LBUSD Board Meeting (3/12/2026)

001All right. Good evening. We're It's uh 7:06 and we're going to open the regular meeting. We're start with the pledge of allegiance. Um, Miss Whitaker, would you lead us in the pledge, please? >> To the flag of the United States of America to the Republic, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Approval of the agenda. Anything to change, Dr. Richie? >> No, nothing. No, there's no changes. >> All right. Since there are no changes, I need a motion to approve the agenda as presented. >> I move the agenda as presented. Second. >> We got a motion by member Katuso, seconded by member Moran to approve the agenda as presented. All those in favor? I opposed. It's carried unanimously. Anybody in the public who wishes to address the board

002on Excuse me. Any I jumped ahead of myself here. Anybody in the public who wishes to um add something to our agenda in the future may do so by notifying the superintendent at least two weeks prior to a regularly scheduled board meeting. And if that item is within our purview, um it will be added to one of our future meetings. If there's anybody here tonight that wishes to address the board on any item that is on our agenda, you may do so when that item comes up before us. Come on up to the podium, uh we'd ask you to identify yourself and then you'll have three minutes to speak to that agenda item. If there are multiple speakers for that agenda item, uh there will be a limit of 20 minutes for comments on an

003one agenda item or an agenda item. If there's anybody here tonight that wishes to address the board on any item that is or anything that that is not on tonight's agenda, um in a second I'll let you know. You may come up and uh to the podium identify yourself. You'll have three minutes to um address the board. And if there happens to be multiple speakers on that non-aggenda item that it is limited to three minutes. So with that, is there anybody here tonight that wishes to address the board on any item that is not on tonight's agenda? you may do so. Come on. Go on up. All right. Seeing no one come up, we will go on to reports and we're going to start with our student representative report. And Ila, welcome. >> Hi, I'm

004Laya Navaro and I'm Losano's High School's board reporter and today we're going to start with Pacheco High School's board report. Pacheo's counselors have been busy hosting several events including a Fresno State admissions presentation, job application workshops, attendance clinics for 11th and 12th grade, a scholarship support workshop, Merced College application support and RJ conference, academic success workshops for 9th and 11th grade, coffee with the counselors and makeup attendance clinic for seniors, as well as a lunch tableabling event. PHS held an AVID learning s'mor night for any incoming eighth and ninth grade student with an excellent turnout. Students are still able to apply to join AVID next year. Just speak with your counselors. Pacheo High School is excited to launch Panther Hub in partnership with the LBSU LBUSD community schools located in P1. The hub will support

005Panther families while also offering workshops and resources to the LBUSD community. It will feature monthly 3-week family workshop series along with related roar flex student workshops during the school day. The board and community are invited to the Panther Hub launch on March 26th at 6 p.m. for a special what's on your plate opening event in a community to Sadovar. The first full workshop series will begin in April. This partnership reflects our belief that when families, schools, and communities come together, student success grows stronger. In athletics, five Poacheo wrestlers qualified for the section Masters tournament with Malaya Sodto advancing to the state tournament in Bakersville. Boys soccer and girls basketball both made playoffs and girls soccer had the best season in PHS history. Spring sports are now underway, including the return of boys tennis for the

006first time in four years in the addition of stunt cheer. On Saturday, February 7th, Pacheo High School students competed in the academic declon in Merrced, earning several medals and scholarships. Honor winners included Isla Gonzalez, Chase Compost in the Scholastic category. Matthew Reyes earned silver medals in essays and economics and was the team's top scoring student. Additional medalists included Hermus Lopez, Angela Barka, Nicholas Aravalo, Remni Chuhan, Rex Bchart, Matthew Reyes also received the coach award. Robert Wayne scholar scholarship recipients were Christian Sanchez, Matthew Reyes, and Jace Compos. PHS Messa teams also competed at the Messa Day preliminary competition at Fresno State where several teams earned medals and advanced to the regionals. First place teams included match escape room harnit sandu Frank Lopez Christian Guerrero bio breakthrough harnit sandu taman choan George Torres and moon base remnit

007choan Susanna Rodriguez additional medalists included teams in bio breakthrough moon base these teams will represent phs at the regional competition at Fresno State on April 11th our phs and LBHS Seroptimus clubs collaborated for this year's prom closet which was held March 4th through the 6th at LBHS MPB. The event was successful with dresses and items for girls being a big hit. We hope that for next year there can be more community support. Now on to Laspa school board report. On March 3rd, the LBHS choirs had a successful concert at Pacheo High School along with Pacheo and Laspanos Junior High. On March 27th, the Laspanos High School chamber singers will be leaving for our trip to New York to perform in the Carnage Hall. We will be performing with other elite high school assemblies from all

008over the country in a national concert choir uh chorus. It will be conducted by Dr. Alan Sabriski from Texas Tech University and the performance will feature works of art by prominent modern composers in a live orchestra. Today we hosted the every 15 minutes program to raise awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving. Throughout the day, a student was symbolically removed every 15 minutes to present lives lost due to alcoholrelated crashes. The program involves students, school staff, law enforcement, and first responders, creating a powerful demonstration of how one decision can impact many lives. The event encouraged students to reflect on responsibility, safety, and the importance of making safe choices. It served as an important reminder to our community about the real consequences of impaired driving. In addition, preparations for prom are underway, including organizing prom

009elections and continuing to plan for the event. Lastly, we wanted to show appreciation for our social workers. We created a poster to thank them for the important work that they do. And each of them received a personal thank you card along with the sweet treat as a small token of our gratitude. Spring sports have begun. All teams have begun playing on non non-league games. A wrap-up of winter sports wrestling had three individuals make it to the CIF state championship. Angelina Belli was state finalist. Luke Belli state qualifier and state match winner. Michael Cleo state qualifier and pursuing victory with honor award recipient. Boys soccer won their first round playoff match against Weston Ranch, making it to the quarterfinals before losing the number one seed to Lyra. Girls basketball made the playoffs. They lost at the

010buzzer in their first round. >> Thank you. >> Great. Great job, Ila. Thank you. Good job. Lots going on at the schools. Great. All right. On to item B. California School Employees Association. Is anybody here tonight for a report? All right. Seeing no one come forward. We move on to Las Vegas Teachers Association. No one coming forward to give the report. All right. Next up is our facilities report. Miss Monday, welcome. >> Good evening. Good evening board members, board president Pereira, Superintendent um Richie, and executive cabinet. I'm here to do my March um facilities update. Don't have a presentation. I'm just going to kind of give you an overview of where we are with some of the projects. Excuse me. Um, so the Las Spanish Junior High fire alarm project, um, we're finishing that up.

011They are up and running on their new panel. Um, the admin and custodial staff have been trained on that. Um, on how that operates on that new system and they are completing the final testing this week and then we'll start demolishing the old system. Um, so they'll be there for about another month taking all that old stuff out. Um, the Bolta modernization and parking lot project. Um, the two things that have been holding up this project, we are finally getting. Um, so the doors have arrived at the door shop on March 11th. And then the Mapes panels, which are at Volta, you know, has those weird windows at the top. They're all different shapes. Um we putting mates panels into there and they are deliver um being delivered to that door shop on March 18th

012and they should come right out to the site and once those two things that's what's holding up the exterior of the building um being closed up. So once that happens they're going to really um bump up their crews, get all the rest of the stuff done inside for us. Um they're out there planting trees um going to start soding the um seeding the grass. So, our expected completion date is April 17th. Um there I don't know if anybody's driven out there. Um I know I've had some questions about it. There's a huge water tank that they're building right next to the school um at Sanella Water District that has nothing to do with the school. It has nothing to do with our water, but because the proximity and if you see how big it is

013um we're getting a lot of questions. So, I don't know if any of the board members have, but I just wanted to kind of let you know that was going out there because it is um quite large and right next to our school classrooms. Um the high school modernization project. Um we're we're well into demo over there. Um we're going to start demoing the gym locker rooms on Monday. Um we're starting to get the pad ready for the new administration building. That's a JTS building. It's a modular. um that is that is going to be ready to be delivered to the site at the end of the month. Um we need to get our work done and get the foundation ready for that to come. Um the building might be sitting in that JTS yard

014waiting to be delivered, but it's going to be here. Um the H-wing we have found I I put here serious electrical issues that might be a little but they are pretty serious. Um, so we've had to halt our work because electrical is the first thing you do in the walls. So we've had to go had our electrical engineers come out. They have um reviewed everything. We've come up with a new plan. They're having to do some drawings right now that they can provide to the contractors with that new um there were some missing electrical panels that were supposed to be there and they're not there. Um the the outlets aren't grounded. So there's some serious and we can't move past it. It's not things I can just kind of ignore. So um we're taking the

015time um to get those fixed properly. Um so so it'll be good to go for for another 50 years, 100 years. Um early education center. So we are pretty much completed with our punch list items with the exception of the landscaping, the signal, and a couple of fence panels. Um, if you've driven by this last Saturday, they put the turf, they planted the turf in the interior of the campus. Um, so that looks really nice. Um, we are waiting for P Gen for the signal electrification. Um, my contact with P Gen said they had pulled the encro um, they were waiting for the encroachment permit from the city of Laspanos. So, I'm hoping this week they got that settled and they should start being able to do that. Um, and then we're going to start

016planning our ribbon cutting for that. So, more information about that will be coming. Um, the Mo restroom, um, we've we're working on the punch list items. And, um, the contractor currently is refurbishing the turf area. They brought in, you know, all their equipment. So, they're having to redo that that grass area. And then during spring break, we're going to be doing the ADA entrance um that goes up to the front door. So, we'll work on that during spring break and then that project will be done. And then, um, a future project that will be coming is the PHS new artificial turf baseball field. Those plans are with DSA. We should receive those stamped out plans by the end of the month. Um, so in April, I plan on bringing the permission to bid the site

017work and the purchase of the the turf material. And then our construction dates, if if approved, our construction dates would be um starting June 9th and we should be completed by September 30th. And that is it. Any questions or any other projects I didn't touch on you guys have questions on or >> I'm just concerned that I went to Las Vegas High School and >> the outlets weren't grounded. >> Did you get shocked ever? >> I did not. >> Yeah, maybe I did. Didn't know it. >> Yes. So that that to me that's quite alarming, right? we need to fix those things and and and you know the perception is oh they demoed all this stuff and now we're at a standstill but it's because we have some serious work that we have to and

018the good thing is this H-wing is kind of our guinea pig right we we didn't know what we didn't know till we open the w uh walls like the insulation not being there um about the non-grounded outlets um so we know now that those other wings are are more than likely like that. So, we're going to proceed that way. So, when we come to those, we won't have these long halts like we're having in this first wing. So, well, that's the plan. So, >> hopefully it all works. >> That's the plan. We're going to cross our fingers. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Katusa. >> Oh, sorry. >> I was just curious. There's some classroom work going on at Lorina Felasco or >> I It must be a maintenance project. I can get some information

019for you and email out to the board. I'm not sure. Do you know which room specifically >> in the back >> where the >> I I will find out for you from our maintenance team. >> I just I just didn't know how it was going. I was just kind of curious to know. Thank you, >> Lena Felaska. Is that what you said? >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Any other questions? All right. Thank you. >> All right. On to community schools. Dr. Wither, >> welcome. >> No presentation. Good. Good evening um to everyone. So I don't have a presentation um for everybody because February was kind of a hunker down get into uh settle into the family resource center. So, I do have our family resource center um kind of

020grand opening flyer that uh we've sent out to the district. So, that Spanish and so we have officially opened. We've been we've gotten some donations. We had families dropping by So this is a drop in thing. >> So right. So this is the official we we do have a an official family resource center location now um across the street from the Bank of America on 6th and I um in the old bank building. Old old bank building. Um and Right. Exactly. Um, it's actually really neat to be in there. Some of the the um original wood paneling is still there and frosted glass. It's pretty cool. And the vault is still there. And and actually that's where we have um part of our food pantry is in the vault along with uh other storage and

021um some things from the the old um as I mentioned, we took some of the furniture from the old uh early learning center because uh you know they they didn't need it at the new location. and we were so happy to take it. So, we have some little kids stuff back there that we're going to eventually have at um our permanent location when we have a family room area and a play area for the student for the kids that come. So, we are excited though at the current at the new family resource center. We um do have a like dedicated clothing closet that is helping with the new Panther uh closet that's at um Pacheco and um so that is there also for the rest of the district um as well as a um centralized

022um pantry and then we are going to be holding some family classes there as well as around um the district. Um, and so everything is is really exciting to have to have a space beyond a single classroom in the back of Henry Miller, uh, where we were doing everything before. And so, um, we've just been, um, settling in. You don't realize how long it takes to unpack everything, um, until you get in there and and start using it. So, that's really all we've been all February is about. We'll we'll be coming up in spring. Things are starting to pop. we will be part of the um downtown spring street fair. So we will have a booth there and the family resource center will be open and so we will be there um you know meeting

023with the public. Uh and then our our next big event won't be until uh May. So I'll have time I'll get the flyer to you, but it'll be May 16th will be the um uh summer kickoff event. Then this year, rather than having it at the um community center, we're trying out the fairgrounds. So, we're going to be at the in the OAN building um at the fairgrounds. And of course, when I have the flyer, I'll share that with you. But just so you know, um it will be Saturday, May 16th. So, we'd love to see you come out. And it will be a resource fair um like we had last year as well. >> Cool. Any questions, Miss Kaduso? I'm sorry, I might have missed it. Did Did you say you were going to

024have a grand opening or a ribbon cutting or anything for the family? >> No, we're not officially doing that with this kind of a soft opening. Um, and we're going to treat the street fair as Yeah, the the real grand opening will be once we move into the permanent location. >> Um, but we're kind of like going to launch ourselves during the street fair, right? So, we'll have um every everything out for that. We'll have our pop-up tent out front. We'll have all our um signs and things so that people really start to get to know where we are. But yeah, I I thought it might be more appropriate to have like an actual ribbon cutting when we're at a place that we can cut a ribbon at more easily. >> Thank you. >> Uhhuh.

025Absolutely. Any other questions? >> Questions. >> One last piece. As I looked at uh Dr. Dr. Moran, I realize so I do want to say we are going to be next month uh in in the next uh couple um couple months we are putting together now working with Merced College on some really great um vocational classes and um hands-on activities for junior high through high school for summer. Um and so we're really excited for the relationship that we're develop even more than what we did during um winter break. So, we'll be offering several weeks worth of um enrichment and extended learning opportunities um for students, like I said, junior high to um through high school. We're excited to tell you more about that, too. >> Right. Thank you very much. Great job. Great. Great news.

026>> All right, Mr. Morz, our attendance report. >> Uh good evening, President Pereira and board of trustees. you have an attendance report in front of you. Do you have any questions? >> So, I noticed that the only school that did not have uh declining attendance was Charleston for January as compared to December. Did we have a bunch of students in Mexico in January or I mean what was I saying? That's what usually happens in January, but is is that what happened here? Because I mean >> potentially. So when you when you're comparing um the December through January 16th date, they really only attended one week of school cuz three weeks they were off. So you comparing one week of school versus four weeks of school. >> That makes sense. >> Yeah. >> Okay, that makes

027better sense. Yeah. Cool. Thank you. Anybody else have questions? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. All right, out to superintendent report. Uh, Dr. Richie. >> So, good evening board. Good evening um public. We've had so many things go on in our district this past month. It's been hard to keep track of everything and it's it's it's actually it's really exciting just all the different activities and all the different things our students are involved with as sever you attended to the every 15 minutes um activity over at uh Las High School. And if you ever been involved in that, it's a very sobering experience. Um it's it's a good it's a good reminder um of the the importance of uh of not driving under the influence and it's a great partnership that

028we had with law enforcement to be able to put that on and kudos to Los Mos High School and all they did to to make that um that event a success. Uh you've also heard about you know that just acknowledged that our loss high school uh wrestling team that that advanced members of the team that advanced to the state um finals. Angelina Belli was that she won the section and is ranked the number one wrestler in the state. We also want to acknowledge um just the work of the uh the different FFA programs at BCO and Los Balance High School that have uh either won or placed in the various competitions and our advancing to the state um competition as well. And I would like to also give a special acknowledgement to our DAC. Um

029we last last week um we had 30 parents participate in the California Association for Bilingual Education Cave um conference and they they attended and it wasn't just that they attended. When we first started having parents go about um four years ago we had eight parents that showed up and they were so appreciative of the opportunity to go and to participate in their parenting classes. There was classes on how to support their students. There was u workshops. There's lots of different opportunities for them and they were very appreciative of the fact that the district supported them in providing this opportunity. Since then it's grown. We've had more parents go every year. We had like I said 30 parents that attended this year and they weren't just attending. They were also participating. They were volunteers. They were

030guides. They they manned the parent um club, the parent booth. They were passing out. Um they were doing a registration desk. They um they got a lot of credit for um a lot of compliments on the uh the centerpieces they uh put together which were remarkable. I can't do that. So, it was very creative. Um and something else that I'd like to acknowledge is that our parents were such a force that we had the president of the National Association of Bilingual Education, the parent uh the parent organization for CAB. um she requested a special meeting just to meet with our parents to get to know them and to find out more about just this remarkable group because of how energized they were and just the work that they were doing. Um we also had 40

031students who uh came over for a one-day workshop um as and and this is a group of students primarily students who were considered English learners or former English learners and the the work that they were able to uh do and participate in was remarkable. U just want to give kudos to Mrs. Moreno. She was she's actually a co-chair of Rave because of the work that she's done, relationship she's built. She was a co-chair for that and uh her uh her assistant, Miss Garcia, who uh really we know runs everything. That's that's how we're just like Nette basically takes care of my life for me. Same thing, Mrs. Garcia. And so, um, and I had the opportunity to speak to, uh, to the conference, um, just to acknowledge just the the the work that our parents

032do, acknowledge the importance of multilingual education and the and just the really remarkable work that we have going on here in those boss. And that concludes my report. >> All right. >> Thank you. All right. On to board member reports. All right. I'm not going to pick. Who likes to go first? Don't mind. >> I'll go first. >> All right. Mr. Castro, >> get it out of the way. Good evening, everyone. Um, >> that's a >> I um I wasn't able to share um well, last month was Black History Month, of course, and um I was not able to share a story. Well, not a story, but just like a a perspective of a friend of mine um that I went to school with, and I wanted to share it here. Um and here it

033goes. So, I asked him, you know, to let me know what he thought black history meant to him. And this is what he wrote. It's short, but it it means a lot. Um, and then I'll reveal his name after. Uh, he said, "Black History Month is a necessary act of reclaiming the narrative. It means shining a light on the stories that were often left out of mainstream history books, offering a more complete and accurate understanding of American history. It is about educating everyone on the true impact of black individuals, shattering stereotypes, and acknowledging that black history is American history. And I think there's a lot of people that might know who Rodney Perkot is. >> So Rodney Perkot, uh, a friend of mine, I went to school with him here at Los Vanis High. Actually,

034uh, started in, um, Myo. So, um, anyways, I just wanted to share, uh, his perspective on what black history means to him. And, um, I wise words from Mr. Perkot. Thank you very much, Mr. per coats. Um, also last month um there was an event um at the Ted Falasco uh art center and I think everybody's familiar with the Ted Felasco Art Center. Okay. So there was an event um to honor uh war veterans but also to share stories. Um and the event um there there were some familiar people there. Uh it was hosted by Mr. Tim McN. Most of you probably don't know who Tim McN is but I'm thinking a few people here know who he he was a a teacher at Las Spanish High. So, it was really nice to see him.

035He was he hosted the event and then they had guest speakers uh also whom I went to school with, Paul Laughler. I don't know if how many people know who Paul Laughler is, but uh he was one of the guest speakers. Mike Hughes uh he was uh also one of the guest speakers there. Retired Lasance police officer. Um police chief. That's right. You're right. Um Paul Laughler, he uh he he was um one of the people that uh was the main catalyst for uh the Central Valley Honor Flight. I don't know how many people are familiar with the Central Valley Honor Flight. Um what they do is they raise money um to take veterans that have served from uh from the Vietnam War on down to like World War II. And it's um it's free

036to veterans. And anyways, uh Paul Laughler is one of the catalysts for that. Um, also one of the guest speakers was uh a man by the name of Paul Serner. I don't I didn't recognize him, but he was also uh um he graduated from Las High. Uh he has an an exemplary career in in uh in the military. He was he's retired Air Force fighter pilot with 30 years of experience. Um, and he and he has over 2,400 flying hours, 250 combat hours piloting a stealth bomber. If any of you have ever seen what a stealth bomber looks like, it's pretty impressive. Um, and he said that he was present during present during the 9/11 attack. Um anyways uh another familiar face that I saw uh uh there that she was serving uh condiments or

037actually uh spirits wine. They had cheese, they had wine. I I got a couple of cups of wine from Isla Nelson. So she was there. Her her dad uh uh can't remember her dad's name. Uh Dan, he's uh I think he served during the the Vietnam War. Anyways, he he was there and he's part of the uh the Ted Felasco Art Center. Any Milican Museum. Yes. Sorry. Thank you. Um anyway, so in in saying that um the the FFA, uh the American Legion and the and the VFW, they've been raising money between uh about for about eight or nine years, and they've raised over $200,000 for the Central Valley Honor Flight. Uh the very first dinner that they had, they raised uh $20,000. Uh so I it was a very nice uh evening. Um and

038the some of the stories that Paul Leler um you know um spoke about was was also pretty impressive and it was uh war wartime tales uh of small town of Los Manas. Anyways, if you're a veteran and you've served at any point before the end of the Vietnam War, um Central Valley Honorflight will take you to Washington DC for free. Um and if you want more information in regards to that, uh you can visit the local uh VFW Post. Um or you can also go to their website, uh excuse me, the Central Valley Honor website, which is cvhonorflight.com. Um, I I was lucky enough to uh go on uh Central Valley on a flight with my dad. My dad served um in the Air Force uh back in 19 uh 1951 to 1955. So, he

039immigrated to to the United States when he was 15 years old and went to San Jose High. uh he graduated from San Jose High and then from there back then they had the draft. So you basically had to go and serve your country. But the thing with my dad was is that he was not a US citizen. So um the Navy had contacted him and you know for him to serve in the Navy when they when they saw that he was not a US citizen um they suggested that he try the US Air Force. So that's what he did. He loved ships. He loved water because he came from the Azors and it's nine islands that's surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. So you can imagine um my dad served in the Air Force and as

040part of serving in the Air Force they they explained to him that if he served in the Air Force that he would uh have the opportunity opportunity to become a US citizen and that's exa exactly what he did. So anyways, uh the Central Valley Honor Flight is is near and dear to my heart and it was the most memorable time uh of my life because I served um uh as my dad's uh um like chaperon basically. And like I said, it was just a memorable experience. it was that there was a chartered flight um which made it, you know, a lot easier to go through TSA and things like that. When when you have a chartered flight, you kind of by bypass all of that. Um so that was kind of fun. But anyways, um,

041Central Valley Honor Flight, if if any of you know a veteran or have a family member that's a veteran that served Vietnam War on down to World War II, um, I would highly suggest that you contact the Central Valley Honor Flight and, you know, give that experience to your veteran. Um it's a very memorable experience. Um this month I was invited to to to read um to the Grasslands Elementary School in in uh for the Read Across America for this month. And I read to the second grade class. Uh I read to um Miss Lopez, Mrs. Guzman, Miss No, and Miss Cashasha. Um, I took two books with me. I took uh Green Eggs and Ham and I took The Cat in the Hat. And um it was voted on which book was going to

042be read and the most popular one was Green Eggs and Ham. So um and then I just took a little something uh to test the kids to see if they knew who Dr. Seuss is. And I showed them a couple of photos uh to see if they recognized or if they knew what uh what Dr. Seuss looked like. So, I'm just going to show you a couple of photos because I think it'll be kind of fun. Um this is the first photo that I showed to the class. I don't know if everybody can see it, but that's the first photo that I showed to the class. And I asked, "Is this Dr. Seuss?" And the first class overwhelmingly said, "Uh, that's not Dr. Seuss." Right. Okay. So then I showed him the second photo, and

043this one was pretty popular. I asked him, "Is this Dr. Seuss?" And a lot of the kids were like, "Yeah, that's Dr. Seuss." Dr. Seuss. And then some of you might know this photo, but I just thought it'd be kind of fun to uh to show them this photo. I asked, "Is this Dr. Seuss?" I think some of you might know who this is, maybe from friends, right? Who's that? Anybody recognize who that is? That's the holiday armadillo. I don't know. Anyways, so it's funny cuz one student said, "Oh, that's an armadillo." But I don't think he knew that it was the holiday armadillo. And anybody that's watched uh the show Friends, it's it's a funny show and and and a very funny episode. Anyways, um I was excited to read to the kids. It

044was uh fun as always. I've read to uh you know classes before and um one thing that really stood out to me was um the reception uh of the kids and it was very warm uh very warm reception from the kids. Um I even had um a few kids come up to me and and just give me a hug. and I'm this big tall stranger coming into the classroom and uh it was very touching to uh you know to to see that kind of um emotion and and uh you know it was very touching. Um anyways uh I really had fun reading to the kids and I can't wait to do it again. And that is my report. Thank you. Great. >> Okay. Um, February and March, very busy time. Um, I attended the Laspus

045High School A Sweetheart dinner on February 17th as well as the Pico High baseball and softball crab feed on the 21st. Um, I enjoyed the A High School Las appreciation lunch by Stuart McCulla on the 26th of February. And on the sports side, I was impressed by the number of junior high students from all over the valley who comp competed in the wrestling tournament held for the first time ever at PGO High on the 28th of February. Um, I also enjoyed photographing the sixth grade basketball camp at Westside Union on Saturday the 7th of March. Um, I I did attend the Merced County Boys and Girls Club open house on February 18th at the College Greens building here in Los Benos. and I met their CEO, uh, Mary Mau, and she specifically thanked our school

046district for the partnership that our very own Zachary Cruz is putting together so that students who are on a waiting list for LEAP will be busted to College Greens and be part of their after after school program. I didn't realize that um there are there are only 50 students uh spots currently at College Greens and they're using 25 of them. So, we'll be able to fill the other 25 with and bust them there. Um I also found out from from Zachary Cruz that our district has 500 students on a list right now who would like to take part in LEAP, but there's no openings and he's working on trying to um lower that number. Um, I also know the city of Los Banos has been talking about uh establishing a larger permanent Boys and Girls

047Club in Los Banos. So, if they could make that happen, we would alleviate um the 500 students that are looking for some place to go after school. Um, I attended the Arbor Day ceremony and tree planting on March 6th at Citrus Park. Congratulations to all the students who took part in the essay and art contest and helped plant the 41 trees uh at that at that park. Um, I also want to congratulate Mary Garcia, the assistant principal of Losanos Elementary for coordinating all the a exhibitors in presenting the first a day at that school. Um, there are a lot of moving parts uh to put to put this all together and um both indoors and outdoors. They there were over 25 different um uh aspects exhibitors at the at the event and um taught many

048different aspects of agg. The the best one was from Shane Parsons um and the students nicknamed him worm guy and he was from Central Valley A Services. Um, and the students um enjoyed uh standing there and picking out the worms and touching the worms and he he explained the the importance of of worms and I learned a lot. Um, so that was good. Um, and I look forward to tomorrow the egg day at Henry Miller and um, lastly, the ReadAcross America was a big hit this year again as it always is. And I spent a few days taking photos of celebrity readers at different schools at Charleston. Uh, principal Lou Ree challenges his students each year to read and if they hit their goal of a specific number of books, he holds a student assembly

049and kisses something. So last year, um, he had his students read 800 books and he kissed a goat. This year the students uh, were supposed to read that number surpass it. They they read 2,24 books and he kissed a camel. So my question to Mr. Reese is what is he going to kiss next year? So but he definitely likes to motivate his students and that's one way of doing it. So and with that that's my report. Thank you >> Miss Kuso. >> Good evening everyone. Um, I also was able to attend the FFA Sweetheart banquet and the PCO crab feed and silent auction. Both great events. Um, I also did Read Across America at the week before read across America. I actually read at LFE and then ReadAcross America week. I did Grasslands, Westside, Bolta,

050Henry Miller, and probably 10 or 12 classes total. And it is just absolutely the highlight of of my uh March. I love reading to the kids. One of them asked me, "Hey, are you 16?" And I said, "Oh, you could flip those numbers and I'd still be older than that." So, it took them a little bit because they were only in second grade, but one kid did catch on. So, um, love kids. Just love them. Um, I was able to attend the Wasque focus group for Pacheco and thank you for the invitation for being able to be in in that uh that meeting. I also attended the choir performances for Lost Bennis Junior High, Losen High School in Pacheo. Just beautiful, beautiful singing. The kids are just wonderful. And then also they had that same

051week the band performances for Los Vanish Junior High and Pacheco. They have jazz band, they have concert band, and now symphonic band. It's like amazing great work that the the band and choir are doing. Um, but today was the one that was really very impactful for me because I attended the every 15 minutes where they have the actual crash. And um, if you haven't had the opportunity, I probably get emotional. Sorry. If you haven't had the opportunity to to see that, you really should. It's it it's just something that you can't explain how effective it is unless you're really there and involved in it. And um being a mother when I heard one of the kids yell out, you know, screaming, "I want my mom. I want my mom." You know, it was very, very,

052very emotional. Um, so I want to give kudos to the great job that Laspanis High School, our first responders and Mr. Leonard did on organizing that event. It's not just today. It's tomorrow again, but it's been weeks of plan. I mean, well, probably months of planning, but you know, they train the kids. They just, it's just all orchestrated and done very, very well. So, tomorrow will be the funeral for the kids that they pull out of class every 15 minutes. representing a child dying from a drunk driver. So, um yeah, I I I think that that's one of the best events that we have. We have many, but that was very impactful today. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Well, I spent most of the month in Vietnam and I had the

053opportunity like I when I go out of the country to always visit the schools there. It always interests me to see what is schools like in another country. So I was at the Huchi Min Temple and there was a class on a field trip there and I have to say no matter where kids are, they're all the same. They were running around. I mean the only difference is the kids wear um uniforms and the teachers are just dressed to the tea in these long beautiful gowns um which they say is what they wear. I got to with my guide talk to her a little bit about what she does. So um it it was always interesting to see how schools are run in other countries. So and that's my report. Thank you. >> Thank you

054Miss Moran. >> Yes. Thank you to all the sites that invited us to read. definitely was able to get away to Westside for two classrooms. The little ones are amazing. They do ask uh many questions. They were trying to figure out my age, but um I didn't I was like, "Well, how old do do I do you think?" >> And I got an array, so it was actually kind of fun. Um all the way to then Henry Miller. I read at five classes. Um a mix of the younger ones and the older ones. Again, just if you're having a bad day, just go to one of the the small little ones. They're just just so full of love. Like too many hugs, right? Like you can never have too many hugs, I should say. Um

055and then the older ones were asking questions. Um the sixth graders were asking questions already about college. So it was also nice to be able to tell them about the college and and share a little bit about what I do kind of on a day-to-day basis over at the college. So it was fun. It was amazing. And uh I look forward to it every year. It's probably the highlight of of of this month. Um and then today uh this month is women's uh history month. So to my fellow board members, it's a pleasure to serve alongside you all and definitely everybody from uh Los Unified School District. So all our leaders uh female leaders uh our teachers, our classified professionals, our students. So as you as I see students in this uh room to aspire

056for bigger things and so definitely celebrate uh one another. And so just wanted to make that shout out because as a fellow woman, I am so proud to to sit on the board and serve among some really amazing females. Sorry guys, it's just not their month. >> Not your month. >> Is there a men's history? >> Nope. >> What? No men's history month? Wait a minute. >> You guys had enough. >> All right, Miss Smith. >> Okay. Well, for me, I just want to say for me that Black History Month month month means to me. It's Black History to me every day of my life. I live it good or bad. It's Black History Month or day to me every day of my life. So, um I really appreciate the celebration, but I do preach

057to my children and family. That's every day for us in our household. Um I attended some girls softball events um just to get out there and be outside with with the with the kids and the girls. I like to support girls sports, so I got to do a little bit of that this year. Um, I have to say that retirement has me pretty busy. So, I don't get to do a lot. I didn't get to do a lot this month. Had some traveling to do, but I did attend Kacho High School's craft feed. I'm still recovering from that. That event have a lot of raffles and drawings. And Jean didn't even get my picture, but I was one of the finalists for the 50-50 raffle. >> I got you. >> You did get me. Okay.

058All right. >> Did you see who won? >> That was my daughter who won. It was between me and her. >> You would split it with her, >> you know. Yeah. They offered a split and I said, "No way. No way." And she won, which I was really happy that she did because this senior year for her daughter is cost her a lot of money, so she she could use it. So, it was a good thing. Her grandma would have to pay anyway. So, I appreciate her winning. Um, and I just want to repeat what Sean said. There's been so many acknowledgements and positive things that's been happening throughout our district with teachers and staff. Um, it's it's a lot that you guys are doing and I just I really appreciate what the students are

059doing, what the staff is doing. It just shows that Losanis is doing great things. A lot of great things are happening in our district and it's noted. It's noted throughout the town. It's noted throughout California of all the wonderful things that are happening here in Lasis. So, I just want to say congratulations to you students and staff for being who you are and putting forth so much energy into yourselves and into this district. And I have to say our teachers are amazing. They're just wonderful. I I saw one teacher at the event. I said, "Hey, what happens at this event stays here?" And she said, "Absolutely." So, Lewis, you had a couple cups of wine at that place. So, was it a Stanley Cup? Sound like it was a Stanley Cup. I'm kind of hearing

060Stanley on that one. Okay. Maybe it was a smaller cup. But anyway, um Lewis, have you guys ever heard him talk so much? He's so quiet, right? I'm like, "Wow, >> that was beautiful. That was really nice." I really really enjoyed that. But anyway, just to the staff and students, thank you and congratulations to all your hard work. Thank you. >> You want to talk? >> Yeah. Stanley Cup. Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. Um I'm I'm not going to repeat what everybody just said because I've kind of I read at schools. I was at Arbor Day in the sweetheart banquet. So I've done all that. I just want to kind of go in a different direction for a second. Um, and not to put a damper on everything that was said, but I just

061want to talk about um something that has been out there for a while. And um, on February 25th, there was a letter to the editor in the Westside Express. and letters to the editor are put on the opinion page because there's someone it's someone's opinion. It's not necessarily factual. Um, in all cases, there's some facts in there. There's some sort of facts in there and there's some things that really aren't true. Uh, one of the things in that letter was that Miss Katusu and I are cousins. We're not related. Never have been. Probably won't be. Um we don't even have relatives that are married to each other or even dating each other. Um so it was someone's opinion, although people will take that as fact. Um so I think it's really important that people know

062what they're reading on an opinion page. um what they're reading on social media is someone's opinion and it's not always totally factual or totally truthful. Um and there's been uh quite a few um items on social media um about the board, about me, about Dr. Richie the last couple of months. Um and it I do I never respond I never respond to social media. I don't rewrite rebuttals to the letter of the editor. Um, and as as much as I want to, I I I really I really don't. Um, because then it's going to be a back and forth. But, you know, it's always it's always disheartening to see things that are printed and then the comments afterwards where people actually think it's true. Um, and they're not true. So I guess you know um

063don't rely on information on social media and I know I we have a lot of seniors here tonight and you guys are all on social media and you've all read things that you know aren't true. So I know you guys are all the people that are sitting here have lived through all that. Um a lot of things happen. you know, as a school board, um, we make a lot of decisions and those decisions have to be made in public. And so, we sit up here and we get a board packet and we go through it. This one's over, this board packet's over, what, 450 pages? Um, that we go through and read every single page. And I will tell you that these colleagues of mine uh we all we all read the board packet and

064we know what's in there. We ask questions and um we get clarifying information before we get here and and make a decision. Plus we you know we have a discussion if that's necessary here at the meeting to make those decisions. So, you know, we can't talk about it. We can't talk to each other outside of the board because we're we're bound by a a state law called the Brown Act. And the Brown Act um is the let's say it's a transparency law. So, with the Brown Act um dictates to any public um group, school board, city council, board of supervisors, elected elected public officials are bound by the bound uh Brown Act. So, you know, we can't talk to each other and say, "Hey, I'm I'm voting this way or how are you going to

065vote on this?" We can't have those kind of discussions until we get to a open public meeting and we can have that discussion and there can be public input before we make our decision. So, you know, that's, you know, when you're you're accused of making decisions without really looking at the facts, um I will tell you this group doesn't do it. Well, I mean, we really go through um everything that we need to do to make sure that we make a decision that is well thought out and in the best interest of our students, employees. Um there is a few things that um we have to discuss in close session. It's in the Brown Act. Um and just a few of those are any pending litigation or um existing litigation or even litig litigation that

066is going to be threatened upon us. Um we have uh we have to make those those we have to have those discussions in close session. Um because you know if someone's suing you um you don't want to you don't want to talk about it in public because then they know what your strategy is to you know work on that litigation. So litigation is one of them. Uh personnel matter matters that's that's appointments and discipline of employees um evaluations dismissals those all are happening in close session and those are there to protect the privacy of the employees. So those kind of things are are required to happen in close session. Labor negotiations are required to happen in in uh close session. So, we do discuss when labor negotiations are happening, you know, what's the district's position

067on that. Um, real estate negotiations, if we're getting ready to purchase property, we have to have those discussions in close session. Um, uh, so that, you know, we direct uh the people that are doing the negotiations for us of where we want to go with that. And, um, so those are, uh, held there. student discipline when we have expulsions. Um those always happen in close session again to protect the the privacy of the students and um you know public security if there's if there's a threat against the schools or whatever um we want to make sure that we have those discussions in close session because if there's if the threat or something's happening out there uh we don't want to talk in an open session about what our strategy is to make sure that those

068things don't happen. So those are the type of things that we talk about in close session. Now we if we make a decision in close session, then we have to announce that decision in open session. So if even if we make a decision in close session, it can't actually happen unless we make it um public when we talk about our decisions in close session. Now we won't give names out. We won't give strategies out. We won't give a lot of information out, but we say there was a decision made on this. So, um, a lot of times we get I hear people say, "Well, you hide behind closed session." We don't hide behind closed session. We're mandated to keep close session information confidential. It It's really hard. And I all these people are going to

069tell you, you know, um, but something called pillow talk is like, you know, get to bed and you talk to your wife or your husband or spouse or best friend or whatever. um and you have that pillow talk and you talk about your day and you talk about things happening. The hardest thing about being in a in a close session is that you can't go home and talk about those things. So it's like how was your day? Well, man, this really bugs me, but I can't talk to you about it. Um so, you know, there's a you know, we we hold close session information very dearly. Now, we've had some leaks. I will tell you that we've had some in the past we've had some board members who have shared information and it get backs

070to us and then there's always problems that we have to deal with. But those things we're not hiding behind close session. We're we're required to keep those close session information um quiet. So when we make decisions on certain things that we have discussed in close session, a lot of times we have information that we can't talk about and that's how we made those decisions. And it's really difficult when we can't tell everybody how we made those decisions or why we made those decession decisions because we made those in close session. So we're not hiding behind it, but we're required to follow the the Brown Act. So then we're accused of all kinds of things in in public comment whether it's on letters to the other or you know social media and you know there and

071it's not just us it's also city council it's the board of supervisors um everybody has those close sessions and they make decisions um based on what's best for their constituents whether they're students or employees or citizens of the city or the county. So, I guess the moral of the story is don't believe everything you read because it's some of it might be true and some of it is someone's opinion and we don't want to make our decisions on opinions. I'm off my soap box. So, thank you. Um, so let's get on with the rest of the meeting. Um on to new business and it's student health services presentation. Dr. Whitaker and Pico High School. Thank you for being here tonight. >> That's right. Good evening. >> I'm Priscilla Whitaker. I'm the director of student health

072services for the district and I'm going to do a little overview of the department. So, these are the goals that match with the uh LCAP goals and the strategic directives for the district. And so, our health services team, so we have four registered nurses who are also credentialed school nurses. um eight LVNs, eight health assistants. One we hired an LVN for the LEAP program. Um 15 of those speak Spanish, so it's very important to speak to Spanish for to speak to our parents. And we have 14 school sites that are have a staffed health health office. There's a picture of our team. We're missing just a couple of people. And then here's the coverage for the sites. So um on the top will be either the LVN or the health assistant for the site and

073then below will be this uh credential school nurse that covers that site. Our daily responsibilities of course is u first aid. We have a lot of injuries and um illnesses. We manage chronic illnesses, medication, speaking with parents a lot and collaborate with parent staff and other school nurses. Um, and we have to, of course, have compliance with ED code. So, we follow this. This is put out by the California Department of Public Health. Um, and it's a guide of when to keep your children home from school. So, we use it as well when we send children home. Um, we we know that schools are not sterile environments. People do get sick, right? So, um, one of the big changes that have in years past, we've always gone by the 24 hours fever-free without the use

074of medication. We no longer do that. We're all parents, right? We know your child breaks, fever breaks in the middle of the night and they're bouncing off the walls in the morning. Send them to school. They don't have to have that anymore. So, that's nice when we get our students back into class. So, these are the health office visits um up to last Friday for this school year. So 124 days, we've had 46,659 visits to the health offices. Yes, it's quite a bit. Um, as you can see, the the larger green areas on the on the right are GI symptoms. So that's um absent stomachs and then the on the on the left is injury care and down below also injury care. But I want to highlight the diabetes care. So that's 1,180 health office

075visits for diabetes care. Um, and then we also manage medications for our students. In California, students aren't allowed to have medications on campus without a doctor's order and a release from their parents. Um, at the elementary level, we we house all of the medications. At the secondary level with additional um sign off by by physicians and parents, we're we allow our students to carry either epipens or inhalers, but the rest of the medications have to be kept in the health office. So throughout the district, we have 428 different medications in the health office. Um our health conditions, so these are reported in areas by parents. So we have 2,731 um health students with health conditions. That's about a quarter of all all of our students. 690 of them have more than one health condition. So

076I I asked you to pay attention to the 1,180 that's with for the type one diabetics. So we had 27 type 1 diabetics in the in the health in the district. um children with type 1 diabetes, it's it's a lot of care and um parents are of course always very worried about their children. Um and these are a couple of notes that I've received from parents with children with diabetes. Um, I want to make sure to I typically won't read slides to people, but I really want to, um, Yolanda Batano Marin, um, who's at Grasslands, the parent there, said, um, that she's taken the time to write an email because she wants to brag about your staff, meaning to me. Um, I wish that you would say see how amazing she is. I can't tell

077you how much I appreciate her and I'm so thankful for the love and support from your staff. So Yolanda and Alfonso, who is the credentialed school nurse that covers this site, um this student got an insulin pump. And so when they get an insulin pump, it's a big deal. It's a big life-changing deal, right? And so at Valley Children's, they they do a training. They have the family come. And so Yolanda and Alphonso went to the training. And so the parent went on to say having them at the appointment meant a lot to us and means makes us feel you're ensuring his safety which is our goal our children to be safe and healthy in school. Right. And then Lewan um another parent of a type 1 diabetic said I thought she deserved a shout

078out from me. Her communication has been topnotch and she's she's been very comforting. I can relax a bit knowing she meaning her daughter is in good hands. So that makes me feel really good. I'm usually the complaint department, so to get the kudos, that's really good. Um, we also work very hard on immunization compliance, so um, the goal is over 95%. And, oh, I meant to highlight that other one. Um, so Lorena, Fasco, and Mercy Springs are the only ones that aren't at that 95%. Um, we have to report all of our TK and kindergarten students because that's when students are first starting school. And then all of our seventh grade students because that's when they need their T-AP booster. And then about our credentialed school nurses. So in order to be a credentialed school

079nurse in California, you have to be a registered nurse, a public health nurse, have at least a bachelor's degree, and also the credential is school nurse services credential. So here are four school nurses. I'm also a school nurse. I didn't put myself on there. Um, but these are the site the sites that our school nurses cover and their responsibilities are IEP assessments and attending meetings, developing care plans, training um staff and um and and our statemandated hearing and vision screenings and we also do all the TB screenings for the district. So here's a couple of pictures of our statemandated hearing and vision screenings. So the ladies on the left are doing the hearing and then on the right is the vision and they have to be it has to be a little dark because their

080eyes have to dilate. So um their pupils need to dilate. So it has to be a little dark. So that's why they're over there. And these are our results of our screening so far. We only have um Las Junior High left to do but so our referral rate is 16.8. Um and you can see there that we we do uh the referrals and then also if the student screens a more severe um refractive error then we also include that the ANAC application. I'm going to show you what this is. So our our spot screeners we can print out these summaries. That's my eyes and the actual result of my vision screening. Um, and so what we've done is we've printed those out and sent them to the parents along with the referral. And if the

081the refractive error is severe, then we also sent an application for the ANOC application. And ANAC's a charitable organization that's dedicated to giving glasses for free. So they set up the appointment with a local optometrist. The parents take them. the organization pays for it, pays for the exam and pays for their glasses. Um so that's a really nice organization to have at our disposal. So we also do collaboration participation. Um we also had um staff that read in the read read across America which was fun. They participate in career days. Um, we have two students in the the Lasis High School RO that are spending three days a week in our health offices at the junior highs. So, that's really fun for them. Um, our health staff goes off site on field trips with students

082with extreme medical needs, sixth grade camp, summer school, and then of course we collaborate a lot with the community schools. Um, we have the optical academy at the beginning of the school year. We do a TEDP clinic for our sixth graders that are going into seventh grade that need their booster. We're we'll do that in May. And then early next school year, we're going to partner with Camarina Health to do a vision partnership much like the um optical academy but with a local provider. Um we have open lines of communication. Um, we communicate a lot with nutrition services be because uh we let them know what students have allergies and then they also communicate back with us our our carb counts for for our meals for our diabetics. Um, with the athletic directors, we started

083communicating with them um having a Google spreadsheet that we share with them. So we do a health problem list and give it to the athletic director so they can let their coaches know what students what you know athletes they have that have um medical issues and the same for transport transportation so that they know what students on the buses have medical issues. These are our works in progress um home and hospital where I'm working on with Colgate. They have a bright smiles, bright futures program where they'll come with a a bus and do just visual screenings on our students teeth and they get, you know, they do a little education and then they get a toothbrush and some toothpaste and the that will align well with our kindergarten oral health assessment reporting that we're required

084to do each year. It's hard to get those from parents because we're all parents, right? we you don't always take a form with you when you go to the dentist. So, it's hard to get those. So, that would be nice if we can we can pair those up together. And then, of course, we have an emergency response um uh I'm sorry um supplies and equipment. So, we have AEDs, uh EpiPens, Narcan, um and stop the bleed tourniquets at all the sites. There's most sites have more than one. Um coming soon like this summer we'll be able to have stock um albuterol inhalers and then the state is also working on getting the um nephy which is the nasal spray of epinephrine. So instead of the epien we will have the nephesies. Um and so that

085would be nice because be a little bit more likely to give a student a nephy than an epi pen, right? So, um, hopefully that comes soon. And at the conclusion, thank you for giving me the opportunity to work in my community. Any questions? >> I do. Um, >> okay. >> On on the immunization compliance slide. >> Yeah, I'll go back. >> Um, there there there's a lot of numbers below 100%. And why I mean, how are these students allowed to come to school without >> getting all their immunizations? >> So, there's they can be on a makeup schedule. So say they were behind in their immunization, so they got, you know, an immunization in March and their next dose isn't due until May. So they're they're they can be conditionally admitted. So we just and

086we and we do track that throughout the year. It's not just when we report. So um it they you know it's very rare to be at 100% actually. It's kind of hard um because you're going to have some students that are are behind. And then also there's with students that are on an IEP, we can't exclude them from school for missing um immunizations because it would be denying them their their services. So, um some parents choose to not immunize their children for that reason, but they still should have it. It's not an exception. They're it's not an exception. We just can't exclude them from school. >> Cool. Thank you. A good question. >> Uh, Miss Katuso. >> Uh, I just wanted to say thank you. This report was wonderful. It's it's just really informative and

087I'm glad the public also got to hear how many students we really do serve with medical conditions. And um, yeah, I >> it's pretty amazing, huh? We're very busy. >> Yeah, it is. It's I mean 46,000 is pretty almost 25% of our students. That's that's a a large amount of students that your your people take care of. So, thank you so much for doing my staff is great. >> Miss El >> and I just want to thank your staff because I know as a teacher that nurse's office, that little office is busy 24/7. They are little guardian angels and they're so good with the kids and we're so lucky to have them. Um, they are a necessary part of keeping kids safe and feeling secure and I know they're in their offices sometimes way too

088much. >> Yeah, a lot of them would swear all 46,000 were in their office but that's not true. >> Anybody else? >> Any other questions? >> Yeah, great information. This is >> Thank you. >> Yeah, this is an eye openener about 46,000. >> Yes, we're very busy. >> Yeah, it's not just ice packs and band-aids. >> Thank you so much. Thank you so much for this. Appreciate it. Great information. >> All right. Next up is a presentation of the bond measure survey. Dr. Lee. >> Good evening board. uh representative found the research and consulting firm Trunov Research TNR along with the district's uh municipal advisor Filman Rolap and Associates will will present the results of the survey for a potential November 2026 bond measure. Okay. So, um we have our consultant here online and they

089will begin the presentation. Um so, Dr. McNarney and Mr. Chong, can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. >> I can hear you. >> Okay, thank you. And Mr. McN, if you can hear me, you can begin your presentation. Thanks very much. >> Okay, wonderful. Thank you. Um, let me go ahead and share screen here. Can you just confirm that you have it on your end? It's a big blue slide. >> Yes. >> Okay. Wonderful. Well, thank you for uh having me here this evening. Um, I'm Dr. Tim McLaren. I'm president of True North Research. We are a firm that for uh nearly 25 years has specialized in working with school districts and other types of public agencies and using surveys to help them develop a statistically reliable understanding of the communities and the customers

090that they serve. Uh, to date, my business partner and I as a twoerson team have designed and conducted over 1500 research studies for public agencies. And probably about twothirds of the work that we're doing these days is what we call revenue measure feasibility studies like the kind of study that we're talking about here tonight where the goal is to understand if it's feasible to move forward with a bond measure uh and if it is feasible to understand from the research how you might go about structuring that measure in a way that is consistent with the type of measure that your community is interested in supporting. Um happy to say that we've helped our clients have a lot of success over the years. Um of the measures that we've recommended go to ballot based on the

091research 93% have been successful and today our research has underpinned about 42 billion in voter approved measures around the state. I mention that mainly because as I go through tonight's presentation I may make reference to how the results here compared to what we typically see when we're doing this type of work in other districts. And I just want you to have a sense from the experience base from which I'd be speaking. I also do welcome questions from the board along the way or at the end whichever is your preference. Although I will note that being on Zoom I can't actually see you as the board and so you'd have to verbally cue me um if you want to uh stop and have a question. And obviously I will um be available for questions after the

092presentation as well. Okay. So uh before we get into the results, helpful to take a moment to review the purpose of the study as well as the methodology in terms of the purpose of the study, what we're doing with the bond feasibility study is addressing the three bullets that you see here on the slide. The first is to answer that basic question of is it feasible? And what I mean by that is if you as a board were to choose to move forward with a measure this November, does it have a reasonable chance of success? The answer to that question isn't always yes. Sometimes we do this work and no matter how you stare at the data, there's really not a clear path to get you from where you are today to where you need

093to be to be viable on election day. And if that's the case, I'd be the first person to tell you that. I think the last thing typically the a board would want or the administration want or frankly the community wants is to invest in a process uh like this if you don't have a reasonable chance of success uh to begin with. Um, when we do find feasibility, that second bullet kicks in gear and is to use the research to understand how you might go about structuring a measure in a way that it's consistent with the type of measure that your community is interested in supporting. There's a lot of components to a bond package. Uh, there's the project list, like if you were successful with a bond, how would you propose to spend the money?

094There's the price tag for this measure, meaning the tax rate that underlies it that property owners would be expected to support. Um there's accountability provisions that can be built into these measures to help give voters the asurances that you know if they vote yes on this their their tax dollars will be well spent. And so there's a lot of sort of questions that ultimately you as a board would have to answer before you go to place a measure on the ballot that the survey research can help guide. And then finally, it's an opportunity for us to understand the role that information plays in shaping voters's opinions about your proposal and that in turn can help shape uh future communications. Um, in terms of the methodology or how we went about uh conducting the study, we

095use the same methodology here that we always use when we're looking at the feasibility of a bond measure. And the first question we ask ourselves when we're structuring a study like this is what election do we think this measure is going to be on? Different elections have different turnouts and as you expand or you shrink turnout uh you tend to get a somewhat different profile to the the group of voters who are actually participating in that election and deciding the fate of your measure. So in this case we're looking ahead at that upcoming November 2026 election, the guminatorial election that's coming up later this year. And what we do is we identify all voters within the district that are what we call likely November voters based on their voting history like when they've registered to

096vote, what elections they've taken advantage of since that point in terms of participating as well as some other demographics. We expect that these are the individuals who are actually going to cast ballots in this upcoming November election. We then use a process called stratified and clustered random sampling. I can get into the details of that if you like, but suffice to say that what it does is it guarantees us not only at the sampling stage, but also at the um when we're done with data collection, we have a sample of individuals in our survey that is representative of that likely November universe and that the profile of our sample matches the profile of that November universe on all the dimensions that we know tend to drive how voters behave when it comes to bond measures.

097So the balance in our sample by age and gender and partisanship and household party type and where they live within the district. The balance in our sample matches the balance of the likely November universe. And that is really one of the keys to making sure that this uh research is reliable. Once we had pulled our sample, we reached out using three different recruiting methods. Email, text, and telephone. Folks had the opportunity to take it either by telephone or online, whichever was their preference, as well as in English and or in Spanish. Uh, we completed 400 interviews. Oh, excuse me. I don't know why that I'm going to why that jumped ahead. I'll get right back to it. We We completed 400 interviews as part of the study. And with a random sample of 400 uh

098interviews, you have an overall margin of error due to sampling of plus or minus 4.8% at the 95% confidence level. What that means is we can be 95% confident that the results in our survey of 400 are within 4.8% of what we would have found had we spoken with all of your likely November voters. So, um, this next slide shows, you know, sometimes I get that question, why 400, right? Why? Maybe it seems like it's not a lot of interviews relative to the size of the likely November population. Well, that is the beauty of inferential statistics. is not how many people we talk to as it is how we choose the people that we talk to that allows us to estimate the opinions of the entire likely November universe with a relatively small sample size.

099And so what this um graphic shows is the relationship between sample size which is along here at the bottom and the margin of error due to sampling. And you can see it's a curve right? It's not a line. Then what that means is the more sample you add, what you start to see is smaller and smaller reductions in the uh margin uh or benefits in terms of the margin of error to sampling, right? That starts to flatten out. So 400 is often found for surveys like this because it sits at that point where it allows you to meet the academic standard for statistical reliability, which is a less than 5% margin of error at the 95% confidence level. And as you can see here, um, as you were to say double your sample size, so

100you're doubling the the cost of data collection for your study, you're actually only reducing your margin of error here by less than two points, right? And so that's why you'll see a 400 chosen often when it comes for these types of studies because it's the most sort of cost effective and efficient way of meeting the academic standard for statistical reliability. I also mentioned that um profile of the sample that we used and how well it aligns with the profile of the likely November universe. And this table just gives you a glimpse at that. So this middle column here, this is the distribution of likely November voters within your district by age, party affiliation, household party type, whether they're a homeowner or not, as well as how they distribute across the the various uh trustee areas

101within your district. And to the right is the profile of our sample. And as you can see here, we're basically within one or two points on every one of these dimensions. So the profile of our sample matches the profile of the universe. Okay, so on to the results. Uh, this first slide is shows the results of what we call the importance of issues question where for each of the issues you see here on the slide, we simply ask voters to tell us how important is this to them. Is it extremely important, very important, somewhat important, or not at all important? Um, great warm-up question. just kind of gets folks into the groove of taking the survey, thinking about their local community, but it's also an opportunity for us to understand how education as a topic

102stacks up against some of these other issues that also compete for tax dollars, things like maintaining local streets and roads. And in particular, how does the topic of maintaining the quality of education and local public schools stack up against the issue of preventing local tax increases? Well, rule of thumb, surprisingly predictive uh when you're thinking about a bond measure. The higher up in this list and the more importance that voters place on maintaining the quality of education, local schools relative to this issue of preventing local tax increases, the better positioned you are to move forward with some type of bond. Um, in this case, what you find is that the number one issue in the community was in fact maintain the quality of education, local public schools. 94% said that's extremely very important. Uh, followed

103closely by creating jobs and improving the local economy and then maintaining local streets and roads. As you get down here to three up from the bottom, you see preventing local tax increases. That checked in at about 71%. So you got about a 23 point gap between these two items. Interestingly enough, that gap of 23 points is right on the money with what we were seeing in most school districts in the 2024 election cycle. The average school district had a gap here between these two items of sometimes 22, 23, 24, but it was really similar. So, what that says is, you know, you're pretty typical of what we find for most districts that are considering these measures. One other thing I will point out, though, is you see this repairing and renovating aging school facilities item.

104It checks in above preventing local tax increases, so that's a plus, but it's about 19 points lower than maintaining the quality of education in local public schools. I pointed out not because it's unusual to see that item further down the list. In fact, we see that all the time. But it's kind of a healthy reminder that although bonds are about capital improvements, right? They're about your facilities, they're about the things you're going to construct and repair and improve. At the end of the day, when it comes to schools, voters don't care so much about facilities as they care about what happens inside those facilities. And so when you move forward with a bond measure, there's this constant exercise of wanting to connect the dots for voters between what it is you're building or fixing in

105terms of your facilities, but why it ultimately matters to your core mission of educating students. So after that uh warm-up question, we get right down to business with what we call the initial ballot test. And the idea here is before you get any deeper into this interview and we start talking about possible tax rates that could be associated with your bond, presenting uh a list of different potential uses of funds as well as testing arguments pro and con. We want to present to respondents a mockup of what we think that 75word ballot statement could look like and get their reaction. The initial ballot test is a really good gauge of where your voters are at on the natural with respect to this proposal because I have not seen anything um about this bond or heard

106anything beyond what you see here on the slide. So that's the language you're testing. Note that we're testing a in total a $98 million bond. It would have a tax rate of $45 per 100,000 assessed valuation raise about $6 million annually to fund the things that you see up here in the bullets. So that is the language we tested and here are the results. So at that additional ballot test we had 63% of respondents say that they would support this proposal. 26% were opposed with the rest unsure. So in the state of California for a Prop 39 bond to be successful, you need 55% support. So we're sitting about 8 points north of the 55% threshold that's required for passage at the initial ballot test. So naturally, support for these measures can depend on the

107price tag, right? The higher the tax rate, all other things being equal, the lower the level of support you can expect. One of the goals of the survey was to make it really clear to voters that bonds meet taxes, just in case they somehow miss that out of that 75word ballot statement, but also to understand basically how where is the appropriate place to price this measure, right? as you alter the price tag in terms of the tax rate. Um, how does that ultimately impact voters opinions about this proposal? So, um, we do this in a couple ways. On this slide, we take the conventional approach of you start at the top rate here that was built into that 75word ballot statement, the $45 per 100,000 of assessed tax rate, and we say, if you knew

108that the property taxes on your home would increase by that amount, would you vote yes or no? Um, if they're anything but a definitely yes at $45 per 100,000 of assess, we test 34 and we test 28. Um, what you find here on this slide is that when you focus voters attention on the price tag, right, you kind of put the blinders on and focus their attention on it, it does create some some tax rate sensitivity. So, at that high dollar amount of $45 per 100,000 assessed, we had 48% support. As you step it down to 34 and 28, you're seeing increases in support such that at $28 per 100,000 assessed, we had 57% of voters say they would support this measure. Now, we know that this question in particular is a conservative read on

109voter support for a bond measure for a couple of reasons. One is we're putting the blinders on folks, right? When you think about what a bond is, it's a package deal. It's all the things you're going to do and improve. And within that 75word bond statement, the tax rate is one piece of that. Anytime you pluck the tax the price tag of something off, set it aside and focus voters's attention on it, it tends to have a bit of a chilling effect on support for a proposal. The other reason we know that this is a bit of a conservative read on voter support for a bond measure is because when you talk about the tax implications of a bond in terms of a rate per 100,000 of assessed valuation, not everybody knows what you're talking

110about, right? You have to know what assessed valuation means. You have to have some estimate of the AV for your property. You have to be able to do math pretty quickly in the space of the survey to translate this $45 per 100,000 assessed valuation tax rate into a meaningful number. Not everybody's good at that, understandably. And so what we know is there's some voters that will hedge when we ask this question. They're going to say no or not sure rather than yes because they know you're talking price tag. They just don't know what what it adds up to. And we know that in part because we come about it a little differently on the next slide. So, um, here we say, all right, this is the left column. Let me put it another way. If

111you knew that this measure would cost the typical homeowner about $138 per year, would you vote yes or no? The $138 per year is the $45 per 100,000 assessed valuation tax rate multiplied times the median AV for a residential property in your district. So, it's what that middle typical property owner would pay. And as you can see here that when you just do the math for folks, you take the mystery out of the price tag, you say it's going to be $138 per year for the typical homeowner. Um, you get a more positive response to this, right? So, at that $45 per 100,000 assessed valuation tax rate, we had 48% support. When you go ahead and just do the math and tell them it's $138 per year, support jumps to 55%. Same exercise on the

112right, only here we're annualizing the $28 per 100,000 assessed valuation tax rate for which we found 57% support on the prior slide. When you just do the math and tell them it's $86 a year, um support jumps to 60%. All of these these last two slides are really helpful when it comes to sort of making what is sometimes the most difficult decision for a board when they're moving forward with a bond is where do you price it, right? Obviously, the higher the tax rate, the larger the bond, the more good you can do for your facilities. But obviously, the higher the price tag. You're also want to make sure you're choosing a price tag that you feel comfortable that even when the conversation sort of tural sort of circles about the money, we're still feeling

113confident that you can get at least 55% of voters to support that proposal. So, after the tax rate discussion, we get into the projects and improvement section of the poll. Here, we're trying to do two things. One is we are going to now start to educate this respondent more about what your bond measure can accomplish. Um up until this point they've only seen the initial ballot test and we had 75 words to describe your bond. Can only say so much in 75 words what this thing is going to do. Here by unpacking it into all these discrete uses. You're giving folks a much better idea about what the bond would do. The other thing it allows us to do is to understand of all the ways you can spend the money. How do voters feel

114about those ways and which of these are ultimately their priorities? So, the thing I get, again, I get to do this for a lot of districts around the state. The thing that jumps out the page to me on your results here is just how positively voters feel about all the potential usage um for your bond. We had even at the very bottom there, you've got better than 3/4 of respondents say that they would favor spending some of bond proceeds on that item. But when you get to the top, what you see up in this zone is pretty typical of what we tend to see rising to the top of the list for voters when they're considering bond measures. It's a combination of taking care of your older facilities, right, and bringing them up to current

115code. Um, so that's things like removing hazardous materials, right? Replacing and repairing roofs, plumbing, gas lines, sewer lines, HVAC, and electrical systems where needed, right? Um and but it's also is those things but it's also CTE STEM and instructional technology right so that combination of things taking care of your older facilities CTE STEM instructional technology tends to be a pretty potent combination and attractive uh proposal for voters. So after the projects and improvement section we get into the argument section of the survey here. Um what we're trying to do is simulate the type of discussion and debate that is going to occur in the community should you as a board choose to move forward with a measure. Right? If you vote to place a measure on the November ballot, there's going to be an election

116cycle going to be a lot of discussion and debate about this bond in the community. You're going to have some folks who will step up and advocate on behalf of this proposal to the community. Talk about why it's needed and why they should vote yes. You might also get some critics who step up and you know say this is a terrible idea and we shouldn't be doing it and here's why. For this survey to be a reliable gauge of the feasibility of your bond measure, we needed to simulate that discussion and debate in the space of the poll. So we know not only where your voters at on the natural, which was that initial ballot test, but what happens after they hear positives and what happens after they hear negatives. So shown here are the

117positive arguments that we tested. You can see that a lot of these arguments get traction with your voters, right? They find them to be either very convincing or somewhat convincing reasons to support the measure. What is interesting though is when you get to the top of the list here, most of these arguments, we saw on the last slide that towards the top of the list are kind of arguments or projects that are uh involving taking care of your older facilities, right? And bringing them up to current uh building standards and academic standards. A lot of the top arguments sort of take that same theme, right? They're talking about the age of your facilities, some of the problems that you have with your facilities, number of roof leaks, number of portable classrooms you have that are

118over 20 years old. So, you're actually able to quantify some of the the facility needs that you have um with your older sites. And that's as you can see here, those are the kind of arguments that went to the top of the list. Now, at this point in the survey, voters have heard more about your proposal than they did at the initial ballot test. We had a chance to talk in more detail about the tax rates. We saw that that had a bit of a chilling effect on voter support for your proposal, but we also had a chance to come back, talk in more detail about how the funds could be spent. We've been able to convey positive arguments here. We've yet to get to the negatives. So, we circle to what we call the

119interim ballot test. We present that same 75word ballot statement and say, "Now that you've heard a bit more, where do you stand?" As you can see here, support is pretty stable. We're about one point lower than where we started. We started at 63%. We're now at 62%. Um, but we're still about seven points north of the 55% threshold that's required for passage. And then we get to the negatives. The idea behind the negatives is I want to pressure test voter support for your proposal. I want to know how resilient is your yes vote. Should you get critics? Should they be vocal? Should they say the things that you see here on this slide? So, what do I do? I pepper them with a series of negative arguments. The kind of negative arguments that are designed

120to give them reasons to vote no. Um, and as you can see here, some of these negative arguments get some traction. The number one at the very top is the number one negative in pretty much all the bond measures that I have been surveying this cycle, which is this idea that now is not a good time, right? People are struggling. We've have inflation. We got high interest rates. got rising costs of living, right? People are struggling to stay afloat. Now is not the time to raise taxes. You will always hear that now is not the right time argument in every election. Um the reasons may vary. Um but that's your number one right now. So and there is kind of a a sensitivity to cost of living and affordability right now. We can expect that

121that's going to be a theme that is going to be pretty prominent this election cycle. And you do see that the negatives that lean into that side of the discussion, they get some traction. The real question though is what happens afterwards and that is here. So after the negatives, uh, we cool down about 7 points from where we were at the interim ballot test, but we still land at 55%. So you're right on the bubble of what it takes to be successful for a Prop 39 bond. So before I kind of talk about what I think all this means, I want to share with you a little historical comparison slide. So we had the privilege of working with the district and doing the polling for your Measure X u ballot uh bond back in 2018.

122And just as in this um presentation and we had the initial ballot test, the interim ballot test, the final ballot test, um we had the same approach back in 2018. And you can see that back then we had an initial ballot test of 73%. We had an interim ballot test of 76%. The final ballot test after testing negatives was 66. And then on election day, right, Measure X checked in at 71%. So right kind of in the middle of that range of what we were polling at earlier in that year. One thing I will say about Measure X is it was what's called a bond extension, which is a little bit different than the what you have now. When you have a bond extension, you can pass these measures without actually increasing the tax rate.

123You're just extending a an existing tax rate further out into the future, right? So, you can pass a bond without actually having it raise property taxes. Those tend to be uh more attractive. We tend to see anywhere from 6 to 10 to sometimes 12% more support for these bond extensions. Which explains why in the 2018 polling we're just higher, right, in terms of support levels at that point than we are today. The main difference there being this was a bond extension. What we're talking about this time in 2016, I mean 2026 is a new bond, right? So you can see here that's what we had that time and then this time we're a bit lower. um ranging anywhere from uh 63% to 55%. Okay, so what does all this mean? I've just got a couple

124wrap-up slides here. Um I'm going to return first to that overarching question I mentioned at the outset as being the main motivator for why you do this research, which is that question of is it feasible? If you as a board were to choose to place a measure on the November ballot, does it have a reasonable chance of success? This is what I call call a a qualified yes. It's a yes, but right. I see that there's a path to a successful measure, but it's going to require some adjustments, which I'll talk about here in a second, and it will require robust engagement and communications with the community to be successful. So, why the yes part? That's all the things you see there in the bullets under the positive signs, right? We saw that uh maintaining

125the quality of education in local public schools was the most important issue to your voters. We saw solid natural support for this measure at the initial ballot test. Right out of the gates with just the 75word ballot statement, 63% of voters supported it. Um, all the projects and improvements you're thinking about funding with the bond were popular. You've got positive arguments that resonate with voters. And importantly, at every point in the survey where we circle back to a respondent, we presented that same 75word ballot statement and said, "All right, now that you've heard a bit more, where do you stand?" every one of those ballot statements or tests was at or above the 55% threshold that's required for passage of a Prop 39 bond and that was even after we tested negative arguments. So when

126you see those kind of pieces in place, that's the pattern that we like to see for measures to have feasibility. That said, we also do see some challenges in the poll as well as if you step back from the poll and just think about what in a November election is probably going to look like um that we want to be cognizant of. One was tax rate sensitivity, right? The moment that conversation sort of zeroed in on the tax rate, we did see some slippage in support. Some of that was was alleviated once they kind of understood what the total cost would be. Right? So talking about in terms of a rate, we saw lower support once you converted that rate into a number everyone could understand it was more positive. But the bottom line is

127we did see some tax rate sensitivity. And so u you're going to want to make sure you make this measure affordable. Number two, we saw that opposition arguments resonated, right? Um when uh we we were testing these negative arguments, we saw that support for your proposal dropped about seven points afterwards. Um so we need to be thinking about that. And then the last two things down there are really sort of stepping back from the poll and just thinking about what the next 6 months or so is going to look like, right? Um we can pretty much guarantee we're heading into another hyperartisan election, right? Um, and we've seen that in the last few cycles. To some degree, that's baked into your poll numbers here. Um, and then there's also these lists of what I would

128call unknowns, although I put the unpart in parenthesis because in a lot of ways, we already know about these things, right? We know about tariffs, we know about inflation, we know about people's concerns about cost of living and where the economy is going. And, you know, right now, a lot of what we know is already baked into your results, right? I mean, this is a snapshot in time today. Um, and so these things aren't really unknown. Well, the unp part is what's going to happen in the next 6 months, right? We don't know where these things are going. It could be that things get more positive, which would actually help boost some of these numbers in the poll. But it's also possible that, you know, we could see some developments in the economy that create

129some headwinds for your measure. The reason I bring these things up is not because I think they're insurmountable obstacles, but anytime you're putting a measure on the ballot, you want to put a measure up there that can withstand some adversity, right? So, should you get some headwinds, should you get some crosswinds, that you still have a measure that is successful. Um, I'm generally not a fan of recommending clients go to ballot where they're throwing the hailmary, right? Um, they're just they're hoping that everything goes their way. And usually when you throw those hail Mary passes, the ball winds up on the ground, not in your receivers's hands in the end zone, right? And so better to sort of plan for some adversity and then structure your measure accordingly. So with that in mind, uh, a

130couple thoughts. Number one, you've heard me say keep it affordable. I think you want to look hard at that tax rate. I I don't think that the $45 per 100,000 assessed valuation tax rate is where you're going to want to set this bond. probably going to want to uh drop that price tag a little bit to make it feel more affordable. Uh in terms of project priorities, although everything we tested was popular, um what you see here in this bullet really should be the centerpieces of your measure, right? Bringing your older facilities up to code and current standards, removing hazard materials, and then CTE STEM instructional technology. And then finally, you know, if you're going to move forward, you got to not only make smart decisions about the measure you put in front of voters,

131you also need to put the work in. And what by that I mean communications. And there's really two paths for this. There's the path that the district as a public agency can communicate, right? You're not allowed to advocate up or down for a proposal, but you are you are and should have a conversation with your community to help raise awareness in the community about what your facility needs are, how these facility improvements that you're considering, how those connect to the educational opportunities and your core mission of educating students. And ultimately through that conversation, start to build consensus on what a bond proposal could look like. And then if you were to choose to move forward with a measure, there would also need to be an independent campaign. These are volunteer-led private dollars um that can

132go out and advocate for this measure during the election cycle itself. And so with that, I end my presentation. I welcome questions from the board if there are any. And would it be best if I stop sharing the screen at this moment? >> Sure. It doesn't matter. whatever works for you. Um, are there any questions, comments? >> You're okay. So, I know you've talked I I think we've talked about this before better this in 2026 versus 2028. >> Um, so what you will see, you'll have different thinking on this. I'll tell you what my thinking on it is. So often times you will find that these presidential general elections um are elections so you're thinking 2028 right that districts and public agencies will target those elections for their measures. The main reason being is generally

133speaking the higher the turnout in a community, right? The more on average tax friendly voter is participating, right? So as you expand turnout, you tend to bring in younger voters, those who may not be homeowners, right? They tend to be a little more leftleaning. They're just a little more tax friendly than um their counterparts. And so the more of those folks that you bring into uh an election generally speaking and all of the things being equal, the better, you know, chances your measure has. So that's why you will see a lot of agencies target that high turnout presidential election because that's when you're going to see the most of those individuals. That said, it also comes with a challenge which is you're on a very crowded ballot, right? and you're instead of being one of

134maybe a few measures to consider, there's a usually a list longer than my arm that people have to consider in these presidential general elections, right? So, you're sort of it's a little bit of a trade-off. Um, when you look at the November 2016 election, I actually think that this is probably going to be a better than average uh election for ballot measures uh in the state. When I think back to what was the most recent really positive election for ballot measures around the state, that was November of 18, right? So, a guminatorial election like the one that we have coming up. There's a lot of similarities between kind of what the power structure was in November of 18 and where the energy was and you're starting to see that now you um here for shaping

135up for November 26. So, I actually think that, you know, I wouldn't be scared of going into of 2026. And frankly, we don't know what 2028's going to look like, right? There's probably, you know, more time for a, you know, a recession to hit between now and then or something else to to unfold. So, the crystal ball is really, really fuzzy for 28. Definitely would be as hyperartisan as you can get because it's a presidential election. So, I I kind of, you know, if you've got the numbers to go in 26, I think it makes sense. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? This gives us a lot to think about. Um, thank you. It was uh very informational. Really appreciate it. >> All right. >> Anybody >> My pleasure. >> Any other

136comments or questions? >> All right. Thanks again for that presentation. >> Thank you. >> Have a wonderful night. >> All right. On to item C, our second interim report. Good evening everyone. I'm going to make a short presentation on the second interrum report and then I'll ask you to approve it as um presented. Okay. The 20 2526 in report. First I have to give cover recognition to Malia Washington, seventh grader at Los Vanis Junior High. This is Mrs. Gatuso's granddaughter. Those are >> this is the favorite part of the book. So I appreciate all the submissions. Okay, so a summary of where we ended up. We ended up with a 2.3 cola. Not much change since first interum. Um we had a per stir sorry remain the same at 19.10. We had a decrease in

137PERS contributions from 27.05 to 26.81. We did have a show a decline in enroll in enrollment of 128 students and our ADA projections remain at 10,261. I will have better ADA numbers once second um P2 is done in April and then I'll bring that to you in unodited actuals or once I have those numbers I can have Dr. Richie send those out to you. Our unduplicated pupil count, we had an increase of 1.55%. We fully expensed the educator effectiveness grant and the student support and professional development grant and we did receive an additional 859,000 in the learning loss recovery block grant. Currently we are at a 2.3 cola. We are projected 2.41. 41 next year. We are hoping at the May revise to see it increase. We are hearing about 2.81 right now. Still down

138from the 3.6 that was originally projected. Um the same for 2728. We're at 3.06, but that's what we have now. That could possibly change as time goes by. Those are just projections. So where did we end up with the comp components of the LCFF calculator? We ended up with total revenue from the LCF calculator of 163.5 million. And you could see where it's broken down the home to school transportation. The add-on for TK the concentration supplemental is the LCAP that you see and then the base grant is what we get per 88. So our revenue for um unrestricted and restricted as you could see most of our revenue 70% is the unrestricted which comes from the LCFF calculator. We have local revenue of 2% and we have state revenue of 20% and federal revenue of

1395%. So our expenditures our total expenditures was $243.2 2 million in total expenditures. And you could see where it's broken down with certificated salaries, classified salaries, benefits, books, services, and capital outlay. You will see most of our budget does go to salary and benefits. So, where did we end up with this second interim? We had a beginning balance of 23.5 million. We had total revenue of 169.4 4 with expenditures of 181.0. This is only unrestricted. This is not restricted, but this is where you'll see the 3% come in. So, our ending fund balance and unrestricted ended up at 11.9. And what did that consist of? We have the 29,479 in our revolving fund account. We had payroll reserves of 2.2 million. We had ma fund carryover um with 631. We had lottery funds of 1.6

140and our required 3% reserves of 7.4. And Mr. Pereira had a question about that. Um when we the 3% hits total expenditures, that also includes the $3 million contribution to fund 14 in that 3%. We do pay that on top of that. So what does multi-year projections look at currently? So we're looking at ending the year for next year's this year's budget with a 5% overall district reserve and you could see in years out that reserve level drops. You will also notice the payroll reserves drops from 2.2 to 450 to 744. Keep in mind this is based on budget. If we close the books and we have a good fund balance, those numbers all change as you know we start seeing what we have in carryover. This does not reflect any carryover. And this is

141just another slide showing you the drop in the reserves. We would love to get that reserve level higher. That would be my goal. I'd love to see it at 6, seven, but we'll have to see how that goes. So what's the final synopsis? We are able to certify as positive and meet all our financial obligations in the 2526 school year with the support of one-time state funds ADA and the COLA increase. Any questions? No questions. >> I just have a couple of comments. Um >> yes, >> and I I I'm sure everybody clued in. Um on the revenue unrestricted restricted slide um our total district revenue was 224 almost $7 million >> 224.7 but our expenditures were $243.2. That's kind of scary. We're spending, you know, >> we have a lot more revenue and restricted,

142>> right? >> But this is both of them combined. >> Exactly. But we're looking at the unrestricted um so I brought that with me. Um when we did um our adopted budget back in June, May um we had um a uh projected ending balance of 8.9 million. >> Mhm. >> When we did our first interim in December, that went up to 14.1 million. And from there, we're back down to 11.9. >> You have to remember first interim is where you see the carryover. We don't have that in budget development because we don't know those numbers yet. And then what you're seeing throughout the years, we're spending down that carryover. So, our expenses are a lot more because we're spending that what those down. $11 million is not >> I mean, >> yeah, >> when you

143have a $250 million budget, $11 million is not >> it's not a lot. >> It's not a cushion. And then the other thing is that um looking at um projected for for >> future years >> um I mean we're at 5% and if in the next couple years we go down to 4%. If we ever hit 3% we're in big trouble because we that's made up also of restricted funds. >> Correct. We pay that. >> Exactly. >> Overall, if I was not able to meet the 3%, the first thing I would pull would be the 3 million contribution of fund 14. >> Yeah. The problem is we had in our budget, adopted budget, $5 million to fund 14 >> to help balance the books. In our first interim, we lowered that to three million, >>

144but we're still getting the $2 million that LCAP's you giving us, >> right? But but then when you look at the second interim, that 3 million now that was sitting there to be spent, we've spent 3.4 four million of it, which is a lot more than three million. >> Well, the four the 450 is for the Evolve system payment, >> but we still >> it's it's the three I know you're looking at 3.4, but we have three payments on that that come out of that account. So, the last payment on that I believe is 100 was 405 next year. That is the final payment on that. But we're still spending more money than we have budgeted. I I just, >> you know, I I've seen this and it's really concerning. I mean, when you get

145down to 4%, 4% is >> scary. >> Yes. If I can't make the 3%, that's when hard discussions will need to be had. And and you know this isn't it's looking at you know $250 $250 million budget and these numbers are scary. Um the expenditures are really high compared to our income. So I mean even though we have some carryover whatever it to me it looks like deficit spending >> which is scary. >> Yes it is. But I've said that every time we had a budget presentation. So it's not it's not anything new. It's just concerning. >> I think Marine had a question. Do you have a question? >> Saying this has been right on the wall to me. >> Any other comments? >> Mr. Lee. >> So we set aside $5 million for for

146facilities. Mhm. >> Our facilities are falling apart and now it's $3 million, right? So, >> no, it's still five. >> It's still five. >> There's three million from general fund and 2 million from the LCAP. >> Right. >> Still five. >> Right. But it was five originally without the LCAP. >> Correct. >> Five plus the two. >> No, it was just the five. We didn't have the two. When Dr. Richie rewrote the LCAP, he included that in there. >> Right. Okay. >> Because this was our year to rewrite the three-year LCAP. Okay. >> Still scary. >> Yeah, I don't like it. >> Any other comments? >> All right. With that, we need to have a motion to approve and certify the district will be able to meet its financial obligations. >> Motion. >> We have

147to make a motion. Yes. >> All right. Motion by Valado, seconded by Katuso. Motion by Valado, seconded by Katuso to approve and certify the district would be able to meet its financial obligations. All those in favor? I opposed. It's carried unanimously. All right. On to item D. Initial bargaining proposal of Laspan Unified School District and the Laspan Teachers Association. Who's doing that? Okay. Excuse me, wrong button. Dr. Richie, >> is recommended the board accept the initial bargaining proposal submitted by the Laspanis Unified School District for the 202627 bargaining cycle. Board acceptance of the proposal will follow with a public hearing. All right, with that, we will open the public hearing. Is there anybody here that wishes to address the board on this item? We opened that at 9:09. Seeing no one come forward, we'll close

148the public hearing at 9:09. Comments from the board, questions? If not, I need a motion to approve the initial bargaining proposal uh from Las Spanish Unified School District to the Laspan Teachers Association. >> Got a motion by member Ran, seconded by member Gatuso to approve the initial bargaining proposal. All those in favor? I opposed and it's carried. All right. On to item E, initial bargaining proposal, uh, LBTA's bargaining proposal to the Laspanos Unified School District. Dr. Richie, >> it is recommended the board accept the initial bargaining proposal submitted by the Laspanos Teachers Association. The board acceptance of the proposal will follow a public hearing. >> With that, we'll open a public hearing. Is there anybody here that wishes to address this item? Open that up at 9:10. All right. Seeing no one come forward, we'll

149close the public hearing at 9:10. Any comments, questions from the board? Seeing none, I need a motion to approve the initial bargaining proposal submitted by LVTA to the Los Unified Tool District. We got a motion by member Lee, seconded by member Castro to approve the initial bargaining proposal submitted by LBTA to the district. All those in favor? >> I opposed. And it is carried unanimously. All right. On to item F, course title revision, beginning digital media art one, first reading. Dr. Sutton. >> Yeah. Good evening, board. Uh we have a series of courses that we've uh taken a look at that we need to rename to uh facilitate an easier streamline process for balloting uh at both of the two high schools. And so it's recommended that the board declare its intent to adopt a

150new revised course title beginning digital media art one for the district. Thank you for the u background information in in the BRM because that really explained, you know, the the reasoning behind that and it it makes total sense. So, appreciate that. >> Any other comments or questions motion? A mo a motion by member Smith, seconded by member Katuso to declare our intent to adopt course title revision beginning digital media art one first reading. All those in favor? >> I post. >> And it is carried unanimously. On to item G, course title revision, beginning visual art, which is art one, first reading. >> And for the same reason, uh it is recommended that the board declare its intent to adopt the new revised course title, beginning visual art, art one, for the district. >> Comments or

151questions? Again, thank you for the commentary. Very helpful. Motion, please. >> Second. We got a motion by member Lee, seconded by member uh Moran to declare our intent to adopt course title revision beginning art visual art one first reading. All those in favor? >> I opposed carried unanimously. Item H, course title revision, advanced drawing and painting art two first reading. Dr. Sutton >> and again for the same reason it is recommended that the board declare its intent to adopt the new revised course title advanced drawing and painting art two for the district. All right. Comments, questions, motion. >> Second. >> We got a motion by member Valado, seconded by member Moran to we declare our intent to adopt course title revision, advanced drawing and painting art 2 first reading. All those in favor? >> I

152post opposed. Carried unanimously. On to item I, course title revision, digital photography art 2, first reading. For the same reason, it is recommended that the board declare its intent to adopt the new revised course title, digital photography art 2 for the district. >> Comments, questions? Motion? >> Got a motion by member Lee, seconded by member Gatuso to declare our intent to adopt course title revision digital photography R2 first reading. All those in favor? >> I opposed. And it is carried. On to item J. Guess what? Course title revision sculpture and design art 2 first reading. >> For the same reason, >> it is recommended that the board declare its intent to adopt the new revised course title sculpture and design art 2 for the district. >> Comments or questions? >> Motion. >> Got a motion

153by member Katuso, seconded by member Smith to declare our intent to adopt course title revision sculpture and design art two first reading. All those in favor? I post and it is carried on item K new course introduction to Agra Science first reading Dr. S. Yes. In looking at the courses again, we looked uh at some of the recommendations and so we're recommending that the board declare its intent to adopt a new course, Introduction to Agra Science for the District, comments, questions. >> So Mike, I have a question. >> Sure. >> So is this going to be a course offered um using existing staff or we adding staff? >> This is existing staff. It's it's restructuring what they're currently doing at the junior high so that it aligns with the a pathways at PJO High School,

154but also could be at Creekide to align with theirs if they chose to go that route. >> Um, so we're using existing staff. That's that's a good >> same staff. Nothing's changing >> after we just saw the budget. Yes. It's kind of scary. No new starting staff. Um, all right. Any other comments or questions? Motion >> second. >> All right. Who? Who? I heard two. >> Moran. Okay. >> We got a motion by motion by >> I think we had three over here. Who was it? >> Marlene. Okay. All right. Declare. We have a motion uh by member Smith, seconded by member Gatuso to declare what? No. >> Yeah, I did. I bet everybody else did, too. So, >> we had a Okay. Lot >> that's good. seconded by a lot of people. Um to

155declare uh the intent to adopt new course introduction to agra science first reading. All those in favor I post it is carried. Item L new course introduction to career tech ed first reading. Dr. Sutton. >> Yes. And again for the same reason and u in uh align alignment with what Mrs. Katuso asked previously when we brought CTE courses the same reasoning to kind of call it an introduction so that it would lead into a pathway at Pico High School. It is rem uh recommended that the board declare its intent to adopt a new course introduction to career technical education for the district. >> All right, Miss Gatuso. >> Um just curious for the name um because when you talk about in an introduction to career tech ed not all industry sectors are represented in the

156course outline. So I'm just kind of curious what why that name or why not all industry sectors when you're calling it an introduction to CTE bec uh the intent for this from Mrs. Brazil was just to bring in an overall concept of what CT is for the kids >> and so they'll be doing some exploration there and figuring out what's going on but they're not necessarily going to explore all the industries they just want to give them an idea what CT is so when they get to PCO they're already getting a leg up. >> Okay. No, I mean I I think it's a great idea. It's just it was very STEM kind of industry sectors versus, you know, there's lots of other industry sectors, right? >> There are, but the the background of the folks

157on that campus right now are >> That makes sense. Yeah. Thank you. >> And there it's the current staff. There's no addition. >> And and actually there was a question I was going to ask on the first one and I didn't. Um so and it pertains to all three of these new courses. The next one's coming up also. And that is obviously uh we're going to approve it next month because it'll come back for second reading and then balloting will start right with the kids. They're going to ballot for these are all elective courses, right? >> They're elective and they're already balloting. >> They're already they're already we haven't proved it yet. They're balloting already. >> Yeah. Yeah. They Well, we started balloting back in November. >> I was going to say they have to.

158>> Okay. Um >> just to just to throw out there about the balloting process that when students ballot is just that they're looking for declaring essentially their intent that this a course they'd be interested in. Should the board choose not to approve these courses then that would not the students may have balloted for it but it wouldn't be a course that would be put in a section. So it's it was just the process starts to ballot back in the fall. And so in order to allow students have the opportunity if they choose to do this, we can get an idea of whether this is a course they're actually interested in. There's lots of courses that students can ballot for, but they don't necessarily get included in the master schedule because not enough students are interested

159and it doesn't meet the it doesn't meet the the threshold of being able to offer a section, >> which was my next question. Is there a threshold? Is there a minimum number of students that has to ballot for these courses before they're offered? Yes, for for uh for example, for a section of um an AP course, if it's a brand new one, we try to cap it right or start it off between 15 and 18 kids to build momentum for it. If it's a class that's a gened class, it's typically at the same level we would teach all the other classes. So 32 at the junior high, 35 at the high school is the max. So that would would be what we're looking at. Uh and then there's a lot of promotion that goes along

160with it to get that interest up. >> So this these courses would require 32 kids to sign up for it. >> Yeah. the the average well the well the cap at the junior high is 32 so it could be 25 to 32 somewhere in that range. Yeah. >> Cool. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions or comments? >> Motion please. >> So move. >> Second. All right. We have a motion by uh member Katuso, seconded by member Valo to declare our intent to adopt new course introduction to career technical education first reading. All those in favor? I post and it's carried unanimously. On to item M, new course public speaking first reading. Dr. Sutton >> and again it is recommended that the board declare its intent to adopt the new course public

161speaking for the district. >> Comments, questions. >> Motion. >> I will I will definitely want to approve this one. Yes, >> public speaking is very important. >> Second. All right, we have a motion by member Oh, did you make a motion? Yes. All right. Make We have a motion by member Lee, seconded by getting punchy here. U motion by member Lee, seconded by member Moran to declare our intent to adopt the new course public speaking first reading. All those in favor? >> I opposed and it is carried. >> Thank you, Dr. Sutton. >> Next up, change order request number one for the RME restroom building. Miss Monday, she's making her way up here. my way. Good evening again. Um, it is recommended that the board approve change order number one with TBS contractors for the

162construction of our Mo Elementary School for new restroom project. >> Comments, questions? >> Can you elaborate on that for the public so they know what we're talking about here >> about what the change order is? >> Uh, please. So, this change order is for $9,274.80, which is coming out of the previously board approved contingency funds. And this work is for putting aggre 4 in of aggregate base under the concrete sidewalks, rat slab, and mo strip so we don't have cracking or anything like that. Um, that came out of the soils reports. Um, we got some uh fire department that we needed to um take out. We did not have to put the NOX boxes out that they had put in the plans. So, we got a credit of $1,340.76. And then the third item on

163the change order is install a 100 amp breaker and an existing electrical panel for $451 for a total of 9,27480. Any other comments or questions? Motion, please. >> Got a me a motion by member Castro, seconded by me member Gatuso to approve the change order request number one for the RME restroom building. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Carried unanimously. On to item O, change order request number two for the Volulti Volti Volulta Elementary Modernization. It is it is recommended the board approve change order number two with Kaia Services LLC for the construction of Volta Elementary School modernization project. >> All right, Mr. Lee but >> Oh, you have a question. You didn't push your button, Mr. Lee. >> I tried to push the button one. I can't reach the button, but that's my

164personal problem. Um on the contract I just want clarification on the contract contract it's got description of the change for the non-compensatory um contract extension anyway ex it says extend contract completing date from November 21 of 26 to February 27 of 26. So >> I'm sorry where >> it's on page 82. Sorry. >> On page 82. >> So they're talking about extending the contract completion date, but >> there is no dollar amount to that. So non >> I'm not talking about dollar. I'm talking about the contract dates in general. >> Yes. So, if you're extending and you're the starting of that extension, it says you're going from November 21 of 2026 to February. Sorry, that should say 2025. >> Okay, that's that was >> okay. >> So, I I'm that kind of stuff on contracts

165kind of drives me a little nuts. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Yes, I will get them to correct that before I have um Dr. Sign it. Thank you. >> Okay. You're welcome. >> All right. I think I actually caught that in agenda review. I guess it didn't get fixed. Um >> I think >> we we talked about the number days that 99. Yes, we did talk about that. >> But I want to catch them all before it comes to you. Uh all right. Besides that, any other comments or questions? Okay. Thanks. >> All right. Need a motion, please. So moved. >> Second. >> Got a motion by member uh Katuso, seconded by member Moran to approve change order request number two for the Volulta Elementary modernization. All those in favor? >> I opposed. >>

166It is carried unanimously. On item P, change order number four for the Early Education Center project this Monday. It is recommended that the board approve change order number four with TBS Contractors Incorporated for the construction of the early education center project. >> All right. Comments, questions, >> motion. >> We got a motion by uh member Valado, seconded by I think it was over here first. Member Castro, >> Mr. Castro. So we have Valade Castro and that is to approve change order number four for the Early Education Center. All those in favor? >> I opposed. >> It is carried unanimously. >> Thank you. >> All right. On to item Q, which is new alternative vehicle purchase. Dr. Lee, >> please recommend the board approve the new alternative field vehicle electric golf carts purchase funding agreement between

167Los Angeles Unified School District and Sanwankin Valley Unifi Air Pollution Control District. Uh as a disclosure, those agreement are dated February 5th, 2026. Uh so pretty much they're just agreement saying, "Hey, we give give you the funding for that. There's no obligations. We're not providing a service or product to you. You can get those golf cards if you like and once you get them, you provide a documentation. We'll give you the money. Um, so again, those agreement count as they being approved by the San King Air board. Uh, so it's a months old. U put, but again, there's no service or product being obligated. Uh, we don't have to purchase those golf carts. If we do, uh, then we collect the documentation, submit for, uh, funding. I like the fact that we get money back

168for buying these things. That's pretty easy. >> Exactly. >> Say which everything we can do, >> right? 100% funded by grants >> 100%. >> Yeah, >> that's even better. >> Any other comments or questions? >> Hey, Mr. Lee, where are they going? Who's using them? >> Maybe go to secondary or elementary. We're still deciding that what where their nieces are. Any other? >> All right, I need a motion, please. >> Got a motion by member uh Smith, seconded by member Moran to approve the new alter alternative vehicle purchase. All those in favor? >> I opposed. >> It is carried unanimously. On to item R, employee and volunteer appreciation resolutions number 06-26 to 08-26. Dr. Richie, it is recommended the board adopt resolution numbers 0626, 0726, and 0826. And every year, every year I'd like I

169like to read these out because I think it's important that um these resolutions are read to recognize and uh recognition the recognize these people who are on these three resolutions. The first resolution um 0 uh 6-26 is volunteer recognition. They're called shining a light on the people and causes that inspire us to serve. Whereas April 19th through 25th, 2026 is a celebration of National Volunteer Week. And whereas volunteers are eager to help out in every way and take the time to make the world a better place. Whereas volunteerism is recognized as a central partner to education where young people have the advantage of seeing adults show respect, responsibility, fairness, trustworthiness, caring, and citizenship. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Laspanis Unified School uh District Board of Trustees publicly thanks and honors the many dedicated

170individuals who give so freely of their time, energy, and abilities to the students of this school district, not only during this special week, but throughout the year. on to resolution 06-26, excuse me, 06-2 07-26. I could really got to learn how to read here. Day of the teacher, teachers today touch tomorrow. Whereas May 13, 2026 is designated as day of the teacher in celebration of the teaching profession. And whereas the board recognizes that a strong public education system for all youth is essential to our de democratic system. And whereas the board acknowledges the true heroes of society, our teachers, for the lasting contributions they make to our most valuable resource, our children. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Las Spanish Unified School District Board of Trustees publicly thanks and honors the many dedicated individuals

171who give so freely of their time, energy, and abilities to the students of this school district, not only on this special day, but throughout the year, and urges citizens citizens of Lasanis to pay tribute to them as well. And last is resolution 08-26, classified school employees week. together everyone achieves more. Whereas May 17 through 23, 2026 is designated as classified school employees week in celebration of support staff. And whereas the board recognizes that a strong successful public education system requires a team effort and the classified employees are valuable members, valued members of the district team. And whereas the board acknowledges the true heroes of society are classified employees who take care of the district's support functions so teachers can concentrate on teaching and students can focus on learning. Now therefore be it resolved that the

172Las Vegas Unified School District Board of Trustee publicly thanks and honors the many dedicated individuals who give so freely of their time, energy, and abilities not only during this special week but throughout the year and urge the citizens of Laspanis to pay tribute to them as well. And I know I speak for everybody up here and at all of our staff. We want to thank of and appreciate the volunteers, the teachers, and the classified employees who are being recognized in this resolution. With that, let's uh have a u motion that will cover all three of these resolutions, please. So, >> we got a motion by member Moran, seconded by uh member Gatuso. This is a roll call. >> Nette, please. >> Mr. Castro, >> yes. >> Mrs. Gatuso, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes.

173>> Dr. Moran, >> yes. >> Miss Smith, >> yes. >> Miss Valado, >> yes. >> Mr. Pereira, >> yes. Thank you, Nette. And thank you again to everybody who we recognize there. On to item S, board policy bylaw changes and updates on it. Our first readings. Dr. Richie is recommended the board declare its intent to adopt the following board policy administrative regulation updates. BP0450 comprehensive safety plan. AR0450 comprehensive safety plan. BP340 access to district records. AR1340 access to district records. BP1 1445 response to immigration enforcement. AR1445 Response to Immigration Enforcement BP 4119.21 Professional Standards Exhibit 4119.21 Professional Standards BP 4119.24 Maintaining Appropriate Adult Student Interactions BP 4156.3 employee property reimbursement BP 4219.21 Professional Standards BP 4219.24 24 maintaining appropriate adult student interactions. BP 4256.3 employee property reimbursement BP 4319.21 professional standards exhibit 4319.21 professional standards

174BP 4319.24 24 maintaining appropriate adult student interactions. BP4356.3 employee property reimbursement BP5125 student records AR-5125 student records BP5125.1 release of directory information AR-5125.1 release of directory information exhibit 15125.1 release of directory information BP5141.21 administering medication and monitoring health conditions AR-5141.21 21 administering medication and monitoring health conditions. BP5145.13 response to immigration enforcement. AR5145.13 response to immigration enforcement. >> So I noticed that um there's um two entries for response uh to uh immigration enforcement. The last two that you just read, the BP and the AR are completely lined out. So obviously are they are they being moved to a different section or >> they are being moved to a different section. So you see if you look at uh the two of the other um board policies and admin rigs BP4 1445 and AR1445 are also responsive

175immigration enforcement. This is because when you have a board policies already adopted and if it is being recommended it be moved to a different section to be to better align with the purpose of that one. the 5,000 sections and board policies for students. The 1,00 board policy is more for I guess administrative um actions um is a probably a better way to put it. The the recommendation from Gamut is that we we move we open those board policies in the 1000 because it better reflects the purpose of those board policies and therefore because it's being moved to that section it's you don't have the redundancy of having the in the uh in the 5,000. So the 5,000s are being eliminated whereas the basically the board policy with appropriate updates are being added to the 1000

176section. >> Good. Thank you. Appreciate that. Miss Katuso. >> So on the comprehensive safety plan um it states that it shall be reviewed and updated by March 1st on you know all the schools comprehensive safety plans and brought >> by side councils. >> But the board still has to approve. The board still has to approve it, but the board the requirement for the board approval is not till m it's October. Correct? >> October next month. >> So they >> Okay. Because you I mean I'm I'm used to them actually from MCE in March. That's why it was like I thought we had to do it in March. >> Yeah. The law states that has to be approved by the site council at the site. And so that's the deadline for that. So they've all been

177we've been working with the sites. They're all having their safety gr plans approved. We'll be bringing them later screen, but >> yes. >> Yeah. By state >> prior so we can kind of review them a little. >> Okay. Thank you. And then one other question which I don't even know about this but >> um when we're talking about professional standards on page two well it's in a couple of of the policies actually. It talks about inappropriate attire, which I don't do we have a definition of any kind of inappropriate attire. I don't know if we even have a I mean I just curious honestly. >> I'll have to talk to I'm not going to speak out attorney here. I haven't I haven't read it recently. I know that there is something exists but that's that's

178a conversation with Tammy. >> Yeah. I I knew there was I mean I I don't even think there's anything in the teaching the professional teaching standards about what that looks like. Oh, it's just it's just in professional teach standards just a it's just a phrase. >> Yeah. So anyway, I'm just kind of curious what that actually is because if we're putting it in a policy and we're expecting people to not dress in appropriately, how do we measure that? So just my thoughts. >> Thank you. There's always one thing that about dress that I think we need to live by and that is spandex is a privilege not a right. Some of your comments tonight are just way like to stay home. >> And we all know. >> Then don't wear spandex. >> Okay, good. >>

179All right. I had to do something. It's 9:38 at night here. Okay. All right. Any other comments or questions or stories or inappropriate comments or whatever? All right. With that, I need a motion to declare our intent to adopt all the listed policies. >> We got a motion by member Moran, seconded by member Leeb uh to declare our intent to adopt all the listed policies. All those in favor? >> I opposed. It's carried unanimously. Onto the consent calendar. Are there any polls? >> I hate to do this, but I'm going to. >> Okay. >> Go ahead. >> The cont Wait, wait, wait. I turn you on here. I mean, turn your mic on. >> The contract with NWA. I don't on page because my con you knew mine was different so I didn't put And

180then the contract with Parseek, that was on page 289, but I don't know if I had the right board packet at the time. But those two contracts, >> what was the first one? contract with NWEA. >> G I'm >> NWA is >> G8. >> Oh, G8. All right. >> Oh, I was going to say >> I was looking above that. Okay. Any other polls? >> G5 >> and parseek. Yeah. Is that >> Yeah, we have G8 and G5. Any other polls? G5 and G8. Well, I guess I could have looked at the >> I want to pull item uh G7. Any other polls? >> All right. So, we um need I need a motion to approve the consent calendar with the exception of items G5, G7, and G8. We got a motion by member leaves.

181Sorry, did you have one? >> Oh, >> yeah. Motion by member leaves, seconded by member Castro to approve the consent calendar with the exception of items G5, 7, and 8. All those, excuse me, it's a roll call vote. Oh. Uh, Nette, please. >> Mr. Castro, >> yes. >> Mrs. Katuso. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Dr. Moran, >> yes. >> Miss Smith, >> yes. >> Miss Valado, >> yes. >> Mr. Pereira, >> yes. >> All right. Uh, Miss Valo, item five. >> I just know they're all associate. I wish I could have asked you earlier. I'm sorry. I've just been on jet lag mode. Um, I know they're all tied to um in the LCA. Oh, PLC's sorry the PLC's >> not necessarily. >> Okay. So, explain explain them to me better than

182>> so what Parseek is, Parseek is a data dashboard that we use to be able to analyze disagregate basic a lot of different things. So, one of some of the things that we use the dashboard for that's not affiliated with PLC's would be like we look our suspension rate. So, when we come and we present information to the board about like say where we're currently on suspensions like I I'll just use that as example because this we were talking about this this week. If you look at our data over time, it shows that we're seven seven and a half% suspension rate for the last several years to last year's dropped off 5.8. What pars does is it takes the information from ARIES and it puts it into a very visual and easy way to understand

183and it'll be able to help help us see things in real time. And so right now we can track our number of students with one or more days of suspension by school, by sub by group and also by student. We can also be able to drill down into what is our actual rate right now. So right now we see that in our district we actually have dropped from last year about 5.8% of our students received one or more days of suspension. Right now we're sitting about 2.4 which is massive decline. It helps us to see monitor and see that is the work that we're doing with regards to counselors restorative practices PBIS is that working? Is that actually making a change? So we're using this to help to monitor the actual the effects of the

184work that we're doing at the school sites. And also this is something that principles use with their teachers. It can be used in PLC's. That's a great place for looking at data, but it's not necessarily the only use of it. So, that's just an example, but we can look we look at cast data. We look at attendance data there. We look at I said discipline data. We look at our um the map with the the other item that's been pulled the map growth data that we use for um for essentially benchmark benchmarking and progress monitoring. >> Exactly. It is just a it's a data dashboard. It throws everything in and then it helps to visualize and gives us reports, gives us um projections. It helps us to really be able to see kind of where

185our kids are at. >> And we've used it before. >> We This is This is a renewal. We've had this >> for three year. Okay. So, this is a renewal. >> Exactly. We've had this for three years. And so, this is we're actually getting a bit of a discount because the county has actually um gone ahead and purchased the base version for all the districts. We've been just doing it on our own. And so, we actually have a bit of a discounting here compared to previous years. And so we went for the three years because um it would give us a further discount on it and something we've already been using and it's been working. So this this information then from the other one the N that's the MAP testing no the NW that's that's

186the map >> this information goes into that >> it can yes yeah it >> but really teachers use this for their PLC's right >> they they well it depends it depends if the if the PLC is talking about the specific the map growth data then yes if they're talking about they're looking at behavior and they want to say like hey what how are our kids doing at our grade level in terms of suspension they can be looking at that they can also be using the the parsect to look at attendance and they can also do it for schoolwide presentations and there's there's you know data is data it's just you how you look at it it's just the way the parseek um dashboard is really about how do we visualize how do we use it

187if you'd like more information I can be happy to bring parseek in to kind of share about >> I I kind of thought that's what you were talking about but when it said this is for PLC I thought well is this so so I went that was my question and then I thought so this is also the end the The NWA is also a renewal for three years. >> That's correct. >> Okay. And we've already had Oh, I know. We already had it before. >> And years. Um I just have a question too. Is PARSAC the one that counselors use sometimes too? >> Counselors use as well. Counselors use that. They use ripple effects. They use there's a couple different >> I mean when they came when one time and did a presentation, they talked

188about it, but they didn't explain what that actually was. So that that's helpful. I'm glad that I asked. So thank you. Okay, that's all. >> Any other comments or questions? All right, I need a motion. Let's We got to do these separately. So, um item G5. I need a motion, please. >> So, moved. Second. >> Got a motion by member Valido, seconded by member Batuso to approve the agreement with Parseek Education Data Management Analytics Platform. All those in favor? >> I opposed. >> And it is carried. All right. On to item G8, agreement with NWA map test education. >> Point of order. I think the next one be G7 since that was pulled as well. >> Yeah, >> we haven't talked about it yet. >> Okay. >> We talked about we talked about >> I

189wasn't certain that we're I thought we were going to talk about you when we got Okay. No, still we were talking about G8. We'll get to G7 in a second. Okay. >> All right. G8. That's where we are with the agreement within WEA MAP test educational education services. >> I'll make a motion. >> I'll second. >> All right. We have a motion by member Valadeo, seconded by memberuso to approve the agreement with uh NWEA MAP test education services. All those in favor? I opposed and it's carried. All right. Item G7 which was pulled is the agreement with Clifford Moss communications support and election planning. Um so we haven't approved going to a bond yet. Is hiring um Clifford Moss going to is or is is this the process for them to give us more information

190to finally approve that process or you where is this where is this going? >> Yes. So uh I put a contract here uh for the board approval because um we want if the board give me direction and we want to move forward with the ballot 2026 November um then we can immediately starting with the communication um you know so pretty much what they do is they help us in 2018 measure X so they go out and communicate to the community they don't advocate for us say yes or no but they provide information educating the community about the bond. Um, so because the timing right now between now and August where you need to put in your wallet is really short. So that's why I don't want waste months of time. So if the board approved

191this tonight, I will still need direction from you. That doesn't mean I will sign a contract. Board approval doesn't mean I'll agree to that. So, uh, if the board says yes, we'd like to move forward, you know, with the ballot measure and then then I can go ahead and sign the agreement and then start working with the our consultant. Yeah. >> Okay. So, we had the the presentation about >> the prospects of the the bond. When is that actually coming to us for a vote? >> Um, so I was trying to schedule what Dr. Richie is trying to schedule your day bring back to the board um and to get your your direction on that, you know. So, part of the work with the communication firm because because where we're at in the uh timeline

192before we have that August deadline is that we would be able to start talking strategy with them in terms of how to communicate this out and be able to have that in place so that when when and if the board decides we decide we'd like to go forward the bond, we already have a strategy in place. we're not having to spend time bringing things up to speed. When we bring it back to the board, we can bring it back like it would have to be either at the uh at the um April board meeting or in a at a at a special board meeting if we decide that we want to do it more rapidly. That'd be something that we will we'll bring up and and talk through with the facilities committee. >> Great. >>

193Looks like Miss Katuso had a question. >> I thought it mine hasn't gone off yet, so I get to I'm >> okay. Go ahead. >> So, let me You're asking us to approve it and you're not going to basically activate it unless we approve a bond. >> But are you going to give us a blood oath that we're approving it and you know then we've approved it. And what says that you don't you just don't get them to start working on it? Do you see? I mean, it's it's it's a little unnerving. >> Yes. Oh, absolutely. Thank you. Um that's that's indeed the case. Um pretty much again, right, the we had until August to put this onto the ballot. Um so if the board decide to approve this contract tonight, doesn't automatic means, you

194know, they will start their work. I was telling you to get directions from all of you >> approving if we're moving forward the bond measure. >> I understand that. But do you see the implication that I'm trying? I mean, you know, it's like we're approving it. Approving it is approving it. >> So, we're giving you the okay if we're approving it. >> So, I would feel more comfortable. I know we want to streamline it and make it quick, but I would rather >> kind of >> wait until it when we vote the same day we vote. >> Yeah. I mean, >> let's say if if it makes if it makes the board feel more comfortable, we can go ahead and pull this item and bring it back at a at a future date when we

195if when >> so we can have more discussion on the >> hang on. Unless >> Okay, wait a minute. >> Get the button push. >> Unless there's some real strategic reason to approve this tonight. I just I just want to know. I mean, you you put it on here for a reason. So, is there a reason why it needs to be approved even before we decide whether we're going out with a bond or not? >> Yes. So pretty much again like Dr. Richie said you know they want to start early to communicate a strategy to help the district develop strategy to communicate to to the community they want to know what the stakeholder out there you know the one with a lot of voices they want to understand where the you know by analyzing the

196data of the survey how can they reach out to those early as possible. So the more time they have, the more successful communication you will be to out of community. And so again, the timing is really at the essence, >> right? But but so going to um Lor's point, if we >> if we approve the contract and they go out now and they start communicating, >> but then we don't approve that we want to even put a bond out there. >> Absolutely. >> We've we've spent money on them doing something that we're not going to use. They actually would not act until I signed the contract and and send it back. Even I I get it. Even the board approved the contract say yes, you know, it's approved. >> But if I don't sign it,

197it's not legally binding. There's no legal binding on that agreement. So >> I understand what you're saying. >> Exactly. Okay. >> But it still gives you the ability to sign it whenever you want because we've approved it. That's my point. >> Yes. So it's just making me a little nervous. I don't feel like I'm doing my, you know, true what I'm here for by giving giving approval before we even know what we're going to be doing. >> No. Fair enough. >> So, what what I propos that we go ahead and we'll pull it. >> Well, we have a couple more comments. So, let's hear first. Okay. >> Uh, Miss Vald. >> Well, he's going to say exactly what I'm going to say. I think it it's logical to pull it. I think if it's at

198time essence, let's have a special board meeting, get our approval, and we would, I think, all feel more comfortable with that. Perfect. Miss Smith generating fees prior to it being approved, but I think it was been answered already. >> Okay. So, we'll go ahead and we'll pull it. Okay. >> And we'll bring it back at a later date if and when the board decides that they want to move forward with the bond. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, um under the consent calendar, item G7 was pulled for consideration at a later date. With that, we're going to reporting out of close session. And uh we had five items in close session. Only one was an action item. Excuse me, two were action items. Uh close session C1, request for waiver from physical education graduation

199requirement for a Pico High School student number 5519186. The board approved that request. Motion was by member Smith, seconded by member Gatuso. There were seven yeses, no nos, no abstensions, and no absences. On to item C4, excuse. Yeah, C4. Um, conference with labor negotiators section 54957.6 agency negotiators or Tammy Caladas Cipher Lee and Can Richie employee organization CSCA. And this is uh in regards to um a level 4 CSEA grievance filed on 312 20226. Uh the board denied that um grievance motion by Moran, seconded by Valado. There were seven yeses, no nos, no abstensions, and no absences. And that is all of the items to report out from close session. Next up is discussion, information, and future agenda items. Anybody have anything? All right, seeing none, then uh next item is close session, but we

200finished everything we needed to do. Took us a couple extra minutes. That's why we started a few minutes late. And with that, wish everybody a happy Pi Day on Saturday. Enjoy a nice piece of pie. and uh enjoy the rest of your week. Thank you all for being here. Good night everybody. Drive home safely. We are journed at 9:55. >> Thank you all for staying. >> Thank you Mr.