001Welcome, welcome, welcome. Uh, it's great to see so many folks join us this this evening. Um, I'm sure you're here for all the exciting things we have on the agenda related to budget and curriculum and all of our legal proceedings, but um, welcome, welcome, uh, call to order officially this meeting of the Colton Joint Unified School District Board of Education on today, what is May 1st, if you can believe it. Uh, May 1st. This is the very downslide of the end of the school year. It is right around the corner. So, um, welcome to the to our meeting. We'll go ahead and begin our meeting as we do every meeting with a roll call. So I will ask Miss Medina if you will please call roll. Miss Sandable present. Mr. Fuentes present. Mrs. Flores present.
002Mr. Ibara present. Mrs. Haro present. Morinoa present. Mr. Flores present. Thank you for that. Miss, we do have Spanish language interpretive services available for anyone that may need it. I'm going to ask Miss Cynthia Bueno to please come forward and uh provide her update for anyone that might need Spanish language translation services. Thank you, Board President Flores. Good evening. [Music] Gracias. Thank you, Mrs. Bueno. And just a note, we do have some more chairs coming in. So, those of you that are standing, we'll have some chairs added to the back. It's a it's a nice nice problem to have. So, again, all right, we will um conduct our pledge of allegiance. And I'm going to ask our director, Mr. Eric Ciso, to please lead us in that pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag
003of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mr. Eniso. And just a quick note, um Dr. Miranda won't join us tonight. He has a family obligation that he needed to attend to, but we have uh Mr. From who is our assistant superintendent of business services who um I'm assuming drew the short straw and so gets to fill in this afternoon. We're glad we're grateful you're here. We're glad to have you. So that's right. Okay. Our first item on the agenda is item 1.3. This is our adoption of the agenda. The opportunity for us to make any amendments to the agenda uh that are required at this time. staff does have a number of recommended amendments to the agenda. The
004first one is uh amending our close session item 10.4 uh to add three certificated coaches. That would include a head JV soccer coach for boys, a head varsity soccer coach for boys, and then a head varsity wrestling coach co-ed. Also, three classified coaches, head JV soccer girls, head varsity football boys, and head varsity soccer boys. And lastly, the request to add 10 general volunteers to the close session item. Uh, Mr. From, are there any of the recommended uh amendments to the agenda? No, there's not. So, at this time, I will entertain a motion and a second to approve those uh amendments. I'll second that. We have a motion from board member Haro and a second by board member Fuentes to amend the agenda as presented by staff. All those in favor say I. I. Any
005abstensions? Any objections? Okay, hearing none, it is approved unanimously. And this takes us to our school showcase. This is a uh if you haven't been here before, this is a wonderful part of the agenda, a great tradition where we have one of our high schools give an update as to all the activities that have been going on and it's getting close to the end of the year. So, I know a lot's been happening on our school site. So, I'm going to go ahead and ask principal neighbors from Grand Terrace High School to please come up and introduce our student leaders. All right. Good evening, board president Flores, board members, acting uh superintendent Greg from give a shout out to Dr. Miranda and members of the audience and our community. Uh it is my honor to
006introduce our ASB presenters. Uh these ASB presenters have a little special place in my heart. They came freshman year. They are currently juniors. So, um, they they came freshman year and they were they were already leaders on campus and I'm so excited to see all the amazing things they're going to do next year as many of them are also uh part of our sports teams and captain. So, with that, I would like to introduce Nick Romo, our ASB vice president, ASB Secretary, Jaden Marcia, ASB historian, Macy Gustafen, and veteran leader Jaden Bell to present our student showcase. Good evening, board president Dan Flores, board members, and members of the audience. My name is Nick Romo, and I am this year's ASB vice president. Hi, my name is Jaden Jaden Marcia. I am this year's ASB
007secretary. My name is Jaden Bell and I am the official ASB veteran leader. Good evening, members of the board. Um, my name is Macy Gustoson. I'm a junior and I'm this year's ASB historian. We are here tonight to proudly present our Grand Terrace High School school showcase. Since our last presentation in October, Titan Town has been buzzing with activity and ASB has taken the lead on organizing and supporting a wide range of events across campus. With that being said, we're excited to share some highlights that have made this school year so memorable. We'll be we'll begin with academics. On October 24th, Congressman Pete Aguilar visited students and engaged in with a variety of hands-on demonstrations showcasing the the diverse range of skills and trades available in today's workforce. During the visit, students had the opportunity
008to explore fields such as welding, carpentry, automotive technology, and healthcare, providing a real real world look at education in action. Grant Terrace is very proud of our students who earned their California state seal of biiteracy. These Titans earned this prestigious award by showing proficiency profic proficiency in a second language through the four years of study or passing the AP exam. They received a certificate, a medallion, and it took a photo with Sanernardino County Superintendent Ten Alejandra. On a on February 24 or I'm sorry, on se February 12th, our career center under the direction of Mr. Jacob Aguilar hosted a career fair in our gym which gave students a valuable opportunity to explore various career paths. Representatives from different industries were on hand sharing insights on their professions, answering questions, and engaging in meaningful conversations with
009students. On February 20th, Grant Terrace High School recognized our freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors at our academic award ceremonies for their hard work from the previous semester. Students were recognized for their academic achievements such as GPA improvement, honor role, principles honor role, Titan aces, MAP testing scores, and PBS awards. Students recipients were cheered on by families and uh family and peers. Following the ceremony, families celebrated with their Titan scholars by taking many photos and creating beautiful memories. On March 12th, Alexa Gonzalez was honored with $180,000 scholarship from the United States Marine Corpse. Recognizing her outstanding achievements and commitment to excellence. The scholarship presented by the in a special ceremony will help her college education and future career goals while highlighting the opportunities available through military service. Grant Terrace High School is proud to celebrate the
010achievements of our talented students who were recognized for the outstanding science experiments. A special congratulation goes out to Priscilla Munoz and Diana Fua Fu. Oha for their innovative AI powered glove project which earned them a spot at the national level. We wish them the best of luck as they compete next week. On April 17th, school administrators celebrated the students celebrated student successes successes by cooking street hot dogs and providing water and chips for seniors who performed well in last year's cash testing. In addition, a raffle was held for juniors who completed all five sessions of the this year's test with exciting prizes such as TV, AirPods, cameras, and LED lights. Th this event aimed to recognize academic effort and encourage to continue their participation in statewide assessments. Our legacy regiment marching band and color guards
011had some remarkable seasons competing in and and hosting several showcases and events. Highlights include an outstanding performance at the prestigious RCC marching band competition on October 19th and a joint end of season marching band and color guard showcase on November 20th with Bloomington High School hosted in our stadium. Students demonstrated an incredible dedication, talent, and school spirit throughout. On February 4th, several Titans musicians were honored by being selected for the San Frernardino County Honor Guard Band. Uh, our Wintergard hosted a local showcase on April 16th in our gym featuring impressive performances from our schools and visited visiting guard groups, some of which included GTHS Winterguard alum. On October 25th and January 24th, our Care Pathway students and programs leads hosted blood drives in our gym. These events provided students with meaningful hands-on learning experiences while
012making a real impact by saving lives through blood donations. On November 14th and 15th, our link crew program led by Miss Gray hosted incoming freshman days, welcoming over 400 future 9th graders to Titantown. Students enjoyed performances from band, guard, and cheer and participated in a spirited rally hosted by ASB and toured our campus with link crew to explore electives and get a preview of Grant Terrace High School life. On November 14th, our school hosted an incoming freshman night, giving future 9th graders and their families a chance to explore everything Grant Terrace High School has to offer. They learned about academics, athletics, career pathways, counseling services, and more while meeting staff, asking questions, and getting a head start on feeling connected and prepared for high school life. Since our last student showcase, our talented thespians have
013delivered two outstanding performances. On November 15th and 16th, they brought a fresh and creative version of Snow White to life, showcasing impressive acting and staging. Most recently from April 2nd to 5th, our theater theaters and music students collaborated collaborated to present Frozen Jr. The production opened with a special performances for local elementary schools complete with a red carpet and artificial snow provided by ASB to create a magical atmosphere. Both shows were a testament to the hard work, passion, and dedication of our cast and crew. Congratulations to everyone involved for bringing these beloved stories to life on stage. Next, our winter choir concert led by choir teacher Miss DeLeon was a beautiful celebration of holiday music and talent featuring heartfelt performances by GTHS students from all of our choir classes. The evening showcased a variety of
014seasonal and classical pieces highlighting the hard work, dedication, and growth of our choir. On April 11th, our AVID program hosted an AVID unity day on campus, bringing in students from THM thms and pairing them with GTHS AVID members for a day filled with collaboration, icebreakers, and a glimpse into what our AVID program has to offer. The event provided exciting an exciting opportunity for incoming Titans to connect with current students and learn more about the support and resources available through AVID as they prepare for high school. Our engineering, art, and care pathways teamed up to host their first annual elective pathway carnival, offering students a chance to explore each program through hands-on activities and creative displays. This exciting event allowed students to learn about various elective options and ignite interest in future career pathways. Senior engineering
015students showcased their capstone projects while art pathway students exhibited their collection in a vibrant art showcase. The carnival also featured performances in our amphitheater, a club food fair, creating a fun, engaging atmosphere for all involved. Now, on to athletics. So far this year, four of our student athletes have committed to colleges for their sports, each demonstrating exceptional talent, dedication, and hard work both on and off the field. Congratulations to softball players Samantha Lotus who will be attending Wagner College, Summer Sanderson going to Utah Tech, and Abriel Diaz going to University of San Diego. And for girls soccer, Emma Guardon going to Walaw Wala University. We're proud of their achievements and excited to see what's next for them. On October 24th, we hosted our annual Veterans Night and Tiny Titans football game in collaboration with our
016football boosters to honor our community mil military members. The theme of the night was American red, white, and blue, creating a patriotic atmosphere. Alongside the game, our cheer program hosted a Tiny Titan showcase where dozens of elementary and middle school students performed after attending a mini Titan cheer camp. THMS students performed the national anthem alongside our band. The halftime show ended with a performance by our legacy regiment band and color guard who performed their field show. It was a memorable night celebrating our community and showcasing the talent of our future and current students alike. On Halloween, we hosted a spirited pink out football game in support of breast cancer awareness, which also served as our senior night for football color guard cheer and band. Since senior night fell on Halloween, ASB partnered with clubs and
017programs to organize a titan campus candy walk beneath the scoreboard before the game. This thoughtful thoughtful addition allowed young children attending the event to dress up and enjoy trick-or-treating, ensuring they didn't miss out on the Halloween experience while celebrating their older siblings. Our varsity comp team had an incredible Valentine's Day weekend in Anaheim. They competed at nationals and advanced to day two where only top the top finalist performed for the national championship. And for the first time in our school history, they earned second place at nationals. We're incredibly proud of their hard work, determination, and historic achievement. We hosted a community of friend in the library for the deos muertos, providing a meaningful space for students to honor the lost loved ones through photos and heartfelt messages. This year's display was a collaborative effort between
018ASB and our Spanish classes who enriched the offenda with personalized miniphrendas, artwork, tissue paper or tissue paper flowers and handcrafted papel picado and spirit animals. The result was a beautiful and culturally rich tribute on the deos muertos. We hosted a lunchtime lunchtime activities in our amphitheater featuring club participation and cultural celebration. The highlight of the day was the debut public performance of our group of rotoico the GT club who captivated the crowd with their beautiful traditional dance and added a special touch to the festivities. During Black History Month, Grand Terrace High School ASB hosted an AP pack movie night in the gym featuring Disney Soul. The event celebrated culture and community with ASB decorating the space to create a themed and welcoming atmosphere. Students enjoyed Frecon candy, popcorn, stickers, temporary tattoos, Disney ears, and lightup
019devices, making the night both fun and meaningful as they came together to honor the month in film and fellowship. On April 22nd, a group of Floorico, the GT Club, hosted its first ever Floorico showcase in our theater. The event welcomed Flakotico dance groups from neighboring schools and communities, including Bloomington, Sanji, Moreno Valley, and more. It was a vibrant and cultural rich celebration featuring a stunning variety of traditional attire, music, dance styles that beautifully represented regions from across across Latin America. On April 29th, ASB hosted an all school luau that brought tropical aloha vibes to campus. Every student and staff member received a free lay and the amphitheater came alive with a live Polynesian dance performance that included audience participation. The event also featured a variety of food booths ran by clubs and pathways to raise
020funds along with games and activities for all to enjoy. It was a colorful and memorable day that brought school community together in celebration. Starting with student activities. On Halloween, a competitive costume contest was held in our amphitheater featuring a variety of fun categories, including scariest, funniest, most creative, and best group costume. With prizes awarded to the winners, ASB transformed the space with a large spooky paintings and festive inflatables, creating a lively spirited atmosphere. Adding to the excitement, our engineering pathway students showcased their Halloween themed animatronic projects, impressing the crowd with their creativity and technical skill. A lot of our Titan staff also appreciated participated. It was a fun day in Titan Town. Our folklorico dance club hosted our four first schools of ble on diia de le muertos and it was truly a special and
021memorable event. The evening featured live banda, captivating performances by club members and plenty of dancing that brought our campus community together in celebration. This space was beautifully decorated with market lights and colorful pel picado creating the vibrant and festive atmosphere. It was a night full of culture, joy, and tradition. An unforgettable event for everyone who attended. On November 21st, we hosted a lively fall festival in our amphitheater featuring over 29 booths run by various clubs, pathways, and programs. The event was filled with delicious pe food, great music, and a fun festive atmosphere that brought our whole school community together to celebrate the season. The Friday before Thanksgiving break, ASB hosted a Thanksgiving banquet for each class period, offering a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the year's accomplishments. It was a time to express
022gratitude, bond as one big Titan family, and enjoy one meal together in the spirit and community of Thanksgiving. On December 5th, the city of Grand Terrace held its annual tree lighting ceremony, and our AVID and ASB teamed up to host fun arts and crafts booths for kids. The event was filled with festive performances from our band, cheer, and polarico club, adding to the holiday spirit. ASB also brought extra magic with artificial snow machines, and their booth was awarded first place for the best decorated booth of the year. It was a memorable evening for the community and celebration of Titan Pride. On December 6th, we celebrated uh Festive Friday on campus, encouraging everyone to wear ugly Christmas sweaters, holiday headewear, and festive attire. ASB added to the fun by adding artificial snow, holiday music, and free
023hot chocolate for every student and staff. And then the student and staff that brought mugs to campus were awarded extra whipped cream, and a special gingerbread cookie, making the day extra festive and more cozy. It was a great way to cheer up and kick off the holiday season on campus. On the first evening of winter break, ASB hosted its annual holiday banquet at the Old Spaghetti Factory where all of our GTHS ASB members gathered for a commun communal dinner to bond and celebrate the first half of the year. Afterwards, our group walked over to the Festival of Lights at the downtown Riverside Mission in where students enjoyed taking cute holiday pictures, ice skating, and indulging in delicious treats. It was a perfect way to kick off the holiday season and create lasting memories together. On
024January 31st, we hosted a Star Wars winter themed sports rally, kicking it off with an immersive drone show by our engineering students. The excitement continued with a live action lifesaver lifesaver battle skit performed by our ASB sound and spirit team. After the performances, we recognized our winter sports teams for their achievements, presented the winter formal court, and wrapped it up with the event with some fun rally games, a cool countdown video, and it was memorable and action-packed. It was an event that brought everyone together in celebration. On February 1st, we held an unforgettable winter formal at the Victoria Country Club in Riverside. The events theme matched our winter rally Star Wars theme. June students enjoyed a space themed dance with photo booths, a dessert bar, baked trees, treats, video games, and a lot of dancing.
025It was a fun full night of excitement accumulating in the announcement of our winner formal senior court winners. On Valentine's Day, our GTS Best Buddies Club hosted a district-wide best buddies dance in the gym. Bringing together our special education students from across the district for a joyful celebration. The event was filled with dancing photos, heartfelt moments. GTHS teacher Mr. Miranda served as the DJ and ASB contributed beautiful decorations making it the day extra memorable for everyone who attended. On February 21st, we hosted our first annual powderpuff tournament and the championship game in the football stadium. After three days of after school practices, students suited up in their custom jerseys and competed with their heart and determination. This year, the class of 2025 claimed the championship title and earned the honor of having their class once
026again added the perpetual trophy. It was an exciting and spirited event for everyone involved. On March 8th, we hosted our annual senior inspiration event in the cafeteria, celebrating the class of 2025 with their heartfelt theme, bloom where you're planted. Graduating seniors and their families enjoyed a catered dinner, a baby photo, and a senior picture slideshow, a parent tribute, and a candle lighting ceremony. The evening also featured keynote speakers, a dessert bar, photo opportunities, exciting raffles and prizes for like graduation tickets, and a free class ring. It was beautiful and memorable event for all the seniors participating. On April 3rd, we our entrepreneur-driven titans took the center stage at our first ever small business expo in the amphitheater. Students proudly showcased their small businesses offering services from baked goods, face painting to photography services, ribbon lays,
027and crochet flower bouques. The event was a huge success in celebration of student activity and hustle. We hope to see it become a lasting Titan tradition. On April 11th, our wellness center hosted a wellness fair during lunch in the amphitheater, offering students a chance to explore booths focused on nutrition, mental health, and community wellness resources. It was a valuable event that promoted self-care, provided helpful tools for students, and support their overall well-being. On April 18th, we held a spirited Monsters University themed spring sports rally in celebration of our inseason athletes. This event featured exciting student performances, the presentation of our prompt court nominees for a countdown recap video, and a highlight of our event, our traditional senior commitment parade, where we honored the future plans of our graduating seniors. It's exciting to see our seniors
028pursuing post-secary education opportunities. Our spring forts rally was truly something special. The school spirit was electrifying and for many of our seniors an emotional moment as they experienced their last school rally and final spirit check. A huge shout out to everyone who helped to make it happen. On April 26th, we hosted our prom at the stunning Cerrito Center of Performing Arts with the theme a night in the spotlight. Over 500 students, guests, and staff chaperones attended the elegant red carpet event. The evening featured a grand dance floor in the historic theater room, a game room, and a cozy entrance hall complete with a fireplace. The prom court winners were announced, and the attendees enjoyed a memorable night filled with dancing, laughter, and celebration. Needless to say, everyone had a great night in the spotlight. [Applause]
029Next up is our upcoming events. on. We have our spring choir concert. We have our CJUSD tomorrow's leaders. Avid stole ceremony. Asian-American Pacific Islander fashion show during lunch. Sades fest dance in our GTHS quad. Our senior awards night, our senior walk, senior elementary walk and middle school visits, our college and career signing ceremony and senior sunset. Our our graduation ceremony at the 66 stadium and grad night at Disneyland and California Adventure. Thank you for your time. On behalf of the students at Grand Terrace High School, I would like to welcome any comments and answer any questions you may have. Well, thank you. First of all, that was an incredible presentation. Uh, loved it. I'm I'm I'm I'm exhausted just watching everything that you guys did. It's incredible. Um, yeah, I just at a loss so
030many uh amazing events. I do want to highlight just personally um the Best Buddies dance that you hold and it's not the first time, but it's that's a special one for me. um working with with students with disabilities and and um making sure that we create a space where everybody feels inclusive. That's a that's a beautiful event. So, thank you for sharing that. But I'm sure we've got comments, questions from our board members, so I'll turn it over to them. Yes, please. Uh board member Bertha Flores. Okay. Okay. I'll um I'll go first. I'm I'm uh excited to to to share that you were able to share this with us. Um you have so many things going on. So many things. It's just amazing. and uh so many accomplishments as well um and memorable events
031that you're making, you know, memories that you're going to take with you forever. Um I specifically um like the um the that you had that forklico dance uh competition. Um that was the best thing. Um and I hope I hope that it continues and you you invite more focal groups from all over uh to share that uh cultural event. Uh also you know you had the the band and that dance floor was full. I mean it was full. So you know it it's you were you having so much fun and that's beautiful to see. You know there's academics there's all this other stuff but you know you're having fun. I don't know who's having more fun right now, if you or the or the staff with the way Robera was dancing out there. Yeah, she
032was just I love it. So, um thank you for sharing that. And um you know, one of the things that I don't know if the audience knows uh but you do something very special called the senior walk at elementary and middle school visits. And what the kids do is they put on their caps and gowns and they get out on a bus and they go and visit their elementary schools and they go in and they talk to their fifth grade teacher, their third grade teacher and say hello and and you know and thank them. So that is probably one of my favorite things. It just warms my heart when when you all these kids go in with their cap and gowns and believe me, it makes the teachers and the staff stay when you do
033that. They look forward to it every year. So, um I'm looking forward to graduation in a few weeks. Thank you, Board Member Flores. Other comments and questions from Yeah, Board Member Fuentes, please. First of all, I think uh board president uh Flores said, "I'm exhausted, man." But you know something, this year I wasn't able to make I usually make all of the events, all of the things that you guys do. I was able to go to the senior aspirational night which was beautiful. I was there uh with uh I think uh who was it? Joan Joanne was there with me and uh we got to see that and that was beautiful to see the memories, the pictures of when you guys were babies and all that stuff. Uh I love that. I love that. And
034uh I did go to the festival chlorico that was amazing. Uh, wow. That was amazing. I got to go backstage and say hi to everybody back there. And I think that's something that we I'm hoping that it'll continue there at uh Grant Terrace High because it is part of our culture. It's part of what we do. Uh, I think everything that we do at all of our high schools is something that needs to continue. Uh, I also did go to the bond night also. I was there for that BA night and uh, that was fun. That was fun to see everybody dancing around and see the band there involved and all of that. And uh so all in all, congratulations to you guys. You guys are juniors this year, correct? And then it'll be yours
035next year. And then Jaden, I know Jaden yesterday won a raffle prize. Yeah, I remember that. I won't forget that name. Uh but congratulations to you. One thing I want to point out, there's a young man that's standing back behind there. His name is Ramses. And excuse me, I've seen this young man grow up. Actually, he grew up with my daughters also. They're like a year behind or so from Sharon. And uh I'm very proud of this young guy. Uh I'm sorry, but so proud of him and uh so proud of what he's doing, what he's done, and what he's going to be. And uh a shout out to his parents, Armando and Betty, uh for doing what they've done with this young man. This young man, I remember him growing up. He was the
036Michael Jackson guy. A lot of people knew him as this little Michael Jackson guy that used to do these dances and stuff. But I'm very very proud of him because he's he's out there. He's not he he's the one who brought the folklorico, some of the folklorico out to to the area of Grand Terrace High School. uh him and his mom and and and he brought he started getting everybody involved and stuff and I think as an ASB leader uh president you've done well Miko and I'm very proud of you know that and I'll give you guys a thumbs up. You guys are next year. Continue doing what you're doing and know that us here on the board we're watching. We're we know what you guys are doing and we're very proud of you. The
037tears I have, they're not tears of sadness. their tears of happiness because I know that we're doing what needs to be done in our schools. And when we see academics, when we see the events that happen, you guys are enjoying when you're going to school. You're making those memories. And that's what we want you to do. And continue to make memories all your life. Continue to continue to go to school. Continue to get into your careers. Whatever God puts in your place, do it. Do it. Challenge yourselves to be better every day. Succeed. Motivate yourselves. Have a great night. Thank you, board member Fuentes. Other comments, questions from board members, please. Board member Ibara. Okay. Thank you, Dan. Like my colleague said, excellent presentation. Uh it makes it uh fun to go to high school.
038everything that you do. You know, I I could see where many of the students that go to Grand Terrace High want to get up because there's going to be something that they're going to participate in that given day. But, uh, we're in May 1st, as we all know, and we're toward the end of the year. And one of the things that I always like to do is I'd always like to to congratulate and give that big pat on the back to all the ASB members for yearslong work that you put in in providing all these events, you know, uh cheering a lot of students on, uh coming up with ideas And you know I know that you meet as a group on a daily basis and that's where that brainstorm comes through from each and
039every one of you and uh with great leaders come you follow up as juniors but I just want to basically say thank you to each and every one of you for what you've done this year and give you all a big pat on the back because you know what you've done is you've inc made in the envir environment there at Grand Terrace High School. Enjoyable uh somewhere to look forward to going and uh just fun. Just fun and uh like my colleague said, you know, it's all about experiences and uh I truly believe that experiences define who we are and the more experiences we have will define you even stronger. So just say thank you to each and every one of you. So thank you Mr. Bara. Yes board member Thorino. I was very entertained
040by your presentation. It was amazing. Um made me think back to high school days where the way they used to be a long time ago and I actually thought wow I want to go to high school right now. I mean to have that many activities you had something for everyone at your school and that's what we want. Kids have to have a reason to go to school. I because learning is hard for a lot of kids and I've always believed learning needs to be fun as well. And when you provide these kind of activities, kids come to school. I know what is it? Build it and they'll come and you've built a great school. Um, I know how much work it is and it shows the quality of leadership at your school and I applaud
041you for that. It's very it it takes a lot of commitment and a lot of time but you have given so much to your fellow you know classmates that they will take those memories for a very long time and probably will remember when they're my age. Um, and I you have that you should be very proud of yourself for that. I wish you all good luck. We'll see you at graduation and thank you so much for all that you've done. Amazing. U those events are awesome. You guys are really putting a lot of work into that. The people that you guys get involved and all those amazing activities for Glorico. That's pretty awesome. Um, the buddies, I love all of the events that you guys have done. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you.
042And board member Harlo, please. Just really quick, my colleagues have said everything and you like just ditto ditto ditto, but I just wanted to thank your advisor because I know that you I know you know he brainstorms all these ideas and comes up with more ideas that it just boggles the mind what you come up with and how you get the kids to agree to it and how do you execute it. It's just amazing. So, I just want to uh congratulate and thank you uh Marcos Ree for all you do for our Grand Terrace Titans. Well, you you've heard how proud we are of you and of course and I and I would say, you know, Grant Terrace High School continues to impress by being so creative. Um you're not bound by sort of traditional
043ideas. Well, we can only do these things. the sky is the limit and every year it seems like you come up with new ideas, new programs again to make everybody feel included uh to make them feel that Titan pride and I I just can't wait to see what next year's going to look like. So your juniors will we look forward to seeing you next year and it's going to be an awesome year. So um we'd love for you to come up. We could shake your hand and congratulate you. [Applause] All right, great job, Titans. All right, next item on our agenda. We have our special presentations for this evening's meeting. Our first presentation is item 3.1 and this is the science and engineering fair recognition. Um I'm going to go ahead and ask Dr. Peterson
044to please go ahead and kick us off since uh this will be under ed services division. Good evening, board president Flores, board members, uh members, uh assistant superintendent from uh members of the audience. Uh we're going to keep talking about Grand Terrace High School tonight um as we honor a few students um for their work and for their for their work and for their accomplishments in the area of science. And so, uh, this evening we are honored to recognize two Grand Terrace High School students, DA Figureroa and Priscilla Munoz, for their outstanding accomplishments in science. So, give you a little history. Uh, both students have been district science fair winners for four consecutive years. They demonstrate consistency and in excellence and dedication in advancing their projects. They've taken them taken them to county fairs, to
045state fairs, to the international science and engineering fair the last two years. And um at last year's international fair, their performance earned them a $50,000 scholarship to Arizona State University. Additionally, they showed commitment to growth and learning by securing a mentorship through Caltech alumni, routinely taking college coursework during the summer, and continually refining their scientific design since their freshman year. And anyone who's seen this project has seen it grow over the last four years, and it's just outstanding. Uh most notably their research focuses on creating solutions to empower individuals with disabilities including innovations their innovation which is a glove that helps the visually impaired. And so just to give you an idea of what they've done this year. So they were the Colton Joint Unified School District sweep stakes winner for the senior division. They
046were the county gold medal winner for the senior division. Um they were let's see um they received the Regeneron Biomed Science Award and UCLA mentorship where they also received $347 that they split between them. Don't know how they came up with 47 but all right. um they participated at the California Science and Engineering Fair and then soon, I believe it's May 10th through the 17th, will be participating again at the the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, this time in Columbus, Ohio. And so, um they also recently presented to UCLA uh to professors and received feedback on their presentations and their work where they also received $500 and some individual funding as well. And so it is my um pleasure tonight Dia and Priscilla exemplify the highest ideals of scientific inquiry, compassion, and innovation and
047continue to inspire through their dedication to improving lives and pushing the boundaries of what is possible. So it is my honor tonight um to call them up here to present certificates from the school board. And so the the certificate will read certificate of recognition presented to their with their name um Grand Terrace High School in recognition as a gold medal winner in the SIMSF senior division for your project smart device for the visually impaired for receiving the Regeneron Biomedical Science Award and UCLA mentorship award and for advancing as a finalist to the California Science and Engineering Fair and the prestigious Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. we congratulate you and wish you continued success dated May 1st November or May 1st 2025 um and signed by all of our board and so I want to
048congratulate the two of you on your accomplishments and if we can and just if you guys want to just tell everyone where you're planning to what your plans are for next year or where you're headed if you know that information or does that kind of put you on the spot? Hi, my name is Dana Figuroa. I will be attending UCR where I got um a full ride as well as um since I have my associates degree at Valley College, they're sending me to UCLA the second semester to take classes there as well. Hi everyone, my name is Priscilla and I will be attending ASU to take up the offer of the scholarship we got at ISF and then also continuing to uh take my Caltech programs there for a graduate. Um, I'm doing I have
049my certification AI machine learning and I will get my next one in AWS cloud if I if I may. Well, first of all, amazing. I But you also have some you have quite a fan club here. So, I'm going to ask that you introduce your family and friends that are here with us because we know that it takes a lot of support to be able to do these projects. Anybody that's done a science project with with their kids for their kids maybe with their kids knows it is a family effort. I do think they've passed up their parents. So, uh, who's here with me is my parents, my mom, my dad, and um special thanks also to Mr. to Sarah who has gotten me to where I am with Caltech and other programs that I'm
050in. I want to thank my mom as well as uh my grandma Shirley who's also here and a special thanks to um our district coordinator Conso Guerrero for always helping us. I think that said it all. I don't know what we're going to do next year without this project because I'm going to miss it. So, I wish you two all the best and we hope you'll come up and shake hands with our board. Absolutely. We We're going to have a couple of comments from board members. Please board member. We actually just just Yeah. Sorry. Um I have judged um Priscilla since fourth grade from Grimes Elementary. Her teacher, her sponsor, her mentor was Mr. Swanson and she did this project at Jobaka where she was making her hand and doing it and it was out
051of cardboard and she had her things going on. And every time I saw her every year this just like now but further it just advanced in its complexity and what she wanted to do. And sometimes she was using words that I had no clue what she was talking about. But I mean these girls just this is the reason why I support science fair so so much. I saw my daughter go through this program 10 years and what it did for her and the accolades and the awards and the money for college. Uh she went to UC San Diego uh with money from science fair from the various awards and not just like the big awards but even some of the smaller awards that you won. It's tremendous what it can offer our students and that's
052why this is just I'm so proud of her and so both of you but I know that you met your partner when you went to Grand Terrace High School and just worked together uh doing the marketing and the project and everything and I'm just really so so proud of you. I just it just makes my heart happy. It's why we do what we do is to see students like you um just succeed and with the offerings that we can give you. And to your parents, your children are amazing. And again, like I said, we just um love what you've done and we're so proud of you. And I know you're going to go to ISF and you're just going to you're going to kill it this year. You're going to go out with a bang.
053So, thank you. Awesome. and parents, grandparents, can you give us a wave so we know where you are and we can give you a round of applause? Yes. Moms and dads, thank you. Absolutely. Well, we would love for you ladies to come on up. We can go ahead and shake your hand and congratulate you. We have some incredible students. It's It's amazing to see. So, thank you for that. Uh our next uh presentation, item 3.2 is our employee recognition. And so, I'm going to ask uh Drs. Ca Dr. Kathy Cvantes and Mr. Eric and Ciso, our directors from human resources to uh please lead us in our employee recognition. Hello. Good evening everyone. My name is Erik and Ciso, director of human No, I'm sorry. Good evening, board president Flores, assistant superintendent, Mr. Gregory from
054You threw me off, Greg. I'm sorry. Board members and members of the audience. My name is Eric Eniso. I'm director of human resources for classified. I am proud to be here to um announce our um employee recognition members for the month of April and March. So, first up is going to be Miss Angela Razo, who is our graphic designer. If she is here, can she please come up? Okay, Angela, I know you're listening. So, I am going to read a tribute that was written for you. So, we are proud to recognize Angela, an exceptional graphic designer whose creativity, dedication, and collaborative spirit has made a lasting impact across CJUSD. Angela's innovative designs consist consistently elevate our sites. Whether it's through stunning branding, compelling marketing materials, or engaging digital content, she brings each project to life
055with a keen eye for detail. a problem-solving mindset and a commitment to quality. What sets Angela apart is not just her technical talent, but her positive energy and enthusiasm. She goes above and beyond to collaborate with colleagues, ensuring every visual element aligns with the company's vision. Her adaptability and openness to feedback make her an invaluable team member and a constant source of inspiration. Thank you, Angela, for everything that you do. Your work not only enhances our visual identity, but it uplifts the entire district. A round of applause for Angela. So, I will be uh delivering to Angela tomorrow morning a certificate that she did not have to print her own certificate this time. So, we got that. And then a little uh statue that says she is the essential puzzle piece. Good evening. Um I'm
056Kathy Cvantes. I'm the HR director for certificate staff. Um at this time I want to recognize our certificated uh employee uh of the month and that is our TOA at Lincoln Elementary um Nicole Hart. So if you can come [Applause] up and presenting her is principal Dr. David Brutus. [Applause] Okay. Good evening, board member, president, Mr. Flores, board members, and Mr. From and all our wonderful audience. Again, it's such a great honor to stand here today, to be able to brag a little bit about my partner in crime, Miss Harts. And they only give me a few minutes, but I see her daily and I always brag about her all the time, and I just like her humble spirit. Okay. Um, good evening Lincoln family in um in person and watching online. Today it is
057my absolute honor and privilege to recognize an incredible member of our Lincoln team, our April employee of the month, Miss Nicole Hart. Miss Hart serve as our TOA English learner, teacher, and assignment. And those of us who work closely with her know just how committed she is to success of every student on our campus. She bring not only expertise but heart, dedication, and level of positivity that truly uplift those around her. Whether it's providing targeted support to a multi- lingual learners, stepping in to assist a colleague or planning with care and intention, Miss Hart never hesitate to go the extra mile. She is always thinking about what's best for students and she acts on it. Her work is student centered, driven by purpose and execute with excellence. As one of our PBIS coaches, Miss Hart
058has played a major role in the continued success of our schoolwide behavior system. Alongside her fellow PBIS team, she helped led efforts that position Lincoln Elementary School to apply for platinum recognition, a prestigious milestone that reflect the dedication and consistency of the system we've put in place to support our students socially and emotionally. Miss Hart is more than just a colleague. She's a teammate, a leader, and a model of what is meant to serve with integrity and joy. She collaborates, encourage, and shows up every day with a heart full of compassion and a mindset rooted in growth. Miss Hart, thank you for the light that you bring to our school, the excellent with which you serve and the difference you make in the lives of our students and staff alike. Sometime I always tell Miss
059Hart, what are you smoking? Because she's always excited about everything, but in the most kindest way. I don't want I don't want each other all to come investigate, right? It's a positive thing. Um, we see you, Miss Hart. We appreciate you and we are so proud to celebrate you today as our April employee of the month. Let's give her a welldeserved round of applause. Thank you. I'm I'm I'm truly humbled and honored to receive this award and I want to say I'm my heart is full of gratitude for Dr. Brutus and the colleagues I get to work with and the students. I truly love and cherish my job. Thank you. And do you have any I would also like to thank uh my family and friends who are here with me to celebrate with me.
060Um got my Lincoln staff over here and then and back here and then I have my family members back here. Thank you. [Applause] One more round of applause for Nicole Hartz. [Applause] At this time, I want to recognize our management of the month, and that is Principal Carrie Bill of Lewis Elementary. [Applause] On behalf of Dr. Haidider, I'm going to read his narrative. It is a privilege to take a moment to recognize principal Carrie Bill, a leader who embodies the heart of an educator and a vision of a true school community builder. Carrie brings with her the wisdom and understanding that can only come from having taught multiple elementary grade levels. She sees the whole child, knowing exactly what students need at each stage of their journey. and she carries that insight into every decision
061she makes as a principal. What sets Carrie apart is her relentless commitment to doing what's best for students at Lewis Elementary. She keeps student achievement at the forefront of her work, always pushing for growth while making sure that her staff feels supported, heard, and valued. Whether she's meeting with a teacher to brainstorm strategies, working with families to build bridges, or collaborating with fellow leaders to grow together, Carrie does it all with grace, purpose, and heart. She leads with a belief that student success is a team effort, and she is constantly building that team, connecting staff, students, and peers in meaningful ways that uplift everyone. Thank you, Principal Bill, for the dedication, care, and collaboration you bring to your school community each day. You are truly making a difference. Thank you. For those that know me
062know I'm hating this moment right now because I hate the limelight. Like, don't look at me. Let just let me do stuff in the background and I'll be fine. So, yes, that's truly true. Um, I want to thank um my amazing Eagles over there. My my team, my ride or die, my heart. Um, they are amazing. I could not do this without them. And that is so true. Um, and I also want to give a shout out to my principal friends back there. Happy Principal Day. That's right. Happy Principal Day to everyone. Uh, and then, uh, my husband Chris Bill. He's here tonight. And, uh, thank you for being, um, just my sounding board, my voice of reason. uh and just hearing all of my antics when I get home. So, um thank you so
063much. I appreciate it. Thank [Applause] you. Another round of applause for Miss Bill. Okay, up next we are going to be acknowledging our education partner. Um, so for this honor, we're going to be calling Director Casey Robertson up so that we can acknowledge Old [Applause] Grove. All right. So, good evening, President Flores, um, Assistant Superintendent Gregory from, Board, Executive Cabinet, and audience. Uh, I am super excited right now to shine the spotlight on one of our community partners, Anna Knight, and as a part of Old Grove Orange. She came here to the board back in October and gave a really good spotlight of of the history and everything that Old Grove represents. Um, so with that, I'm going to start on the impact and everything that they've done so far this year and toss out
064some really solid numbers. So with Old Grove, led by Anna Knight, whose work has helped us reimagine what farm to school truly looks like here in Colton Joint Unified there. Thanks to their partnership, we've not only introduced thousands of students to fresh, locally grown produce through the many farmers market events, but we've also made meaningful progress towards creating more connection and more nutritious foods and sustainable food systems within our district. With support of Old Grove, we've infused over 47,000 pounds of locally sourced fruits and vegetables into our school meal programs this year. That's breakfast, lunch, and after school meals. And that's totaling over $109,000. These items included the watermelon cantaloupe from Thermal and El Centro, strawberries and pimmens from Riverside, citrus from Redlands and Menon, and stone fruits like plums, peaches from Hemtt and Bakersfield.
065Through the many farmers markets alone, an additional 9,600 pounds of produce valued at $35,000 has been provided to students. And that's only at our elementary schools. And that's only them visiting our elementary schools one time on a rotation right now. And these kids were excited to explore items like organic baby rainbow carrots, uh, petite white turnipss, mandarins, carara oranges, produce that they may have never ever seen before. And for many, this was their first face-to-face interaction with a farmer that has produced their own food. As shared by Dr. Parachal Rogers. The market event was high a highlight for students, sparking many questions like where does this come from? How does it grow? And more importantly, sparking the interest of eating those fruits and vegetables during lunch instead of putting it in the share bin. So
066teachers shared how the market experiences tied directly into the classroom lessons, creating a real world learning for students. In partnership with our site administrators, we are thrilled to expand this experience by establishing a rotation across our district for future years. So, this is going to ensure that our students can meet the people who grow, harvest, and deliver the food they eat on a daily basis. With a total of over $144,000 invested in local produce this school year, this partnership is not only feeding students, but helping them see food from seed to harvest. We are so grateful for Anna Knight and Old Grove Orange team for their energy, dedication, and heart and continue to look forward to working with them. [Applause] Yes. And this is such an honor to be here before you guys today. Like
067Director Robertson mentioned, I just want you to know that every single one of those $145,000 went to a farm within a hundred miles of this building. In the last five years, San Bernardino County lost half of all agricultural lands. Those are farms and acreage that we're never going to get back. But the leadership of Eric and Director Robertson makes it possible for the last smaller farms that remain in this community to stay farming forever. and you guys are just such a big part of that. Thank you so much. [Applause] One more round of applause for our educational partner. just want to thank um thank you for this moment to be able to um share the great things that we're doing in our district. And that ends our presentation and again congratulations to everybody that was
068awarded uh tonight and you can see we have amazing amazing folks who work for the district and amazing partners who work with us on a daily basis. So that concludes our special presentations for today. Um what I'm going to do is take a quick 30 second pause. I know there are some folks who are here specifically for those presentations. If you'd like to step out, we're not going to be offended. I promise. Uh we have lots on the agenda. If you'd love to stick around, you're more than welcome to. But give those folks who um have lots to do getting ready for the end of the week. All right. Uh, next item on our agenda is our public comment portion. So, uh, we do have a number of speakers tonight. Just a reminder to all
069the speakers, it is three minutes per speaker. Uh similarly, it is a there is a 15minute uh maximum uh time limit on a single subject. Uh should we have speakers that exceed that 15-minute limit at the discretion of the board, it can be extended. Um I do have the speaker slips here. There is a timer that'll be listed on the computer at the podium as well as on the screens to your left and right. Uh again, just a reminder, it is limited to three minutes. And while the board is not able to respond in open session, please know that we do hear you and if appropriate, we will refer uh staff to connect with you uh ideally immediately, but if not, uh we do have your contact information. We will follow up if appropriate. So,
070having said that, we'll go ahead and open our public comment this evening and begin with our first speaker, Madison Arondo. [Applause] Good evening, district board members. I come to you today both as a student and as a performer. I ask if you can please find a suitable replacement for the band director, Robert Brandan. He has done so much not only for the program, but for his students as well. We need another dedicated individual who will be there for us. We are a sport just like football and cheer. We deserve someone who will push us next fall. Would you let them go without a coach and they lose a season? I don't think so. We already feel like nobody cares for bandon if we don't have a band director by the summer. It just adds salt
071to the wound. The Grand Terrace Legacy Regiment has already had a gap year due to CO that we are still trying to come back from. Unlike co, we can prevent this. More importantly, you can prevent this. I have found my family with this band. I truly understand our belief that no one is alone. So, I ask once again, you the board work with human resources to find us a band director by the summer. Not only for me, but for the rest of the 2026 class and the classes that come after that, so we may continue our legacy. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Our next speaker is uh Mr. Frank Romo. Good evening board members, superintendent Dr. Miranda, and district leadership. My name is Frank Romo. I grew up attending CJUSD
072schools. I'm currently a resident of Grand Terrace and I have actively been volunteering my services back to enter our community with the Grand Terrace High School band. I had the privilege of learning with Mr. HVY for 5 years before he made the courageous move into administration, playing a larger role, guiding students towards achieving their full potential. He has been responsible for developing my foundation and passion in music. He's given me so many opportunities. Because of Mr. hubby my and his compassion and patience and expertise have been able to grow and give back to the community and pursue an excellence that CJUSD holds such high values. I come before you tonight because the decision to remove Mr. Hubby from administration position is not just wrong, it's an insult to everything our district claims to stand for.
073After 30 years of extreme service to CJD, the last 20 years in administration, I have personally witnessed Mr. Hubby demonstrate outstanding leadership for the students as a great mentor. He leads with passion, fairness, and unwavering commitment to all students he's encountered. He truly is one of the administrators that clearly cares about students, staff, and the school community. The decision to effectively demote him without just cause after all he has given to the schools is both reckless and short-sighted. This decision does not just harm Mr. Hubby, but it also hurts students, our schools. It tears up the fabric and trust respect that CJSD claims to hold so dear. The same kind of trust and respect that I was able to experience growing up in CJUSD. This decision stands sends a dangerous message to current and future
074employees that dedication, excellence, and community loyalty are not valued at CJSD. Those employees are expendable. It sends it sends that voices it says that the voices and students parents and staff the rest of community that they have been shaped by Mr. Huff Huffy's leadership do not matter. I urge you to reconsider the decision not just for the sake such a positive influence and leader but for the future of this district and the example you are setting. Mistakes can be corrected if you choose to stand uh stand with this decision. Understand that you are not just replacing a person. You're ripping out a pillar of the community and those of us that have experienced Mr. Hubby's positive influence will not forget who allowed the loyalty and excellence excellence to be discarded so carelessly. Thank you very
075much for your time. Thank you uh Mr. Romo. Our next speaker is Miss Abigail Vega. [Applause] Good evening. Good evening board president Flores and board members um and board members. Um I am an alumni of from I attended Grand Terrace High School from 2020 to 2024. In this um in my high school experience, it's been a huge roller coaster, but um in the beginning through my freshman and sophomore year, Mr. hubby was there to um ease the pain a bit. He's been a positive um role model for um all the B like all kids around at lunch. He always interacted with us. He liked major. He checked up on us and he has active he been a big supporter of every um thing on campus, every club, every um sport and any um like performing
076arts. When I was been told that Mr. hubby was um getting demoted for um unknown recent activity. I it broke my heart because he's just been a a a big number one supporter and I never thought he would um like deserve this kind of treatment. Uh so I came here today just to speak on his behalf. um that this is kindly unfair to this um man who has been a part of the district for many many many years who's taught my older brother not well taught but been around where me and my whole like my siblings and it's just he's a really important and he's been such a big impact and he's very positive and I think it's unfair the way you has been treating him recently um in a way. Thank you for your
077time. You appreciate it. Our next speaker is Miss Debbie Kyus. Apologize if I mispronounced that. Oh, Debbie. Hello. Good evening. Um I'm Debbie Caris Wright and I'm here to speak um about Mr. Hubby. I'm first going to read something that Sharesa Riser, a retired teacher from this district sent in for me to read. I have worked with Mitch Huby since 1994. When I started teaching at Terrace Hills Middle School, he was the band teacher. Even as the band teacher, you could easily see his commitment to education to Terrace Hills Middle School and to our district. He would create wonderful musical events that became tradition in our district. His tireless efforts to creating a wonderful program as well as his dedication guided many students toward a love of music and performance. I watched as Mitch made
078his way up to principal. He never stopped putting forth the effort of creating a welcoming environment no matter what position he held. I've had some wonderful administrators throughout my 30-year career with this district. However, Mitch was one of those administrators that I always thought was the perfect fit for a middle school principal. He worked relentlessly for the staff, faculty, students, and the community. He was always willing to hear you no matter what his schedule looked like. Mitch made it clear that he valued me as a teacher while also letting me know that my opinion and input input were respected. Mitch helped our site become united after several years of polarization. He was the perfect person to bring us all back together. The way the district has treated this m has treated Mr. HVY is a
079disgrace. He has sacrificed over 35 years of his professional life for this district to the students and to the community. He has much instit institutional knowledge that is being disregarded. What type of a message does this treatment of this fine man send to the community and to district workers? I ask that you reconsider the way you have treated this wonderful person. Sincerely, Shereice Riser, a retired teacher. Um, I wanted to say that I've been in this community all my life and I've been in the school district since I was 5 years old. I also went to Terrace Hills Middle School in 1992 93 and Mr. Huby was the band teacher while I was there. I was never in band, but I always remembered him because he always made a lasting impression on all the students,
080not just the band kids. Um, he always showed support. He always showed loyalty to all the kids. He he tried to make sure he cared. And then my daughter, who is now 15, was ready to attend Terrace Hills Middle School uh two years ago. And to be honest, a lot of us parents did not want to send her there or send our kids there. But when we found out that Mr. hubby was going to be working as principal. We, you know, changed our minds. There was a lot of parents. I do PTA um at Terrace View Middle School. I'm president PTA there. And then I became uh vice president of the PTSA at Terrace Hills Middle School, which we started the year that HVY was there. Um and well, I just hope that you guys
081change your minds. Great. Thank you, Debbie. Appreciate it. Our next speaker is Julia Ferno. Apologize again if I Okay. Uh my name is Julia Fernost. I have been here once before to speak on behalf of Mr. Huby. I really enjoyed watching the Grand Terrace High School display this evening. um the students hard work, but I'm so happy that it was mentioned um how hard the staff work and how much recognition they get because behind every successful student and school program are the staff, right? We know that. Um so I want to talk about Mr. Huby. Uh I spoke before and you heard other people talk about his character, his involvement in the school. All of that is true. Uh I was there the last couple of years that he was there, the two years that
082he came. uh and I was on the PTSA. So I wasn't just a parent observing from that end. I was in the school involved with the administration, the teachers, and you know, middle school's middle school. You have a culture that Maslo's hierarchy of needs of belonging was happening there, which meant there was going to be some chaos at times. But what I saw from the principal was a man that was willing to take out a trumpet, to wear a costume, to engage with students in any way that he could to make that connection. My kids weren't perfect either. I'm not going to say which one of the twins, but one of them ended up in the principal's office more than once, and I really appreciate the manner in which Mr. Huby worked with my child.
083My child felt safe and that he could go to Mr. Huby and talk to him. So, I had that kind of relationship with him. So, what I'm asking today is for the board to please, I implore you. I don't know what happened with Mr. hubby. But when it did happen at the end of the eighth grade and I heard through other faculty members, I was left feeling very confused about it. Why is he being asked to leave? And I think that there needs to be a thorough investigation. I know the Brown Act doesn't allow for um an employee to meet with the board, but certainly the board can implore the school district to investigate this and give that paper trail. Where is the documentation? Did we intervene with Mr. Hubby? What happened? What's going what's
084going on? Because it does not feel right to me with my two years that I was there at the school engaging with administration with the staff. I have spoken to different people to see is there something maybe I'm not aware you know it's not my business but something else because what I saw was a man that cared deeply about his students and his staff and that tried very hard when he came there that school was at an all-time low the morale was very low had a history of that and this man did everything he could from my perspective to bring that up and to work as a team with students and with the the staff that he had uh there. So, I implore this board to please ask for a thorough investigation with a paper
085trail, something that tells you where this what's going on to give this man, he's 35 years in the district. Please, thank you. [Applause] Our next speaker is Alexis Nichols. I've known Mr. Huby for 11 years. Throughout my secondary schooling career, he was the assistant principal at Terrace Hills Middle School and then also at Grand Terrace High School. Mr. Hvey has positively influenced my life in so many ways. One of the biggest ways was in 2014 when I was at when I was a student at Terrace Hills Middle School. Tragedy struck as my cousin Daniel Thomas collapsed from the result of a cardiac arrest on campus. It was a very difficult time for us all. As a devoted Christian and having strong faith that prayer truly changes things, I stepped out of my comfort zone and
086held a prayer vigil before school. Many students and parents joined, but very few staff members did. With the largest of the group, I began to worry that I would draw the wrong kind of attention. Mr. heavy approach. And just when I thought we were going to be shut down, his words surprised me. He said, "Is this the prayer vigil for Daniel Thomas, may I join you?" He stood beside me, bowed his head, closed his eyes, and stood firm in agreement as I prayed for my cousin. He only knew us for a short time. Yet, this gesture spoke volumes to our family. Mr. Hubby's presence with us that day meant a lot to me, and from that day forward, he never failed to show up. Not only did he show up to the prayer vigil that
087day, but he continued to check in on me throughout the year and the many that followed. He has always been there in the good times and difficult times, and he's been an amazing leader. It's people like Mr. Hubby who encouraged me and inspired me to do well in school. In both middle school and high school, I received academic medals and distinguished awards. In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, I graduated from Grand Terrace High School and received the CJUSD Apple Scholarship. In 2022, I graduated from RCC with two certificates and my associates degree in early childhood education. In 2024, I graduated from California Baptist University Sumakum Lad with a degree in early childhood education and I am now a teacher at the Rock Christian School. It is because of people like Mr. Hubby who
088pour into the lives of the students around them that have inspired me to become an educator and give back. I now get to start my day praying with my students in the classroom, building them up and standing firm with them in agreement just like Mr. Hvey did with me that day 11 years ago. Mr. Hubby cares and your and the slogan of CJUSD cares is written all over. The district needs more people like Mr. Hy as he embodies that slogan. Please show us that you care and reinstate Mr. Huby in the position that he rightfully deserves and is fully equipped to do. Thank you. Thank you for that. Um that is the the fifth speaker. We're right about that 15 minute mark. We do have a couple of speaker slips on the same subject. So
089I'll ask if the board would like to go ahead and um allow for the uh final two speakers. Y I'm seeing heads nod. Great. Excellent. We'll go ahead and continue. Our next speaker is uh Lorna Nichols. at many CJUSD schools. I currently serve on Grand Terrace High School site council where I've been elected the last seven years. I've had the pleasure of knowing Mr. HVY over 10 years and I can say that he is one of the best leaders we've had. In my experience of being on school site council, there has been a lot of admin turnover. I've served under three different principles and several APS. For some of these admin, they may have been promoted and happy to leave. Yet for others, it seems the opposite, almost like they're being forced to go. I
090don't know all the reasons for such turnovers or why a great administrator like Mr. Hy has been shuffled from school to school. I do know when our leadership gets displaced or replaced, their departure almost always upsets the mechanics of how well our school runs. We depend on a consistency and structure of strong leaders. Your decisions affect us all. I have a petition signed by approximately 400 of your constituents asking you to please look into the uprooting and displacement of Mr. Hy. We'd love to have him back at GTHS as our AP. Our community, staff members, students, and parents hold him in such high regard. We value and request his leadership. Although many current teachers want to speak in support of Mr. Hy, you will likely not hear from them. Unfortunately, they are in fear of
091retaliation, which is horrible. Therefore, I'd like to read statements from some of Mr. Havy's former or retired colleagues. April says, "Mr. Hubby is one of the most compassionate administrators I've ever worked under. He wants what's best for kids. He deserves to be in a position of leadership where his compassion and skills can be showcased and utilized." Jordie says, "Mr. Mr. Hav is one of the most caring, dedicated, and knowledgeable administrators I've ever worked with in my 10 years. He deserves a a position in leadership with the district to finish his her his career. Peggy says, "I worked with Mr. Hubby professionally for many years. He spends hours beyond the contract dedicating his life to the success of students, staff, and parents that he works with. Please know Mr. HVY needs to return to his position
092for the remainder of his career. It is ethically and morally right for this man who has given this district his very best. In conclusion, these past colleagues, myself and the nearly 400 petition signers, respectfully ask for your help. Ideally, we ask that you bring him back to GTHS, but at the very least, he deserves to stay in a position of leadership. Please show us CJUSD cares. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And our uh final speaker is Mich Simon. Hi, I'm Shauna Simon. I'm from Grand Terrace Community. I've spoke before about Mr. Hy, told you my personal stories. The kids have told you personal stories. The parents have told you personal stories. I think we should investigate what exactly is going on with Mr. Hovy. Why is he being demoted from these positions? Should
093he be demoted? Because as far as what I've been hearing, he's good. He's a He's a really good staff member. Possibly. Maybe we could take them over there in Grand Terrace, find them something new, but leave them in in that administration level. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you for that. I have no other uh speaker slips for this evening. I appreciate everybody that did speak and again um we really do hear you and we certainly appreciate you taking the time to be here this evening. That is the last card that I have. Was a card submitted? It wasn't. Well, I'll tell you what. Um, we'll go ahead and come on up to speak and if you wouldn't mind filling one right afterwards, that'll be okay. Not a [Applause] problem. Hello. Hello,
094board members. My name is Daniel Vega. I come here as a student leader and performer of the Grand Terrace Legacy Regiment. I wish that for this upcoming season, since we may be losing our band director this season, that you please provide us with a proper and good band director. Because as a student leader myself, I want to see the way of the legacy regiment keep growing even if Mr. Randdale is no longer there. I hope that for many years to come, if Randdale decides to leave, that the legacy regimen can continue to grow no matter what. Thank you. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. Certainly appreciate hearing from our students. So, um that's very important. Thank you. All right. That will conclude uh public speaking for uh public comment, I should say, for this
095evening. And we'll go ahead and close public comment and move on to our administrative presentations. So we have um one presentation today and this will be from our nutrition services department. So, Miss Robertson was already here giving us a wonderful update, and she's going to give us an update on our C program, uh, the community eligibility provisional program. Provision. Right. It's a mouthful. Uh, literally, right, there you go. All right. Director Robertson, please. Oh, okay. There we go. Our community eligibility update and school nutrition professionals day, also known as school and churro day. So, just brief overview. What is C? I'm going to share some prelim data for C that we've been running for this school year in preparation for rebasing. Um, and then nutrition uh professionals day aka school and churro day. Um, so
096for those of us that don't know what C is, um, community eligibility allows schools to offer free breakfast and free lunch to any student within the school district. Um, this is without collecting meal applications. It truly reduces the administrative burden, streamlines processes, reduces stigma, and reduces family stress going into the new school years and stuff. Is my am I going to qualify for my students to eat or not? Um, so and I also wanted to share too how how do we determine like our eligibility as a district. So there's different data points that we collect such as SNAP medical free only. We extend eligibility um to those that are allowed to based on certain guidelines. Our McKenna ventilist our migrant students headart state preschool cow works foster. Um so those are the different data points
097that we are collecting uh regularly throughout the school year in order to maintain and upkeep our ISP which is our identified student population. Oh and another quick fact too. Uh C was first made available nationally in school year 24 2015 and here in CJUSD we formally adopted C in school year 2019. So how C works here in CJUSD um as I shared those there are different data points that we do collect throughout the school year. Last year we had decided to go ahead and do a rebase. Um we pulled the data and we determined that our identified student population based on the criteria at that first bullet point was 61.04%. How that's calculated in terms of dollars. So that 61.04% is then has a multiplier of 1.6. That's standard nationwide. Um and that determines our
098reimbursement rate at the federal level. So we are currently receiving 97.664% federal reimbursements and that it reduces the burden on the state. So our state reimbursement through Prop 98 also the AB130 for California universal free meals for the remaining percentage of 2.33% times 1.6 the remaining 2.336% is then covered by the state to make us whole on our reimbursements. So what that means is there's no burden on the general fund. There's no shortfalls and it allows fund 13 to remain fully sustainable. where we are at this year. So, um, our department's been very aggressive in terms of pulling data, making sure that we're getting the resources that we need for our students and families in order to maintain C. So, there was some discussions at the federal level to share that our current ISP is
09925% nationwide. the proposed ISP increase was going to be at 60%. Um, so in preparation for those discussions, in trying to figure out and get ahead of it, we ran numbers last week and determined that we are 60.90%. So we're ensuring that our students are eligible for free meals regardless of any federal changes. So as you can see here, SNAP right here is 32.87% 87% of our district population. The medical free is 13.4. Pardon? I'm trying to go back. This is the back arrow. That guy. Okay. Thank you. Got a little click happy. So, and then um another important thing too that we do in nutrition services is we do extend eligibility. So what that means is we may capture one student but for whatever reason the data that we pulled doesn't capture the the
100whole household. So in our department we have um the ability to extend those benefits to increase our identified student population in order to maintain this 60% the higher threshold in order to pull more federal dollars. So we continue to receive assurance also at the school nutrition association public policy and legislative committee that C criteria is not being changed. However, again, we're just positioning ourselves to ensure that we're continuing to be aggressive with pulling data and extending eligibility so that way our students can continue to benefit from our C regardless again of the policy changes or proposals. And additionally, just finally in closing on the C piece, I do want to mention that SNAP, there has been uh recent discussions on criteria. So on April 24th, the USDA issued new guidance on updates on verification processes
101related to SNAP. And how that relates to us is SNAP enrollment directly influences our school's ISP. So again, I'm going to continue to be very aggressive in what we're doing to try to stay ahead of things that are being discussed, but never like not being followed through on and stuff in terms of our C. And also additionally, I just want to also add that SNAP helps one in five kids access food. I do want to transition to something super positive and that is our school nutrition professionals day aka school lunch hero day. So that is going to be celebrated on Friday May 2nd. Not all heroes wear cape. Sometimes we wear aprons backwards. So we also pulled some other data. So, we've served over three million meals so far this school year, and we still
102have some days left in the school year. So, it's just it's counting. So, that's over 700,000 breakfast, almost 2 million lunches, and over 400,000 after school meals. How is that done? That is done through our support, help, everything that happens in our kitchens. That's over 140 of our team members. That's 800 daily working hours that our team members do. Um they're there at 6 in the morning. Sometimes they're the first people there with our custodial crew. Sometimes they're the last people there. They're there on Saturday school. So they're they're putting they're putting their heart and love into this. And we're also uh oversee over 200 food SKs within our food system. And that could be spices, that could be other ingredients, that could be raw materials that they produce to make those wonderful meals that
103our students eat. This you saw that we have 140 team members. It it was really hard to pick what pictures to to get because we have our sites that you know three to four team members, maybe 10 team members, but it this is just a very small snapshot of who our team is, what they represent. A lot of these are professional development opportunities that our team has has attended and stuff. So like we went to the farm, um we had an opening year meeting. um there's just they attend things to put themselves in a position to support our students. So we also attended the Dr. Nyrie empathy trainings. Um so we had team members volunteer to sign up. Of course they were paid but um to sign up and and work overtime, work extra duty
104to put themselves in a position where they know how better to support their students. They also participated in the active shooter training this year in support with our security team. So, we try to offer these exclusive trainings to our teams knowing too that it's really hard to break away from the kitchen. And a lot of our team members say, "I'd rather be here serving our kids because I know they need me." And another wonderful thing that we actually I just discovered actually at the beginning of this week was we had five entries on this contest that our chapter one ran that's regional. So chapter one uh encompasses Los Angeles County, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and five entries from our district out of the 356 for Nourish to Flourish. Nourish to Flourish is a contest
105that is supposed to honor our school nutrition heroes. So categories were art, poetry, and short story. So we have two of our third place winners out of those 356 entries here tonight to read off their poetry. And so I want to bring up Audrey. She she is one of our fifth grade students from Rogers Elementary and she received third place in this contest. Good evening. I would like to read you my poem. It's called the lunch ladies poem. Um the lunch ladies at my school, they really are the best. Our meals at lunch and breakfast are all above the rest. The meal man is kind and funny and the spaghetti sauce is never runny. The lunch ladies are very polite. So, when describing my lunch, I shall never say, "All right." When talking to your
106lunch ladies, never ever be crude. And when it's time for lunch or breakfast, don't be rude. All of this was just to say that the lunch ladies are the best. So, just like I said before, they are above the rest. [Applause] Audrey, we have flowers for you. And We also have a $50 gift card for you. [Applause] Congratulations to Audrey. Thank you for submitting and taking the time to submit such a thoughtful, heartfelt poem. Uh we have yet to share this with our Rogers team. So we get to make the big announcement tomorrow on our school nutrition professionals day. So thank you and thank you family. Raise your hands, say hello. Uh thank you. You have you have a kind-spirited daughter. So and then we have from our high school category, we have Regina, who
107is actually one of our student workers. So she's deeply connected to our teams. [Applause] Good good evening and I'mma um be sharing my poem to you guys. Um every day they rise before the sun chopping, stirring and baking with grace serving over 4 million children creating a warm welcoming space in order for us to get that taste. From all the colorful fruits with all the cherries and berries and all the different types of berries they prepare with care and knowing that they're always there. They nourish our bodies, our minds and brains. And they make sure not to forget the grains. Their impact on their impact on health is so is felt so much and it's almost like a warm touch guiding us through each school day through their dedication and passion. Knowing it's the only
108way with their hearts full of intimacy and love, knowing it comes from all above. They understand the importance of each meal and the well-being of eating. The school nutrition team, we acknowledge you and we have the self-nowledge of everything you bring. Through every bite we taste, we see your care and knowing that our school nutrition is always there. [Applause] Thank you. Flowers and also a $50 gift card. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you for showing up and being a part of our team every day. We appreciate you. So, with that, I just wanted to close it on that high note with our students. Yeah. Sorry. I just We're going to have a number of questions, but since we have our both Audrey and Regina here, could we take a photo with with you and Director
109Robertson with the board? Would that be all right? Those are such amazing poems. We'd love to be able to take a picture with you. All right. All right. Would you why don't you come on up this way? We're going to stand by board member Thor Noa. [Applause] Thank you, Casey, for that. Um, I do I think we have a number of questions. I have some questions. We've talked a little bit about this uh amazing program. So jumping back to C um I wanted to ask in terms of the data that we collect for RCP how do we collect that data? So what I do is I do a CalPADS pool on a monthly basis and um then I upload it to our program software and I do an eligibility extension through software. Um, additionally I
110receive homeless and foster information from our liaison over in student services and um, so our cowpads pool is our SNAP medical tanniff which is also our known as our cow works. So those are the data points that I look for in our monthly cowpads pool. And where is that drawn? Is that drawn through through the state welfare system database or state and is it based on um just our school district boundaries essentially? So everybody that's enrolled through say Sanino County uh transitional assistance department receiving Calresh Cal Works in theory they'd be in that system. They would be in that system. And what happens is when I go log into our CalPAD software system, um, it allows me to pick site specific or district specific, but it does show all of our sites, school sites listed
111on there. And so it's a total district pull when I make that poll. And then to reach the threshold, because currently it's 25% um, which is a fairly modest and and I would say, you know, a nice, you know, threshold. Um, is this based on districtwide? Is it is it based on the particular school site? So particularly if that range changes because we have school sites, some are higher, some are lower. This is a district-wide calculation. So this encompasses all of our student enrollment against the benefits. So this is truly um a calculation at a district level. But when I do do the application process, it does ask me to do it on a siteby-sight basis. Um and then that uh information is then translated into our CNIP software um where we actually do our
112meal claims, submit for reimbursement and receive state checks. So and you you'd mentioned this and this was something we were in Washington DC recently having conversations about this. Uh the federal government's talking about nothing formal that I'm that I'm aware of about taking that threshold from 25% to 60%. And while based on the data that you've shared, we're okay, we're barely okay, right? I mean, we're right at the threshold. I mean, we're within a percentage point or two that if for some reason the economics change or let's let's call this the feds cut Medicaid and so you're no longer eligible for medical here, you fall off the role. That comes out of that same data. It's it's medical, it's CalFresh, right? So, let's say they cut Medicaid and we have families falling off the ROS
113and that threshold drops a few percentage points. All of a sudden, we no longer qualify for C. That is why I'm being very aggressive with the data pools and additionally the C rebasing process would push us out to school year 2930. And so, if those numbers do decline, let's say next year or the following year, we're in a position of school year 2930. Um, and so that's where we're at right now. So next year, if we're still at a good percentage point, I'm going to continue to do the rebasing process as long as the numbers look favorable and stuff to continue to push out those years in order to secure that. Well, and and we appreciate that. And I think our job as as as board members and and advocates is to quite honestly uh
114oppose I mean, I'll be I'll be blunt changes that ultimately make it harder for us to provide nutrition to our kids. And so we we made that message clear when we were speaking to members of Congress um that really any change and whether it affects us or neighboring school districts, we may be okay because let's say we're right at that 60 or above, but if it affects one of our neighboring school districts statewide, it's millions of students who could lose uh free and reduced lunch or lose their their C, which means it's it's tougher uh for them to receive lunch services. So, just to paint the picture for folks before C, I think most of us remember life before C where we had to have each individual family, every student turn in an application. And
115inevitably, um, we weren't able to get everybody to do so. And so, we had to make a choice for a student whose family for one reason or the other couldn't turn an application. And so, in other words, they weren't eligible for a reimbured lunch. um we could either choose to not give them a lunch or give them um a sandwich and an apple and then the next kid who is eligible gets the wonderful hot prepared lunch. And we have then discrepancy and quite frankly inequity in uh one group of kids getting one lunch and another group getting another which we had stopped as a board. We we made a policy decision that no, everybody gets the same lunch. The challenge is that means we're feeding kids um and paying for a lunch and not getting
116reimbursed for it. So at at the old at the end of the the program before we went C, we were running a deficit in the six figures. We could not collect or get reimbursed for this and it was a six-f figureure deficit that had to come out of the general fund which meant that's a position that's not being filled. That's a program that's not being provided. that's a an improvement to a facility. That's not going to happen. So, that's the the danger of the change that would make it harder um if we fell back out of C and then we were going, let alone the headache of trying to collect all of those applications because we simply um could not get everybody to turn them in. And then lastly, and this is a point that
117I made in some of the meetings, this yes, economics incredibly important. Of course, we're mindful of the the the reimbursement. We know about the data and the research around when children are wellfed, they learn better, right? They have better attention span. We know that. But there's something else that has changed on our campuses. And this was a surprise to me, quite frankly, because I remember what it was like uh when I was a student, and I was a student that was eligible for free lunch my entire academic career as a student. And I'll tell you, not once did I ever take a lunch because in the early years, this was seen as a social service program. And this is something that was designed to feed quite frankly low-income kids. And if you got in that
118line and you had to, you know, whisper your your number, everybody knew you were one of those kids. And there was a stigma. And I didn't want to be seen as one of those kids. I was I qualified for free lunch, but I was so embarrassed that I didn't want others to know that I didn't even go to the cafeteria, right? I found a way to either try to buy a lunch or maybe bring something or just skip lunch. And what we have today is so different. And if you go to one of our our campuses today, particularly high school, and you see that everybody is getting lunch, right? Everybody's excited to grab lunch. They have options. It the stigma is gone and everybody at that table irrespective of their socioeconomic standing, where they're from,
119is eating the same lunch. And uh that is something that I don't want to I don't want to move away from that. I don't want to lose that. Um that is uh equitability. That is that is doing the right thing. It's creating a culture and environment where there isn't uh you get one lunch, you get another lunch, you get a different lunch. And so um that improves the learning environment and and I I I don't want us to lose sight of that because it's not just about the numbers. It's about building a culture of equity on our campus and we've done that and I and I applaud our district for doing that because it has changed over the last 10, 15, 20 years certainly. So again, apologies. I know that was something that's it's been
120near and dear to my heart because I I just believe so wholeheartedly in feeding children. I feed families every day and I've seen the impact of food scarcity. So, but I want to ask are there other questions, comments? Uh, please board member Lori No. Something you said really resonated with me. Um, all heroes don't wear capes because at schools the heroes wear aprons. And so many of my kids, they get so happy when they would go to the lunch line because they were there was food insufficiency in so many homes. And this program is wonderful because it meets the needs of not only kids but the families and the community. So, thank you for all this and pray that we don't lose what we have right now. Thank you. And um tomorrow is Friday, May
1212nd, and it is school nutrition professionals day. And please send our our appreciation to every single one of your workers. Thank you so much, Member Fuentes. It's just amazing to see three million meals in the school year. And that just lets us know that our kids are eating our are eating lunch, they're eating breakfast, they're having those after school meals, which to me is I'm a big advocate in feeding the kids too. Every every year for my birthday, I always do uh No Kid Go Hungry as a fundraiser. I think it is important and I think uh President uh Flores has has said what I wanted to say is we need to make sure that this program continues. We need to advocate and make sure that this program continues because our students enjoy lunch. I
122remember back in the day my lunch lady uh in a little town called a little town called Almsville, Oregon and I won't forget this lady. And back in the day they used to make the meals in the schools so you can smell the meals, the pizzas and and and the mashed potatoes and the gravies and stuff as you're walking by. And there was this one lunch lady that every lunchtime and she knew that I was a big brownie fan. She would stick an additional brownie underneath the you back in the day they had the trays and they had all the little and she would put this additional brownie or cookie. She knew. She knew. and and I won't forget her. Her smile just miho and she and she put and I move on. The lunch
123ladies always made a difference to me. Going to lunch was one of the most exciting things going to school. It was it was to be able to see the smiles of the ladies to see them. I remember one one morning one of our teachers uh decided to take the class to to the kitchen and to see what the ladies were doing, making the cookies, making the brownies, making the salberry steaks back in the day and all of that stuff. You know, you know it. You know, Christy knows. It was amazing to see that and to be able to see the smiles that I when I go to school and I see that. I remember last year when I went out to Grimes and we did the whole vegetable thing with the kids and for them
124they lit up. Carrots, apples, oranges, they lit up so much. I think it is very important that we continue and we fight and make sure that this program continues because we need our kids to have that nutrition. It is important for them to eat. Some of these kids, this is the only thing that they have throughout the day, throughout the evening. This is the only food they have. So, I'm a big advocate for it for for it. Thank you very very much for the data. Uh I see that you're working hard. I see everything you're doing and uh I'd love oranges. So, all right. Have a good one. Have a good evening. Thanks. Yeah. Board member, we'll go with board member Har. I just want to say um thank you to all our nutrition workers
125uh for all they do. Um, you know, you look at those numbers and I don't know was 140, I don't know how number uh people it is that you have in your department that's doing this and that's mindboggling to serve that many meals um to our students. And I also um want to wish you all a a happy nutrition services day. Uh and again, thank you for everything that you do on a daily basis because and and beyond the daily basis, the summer school and and like you said, the Saturday school, it's just tremendous what you do uh for the students and and we know that Colton Joint Unified has the need for this program. So, you uh are a blessing to all those students. Thank you. Just a a quick comment. Uh I think
126that uh we probably could all agree our favorite place at our house is our kitchen. That's the place that we always gravitated to when we were kids and that's where obviously we found mom or grandma and and the food. Um but with that being said, I just want to say Casey, you know, I just want to say thank you to you for your expertise and your knowledge. uh that's going to come in very it's going to be very important in the next year, two years coming down the way. Um I mentioned this at another board meeting. There's a lot of uncertainty coming our way and uh I'm glad that you're preparing at this point. You're taking a look at it. Uh you're you're sharing the information with us and you're not holding back. Uh, I
127agree with my colleague Dan. You know, you know, we need to fight for for our students and for our children and and so that they have the right to to eat, you know, and have meals while they're here in school. And it's so important. So, with that said, I just want to say thank you to you for all you're doing at this time and what you're going to be doing, but also uh take it out to all your other employees out there. Share that the board of education truly appreciates everything that they do for this district and for our students. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, board member Bar. And then, Mr. From. Yes, Casey. I just want to shout you out and your team. Casey's always looking to do more for our kids. She started
128feeding the athletes after school in sports. She started that here with her team and that. So, she's always going above and beyond forward thinking. So, thank you to you and your team for all you do for Colton Joint and the students here. We're blessed to have you. Absolutely. So, one final one final request. I know that you're very active in your association. If there are uh if there's legislation, if there are resolutions, things that we can support that we can formally adopt that we can submit letters for, uh please submit those and and we want to talk about it. This is a critical issue and and yes, folks, they are talking at a federal level about cutting funding for nutrition services amongst many other things. This is real. It is happening and it's something that
129we need to be vocal about to fight for. I love what you said. Our kids deserve to eat. we need to fight for their right to to eat. So, thank you. I do want to share um I appreciate you sharing the history piece of where we've been and how far we've come. If we don't recognize that history, sometimes we forget and to recognize that we know what we're fighting for and the importance of what we're fighting for. So, thank you for [Applause] that. Right. All right. Well, that uh concludes our administrative presentations for today and takes us into our action items. Um and we have action items 6.1 through 6.39 today. Um we are going to pull I believe it's 6.2 for separate consideration. Are there any other items that board members would like to
130pull for separate consideration? 6.14. Excellent. Any others? And I just want to make a comment on one of them. 6.9. Okay. 6.9. Would you like that pulled or would you just like to make the comment after we after we do after we meet? Okay. Great. Comment on 6.9. Great. Any other uh items for separate consideration? All right. Hearing none. What we will do is we will go ahead. I will call for a motion to approve uh items 6.1 through items 6.39 with the exception of items 6.2 and 6.14. Those will be pulled Joan and then um once we have a motion and a second I'll turn it over to board member bar to comment on 6.9. So do we have a motion? I'll motion that. Motion by board member Fuentes. Is there a second? Second.
131Second by board member Thorin Oha. And item 6.9. Mr. Bar. Yes. Thank you very much Dan. uh 6.9 which is the approval of Cole Red Shika regional uh occupational program master agreement for programs and services for 202526. Uh we do have the superintendent from uh Kryro here Dr. Angle and we appreciate his attendance today. But uh just a just a quick note that uh we here at uh Cohen Joy Unified School District truly appreciate all the hard work that Cry Robb does for our students and we truly appreciate the the continued partnership that we have and uh every year we get to see the what it flourishes out to all the wonderful things many of our students are able to accomplish during this period of time. So, I just wanted to say a quick note,
132say thank you to Cryrop. Thank you for being there and supporting us and we really appreciate that. Thank you. I also wanted to acknowledge Jessica Garcia who is the CBO for Cryop also. She's the one that makes all the numbers happen and all that cool stuff. So, thank you Jessica for what you do for Cryop. Appreciate you. Very cool. Well, we have a motion and a second to approve uh those items. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Hearing none. It is they are approved unanimously. Uh this takes us to item 6.2. Do I have a motion? I'll move. And do I have a second? All right. Motion by board member Fuentes and a second by uh board member Thorinoa. Uh and this is a resolution on um compos uh compensation
133for mismeating for board member Sandaval. All those in favor say I. I. Uh any opposed? Any abstensions? All right. It is so ordered with one abstension. Board member Sandaval. Our next item for approval is item 6.14. This is our approval of agreements with Lexia Learning LLC to provide learn language essentials for reading spelling. It's our letters program. and staff development. So, do we have a motion? A motion. Second. All right. Motion by board member Bertha Flores and a second by board member Haro. Board member Flores. I just want to applaud um the head services department and have given the my full support. Uh our goal is for all of our students in all of our elementary schools to uh be reading by the by third grade. Um we are not just saying you know let's
134hope he do we do you know they do read well by third grade. Uh that's not a strategy. Hope is never a strategy. Um but I I really applaud their their very specific strategic plan that they have put in place to make sure that our kids will be readers by third grade. Um the this uh program is very well supported um and and appreciated. I think the teachers really like this program. Every time I talk to teachers, they they they um really uh welcome more training. This this um contract today is for I mean over 140 teachers will be continuing the training. Well, some are new and then some will be continuing the training. Um and uh that's has to make a difference with our kids. Um and so I just wanted to say continue
135the hard work and it's not a oneshot deal. That's one thing that I like. It's not just they go to a conference and that's it. They have a lot of support from uh Dr. Hydra's uh department to make sure that the teachers receive the training and they continue to receive support. So our goal is for students to be reading by third grade. Thank you. Thank you. Wonderful. Well, we have a motion and a second to approve item 6.14. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Hearing none, it is unanimously approved. Thank you for that. All right, moving on to administrative reports. Um, any questions regarding items 7.1 through 7.3? These are dispersements, our UCP, and our Williams quarterly uh reports. All right, seeing no questions, we'll go ahead and jump right
136into item 7.4. This is our facilities update. We do have an update today. I think Mr. From and Director Chang are going to lead us in the uh in the facilities update. All right. Good evening, uh, board president Flores, board members, member of the audience. My name is Owen Chang, facility director. Um, thank you for the opportunity to provide a facility update. I know it's been a couple months uh since I gave provide update. Maybe I'm a little bit rusty, so excuse me if I uh uh stutter, but um so just studying the first slide is oh sorry let me go back just a quick overview of the presentation for tonight. Um, first of all, we're going to go over some of the project uh progress update for some of the ongoing project as well
137as project and and planning. Uh, then we're going to go into the measure BB some of prioritization uh efforts for project identification as well as the next steps. All right. Uh just first up wanted to recap a wonderful event that took place last Tuesday. uh which is the unveiling of the new uh state-of-the-art culinary facility at Colton High School. You know, this project has been several years in the making. Um believe we started the funding application back in 2019. Design took a little bit over a year, then construction about another 18 months or 16 months. Um you know, it's it's been a long wait, but but hopefully um you know, we are the worth is is is uh it was worth the wait. um really happy and proud to to be part of this effort
138to make the board's vision into reality and providing um a facility that prepare our students for uh to pursue their career in the uh hospitality pathway. Hopefully, they'll just be just as proud as as as I am of the project and take good care of it for the many uh generations to come. Um, as I'm putting together photos for for the for the project, um, I came across this this photos kind of before and after, remember the word that that constantly mentioned about transformational. And I think this picture depicts that description of transformation, looking at what the building looked like before and how it looks right now. Um, even for me when I see the building every day, looking at the picture compare, it is truly transformational. So I hope the uh you know students
139and and staff will community will enjoy for many years to come. So moving on kind of building on that momentum we're getting close to the finish line for the uh new staff parking lot and drop off air at Grand Terrace Elementary. It used to be the old Lions Club building. Um this is a a much needed pro project. It's really creating a safer environment for our students. And also want to mention a side note, we also able to a kudos to to energy manager Jim was able to secure $40,000 SEC grant to provide the EV charging station. So So Grant will get the distinction of having the first school campus having a EV uh charging station. So for those of you who have EV charging, I think we're going to do some free charging for
140about a week or so. So, gear up your EV vehicles. Um, but, uh, we're scheduled to finish that project in a few weeks. Um, moving on, the new TK kinder classroom building is going along at Grimes Elementary, coming along well on schedule. We're currently, um, again, projects on schedule finish to be, uh, ready for occupancy at the beginning of the new 2526 school year. So this is in addition to the classroom, we have new kindergarten playground structure and also a new asphalt paving. Um so again it's a much a neat addition. We're happy to excited to bring that to the uh to the Grimes Elementary. Uh just quick update on two projects uh that just uh commenced uh earlier um uh well actually in in late March and and April which are the uh Bloomington
141High School JV varsity baseball field renovation as well as the Joe Bacha Middle School field lighting improvements. Um both project are partly u funded by the federal operate grant um that's administered by the county of San Bernardino. Uh Joe Baka Middle School currently scheduled to finish about the end of the month and Bloomington we're looking at uh about uh September of this year. So again, too much great uh improvements and much needed and we're happy to be able to deliver those projects. Um all right, so we got uh more exciting projects coming our way. So our uh my staff are continuing to roll up our sleeves. We have many exciting projects that are coming up uh that's currently bidding. We have the Grand Terrace Elementary, the third phase of TK classroom edition as well as
142addition additional parking addition at the um uh for the uh visitors and and staff parking. Uh that's um in bidding. Uh we also had bid opening for Wilson Elementary classroom parking edition project. It's another great addition for the campus as well as much needed the exterior window replacement for the um all the uh buildings at the campus. Also currently bidding is Colton Middle School administration building uh modernization the multi-purpose pavilion as well as locker room edition as well as Terrace Hill Middle School administration building classroom restroom edition as well as multi-purpose pavilion and campus alarm fire alarm upgrade. And then lastly, project AB8 841 Cowsh, which is a CO2 sensors and classroom. Uh those that project made possible with a $2 million grant that we received from the state. And then lastly, in 900 Washington,
143we're currently doing some minor seismic upgrade roofing replacement that's also currently out to bid. So uh at this point, I'm going to turn over to uh assistant superintendent from Hey, got it. But before I talk about Measure BB, I want to say Owen, we're so glad you're back with us here presenting and that. So, let's give Owen a round of applause. Yeah, Owen does so much for us. He can stretch a dollar to no end to to help our facilities. So, as you know, this past fall with the help of the community fundraising board, we passed Measure BB for $225 million on the ballot. This is what we put down there. Why we needed measure BB to repair, improve aging neighborhood, schools, fixit, deteriorate roofs, plumbing, electrical, remove asbestous, lead pipes, repair, construct, acquire classrooms,
144labs, sites, facilities, equipment, support student achievement, college, career, readiness, readiness and math, science, technology, engineer, art, skills, trade. We have a lot of need in Colton Joint Unified. We passed the bond at one of the highest rates, not only locally in the state. So, let's give a round of applause to the community of Colton because we wouldn't have done it without them. So, as we approaching taking our first series out, we think we have $225 million. It's a lot, but then you put it up against our need. Our need right now is assessed at $1.9 billion dollars of facilities needs here. So, we have to be very strategic in what we do with our bond dollars to maximize that. And that's one of the things Owen is really awesome at doing, stretching those dollars, matching
145state money to get the most out of it. And we have to do that because $1.9 billion and 20 225 million. That's a huge gap there. So when we go out for our first sale this year, we can estimate we can probably go out for close to $100 million on that first first series. Now, if you look at the other, we still have we still have dollars left in G as well, too. So the blue there is what we can technically go out for hopefully this year and then in two in two more years we can possibly go out for another 44 from G and that and the the the um green there is the rest of BB not knowing because it's based on the assessed value of when we could take that out and
146once you take it out you have three years to encumbered and use it so we don't want to take too much out so as we determine what we want to do we have to tackle the need of our facilities because like I said we have a lot of need at 1.9 billion. I'm going to turn it back over to Owen and his team. Thank you, uh, Greg. So, for the rest of the presentation, we're going to focus on the, uh, the priorization project efforts. Uh, going to share with the board some of our analysis that we've been conducting. So, co-presenting tonight with me, I'd like to bring up Randy Duncan with Element Consulting. Uh we've been collaborating together with Randy and assessing our needs and analyzing some various data and developing some of the project
147prioritization process that we're going to be presenting to the board tonight. Um outlined here in this page are some of the um really the 10 key points that we're going to focus on as we develop our our priorization list and and we have a subsequent slide that we're going into a little bit more detail on each of those points. Uh first one is is safety and security. Safety and security always seem to be on top of the the needs whether it's the current survey or even back in 20 2017 when we did our facility master plan. Now the security and safety means the variety of of needs. Um every site has different different needs as well. It could be public address system, it could be fire alarm, could be fencing uh administration more secure single
148point of entry. But those are some things we're we're analyzing working with some of the data as well as collaboration with our maintenance operations department. Uh for example, public address system you know as you all know you know technology is constantly evolving and some of our PA and intercom system um are um some of them are outdated. Some of the parts you can't even get. So those are some of the things we're going to focus on and prioritize some of the school sites that are going to need some uh new intercom public address system. Um fire alarm again that's a necessity that's obviously fire life safety that always comes first. Want to look make sure we have uh the most current fire alarm system for our campuses. Um CO2 sensors those are related to indoor
149air quality and also security surveillance camera fencing. Those are all other uh again we have um you know great needs and and our needs uh resource is always greater than than the resource that we have. Uh second consideration uh which is aa stakeholder engagement. We've actually conducted quite a few uh you know participation in and engagement from various um stakeholders including some of the principles getting input. Uh I think one of the board mentioned uh last meeting the principles they're they're the captain of the ship, right? They know the needs of the school and the site and the and the staff. So we want to make sure we get their get them engaged and and understand their needs for their campuses. Um I know board president Flores also conducted site visits with community members and
150I know we've done um board president conducted two site visits. We have one more to go. So again, we're uh looking forward to the uh additional site visit and comment from input from committee members. Um we also conducted a Google survey. We have uh input from district staff from both classify and certificated as well as management uh as well as students and and parents. And then we also want don't want to forget you know the the 2017 master long range facility master plan. Those are valuable data. Those are not just you know paper weight. we still actually reference those and there's there's some valuable input as well there that we are going to uh you know take in consideration as well. These are just some of the the the screenshots capture just to show um
151some of the the inputs that principles have at the various level. This is just a a snapshot of the uh inputs that were provided by some of the elementary principles and also as well as the secondary, middle school and high school principal on their needs for the campus. Earlier mentioned about the Google survey that we conducted um that we um collected data from staff uh students as well as parents. You see we actually have pretty pretty uh decent uh response with about over 560 response from our staff. U majority of them 68% are from certificated with 27% uh from classified staff. Um we also engaged students you know we were careful in selecting the the group and basically ranging from six to to 12th graders. Um you know we're we're interested in in hearing what
152they have to say, what their needs are. So just might tell tell a little little bit of quick story about how this evolved. I was at Bernie Elementary doing some of my progress updates or looking at the construction of the TK uh playground um structure that was being installed. So I was cornered by sixth grade with her three of her friends and they surrounded me. They're like, "Oh, you know, we really like the uh you know, the playground structure that you guys have for the lower grade." And um I said, "Oh, that's great." He say, "You know, we we kind of got tired of ours. I think ours getting old and it needs to be replaced. I think you really need to replace ours." So, so that that kind of my light bulb went on
153and I said, "You know what? Actually, I'm going to do a a survey and please make sure you filled out your your needs and playground any other things that that you need want to get them to participate and engage in the process." And um unfortunately, I didn't get their name to check to see if they felt a survey, but we did get some uh participation from Bernie. So again want to kudos to her for for giving me the idea to get survey from input from the students. All right. Uh this is this next slide just shows the distribution from student engagement. You can see we have um basically input from all the campuses. Obviously some more than others. Uh one thing that's kind of interesting note is that we got the most engagement from the
154middle school students uh all the whole group. So we're thinking probably they're probably at a age where they could probably, you know, wait around a couple years to really kind of see the improvements that are happening and and um so yeah, so that was kind of very encouraging to see that. Again, kudos to shout outs to all the the most students that provided some valuable input. Again, some additional information on on the Google survey. We we we collected over between the parents, students, and the staff. We collect over 2400 surveys and one of the question we asked would provide us that they're kind of top three to five um needs facility needs for the campus and so we input all data in AI AI and and it generated the kind of the top 10 needs
155that based on all the survey input and these are kind of rank in order from Shaya shelter restroom you classroom playground security so again those are some of the process we want to make sure we engage the stakeholder and input in developing the priorization of our projects and needs. Another consideration it's important by the board or to the board is that the parity and equity by the school different elementary, primary, secondary, middle school and high school. Some of they have common you know common concerns which is shay shelter. There's some other things that pertain to playground equip things like playground equipment ball that pertain to primary. There's also some concern about drop drop off area and and providing a safer um a drop off and pickup area and uh the other thing we're also looking
156at comparable facility at the high school level at the gymnasium or aquatic center multi-purpose room a CT facility to support the program. So those are some things we're also factoring in and analyzing. Again, the same parity equity we want to look at from the three areas as well. Bloomington, uh, Colton and Grand Terrace. Just want to show some interesting data put together. So looking at the total square footage, um, Bloomington actually consumed about 42% of the square footage of total square footage of the district with Colton coming in second and 37% and Grand Terrace 21%. Um why this is important is we want to make sure the way we when we allocate the the project kind of you can't really you know take everybody gets kind of the same piece of pie right so we
157kind of have to do it in according proportional to the square footage of the building so this is one of the reason that's important to kind of get to um study the data and um bullet point number five which is maximizing state mass funding opportunity want to make sure we leave no uh stones unturned. Again, we're going to pursue aggressively some of the prop 2 um proposition two that was recently passed in November. Um with new construction, modernization funding, I do have to qualify new construction funding just like majority of this the uh school district in California experiencing decline enrollment. It's probably going to be very difficult to to qualify those those uh for new construction because new construction are really for districts that are growing in in enrollment. They're they're reaching their capacity. they
158need additional space to grow. So, you know, majority of the school district, we're in no exception to that. We're experiencing decline enrollment. So, it's it may be uh unlikely that we'll be eligible for new construction. Um modernization, there's four billion available. We're going to be pursuing that aggressively. As well as the career tech education uh CT program, they just released the next round was $300 million out of 600. Um the application due in December. So, working closely with uh Dr. Peterson, her team identifies some potential pathways which can pursue funding just like we do with culinary arts building again to leverage our our our local funding and uh and to seek as much uh other grant poss as well to help fund the project. Again, this is just a chart. We're working with our uh
159funding consultant to show some of the eligibility uh that we have for each campus. Now eligibility basically determined based on the age of the building. Permanent building is 25 years or older and for portable buildings are 20 years older. So based on some recent uh updates with our modernization elability, we have potentially up to 80 almost $89 million of potential matching fund that we can pursue. So this time I'd like to turn over the presentation to uh Randy Duncan. Thank you Owen and good evening uh distinguished members of the board. I'm delighted to be here and continue the presentation. I I did bring up here this is the 2017 long range facilities master plan and and this is is a really nice reference document. A whole lot of work went into the creation of this
160and and uh it brings forward some of the things that are still resonating as the top priorities today which is safety and security and new classrooms. Uh that that was one and two as the top two priorities. So relative to is the middle button. Okay. uh the item six in terms of the the criteria that we're looking at uh in in order to arrive at the top priority projects is that new classrooms and I I want to say the lowhanging fruit perhaps is and there's actually added benefit is to replace leased portables and older portables on each of the campuses because those those take up real estate and they are the easiest uh to remove and replace with new classrooms. Uh the district actually has 106 lease classrooms, lease portables right now, 374 owned portables,
161a total of 480 portables. That represents 19.7% of the facilities infrastructure within the district. So you have 473,000 square feet of portable classrooms. you have 1.9 million of permanent um infrastructure. Um I I want to make the distinction while 19.7% might seem like a lot in in urban areas such as LA USD there's a 1:1 ratio of permanent to portable classrooms. So for every one permanent there's a there's a portable that's an urban in urban cities like uh San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles. In suburban or suburban areas, which is the same population density of Coloulton, the average statewide is between 25 and 33% portable ratio uh to permanent infrastructure. Uh it's in very rural areas that the average is 20% and you're slightly below the the rural average of 20%. So I know that
162our focus is to to get the portables off the the school campuses and replace them with state-of-the-art classrooms, but but you don't you aren't uh exceeding those percentages except at certain school sites, which is what I'm going to shed light on. So what we did is we looked at each of the campuses in each of the areas and we filter what first we identified the permanent infrastructure the portable infrastructure and of course we wanted to capture whether there were least portables there that we want to move off the off the campus earlier if possible because they are burden on the general fund. So, we filtered it and in Bloomington, Smith Elementary School and Lewis Elementary School are at well, Smith is at 49.33% uh portable ratio to total infrastructure. Lewis is at 37.84 in Bloomington.
163Over to moving over to Coloulton, uh Bernie Elementary School is at 42.66, Washington High School 36.69, and Rogers Elementary 33.73. And over to Grand Terrace, the the uh two sites with u significantly over the district average again of 19.7%. You have Terrace View Elementary School at 41.99 and Terrace Hills Middle School at 32.26. So, we will be taking that information into account as we uh look to remove leased portables and old uh deteriorating portables and replace them with new classroom buildings. Um another criteria obviously is capacity and while there is declining enrollment there are uh program requirements where there will there is a need for new classrooms. uh first being dual immersion campuses at Alice Bernie. We need two new classrooms for the 26 27 school year for fifth grade and two additional classrooms for
1642728 for sixth grade. Grand Terrace for 2728 school year is end in sixth grade. Two additional classrooms. There are also some developments within the district um residential developments. We're keeping an eye on those and need to calculate and factor uh increase, you know, enrollment uh projections based on uh the development of those residential uh programs and uh upcoming enrollments, special day uh classes. Um, we're exploring where to locate those programs so that the district doesn't have to transport students to other districts where special day class uh students uh can be educated. So that's a a focus of our efforts. We also looked at um another criteria is the simp simply the age of the schools. And if you look at Bloomington um in in reverse order or oldest to newest uh Coloulton and then Grand
165Terrace, obviously with one of the oldest school districts in the state and one of the oldest districts obviously in Southern California, uh you have schools that are on average are over 50 years old. Um in Bloomington it's the average is uh 50 and a half years. Grand Terrace is 50 and a half years. Colton is 68 years is the average age of uh the the schools in Colton. Uh so we are taking the age into consideration. Uh we're also looking and and factoring in how how much measure G and other funds have been expended at each of the school sites to date. So those that either have had very little uh measure G funds expended on them obviously uh become a a priority as well and are factored into this 1 through 10 um filtering
166of the projects uh to to arrive and present a a list of prior high priority projects as um Mr. from indicated and and Owen uh did as well. The need uh versus the the funds availability, there's a a significant gap. So the 225 million represents about 12% of your need. Um but if we move out as aggressively as we can to avoid costly future escalation, we can avoid um you know uh the the cost ramifications of escalation. And given the fact that we've had 51.9% escalation in the last eight years just since COVID 34.9% uh escalation with OPSC predicting escalation over the course of 2025 between 10 and 15%. Uh it it behooves the district and I and I know that's exactly what uh uh Owen and uh Mr. from are going to set out
167to do, which is to execute an an aggressive buildout uh with the the funds that are available. Uh over to the right, you'll see a chart that's actually reference from the long range facilities master plan. And you'll see that the checks check box represent where there's been uh progress made with measure G funds. And so you see the orange is new classrooms. see about $15 million of new classrooms um have have uh been achieved with Measure G dollars. The pupil personnel services have been relocated. Uh down at the bottom, Colton High School, new MPR, uh Colton Middle School, new gym. Uh I I want to say, but I can't obviously can't speak for these two gentlemen, but I think the focus will be on on new classrooms, the orange and the green. The green is
168a little blurry, but that's safety and security. Um, oh, our next steps. Our next steps and the and the goal is to bring this to the board on June 5th, which is to finalize the highest priority projects. As we indicated at the top, we have highest priority, higher, and high. They're all pressing priorities, but we have to arrive at the the highest priorities and and formulate a recommended list and present it to the board. That'll be presented with a master program budget, a master program schedule, and and derive the recommended amount for the initial bond sale, which will trigger once approved uh the solicitation of architects to to uh commence with the design of those pri high priority projects. And we just want to close with this this statement. Building together building together your measure
169BB tax dollars at work creating 21st century learning spaces for students today and tomorrow. Thank you for your support and patience understanding. We'll open it up for questions. That uh very detailed, very very helpful presentation on where we're at. Uh let me go ahead and open it up for questions or comments from board members for any of our presenters. It's a lot. It's a lot to soak in, right? And it's a lot to take in. Um, no question there's a tremendous amount of of need. We know at the end of the day we won't have enough money even with measure BB to complete everything. But I think the what's on probably top of mind for all of us is getting to a point where we feel like we have a comprehensive list of doable projects
170and then prioritizing them. Um, things that have been shared with me and I think we feel is also being equitable. I love the idea of looking sort of proportionally at the district um where the needs are so that we can be equitable. We do want to hear the survey is fantastic. We do want to hear from the um bond committee members um staff of course and the community. So utilizing that but um there's a lot to to to balance here. So I think at the end of the day being able to identify what we can actually accomplish with the funds available. So we may have uh projects that we would love to do but it's just going to fall short because if we can't complete the project really that money should go somewhere else where
171we can start and finish. So yeah, please um on the I know we said we want to try to prioritize on getting rid of the portables that we have that we lease to save that money out of our general fund. Do you uh Greg, do you have an idea of about how much money we're spending on those portables or Owen? Okay. Of course he does. Currently, um, actually we majority we're using developer fees. We're spending about 694,000 a year on these portable payments. Okay. Thank you. Comments? Yeah, please. Board memory bar. Well, thank you. Like uh uh Dan mentioned, it was very quite a bit of a lot of information, but that's something that we need to know and and uh it sounds like uh our direction is going to be uh taking a look
172at uh building new new classrooms and and taking a look at our safety measures. My question revolves around the uh the tough question that uh as time goes on from this point on. Um, and the money that we do are able to get, we say it's that 100 million from the bond right off the bat. Uh, with the tariffs, uh, starting to affect the costs of everything coming in. Uh, are we going to take a really close look or would you recommend us to take a really good close look to try to avoid from a project costing x number of dollars versus x number of dollars times to the third power so to speak because that's what we're looking at. um and how quickly can we move on some of these projects before you know
173those type of issues uh affect our our dollar make a great point and I was going to thank you for bringing up the tariffs because when we were talking about the escalation we didn't even we don't even know what that's going to be right so and before we can move on we have to take the series out which later on this year in the fall that that's our goal to get that done and that but we still don't know we we don't know we're going into unknown ter territory with that we're dealing with normal escalation and then whatever that's going to be on top of it. So we really can't determine that. I'll turn over to own Randy if they can provide a perspective on that as well. Right. Yes. This is something that the
174whole facility community we're still trying to wrap our arms around try to understand what the impact's going to be. Um I've been having conversation with our construction uh partners in terms of how they're feeling the impacts. They're they're saying right now just in the short term they actually are not seeing immediate impact because they still some of the things things like they get from China surant tiles they still have those inventory so they're not seeing immediate impact but you know they don't even know what's going to going to happen to them and so forth and that that was one reason why you know we we have if you call one of the slide that we have we have projects out to bid that was one of the reason we have we're trying to be very
175aggressive in getting those project out and getting those numbers as soon as we get the less you know um potential exposure to some of the tariffs and other escalation that we can just again to stretch our dollars. So um and one of the things we we needed to do is maybe um you know be very conservative in terms of make sure we have a robust contingency to address escalation and tariffs that a lot higher than what we normally would allocate for contingency to address those and really plan out the project and strategically. you know, we can I I think it's still probably be wise to continue to to design the projects uh once the board identifies the needs and because those those projects are valid for four years uh the approval period. So we can
176at least you know we don't have to move on it but at least we can have a shovel ready so when things are timing are correct and if we have appropriate budget we can release those project and and move forward with the construction phase. So thank you Owen. There's we can go as fast as we want, but there's speed bumps in the way like DSA and things like that that stop it until we get those approvals as well. So, we have to rely on other places too to go fast and they normally don't, you know, that and now you have the Proposition 2 out there and a lot of people went out for a bond. So, there's going to be a lot of things going into DSA. So, who knows if that will slow down
177approvals as well. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I think it's important that you brought that up because I I always remember I don't remember the exact dollar amount or whatever, but I know that when we built uh the uh Rivera building versus when we built um the the uh math and uh the culinary building, that building was half the size of the Rivera building, but it was like two to three times the cost. So, this is just going to get worse. So, you know, thanks for bringing that up. Well, you make a great point. Just a few years ago, you could build a school for $25 million in in elementary school. Now, they're approaching close to hundred million. Right. It just right. Great. Any other questions or comments? Yeah. All right. Thank you. We appreciate
178it. Thank you. Yeah. All right. That takes us Thank you again, Owen, for that for that update. We appreciate it and great work as always. Um, next on the agenda is our ACE update. I'll call the our ace president Parach to the podium. Good evening board president Flores, board members, superintendent. My name is Christina Parach, and I'm honored to serve as association of Colton President, Colton Educators President. Sorry, I've been up since 2 am. Well, I went to sleep at 2 am. Um, I hate to make this meeting longer, but um, I do have a few things. Um, I'd like to begin by sharing the results of our recent ACE elections. All incumbent leaders were reelected to continue serving our membership, and we're excited to welcome Caitlyn Town as the new middle school director. All
179elected officers, both returning and new, will be formally introduced at the August board meeting. We look forward to continuing our collaborative work with the district. I am also pleased to report that negotiates and have concluded successfully. Thank you, Dr. Dade and the team. I would like to acknowledge the effort and professionalism demonstrated on both sides of the table. The proposed agreement will be sent to the ACE membership for ratification vote and we anticipate bringing it forward to the board for final approval on May 15. Also, thank you the bargaining team for the association, John Chvin, Pamela Townson, um Jennifer Alvarado, Lauren Ramf, and Judith Kim. Additionally, I would like to extend our gratitude to the board for um approving it in the future. I thought it was on the agenda, but it was not. The
180memorandum of understanding presented by the district, which includes a one-time 2% 2.5 compensation for the 2425 school year. This is the first time in 20 years that I've been in the district that the district came to us and said, "We're giving you 2.5%. Will you accept? I said, which line am I signing on? This gest gesture is meaningful and appreciated by our members. Outside the ne of negotiations, our advocacy continue at the state level. Last month, superintendent in Sanino County and CTA presidents, which I was part of it, join other educational leader in Sacramento to speak out against state budget cuts. Together, we reinforced our shared priorities, special education, student discipline policies, and increased funding level to honor the Prop 98 commitment. Just this week, I had the honor of joining Dr. The Day and
181President Flores and this state respectives at the other district uh representative at the Capitol. Because Colton lies within multiple legislative districts, we were able to meet with a range of lawmaker lawmakers. We highlighted the needs for increased funding for special education. And it's funny that we talked about C today because that's what we focused on and the opposition to the proposed changes to the C requirements. We also distributed custom district flyers created by Katie. Thank you. Which were incredibly wellreceived. um they helped us tell Colton's story clearly and powerfully. Um and actually a lot of the district asked for a copy and or took a picture or they asked for a copy of what Katie and Dan Flores created. Another exciting development is on the horizon community schools. On May 7, the state will review
182potential funding and up to nine school colon schools may be awarded. This would bring critical uh wraparound services and resources to our camp campuses. Thank you to Pamela Townson, Christy Padilla and all who have contributed to this important initiative. Finally, testing is currently underway at many of our school sites. On behalf of ACE, we wish all of our students the very best. We know how hard they and their teacher have worked to prepare and we're confident they'll make us proud. More good news or confusing news at this point. The OJ has notified the district which means Dr. Peterson and Dr. uh Miranda that they are satisfied that CJSD has sufficiently met its obligation under the 2022 sentiment agreement. This is a major accomplishment and I would um not it would not have been possible without
183everyone working together and continue focus on our students. Thank you and congratulation to all our teachers, counselors, staff and admin. The association and district will start working on changes that need to be made for 2025 2026. Um as at this point we're still under the same obligation until the end of the school year. Um that did not change. Thank you again for your time, your partnership and continued commitment to the students and educators of Colton. Appreciate that. Uh CSE update. Do we have a representative from CSEA? I don't see anyone. Okay. Uh MAC update. Any update? No update. All right. Thank you. RO update. No meeting. Okay. All right. That takes us to our superintendent communic back up. Forget forgive me if I don't get it right. Filling in for Dr. Miranda. Miranda. First time
184doing this. going between the slides and the the notes to read it. But here we go. Next slide, please. So, newcomer event educational services will host a special newcomeumber newcomer day experience for our male learners, high school newcomer students on May 13th, 2025 at Colton High School. This event is designed to create a welcoming and supportive space in response to insight from the male empathy interviews which highlighted the unique challenges strengths of our multilingual newcomer students. A total of 120 newcomer students are expected to participate. Students from Bloomington High School, Slover Mountain High School, and Grand Terrace High School will travel to CHS where they will join CHS students for a day of inspiration, connection, and hands-on learning. This program includes virtual sessions with Dr. Machella who has designed an engaging experience to inspire students
185to dream big, persevere through adversary as well as special in-person talks from Telmundo Journalist Unique Chabria who will share his personal journey and highlight the value of biiteracy. Afternoon workshops will offer fun educational activities like reptile presentations, create their own art, cultural cooking and engineering. This event aims to foster inclusion, motivation, community among newcomers and students. Thank you to our educational services team for hosting this special event. Next slide, please. Behavioral mental health. Our district department of behavior and mental health has established four new wellness centers on our middle school campuses. These centers are staffed by wellness associates and provide services. Each wellness center offers a safe and supportive space where students can access essential social, emotional, and mental health resources, promoting both their well-being and academic success. This is a great underscore of our
186district's commitment to supporting the whole child and ensuring that every student has the resources they need to thrive. Special thanks to Dr. Antonio Castro. Let's give him a hand. The services is he isn't on the script. The stuff that you do for our students, outstanding. Thank you. Another asset to the district and that. So, thank you to his team and and and leadership for making this happen. And lastly, next slide, please. Tomorrow's leader event. This isn't on the script either. I first came, this event was awesome. The first time I was here for it, I was really clothe at Bloomington. So, I'm glad this year it's inside. So, in case it's cold in that, but it's an awesome event that no other districts really do. So, kudos to us for doing that. So, student service
187division putting a lot of work into host tomorrow's leader event. This is designed to recognize and reward students who demonstrate excellence in attendance, behavior, and academics. As part of this initiative, eligible students will have the opportunity to win a variety of prizes. Students must have a 95% positive attendance, no outside suspensions, and a minimum 2.8 GPA, and must be enrolled in the district for a duration of the program. In addition, one student will be awarded a grand prize of a 2025 Chevy Blazer or similar donated car from Routollo Chevrolet. This will take place May 8th, Grand Terrace High School. Hope to see you all there. And that is the end of the superintendent's communication. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. From. We appreciate that. All right, board member comments. Um, we'll go and kick it over
188to our board member comments. And, you know, remember, brevity is always appreciated. So, just kidding. Like, it was awesome. All right, board member Sandival. Yes, board member Sandival. That's okay. Sorry. Um, thank you everyone. No, it's all good. Got distracted. Okay. Um, I just want to say congratulations to the wellness center. I appreciate the wellness center so much and that will be all. Thank you. Thank you, board member. Uh, board member Ibara. Thank you, Dan. Um, first of all, I want to start off by uh saying congratulations to Dr. today and his team for negotiating with ACE and getting that done. that that's it's always big when we get to this point where we're able to work well with our unions and uh you know I've loved over these last few years and I like
189saying years that we've been able to work well with our unions both uh ACE and CSEA and uh just want to say that's great. I think it's great. So, uh just say thank you to your team and also uh thank you to the ASUS team for doing a wonderful job. Also, I just want to mention real quick uh um the uh community cabinet that we had on the 22nd on Wednesday was pretty pretty good. I mean it uh I think Dr. Miranda was very pleased and then talking with him and and the turnout of everybody that showed up and the presentations of all the students was excellent. Um, and I, you know, I had an opportunity to, uh, go out to each booth and right away there was two student representatives that popped out and
190wanted to engage and talk and so forth. And I think it's just a great opportunity for all our students to be able to be out there in this environment and be able to share some of the wonderful things that they're doing at their campuses on a regular basis. Of course, we could not overlook the fact that we had DJ Izzy there and playing his music. And I even got him on the drums a little bit. Should have heard him on his drums. And uh so it it was a great time for all. If anybody here had the tacos, I like the the the side of tacos were really good and so forth. So, uh, it was a good time and, uh, the community cabinet continues to grow and thrive and, uh, I think it was,
191I think Dr. Miranda speaking on his behalf, he was really pleased with that. So, okay, I don't want to talk too long because we could get out of here kind of early. So, so let's go ahead and move it on. All right. Thank you, board member. Uh, board member Haro. Yes, I will make it quick, too. Uh, yes. I just wanted to piggyback uh community cabinet was great. The kids who performed and spoke at the event, uh they were fabulous. I had one that I went up to virtual enterprise for Bloomington High School. I didn't even get to say hello, shake hands. They were already telling me their spiel and they were just ready. They were they were prepared and ready to go. So, it was a great event. My only comment um about uh
192was that um I sat with Miss Joanne and several of the district staff at lunch and um we next year we need to have like saw horses or something at the beginning at the end of the uh at the end of the event where Mr. Fuentes was because a car d a car drove through while we were sitting there at lunch and it was going very slowly and it was kind of scary. So, uh, we just need to have something on each end of the event so that the cars can't get through there. That my only comment. Otherwise, it was a great event, but that was a little, but we were kind of like, huh? Okay. So, um, I also want to say today, I know we have some principles still here. Thank you. God
193bless you. Happy National Principal Day. And thank you for all you do. you all. It's not an easy job and and you are a blessing to the district and a blessing to the students that you serve. And um I want to just say uh tomorrow is school lunch hero day. So again, I want to say thank you to all of our nutrition services after hearing how many meals they make, even more so. Kudo, we bow to you. Thank you so much for all that you do for our students on a daily basis. And the last thing is I want to thank uh Bloomington High School, Mr. Fuentes and I both were invited to Chaperon at their prom. It was at the Highway 39 Event Center in Anaheim, a very unique location. Um it's actually a
194car museum and my husband right away started talking to the owner. It is his private car collection. phenomenal cars there. And it's uh decorated along the tops of the walls with all these oldfashioned uh um fluorescent like light uh signs for pens, oil, oil and and brands from bygone eras that I wasn't even around and that's a long time ago. Um and it was just a phenomenal location. The kids loved it. um they had a DJ and they also had a ba uh playing and some really it was just an amazing event. So I just want to congratulate I know we have a new BHS activities director who was there along with Misty Wright the current uh ASB director and it was just a great event and I just want to give kudos to BHS.
195Thank you all. Great. Thanks, board member Har. Uh, board member Fuentes timer on. I'm kidding. That's actually three minutes. Okay. All right. Cool. Uh, first of all, first of all, I wanted to share uh, this this past Saturday had the opportunity to attend with Dr. Miranda, Miss Bertha Flores. We went out to San Diego and Silver Mountain High uh, was actually recognized as a model continuation high school. uh through the California Continuation Education Association. And the very cool part about this, they had this dinner on the MSS Midway. And it was such a beautiful setting. The only thing it was cold, very cold. They didn't have any heaters or anything. They had no covers. Uh but other than that, the event was beautiful. It was a beautiful event. I know uh principal Andrina was there,
196Frijo was there and uh our former principal of Sllover uh Miss Tiffany Hampton was there also in support. So it was a beautiful, beautiful evening. Uh they got their award and I think this is the third time that Slover Mountain got uh the award. Speaking about the prom, the prom was uh for Bloomington High was one of the it was amazing to see. Uh it was a hundred cars in that building. It was a huge huge like warehouse type building. Beautiful with vintage uh items like they had a Big Bob's Big Boy in there uh where the kids got to take a picture with. They had vintage Coca-Cola items. You name it, they had it. Even had root beer floats for the kids. And the gentleman who owns that, he says, "The way I'm able
197to pay for the rent is to do these events. Plus, he's a manufacturer of a lot of the parts that he asked for those vehicles. He had 64 Impalas in there. He had like I think it was a 1980 Bronco in there, fully restored, beautiful thing. They even had one of them scooters that looked like an old 57 Chevy with the front scooter, an actual scooter. So, it was a fun event, great event. Missette Roman and her team, they did a phenomenal job. The kids enjoyed it. They had a great time. Also, uh I had the opportunity to go to the Mosaic Gayla where our superintendent was recognized. Uh he was recognized with the inclusivity excellence award. And so, uh congratulations to our superintendent, Dr. Miranda, for receiving that award. Also had the opportunity to
198head head out to West Valley Water District's Earth Day where we had 200 of 230 students from three elementary schools, Sycamore, Cresmore, and Grimes. And uh it was a fun day. It was a fun morning for uh afternoon. Uh they had in-n-out for them. Uh they got to work on a couple of water things that go, you know, that they use. They got to see some of the machinery and all of that. So this is, you know, it's an educational purpose for the kids, getting them excited about the water world. And uh let's see here. And then the culinary. The culinary that's that's a hit right now. It's a beautiful thing. I had the opportunity to get interviewed by one of the reporters. And if you haven't seen it, uh there's some of the quotes
199that I did in uh the newspaper. I think it's the Colton Courier that has that uh there. And then let me see here. Let me look at my notes. I'm going trying to go fast here. And I'm going to end with this. Happy Principal's Day to all of our principles in the district. You do amazing things. And that includes APs, too. So you guys are principles, too. So happy principal's day to each and every one of you. And then tomorrow to our nutrition staff. Happy happy happy days for them. Three million meals people this year. Three million meals. And that just that that comforts me. It lets me feel so good to know that our kids are eating. They're they're eating those meals. They're enjoying the meals. They're having the meals. I've had the opportunity
200I always share about this the opportunity to have that chicken sandwich. It's not the regular patty like it used to be. It's an actual like breast, you know, dipped and and and and it's really good. If if you ever gone to Popeye's, it kind of looks like that. So, it's really, really good. So, I'm a big food guy. I love food. So, again, happy principal's day. Have a great weekend. Enjoy your weekend. I love you all. Let's keep doing what we do. Thank you, Board Member Fuentes. Uh, board member Flores, I want to congratulate um, Principal Adrina Frager for the uh, award that they received. I was able to attend. It was an honor to be there. Um, it was on the on the midway. Um and it was it was cold but at some
201and uh Pat miss Haru I couldn't beat that um a car museum because we were in a airplane museum and they had all these um old airplanes and at some point it started to rain and there was no cover and we ran for cover and we found uh an open airplane and we literally were waiting in there. Yeah. and uh it was nice, but what an honor, what an honor for one of our schools to receive that award. So, congratulations. I got to meet some of your staff members and uh it was very pleasurable. So, congratulations. That's it. Thank you. And then board member Thorinoa. As I thought tonight, listening to all the things that we covered, I think we need to have a shout out for our district. We have done so many things
202in this district for our community and our kids. Um we've extended um a real heart for the community. I believe when I think tonight about the student presentation and all the things that we that they're providing at that school and I know that happening at all of at a lot of our all of our schools. um different activities bringing kids together, bringing families together. We have uh the community cabinet. We're highlighting what we're doing with our kids, letting the people know that we're really working hard in this district, every single one of you, um to do the right thing for kids and to to give them opportunities that they otherwise would not have. When I think about the the facility pro uh presentation tonight, how awesome is that? I know there's a lot of need
203and we're not going to be able to make it, but we are working hard and um to make our schools the best possible schools we can have. And for a lot of our kids, the school is the nicest place they go to. And we're providing that for them because they're giving them hope for a future. And that's what education is all about. Educate the kids, teach them, show them other ways, and make them want to grow up and have a really good life for themselves and their family. the nutrition services and I listened to that tonight. It brought me back to growing up in Minnesota and spending time at my grandpa's farm in Wisconsin. And when you hear the kids go and never they didn't say any food from the ground to the table and
204what an opportunity that is for kids to open their eyes and then to follow it up with the culinary school. I mean, we're providing a great deal with the the the few funds that we have and um we just I thank everyone who works in this district to do every single thing and beer really be good stewards of our stewards of our funds. Um Colton's done a great job for kids and I appreciate that so much and I'm glad my grandkids got to go to school here and now my little great grand. So, um, good for everyone and thank you and, um, happy principal day and thanks to our, uh, please do extend an appreciation to our food service workers. Um, they really are important to the kids of our schools. And thank you very
205much. Thank you, board member Thorino. And then I just want to provide a a quick update again on the uh trip that we took um with California Schoolboard Association, the Coast to Coast Legislative Advocacy Trip. Uh I think we've got a couple of photos to share. It was an incredible opportunity. Christina uh mentioned it. She joined us of course as Dr. Dade. Uh this was an opportunity for us to come together as California schoolboard members, uh administrators and leaders in education to learn about what's happening at the federal level and of course most importantly meet directly with members of Congress. So uh quick fact, I didn't know this but Colton Jo Unified School District touches five separate congressional districts. Um and that's pretty incredible. That means that's five representatives who we have their ear, if
206you will, and who will listen to the concerns that we have when it comes to education. We got to meet with two of them directly. Uh, Congressman Pete Aguular, who's the caucus chair for the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives, and uh, Congressman Mark Tado, who is a 24-year educator, a public school teacher. And normally when you do these meetings, you're lucky if you get 10, 15, 20 minutes is about the max that you'll get with the member. That's if you get to meet with a member. A lot of times it's staff. Uh, and that's fine. That's great. In both instances, the congressmen gave us 30, 35, maybe even 40 minutes of one-on-one time with them. They were fully engaged, asking a lot of tough questions, asking for feedback from us. And of course,
207we asked what we could do for them. Um, tough times. There's no question about it. And again, just to reiterate, you know, there are real cuts being proposed at the federal level that affect special education, Medicaid, which is medical here in California. Why does it matter? We reimburse this school district for medical that provides services for our students, including our special needs students. If that is cut, those students will no longer be eligible. We will lose that funding. They're talking about the uh dissolution of the Department of Education. And just so you know, and this was shared by Congressman Tano, 50% of the staff at the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education have already been laid off. This is the office that is uh mandate to ensure that there's equal access to
208education for students all across the country. 50% have been laid off. The office in San Francisco has been closed and other offices across the country are being closed. We can get frustrated, but we have to get involved. It's not enough to just be mad. It's not enough to just say this isn't right. We have to get involved. And so my my my my ask if you will is that all of us in every way that we can share your story, advocate, speak up, get involved in whether it's your association um and just get involved in your community. You are all educators and you are all in the education community. We are on the chopping block. $880 billion that uh is being proposed by the president to cut out of the budget. You cannot do that
209without gutting education and access to healthcare through Medicaid. So thank you for the opportunity to go. I I I think we're going to be uh going quite regularly to share that message in Sacramento and Washington. And I want to thank of course Congressman Aguilar who is himself proposing a bill to actually expand nutrition services. He wants to get rid of the 25%. He believes we should be providing meals to everyone. And so we're happy to sign on that legislation and uh Congressman Takano is working really hard again um in his uh arena as as a congress member and supporting education. So, more to come, but I wanted to share that and and it was an incredible experience and um we'll keep up the good fight. So, that is all that I have. So, what we'll
210do is go ahead and adjourn open session and jump into close session. So, thanks so much. All right, we'll go ahead and reconvene um our meeting here from close session. We do have some items that we need to read out and one we have to take action on. So, the first item um is an item 11.1. This is our conference with legal counsel. After conferring and meeting with legal counsel in close session, uh the the regarding board agenda item 10.2, Two, the board voted uh to approve a settlement agreement with Royce Coloulton LLC to resolve a dispute regarding assessment of school impact fees. And that was on a motion by board member Fuentes, second by board member Haro, and approved on a 70 vote. Item 11.2. There was one student discipline item presented in close
211session. Is there a motion uphold the to uphold the expulsion order as presented? Thank you. Do I have a second? Was that a second? Okay. Sorry, excuse me. Um, I have a motion by board member Fuentes and a second by board member Haro to uphold the expulsion order as presented. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Uh, hearing not. It is approved. The expulsion the board uh will uphold the expulsion order of student number 104 633. Okay. Item 11.3 on a motion by board member Fuentes and seconded by board member Haro and carried on a 70 vote. Um the board approved the following three certificated coaches, three classified coaches and 10 general volunteers. And then lastly, item 11.4 on a motion by board member Bertha Flores and seconded by board member
212Haro. And carried on a 70 vote, the board voted to appoint Daniel Czecho, assistant principal high school. Can we name the high school? This is high school. Are we at that point? Right. I said, can we name which is the high school? Colton High School. Sometimes we don't because I know that we assign, but yes, this is Colton High School. Just so he's clear where he's going. All right.