IIA Board Meeting 12 16 25

001Good evening everyone and welcome to the Irvine International Academy regular board meeting. Today is Tuesday, December 16th. The time is 6:00 p.m. Just means 6:01 p.m. First off, want to wish everyone happy holidays. Uh, merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate, happy to you all. Uh, thank you for those that are here attending. Thank you for those that helped to set up with all of the wrong and thank you for those that are here at the board level and Dr. as well. Okay, we are located at Irvine International Academy 4782 Karen an lane Irvine California 926 04 and we will start off with roll call. Molly Chang >> here. >> Felipe Delgado is absent. Brett Freeman is here and David S. >> All right, moving next to the approval of the agenda for the regular

002meeting of the Irvine International Academy board of directors on December 16th, 2025. Recommended the board directors approve the agenda for the regular meeting of the Irvine International Academy board of directors today, December 16, 2025. Is there a motion? >> I will make a motion to >> Thank you, David. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, >> Molly. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any oppose, please say nay. Hearing none. It passes. Next, move to community input on closed session agenda items. Members of the public may comment on items listed on the closed session agenda only. Public comments, including emailed comments, shall be limited to three minutes per comment with up to 20 minutes of public comment. Do we have any public comments? >> We do not. >> Thank you. Next,

003we move to close session for discussion and possible action. We've got the uh two items. First is public employee evaluation of our executive director and this would be the midyear review and the second uh piece is going to be the conference with real property property negotiators concerning this property as negotiated by Dr. Henry. We will rec reconvene in approximately 45 minutes. Uh we'll try to make it out here sooner if we can. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh thank you everyone for your patience. We are reconvening. The time is 653. We just uh came out of close session. No action was taken, but we did do a midyear review of the executive director for the school, Dr. Henry. Okay. So, we will move uh on to the

004flag salute. Uh I'll ask if there are any volunteers. Oh. >> All right. >> For those that want to stand, we're going to flag. >> The flag is to your right or left. >> All right. Begin. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Thank you all very much. Okay, moving on to the community input on agendaized and non-aggendaized items. The public may comment on items listed on the agenda, including the consent calendar, presentation, discussion, committee, and action items. Public may also comment on items not listed on the agenda that are within the legal purview of the board of directors. Are there any public comments? >> There are not. >> Thank you.

005Moving on to recognitions. Very, very important. So we will start with the recognition of the 2025 IIA spelling B finalists. Okay, first of all, thank you all for being here and thank you for waiting so patiently for us. Uh but good evening uh board president, board members, and members of the community. Tonight, it is my pleasure to recognize our top three spelling bee winners from each grade level at Irvine International Academy. Our spelling bee is a true academic journey. Our students begin by preparing from a grade level word list followed by a written classroom round. The top three spellers from each class are then invited to compete in our schoolwide oral spelling be. This was held on November 19th. These students demonstrated not only strong spelling school skills but focus, p uh perseverance and confidence

006under pressure and I did get to see all the grade levels and it was quite a joy to see all of you. The spelling bee is a long-standing academic tradition that celebrates the importance of language, literacy, and precision. Spelling strengthens reading and writing skills. It builds vocabulary and supports success across all subject areas and especially in a dual language immersion setting like ours where language learning is the heart of what we do. We are especially proud that our middle school winners will advance to the county spelling bee, beginning with a written round in late February. Finalists from that round will compete in an oral competition in early March with the opportunity to advance to the state level. So, at this point, um I'm going to give you our certificates. Uh what we're going to do

007is I'm going to call the name from grade level of all students who were in the finalist. I know not everyone's here. And we'll start with second grade and then our two second grade finalists will come up here. We'll give you certificates. We'll give you a chance to take some pictures. I don't know if we can we can bring them up so that the board can be in some of the pictures as well. and um and then we'll go ahead and be seated and we'll go through all of these and also you've waited a while so after the ceremony feel free to go home and do homework and all those other lovely things that you need to do. You're you're also welcome to stay. Um are those those are the ones? Okay. All right. So,

008for second grade, I think we have two of our students here. In first place, we had Jeremy Ha. Come on up. Hey, thank you. We're going to give you your certificate. And then we in second place, Isabelle Wang is not here. And then we had Basilisa Poshenko. Yay. We're going to give you your certificate and then we'll go take some photos. Do you want to come up here, Miss Miss Tiffany, as well? >> Okay. Do you want to stand? >> Y. >> Okay. You can >> come around. >> Stand behind here. >> Yeah, you can stand up. That That works naturally. >> All right. Congratulations, second graders. That is wonderful. Thank you so much. In our third grade, our finalists we had were Edgar Fio, who is not here today. We have our second place

009winner though for third grade, which is Evelyn Lou. And then our third place, he's not able to make it, is Jethro Laviano. So, if you want to come up, Evelyn, we'll give you your certificate. Very good. And why don't we come up here and take a picture? You get a solo picture. >> Yeah. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Congratulations, Evelyn. Great job. I don't believe we have any of our fourth grade uh winners here, but what I would like to do is also to read their names so that it they can see this video later. So, for first place, we had Ryan Heath. In second place for fourth grade, we had Josiah Wang. And in third place, Isabella Wang. Are they related? Do you know? >> No. I was like, "Oh, that spelling

010runs in the family." Okay, great. Uh we do have one of our fifth grade winners here. Uh so in first place we had Tristan Zoo. Yay. We in second place is Nico Win and in third place Patrick Chen. So we do have our one fifth grader. We'll go ahead and take a photo. >> Thank you. Great job, Tristan. >> Is that right? >> Looking for three people. >> Okay. >> And what I learned about middle school, because you will be Tristan, you'll be in middle school next year, is you get to compete with all the grades, with the eighth graders, and um actually some of our big winners, I think, were actually all of our winners for middle school were seventh graders uh this year. So, uh, but they all compete as one in middle

011school. And I I not sure if you heard, but the winners of those get to go on to compete at the county level. So, that'll be you next year, right? >> Okay. All right. We do not have our middle school uh representatives here, but in first place, we have Callie Chan, seventh grade. Second place, Esmeralda Arasco, also in seventh grade. And in third place, we have Eve Kim, also seventh. So, congratulations to all of our spelling be winners for your hard work and your academic excellence. You represent IIA well. And thank I also want to thank all of our teachers and staff for continuing this meaningful tradition at IIA. It was fun to watch for the first time. I had a lot of questions. As a former English teacher, I value spelling. I was telling

012some of the kids, I remember uh being in spelling bees when I was a kid and I remember one of the words that I missed in fifth grade. Uh but you those are memories that they'll always have. So, thank you again. We're so proud of you. Congratulations. And you're welcome to stay, but um you're also welcome. Do we want to get one group shot with all the kids? Do you want to do that? >> We have a smaller group. We'll do one group shot and then and then we'll move to our next item. Okay, there we go. Great job, guys. >> Thank you so much. All right, >> congratulations. >> Eat some dinner. >> Thank you. So, I think it's fantastic. We recognize them. Thank you to all those that participated, especially the teachers and

013the families for being such a wonderful part of Okay, moving on to items for consent. We've got two items. Approve the minutes from the regular meeting of the IIA board of directors on November 4th, 2025 and approve the personnel report. It's recommended the board of directors approve consent items A and B. Is there a motion? Oh, amazing. Thank you, David. It's happy to second. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any oppose, please say nay. Hearing none, it passes. Uh, moving on to items for presentation. We've got a school update by Miss John. >> Thank you. Good evening. I'm very excited to be here giving my first school update uh as the assistant principal of mand instruction. So this afternoon I was reviewing this um information sent by Mr. Schmid and I was thinking

014what is one of the biggest update I wanted to bring to our school board and to our community. I wanted to start with a um a genuine appreciation for your support and your um dedication in our school for our um school, our staff, our teachers, our students especially our mentoring program. And I wanted to say thank you for uh approving the new literacy uh based Mandor curriculum major Chinese and easy steps to Chinese because every time I walked into the classroom I see the change. I see how hard the kids are working on their um learning with the textbook with the worksheets and also doing hands-on activities with content instruction. I think that's amazing because we are a Mandarin immersion school. We not only learn the language, we learn the foundations, the literacy and also

015we learn to use the language in other content, other subject area. And I think that's because you approved that curriculum. So we have the opportunity to advance our kids learning. So really thank you for your support in our mentoring program and your presence in cultural events such as the Mid-Autumn Festival. It was such a delight to have everyone showed up at the Mid-Autumn Festival. So thank you for supporting our school, supporting our uh mentor program. And uh uh moving on to school updates. The first thing uh is our teaching team, our teachers, we had a uh thinking maps part one and part two training uh on November 10th. And thank you Dr. Henry for providing this PD for us and for our school board to approve the professional development. We are very happy to see

016our entire teaching team including some of our instructional aids very engaged at the um professional development learning about using thinking maps how to um inspire our students and deeper their thinking in reading writing in math in all the different areas they're learning on and we're very happy to see some early implementations in u mand teachers classrooms English teachers classroom and also from our specialty teachers were very happy to see coach K using one of the circle uh circle maps in uh in his um PE lesson during one of the raining days. So some early implementation results are um are something I wanted to share with you and uh we will have our part three and part four thinking maps uh training with our teachers on two uh Wednesdays in January and February and uh we

017also discuss with our instructional leadership team about the parent communication plan for thinking maps because it's a schoolwide initiative we wanted to keep our parents updated and communicated on how we're going to roll out the thinking the implementation of thinking maps. So right now what we uh are planning to do is to create a spreadsheet for our teachers. So teachers can choose the map they will be using and the topic they're covering for each week. So it's a it's a more organic plan for teachers to choose based on the needs they see and the topics they're teaching. Uh so that's about thinking maps. And moving on to winter concert. We have a great a smooth winter concert um the past Wednesday and we were able to have a staggered schedule uh to help alleviate the

018traffic and the parking situation for our families and we did get some feedback from our parents um about the winter concert. One of the biggest feedback was uh parents wanted to see more instruct uh instruments during the winter concert and I know Mr. Schmidter and Miss Bower, our music teacher, are working very closely to make that happen and to incorporate more instruments including ukulele and other instruments in the next concert and for next year. And uh uh last Friday we had OCDE extended learning department coming to our school for a site visit. And the uh feedback we re uh received were complimentary overall and we got some u constructive feedback on how to improve uh our extended learning program and one of the feedback was to think of think of uh adjusting the homework time

019for our early elementary or lower uh elementary grade levels. And I know Mr. Schneider and Mr. Gio are working to adjust the after school club schedules to uh make sure we adjust homework time for our early elementary students. Any questions so far? No. Okay, moving on to the next one. Great. This is something I'm really excited. So last Friday uh I uh was able to send out the our first GATE newsletter to our fourth and fifth grade gate uh families and this is something uh I'm really passionate about. So I'm working with Dr. Henry and Mr. Schmid uh Mr. Schmid and Mr. Fernandez to ensure we have a good gate program to uh so to support our uh student our gate students in fourth and fifth grade uh fourth through eighth grades. So, the GATE

020newsletter uh was sent out last Friday, and we're planning to have a gate par workshop on January 29th um to give parents an update about how we're going to roll out our gate pro gate program and what resources parents can use to support our gate students and provide parents some opportunities for discussions and for um plans for keep um to keep our gate program um improved and going. Yeah. And the next one on the same day of the gate parent workshop, we will have OCD uh coming to our site for an authorizer visit. And this is an opportunity for us to present our data to show how what we are doing to highlight the growth um the success we have as a school and also to get some feedback on how we can keep improving

021our school uh school's development. And uh moving on to the next item on Thursday, the day after tomorrow, we'll have a coffee with principal and after that we'll have our first curriculum committee where we'll give parents an opportunity to provide input for the curriculum that's up to review. Uh which I believe our math um comprehensive sex um curricula. It's our math comprehensive sexual education and for 8th grade. and then um science as well for elementary. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Uh to give parents an opportunity to uh give us input on the curriculum as um Dr. Harry just mentioned. Any questions about these items? >> Yeah, I do. >> Yes, >> I do have a question on on the G program. Do do you have any plans >> uh for more advanced grades like

022six and and above? Six and above. >> Yeah. For Yes. >> So, um >> preliminary thinking. >> Yeah. As the students roll up, we currently have only fourth and fifth grade. We will continue to offer differentiated opportunities for students and enrichment. Um but I think it's also important to acknowledge that we do have accelerated classes in mathematics in um >> starting in sixth grade also that lead to algebra. So it it's it's about the opportunities for learning enrichment um but also uh classwork and differentiation. So we'll continue to add as our current students get older and we add more students in. >> Yeah. Thank you. Any more questions on the items here? Okay. No questions. The uh last slide I have here are some upcoming events. So, tomorrow we'll have a staff holiday party at

023300 p.m. and our uh our community will be there and thank you PTO for sponsoring this event for us for us to get together before the holiday season. It's really nice that PTO is doing this for us. And uh the next day, Thursday, we'll have our coffee with principal and also the first curriculum committee to get parent input on our committee review uh curriculum review. And then the following two weeks is winter break when we come back from uh the winter break. On the 5th school resumes and on the 8th we have our school site council and on January 13th is the first local control and accountability plan LCAP advisory meeting number one that we'll be getting together to hear parents input on our school growth and to present data to our parents. And on

024the 19th, no school because it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Yes. And that's pretty much what I have here. Uh just it's the holiday season. I really wanted to say thank you for our school board for your support to our school and our mentoring program. It means a lot to our teachers, our students. When we see them smile, when when I see them engage in the classroom, I know it's not just our teachers. It's our administration team, our staff, our instructional aids and also your dedication in our mentor program. So, thank you so much. Yeah, that's pretty much what I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any more questions or >> Yeah, I do have a question with uh that's excellent update. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. uh what is the uh

025how many teach men mandaring uh language teachers as of today? >> How many language teachers? Because we are 5050 model. So elementary >> we have if I'm remembering correctly 12 teachers because I'm thinking to order something for them. I was doing ahead. So yeah 12 mandarin teachers. >> 12 mandarin teachers. Okay. >> Any more questions? I I don't have a question but I just want to thank you for your hard work and I know you spend a lot of time with the men and teacher individually especially implementing the thinking map and I think that will really help the student help the teachers as well. So yeah thank you for encouraging them and working together. Thank you. Thank you. It's a good team. It's a nice team to work with. Everyone is dedicated and open-minded, open

026to more ideas and sharing resources. So, it's a it's a good team. Yeah. And uh I also have some preliminary level learning data here I wanted to share very quickly. Um so, beginning of the school year, our schoolwide data was 10% of our students schoolwide was meeting and exceeding grade level benchmarks. But now middle of the year, middle of the year, we have 34% of the students meeting and exceeding grade level benchmarks. Compared to last year's MOY data, middle of data, last year we had 16% at the same time of the year who were meeting and exceeding grade level benchmark. So this year we doubled that number from 16% to 34%. So just wanted to share some holiday joy joy to you that uh it's it's really great to see our students making progress and

027thank you thank you for your support. Yeah, >> thanks. I have a a question. Are we working with any outside third parties and any consulting services consulting services related to the mandarin program at this point? >> Uh not right now. We work with level learning. uh level learning was able to provide uh support for us and in person two times per year inerson training to our teachers to do data dive. Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Uh the other thing I wanted to say is thank you because I know >> being that we were providing bilingual education here. The mandering program was one that needed more help you know from from the beginning. So, uh, I personally seen a remarkable difference in our program here. So, you deserve much of that credit. I know there's

028a team that that helps it, but you've helped lead it. So, thank you very much. and also want to say thank you for your willingness and can do attitude and assisting with the gay program or you know the the thinking maps or just your you're thinking beyond the manner program and I think your help is greatly appreciated here and recognized. So thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. I have passion in curriculum instruction so Dr. Henry was able to mentor me a lot on that. So I appreciate you too Dr. Henry. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Um I just want to make a comment. Okay. Number one, I think you know to the extent IA's bilingual, you know, dual lingual program, you played instrumental role, okay, in leading the charge in

029implementing language mentoring language programs. Um, we do appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you. And uh yeah just uh I when today you guys are announcing the winners of the spelling be I was think maybe someday can have a spelling be you know for mandering or >> last year we had it. >> Yeah that would be truly you know. >> Yeah that's that's on the agenda too. So last year we had the first mandar master here at IIA. This year we're continuing to have it and our teachers are already planning for the preliminary round uh for early and uh early February and it's a schoolwide uh not including TK because they're not learning to uh decode vocabulary and writing yet. So yeah, there is a mandary spelling. Yes. And I'm I'm also sending emails to

030other schools to see if there's a potential or opportunity for us to work with them to have our students compete with them or build that connection in that way so we can further our students learning. Yeah. But thank you. Yeah. >> Very nice. Thank you again. Thank you. Uh anything else related to school update? If not, we'll move on to financial update. Mr. Miller. Mr. Miller, are you there? I am. Good afternoon everyone or good evening. >> Good evening. Thank you for your patience. >> Yep. No problem. I'm just going to go ahead and jump right into it. Tonight I have two items for presentation tonight. I've got the October actuals and then I have the first interim um report. Really the majority of what I'm going to cover tonight is the October actuals because

031it's the only new information that you're going to receive tonight. The first interim report is more of a bureaucratic formality. Um just a report of where we're at and what our budget is um to OCD. So without further ado, go ahead and share. Can you all see this? Okay. >> Yes. >> Great. So jumping right into it, our actual revenue uh through October was around 2.4 report 2.5 million, our budget was 2.2 million. On the expense side of things, our actuals are 2.6 million, and our budget was 2.5 million. So, getting into what made up the variances on the revenue side of things, the reason we were over our budget is because one, LCFF, we in July, we got a $47,000 ILPT check. It was an approval for July. Without this check, we would have

032been under budget. Um, which is what honestly I expect at this point. Um, what I expect is things to true up and ramp up uh starting in February. So again, February as a reminder to the board is when you will start being paid out based on fiscal data of this or excuse me, your student data of this year. So because of that big, you know, um student increase, you'll get a quite a quite a big jump in in your LCFF checks. Uh starting in February, uh local revenue was actually significantly over. Again, this is the kind of thing where I wanted to keep the estimate for local revenue extremely conservative. I saw Delano in the initial budget at 14,000 and Dr. Henry and I when we discussed it, we thought it better to just be

033really conservative and and kind of go listen all the rest of it instead of what you guys had last year. And um it just clearly we're going to we're going to take it up in the second inter wherever we're at actually at that time. Um but we're definitely going to be taking that up in future budget revisions. Uh all of that is slightly offset by federal revenues having come in extremely normal for this time of year. Um, a lot of them are reimbursement based. Think you know child nutrition, we really don't get that money until we start reporting on what we've spent on child nutrition. Uh, and then title funding, we have seen kind of a slowdown. I assume it's due to the government shutdown. All of my schools um have seen those kind of

034funds be very slow to roll in. So that's kind of the revenue side of things. On the expense side of things, I did note that personnel expenses, and this is in totality. So, this is we're talking, you know, salaries and benefits came in around 132K over budget. Um, we're going to dig into this more in the second interim revision or just around February is going to be when we when we get down into the nitty-gritty of that. Um, my guess here is we're either missing a salary or someone was hired after we did the first budget revision or that the salaries that were in the first budget revision, I know some of them, Dr. Henry noted, were being negotiated. So, there's potentially they were, you know, we ended up paying them higher than what we

035projected and then over the course of a few salaries that would make up that differential. So again, we'll keep an eye on it and and chew it up the second interro books and book supplies came in 65K over um and then m the majority of this was in court curriculum which is great because I noted that in court curriculum the total spent was 166K and our total budget was 293K. I think some of what was coded I think some of what was coded to different object codes um should have been coded a core curriculum. So I think we're looking more at around 200,000 is where we're at on on the core curriculum. So we're still very under budget um in a place where I don't think too much at the end of the year. So

036overall things look good on that front and then uh services came in 47k under very miscellaneous but didn't feel any one expense was big enough to to shed light on. So, uh, net income is a deficit of 158, much better, almost 50% better than what we were projecting at this point of the year. And again, deficits are very normal, just to remind the board, um, for this time of the year. And again, we probably won't see something positive until, you know, May, June timeline. So, any any questions on the actuals to budget before I move on? Uh Brad, I have a question on the curriculum. So for do we have any rough estimate on the sex education curriculum because that's yet to be defined what that is. Is that right? So we haven't purchased it

037yet and I was just curious what the cost is. >> I'm sorry. Can you repeat the question? I want to >> So on the curriculum side, you said there's going to be we're not expecting much more in the way of expense for curriculum. Absolutely. There's some curriculum that we haven't purchased or >> No, no, we do most of our purchasing of curriculum in August and unless we have something unexpected come up. Um the way I would like to see this play out is your curriculum is planned in the summer and um there is uh it's part of your LCAP and your strategic plan. And so, um, if there's going to be anything that we're looking at, it would be for this school year, we may, um, based on our our early literacy assessment results. I

038shared with you there's a TK through two or I'm sorry, K through2 assessment, we might look at piloting some early phonics, early reading curriculum, but only for those grade levels. And it would be a at a low cost. Um, but any of the curriculum reviews that we're doing right now, which could require purchasing, those would all happen for next year. Um, so and most of them we try to make after July 1. So it's on next year's budget. Um, so we aren't adopting anything new for this year. We are set with our curriculum. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> I have a question, M. Um you you explained the you know the the the expense. Okay. So by increase um by whatever four 4.2% over budget right mostly due to personnel expense. What what is

039that additional hiring or just you know salary increase? I think it'll be something that we understand more uh when we really look into hey here's what's actually being paid out on a bi-weekly basis versus we have kind of an internal tool called a payroll roster. >> Um it's an exercise we did with Dr. Henry and um Eva who's kind of your guys's payroll and HR person though I don't know her full title so only in the capacity that she works with me and my team. Um but you know they help put together this kind of payroll roster which is a you know giant Excel sheet of hey here's exactly um who is employed currently and here's what their salary is and then my sheet goes ahead and estimates benefits. Um this was done for the

040first budget revision. I want to say it was in September uh when I brought the board the first budget revision and uh a lot of my guess is that some of those salaries and and I and I'm sure Dr. Henry can speak to this as well were being either negotiated or someone was hired in you know in that September time time when we created that tool that feeds into what the total personnel expenses should be. So, um, if you don't mind, um, I think when, uh, Nick is saying negotiated, I'll explain it this way. If you recall, um, the board approved a lot of salary schedules as well as job descriptions. And once um, it was right when I got here, right, um, when Miss Serrano presented those to the board, a lot of them

041were based on teacher units, teacher education. uh we were missing transcripts. So when we cleaned it up to put everyone on a salary schedule, I would say most of the summer we had teachers turning in copies of transcripts, uh finish, you know, showing proof of degrees that weren't being acknowledged before. Um but I it we need to dig a little bit deeper. It could also be um the need for increased ELOP support um with our instructional aids. And so we're going to look a lot deeper into where exactly that came from. >> But you're referring to the negative 42%, right? >> Yeah. So I So Mr. Can you clarify this negative 42.9% over our current budget? >> You know, sometimes I delete this in all honesty because I think it's more confusing. >> It is

042confusing. So, are you saying are you saying we're 42% >> over our budget? >> So, this is this is the less fun version of what I just presented. Um, if financials could be less fun. So, right here we have this is just kind of a snapshot of where we are actual to budget wise. So what I'm saying by that negative 40 49 or whatever it was percent is just that we are beating our budget by almost 50. >> So that's a positive positive. >> It's no no it's totally normal. Um it's it's something that heard that >> it's a better than expectation. That's what you're saying. Well, I was surprised to see I mean uh we are uh our cash flow positive but we're still kind of running on you know in deficit. >> I'm

043sorry would you >> we we are still gener we we are still cash flow positive while net income basis is still negative. Yeah, great question. That's that's a fantastic question. So, um, we are cash flow positive currently, though we we are incrementally losing cash, but in a place where we still I think today we have $1.2 million in cash because we did we had a meeting earlier today between CSMC and IA team and we went over cash and I believe the number was 1.2 or 1.3 billion in cash currently. So again, I and I was going to touch on this in a minute, but we can just cut to the chase now. Cash looks very strong. One of the reasons cash looks strong is we'll get restricted funding. So we'll get um you know cash

044for let's say the new student um development and professional block grant fund. um that cash and eventually down the road we'll have to tag expenses to that re resource but for now we get the cash but for now it's living on the balance sheet so it doesn't show up in the P&L until we spend the we tag expenses to those revenues and then we recognize that revenues but we're still getting it as cash. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. So you're seeing, you know, part of that has not been recognized as the revenue, right? >> Exactly. So right now, I would really say, and I talked to Dr. Henry about this this morning, cash is really in a in a in a good spot right now. Again, we're keeping a very very close eye on

045it. You know, our team and I are bi-weekly meetings. We always kind of we kick it off with payroll. The very next thing we do is we immediately jump into the cash flow reports. And again, things are looking positive. Again, February, February 16th is our big kind of hurrah day where we're expecting to get that kind of P1 much larger ILPT check from OCD. Um that should really start to, you know, um increase revenue much higher than what your guys' typical monthly expenses are. So, we're kind of waiting for that point. Um and but until then again we're keeping a very close eye on it and things look things things look very positive. >> Thank you Mr. May. >> Yep. No problem. >> Anything else regarding the actual to budget or or cash quite frankly?

046>> Okay. >> I agree. >> Okay. Sounds great. These are a few, you know, um, targets we like to use when talking about cash. It's just a good way to find cash. But since we just talked about it, I I won't go through the the nitty-gritty of each one. Balance sheet wise, you guys look really good. Nothing really nothing's changed almost at all for for the past few months. I'll just go ahead and point this out though. cash and cash equivalents um are now 1.1 million as of October, but I think as of today is 1.3. Um the only other thing I'll add, and I don't know the exact name of the loan, but we did have $65,000 in outstanding loan, the nonende bank loans, and those have all been paid as of November. So,

047just wanted to throw that in there. I know there was um I believe I met with Felipe um and Dr. Henry earlier on in the week and there was some discussion about the importance of of one of those payouts but we are IA is is completely paid off. So just wanted to mention that on the balance sheet side a quick picture of me when I were here and then we have the looking ahead. So really everything was filed and everything was good. The audit was filed the audit is clean no findings. Um the first annual report was submitted on time, which is great. Um all we're looking at coming up is really P1. Uh we have a few CNBC reportings coming up that CSMC will take care of, but other than that, very straightforward until

048um after the holidays. Any questions on the October financial list? >> Yeah, looking at the balance sheet uh in terms of liabilities, where is the Endeavor loan in there? So, the Endeavor loan is actually under other short-term liabilities. Um, we it could it necessarily it could be under long-term liabilities as a loans payable, but I think we categorized it under short-term as a under short-term liabilities because when we initially took over the books from the law, that's where he had it and for continuity with OCD, we just thought it would be best to keep it where it was. But it's within this 600,000 >> is 375 >> for the Endeavor Bank loan. Yes. And that's really the last loan that's needs to be repaid. >> Yeah. >> So very again very good position to be

049in especially with how we're trending for this year. Um, we'll keep our eye on things, but if expenses stay the same, you guys could be finishing in that like we'll have to take another look at payroll again, obviously, but I think if you guys finish in, you know, even above $500,000 range in terms of an end ofear surplus, you could potentially pay off the loan all in one go at the end of this year, or you could opt to, again, if you finish in this positive surplus that I'm hoping and forth expenses save the second. But you guys could if you're looking to grow uh potentially, you know, kick the kick the loan down the down the road and then use some of that cash for growth. But it's a conversation for another day. But

050yeah, things look good. >> What is the total size of the loan and what is the weighted average interest rate or paying for the loan? Because I understand the loans were taken at a different time, right? You may have different interest rates. >> Yeah. So, there's only one loan remaining. It's just the Endeavor loan that's remaining. I believe the monthly payment was something from like it's something around like it's from 14 to like 20ish,000 I want to say. Um, it's something I can look into and get you a hard fiscal figure, but it's not like a figure that's, you know, going to bankrupt you in terms of cash. It's just a very normal interest payment. Um, and something that if we finish the year with a very good% off. >> Okay. It was only one%.

051>> All right. >> What was that? N >> 9. >> Yes, it's 9%. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh, another >> Okay. All right. Sounds good. >> Okay. >> Um, anything else? >> I'm okay. >> Okay. I will go ahead and move over to the least funl looking spreadsheet. This is the first interim. This is OCD's special version of it. You're going to notice a lot of familiar figures here. And I'm just going to go ahead and cut to the chase and go to the most important line, which is this one right here. These numbers in each of these columns represent where your kind of current or projected ending fund balance is. Quickly to scroll up. >> Which tab are you on? Sorry, are you on the summary tab? What's up? >> Which tab are

052you on? >> Are you on the summary? >> The first interim budget tab >> and it's it is a bit of a hefty report. Um, so if there are any questions, please feel free to stop me. There's there's quite a bit on here, but it's everything you guys have already seen before. If we didn't get my >> What was that? >> Don't worry. Please continue. >> They're pulling it out of the folder. >> Okay, no worries. >> Um, do you want me to wait until you guys get it pulled up? I don't want to start. >> I think we're on it. We're on it. >> Okay, great. So, I'm just on the first interim budget tab. What we're looking at here is from columns F to H. This is your adopted budget. So this is

053what Delano and Amy put together way back in July. Columns I through K are actuals through October, which is what I just presented. And then columns L through N are your initial budget. So this is the um interim budget that we approved in September. So again, I'm not going to go over every line. What I am going to do is I'm going to look at this line right here, which is the important one. You're going to recognize this number. This deficit of 158 is what I just presented on. Um I can't remember Amy. Uh Amy and Delano's number is 1.2 million. That was what they were projecting at the start of the year. And after me and Dr. Henry took another look at it, we're saying, hey, we're projecting just 100 million. Um, and that's

054really what this is. This is there's there's really not much new here. It's really just kind of hey telling OCD here's where we're at actually and then here's what we're projecting. Here's the difference of what we're projecting now versus what we projected at the start of the year. Um, other than that, these other tabs, they just wanted some kind of additional fiscal information. But this is really as far as what's federally required um and required by the state. This this is really the only tab of note. So any questions on on the first interim? >> No. >> Okay. All right. Sounds good. Well, I think that's all I have for everyone tonight. Any any other questions before I before I wrap up? And uh >> yeah, just finish off my >> Yeah, Mr. Miller. Yeah,

055if you project by the end of uh calendar year uh so the net income is going to be positive >> or still negative. >> Oh yeah. So that number in terms of the uh end of year projection currently based on our September budget it's a $1 billion surplus which is f you know just fantastic. I will say and just to caveat it slightly, I do think because of salaries and benefits being higher by that like 138k that it was earlier in the year, that number will have to be adjusted and probably that expense will be taken up. So I think the number will be somewhere it and then it just depends on what that was. If it was ELOP spending, then the number won't rise that much. But if it's say you know um a

056few people's salaries got updated with the step and column and those are of significance and there those are higher or there's new you know employees that weren't accounted for in September then that could be up in a way that would put a dent in the billion dollars that you know might come down to 500,000. So I think if things are trending as they are, I would guess you will end the year in a positive surplus of somewhere between 500,000 to a billion would be would be my estimate. But it's kind of that's kind of a shot from half court. It's a bit too early to tell. >> You you were seeing 500,000 to that's cash position or net income. >> That would just be that would be net income. So that would be >> Yeah.

057So that would be that would be your net income. basically seeing you know the kind of the com you know uh salary everything is nonrecurring then you end up in a positive territory in terms of net income right >> I think you guys are in that strong of a fiscal position because a lot of you know what could make up some of the difference in salary is a lot of that local revenue that you guys like you know if you if you still have it up you can refer to line row 60 61 which is all local revenues. Um if you note in line 61 um in column L and in column F again we I just match what had in terms of local revenue since he had more experience and you know Dr. Henry

058and I wanted to stay conservative. We only had $14,000 in there and to date we have $171,000. Um, so that's, you know, that's a significant difference and it's something that we're receiving a lot more local revenue than we than we expected and that could help make up some of the difference in salary. So again, there's a lot of moving variables. It's too early to know, but cash is good and we're we're trending better than our budget currently in terms of actual. So things are things are positive. >> Thank you. No more questions. >> All right, Mr. Miller. Thank you very much. Uh, moving on to California School Dashboard. Dr. Henry. >> Thank you everyone. I'm going to take my leave now. >> Thank you. Merry Christmas. >> Merry Christmas. >> Happy Hanukkah. Whatever you celebrate.

059Okay. Thank you. Um, this is a required presentation on the California school dashboard. Um, but we can go through this fairly quickly. So, just to summarize, if you're familiar or not familiar with the California school budget or I'm sorry, we're talking budget. California school dashboard. It really is California's accountability system. So, it is uh I'm trying to think how old the dashboard is. Uh, probably probably 10 years old. and it is the way that California determines if schools need additional assistance and some other pieces. Um, it is more than just a single number. So, we presented to you test scores last time, but the dashboard looks at several different things, not just one test scores or a rating score. It looks at a lot of different pieces. It measures continuous improvement, focuses on equity of

060all student groups and um one thing that is really important is that our dashboard helps to inform our LCAP development, local decisionm and it me it measures progress on the eight state priorities. So if I were to explain the basics of the dashboard here, here's what I would say. The icon that you see on the top left, it is a website. So, anyone can access this. If you put in California school dashboard, it comes up and you search any school. This is all public information. Um, and all of this rating is um it's information for anyone who wants it with the grid. Um, very colorful grid there that you see um on the right. I think is probably one of the most important visuals is the dashboard is based on your current status and change.

061So they want to look at where are you this year and how did you change from last year. So if you look at that first column if we are very high performing which obviously IIA we are very high performing we must maintain increase or increase significantly to keep a blue rating. We can still be very high performing but if we decline even a little bit we would get a green rating and if we decline significantly um also we would get a green rating. You can also see you can be high performing and even if you increase a little bit and you're high performing, you're still green. Um, and blue would be you would have to increase significantly. The way I would explain this is a very old-fashioned way as well, but it's it helps people

062understand the colors. If you're looking if you think about the oldfashioned grading system, uh, blue would be an A, green would be a B. That's the target where the state wants everyone to be is green. A C would be yellow, a D would be orange, and red would be uh an F rating. When schools are put into program improvement and other um technical assistance, it is usually because they have either an overall rating with REDS or one of their student groups is constantly getting reds. Um, so let's say our uh if we had a student group of socioeconomically disadvantaged and were pretty good across the board, but they got they got red for absenteeism and red for math and we could find ourselves in trouble. It's not the case, but that's how they look at

063it. And then you can also see the gauges there on the bottom. So red is the lowest performance and blue is the highest. So those are the basics of the dashboard. The dashboard looks at six things. The two middle um circles do not apply to us because we're a TK8. So they do look at high school graduation rate and college and career readiness, but those are for high schools. So for us, it's those outside circles of academic performance, chronic absenteeism, suspension rate, and English learner progress. So those are the things I'm going to share with you today. So this is a picture of our overall dashboard. So you can see that um and this is based on last year's data that for chronic absenteeism, English learner progress, English language arts um academic progress and mathematics

064academic progress, we are um green. For suspension rate, we did have an increase and we did score in the orange. I'm going to show you student groups and you'll see it's still relatively low, but from 23 24 to 2425, even a 1% increase would would put us in the orange because that's a significant increase when it comes to um uh to that indicator. Also, I'll make one more point. You may remember I did this I think one of my first presentations to you uh the local indicators. We do that in June. If you see all those other boxes that say standard met, that's because we we approved our local indicator. So those aren't as meaningful and those aren't what I'm presenting today, but just because it's in the snapshot, I thought I should show you.

065So to dig a little deeper, why are we green? for English language arts and mathematics. You can see uh when I presented to you the test scores, we look at the percent of kids that score exceed or meet standards. This they're looking at raw score points. So for English, the average of our students scored 74.7% above standard, which is very good and considered high performing. Although it's high performing there was a decline of 18.8% or I'm sorry points and so that is why it is green and not blue. For mathematics we are 63.4 points above the standard meaning the average raw scores of all of our students they add them up they divide them and most of our students uh or the the average score is 63.4% 4% above that standard which is great but

066it declined by 25.3% or points excuse me and that is why um we we are green. I did want to make a note. You can see on the left that ELA we are at a very high that that first line that I showed you on that first slide, we are at the highest um status. Our EEL's were at a medium status. Um and then if you look at the little cards on the bottom where it says red zero, orange zero, one yellow, one green, I put it on the left there. So for ELA, the ELA they call it like a baseball card. um eels's was the subgroup that was yellow and our Asian population were the subgroup that was green. No other subgroups or student groups show for us because we did not have significant

067numbers in 2324 and 2425 cuz remember the dashboard looks at change. So we had a whole bunch of student groups that showed no color but they're still part of this average. And then for mathematics um we are all we are also the highest status and um for green um both our eels's and Asian student groups scored in the green. They were our significant student groups for English learner progress. 50% of our English learners are making pro progress which is that's pretty good. Um and that and it increased 5.2%. So that is really good news and we have 75 students English learners for chronic absenteeism. Now remember you want your test scores to go up increase you want suspension and chronic absenteeism to go down. So going down here is a good thing for chronic absenteeism.

0685.7% of our students are chronically absent. And what that means is they're missing 10% or more of the school year. And for any reason, it's ex it's not unexcused. It's any reason if they miss 10 or more% which is 18 school days, they are considered chronically absent. And although it's 5.7, it declined. It went down. So that's great news by 2.7%. And so uh we were in the green for that. And if you wanted to look at some of the student groups, I have them listed on the left hand side of specific student groups that showed uh a percentage. So although overall it's 5.7%, our white population was 11.7%. Our English learners 8.5, our socioeconomically disadvantaged were at 10%. And I'm having a hard time seeing. It's cutting off the um Asian percent which was

069blue. Can you see the percent? My screen's off a little bit. Hold on. There you go. Is 2.8%. One of the ways that we're working to improve this is you can help with the chronically absent by fill by doing short-term independent study packets. And as I shared, we went through a very big revamp of our short-term independent study process over the last few weeks. Uh and then finally, we have our suspension rate. So suspension rate is orange. Um we only had 1.4% 4% of our students suspended. So that's not a lot, but the increase was 1.2%. And that's why it is an orange grade. So we're looking at those numbers and you can see the percentages on the side with suspension rate. And that just means we had more suspensions in 2425 than we did

070in 2324. science, we did not get a performance color because our numbers in 23 24 were very low. We didn't have an eighth grade class. So, the overall numbers were low. Um, but our students did pretty well in science with 73.2 points above standard. Even though it went down a tiny bit, it's high performing enough that they consider that maintained um just going down 1.8%. So science is looking pretty good, but we didn't get a performance color. So what are we going to do about it? What are our next steps? So some of these things you'll see are similar to what we're also doing about the CASP. But when we have our first LCAP advisory meeting in January, the first meeting is a deep dive data analysis looking at all these scores, looking at our

071student groups. We have implemented thinking maps and also some stronger intervention strategies in MLDD and EL to help with the academic scores. We will have a CASP 101 in March to um help start CASP prep. And so our teachers are using the tools. We have improved our short-term independent study practices to offset the chronic absenteeism and we are monitoring our suspension practices to make sure that we're not out of whack. So, I don't know if you have any questions for me at this time, but that is our those are our dashboard results for this school year. Thank you for the update. I I do have a questions regarding uh you know English language and mass. I you know notice it's great to look in the green area. Yeah. But uh the declines measured against what

072the previous year. >> Yes. So the dashboard is always going to look at your current status and how you changed from the previous year. So that decline is they take how we did in 2023 >> compared to how we did in 2425. And then next year when we're presenting this, it'll be based on this year's data compared to 24 25 years data. So they are they're always going to look at two years and so that it goes back to that kind of a this one on the basics. >> It's it's almost like you can be very high performing but you got to keep it up, right? like you can't just become comfortable because if you look at that first line across very high. If you decline even a little bit, you're going to green. And

073uh our scores, although we are green, are still in that very high category. In the reports, and I looked them all up to make sure, you know, I had the right information for you. They show it's uh this 5x5 card is what they call it. And I that on the side what I wrote when it was very high or medium or wherever because you can be you can be green and be either in the very high category, high category or medium category. It just depends on if you improved or declined. >> Yeah. Okay. On the English side, uh 18 point almost 19 points drop. That's quite significant. at more even more significant is the mass right 25 >> 3% drop I wonder why >> yeah we're looking at our practices um are the alignment of

074the curriculum with the state standards um in instructional practices in math overall uh we did have a significant growth in our population um that probably had something to do with it but Um >> we should still be a high performing school which which we are but we need to show more increase or maintaining that high performance than declining. >> So these are numbers across the board right from a different what degrees what degrees level. So these are um the testing grades are grades 3 through eight. >> And um and and and again this measure is very different than when we looked at CASP scores by percentage points because it's not 25%. It's 25 points. And the points differ for every single grade level. But I'm going to say 2500 points. Let's say is the math

075standard. Okay? That's like this is where we want everybody to hit and it's 2500 points. Our when they added up all of our student scores, their raw scores and then divided them, our overall students were 63.4 points above that 2500. Um I've worked in places where it's well below the standard, right? So it's for me to have the positive of above the standard is is a good thing. >> Yeah. >> But we know how well our students can perform. >> Yeah. It would be very interesting to look carefully into the data, the raw data because I mean you know this is the overall data but I would you know really kind of dive deep into the data compare you know the numbers especially some of the stu you know individual students and see how they

076compare with the previous year you know the declines attributed to the overall performance or some new students maybe you know come from different background and kind of bring down the numbers. I mean, I would be very keen on you knowing. >> So come from. So when we get the test scores even early when we get preliminary before these all come out because they come out kind of after the fact we share those with our teachers and then when the school year starts they can see depending on the grade level but for the upper grades they can see their current students scores what they scored before they came over and we also want them to see how their kids did so they can do kind of that like review and reflection ction of oh my kids

077last year you know they they needed to be stronger in this claim because also we we do look very deep and it divide we can see for mathematics let's say if it's um mathematical functions if it's applying the reasoning like we can see the claims >> and so they can see how their kids did from the previous year as well as how my current kids did >> okay thank you >> of course thank you >> I just Sorry, >> I was just wondering um would the score be slightly different if we do the elementary and apart from the middle school would it be different? So one of the I haven't done the distance from standard these points but when we looked at the percentages we did we looked at middle school it and compared to

078elementary and actually our middle school did very well. We I I think if you recall that presentation, we had two low grade levels which were fourth and fifth I believe. And when we just just for the fun of it, Mr. Gibbons is also uh loves data as much as I do. So he's always sending me new data reports and he did a he did a report of just our middle school data compared to all the schools in Irvine and we did very well compared to the other middle schools. >> Yeah. And we're continuing to look at that and then how we support those grade levels that may need more support. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Okay, we'll move on to items for discussion and possible action. >> Take

079your time. >> I'm good. >> Uh, first item is ratify the 2024 2025 audit report for the year ended 2025. Each year, an audit of IIA's financials must be completed by an independent audit firm in accordance with government auditing standards and federal audit regulations. Audit reports must be submitted to OCD by December 15, 2025 and filed with CDE, the state controllers office. The local county superintendent of schools and the chartering entity. LCAP goal action not applicable. Funding source not applicable. Budget financial impact not applicable is recommended the board of directors ratify action item A. Any comments or discussion? So I would like to share the again the reason why it is a ratification is just because I had to submit it yesterday and so we did submit on time. Um also we had no findings

080and just to make it easier for you I just printed out it's a 33page document. I've reviewed the whole thing. Um but I just put the findings. You can see um here this was kind of the the bottom line the last few pages. So, we did have no audit findings and um no concerns, which is wonderful. And I do, if if I if you don't mind, I'd like to thank our staff. Um completing the audit process, it's very time inensive and our team worked really well together. Um Mary Beth Chen kind of leads the charge on that and she did a lot of work on the audit. Um, so I was very pleased with our team's performance and you know some of the things we had to question and reach out to them, but also

081working with Christy White is a very positive experience as well. They're very helpful. Thank you very much. Is there a motion on this? >> I motion. >> Thank you, Molly. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, David. All in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Please say nay. None. it passes. Next, uh item B, ratify the 202526 first interim financial report. Charter schools are required by education code section 47604.33 to submit budgets and interim reports to their chartering agency for review. Lap goal action all goals funding source not applicable budget financial impact not applicable. It's recommended the board of directors ratify action item B. Any comments? I can say this is um was the second part of Mr. Miller's presentation was looking at the first interim. A lot of the work

082we had done ahead of time when we adjusted the budget in September. A lot a lot we adjusted because we had a new executive director and a new u back office provider. So we did that work early. Um and so we got to see kind of the actuals of where we were. Um, in other years we may be doing all those adjustments at this meeting, but we had already board approved that in the past and it's also ratified because everything was submitted yesterday. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, is there a motion? >> I'll make a motion, I think. >> Thank you, David. I'm happy to second. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any oppose, please say nay. Hearing none. It passes. Next, approve middle school studentled club. I established an application and

083approval process for middle school studentled clubs and organizations. Board review and approval for student led clubs include the club's purpose, membership rules, and adherence to policies to ensure proper function and accountability. We received our first student led club application called IIA crew club LCAP goal action goal one action 12 budget or funding source not applicable budget financial impact not applicable it's recommended board of directors approve action item C any comments >> I can say uh we did have a student um that was interested in starting a club uh as We're looking at uh our middle school really our middle school students feeling like middle school students and having the experience of being middle school students we think is really important. Um and so once we had the um request we did some research on other

084district schools club application processes and um we put together what I think is a pretty good application process. The piece that we're missing right now and was not included was um the financial piece for clubs because we don't have an official assoc. We have leadership but not ASV. So we we don't have that which kind of simplifies things. And so um our student went through the process, got the petition, filled out the paperwork. Um then it goes to our leadership teacher, Mr. Gibbons, just to review that all the pieces are there and it's complete. And then it goes to Mr. Schmid actually meets with the student just to talk through what's the purpose, when are you going to meet, like how how is this going to work? And then uh he signs off and then

085it goes to the board. In the future, what I see this looking at is just kind of a list of clubs for the year >> and not but because this is the first one, that's why we're doing it this way, but we're excited. >> Will there be a wall of clubs or something so the students can see which clubs are available? Absolutely. There should be like on the website we'll have a list of clubs. We'll have a schedule. Um things like that especially as the middle school grows. Um you know which could be in a few years could you know it'll start next year. We'll be about the same size but um uh but I we're hoping to provide more and more of those unique middle school opportunities to our kids. >> So this would

086be uh initiated by stu students right? >> Yes. and uh uh after school >> after school and then they have to get um a staff advisor as part of it to sign off. Um and I believe this club has two adviserss uh staff that you know so that they need to switch off so that there's always staff supervision as well and that's part of the meeting that Mr. Schmid has. >> Yeah. So I know that you know you access right now. >> Yes. >> Okay. So we also have a room for them or do they have to meet the requirement? >> So that is part of it when they are looking for u their staff advisor is they come up with where they're going to meet as well. >> So I'm so proud of the

087kids that are leading this and I would like to make a motion. This is fantastic for the inaugural club for the school. I'd like to make a motion >> to approve this. Okay. One second. >> Oh, I just second. Okay. All right. So, >> all right. So, all in favor, please say I. >> Any oppose? Please say nay. Hearing none. It passes. And I it's I looked at the application >> and it looks so well structured. I think the process is good. You had, you know, president, a vice president, you've got the staff. This is very good. So, thank you. Wonder. >> Yeah. I'm pleased, too. Okay. Uh, congratulations to those involved and may there be many close. Okay. Next, approve agreement between Irvine International Academy and University of Massachusetts Global. UMass Global. University of

088Massachusetts Global requested that internship and fieldwork be approved for Irvine International Academy to become an approved placement site for students enrolled in the College of Education programs. Cap goal. Action. Goal one. Action two, funding source not applicable, budget, financial impact not applicable. It's recommended the board of directors approve action item D. Any comments? >> Yes. So, we this is our second time bringing this to a board meeting and I I want you to know that I looked through all of the pieces and I did put in an earlier board update um all of the findings. So, I think the major concerns were the language and agreement were being used um what's the right word? uh >> interchangeably. >> Yes, interchangeably. Thank you. Um also was looking at our insurance coverage um which they re they

089require $1 million and I have our insurance plans um we are $5 million. So we well exceed that. And then the the piece about if we're paying or if they're paying so for the fieldwork agreement we uh there is no payment. It is a student teacher agreement. The intern agreement is only we will pay if we want to hire a an intern and we would only do that if we needed the position and then we would also go through the full hiring process. We do have one intern right now from Cal State Long Beach and we did go through the interview process and the vetting process and everything else. we're just paying as an intern instead of um you know as a regular employee. So it just gives us that option if we have a

090need but we do not have any need right now for that. >> I recall we have a last uh in the last board meeting we asked for the I think a revision or modification. >> Oh we did also revise it. Thank you. Um we revised it putting me as the main contact person. and we thought that would be better. So worked with um our director of HR as well as the team to make sure that everything was aligned. >> So what what are the changes uh the major changes for for >> the only change that we have is the contact is me. this is theirou but I made uh all of the I had written down all of the concerns that we had to make sure that we um could cover all of those concerns

091for example insurance the language make double-checking on that there would be no payment for field work and there was none >> okay >> there's two different ones and so I think that's why um for the intern one one and also making sure that that we would um >> it would only be if we had a need to hire. >> Yeah. >> We it would not be imposed upon us. >> Yeah. And uh I also recall you know we we discussed about the difference between and agreement right last time I think there's a some kind of terms. >> Yeah. and and part of that was when I after the board meeting I did double back with the team and um actually they were using it interchangeably as well. It was oh here's yourou and then it

092said agreement. So that's another reason why I made sure that our language met the um >> the language. We changed it to MO. To me, it really kind of looks like >> No, we kept we kept it an agreement as as what is stated on their paperwork. >> Okay. >> But through their like email body >> of communication with us, they were referring it to anou, which is why when we brought it forward last time and and the these types of agreements are commonly calledus in education. So, I think that's why we did it. But but hearing your concern, we cleaned it up to make sure it matched. >> So also the terminology they use so the fill word is student teaching. >> Yes. >> Because either some school work is student teaching student teaching.

093>> Yeah. They call the fieldwork. So I read through the contracts and made sure I understood and they their fieldwork is student teaching. It could also be just observations. Um, but it all kind of falls under that umbrella. The highest level would be, but at this point, we're not an approved school. And even my understanding is that one of our instructional aids is starting their student teaching and observation, their fieldwork through UMass. So, it also could help one of our own employees in the future if we were able to be on their approved list because it we currently are not. Any other questions or comments? >> Okay, it's uh is there a motion? >> I'll motion. >> Thank you, Mo. I'm happy to second. I Okay. >> Sure. >> All right. Uh all in favor,

094please say I. >> I. >> Any oppos? A hearing none. It passes. Thank you. All right. Moving on to the executive director's report. >> Okay. Um so I do want to say it's it's um it's hard to believe that it's the end of the year, end of 2025. I have a lot of um gratitude as we're going into this winter break. There's been a lot of celebration and and joy. Um, I love that we're taking it out with the spirit week for our students and we're seeing our staff and students all get very involved. Um, so I I just am I'm very thankful for my time here at IIA and um, also kind of the family that we have developed and built here. Um, I did say my thank you to the to our leadership

095team for the clean audit, but um, as I shared with my with our team that I'm I'm ready to start living in 2526 and and out of 2425 because I'm reporting and going through the audit. So, it's a it was clean. U, we were able to get everything done and um, it did take take the whole team uh, and a lot of effort to do that. Um, we it was in the school update. Um, but I did want to make sure I acknowledge the fact that we had our first ever Orange County Department of Education ELOP after school program visit and they had not done that before. They have a new team and um they looked at our plans, our paperwork. They they met with um Mr. Schmid, uh Mr. Bravo and myself and we

096went through all of the compliance pieces of our ELOP program, the times, the calendars, are we meeting the hours, and then they walked the program and saw the classes and the rhythms. Um, and it it it is a very positive report. I'm uh I did talk to Mr. Schmidter. I'd like to put it on the page with all of our school reports because it really shows that we are compliant. Um and and as um you know it the program is a lot to manage sometimes with 350 students um but we did get um the rubber stamp that we're doing a great job and that team under Gio's leadership, Mr. Schmid's leadership um they work really hard. They're here every day till six o'clock supporting our kids. And so, um, some of the advice they had

097is just, oh, maybe reschedule this and little things like that, which is actually great advice as well. Um, I'd like to thank Miss Bower. We had a great winter concert. Um, this is her first year here at IIA as a music teacher. Um, and we are working together uh with Mr. Mr. Schmid, with Miss Power, with myself, with some of our families to continue to grow and make our music program the best it can be. But my favorite part is um watching the families watch their kids perform. It's so touching. Um you see such pride. Um and the pictures and the paparazzi that goes off and the kids all look so beautiful in their holiday best dress. Um it was a wonderful day and um I I I have to thank PTO. Today we were

098able yesterday and today we were able to deliver our staff shirts um to all of our staff. This year we're navy blue and they were able to select either an elementary or middle school logo. This is really important for branding, security, safety to have these kinds of things. So, thank you to PTO and also for sponsoring our holiday party that we're going to have tomorrow. Uh we're going to have some games and things and we're excited and um I even had a few of our staff members volunteer to help to make it even better. So, um yeah, we're we're we're super excited. Um I loved seeing our spelling be finalists and even those that couldn't make it. I was there at the event and um our teachers take a lot of ownership over the spelling

099bee event. I love a good spelling bee. So that was super excited. And then I'm going to end on this. It was um last week because uh Mr. Delgado was leaving town. He and I met um with uh Mr. Miller to go over the audit and the first interim. What you saw tonight went very well. As we stepped out of my office, um, Mary Beth Chen was giving a tour of someone that I think this school has been trying to get a hold of since its inception, which is a long time principal. His name is Jean Bedley. He was principal here at this school from 1975 to 1995. And he just happened to stop by because he had a doctor's appointment in the area. So, we gave him a tour. We gave him a shirt.

100Um, Mr. Delgado, uh, myself and, um, Miss Chen, we walked, we spent a lot of time with him. They're going to start to have some reunion events of students that attended this school, and I they he was sharing how much pride they have in this school. So, we're going to develop a partnership. Wouldn't it be great to have alumni from uh from this school supporting IIA? And and if I can quote him, he did say, you can quote me on this. Um he said that he had a lot of alumni who want to bring their children to this location, they love this school. And he said if they see what I what I saw today, they are very lucky to be able to bring their children here. So it was very touching. It was a

101wonderful visit. and we exchanged photos and um and information and so we can help develop that partnership even more. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you um Dr. Henry. Um what a wonderful thing. >> Yeah, I agree with you. I mean it's it's such a um just think about you know, school started. Now it's four four months already. And um I've been reading and learning about I can't believe there's so many things you guys have accomplished um in only four months. It sounds like the whole entire school year, but um I really truly appreciate everyone, you know, the teachers, the administrators, and um you know, I I hope I can get a chance to get to thank them, every single one of them. Um I know I mention this every time uh this is a

102family and but as I think about uh what you guys have been doing is uh it's a family is also a small world. We just gone over the test score and I think about the um which have people from different countries. This is a small world but what I see in um IA is um we care for each other but it's not easy because we are so different the background is different but I see how the teachers administrator you guys respect each other working together um you know like um uh Mrs. Z was talking about the the the Chinese uh uh curriculum and so on. And so we we're all working together. We learn from each other. We support each other and we are also teaching or setting an example for the student to see

103that how we respect each other and also we can be agree and disagree but we we have the same goal to move on. and just there are so many things that I can see IAA is working on. So, thank you very much for your leadership. Um, and I just look forward to 2026. >> I'll make a few comments. Um, yeah, it's been great. I think uh 2025 was a extraordinary year for a okay just see you know put a simple phrase extraordinary and uh you know I can witness the growth transition especially um the growth the further development under your leadership since you came on uh came on board a lot of changes And one thing in particular, every time I was sitting uh in a board meeting, I feel very relaxed and not you

104know as intense as a I think it's a good thing. It's a positive thing and previously every time we came in we didn't know what to expect. Now we we don't don't have that pressure and that's good. Thanks for taking the pressure off and the board member that that's something very special. Uh so I want to comment u Dr. Cry you and your leadership and the staff congratulate you and the team for a wonderful job because this is the the very last board meeting in 2025 right so you're sitting here you think you know what happens and then this whole year you just you can't help but thinking okay it's great a lot of positive things going on. We see growth. We see and we gradually build a culture unique culture associated with I frankly

105even though my kids are currently not here but I just feel more emotionally attached to this school. >> True. >> Yeah. That's not an exaggeration because we we can you know you feel part of it. Yeah. Yeah. So I I just want to comment and uh congratulate you and also congratulate everyone on the team. That's a >> keep a great work and make improvement of our plan for 2026. >> Yeah, thank you. I want to recognize the PTO I think for setting up the stage here. The backdrop is fantastic. Every year they do such a great job >> and take a picture. >> Yeah, it's really excellent. And uh yeah, I echo what what both of you have said. I think the school continues to evolve. It continues to expand. We connect with our heritage.

106I love that we gave a tour to a principal that was here for 20 years. I love that we gave a tour to the mayor and we're part of the community and it's really an amazing place. You know, our >> kids go here or may have gone here before or maybe we're never here at all but as individuals we're connected to this. >> My kids ones school are connected. We're connected here. So it becomes really a part of our DNA even even if we're not taking classes here. So, uh, I thank you. I thank you for your leadership, Dr. Henry. I thank you to the staff and Mason. I think everyone who's a part of the recipe here and we'll we'll make mistakes and we'll do things that we need to improve on, but we'll

107just keep building and building. And I love hearing that our after school program is is doing well because that was a little bit of a leap of faith. I mean it was summer, you know, and I'm sure there are areas that we can fine-tune there, but that was a big that was a big jump for us. >> It it was and it was a task u that I was like, we're we're doing what? >> Yeah. >> When I first came, >> but again, we have a great team and you know, we made it work and we had to tweak, but it's going well. >> That's excellent. I saw the promo videos uh that uh posted as well. Special thank you to Daniel who's uh really, you know, year in and year out he's been phenomenal

108helping me to capture video. I know others have been involved but he's he's been a big part of that. So, thank you to the child family >> and I I just want to thank everyone who makes this school so special. Yeah, it's hard to believe last meeting of 2025 and looking forward to 2026. So, merry Christmas, you know, happy new year and all the all the things to all all all involved. Okay, moving on to adjournments. Recommended the board adjourn the regular meeting of the Irvine International Academy Board of Directors on December 16, 2025. Is there a motion? >> I'll make a motion. >> Thank you, David. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Molly. All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any post, please say nay. >> Hearing none. It passes.

109Meeting adjourned at 8:30 >> 829. >> 8:29. >> 829. That's what I got. >> All right. All right. Thank you all. >> Thank you.