001Good evening everyone. Can you hear me? Okay. Thank you for joining. Today is Tuesday, October 14th, Irvine International Academy regular board meeting. We are located at 4782 Karen Lane, Irvine, California 9264. Meeting call to order. 559 p.m. We'll start with roll call. >> Molly, >> present. Felipe >> present. >> Brett is present. David is absent. Moving on to the next item. Approval of the agenda for the regular meeting of the Irvine International Academy Board of Directors on October 14, 2025. It's recommended the board of directors approve the agenda for the regular meeting of the Irvine International Academy board of directors on today, October 14, 2025. Is there a motion? >> I'll motion. So, >> thank you, Felipe. Is there a second? >> Thank you, Molly. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed?
002Please say nay. Hearing none. It passes. >> Uh, moving next 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. Move next to closed session conference with real property negotiators. Uh we have two topics. First is negotiator for IIA. Dr. Henry. Well, it's about the property 4872 Karan Lane which is the building we're in now. California 92604. We suspect maybe 20 30 minutes. >> I think 30. >> 30. Okay. >> We will reconvene in about 30 minutes. Thank you very much. Okay, we are uh reconvening. It is 6:53
003p.m. I in terms of action taken during close session, we have authorized our executive director to engage in negotiations with IUSD. And as always, we appreciate the cooperation and uh we thank you Dr. Henry for taking on this initiative. Okay. Uh, we move on to the very important flag salute. I would like to lead at this time if that's okay. If everyone would please rise. >> Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, indivisibley and justice for all. Thank you all. Okay, moving on to the next item. Community input on agendaized and non-aggendaized items. Public may comment on items listed on the agenda, including consent, calendar, presentation, discussion, committee, and action
004items. Public may also comment on items not listed on the agenda that are within the legal purview of the board of directors. Do we have any public comments? >> We do not. >> Thank you. Moving on to items for consent. We've got a approve items from the regular meeting of the IIA board of directors on September 23rd and B approve the personnel report. It's recommended the board of directors approve consent items A and B. Is there a motion? >> I'll motion. >> Thank you, Felipe. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Molly. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed, please say nay. Hearing none. It passes. Items for presentation. School update. Mr. Schmid. >> Good evening everyone. Um, I have some updates on things that have been going on and
005then some things to look forward to. Um, up first, last Wednesday we had our mid-autumn festival and I know a number of you were there. Um, I would say that we actually had a very we had a great turnout. Um, and from what we've gotten feedback from families, it was overwhelmingly positive. Um, a lot of our families just enjoyed the time together as a community. They enjoyed the performances and it was just a fun time just for our families and staff to come together. Um, they I want to give a huge thank you to our PTO. Um they spent a lot of time and hours involved in working with us on this and there's a lot of volunteers involved from PTO and just people who just volunteered their time. Um they have booths, they had
006not one cotton candy machine this year but two cotton candy machines this year um for the line. A lot of jump houses for the kids. Um, they had a I I don't know what to call it, but like a t-shirt on demand section where families can choose which um IA spirit shirt design that they want. They could buy it and it would be made for them right there. Um, from what I hear, that was very positive, very popular. Um, they s almost sold out of a lot. Um, and I also want to give a big shout out to Mario, our campus operations manager, and his team just to make sure that we were set up. Um, just things from the chairs and tables and tear up and the tear down after. Um, they did a
007great job and overall it was it was a big success and I know quite a few of you were there as well. Um, also this year we are in similar in the past we we've done this um, but this year we're doing the the harvest cup. Um, and what that is, that's the software tournament against other Irvine and Tustin schools. Um, our triyouts are going to start next week, next Monday, and then it'll go Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, depending on the grade level. And then that tournament is going to take place on December 3rd and December 4th. Um, it's a great opportunity for our students to get involved in sports. um they'll have a lot of help and coaching. And this year we're actually adding the third and fourth grade team. Um in years past it
008was always fifth grade and older, but now we have a third and fourth, a fifth and sixth, and the seventh and eighth team. So we have three teams. Um we have a number of coaches that are going to be helping out. We have a parent volunteer um who Cyrus's dad who's going to be coaching. Uh we have Coach K. And then we also have Mr. Gio, Mr. Fernandez who are going to be coaching as well. So if we see them give them a thank you for um spending their time on that. All right. A big update I have for you is just kind of giving you some more information on our ELP um update with our clubs. So our next session is officially going to begin on November 12th. Uh it's a Wednesday because that
009Monday we have a staff development day. So there's no students here. Then that Tuesday is Veterans Day. Um we have information going out to our families this Sunday. So just informing families, these are the clubs, these are uh the dates that it's going to happen. It will be the date when families will start signing up. Um what we've done is we've kind of looked at what families have wanted. Um and so families want a a little bit more academic support specifically with homework clubs. So we've made a little tweaks there. First, we've added some more homework clubs where students can get work done, get help on that work. And then we've removed some of our duplicate enrichment clubs um where we've had multiple club, multiple sessions of the same club. Um and then we've added
010a Spanish club on Wednesdays. Now, I know there's a lot of demand for Spanish. Um and we do have limited availability for our afterchool clubs for our whole school community. um because we kind of expect our EOP funded students to take up a big number of spots and what the demand for after school Spanish. We're actually in talks right now with strategic kids about adding an afterchool Spanish class through them that could be available to all our families. So there will be a fee associated with that one because it's through strategic kids. But I know Spanish club is something our families had wanted. And because we do have limited space in our own clubs, we wanted to provide another option for all our families as well. So a lot of this all this information is
011going to go out this upcoming Sunday to our families. Um there will be specific dates, sign up dates on there and um it will go it'll go pretty smooth and I've already been working with Mr. GIO and we will have um we have you fully staffed ready to go on November 12th. Have any questions about our ELP updates? >> I know that's a pretty big It's a big topic. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, so not just on the but also I want to double down. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Yeah. >> I want to double down on Mario's help. because he was a big help and you know it was very close >> to the mid autumn festival was going on there and yeah he was fantastic and the soccer triyouts I got to
012buy another pair of shoes for Raymond okay so seems like every year his foot keeps getting bigger right and they another pair of soccer shoes for him very excited about this and uh the team and playing together so I think it's a great opportunity that they have to play different sports and certainly playing other schools will be a good experience for them and can't wait for the Spanish class. Okay. I've got a bucket list for my for myself and freakishly the Spanish class that I is on that list. >> I know that's why I wanted to make sure that >> Thank you. I want to especially I'm looking forward to that and I can tell you for sure you got two students going in there >> from from our from the Delgado family. >> So,
013thank you. All right. Um, kind of moving ahead, this kind of upcoming event. So, we do have again have our soccer triyouts on there. Um, that information actually went out to our families this past Sunday. We'll continue to um make sure it's clear um on that. Then next Thursday, the 23rd, we have our next coffee with the principal. Um, we're going to be talking um about CAT scores, which I think Dr. Henry is going to be giving you a presentation on that tonight. Um, so that will be kind of a big focus for our next talk for the principal. And then a couple weeks we have a red ribbon spirit week. Um, if you actually look at the school now, there's a lot of signage up on that. Um, so something our leadership students in
014middle school thinks this is our leadership six class, sixth grade leadership. Uh, they they've been planning this. They've been working hard on it. Um, so that's something that our school will be able to participate in. Um and then on the 30th we do have a parent workshop um that we will be um going over that as well. And then I know a big favorite is on Halloween October 31st we have our Halloween parade. Um so that's going to be starting I think it's 9:00. That's what that's why I believe it's 9:00. Um but that information is going to again go out to families this Sunday as well if they want to u be a part of that. And then we have our second school site council on November 6th. Um so we have a new
015group of family parents involved in that. Um they're very motivated. They want to be involved and this helps support our school. So we had we had a great first meeting if you want to go back and watch that recording. And then again November 12th our next session of our ELP after school clubs will be starting um on that date. Um and not on here too but we do have a big training coming up for our staff to show you aware and that's for thinking maps. um it's going to be um leading into our uh training for a new writing program for our staff. I think Dr. Hen's going to elaborate a little bit more on that too in in a later presentation, but it's going to be something that we think will have a big
016impact on our students. >> So for the ELP, >> the signups for that, >> where is that done? Through the school website or is there a special website? What's going on with that? So it's going to be um through parent square um on that we will and Mr. Gio's already for the first group that's qualified for it through English learner and free and reduced lunch. He is contacting those families individually and then we will be informing st families that of the date and the time that they would be able to sign up for it and so then the notice will be scheduled to go out at that time and then families will be able to sign up that way >> and all that will be through the parent square. >> Yeah. >> Okay. It wasn't
017very clear to be last time the first time around. >> Yeah. And that's the one thing it it was scheduled to go out that day, but we didn't specify a time. That's why I did tell everyone to specify like I don't have the time right now, but like 9:00. It'll be scheduled to go out at that time at 9:00. So, everyone knows when it will go out. >> Okay. >> How many are on the school site council? >> Um, it's four parents. >> Normally, it's five. Um, but we had parent who dropped out at the last minute. Um, so we're going to be opening it up to a fifth parent, but it's it's usually five parents, myself, and then four combinations of teachers and staff. >> Thank you. >> And your school site council, you
018guys meet on campus, right? >> Yeah, we meet on we meet on campus. It's recorded and and their big focus is just being able to um have that connection to the staff. We talked about how we use some of our title funds. we talk about um our schoolwide safety plan and then later in the next school year we'll also be talking about our alap. So it's it's another opportunity for our parents to speak into those things. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay, moving on to CASP data. Dr. Henry Thank you. Um, so it is my pleasure to be presenting our CASP data today. Our CASP data was supposed to be released tomorrow. So, I wasn't sure if we would be able to um present everything, but our state, they keep getting better
019and better at when they're releasing the data. And so, um everything was released last week and so we were able to put this presentation together. Um we've already had data reports. We get a a preview and so we've had data reports and we're kind of ready to go when we were allowed to discuss all the data publicly. So all of this information that I'm sharing about our school, other schools, other districts is all public information. So we wanted to start with some celebrations. And um our first celebration is that our science scores are still amongst the highest scores of high performing charter schools and school districts in Orange County. So, we are still, although we did see a little decline in our science scores, we are still at the top of the pack when it
020comes to other Orange County schools. And when we shared our comparisons, we only compared ourselves to the highest performing schools um and utilize the same measures as we did last year. Another highlight is our third and seventh grade students from last year. So this year that would be our fourth grade students and our eighth grade students outscored all charter schools in Orange County in both ELA and math. They did a wonderful job. Their scores are very high which uh is makes me very happy because especially our seventh graders and all you'll be seeing grade by grade how their scores were, but they will also be taking the science test this year. And so the fact that they scored especially really high in ELA um and mathematics should translate into a pretty high science score as
021well because those two th those skills are also necessary to score high in science. Um our middle school team did some chopping of the data and did some reporting on their own and by taking although our school is reported as 3 through 8 when they separated just the 6 through eight scores um our middle school at IIA uh were scores were higher than all 11 IUSD middle schools in ELA. uh we were number four in math and number three in science of all the middle schools in in Irvine Unified. So doing still doing a great job there. And another celebration and maybe also a notation that we wanted to share is that we added almost 100 more students were tested this year than the previous year in 23 24. The exact number is 96. So
022very close to 100 more students that we tested. And this is also the first year that all grade levels were reported because in order to be um reported you have to have at least uh 15 in a grade level. So this year we had scores for every single grade level for the first time. That's also exciting kind of showing the growth and development of our school. Just some general things about CASP testing and how it works is the CASP test in English language arts and mathematics. They're given to all students in grades 3 through 8. The science test is given to students in grades five and eight only. So, it's a smaller group of students that are tested. Um the LPAC which is not going to be reported this evening but just some background is
023a test that we give for our English learners. We give them to all students in the spring and then also to new students to California in the fall for identification. The CASP measures knowledge of the California academic standards and the ELPAC measures proficiency on English language development standards. And then finally, studies show that I Ready, which is our formative assessment, those scores align very closely. There's a lot of research on this to CASP scores. So, as we monitor and utilize our I Ready scores and we're looking at our data, they do translate very very solidly into what the calf scores are. So, it help I Ready as an assessment. Although the assessments aren't exactly the same, but the scoring is is very equivalent. And so it allows us to provide individualized support for students, see
024standards where they may be lower. And then also through I Ready, we have an individualized learning system that we pay for that's called my path. And really if students are taking that seriously based on their I Ready scores my path is individualized for each student helping them to concentrate on those areas where they need more help. So we really want to improve our training of that and share that with our parents. When parents are like how can I help my child really utilizing the tools within the I Ready system um will help. So, moving on, I thought it was very important for transparency and um continuity to utilize some of the same visuals and um uh schools that we're measuring ourselves against as were done last year by Dr. Kernan. And so, uh, you'll see
025that we did have some data that was a little bit lower, but wanted to maintain the same look and then really um, be transparent with all this information. So the good news on the top four boxes is that Irvine International Academy, we still scored higher than IUSD in all three tests as well as Orange County and California as a whole. So we are still considered very high performing school. uh you can see some of the dips that we had and I'll go a little deeper into the data on the next slide, but our um English language arts um we did have a small decline, but again still higher than um our surrounding district as well as Orange County as a whole. Same with math and science. But if we go to the next slide, you
026can see a little bit more detail. grade level by grade level and which grade levels showed improvement and which ones had declines. So just looking at the 2025, the first box is English language arts and you can see our third graders did very well as I highlighted in our celebrations with 82% which is actually an increase over last year meeting or exceeding standards for ELA. Um, for fourth grade we and fifth grade, which are currently our fifth and sixth grade students, we did show a decline. Um, and and a pretty significant one at 26 points. Again, still high performing overall, but we are looking at that. Our sixth grade, current seventh grade standards had a small decline. Um, and then because we didn't have two years of data for seventh and eighth grade, um, I
027just showed them as one year, but you can see at 88% for our seventh graders who are currently in eighth grade and then our, um, eighth graders at 73% um, that still is considered high performing. Going into math, we had a little bit less of a decline at 7% overall. Um, our third grade, again, they improved their scores. Fourth grade, um, did they still had a decline, but they did better, significantly better in math than they did in ELA. And in fifth grade, they did significantly better in ELA than they did in math. Um, was still having a decline. Uh, our sixth graders stayed the same in math over last year. And our uh seventh graders had a small decline still at 78%. And then our eighth graders who left us were at 73%. Science
028we took a pretty big hit overall with 21% decline, but as I shared in the celebrations, we're still very high performing um when we compare ourselves to other schools and districts. So, I'm going to start with I guess it's good news that our surrounding schools in Irvine Unified did much better at their test scores this year. Um, so we are still up in the higher performing category with them, but not necessarily the top and we have some reasons for that. So I wanted to keep the measurements the same using these same. I think last year when we did a lot of marketing and compared we compared ourselves to those top performing schools. So if you look at these bar charts, we're still right in there with the top performing schools. If we go to the
029next slide, you can see the numbers. It may be a little bit clearer um to see. Uh the schools that were in yellow, they did outperform us, but not by much. If you look at ELA, we were at 78% and most of theirs were 80 79% 82. So, it's not out of the ballpark for us to gain and be back on top. And we did outperform uh four in ELA of these highest performing schools. You can see the same for math and science. I'll give you a minute to look and you can kind of look at schools maybe that you're interested in. But one note, we had a discussion today that I have heard that we did have a high increase. We added a 100 kids. We tested 100 more students. And so we really
030wanted to look at our number of English learners. I've been hearing well we did get a big group of English learners. Well, what's the comparison? So if you look at on the uh left hand side you can see that as a whole our school last year we had 25% English learners and this is the 2425 data whereas our surrounding district IUSD is at 14% Orange County is 18% and California as a whole is 17%. So, IA enrolls significantly higher English learners and yet we are still very high performing. I think that's a significant data point and it really is kudos to our intervention. We have ELD intervention as well as MLDD. And not only that, our students are not only learning um English, math, and science social studies as well, although it's not assessed here,
031um but they're also learning another language. And um that's very important to um to know that our students are being successful in both areas being a dual immersion school. The good news is when I took the same exact schools and districts that were utilized last year for all of our celebrations, when we compare ourselves to the top Orange County districts and top charters, we are still coming up as very high performing. So those individual schools may have done well, those top performing schools in IUSD, but when we look at districts as a whole, as well as many um of the high performing charters in Orange County, we are outperforming. Um you can see that in there were two charters that were higher than us and you can see that very clearly here. Um and uh
032one district was higher in ELA only, but we are um still outperforming or performing the equivalent for example in ELA to Laguna Beach Unified, which is a very high performing school district. So um very proud this I think this highlights um our success and where we fall uh within the comparable schools. You can ask a question if you have it, but I'm going to keep going. Um, I have >> a question. >> Okay. Yes. >> No questions. >> I have a question. >> Oh, yes. Go ahead. >> Do you have And maybe this is more specific to the charter schools. Any sense for how many of these schools do or do not offer homework? My understanding is there are some charter schools that maybe don't offer homework and maybe that is at the earlier in
033the earlier grades. I'm not sure. And so the reason I ask is because I'm curious the correlation between homework and the results here. Now I don't know maybe it's all schools have homework and maybe at the younger you know earlier grades they don't. But >> that's interesting. I do not know that answer. It would be a great data point to look at. I will tell you it is on our radar because all school districts must um implement a homework policy. I think it's within two years, but our plan is to meet with like our leadership team and get ahead of it. So, our plan is by summertime to have our homework policy board policy board approved um because we don't have that. But all all schools charters included in California will have to publish a
034homework policy although that will be one more year. Okay. >> Uh we could also look at student handbooks if they are posted on websites of for different charters. >> Okay. >> That we're looking at but I think that would be the only way that we could look at that data. >> Yeah. I'm wondering at some point if there's a way to connect that at all to test scores. Also, you know, we do have um and and parti our team participates. I know I participate um in our Orange County charter group. It's a strong group and um uh these relationships. We feel comfortable asking each other those questions. So, it may it would be something I wouldn't mind following up with other charter leaders on. Can you tell me more about your homework policy or practices
035uh moving forward? Interesting. Yes. Uh this is the first year, so I did not have comparison data of our um cap scores by student groups. Again, they're only published if your if your um student groups are of a certain number. They don't publish them if you have I think it in some cases it's 15, and some it's 11. But um they won't publish your data if it's that low because they don't want it to be identifiable for students. But we our data was high enough except you can see in science our students with disabilities I think because it only pulls two grade levels for science fifth and eighth those were not reported but every other area was reported. So this is something that we'll want to follow longitudinally. Um, but you can see that, you
036know, I would like to see our gap with our English learners. Um, I'd like to see them performing higher, especially in science. That was very interesting to me in one aspect. Only 8% of our English learners were proficient in science. However, not surprising because the majority of the science test is writing. And the best way to improve our science scores is to have our students write in their science classes and be able to use that scientific reasoning and academic language in their writing. So, um I I am pleased I I've done a lot with um CASP data since this test was first brought to California. So, done a lot of these presentations over the years. And although we can always do better and it is our goal as educators to make that gap between our
037significant student groups and our overall performance as small as possible. See I do want to highlight that seeing our students with disabilities. Let's look at math specifically. 67% of our students with disabilities are meeting and exceeding standards when our overall is 75. That gap is relatively small and I pointed that out to um Mr. Fernandez today and really kudos to his team for the support that they provide our students because anything in the 60s like that for students with disabilities is actually very impressive. Um, so of course we'll continue to work with our groups, but um, I'm pretty pleased with where we are now and we can only get better. So, speaking of getting better, we wanted to be very honest and transparent with our current challenges and areas for improvement. And so here here's
038after looking at the data, having conversations, here's what what we have. Some of these things were already doing and some of the things will be put in place shortly. But first, I think the first and most important thing is that grades four and five had a substantial decrease in ELA, math, and then only fifth grade in science because they took the test. But it was a substantial decrease across the board. And so we have been analyzing the scores and I ready benchmarks to identify gaps and provide targeted intervention. Um I've had some real conversations with our middle school team and I am very pleased at how they're addressing filling in some of those gaps and reteing standards that the students may have missed last year. Um, and so that is in progress and it we
039we have to take it very seriously. Um, I'll also be presenting this to our staff and I want them to see the decrease and that it really is about standardsbased performance. It's about student engagement which we've been focusing on all along um since the week of welcome. Also um in the second bullet I always want to acknowledge those gaps in performance of English learners, students with disability and our socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Um and our overall performance and again I think I talked about that enough in the last slide even though I am impressed we always want to make that gap as small as possible. And the the next bullet speaking of ELOP which I do have a presentation on the budget of ELOP coming up but ELOP funding is expanded learning opportunity program and it's
040provided to us for EEL and socioeconomically disadvantaged so we can close that gap. So I was pleased to hear um after talking to Mr. transmitter that our parents want more of the academic program for ELOP because that's what it's intended for. Again, you can have enrichment to um to engage students if they're not, you know, you want to give them you want them engaged in school, but really looking at how can we use that time, we have the funding, we have the time after school to help close some of those gaps as well. So really kind of looking in the mirror at our program. We want to continue to look at our math standards. I want to see standardsbased instruction. We are looking at a curriculum adoption for both math and science this year. So
041looking at our performance is really going to play into those decisions and looking at our ready data to determine specific areas of focus and reteing. Um all the assessments are very heavy in writing and our math teachers last year uh fifth and the middle school all commented I did come in at the end of testing um last year when I started in miday that they were surprised at how heavy the math tests were in writing and explaining the concepts not just the formulas or um math functions. s and so they have already started to focus on and we will continue to I am seeing academic word walls in math classes which makes my heart very happy um because there is vocabulary to mathematics as well and the better our students can explain using mathematical knowledge
042the better they will do on these assessments and in future math classes so we're seeing that um and I do believe the implementation of thinking maps which will lead to a vertically aligned writing program over the next few years will have a huge impact on our assessments. We're already high performing. that can only make us better and um having implemented that in two other school districts um I've seen huge results when those things so again that's November 10th is our big kickoff all day training and then we have two follow-up trainings to that and the board did approve us bringing that initiative so thank you for that and then finally continuing to focus on student engagement and standards align instruction is really important to help with our schools. So, I'm sure you might have some
043more questions, but I do want to thank all of our IIA staff, students, and families for the continued hard work and dedication. We are a very high performing school. We have a lot to celebrate. Uh we are doing a great job. I want to thank that our the Larry and Helen Hogue Foundation looking at all of these things that were um supported over the years. Our PTO has been so supportive of us and we've had individual families as well for their generous support of IIA. We utilize that support to help build student engagement, academic programs, and it it they it has a huge role in our success. And I do want to highlight although I know the scores did go down, this is still an amazing accomplishment, we are a dual immersion mand Mandarin school.
044Grades TK through 5. Half the students day is in another language and they are learning and we see that data our students and our Mandarin component of our program is getting better and better and better. So the fact that we're high performing in both areas, it it really is special. And so and we're in our fifth year and we're experiencing tremendous growth. So we really should be proud of these results. What questions do you have for me? So do we uh for the IR uh do we take it like um quarterly? >> Yes. >> So that you can evaluate the progress. >> So we start the school year with a baseline so that we can um right when students come in, we're utilizing the the platform to help us identify stu small groups. So some
045kids may need acceleration, some may need some reteing and the program actually has a component that'll do that for our teachers and then we benchmark the data. I I do have a question, Mr. Schmid, is it three times for elementary or four? >> Because we're in trimester. Yeah, it it's three, but you have a baseline as well. So um that's recommended. They also recommend eight weeks of instruction between each time you give it. Otherwise, you're not going to see improvement and that's the purpose of the test is to watch the growth of the students and then also so we can provide intervention as needed. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Questions? I just noticed here I was looking at how you were talking about the students with disability, right? How the
046in our school their uh proficiency is really high. When I look at the numbers, the averages across, you know, they exceed California and Orange County within the ELA and the map, you know, and they're right behind IUD in the averages, right? Which is incredible, right? >> It is incredible. you look at those numbers here comparing them to this year's >> and also the you know I think there is something to be said about the extraund students that we have taking the test right and percentage of them being ELA you know English learners you know affects the our scores probably a little bit more than these other schools that I'm looking at here they are not uh dual immersion schools here all these other ones that we're playing against. So even with that, we're still in
047the up in the upper. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. You know, >> we are high performing. >> Yeah. Absolutely. You know, and now that we and and I believe we can pivot and do better, right? And I think that's going to be the advantage that we have that these other schools don't have. We'll be able to pivot. >> I agree. I agree that we have a lot of room to grow. our students um are are very high performing overall they are going to do very well and if we give them some additional strategies and tools I I can't imagine where we can go and >> you said the format of like the math test was different this year from was last year where there was more written >> that was the feedback that I got from
048um a lot of our teachers ers and from a lot of other educators that I know from across Orange County >> because I thought the format would maybe stay the same year through year so they get a better gauge of >> you know the number comparison wise but apparently you know so there's a dynamic that's in there and the testing could change right you know >> yes absolutely and um because they did have some changes they've there's some release in March I plan on doing a um CASP 101 showing teachers the tools that are available. Um there are anchor papers so students can see what their writing should look like to score a certain way. There's release papers, there are released questions for math and because of the differences in the format. My understanding is
049they have >> released more of those long answer questions or they're more like kind of short answer questions that students can practice >> in the release questions. So, we'll be utilizing those as well. >> I'm sure we're I'm sure we can uh improve. And another thing I was going to ask or talk to you about is how you were talking about the homework that certain schools. So we're comparing, you know, all our numbers are here compared against these schools here. I would be surprised to see that any of these were not having homework, you know, similar to what we're doing because I can't imagine that homework is one of the three legs of of the stool, right, for learning. And I can't imagine that some of these other schools here would not be doing homework
050and be achieving those kind of results. I mean, I just can't see that happening. But I guess it's possible. Anyway, that's all. >> Any other questions? >> I don't have a question. But I am also very impressed with our third graders. So I want to thank the first grade, second grade, the third grade because this is the first year by third grader. that's their first year taking the cast. So >> the third graders um >> so I think what I think if I'm understanding it's >> the kids that started with us >> right have now rolled up to third grade. Is that what you mean? And so they have been with us all the way through. >> Yes. And so it really does show all of our the academic program from TKK first and second,
051>> right? >> Um all of that >> helping to prepare and our third grade teachers as well. Absolutely. >> Yes. Yes. First time taking a big test like this. >> Oh yes. And actually it is their first time taking the test too. I think utilizing I Ready um it used to be when this test first came out like computer skills were you know a an obstacle for kids but now we utilize I Ready starting in Kinder I believe and um so just utilizing the test and the mouse isn't an obstacle um to them it's more about content so that's a good thing too >> just a few comments that's Okay. Uh first, the school is phenomenal. >> Really, it's hard to even digest that only half of the day is in English and the other
052half, you know, this is the elementary school, right? The other half is going to be in Mandarin. and to have such unbelievably high performing school and there's schools that specifically focus on key areas that you do amazingly well. >> Well, and most elementaryaries don't offer any language at all. >> In most schools, language maybe starts in middle school. If it's not a, you know, not a dual immersion, they might have an elective in middle school and then definitely you have your high school electives. So most elementary schools aren't even exposed to any language at all. >> Yeah. So it's just uh it's amazing. And I just like to recognize the staff, all the staff, the instructional aids, the teachers, the administration, everybody. Everybody who's helping to pick up, everybody who's helping to set up for
053these meetings, everybody at the school, you just make it work. includes the PTO and the families and of course the board members. So, thank you. Uh I I just had one observation and I think right I I it isn't maybe there's a correlation maybe there isn't but the fifth grade last year had a really hard time right because they got roped into the middle school cohort right I think for a lot of families it was pretty stressful I and a big adjustment so I'm you know, unfortunately that's the fifth grade. It's fifth and eighth that has the science. >> Yeah. >> Right. So, I mean, there was some of that impact and really curious to see how that works. So, I know this year we've normalized it so we don't have that same structure and
054there were reasons why we had it, but >> yes, >> I can't help but think there was some impact to the learnings there. So, I think your comment about having the middle school focus or retach some of those things that may have been missed or >> Yes. M um and I I have been meeting with them regularly and um they really are good at diving into the data and um Miss Osley is teaching sixth grade math and we've had very real conversations about reteing fifth grade standards that may have been missed looking at the I Ready data um and and I think I'm seeing a lot of standardsbased instruction and standardsbased intervention happening. So, um, and and we'll continue to have those conversations with them. So, it definitely we have to look in the mirror.
055We have to look at what do our students need to be successful and it my goal is to to have them ready for seventh grade and high performing. And I think that's also the goal of our middle school team. They've been doing a great job. But yes, >> one thing I've noticed is my daughter's in fourth grade. I the math has changed big time from third grade. And I know we're looking at the math program, but I'm my point is I'm hoping that all of the disciplines that we're looking at, all the subjects that we're looking at, that they're all aligned to teaching kids the right path towards common core, towards excelling well in task, but also just giving them the building blocks and the fundamentals because sometimes the materials, as a father is helping
056his daughter reviewing what the homework is, sometimes there's They're big disconnects and I can only think that there are a lot of opportunities to tighten that up and improve it. So, it's very methodical in the curriculum and we're building the building blocks because sometimes is a big question mark there. >> Right. Right. And some of the work that started that we're continuing is um work with our scope and sequence, our pacing guides that are standardsbased, right? and then also looking at the curriculum that um looking to see how aligned it is with the standards because that's what we're assessing our students on is the California math standards. And so if our materials aren't aligned to the math standards, um you know, again, we have a very bright we have very bright students, but we're doing
057them a disservice if we're assessing them. Um and the assessments aren't aligned to the curriculum. >> 100%. >> Yeah. So Fred, just to let you know, um usually third to fourth is a huge jump. >> Yeah. >> So parents always complain what's going on. So I usually just say, well, I just think about is from lower grade to upper grade. Right. >> Right. Fourth grade is kind of like upper grade. Um but as we were talking about I was thinking about you mentioned about you want to give the teacher kind of like a CAS 101 thing. Um I think with IIA the way I see the parents really get involved. >> So maybe you know uh we mentioned about the writing the the writing component in math and science. So maybe we can also show
058the parents because I know they want to help them uh that so you can show them this is how we are teaching your your child to answer question they have to describe they have to not just getting the right answer even get the wrong answer if they explain correctly they still get some points they do >> so I think that's a concept a lot of parents not grow up with so since our parents like to get involved Maybe we can have some kind of meeting let the parents know example >> we'll have that at a parent workshop definitely where we we'll be deep diving the scores and then what are some tools that are that we have here at IIA like my path but there's also a lot of public tools out there that anyone
059can log in and utilize they're they're public all the release questions are public and so showing parents where to get these resources and how to use them is something that I'm very open to. >> Yeah. >> Just had one more comment and I thank you for recognizing all these folks that you did on the thank you slide. That's that's fantastic. And I also want to recognize the K Foundation for its multi-year generous donations, especially supporting our Steam program. >> Oh, thank you. Okay. >> Yeah. Just want to make sure that they're recognized as well. appreciate that. Okay. Are we any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you very much. Moving on to the executive director updates. >> These can go these will be a little shorter. They'll they'll get each presentation will get a little shorter
060each time. Um okay. Okay. So, these were some updates that came up at the last board meeting that were requested um for this board meeting. And so, um I just put them under an update. I was asked if I could periodically share some of the ELOP spending and where we are since we did approve at the last board meeting to hire an ELOP aid. I do want to thank Mr. Schmid for um helping me with some of these numbers. So if you have specific questions I may bring him up to the podium. Uh but uh I think this is pretty easy to follow it just to share what the um the columns are. We have the number of staff in each category. Um the hours each staff is paid out of ELOP. Um what are
061they paid? What is the hourly rate? um as of today because this is an update. It's actually as of like last the end of last week. How many days have they worked? So you can see we haven't hired the ELOp aid yet. So there are zero um the coordinators here over the summer. So you can see how many days how many total days um of the work year is the next column. The first column is what was budgeted really by Dr. Kernan and the team going into this year. What was the preliminary budget that um was proposed to the board? The next column is sometimes the plan and the reality are a little bit different um in good ways and um you make adjustments along the way. So the 2526 revised projections are a little
062different. You can see many of the areas stay the same, but as we said, we had less teachers that were interested in the LOP or could make it work with their schedules and more IAS. So you'll see those kind of adjustments in um what we're projecting for those positions. Um we over budgeted for supplies. Although we provide supplies if the staff needs them, they have not they don't need um as much as we had budgeted. So we're modifying that where we needed more manpower and less there. The YMCA um that cost is actually for the the kids that stay 4:30 to 6. We don't have all of our staff that's staying until six o'clock yet. We have a lot of students who stay. So we were able to and and we have to maintain our
063low ratios especially in kinder and TK are 10 to one. So we've utilized and and been able to send some of the students over to YMCA on our dime for that extra hour and a half. So they bill us and so that's how much has been budgeted there. you can see how much we've spent to date. Also, we utilize YMCA for our TK. So, the TK students who are qualified, who um are either late birds or early birds, we pay for the remainder of their day in YMCA if they qualify out of ELOP funds. So, that's what that line item is. And then also benefits for the staff that come out of ELOP. So, that is a little bit of um kind of where we thought we'd be, where are we, where are we to
064date. Um the ELOP projections on the top of how much money that we thought we'd get has come out a little bit lower. So, we originally budgeted um the projected amount we thought we'd get was close to $240,000. We also do collect rent from YMCA for use of our portable and so that total was 247,000. Our actual ELOP allocations as of today are a little bit lower. We came out about $10,000 lower than we thought we were going to get. Um I will say though after the fact or halfway through the year um often there are positive adjustments made to ELOP. They're they're always like, "We're going to give you more money because school districts everywhere are it's a it's a ELOP is almost running another school after school hours. We have 350 students here
065and uh a lot of school districts, it's very challenging uh with the limited funding that you're given to to really put that infrastructure in place. So there could be adjustments, but that's where we are right now. So we came out at 236 thou a little over $236,000. Um so the bottom line for ELOP where we are where we think we'll be I do want to remind you that ELOP is not just about the afterchool program. It's also about the summer program and the fiscal year. And we did spend about $60,000 or I'm sorry $54,000 for last summer. And just as good practice, we I always like to estimate a 10% increase. We have more kids, things cost more. Uh just so we're budgeting approximately $60,000 for the summer of 2026. Um and then noting that
066the new fiscal year is July 1. Our summer program is half paid out of the previous year, half paid out of the new year, or not half, it's actually 41% from the previous year and then 59% out of the following year. So the bottom line here is that we were allocated $229,000. Our rent is 7,200. So you have our total revenue. When we look at all the spending from the previous page, you can see that our projected afterchool expenditures are $175,61 are if you look at what we paid um can someone help me with the screen? I have it here though. what we paid for um the summer program um after July 2025 because that came out of this year's budget and then also knowing that next summer we'll pay through June summer. So we
067did those kind of mathematical calculations as well as um all the total expenditures on the previous page for staffing and everything. We are going to end up with a balance of $4,000. So, we are spending the money um and we will be monitoring this monthtomonth. We are on track to still be positive. We again there could be additional funding coming um but we'll continue to monitor it. So, that's your ELOP update on spending that was requested at the last board meeting. >> Yes. >> But this is a 4,000. It's roughly break even. It's 4,000 >> or breaking even. I I did I did >> compared to what when we had outsourced it to Strategic Kids, it was a loss. Is that right? >> Do you know roughly what that was? >> I don't off the
068top of my head. My understanding was that we just gave all of our funding to strategic kids >> and then there were some extras that we would have to provide. >> Yeah. I don't think there was enough >> if I remember. So we ended up paying more than what we got. >> Yes. >> You know, so >> that would be a good comparison to have here, right? Say, you know, because someone said, "Why bother? You're breaking even, right? Is it just easier to outsource it?" So I'd be curious, you know, what we did, what we were doing prior for the prior couple years, you know, we were out 150,000 or we're out 100,000 versus now we're >> we're utilizing the funding. Yes. >> Yeah. And we're able to save. And that's one of the reasons
069why we're bringing it in house. Also, our previous program did not meet all the requirements that were necessary for the ELOP program. One one example is we didn't have the four school care and that's that is required that we offer this 9-hour school day and so we were giving all of our ELOP funding yet not meeting every aspect of the ELOP requirements. And so also um licensed child care um is really important that our um that we have the licensed component which is the YMCA. So we we have strategically layered the program. We still have strategic kids doing enrichment. We have um so we have our foundational program which is the afterchool um clubs ELOP in-house. We partner with YMCA especially with those TKers because they need a place to go and um we have
070our regular school day happening and don't have those extra resources and um so we kind of contract out with them it and then we have so we have the YMCA that helps us fill in gaps also provides that licensed child care for our families if they're interested and then we bring in strategic kids with the enrichment the chess club the Lego club the clay art club and now we contacted them today to really look into helping with the Spanish club as well. So, um, we heard back they're they're looking at their resources and then we'll both Mr. Schmidter and I will meet with them and see what we can put together there. I think the other advantage is like you said because we have it before we were just handing them all the money and
071they're doing everything but by having it more layered like we do now. there's an issue in one of these layers. We're more in control and be able to um um adjust. Whereas before, all we did was complain and hope that it got better, right? You know, so this way, you know, I think it's a we're more in charge of each component as it goes through. And I believe we have the same or almost the same, if not a little bit more amount of students in the program overall. So, what we had in strategic kids, I think, was 330. I don't remember what it was, but it's the same. It's like the same now, right? We're very close. >> We had 130 strategic. >> I can't remember what it was, but we're we're in there. >>
072We're a lot bigger, though. >> Yeah, we are a lot. We We are a lot bigger. And um October one is uh P1 for data. And when all of our data is is cleaned up and our students are identified for additional English learners, um the L free and reduced lunch program applications. So even since we started in August, our numbers of LCFF unduplicated students that we would offer this program to has gone up. So that's why we're having strategic conversations because in our first session, which is going on right now, there weren't enough spaces for all of our families that wanted to participate. Um there's going to be even less and I want to make that very clear because more students, unduplicated students have been and already because of all these layered programs is it
073how many classrooms do we use? I know it's 13 just for our in-house and now we have the >> average >> it's about 16 of our classrooms starting after school that are used. Um teachers can't be in their classrooms after school. They generally will group up into one of the few empty ones and collaborate and do grading and their other work. our our whole schools like there's not a lot more that we can grow um unless we're going to get more funding. And as you saw, even just taking care of the students that we have to, we're breaking even um at $4,000. >> So, we're taking care of more students than we were with strategic because you're saying we only get those numbers >> and something, right? >> Yeah. Let me double check. I believe
074the strategic kids last year they they had about 130 kids >> and now we're >> we're at 350 if you look at all the >> programs but we're using the same amount of money that we were paying them before >> in theory. Yeah. Well, >> so the amount of money spending it's about 220 of the students. >> Yeah. So what I'm getting at is we're using the money more efficiently. >> Yes. than we were before by just >> and it's also benefiting our staff that want those opportunities to make extra money in enrichment after school and um and yeah it and also kind of grow our own you know we were able to hire a coordinator that is paid 50% out of ELP 50% out of ours it is one more person on our admin
075team that helps to support our school with ELOP and other ways as well. >> Well, I think it's a big talking point that I think probably a lot of parents don't see is that we are using money more efficiently and we're covering more students. Yes. >> Right. Than we were before when it was easy before just to hand them a big check and we we didn't have to do anything. >> And Yes. And we're following the requirements we need to do to get the money. >> U so we need to make sure we're following those. >> Yes. And I like the fact that because it's layered, you can focus on wherever the certain issues are to fix them. >> Absolutely. >> I think administratively, it's just the smarter way to go all the way around.
076>> I agree. >> So, if we could maybe benchmark cost comparison last year versus this year, it' be very helpful to paint the picture of was this a good decision? like we're serving a lot more families. So, yes, thumbs up, right? But in terms of what it cost us in order to do that, >> I think um we can definitely try if the money wasn't earmarked for ELOP, it may be hard to identify what extra money we paid for ELOP because it didn't come out of there. it it had to come out of our own budget, but I can try to get a ballpark of uh so it may not be exact because some of the encroachment into our like general fund um may not have been um for lack of better word like tagged
077as such. And so it it'll be hard to get an exact number um I would imagine but we can see what we can find out. We can do some digging. these the flow of the funds would have been we would have received the >> I can look at what we gave you would transfer that to strategic kids right >> yes I also think though I know yeah that we probably also had to utilize some of our some of our staffing sometimes to fill in gaps. I remember that when I first came here um that there was a that we had to have two of our staff members had to stay after school to to meet the ELP requirements because strategic kids um said the kid was talking back. And I'm like, well, if a student
078is experiencing homelessness, we cannot not offer them services because they talk back. We have to. The law requires we get this funding. we have to offer the services and so we were doing that internally like this isn't an option. >> Yeah. >> Uh for us to deny children um you know based on that. So anyway though there's just some examples but we can we can look at that for our next AL my plan is maybe every other board meeting to give you a spending update on ALOP. It kind of it sounded like regular updates from the last meeting that that was the interest. But I'll move on to I have two other updates. These are even briefer. So um I was asked about the gate program and what we were doing with the gate program.
079So wanted to share we actually have a our gate team planning meeting tomorrow is scheduled on the during the Wednesday time. Um but the current plan is and this is a first year plan. it we want to put something substantial in place but it can grow and get better from there. So we wanted to look at communication how is gate addressed in the classroom and then also enrichment components. So we currently have 15 fourth and fifth grade students identified as gate. Um our website page is in development. We've already written it up. We're just putting it in. We wanted to wait until our planning meeting tomorrow uh to make sure everybody on the team is on board. Uh we will be utilizing the NNAT assessment this year. Just so you know, there are two main
080GATE assessments. One is called the OLSAT. We gave that last year. This year we're going to give the NNAT because it capture it's it's more nonverbal looking at gifted students. So we'll have a chance to capture um it's less linguistic. It's uh your English learners, your students with disabilities who may be dual identified. Um so we want to go every other year with the OLSAT and the NNAT. So we capture all of our kids that may be identified as gay. It's a best practice. Also, if a parent requests, can you retest my child? If you're giving the same test every year, a certain amount of time needs to pass. But if alternating the test like this, we would be able to provide a family a test of the alternate assessment the following year. Um, one
081of my goals is to look at differentiation PD for teachers. So if I have a gate, fourth or fifth grade student, what am I how am I differentiating to meet their needs to accelerate for them? So that is on the radar. But also um I'm a strong believer in providing all our teachers with gate strategies across the board. They are just good teaching strategies. I've done it in the past. It's a goal here. Really using those depth and complexity thinking icons. I'm sure you know what those are, uh Molly, but really doing some gate instructional strategy. I think it would work very well here. And a lot of those strategies will work well in Mandarin classes as well as English classes. And so, um, that is also our current plan and development. We're going to
082be providing a monthly newsletter that goes out to the families about key strategies to support their gifted children. And then also looking for enrichment activities throughout Orange County um that they can bring their children to, free activities, theater, music, things like that. um in a monthly newsletter with enrichment, current events, those kind of things. And then finally, we want at least one tangible afterchool uh program. I'm hoping quarterly, could be monthly. That's what we're meeting about tomorrow. Uh we want to utilize the Zcomputers, the augmented reality, um as part of our offering for our gifted students. We're utilizing them in science class as well, but I think it would be great to bring them out for an afterchool um activity for our gifted students. And then also there's a Rube Goldberg contest um that works
083really well. So if you remember the old mousetrap for the old cartoons where you put a marble in and it does this and and the end result it puts toothpaste on a toothbrush after the book's knocked down and everything else. There is a contest that the contest is in Long Beach. Um other schools in this area that it's part of their gate program. I contacted them to get the information and they said, "We would love if your kids participate. There's not enough schools. Um the competition isn't very deep." I'm like, "Well, our kids can win." So anyway, we're looking at bringing that competition learning. Um and it's something tangible that our kids can do. Future priorities for GATE are um that we implement again like I said those Gate strategies instructional strategies should be implemented
084schoolwide. Um we want parent engagement activities for our parents with gifted students. I'd like to have like an information night. Um and then possibly in the future a field trip that for our gifted students. Um so that'll be in the future. That on the left is what we're planning now. And then finally, I was also asked to give an update about competition learning. And I know by having conversations with our teachers. I knew a lot was happening. So this opportunity to present to you actually was an opportunity for me to put it all in one place and make sure I really understood it. So we do have a spelling be uh scheduled for November 12th. And although it's for um all of our grade levels, I'm not sure the youngest grade level, but the sixth
085through eighth graders um have the opportunity to compete at Orange County level, those winners. Um but we do a in-house competition for the lower grades as well. We are adding adding history day this year, which is through OCDE. It is scheduled for November 20th. It will be for our middle school students. um they will do we will utilize the county submission criteria and um and our students will participate. So I'm learning more about this as well, but I know it's a very kind of well-known and acknowledged event through OCDE. We will have our science fair again. Um it's scheduled for January 23rd. Um Miss Jeang puts on our Mandarin Masters, so we're planning to have that. It's a Mandarin vocabulary contest which will be in spring of 2026. Uh Math Kangaroo is happening right now.
086It's a six-w week program. It's another layer of something our kids can do after school and they do have the competition with the afterchool program. Our strategic kids layer of ELOP also have it's a competition that they run for the kids that pro are in the chess club. And then as I said that Rube Goldberg contest uh we're looking at for our gifted students. So that those are my updates on the requested items. Do you have any question for me? And I have got one really short kind of one slide required presentation that I have to do. >> Since we're talking about competition, I know there's another one uh it's called geography B. >> Okay, >> that one is really interesting. I use it for many many years. Uh so it just to encourage students
087to get to know the geography. I love that. We can look at that. There was one this year as well. Nothing's come out yet, but I would be very interested. It is um it was an online It came out last year. They had the contest at the Richard Nixon Library and it was like a history be almost like a civic learning be. And so they asked students questions about historical facts and things like that. It was for middle school and um almost like a little decapon, you know, the kids they they participated. So I haven't seen information on that yet, but again, I think it fits well with our student population to bring these competition learning u and it just gives us more to celebrate when they do well, right? Yes. >> So any other
088comments or questions? Okay, >> we're moving on to the information item, teacher assignment monitoring and outcome data. Is that right? >> Pardon? Yes. >> Yeah. >> So, this is our final update. This is a required update. Um, and then you'll see we also have an information item on the board that we're just going to read into the record. Um, but here's your brief presentation. So, this is called TAMO. Um, it's the teacher assignment and monitoring and monitoring outcome data. It really is data that's going to be added to the dashboard for the first time about so for every school in California, how many of your teachers are within assignment and how many are outside of assignment. It's never been part of the dashboard. So that is why I have to present this to the board
089because anything that goes into our dashboard must be an information item at a board meeting. So again this item it's notification of an addendum to our dashboard uh the local indicators which is going to be about teaching assignments and monitoring outcomes. We presented as we were required to do and so did all other schools in California. Our local indicators were presented um on June 10th. The 2324 you can see they're going back two school years. uh data was not released until this September after the local indicators were required to be presented. So, state law requires that we present this new information and it will be posted on our 2025 California dashboard once it's released. It will probably be released in November. So this data just informs the board uh administration and other stakeholders of um
090our properly credentialed teachers within IIA. Here is the data which will be the end of the presentation. So for 2324 again it goes back two years um in at IIA our total full-time teaching staff was 22 and for our clear teachers and then we had a lot of interns that year or two interns which is a pretty high percentage uh we were at 95.5% properly credentialed um as and We presented that in the local indicators. You can see Orange County was at 89% and statewide in California 84.7. So we are I was pleasantly surprised looking back two years. I was familiar with our 2425 data because I was the one that presented that at the July 10th board meeting. I'm sorry, June 10th board meeting, but I had not looked back two years. So um
091it it was better than I imagined. We had 19 clear teachers of the 22. We had two interns and then one teacher out of assignment two years ago. So that will um again the percentage is still 95.5%. It's higher than the county and state average. And just FYI that will be added to our dashboard. >> What is clear? >> Pardon? >> What is clear? >> Um meaning that they were uh credentialed properly for their position. an out of assignment. What is out of assignment? >> That is someone that it could have been that they didn't have their B-clad authorization. Um it could have been that they had a temporary credential and weren't fully credentialed. We always get the um the dawn that you um so we do it within permission. It's just we want that
092number to be low. Um, as I presented on June 10th, we did have two teachers last year that started the school year out of assignment, meaning they didn't have their their full credentials yet. By the end of the year, all of those issues were remedied. And um, this year, we're 100% compliant. We don't have anyone working out of um, class, even though we do have a few that are working on additional credentials. everyone is is um scheduled where they need to be. Okay, that is the end of my presentation. Thank you very much. Okay, uh we have the next item task force, but I think we already covered that. >> Yes, it was listed on there twice. >> Uh moving on to the financial update. Mr. Miller, are you there? >> We do. I am
093here. Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. Thank you for your patience. >> Oh no, no worries at all. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen here and we can get this party started. Okay, can everyone see this? Okay. >> Yes. Yes. >> Awesome. Okay. So, this is my first presentation with everyone. So, this one is always great for me to get feedback from you guys. Every bore that I work with is a little different. Um, I always like to start an air on the side of, hey, I'm going to give you a little more information than you probably need. And if it's too much information, just let me know and I can tailor the bullet points down a little bit. Um, I can expand them as well. Just uh, and really any feedback
094after this, you can order to Dr. Henry. Um, and I can take it in for the next one. So, we'll go ahead and get started here. This is your September financials. Um to cut straight to the chase, nothing really stuck out to me, but we're going to kind of go over the important stuff. Anyways, um the first slide here I really like. It's a really good representation so you guys can see. And because it's our first time, I'll say this, too. Uh the way that CSMC does these uh financials. I know in the past you guys had compared like current September actuals to last year's September actuals. What we do at CSMC is we compare the September actuals to what our September budgeted numbers were supposed to be. So for us, we're always comparing, hey,
095where did how did we budget, which is kind of these lighter um bars here, and where did we actually come in at and and why? And I think it's especially good for you guys to do it this way because you're increasing by so many kids. the numbers are just going to look a little too different from last year. So, we're going to kind of stick with this uh actual to budget um analysis. So, um the first thing you're going to notice is kind of in the revenue side of things, you got your actuals are greater than your budget and the same for your revenues or for your expenses. So looking at the revenues, your LCFF was 275 over collectively and this is primarily due to a 47K ILP approval check in July. Now this is
096really normal. It happens a lot um with a lot of the charts that we have. Usually if you just receive money a little late, it gets approved into July. Um and that that's really what's creating that overage there. And that's a a big reason why we're overbudget there. Um, but I will say without this LCFF, we would have come without this, you know, 407, we would have been under budget, which is what I expected to see because we're expecting you guys to be under budget until February when P1 will kick in. I know Dr. Henry talked about that in your presentation. So when February rolls around, we'll get paid based upon P1 student data because right now you guys are getting paid based upon uh P2 student data of last year, which is, you know,
097a significantly lower student count uh than you currently have. So, you know, as we move as these months move forward, I expect it to I expect LCFF revenue and revenue in general to be a little under what we are projecting um until P1 really kicks in. So, the other category which is great to see is local revenue is already over by um 74K or 47K, excuse me, um primarily in field trips uh in 15K and then foundation and grants were the other other place where you know, you guys have seen some money roll in. Um, which is great, great to see. Um, and then this is slightly offset by federal revenues. So, some of these we always, you know, it's, um, these revenues are reimbursement based. So, like child nutrition you only get when you
098submit the report. Same with um, you know, the CNBC reporting for title one dollars that we're going to do later this month. So that that's really to be expected. On the expense side of things, things are looking um pretty good overall as well. Personnel expenses were uh 47K over budget. Uh this kind of discrepancy is really normal in August and September. And for the size of your guys' payroll, I'd say that's that's it's a pretty big home run. We're going to keep an eye on it, but looks good so far. Uh total books and supplies were 96K over budget which really you know on an initial look it's like oh well you know why was that so far um you know over over our current budget and the the answer is it's really not. So
099when I pull these numbers, these are month to month. If you look at things as a whole, um you know, your total curriculum and books and other reference materials expenses totaled to 215K so far and the total we budgeted was 293K. And the nice thing is that most schools uh don't spend a lot in curriculum and books later in the year. So the fact that we're, you know, 70 plusk here, uh, you know, within budget is is really nice. So, and then total services came in right on target, just around 8K below projections. So, total net income is 279,000. Uh, any any questions or comments on the actual budget piece? One second. >> Just to comment on the uh the PDFs that we're looking at here. Is it hard to read? >> So, I'm not
100sure. Did you the the CSMC presentation, did you convert it to PDF? uh the C this presentation here. >> Yeah. >> Right. Uh so this presentation so typically what I do is I send schools the financials in a very unfunded format which looks like this. >> Is this what you're looking at? >> Well I it looks like it's maybe a PowerPoint. I'm looking at the >> Yeah, this one. Sorry, very loud. Um, this one is a Google doc that I was sent, but we can convert them in PDF if that makes it easier. I usually do our presentations in PDF, but this one came in a little bit later. >> No, it's fine. It's just that it's illeible. I can't if you zoom in, I can't see any of the detail. It's very hard to
101read. So not sure. >> So Brett for this presentation typically what I do is I send schools um you know this and then what I do is I I go ahead and present you know this much nicer looking presentation and Dr. Henry actually asked for it um a little bit before the um meeting today. So it was just kind of a miscommunication. This had already been done ahead of time but in in the future I'll go ahead and send this to Dr. Henry. you know, a few days before. So, she has time to um you know, turn it into PDF. So, >> I I just made a PDF, so I can put that in the board folder right now. >> Well, it the the file format doesn't matter to me. I was just I couldn't
102read I couldn't read the file format that that got put in the Google folder. I've downloaded the file now. I can see now I can see the detail but anyone who's trying to see it in the folder maybe it's just the display I'm not sure but I don't know I didn't know if you guys are having an issue >> it's kind of light >> okay I've downloaded the file now it's very clear but before I could see all right sorry uh do you guys have any uh comments Okay, please continue. >> Okay, so on the balance sheet portion, again, you know, the big concern here is cash. Um, you guys do have just about a million dollars in cash as of September. Again, we're really keeping our eye on this as, uh, you know, student
103um, counts have grown and our expenses have grown. So, we're just making sure we're keeping a really good eye on this as we move forward. Uh, no real updates to provide as of this meeting. Um but that's just one thing I wanted to discuss. Um this is a very you know this is kind of what you're in this column we have your actuals. In this column we have your budget and in this column we have the variance between the two. It's you know pretty straightforward. I went ahead and covered all the kind of important stuff that stuck stuck out to me um a second ago in that presentation. Um right here in the LCFF revenue we have that overage. We have the overage in local revenue. Um we have the you know 47K just about
104um overage in personnel expenses which is still very very close. Um and yeah so I think on that front we're looking good. Here's a fun little you know graph we have. These are just all ratios taking a look at your cash. Again it just indicates that you know cash is tighter around here and here. you know, we're closer to these more conservative target targets we have, you know, um outlined, but I know the board and Dr. Henry were all aware of that. And we're keeping, you know, a close eye on cash as we move forward. Here's your guys' balance sheet. Um nothing to really write home about here. It's going to be really the same as in in prior months. Uh you guys have your loans here and other short-term liabilities. I know it's a
105bit of a bizarre place for it, but that's just how it lives in our accounting books. We have your current cash, your accounts receivables. Um, yeah, you guys don't have any real uh assets this weekend or anything. So, things overall look good. Um, here's a quick slide back from when I had a little more hair. I still have to get that updated for the same year. And then we have a quick list of items that are upcoming uh compliance related. We have the federal cash management expenditure report. Uh that'll be done by CSMC. No board approval on that one. Um due 1030 we're working on. Uh we're also working on um a report for federal mental health. Um we're getting that from what was previously reported from Milano. Other big deadlines really are going to
106be, you know, fall in this kind of December, November category. But um yeah uh everything's kind of on track so far. Any questions? >> So we're still uh not in a uh any position right now to make an additional draw, right? We don't see any concerns to make any additional polls on the line of credit. We're so we're still keeping a close eye on it. Um not not not immediately. Uh you know, we had a current uh cash for just go out. Um I believe it was Monday morning. Things look good and things look healthy. We're paying AP. It's not like we're holding any kind of age payables. Things are looking healthy so far, but we're continuing to keep a very close eye on it. >> I actually received a another cash flow document this
107morning. So, um it's pretty much every week and then I look at the AP aging, which is the bills that need to be paid, when are they due? So, I watch and then I I can say, "Let's pay these. These aren't due for another month." Really watching the cash flow. Um we are in a um in a pretty good place, but again, uh Mr. Miller and I were we're were looking at the long term to get us to February. So every month that we looked at the cash flow through the end of November and um it looked pretty good and to me that means three more months to go, right? Um and so um we are we are very much monitoring. We also talked about how important that runway was going to be it when
108we see it coming. Um we need to uh be able to to um give everyone a heads up and to make sure we're making the right decisions. One of the things that that Nick had said is that we wanted to wait until these September financials were done because we know that the August financials aren't true to our real financials because it we're only half the school year. So looking and now having a real month of real things now we can better project out so we're closer to being able to kind of get that final information. Um, but I I also found I was telling Nick as well, I found um the I guess the cash flow balance that uh Dr. Kernan and Delano had created each month to make us to make it through >>
109and um we're actually ahead of we have more uh balance which is nice than they had projected and they showed how we could make it through and so I'm watching their projections as well as the cash flow very carefully. Um it it again I don't you know we know we want to try not to we will still be okay with our ending balance if we have to but it is my goal and we're we're doing a lot of work to make sure that we're in good shape. >> Are we in a rears with any invoices? >> No at this so I I approved and released um all the invoices. there weren't many left this morning. Um, but each time I I do look at the due dates and make sure that we're in good shape.
110Um, and the only thing I've held back um was really was actually in the beginning and it was because things we were putting things in the system that weren't due for another month and a half. >> So, I was kind of watching it as I was getting a handle on where we were. I feel better now. and um the cash flow reports that their team has done has been very helpful. >> Well, it sounds like the uh we had some excess revenue that came in. >> Yes. Yes. >> Questions, comments? Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Miller. >> Okay. Thank you everyone. Have a nice night. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> All right. Moving on. Items for discussion and possible action. The first item here is an information item related to the notification
111of addendum to dashboard local indicators teaching assignment monitoring outcomes data. TMO state law requires districts to make available as part of their local indicators for the annual dashboard information about teacher assignment monitoring outcomes as part of priority one basic conditions. This information was provided by the state after the local indicators were presented to the board of June. TMO were officially released annually but reflect the data that is almost two years old at the time of release. Up goal action not applicable. Funding source not applicable. Budget financial impact not applicable. No recommendation. It's an information item. >> Anything else to comment on this? >> No, just that this is a required item. We didn't do anything wrong. The guidance for this language is even from the state of California. All districts are having to um have
112this as an information item. >> Thank you. Moving on to be approved contract for Southern California sensory screening. California requires vision and hearing screenings for all students at several grade levels. Screenings must be performed by a credentialed nurse or authorized personnel. IIA would like to contract the Southern California sensory screening and mobile screening service. Screen all IIA students for mandated vision, color blindness, and hearing screenings. They're able to screen over 600 students in one day and complete all follow-up reporting. Cost is $2.35 a student per test. LCAP goal action goal two action six funding source >> that would be LCFF >> budget financial impact not to exceed 3,000 not currently reflected in the budget recommended the board of directors approve action item B any further comments >> um yes so happy with this company I've
113utilized them before um we don't have nursing staff on staff so They not only do they conduct the screening, they will bring like a mobile unit out into the parking lot. Um our our staff will bring our students out. It's very efficient. We will probably do it over two days. Um which we're negotiating those dates with them. They'll be in the spring. That's all we know so far. Um but they also help us with the reporting that's necessary as well because not only is it the screening, but it then it's sharing with families. So, and um they came out at uh well under budget, actually half of what um I had initially thought it was going to be at $3,000 to uh test and make our school compliant for all students. So, >> do you
114do class by class? What's the >> Yes. So, when we look at the two days, um it will be it it will be certain grade levels will be done first. For example, first grade boys have to have an additional colorblind screening. So they'll they will we'll make a schedule class by class and bring them out um you know monitored with our staff and that'll be our component. Then they'll go through the screenings. We will send out a notice to families and there is the option to opt out if a family is interested. So we will go through all the required steps um by the state of California and then once the data is collected it'll also be uploaded into ARIES um so that all of it all stays in our student information system as well.
115>> We've never done this before, right? This will be the first time >> as far as I can tell. Yes, >> I believe so cuz I don't recall ever having >> so that that is why we're going to be testing all our students in the future. It would be even half of this cost because we would only do the required grades but students um it's every other year even in through high school that is the required vision and hearing screening. And so we want to make sure that all students have a record and that if anyone was missed that we are able to serve any student who needs them regardless of grade level this first year and then we'll stay on the um on the required grade levels in the future. I didn't know it
116was for the whole school >> just this time >> fifth grade or >> it is so it's um it's TKK upon their first entry and then I want to make sure I say this right first grade I believe is the color blindness and then it is it's like every other year I think it's third fifth 8th or third third seventh and then high school um this time because we had we did not do this last year. We're doing all grades to make sure that we're compliant. >> That's great. >> Are the younger grades kids are they escorted and then >> all students will be escorted with our staff? Oh, yeah. >> Someone will wait. >> Yes. >> And then make sure they get back. >> They'll bring the entire class. So, they will have all
117adults. Not only will like our staff, I would assume Mr. Fernandez because he students would be overseeing but also each of our classrooms has an aid and a teacher and they will go with the class um while this is happening. Absolutely. So is there I guess I'm wondering is there much the whole how long that how long does the cost take to process >> you know I'm not sure but I do know just from using them before it happen it's very quick they're very efficient um and the tests aren't um overly uh complicated I guess it's they're pretty simple tests they do this I've a lot of success with their team and great results because it is very difficult if you don't have a full nursing staff for schools to um do this kind of
118testing by themselves. So when I mean rather than have the whole class waiting out there and I'm just wondering how do you not disrupt the class right the teacher teacher trying to do >> well they'll have to schedule ahead of time and um they will walk their class out the students I'm not we're also trying to find out how many I think they need this to be approved and the contracts in there but we we still have some of the like dates to work out >> some of the technical things which grade levels on which date and then um how many people their team will need in order to accommodate and test all of our students officially, I mean efficiently, excuse me. So, um, yes. So, those those are still being worked out. >> Okay.
119>> All right. Um, is there a motion for this? >> Motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed, please say nay. >> Hearing none, it passes. approve the appointment of the finance and audit advisory committee members. Finance and audit committee shall assist the board of directors in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities related to income expenses budgeting and audit consistent with the board's long-term goals and the charter petition of cap goal action not applicable funding source not applicable budget financial impact not applicable board policy requirement mandated for all public schools nominations recommended the board directors approve the appointment of the following directors to the finance and audit advisory committee. So currently Mr. Delgado and Mr. Suns is that right? >> So we need to have nominations and then
120we'll vote to approve. And if I can add, one of the reasons for the timing of now is um I look through our bylaws and our governance handbook and although committees are covered in both documents, there isn't a timeline of um of membership into the committee. So there so it would be good to revisit this. Also, um the reason for getting the the committees back together now is that um it was recommended by our auditing firm Christy White that we have a finance and audit meeting in early December to review the audit results that we're finishing up now. And so that they are able that our committee two committee members because the committee is called the finance and audit committee um will we will have a meeting to um hear the f hear the results
121of our audit. >> Are you opposed to being on this? >> No, I'm fine with that. I think uh actually right now we have we have to nominate people right so I nominate Davidson >> I second that >> all in favor >> so we have >> well let's get our second nomination >> at the same time >> I'd like to nominate Mr. Delgado if he's okay to to do it. I don't know. >> Absolutely. >> If there's a second. Is there? >> I'll second. >> All right. >> I can second myself. >> Okay. So, we got David and Felipe. Uh >> looking forward to it. >> Okay. So, I'd like to make a motion to nominate Mr. Sun and Mr. Delgado to the Finance and Audit Committee. Is there a second? >> Thank you, Molly.
122All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Please say nay. >> Hearing none. I think I have to. >> You have to. >> Yeah, I ab pass. But thank you very much. We really appreciate that. Thank you. Okay. Moving next to the approved the appointment of the governance advisory committee members. Governance committee is responsible for maintaining proper board composition, ensuring that the board governs effectively. This committee drives a comprehensive board self- assessment process, fosters the development of new and existing board members and manages board member recruitment. LCAP goal action not applicable. Funding source not applicable. Budget financial impact not applicable. Board policy requirement highly recommended. Board policy nominations recommend the board of directors approve the appointment of the following directors to the governance advisory committee. Do you have any objection to continuing on the
123governance committee? Okay. Uh I also have no objection in continuing if it's okay but throw that out there. Okay. Uh, >> so I will nominate Brett for the governance committee and Molly. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so we have Molly and Brett. Is there maybe I wonder how we have here because >> um so we'll do why don't we do it this way? We'll do one at a time. >> We'll do one at a time. So >> So >> I will nominate Brett to the governance committee. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> I'm gonna recuse. All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed, please say nay. >> Okay. So, Brett passes. >> I nominate Molly to the the governance advisory committee. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >>
124All right. Uh, we'll do a vote. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any oppose, please say nay. >> And that passes. Molly refused. >> Got it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, we're lined up. Mr. Delgado, Mr. Sun on the finance and audit committee, Miss Chang, and Brett on the government's advisory committee this year. Okay. Next, approve the acceptance of donation from Larry and Helen Hope Foundation. The Larry and Helen Hope Foundation generously donated $75,000 to be used for a technology refresh to benefit IIA students. The tech refresh includes the purchase of student Chromebooks, staff computers, and laptops as well as an electronic messaging system to improve communication in the IIA community. IIA thanks the foundation for their ongoing support of our IIA students and will ensure that the donation is used to fund
125initiatives that have a positive impact on our school and students. LCAP goal action goal one action seven funding source >> that's not >> this is from the foundation >> uh the budget financial impact increased revenue of 75,000 not reflected in the budgets recommended the board directors approve action item E I will recuse myself from the vote is there a motion to accept or do any questions or comments anything we want to make. >> I want to thank the Larry Hogan Larry and Helen Ho Foundation for their generous donation. With that, like to make a motion that we accept their second. >> Thank you. Thank you, Molly. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any post, please say nay. Hearing none. It passes. Okay, moving on to the executive director's report. >> Uh, so I
126would like to thank I I'm going to start by acknowledging um our donation, how thrilled we are coming up with the theme of how we could best support our students with the tech refresh. um to give details. Uh this money will help to fund 110 student Chromebooks, 10 Chromebook carts, eight teacher laptops, and two computer workstations, as well as a digital marquee um for our site for better communication and um branding, as well as um computer software to help uh our Z computers that were um donated years past. and make sure that they're running and being able to be utilized by students. So, we are thrilled. Again, I want to thank the Larry and Helen Hogue Foundation for this generous donation. Um, I also want to thank, if you remember, at the last board meeting,
127I thanked Judy Chen and family. Uh, fourth grade student Ezekiel Chen, seventh grade student Jebidiah Chen. They had made a $2,000 donation for field trips. Well, they've been so happy and um that they decided to donate another 3,500 to cover field trips in those grade levels. Um so again, thank you to the generosity of the Chen family. We really do appreciate that. And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge our mid-autumn festival. The feedback has been outstanding. Um this was my first one. Um and I think we set the bar really high. I heard um it was it was wonderful. We had such a great turnout. Uh we did have some dignitaries there and a comment that was made to me from the chief of staff from um OCDE was that um he
128goes to a lot of these events and he said, "But this is very special. You look around and people are happy and smiling and children are happy and families are happy and engaging and um it it just I it was such a high after being there. It made me so proud to be part of um this wonderful community. So again, thank you. It it it really was special. I've now been to two IIA big events. won at the end of the school year last year in May we dance and then now um the mid autumn festival and they just keep getting better and we sure do know how to throw an event. So I've been extremely impressed um and very proud. Uh I wanted to give an update on the quarter 1 community survey. So
129um we did talk about really reaching out to our families and giving a community survey. So, um, so far I have 74 responses, which is higher than we had at the LCAP last year. Um, so very, very high level of response. Um, I've been reading them as they come in. My plan is to do a presentation of the results at the next board meeting, but I'm also going to present the results at the coffee with the principal to the families, an overview. Great feedback. Um, and a lot, you know, a lot of the recommendations for improvement are are very well acknowledged and I think things that we can act upon. Um, a lot of validation of the hard work that's been happening. So, I do want to thank our families for your feedback and I
130look forward to um, sharing the results as this survey closes. I do also want to acknowledge our families and thank you for the response to the intent to return forms because um we've received most of them back. There are very few that we're still following up with. Um and so thank you to the community because this is really important as we work with Irvine Unified School District to um to maintain our facility use and um and so so far so good. Um, we will be submitting our proposal for our facilities at the in the end of October. So, thank you again for the intent to return forms. I'm I'm pretty pleased with the way this is going and um and that that's all I have to report right now. >> Thank you. Moving on to
131the director's reports. >> I was just thinking about right now This is um October and so we're in school for two months and we already have so many good news what's going on and uh so I look forward to see all the way till June and there's a lot more activity of the event coming up. So I want to thank uh principal uh uh you know all the things he reported. there's so many details and inn-out stuff that he interact with teachers and students and thank you for your hard work. Um and also uh PTO uh this high I didn't get a chance to attend the u the festival but um I I know our PTO is always on top of everything and care for the staff and care for teachers and children. Um thank
132you for all the staff that your hard work. Um we also heard a lot of new uh clubs and happening in the uh after school and I um I feel like that's kind of like we discussed we used to give it to someone else but now we are u managing it together so I want to especially thank uh Mr. Gill for I know he put in a lot of effort into it um and Dr. hearing. Thank you for your thorough uh very detailed informative uh information about the the the school all the business about the school especially on the testing. Um yeah with such great result uh with hund more students coming in and not really know about a lot of them came from other countries and but still they we are still out there.
133Uh so thanks to the teachers, you know, you work so hard and uh I look forward to uh another wonderful result uh for this year. Thank you. You know the only thing I had I mean it was just a great is that uh Tiffany you know the work she did this is the principal right that she did in organizing the kids and having their program and that whole portion of that event where we exemplify our uh Chinese language skills and stuff. You know that was a big hit. You know, it's always it's always amazing to see the parents when their kid gets up there on the stage. They just they just rush to the and huddle to the front and every pulls out their cameras and they're so proud of at that moment, you know,
134that's why they come and that's why they're they feel that sense of community, you know, because we do allow them that opportunity to be proud of their students and they should be, you know, because they're a big part of why this school is at. So, I also want to mention Tiffany and again, Mario, fantastic job. So, yeah, looking forward to the next next month. You know, I think it's kind of refreshing. I remind you last year, um, we're always looking for, you know, February, March financials because that's when we're having our cash flow come in, right? And I don't think we have that same apprehension that we had in the past. So, that's great. target their budget. So that's all I am. >> Thank you. Yeah, so many wonderful things happening here and Dr. you're
135you're doing an excellent job. So thank you very much. I also wanted to mention, you know, the little things that that make uh these meetings go very well and we appreciate the printouts, the Chromebooks. I noticed this We have tabs open for each mason >> of the presentation. So, excellent work. Thank you. We've got we've got our names uh up here. It's it's it's fantastic. So, >> it's starting to feel like a real school. >> It's excellent. It's really it's really wonderful. Thank you. Thank you to everyone that's here. And I I still jump my kids off in the morning and walk them. And I just notice the staff out there. You can feel the presence. You see the smiles. They're folks that are dependable. They're reliable. They make this place that much more enjoyable
136to come and very much know who they are. So, thank you. When you have your cabinet meetings and your staff meetings, please let them know that they're recognized. receive them. >> I definitely will. I I'm not sure if my mic is working, but um it's a wonderful team. I mean, I I couldn't have been more blessed to be working with a better team. So, all the skills, everything comes together. Definitely, I'll share that with them. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on to the adjournment. It's recommended the board adjourn the regular meeting of the Irvine International Academy Board of Directors on October 14, 2025. Is there a motion? >> I'll motion. >> Thank you, Felipe. Is there a second? Thank you, Molly. All in favor, please say I. I. Any that one again? All in favor,
137please say I. >> I. >> Any oppose, please say nay. Hearing none. It passes. Okay. and meeting adjourned. Where are we at? See the clock here? >> 9:54. >> 8:54. >> Thank you everyone. Have a great evening.