just want to make sure you have that uh for your review. >> Thank you so much. We appreciate >> fine print. >> Oh, it's really fine. Thank you. Anything else? Uh our next board
083meeting is >> our next board meeting is going to be February 10th at 8:30 a.m. >> Okay. 8:30 a.m. February the 10th will be our next board meeting. It's also going to be at ARC at 4700 College Oak Sacramento. >> Okay. That information will be sent out to us. >> Yes. >> So, is there anything else for the good of the organization at this point? If not, I will now entertain a motion for adjournment. >> So moved. And I have a second. >> Second. All in favor of the adjournment. I oppose. The eyes have it. Thank you so much all of you for staying after close session. We really appreciate it. Thank you.