LBUSD Board Meeting (2/12/2026)

001All right, good evening. It's 7:02. We're going to call the uh regular meeting to order. We're going to start with the pledge of allegiance. So, Miss Lewis, could you lead us in the pledge, please? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. Uh approval of the agenda. First thing I have uh is that we are going to pull item 10 I and that will come back to us at a future future time. So 10 I is pulled. Dr. Richie, is there any changes to the agenda? >> Uh no no other changes. >> No other changes. All right, with that need a motion to excuse me approve the agenda

002as amended. >> I I move we approve the agenda seconded. We got a motion by member Katuso, seconded by member Valado to approve the agenda as amended. All those in favor? >> I opposed. And it's carried unanimously. On to item five. Something special to my own heart. Music. All right. Good evening board. I'd like to introduce uh the director of the PCO High School choir, Miss Sarah Klene. Thank you. Uh we would like to thank the board for let giving us this opportunity this past December to go to Hawaii and participate in the 84th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. The students got to sing on the deck of or the dock of deck of the USS Missouri and also were in a parade honoring the event. We are going to sing to you one of our

003songs. uh that we from our program. Our program was all about uh Pearl Harbor and World War II and the events that led up to it. And this is our final song of our set. Uh it is called we remember them where we honor the sacrifices made for us and that we will always remember these sacrifices regardless of the time of the year of the weather of whatever is happening in our lives. And I'm just going to connect to the speaker. >> It's not as loud as it looks. The blue of the skies and the warmth of summer of spring at the rising of the sun and It's going down. We remember them. of the wind. In the chill of winter, at the start of the year, We remember them as long as we live.

004as long as you live. We When we are weary and needs, when we have joy, we pray to share. We remember them. They are a voice of when we are we are lost. It's still a win. They're a part of us. They are as long as you vision. That was absolutely wonderful, Miss Klein. Thank you for bringing them tonight. You are welcome to come back anytime and sing for us again. I I know how much work it takes to put it all together. Thank you so much. Thank you for being great ambassadors for Pacheo High School and Los Angeles Unified School District and lo the city of Laspanis. That was a great honor to have you over there representing the whole town, the school district, this the school. So, thank you for doing that. I

005know. Um and thank you parents for giving us such great kids. So, thanks again and enjoy the rest of your night and come back anytime. THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT, THAT MOVING ON. SO, UH, IF THERE'S ANYBODY, UH, that would like to add something to the schoolboard agenda, you may do so by submitting a written request to the superintendent at least two weeks prior to a regularly scheduled uh, schoolboard meeting. If that uh, request for agenda item is within our purview, uh, then it'll be looked at to be added to a future agenda. the um if there's anybody here that wishes to address the board and any item that's on tonight's agenda, uh you may do so. When that item comes up before us, just approach the podium. We ask that you identify yourself and uh

006share what your comments you would like to share on that agenda item. You'll have three minutes to speak. If there's multiple speakers on that agenda item, uh it's limited to 20 minutes. There's a timer over here under that monitor um that'll show you when your three minutes have finished. Um there's anybody here that wishes to address the board tonight on any item that is not on tonight's agenda. Uh in a moment or two, you may um uh come up to the podium address uh to address the board. Again, identify yourself if you would and uh you'll have three minutes to speak. If there's multiple speakers on the same non-aggenda item, um you'll be limited to 20 minutes. So, with that, is there anybody here tonight that wishes to address the board on any item that

007is not on tonight's agenda? Now's your time. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. >> I'm Tess Whitehurst. I would like to read a letter that has been signed by 24 people. If I still have time, I'll say a little bit more about it, but let me read it. Lasis school board trustees, we have watched the recent escalation of federal immigrant enforcement across the country with increasing concern, particularly for the fear and instability it has created for families here in Lasanis. Families and communities are being torn apart and threatened through practices that appear to violate constitutional rights, including due process and privacy protections. Now is the time to make sure we are being intentional in strengthening our community's ability to respond to such stressors. We urge you in your role as trustees and policy setters to ensure

008that Lasbana schools remain safe, protected spaces where civil immigration enforcement does not interfere with education or student well-being. While we feel confident that Lasbana's trustees, admin, and school staff share these values, we also know that the practicalities of how to engage in such situations, the confidence from knowing one's own and others rights and the effectiveness of clear procedures cannot be taken for granted. While California's SB54 and AB495 provide clear legal protections of these rights, current compliance does not guarantee that all staff understand how these protections apply in real time situations. We hope that you will take active urgent steps to ensure school staff and local families feel the support of you behind them with clear training, messaging, and information. We ask the board to train staff on student and family immigration rights and appropriate responses

009to enforcement inquiries as outlined in the aternal attorney general's model policies. Provide clear multilingual guidance to families regarding privacy, school records, and protections as required by state law. Establish and communicate district-wide policies and procedures for responding to immigration enforcement on or near school campuses for all local schools and school site programs, including afterchool, preschool, and transitional kindergarten programs as required by state law. Every child deserves safety and access to education. These rights are only as good as our ability to know them, practice them, and protect them. Students cannot learn if they feel unsafe at school or are hesitant to even attend. School staff at all levels need clarity on their legal obligations. People in Lasis are afraid. Many residents are unaware of these protections or unsure whether they will will be upheld in moments of

010crisis. Public guidance and visible leadership are essential to closing that gap. We look forward to hearing how the board plans to address these concerns and welcome the opportunity for continued dialogue. So, as I said, 1 minute left. So, as I said, this is signed by 24 people. >> Actually, you have 5 seconds left. >> Five. >> Yes. It's going to flash in about 1 second. >> These are just friends and family. We if we had canvased, if we had walked, you know, knocked on doors, we would have gotten way more signatures. This was just this is a small sampling but so I mean including people here I'm sure feel the same way. So just we wanted to clarify put a voice to these important concerns. So thank you so much >> and and just so

011you know and and then everybody knows during public comment that is a time for the public to share their thoughts with the board. Um so we're not allowed to respond. though, as much as all of us are sitting up here, we'd like to say something, we really can't. >> Well, thank you for letting me know. I I assumed something like that. >> So, that's why we're sitting here listening and thank you for sharing that with us. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Well, I'm going to use Good evening, uh, Mr. Chairman or President and the board members to the superintendent and rest of staff. Um, Anthony, it brought back memories tonight hearing that choir. And I know >> we share something in common regards to that. And for the rest of you, Anthony and I

012were in the San Jose State Concert Choir. I preceded him by four years. So, uh, this was really good tonight. It was enjoyable performance. >> Yes. >> Well, go ahead. I'm here on a different note and um my name is Deborah Lewis and I'm a member of the board of directors for the Sanwaqen Air Pollution Control District and I was elected uh by all the cities in Merced County to represent the cities in Merced County and I'm here to share just a few uh engagements uh that Los Banos uh school district has engaged with with the air district and Um some of the engagements have been uh the healthy air living uh school participation with the RAN which is real time air advisory network and we have two schools here in Los Banos uh Mo

013and Merced uh Mercy Springs Elementary that have received ulr displays uh showing real time of what the air quality is uh so that it gives the uh administration the principal and his administration or her administration the opportunity to know what is a good day to keep the children inside when the air quality is not good. Uh that might be something that the board may want to engage in with some of your other schools through the air district. Um also uh we have had um some of the funding uh that has been uh given to the district is roughly about $5.4 million uh through the airboard in partnership with the school district uh for the purchase of solar power EV charging stations installed. eight uh eight were installed at level two and um uh two chargers

014at level three and an expansion uh project in addition was seven level three uh seven level seven level three single port chargers uh for your existing solar structure. also was received uh 13 uh monies for 13 electrical electric carts for neighborhood vehicles and for your school buses. Two um projects in 2017 for new emission uh diesel buses and more recently 7 zero emission buses uh were uh in partnership with the district. Uh but tonight one of the things that I'd really like to share with you is uh and you have calendars sitting in front of you on the dis is the annual uh kids calendar contest and I have um the current applications coming up for the year uh 2027 which comes in English and Spanish with all the details about how to apply for

015this and I'll leave it with your superintendent. But the wonderful thing about this calendar is it these are drawings from kids at various schools uh within the um jurisdiction of the airboard which is all the way from Bakersfield to the south to Stockton to the north. And there are 12 calendar months and a 13th which will be uh the January of 27 that's included in here. But the wonderful thing with this is that the front page of this calendar, the student who won this is awarded $500 and all the other calendar months inside those children who won are awarded $100 each. Uh we have one high school student that won and we have one student from Gustinine broke my heart that is in this calendar and since I've been on the board I haven't seen

016any Los Banos children in in the calendar. So I'm here this evening to encourage the school district to please participate encourage your principles to encourage your teachers to encourage the children to do their drawings and submit it to the air district in Fresno. so that we can see our children here in Los Banos in this calendar promoting quality air uh which is uh uh for the air district our goal is around health. Uh so I I'm uh honored to be on the board and I'm honored and glad that uh we had part um partnership with the school district uh in the endeavor of providing necessary things to help air quality here in the Los Manos area. And so, thank you again for your time and I'm hoping that I will see some of our lost

017balance students in the calendar next year. Thank you. >> Thank you for sharing that information and we do have some pretty talented >> Yes. Every year it comes out. Absolutely. >> That'd be great. >> Thank you. Is there anybody else that wishes to uh address the board on any item that is not on tonight's agenda? All right. Seeing no one come forward, uh we're going to go ahead and uh head off with reports. And so Ilana is here. >> Hi. >> Okay, I'm going to start off with Laspanos High School. ASB hosted a hot dog fundraiser to raise funds for upcoming student activities and events. The fundraiser was wellreceived by students and staff. Funds raised will support future schoolwide events and student engagement. We organized a kindness spirit week to promote positivity and school unity.

018Each day features a different theme encouraging students to show kindness and appreciation to peers and staff. In celebration of Valentine's Day, ASB organized a schoolwide initiative to promote kindness, school spirit, and community connection. ASB members created handmade Valentine hearts and distributed them to both students and staff. ASB representatives met with both middle schools to speak with students about student leadership opportunities and the role of ASB. ASB is currently preparing for the upcoming Creekide Valley. Planning includes organizing student performances, games, and sphere activities to promote school pride. We anticipate strong participation in a high energy event that brings the student body together. Sports news. Winter sports are wrapping up over the next few weeks. Boys wrestling won the CCC League Championship. Both our boys and girls wrestling programs will be well represented this weekend with multiple

019wrestlers competing in the regional and divisional rounds as they continue their postseason run. As winter sports conclude, spring sports are now underway with games and matches beginning this week. Laspanos FFA has a successful month with strong performances across multiple competitions. As the section speech contest in HIMOR on January 21st, members competed in prepared job interview impromptu Creed and Elcredo events. Top results include Creed, first Max third, Sienna, fourth, Emily, fifth, Rachel, Spanish Creed, second Lexi. Second, Ethan. Third, Zoe. Job interview. Sixth, Addison. Seventh, Nathan. Max, Sienna, and Ethan. And Zoe will advance to regionals at MJC on March 6th. At the Rotary Speech Contest, Carly placed second and Jayen third. Andrew Goins won the Lion Speech Competition and will advance to the regional level. At Modesto dairy days, Catherine placed third high individual and Ethan

020fourth. The BIG team placed second at the fireball field day with Rachel third high individual and Max fourth. Lasmano FFA has hosted California's first chapter le event. Max earned first place with three members finishing in the top 10. Now on to Pekka. Our Bacheka High School choirs participated in the Merced County Honor Choir on January 213rd, 2026. The honor choir was part of a two-day arts event organized by MCOE with the first day showcasing choirs from across the country. Under the direction of Alex, choir director for Merced College. Our students were joined by choirs from LBHS, Atwater High School, and the Merced Holiday Children's Chorus to perform five pieces of music at the historic Merrced Theater. Our advanced choir is performing at the February 12th meeting to showcase the work they did in Hawaii. The

021Chico Wrestling will hold the divisional championships at the Bretley Gym on February 14th. Schools from Sacramento in the north and down the valley will be coming to Losanos for this tournament. come to Pacheco High School to see wrestling from our area. Our boys soccer will also be having their first round of playoffs at 600 p.m. Our counselors present to all grade levels 9th through 12th level students in January to review information related to graduate requirements including AP classes and A through G requirements and also class selection for next year. The counselors then visited all 9 through 12, sorry, 11 students in late January to present the California colleges.edu program and guided students through their websites. The counselors hosted a lunchtime activity to encourage students to spread kindness schoolwide. They also spent the day visiting the

022EL students classes to review graduation A through G and AP class opportunities for next school year. Our ASB and FFA programs also visited Los Junior High on January 20th during the lunch periods to promote high school leadership and a programs with great success. On January 21st, Pacheo High School FFA had 21 students compete at the sectional speech contest with four individuals who will be moving on to regions. The results are as follows. Spanish Creed Camila first. Third place, Estraa Chavez. Fourth place, Francisco. Fifth, and Thomas Hernandez. Prepared public speaking, second place, Andrea Aguular. Public speaking, first place, Ruben. Fourth place, Monsura. Fifth place, Faith. While Mr. Bram and a group of four boys have attended three contests so far, where they are given a set of plans and amount of time to build their given

023project. They have done well so far and placed fourth in the last contest. The spring is here with the whole new lineup of contests. Wish them luck. Thank you guys. >> All right. >> Great job. Thank you. >> Lots going on on our schools. Thank you so much. All right. Um, next item is the California School Employees Association. Do we have a report tonight? See no one come forward on to Las Teachers Association. Looks like we have a report. Hello, Jennifer. Hello. Good evening everyone. Um I would like to start by thanking uh those of you who were able to make the school board dinner. Uh last two weeks ago. Um January was the longest month of the year. Um it was great to see we had six out of seven of our board members.

024We know it's not always a time that everybody can attend, but um we were kind of proud. We had the most board members there. It was amazing. Um and we really hope that you take the message that we gave about Prop 55 and the extension of that. Um, I hope you took that to heart and are able to start uh comm educating our communities around it. For those of you that don't know what that is, that is the extension of Prop 30 that's currently in place. Um, it is set to sunset in 2030. If we that proposition were to set sunset in 2030, our district would lose 15% of our budget across the top. That's 16 over $16 million. And that does not come back. Prop 55 extension uh aims to continue that on and

025it would continue indefinitely. It does not have a sunshine date. This is not a new tax and that's something that's very important for individuals to understand. This is a continuation of a current tax that's in place for couples that make over $700,000 or individuals that are um making a large sum of money. and I believe it's $400,000, but I've been saying the couple thing for so often I can't remember. Um, so this is not something that is going to be new. It's not going to be an extra on any of our um citizens. This is something we're already doing, 15% of our budget. Um, we did the calculations and that's like 80 of our teachers. That's an entire secondary site. Um, if you lose that many teachers, can you imagine what class sizes are go

026up to? So, we really hope that our community and our board um really get behind this and support it. Right now, we're collecting signatures of our members at sites. Uh we thank those of you who signed on when you were at the dinner. And um I did not bring them tonight, but I have uh signature petitions that I can distribute if there are others that would like to help sign on. We are trying to get it qualified um for the ballot in November and we are looking at a March 1st deadline right now. So if you are able to please contact me, I will be more than happy to enlighten you on all the goodies that go along with it. As indicated in the email that I sent you last night, um we have our

027sunshine letter for Las Teachers Association. Uh and it reads, "Dear Dr. Richie and illustrious school board members. The collective bargaining agreement between the Laspanis Unified School District and the Laspanis Teachers Association expires June 30th, 2026. Pursuant to section 3547 of the Educational Employees REL Employment Relations Act, the LBTA is herein forwarding you its initial proposal for collective bargaining for the 2627 contract year. LBTA strives to work with LBUSD to provide stability for our students and community, fully staff our schools, and improve educator compensation to keep up with costs of living increases. In alignment with the mission and vision of LBUSD and in an effort to ensure Laspana students have access to the best teaching content and educational experiences possible, the LBTA intends to bring proposals related to one, article 6, salary, including but not limited

028to the impact of California Senate Bill 88. Two, article 8, health, welfare, and retirement longevity benefits. three, article 27, dual language immersion programs, which would be a new article, and article 28, artificial intelligence, which would also be a new thing. We look forward to continuing a good faith negotiating process with the district, sincerely me. and we um we really appreciated the the process that we went through this year in our negotiations and we hope that we can continue to have a very amicable discussion-based negotiating process in the future and I have a written copy for each of you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jennifer. Next up is our facilities report, Miss Monday. need to >> welcome. >> Thank you. Good evening, board members. Um, Dr. Richie, executive cabinet and board president Pereira. I'm here to

029do my February 2026 facilities update. Um we've been working on um Mo's new restroom. Um so there's the building. It's been delivered. Um the pictures on the right was when they were working on the foundation for that. Um we are estimated completion date of the end of our end of the month. So the 27th. Um currently they're working on the ramps and the concrete around the building. um due to um Mo had a a student that eloped and we had to change the front door um for safety reasons for the students. Um we were having to go back and do some changes to that because that front door was in our plan, our ADA plan of path of travel up to the door. And so since that got changed since the plans were approved, we're

030having to make some adjustments to that. So, we're going to go back at spring break so we don't um obviously parents, staff have to go through that front door students. So, we're not not able to close that off until we're out of school for that spring break. So, we'll go back and do that work. Um but we will be expecting to start using the actual restroom by the end of in March. So, um the early education center um we are working on closing out getting it um certified. Obviously, we still have landscaping and planting that's going on right now. Um, we're work all the punch list items are pretty much complete. Um, besides the landscaping and the the signal light, um, they have the signal light up now and it just has to go through

031the programming, there is a process where they have to leave that up and I don't know the amount of days. I'll I need to find that out. Um, but they have to leave it up so people get used to stopping there before they actually turn the lights on. So, that's kind of where we are right now. Um, so we're going to get through the programming and then that'll be up and running. Um, I have driven through there when it's pickup and drop off time. Um, there there obviously is some traffic, but it's not, I think, as everybody feared it would be. It it flows pretty quickly. Um obviously it's a long period of time for the whole schools in that area at that time but um the TK center itself does not seem to be

032causing a bunch of queuing um on East B or anything like that. So that's very positive. And then the picture on the bottom is the first day of school. The kids were there um very excited to use the playground equipment and all of that. So that was fun to see them actually using the stuff. um Volulta Elementary modernization. So these are some pictures of the exterior. We have our finally have our windows in our hollow metal door frames. The doors are on site. They should be hanging them this week. Um they are working on the planting and the landscaping right now. And then on the right we have our um in kind of the entrance as you walk up to the office now. We have this nice um concrete stamped thing. kind of gives it

033a little like, you know, kind of wow when you kind of walk up to the office. And then also, um, it's near our flag pole and the, um, time capsule that we're doing. So, it's going to look really great. These are some interior pictures of Volta. So, um, you can see the the restroom is the middle picture. They're ready to come in, put the tile, and do the finishes there. So, we're This is also estimated for completion on the 27th. Um the painting is being finished this week. So, we're now we just need to work on the rest of the finishes like the floors, the tack board. Um the cabinets were also being installed this week. Um the mates panels, which are the top there where that still has that little bit of plastic, we're

034waiting for those. It's been a very long lead time with that. So, um they should be coming in and then we basically just have our landscaping um parking lot is completely done except for the striping and we will do that um spring break on a Saturday. So, to not disrupt the traffic there. The high school modernization project um is underway. It is we are completely done with um maybe not completely done. We are we have done the majority of the demo and abatement for wing H. So as you can see it's been gutted the down to the to the studs there. Um they've also been doing some exterior demolition. So that's where all those lockers were there. Those have all came out. Um some of the fun finds um since we've we've demoed um is

035there was no insulation in the walls or the ceiling and that does not meet Title 24 regulations. And so we're going to be working on a fix for that. So here's some exterior work they've been doing. And this is for the new administration building that's out kind of in the front in that visitor drop off area. Um so they've been demolition demoing. It's pretty much done with the site demolition. Um they're going to start working on grading and start working on the underground utilities for that new building that's coming there. um get that done, get the foundation done, and then we expect the the building to be delivered in March. And then some of the other projects we're working on still are the the Los Junior High fire alarm. Um we had I brought a

036change order a while back for some network cards. Um and so that was a long lead time item. We waited for those. They're going to be here next week, so they'll be able to start um completing this project. Um, they're going to start testing the week of 224. They're going to cut over to do the cut over and final testing 33 through 39. And then they're going to have to go through and demo all of the old system. So that's all everything will be gone. So that takes a while. So that's from 310 to 46. And then we'll be completely done. Do a punch list and close that project out. And then they'll have a nice working safe fire alarm system. Um, loftton phase three. We have submitted that to division of state architect on

03782825. Um, this project is having a hard time getting through DSA. We had done a previous project at the press box in the restrooms that are right below that press box. That is not a closed out project and it is that had a change order in it that DSA did not approve. So, I'm having to my architect re um reverse engineer that work they did to see if DSA will approve that. Otherwise, we're going to have to tear that, not tear that whole thing down, but tear down that it's the cutout from the backside. So, we would have to remove that and redo it. But, we're hoping with the reverse engineering that they will approve those plans, but that's why it's taking a little longer than normal because this is a um it's a problem.

038So, um, Pacheco High School baseball field, we submitted that to DSA on 128. I should say 26, not 25. And that's an access only project. And so, we should have three month, it' be about a 3-month approval. The family resource center, um, we submitted that to DSA on 123025. That is a full review. That should take a 4 to 6 month approval. Um, FOT PVE. Um we we should be obtaining um permission to operate. It was going to be this week. Um PG Gen actually messed up I shouldn't say messed up. They they reversed the meter numbers. So we have some P Gen paperwork to do before we can get that up and commissioned. Um but it we are so close to that. So um and then we'll be able to request our reimbursement from

039Sanwalking Valley Air Pollution Control District as we just heard about all the money we're getting. So that's wonderful. Um and then the seven fast chargers were actually delivered this week. So and then our facilities master plan. Um we have had completed four meetings. We're currently working on creating a survey for the community staff, parents, and student input. Um so they can provide us input on priority projects. And that is it. Any questions, comments? >> Questions, comments? Nobody? >> Nope. Mr. Lee, >> thank you for this. That's a lot. Um, >> welcome. >> The Loftton stadium, I'm just trying to get an understanding. The press box and restrooms area under the press box, um, those have been the existing restrooms for ever. >> Uh, they've been in there for a long, long time. >> So, there

040was any there was no recent work being done on those restrooms, were there? So, no, not on those restrooms, but when they when they did the press box, they must have had to make modification ADA modifications to those restrooms. Now, they're we don't use them, right? So, I'm not having to do anything with that. I've told them we're abandoning those restrooms, their storage. Um, so they're not concerned with fixing that. We're concerned with fixing the press box, which we are not getting rid of, and we're trying to do improvements to that. So it's there was a modification made >> no to the press box and that was not DSA approved >> and so or we don't have record that it was DSA approved. We've asked DSA numerous times to go through their records. They cannot

041find any documentation. So now we either have to again either reverse engineer that to prove that's structurally sound or we have to demo that and rebuild it as per the new plans. >> So do we as a district have documentation that there was work done on that press box? >> I have a trip note from pictures from a DSA inspector saying that there was a change order done through the project but there was no DSA approval. And so if DSA doesn't approve those change orders, you you you shouldn't be able to do them. Like it's a it's a change to their plans. So you have to get their approval to make those changes >> because there was work done on the press box with the electrical work, the flooring, that work. So, what what we

042did to accommodate our sound system, I guess, or whatever server equipment we needed to put in there, there is a cut a bump out on the back of that. So, if you go into the press box, there's a door you open and our equipment sits in there and it kind of hangs out the back of the press box. >> That is that they don't have record of that. >> And so, they're like, "Hey, we don't have record of that. When did that happen?" and or you know they said we didn't close that out. Did you finish this work? It wasn't done for the plans. So that's what we're having to clean up right now. So it just takes a little bit longer. Like I said, they've checked all their records. I've looked in our records.

043I don't see anything. So they will not approve our new plans until that gets rectified. >> Understand? Okay. Thank you. >> So anything else? Miss Katuso, >> I'm just curious. How long ago are you talking that that >> that I I don't know the date off the top of my head, but it was it was a while ago. It was >> more than five years. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like 10 >> Okay. >> 10 years or so at least. >> Okay. >> But I will I'll find the date and I'll email everybody. So, >> that's okay. I just I figured it I just was trying to let everybody know. It's a long >> It it has been a long time. Yes. I don't know when those bathrooms got shut down, but it's been a

044while ago. >> Okay. >> Any other comments or questions? >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> On to our next item, which is our community schools report. >> Welcome, Dr. Wheeler. >> Good evening. I'm I keep trying to say good morning. It's not morning. It has been that way. Who who said that January was the longest month of the year so far? Yeah. Um and and yet we're halfway through February. So that's uh really crazy, too. Um so I don't know how to >> Sorry. >> It's okay. >> So I actually don't have much to share because uh we just rec you know trying to recover uh from moving. But um I can share we had our soft grand opening for our family resource center on Sixth and I Street. Um

045so that has been our big excitement. Um and so this is a short uh little zip through of the the new location and we have already had walk-ins. So that's wonderful. And we haven't even really advertised it, you know, as we're getting settled in. So let's see if that will And you can see some of the old bank um paneling and whatnot. And so we have lots of room for um all of the you know our supplies now. A lot more than we used to. And like I said, we've already had families uh drop in and um that's been wonderful. And we are making plans for how we're going to get the word out that we are open um and ready. although our all the liaison have made uh you know hasty they come all

046the time so it's really a great hub um for us um and I did want to share uh kind of a spring preview uh as we get geared up you know and and look into all of the wonderful things that happen around the city um we will we have chosen not to do a spring resource fair we were going to have one in March the reason why is because of all those great things that are happening already that we thought it would make more sense to dovetail our energies into those activities than create a new one. One of those you'll see at the bottom, we have the um Laspanos uh fire department autism awareness event that's happening on the same day, we think around the same day as the downtown spring fair uh with the

047street fair. Um we don't have the exact date on the street fair yet. I know the chamber of commerce will be announcing that soon. Um but we are planning on tableabling at both the um autism awareness event and at the street fair that will be downtown. Um so we will be participating in those local events. We're also participating throughout the district and at at different school sites at events. So for example, we are uh hosting one starts tonight. As a matter of fact, our family book club are is on Thursday nights um for about five or six times um throughout the rest of the school year um at at Grasslands. Grasslands is hosting that, although that is a district-wide um event that families can go to and it is a literacy focused um event where

048they give them books in either English or Spanish, whichever they read, and they um are taught some literacy skills while also having um dinner together as a family. So, the kids are there and the and the families there. The raising kids growing together is a parenting class that we are going to start offering next Wednesday at uh Pico High Schools. uh willing to is so graciously offered to host. And that is a parenting class where they will get to have dinner together as a family. And then the students will be taken um into another room where they get to do an enrichment activity while the parents get some time to learn about social emotional regulation and and ways that they can um you know work on their parenting in whatever uh way that they you

049know want to talk about how they uh work with conflict with kids and and different um skills that they can work together on. Um we are also having a shoe drive and a coat drive. Um the shoe drive has already been sent out and announced and that will um be happening I believe on the 21st of February. Um and the coat drive will be announced soon. Both of those come out of our parent teacher leadership institute program that uh we have been sponsoring and that is with in uh partnership with Merced County office of ed that we offer that and it is a program that um they encourage and help parents develop programs that civic-minded programs and community-minded programs. And so the ones that we're directly working with right now are the shoe and the

050coat drive. Um that are going to be um I believe the coat drive will either be through our family resource center or the shoe drive. We are actually going to use the parking lot once we get approval of the old TK center to be able to utilize the outside, not go inside. Um we're just so anxious to be there. Um we also have um I neglected to put up here. We did have just this past weekend steps to college event where we took fa uh family and students to Sacramento um where they were able some of the kids won a laptop um and other prizes and there were some scholarship opportunities and so that was um the Jew both uh all five secondary schools were able to go. We had students participating. Um along the

051same lines, we have the Young Women's Conference in Merrced on Saturday, March 21st that will be sponsored in the same way. It will be um you know, we'll be taking them to the event and bringing them back. And then an exciting thing that's happening at Pacheco High School is they're opening their actually they changed it from Panther Den to Panther Hub, but it's the same idea. Um this will happen um on March 24th and it's going to be a permanent um like uh clothing closet and and um pantry that will be um available for community members obviously focused on Pacheo High School but um you know sometimes there's a crossover um and they're going to be doing um parenting classes through there and and um really get going on working with their the secondary uh

052students families and the students themselves. So that's, you know, we have a lot coming, so I'll have a lot to tell you about when, um, I come back for March. Um, but are there any questions? >> That's a lot. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Appreciate it. Thanks for being here. All right. U, next up is our attendance report. Mr. Morz. >> Uh, good evening, President Pereira, board of trustees. Um, you actually have a copy of the attendance report. Do you have any questions? >> Yeah. Any questions? >> Nice to see our numbers are up. >> Cool. Thank you. All right. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Richie. Our superintendence report. Good evening, board. Good evening, members of the public. Um, we've had a lot of stuff going on. Like I I echo what uh

053what Jen said earlier in January. I commented during one of our meetings that felt like January 383rd at the end of the month. That month was so long. And so and I know my I have two children still in high school. And my when I told my daughter that story, she corrected me and said, "No, Dad, it was 3,00 to 833." And so I think everyone's kind of felt it was long. But we've had lots of really exciting things happening around the district. We had um I'm pleased to announce that we have uh the uh counselor of the year at from one of our counselors at um Creekide Middle School. Stacy Ortega was recently honored as the Merced County Counselor of the Year for Middle Grades. We also have three administrators who were recently recognized

054by um Axa um the uh Merced Charter as administrators of the year, Miss Steel to Brazil as the um middle grades uh principal of the year, uh Mr. Troy Field as the middle grades um co-administer of the year and Mr. Kevin Coleman as the elementary co-administrator of the year and uh Miss Brazil has actually also been named the region 9 administrator of the year and she will be um going up for uh as a nomination for the state administrator of the year for principal of the year for middle grades. Um we also have some exciting news for some students. We have uh six students in our district um were uh attended an event for historically black colleges and universities and they um we had six of our students were awarded multiple um full ride um

055scholarships to attend uh the uh the historically black colleges universities. Um several of the students had three or more um uh full ride scholarships offered them. So we want to congratulate them. We'll be sending more information about that. Um, also as you heard about all the great things going on in the community schools, I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that we frequently we frequently hear from people um from the community when things aren't going well. Uh, that's that's a common trait. But also, it's important to recognize when things are going well when people recognize that. And so, one of the one of the the common themes we've had over the past year has been about just the impact that community schools program is having in our schools and how families appreciate it. They're looking

056out for for it. they appreciate the advance. They appreciate app appreciate the opportunities that their students have. And so I would be remiss if I didn't share that. Um I also just need to acknowledge that this past past week, past couple weeks has been a little bit rough in terms of uh school attendance and um and whatnot with with the student walkouts. And I just want to just say publicly um something we've already passed on along through uh messages to homes. But um that we recognize our students right to uh right for expression. It's a first amendment right. It's been upheld by multiple courts um including Supreme Court. The students have a right for free expression. They can express their political feelings and that's something that does that they do not um have to hide

057or remove when they enter school doors. However, when students go off campus, it creates an unsafe situation for for everyone. And so, we we acknowledge students right rights to express their feelings. We still feel the best place for them to be and the safest place for them to be is on campus. And that when students do leave campus, there are consequences in terms of unexcused absences and the the and according to board policy and school rules that will be applied. And so while we acknowledge your students right to have their freedom of expression, we also acknowledge that it's a much safer situation for all involved if they stay on campus and express that right there in a place where in a controlled environment where they can be safe and then we can exercise our authority

058as in local parents. Um but we also acknowledge that this just a tough situation right now. As we heard earlier in public comments, this is not a this is not a time when um you know this is a time of unrest and we have to acknowledge that. However, um as a as a school district, our focus is on our students creating a safe and secure environment for their education and we provide opportunities for students on both sides of the issue because not everyone feels the same way. And so we provide opportunities for students on both sides of the issue to be able to have a place a safe place where they can express their feelings in a mature and in a manner in which they can learn. But also we have our staff are trained

059to make sure that they maintain that position where our students can feel safe with them where we don't create spaces where students feel uncomfortable going into the classrooms going onto campus where they feel that adults won't have um won't support their feelings or we'll judge them or will um belittle them for feeling what they feel. Because one of the great things about public education is that public education is is really is the great experimental ground of democracy and democracy is messy and that's that's how that's how um societies and our communities are built. Our community, our our our society is built on this opportunity to be able to have a free exercise of thought, be able to have a freedom of expression where we exchange ideas and even if we disagree, we can disagree in

060such a manner that um we can preserve the dignity of the individual. And that's what we're trying to teach and that's what we're trying to enforce in our schools. And that's what that in light of everything that's gone on. We want to make sure that stays first and forefront um to with um all that has been happening and that our schools are a safe place, our staff are professional and they treat our students with the dignity that they deserve. I will I wasn't planning to mention this but I will to mention this because there was a comment earlier about um the the concerns of our community about immigration enforcement and we understand that there's lots of varying opinions on this. However, California has passed a law um that's now found in the California Education Code

061which and also this board approved a board policy um last May with regards to uh response to immigration enforcement where we have spelled out very clearly um what the parameters are for schools in case um we have uh law enforcement that comes looking at immigration status and and just want to assure everyone that we follow the law and that our schools that we do not we follow fura so we do not pass out student information um to anyone without who does not have the custodial rights unless we have um a unless the enforcement officers that come on campus have a a judicial warrant um without the power of a court order. We are not obligated nor should we share any information with any agency um because students have a right to privacy and that's been

062upheld by the courts and also is encased in federal law under fur. And that is my report. >> All right. Thank you very much. On to board member reports. Um Dr. Moran, we'll start with you tonight. >> I just want to thank the students that were here for Mr. Dela Cruz's class. It's always nice to see the students here. So, thank you for being here. Um this month I felt like I versed in a lot of of sports. So, I found myself uh going between wrestling and seeing the amazing uh girls wrestle. I saw Jean there taking amazing pictures and I was just in pain for some of them. Like I would have never thought how amazing and the tough work that they put, the hours that they were putting besides that. It just makes

063me so proud to see the students build such a well-rounded foundation. Um then you move over to Pacheco with uh Coach Campo's doing his 4x4 by 48. So 4 miles every 4 hours, 48 in total. I was only able to do two legs. I had a lot going on myself with family obligation, family emergencies. That's why I was not here uh last uh month. But I was able to get in two legs. Um so that's what they call every every uh four four miles. And so it was just really really nice to see the students that did all 48 miles. Uh it it was incredible. Um so hopefully I don't know what the last number was uh in total fund raise but uh that was going for scholarships for those students. So amazing to see

064that. Um also last want to make shout outs to coach Hernandez for inviting me over to see the LB Tiger soccer seniors last Friday. It was really nice to hear those graduating seniors that have been uh putting in a lot of work on the soccer field and uh doing some great wins and they're off to uh amazing universities. They have great stories to to share and it was really nice to meet some of the parents as well. Uh as we all know it takes a whole village so it was really nice to be out there and I'll leave it at that. >> Okay. Um Miss Smith, >> let's see. Let's see. It was a long time ago. January, >> 3,083 days ago. >> Well, over the course of last few weeks, I was able to

065attend the governor's workshop in Sacramento. Um, and that was informative. Um, he spoke about the outlook of California's future finances, which sounded really good in AI, but not the best for education, and you probably all heard about that. But and still that's what's happening. Um January 28th I was able to go read at Lena Felasco Elementary and that was a highlight for me for January. I had two students send me a thank you card. I want to just read them real quickly. One thank you card just said thank you. It said dear Mrs. Smith thank you for visiting our classroom and reading a book to us about kindness and for making good school decisions. I thought hm that's pretty good. That was Hugo. So thank you to Hugo. The second one that I picked, um,

066I felt like I kind of had to, but it was, it really touched my heart. This one says, "Dear grandma, thank you for visiting our classroom and visiting and reading to us today about kindness. I love you. Thank you for the popcorn. It was nice to see you. I love you, Grandma. Love Kennedy." >> So, that was really nice to get that from her. >> And then I was able to also attend CT uh CTA's dinner over in Merced, which was a really nice event. get to see other uh schoolboard members participate with their districts and uh and get to support uh the RBTA group. Um also I went to CCF league wrestling tournament. Um we have a young lady on a team that's a local student at Los Banis uh high school that pinned

067this girl. I'm thinking about two minutes. But as soon as she pinned her, I had cervical, thoracic, and lumbar pain. Yeah. And and and this girl is absolutely amazing. I think her dad, not well, the coach sent out some information today about her career and how it's going to go. Um amazing family of wrestlers. Um I would not want to run into any one of them anywhere and be taken down on the mat. >> That's exactly what I was describing. Just painted it much better than I did. >> Yeah. So, um it's been a great it's been a great January actually was a great month. uh looking forward to um actually gonna take a little vacation uh from the board. I'll be gone for about few days, few weeks uh coming up in April. Um

068and then I will share that with you when I get back what that trip was like. So for now, thank you. >> Right. Thank you, Miss Valo. >> U my highlight was going into a second grade class at Balta, Gina Pini. boy is she a model of excellent and commitment in our school district because um they she was a doing an activity where they were reviewing all the things they had learned that month or I don't even know if it was trimester and she had made little activities like they were camping they had um cabins and the kids went from activity to activity to review all the things they learning and that's so powerful for kids to be able to not only learn what they're supposed to learn, but now I can do it and

069do it in a way that's fun and engaging. So, I just wanted to um thank Gina for being one of those committed teachers because I know how above and beyond she went to make those activities work and I know Anthony also went in and spent the a couple of hours in there helping the kids go from station to station. So, I appreciate I know there are other teachers out there that do great things. I love to go into classrooms and help like that. I love that more than just going and watching. Being able to be involved and um help the kids is fun. And um if you want to invite me, I'd be more than happy to come. >> Thank you. That's all I have. >> All right. Uh Miss Katuso, >> can I borrow

070your stuff real quick? Sorry. Absolutely. I mine's at home. I want to thank Laspanis Junior High and Laspanis High School for the great gifts we got for schoolboard month last month. I just have to share this. This is just amazing. It says, "Board trustees, noun, someone who solves problems you never knew existed in ways that will blow your mind. See also superhero." And so this is just an amazing cup. So, thank you so much. and we got some goodies and things from the junior high, Losanas Junior High. Um, thank you, Jen, for inviting us to dinner. That was a a It was the dinner was really good. We also, most of us attended the city county dinner as well this last month. We had never been invited before, right? So, that was very interesting and

071and I'm glad we got to attend. Um, I attended last Saturday the color garden winter percussion in Stockton and our secondary schools were there. I'd never been to one of the competitions before. So, um, that I just that was amazing. I loved it and I guess I'll be going a little bit more because, you know, my granddaughter's in it now. So, um, and I also wanted to congratulate Stacy Ortega for being counselor um, for Merced County. I Stacy used to when I was principal at Valley, Stacy actually worked for me. She was one of our long-term subs and um, I just she's just amazing as a sub. So, I know she's doing great things as a counselor as well. So, I wanted to personally give her a shout out on that. And then, of course,

072one other thing, and I've been doing this my third year doing the meditations book at Marcus Aurelius with Mr. Walsh, Mr. Walsh's eighth grade honors class. Um, if you ever have a chance to go in and see that, it's it's pretty amazing. The the book is not an easy read for kids. It's not an easy read for adults to understand either, or at least not me. and being able to work with the students and um take a group on my, you know, by myself and be able to just kind of work through it with them is is one of the highlights of my year. And so I go in the class four times a year and um and like Miss Valido said, I love I love being able to work with the kids. So if

073you need us, want us, please ask us. I I want to go in as well, just like most of us do. If we have the time, we'll be there. So, and thank you. Thank you so much for always ones that come all the time. Thank you. I know most of you, you know, that work have to be here late at night. Um, so I appreciate seeing all your faces as well. Thank you. >> Mr. Dee, welcome. So, thank you, Jen, for the dinner. It was very delicious. Um, and I did tend also attend the city county dinner. That was nice to hear and see some of these people from other parts of our county. Um, I attended the uh ceremony on January 28th at Mo for the new uh friendship bench that was uh dedicated

074to the memory of Kelly Arenell. Kelly Kelly was a head custodian at the school. Um, thank you so much to uh school principal Zelda Diaz Harper for putting that all together. um the bench. She brought together the students, staff, um Kelly's family. Uh it was very moving ceremony and the bench will be there for a long, long time with her name on it. And um as uh principal Diaz Harper pointed out, it'll be a location for students to sit on the bench if they're feeling blue and and troubled. And if someone sees someone sitting on the bench, they can go up and sit next to them and ask them how they're doing. Something that um Kelly did a lot as a custodian um with all the students. Um and congratulations to Grasslands teacher Jennifer Lamprida

075for her new children's book, A Perfect Pair. Um comes out on the 14th. Um and there'll be a March 7th book signing at the Doss Palace Library from 10:00 to 1. She's also coordinating a book signing at our library as well. Um, and I too attended the CCC wrestling. Losers hosted it this year on February 6th. And congratulations to Los Spanish wrestler Angelina Belli. Um the Belli family uh for the most part all the children wrestle and Angelina is ranked third in the nation and um she's headed to the Air Force Academy with her brother. Um if you had ever had an opportunity if you ever get an opportunity to see any of the Belli kids wrestle um it's something special. They do it very quickly and don't blink because they pin them like right

076away. Um >> she's first at the state, isn't she? >> Third. Third in the nation, but first in the state. >> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. >> Um uh the Loss Rotary Club held their uh local speech contest on 27th of January at Merced College, Las Vegas campus. Thank you to Professor Griffin Cheek. Uh Professor Cheek always works with the Rotary Club speech contest. Um and his class, he uses his speech class as the judges for the competition. Um and um we had four contestants, two from Los Banos, two from PCO. Um and our very own who was standing back there in the back of the room, Thomas Price from PCO High, um he won. So he moves on to the next level, which is the area level on um uh the 27th. Um and he will

077be competing against uh the winners of the Chaola Club and Madera clubs and he'll be back at Merced College again um competing. Um thank you to u Mr. Dela Cruz. Um it's his government class that that Thomas is a member of. And for those who haven't seen Mr. Dela Cruz in action. Um, I want to point out that he was at the boys High boys basketball game last night. Um, typical basketball game, senior night. Everyone's, you know, running around, screaming, playing. Mr. Dela Cruz walks in totally decked out to the nines, right? Shirt, tie, coat, everything. And if you ever see him in action um in class, he's outside the classroom every day greeting and shaking hands of every student as they walk in the classroom. So um definitely is a testament to our teachers

078and thank you very much for all you do. And that's my report. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I'm not going to repeat what everybody said because I did the wrestling I was at the wrestling thing at the dinners. Um thanks again for the invitation. Um I but I do have a com comment about Gina Pini's class where I mean these kids sat on the floor. I mean one of their projects they sat on the floor and going through a little container of rocks looking for um verbs that are present past tense future tense. And there was a teacher who wrote and that was Gina all those things and they're all different in this writing on rocks. The kids got a great till but I mean so much genius is like but that was a

079lot of time and all the other stuff that she spent um for all the other activities that they that they had to do that day and cutting out and laminating stuff. It's amazing and I know we have so many teachers that do lots of that. So, thank you for being wonderful teachers for our students and and I appreciate being invited to come in and visit. We all did got invited. Some of us were able to do it and as as Dana said, we love going into classrooms. So, um invite us. We'd love to do that. The other thing that I did that no one else can say up here uh is um I got to do a um presentation to DAC um on Robert's rules of order and parliamentary procedure. Um so that was that

080was a fun night. Um, and we went through, you know, the process of making agenda, doing an agenda, and the whole process of making a motion and voting and everything else that Robert's rules can throw at someone in a in a in a group. Um, so that was a that was a fun night to uh spend with our DAC members. It was DACA members and uh some administrators uh were also there from the sites. So, that was that was a great opportunity. lots of questions. It just only goes to show me that not a lot of people understand Robert's rules of order. So, um it was it was a fun fun night to do that. We did a a mock agenda, a mock mock meeting afterwards using the agenda and a lot of people learned

081a lot of things. So, it was pretty cool. So, I I'm glad they got they asked me to do it and I they asked me to come back next year. So, that was that was fun and exciting and something different. So, um, with that, we're going to go on to, uh, new business, starting with, um, item A, which is our 2526 midyear LCAP review. Dr. Sutton, welcome. >> Good evening. Get myself all arranged here. As you mentioned, I have the opportunity to provide you the information on the midyear LCAP review. Uh, make sure I was getting excited there for a second. >> It's coming. >> It was sent. Remember I sent you the link, the Google link? Anyway, while he's pulling that up, as you guys know, the district is required to um establish goals

082and um expenditures uh for the school district over a three-year period and they provide um oh there we are explanation midyear report um to kind of establish the goals based on um the metrics that are established by the state and the local which are nine different measurements of academic uh progress within the district district um these let me see I got there as you get and again this is a three-year process that we set this up but we every year we have to come back and give you a mid mid-year update as to what's happening uh in the plan as we've done it. And the way we've laid this out is that for each one of these goals, uh we have what we call grows and close. Uh the glows are things that we are

083we believe we're doing good. The data shows that we're doing well on that and making progress. The grows are things that we know that we still need to work on to meet the metrics that we've established. Um this is a little bit long because it is nine different areas. I'll try to get through it so that I'm not boring you to death. Uh but this year we're going to go through these. Um and the first goal is basically uh what we've written as goals for the district and where we've allocated our resources to help improve academic success for our EL students. And if you can look on the left there is the glows and on the right are the grows. And what we've determined as a goal here is we would like to get over

084this three-year period uh our progress with ELEL's to increase from 52.3% up to 60%. And so as you look at the grows, our EL students actually increased um their flu uh English fluency proficiency by 2 and a half% 2.53%. On the ELA CASP they increased by um 79.6 six points and and let me rephrase how I say that because it looks a little different on a presentation. The baseline is equivalent throughout the state for everybody. If you're a plus, that means you're above the average for the state. And if you're negative, that means you're below. And so in our case, we are below the state average, but as you can see, we increased by 7.4 points up, meaning that we've closed the gap from where we are to where the average is. Uh, and the

085same thing in the mathematics, we went uh we went up 1058 points. So, a lot of the work that we're doing is closing that gap between where we're at now and where we're supposed to be. Um, for college and career readiness for our EELs, we actually increased by 12.8%. Last year. So, we almost doubled how many Yale students are college and career ready. So, we feel that those are our our glows. for growers obviously because we're not at the state level yet and we're not meeting right in the middle. We know that we still need to focus on that and continue to increase where we're at. And then the same thing with our ELTEL students, they're making progress. They continue to make progress, but it's just not at the state average yet. And so that's

086kind of where we're at on that. Um the activities that we're using to get to these metrics, you can see on the left we have it laid out this way. things that we've fully implemented, things that are kind of partially implemented, and then where we're going from there. So, on the left, you can see we've got uh curriculum for our English learners. We've got private two college and career counselors that have one at each high school. We've got summer melt counselors every summer that kind of help navigate college for them. We've got site administration um overseeing EL services. They're dedicated on their site to EL services. And then we got a multi lingual director of services, migrin, which is Mrs. uh Mareno uh partially implemented. These are things that were part of the plan as

087well. They just haven't gotten to full fruition yet. And things like the dual language academy uh additional curriculum, parent workshops for the parents to understand how to integrate uh what we're doing and then uh professional development for our teachers. And part of the plan then is also to increase now the uh summer learning programs for eighth graders at UC Merrced. uh program specialist in uh the EL area for to work with Miss uh Marino and then also a dual language immersion academy for fourth grade. So we've got one, two, three, we're working on fourth grade and that's the plan going forward. That hasn't been fully developed yet, but that's kind of where we want to go on that. The second goal is for us to provide enough support uh in the MTSS multi-tered systems of

088support for students for SEAL and other emotional issues and things of that nature, behavior, academics, etc., physical well-being and all that. And so if we look at our glows, we had a decline in the percent of students who feel chronic sadness and hopelessness on the last um uh California healthy kids survey. um two 3 years ago, I believe the percentage of our kids that felt um sad or hopeless was around 50%. Yeah, we've got that down now to just just about 29% 30% and it continues to fall as you can see there between 3 and 5% at every level. Uh we maintain students feeling social emotional distress. Uh again weren't any changes. So we that's one of the areas obviously we're going to look at and see why that why that is. uh our chronic

089absenteeism to continue to decline across the district is down almost 2% across the district down to 22.5%. The attendance rate as you would expect would then increase to 92.8%. We're up almost a point and a half. And then the staff and student and communities uh when we took the surveys who feel like the school is a safe environment for them is up to 74% at the elementary level and secondary is at 55%. Both of them increased 4%. So, we're still increasing on the growth side of that because we know that we're still dealing with issues. Uh the percentage of students that were suspended across the district is 5.3%. Uh we just looked at the data again today and if the trend holds right now we're at 2.1%. Across the district. So, if we continue to

090maintain what we're doing and get to the end of the year, we're going to be around the state average. Uh you can see up there that our subgroups, the African-Americans decreased, foster youth decreased. There were suspensions which was really a focus area for us. And then we had mixed results when it comes to students feeling connected. And this is we've se seen and known this for a long time. Elementary schools, 81% of the kids said that they feel connected to the school. 40% at the high schools and and the junior highs. And obviously that's things that they are working on and the things that they're doing on their campus. So what are we doing for those activities there? As you can see on the left, we've got counselors at every site. Now, we have junior

091high EL uh SEAL programs. We have mental health clinicians through Sierra Vista. Uh we're looking at student attendance programs by site. We're using our counselor training program, a hatching results to continue to provide skills to our counselors so that they can invest in those kids. And then our attendance programs are monitoring as well. partially implemented and things that we're going to continue to do. We've talked about before PBIS uh some of the uh language and and and uh programs that we're using for the counselors things ripple effect and something called bouncy which is a little dog as the elementary that they can they can it's almost like a virtual uh social emotional pet animal for them to be able to look at. And then there's behavioral support uh specialists and uh our attendance program. So

092for us to plan uh hatching results, we're going to continue to do that so they continue to get uh continued professional development so they're learning the newest trends and being able to focus their f uh MTS. They do what's called MTMDSS which is uh adding different domains instead of just the MTSS that everybody else does. So they get a little bit extra on that and they would continue to PBIS uh restorative practice justice all the way across the district. And as you know uh when we presented earlier Mr. Morz and I, we talked about the expenses of the thing and how it goes and all that, but uh we're looking to expand it all the way across. Uh goal three, what we're looking here is the academic um success of our kids and where where

093we're trying to focus our energy to increase their readiness for the world when they get out there. As you can see on the glow side there, our A throughG readiness rate increased almost 6% to well over to to over 50%. Um the English distance from standard again this is the same idea of where the baseline is compared to where we're at. Uh decreased 5.3 points. It sounds negative but it's actually positive. It means it closed the gap from where we are and it decreased the distance we are from where where the center is. Same thing in mathematics. Um and what I did under uh that is 1.6 points. But if you look at all the students where it's below standard mathematics math growth and language arts math growth, all of our schools across the district

094are making great strides, great growth. And as you can see, I broke it down there for you by by grade level so you can see where the big gains are at. Second grade math and English have just kind of exploded. Um, and so our growth on that, even though we're we're closing the gap and getting up to that that level point, we're still not there. So both in mathematics and English that's where we're focusing all our energy at to get those things up that we continue to grease that and get closer to the standard. Um the actions for that u things like this you know we've got additional curriculum we're doing additional professional development. We're bringing in systems that help us. We've got uh learning coordinators and participation in California education partners which it's a

095co coalition that helps us do some focusing on what it is we're providing for teachers. Uh we've got math intervention programs happening across the district. We've got new music programs, which I know uh Mr. Pere loved. Um we've got uh visual and performing arts that are coming up, but we got the uh junior high doing some some really interesting platooning where they're moving kids around within the school day so they don't have to have additional time for that. And then we got a lot of things new going on. We've got mathematics um at the at the junior high and the high school where we're uh curriculum adoption for that. We're going to be going through that process this year. uh cross- sight collaboration in math uh expand junior high remediation. So, we've got a lot

096of things that are happening. Goal four um is a safe welcoming environment on the campus specifically with facilities. Uh we believe that uh our graduation rate is is extremely well for our district. We're again at 96.7 that last year, 91.5 is the state average. So, we're well above the state average. Uh we had 310 students last year actually complete a CTE program as a completer ready to walk out and access that job as they become adults. In 2025 uh it was 38.2% so it went up 5%. And the dropout rate decreased by almost 4%. So we're continuing to work on that. Our growth in that area is we want to have more particip excuse me participation on the part of parents. Um, in the LCAP survey we sent out last year, we had 155 of

097them respond. Uh, which is not not very good. Obviously, with the amount of parents and families we have and 11,000 kids, we'd like at least 500 parents responding. I can say though, we had well over 2,000 students respond to the surveys. So, that data is very is very encouraging and it really gives us a better picture where we're at. And then again, the the state's college and career readiness rate is 51.7%. So, we're trying to get there and achieve that and we're getting closer and closer. And then again, you can see the the goals and things that we have set up for that. We've got sixth grade camp, handover research again that we're doing. Uh, school security is a focus. We got health services being implemented. We got the evolved detection system happening for the

098implementation. We got parent engagement workshops across our district before and after school program. We're highlighting the facilities issues and and taking taking care of those. We got teacher induction working really well, but we want to continue to look at things like the CTE pathways, which I'll be speaking about here in just a little bit. Uh speech and language services and then our STEM labs at the elementary level uh to kind of bounce off what the junior high is doing. Goal five is um our suspension rates and trying to lower those across the district. And and you know, this is one area we can really thump our chest at. Um, as you look on the left side there, if you look at all districts and then all these major subgroups, you can see what the percentage

099in the center is. On the right, you can see how much it it dropped from the previous school year. So, when we look at the data from the prior year, for example, for all students in the district, it was 5.3%. It dropped 2% from the previous year. So, all the efforts that we're putting in with a lot of the things that we're doing is causing those things to drop. And so if you look at students with disabilities, English learners, long-term EL and foster youth, and kids that are uh in uh economically disadvantaged homes, all the suspension rates are dropping for because of a lot of the work that we're doing as a district. And so we've we've got BCBAS, those aids that are helping uh with the kids that are in special ed. We've got

100PBIS and MTSS and restorative justice across the district. And our focus uh as Mr. Morazz will tell you is to get the MTSS and PBIS and the restorative justice at every school site. And so we're working on that, trying to do that. Goal number six, you can see here, this is specifically uh reading for first, second, and third graders. And if you look down here again, when we gave uh the the assessments, we we've done really well in those grade levels. You can see up there, we had 172 teachers that have enrolled in the letters training that's been going on. um from fall to winter on the NWA map the score and growth in reading at all three grade levels was just exploding especially if you look at second grade um you can see in

101the fall to winter those that scored a four which is which is above um are just exploding 30 almost 32% at second grade and then when you look at the five which is exceeding the standards same thing with second grade there are 35% third almost 30% for first grade and third grade's at 33% so it's really exploding And so even though that's happening, we know that we still need to continue to work on this to make sure the kids are reading at an accelerated rate and we're getting there and to continue the the letters PD for teachers. And so what we've done is we've had we have ISI teachers at every campus. We have uh teachers continue to be trained in four cohorts right now. Um and then what we're planning on doing is continuing

102the letters training for next year. We've got people from the junior high that have reached out and asked, "Hey, can we be part of that?" Because they're reading, they have reading backgrounds and things of that nature. So, it's expanding. Uh, professional development in the MTSS tier model that continues to be a focus for the district. And then development of essential standards, which we will be doing at the secondary schools starting next year going into goal seven, and apologize, but the state requires us to do all nine. Um, Crossroads is is um what on the next level they are uh focused on increasing their college and career readiness as well. And one of the things that was really great and I saw it at the beginning of the school year is presentation by Merced College and

103we thank you for that. They came in and talked to the parents of our Crossroads students and those students and the interest rate in the programs that they have over there at the at the college was really high. And so our numbers of students taking community colleges from Crossroads has continued to increase. Um, as you can see over there, the college and career readiness rate decreased a little bit and the college and career um, readiness rate for Hispanics decreased. But there is a reason for that. That's why they have the equity multiplier is because those kids over there are so transitory in and out of that school. Focusing on just a core group of kids is very difficult. And so it adjusts as we adjust and the kids change and their their interests change all

104the time. So we're always trying to to hit that up. But that's that is what that money is for and that's what we're utilizing it for. Uh action goals for seven. Again, uh Merced College counselors do these uh presentations for them so parents and the kids know what's going on. Uh they get a high rate of FAFSA completion there. They work on them very diligently to get those done, which is in the ED code anyway. But uh LBHS counselors uh come over right now and are supporting them with social emotional stuff. So whenever they have an issue, they're they're running over there. And then we continue to align the curriculum and the courses that we're using in independent study to match up with what the state requires for independent study and what the kids need

105so that it is actually being implemented with fidelity. A is St. Louis and St. Louis is is really exciting right now. If you look at this, Mr. Mia and his staff has done a fantastic job over there. Uh over there what we're trying to do again is decrease the suspension rates for all our subgroups with them. And if you can look at the at the glows on that, his suspension rates dropped year-over-year uh for Hispanics by 3.5%, socio uh socioeconomic disadvantaged kids by 2% and EL students by 4.1%. His decrease in suspension rates for Hispanics is nine times greater than what the state decreased it. His decreasing for suspension rates for socioeconomically disadvantaged kids is five times greater than the state. and what they did. And as you can see in the bottom statement down

106there, he's already met in this category what we had as a goal for the ELCAP a year and a half early. So he's already there. So we're really looking at some other things to do. So the only thing we can suggest on that is continue what you're doing and build upon what you've done. And um for him as well, he's using Sierra Vista right now for his seal for his kids uh and using those CSI funds to pay for that. Um, so what we've got planned is once those funds run out is to look at possibly figuring out a new source of revenue to pay for those because it's it's surely showing dividends. Finally, and I'm I know you're glad I'm there as goal number nine, which is traditional uh kindergarten center. Uh there's uh

107their goal is to decrease the chronic absency rate for all of their students, but also English learners, SED, Hispanics, etc. by 20% by the 27th school year. Uh as a glow over there, you can see their chronic absentee also has decreased. They've been doing some uh yman's work over there to get it to decrease. TK, it is what it is. Their little kids, you know, they're always sick and they're always doing something. You can't get them there. Mom, I don't want to go to school and things like that. They don't say it that way, but um but as you can see on the chart here as well that it's decreased everywhere as well for their school side. So, um, down at the bottom, the percentage is changing. You can see it's 9% for all students,

10813% for Hispanic kids, and 13% for the SED. So, they're doing some great stuff over there as well. One of the things we really want to give a shout out to across all our school sites, but definitely at the TK site, and a couple of you have done this already, is to our uh community schools liaison. They've done Yman's work reaching out to people to talking to um families bridging that gap between the schools and the families what they need what what they're short on and they've just done an excellent job at that and it helps really with the behavioral social emotional stuff. So we want to continue doing that and be creative in doing that. So we really want to yell out for them. So uh sorry this paper is not turning and then

109so in summary for you guys um thankfully overall students are making incremental progress in mathematics in ELA students are well-being is very is very much improving uh the facilities issues continue to need to be addressed but we know that they are safety continues to be a priority and we continue to look into that and different ways that we can enhance that and we continue to focus on student needs and learning through our MTSS PBIS restorative justice and other things that we are doing. So that in a nutshell is our LCAP media review. So do we have any questions? >> Not not so much a question as much as can we please have a copy of this because you did go through it quickly and I want to be able to absorb it because I noticed

110on >> one of your suspension goals for the schools. You listed things that you know that the that you were utilizing to be able to help with suspension, but wasn't on it. I don't think, you know, and I'm thinking that really does when you have seal group, you know, the counselors and everything that also helps with suspension. Not that you had to have it. It's just I want to go >> uh if you'll send me that specific question, I can find out for you, but I will send the whole presentation to you guys. Yeah, it was all it was was um when you were listing things that help the goal. I don't think SEO was listed on it was on the second one for um I think of for St. Louis but not the first

111one for >> Yeah. And I explain that a little bit. The way that's written, the way that has to be reported is whatever is in the goal inside the LCAP is what the measure is is pointing to. So if it's not in the LCAP that I'm going to use, for example, an SEAL person for this, that's not reported on a glow and grows and those kind of things because it's not something that directly relates to it. >> But but it definitely does help. >> Oh, absolutely. Our counselors, our folks, the Sierra Vista, our mental health counselors, all those things have shown so many dividends in what we're doing and what we're trying to do. And all that evidence, the surveys and all that showed that. >> And then I just have one other question. Uh

112the curriculum at I know it's kind of off but the curriculum at um uh crossroads is not A to G. Correct. >> It is not A to G. >> Okay. >> It is it is however this year uh I've worked a lot with Mr. MAUS and his staff. Uh, and we have aligned it to what is required under the state ED code and it has been revamped so that it's just as challenging as the kids at the at the comprehensive schools. We've gone through and re redone the courses, changed them around, ensured that all the curriculum that is supposed to be done at the regular high school is being done at Crossroads as well. So, it lines up. They just have a different method of delivering it. >> So, what what program are they using?

113Is it Apex? >> It is Apex. >> And so Edenum, they don't use Edmondum because Apex and Okay. Because I know Edum has a tog. So I just >> Well, and and you know some of the some Oh, I'm sorry. Dr. >> does Apex. >> Yeah. Yeah. They use they use Apex. Edum and Apex actually merged. >> Yeah, I know. That's why. Yeah. >> So So as of right now, Crossroads has traditionally has not been focused on A3G. more been about providing an alter space for students to be able to work work through programs independently. This is something that we are looking at in terms of going forward and because we want to make it so that students who have to go um onto independent study will have the opportunity to remain college ready. So

114the wish and we talk about it in terms of when a kid graduates from high school it's the golden ticket but it's what does that golden ticket open up and so students who don't graduate um A throughG aren't able to go straight to a four-year doesn't mean they can't go to college straight to a two-year and then metriculate onto a four-year but we also know that we want students will have the opportunities to make that choice for themselves. Well, and and if you have a student that it's their sophomore year, they for whatever reason need to go to Crossroad, but they've already had their A to G now, they can't continue it, and it maybe they maybe they want to. So, I'm just >> Absolutely. >> And that's why we're doing a lot of those

115presentations, like I said, for Merced College because that may be the avenue for them to get back into that flow. So, >> thank you. >> Good. >> Yes, ma'am. Mr. D, >> thank you for very detailed presentation. um your comment about um parent participation, the parent surveys. Have you I've been to many community schools events where there have been hundreds of parents there. Um food is always a motivating factor. Is there any way to partner with community schools, the parents, and some of the food vendors that are at these events to see if we can get some iPads and put them in a room and have them fill out these surveys and get a free meal at the same time? >> The the California Healthy Kids survey comes directly from the state with a link

116for it and we have to send it out and get and get, you know, um active participation so that they can take the surveys and all that. So it facilitating something like that's a little difficult. Uh it's not it's not off the table but but uh really reminding the parents reminding families please do this please do. It's a process that we go through take uh with them as well as the kids and the teachers and staff you know please take these please take these. Uh we provide those opportunities if they come into the office they can fill out the surveys on our computers and things like that because we've now set that up for our data confirmation forms and all these other things. they do have those is things is something that we are working

117on and I think Dr. Richie is wanting to chime in too >> just to just chime in on what what you said there and thank you Dr. said and um the the the measure that that reflects that's that's actually that is the LCAP survey in particular and as he mentioned earlier we had over 2,000 students participate in the survey last year we only 155 this is something that we are looking at because last year with the community schools was not full full boore now it is we have more venues which we can be able to tap into that resource be able to get more parents be able to hear their voice on this that is definitely something we'll be looking at in fact we'll be opening up the the LCAP survey here in a few

118weeks um for parents to respond respond as well as students inside what would be something that we're be looking at >> because I'm a a firm believer that all of the statistics that you're giving us about uh student achievements um really resonates and begins with the parents. So if we don't have buyin from the parents and we only have 157 filling out a survey, we need to get them more engaged so we can work on the student achievement. So, oh, absolutely. And as you know, if you ever if you ever went to the uh Pico open house, one of the big items there was music, food, and things that would draw people in so that they come see what's going with, you know, over 2,000 people there. So, yeah, you're absolutely correct. >> Right. Yeah.

119Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> I'm sorry, I gota turn my mic on. Um, thank you very much. And you're not going anywhere because you're up next. >> I'm sorry. >> Next one. >> Uh M Dr. Lee's pulling this one up again. I guarantee you this one is very short. All right. Um right now, uh it's recommended that the board approve the contract between Losers Unified School District and Educators Rising to support a pathway for high school students into the teaching profession. Before uh I we ask you to vote on that though, I'd like to give you a real short presentation, kind of tell you what it's about. Um, last year, well, the year before last, uh, Dr. Horton and Dr. Richie, uh, applied for a grant through the state that helps

120schools and school districts create, uh, CTE pathways. And there are a variety of pathways you can apply for, but uh, they chose to apply for the one for the in the in the educator pathway realm. And so one of the things that was written in in the narrative was um that we would seek out organizations that are familiar with this process and that have done this in other school districts so that we're not reinventing the wheel. And so the group that was highlighted in our narrative that we submitted for funding was Educator Rising and the Learning Centered Collaborative. And so they are our partners in this process. we were awarded a grant um to be able to implement this. The state in its infinite wisdom when they first awarded grants didn't figure out how to

121actually distribute the money. So when I came in last year finally around February, they said, "Oh, by the way, you've got this money and oh, by the way, you need to spend it like real fast." And so we're trying to get that up to speed and get things going. So um essentially what it is is there's a partnership between those two organizations and the school district and what I want to highlight on this for you is that um the educator rising essentially to sum up summarize what they do as their organization they provide the curriculum and the professional development for potential teachers and administrators to be able to implement a pathway. Um the grant that we got is a planning grant means we just sit down how can we actually bring this to the district

122put it in place set it down. We're not actually having kids in the classes and things like that yet. We're just planning out this is what it would look like if we could do it. And so learning center collaborative what they do, excuse me, I got bad cold here, is they establish a frame framework and um logistics for actually implementing the pathway. That's where their expertise is at. So together what they do is make sure that the funds we have are spent correctly and actually set up a system that's going to be successful. And so when you look, one of the questions we ask, well, okay, if if we join with you, what is it you are going to do for us? And through their process uh they guarantee these deliverables as you can see

123educator rising what they do is create a CTSO um for the community and they bring in all this organizational structure the curriculum as I said and all that and then the learn center collaborative the great thing about them is they will create a design structure for your school that builds support and capacity going forward. Um, they personalize it. It's computer, excuse me, computer based learning. And they create assessments and they go looking through all that. And then it will develop. I'm sorry. I'm having a little bit of my issue that took me out of school a couple years ago. Um, pardon. Um, as you can see there. And then so what they do is they provide 40 uh standardsbased lessons in the curriculum. the they provide a company based assessment which is mastery of the

124teaching profession and then the really exciting part is they provide uh evidence that a student has mastered that in competency with teaching skills to a certain level and they will also through the process once we get it in place if we get it in place uh the kids that go through the process can actually earn up to 12 post-secondary credits as they're going through this by the time they graduate and then they're eligible for the Golden State Teacher Grant of up to $10,000. to continue their education when they get to the out of high school and get into college. They also create a chapter uh like FFA and HOSA. They put it out there. They create it just for teachers. They connect us with state organizations that already do that. And then they provide the

125platform to get to um competitions and those kind of things as well. There are 250,000 students in California right now going through this program throughout the state. There's 150 districts. There's 370 organizations that are dealing with that. And one of the also one of the re really exciting things about this is the diversity rate and participants that are part of this program. 60% of them are considered minority. And so it's not just developing the process. It's actually focusing attention to get a wide breadth of folks coming in. And so this is the pathway. I won't go through all all with you, but basically the way we're looking at setting it up is to have two pathways. one for producing actual teachers and one that can get in the child development pathway. And so it's a

126three course sequence of of classes with your uh introductory classes, concentrated classes, and your capstone classes. And as a 12th graders, they actually will place kids into elementary schools and junior high so that they can get their practical experience and daycare centers and things like that for the child care folks. So they are they are running the whole thing for us and they lay down the foundations for us. Um, last one because I know you guys will have questions. Why this is important for you is important. We want to make sure you knew about it. Is it helps us address the teacher shortage that we got, as you know, every year we're asking you guys for permission for snips and pimps and those kind of things. Um, as you can see up there on that

127first statement up there, kids that go through this process in your district, they have five plus years in the district, most of them will come back to your district. They don't just go off, take off somewhere. So, as we're building the cadre of teachers here, they have a the majority of them stay five five plus years in your district. Um, and make sure that we are following the grant and doing what we're supposed to do. And then again, uh, the LCC will make sure that their A throughG completion rate, the dropout rates, and all that kind of stuff stops and gets back up to where it's going. So, this is a very good program. U, it was written in there. Again, it is an uh, planning grant, not an implementation grant. Uh there is a

128second component of that where I've already submitted to ask them what's the next step to get the actual implementation grant going. And so um I know there were some questions on this. I'd I'd like to entertain anything that you had. So um on the first page of the contract um it says if teacher leaders or curriculum users are not yet identified, you need to submit that information within eight weeks. How do you how are you going to identify the teacher leader and curriculum users? >> Well, what we've done is part of this there's kind of been a pre-planning process here because it hasn't really gone through the the approval process yet. But what we've done is we've asked the two high school teachers uh districts because it has to be at the high school level

129is would you please reach out to your teaching staff and ask any teachers that might be interested in pursuing this option as as a class that they would teach as an elective. Um we do have some some teachers that have stepped forward, some that have identified. Uh the one at uh PJO High School is actually an adject professor at Merced College. Uh one over at um at LB is actually a teacher u teacher teacher at the college level prepping and teachers. And then we have another one that is is over there that also is thinking about it. So, the way it's structured right now is we have a a conference in June that will actually walk anybody that's a prospective teacher and the administrators and the college and career counselors through the process, what it

130looks like, what they would have to do, what they'd be teaching and all that as part of our planning strategy. So, we're just putting out the fillers. Would you be interested in doing this? And then, of course, your natural response is, well, what's it about? Well, let me take you and show you. And so that's kind of how we're approaching that. And they will then hopefully build the cadre of people continuing. >> So you just answered my other question. So this is this is actually an elective. >> Yes, this is an elective. >> So it's going to is we talking one period a day, two periods a day? >> Right now each school site is planning on a period of about 20 kids. >> So are you going to have problem with shortage feeling >>

131other spots on campus? Well, I'm saying say it's say it's a math teacher that you lose a period. Are you going to is there a way >> is there plans to cover those classes that >> that that's part of the whole planning strategy from LCC when they come in is they set that up, they help you with the master schedule, how that would look and yeah, there's going to have to be some discussions about that if we're taking 20 kids and putting them in this program. You know, are they coming from somewhere else or they just kids that don't have an outlet that would like to do this? It would be very similar to what we do with agg or we do with you know home or culinary arts over at particular high school that

132kind of thing which kids want to they we'd have to ballot for it and that's part of the process. >> So a couple of pages into the contract um page three actually it says ed rising coordinator stipen is that one of our own. >> Yes. The way that was written into the original contract is we'd have a diff district office person that would cover that um and would be the coordinator for the district working with the two school sites. And so I think it was a $2,000 stipen or something like that that they had planned in there. Um >> Is it 4,000? Um the reason I haven't paid attention to that cuz technically I'm that person. Um but obviously, you know, I'm not going to be sub submitting for a reimbursement. The way these grants

133work is once you have them and you figure out your priorities and what you're paying for, the funds shift and you can move to different areas. >> And so, um, it also has teacher leaders listed here. Um, and you've already talked about identifying those teacher leaders. Um, is is there a stipen? I can I didn't see anything. Is there a stipen for the teacher leaders that are doing this? >> The teachers that are involved in this planning process get compensated. Yes. They they are paid when they attend a meeting. Actually, everybody that attends, whether it's us or a representative from Merced College or whatever gets paid out of the grant for attending these meetings, they also will get compensated for going to the training sessions in June and all those things as they're building up

134this uh looking at the curriculum that's available, you know, all those things. All they're uh submitting time sheets to be paid for that and compensated for that. Once we're down the road and we know that this is an actual pathway that we're going to go, then that would be obviously the typical funding process for teachers. I was just going to ask if there is a stipen process. Have you talked to LBTA about that? >> No, it's it's not a stipen. It's time. Okay. Um, so I noticed uh also on on the third page it says the term of this uh purchase is January 6th, 2026. >> How did we do that? >> Well, it's it's >> I mean we're approving something retroactively. No, the actual contract and their services don't start until June of this

135year. And that's that's where if you look at a little bit further down, you'll see that the contract is actually from June of this year till July of next year and then from uh June and then July of the next year to the following year. So, it actually goes through 2028. this this month from June uh January till June, they're working with us kind of pro bono. But for them to be able to start committing resources and things like that, they have to have a date. I've spoken them with them though, however, and uh if it is your your pleasure to have me change that date, they're willing they'll change the date. >> I I just feel uncomfortable approving retroactive content. >> Sure. And I understand that this and but again, they're not being paid

136until June for the school year coming up. Okay. Um, that's all I have. Lori, Dr. Miss Katusa. >> So, this will be associated with the national student organization. Yes. >> Which one? >> That that's one there's multiple in the state. So, we as that part of that LCSS and actually I meet with them tomorrow. Part of that planning process is which one do we want to align with? >> So, what are do you know some of them? I mean I'm because I'm you know I'm my background is RO O for so I know the different national organizations. I'm not positive though about the teaching. >> There there's a one of them we were looking at was the California teacher uh California student teacher organization. There was another one that had to do with preschool. Um

137and and again when we're lining up the two pathways, they will be that's why I say we'll be looking at which ones because obviously wouldn't want the ones that are doing preschool stuff and and I mean excuse me the uh child development over in this one that doesn't apply to them. So we'll be looking at which ones we want to use. And I, you know, I might, this might be like for to ask, but with the the child development side, RO O, you know, Mercy County RO's got that pathway pretty well done, and that wasn't an option to maybe work with them on that. >> It is. And that's what actually that's what that's what the uh LCC does >> in addition to line of things. They go out and set up the they establish

138the partnerships with the community colleges, with the businesses and organizations, the schools that we place. They do all the work for us, all that ground work to build those connections. So, so knowing that and they do and they've worked with other people already within Merced County. >> I'm like thrilled that maybe we would be able to bring some um site, you know, training for students because that that's great. I mean, it it was wonderful when I had my class and was was able to put students in the community and so this is nice just I know we have our own teachers but having them go to different schools >> Sure. >> for their site training would be awesome. >> Yeah. And and that's one of the things too, you know, we we'd originally before we

139met with them last year when I met with the two high schools, we had talked about doing that. Taking some of these folks that are in there, these kids, and actually placing them in our elementary schools, placing them in our junior highs. I used I used to place them in our own elementary. I mean as a business we didn't have the child development time when I was an RO teacher but I had I had students at every elementary school here in town and it was it's nice because when I go to the schools to visit I've got about three or four of my high school students right in the offices at the school. So it's like wonderful >> and so when they make these connections and they come in with these partnerships and we decided

140that that's when theou is signed between us and that organization. This is what we're going to do. this is how you're providing that transportation, all that kind of stuff. But again, this is just a planning grant, right? >> But because of the way the funds were distributed, we have to have the planning grant funds expended by June 30th of this year. >> Okay? >> And that and just and just to answer your question, that's why it's a two-year contract because we have to get it spent this year. >> All right. Mr. Lee, >> any other school districts in Merced County doing this? Yes, there's actually two of them. I think uh if I'm not m uh I think it was um El Capitan that district was doing it and then um I think she said

141it was Mwain, but I I can't recall off that. She I'll find out more and I can send that to you tomorrow. And of the $76,200 uh planning grant for two years, >> uh once that money is spent over two years, >> what additional funding are we looking at having to spend for this? >> Well, the the original grant right now is actually 189,000. And so we're we're we're putting things into place based on the funding we've got for the grant. The second part of that now is if we choose and decide as a district to move forward, we've already made the contact. There's now an implementation grant that we we apply for and it's basically there's nothing to it. We just submit we would like to move forward with implementation. Then they will give

142us the additional money to be able to actually physically implement the classes, buy the materials, those kind of things. >> And then from there, as I was saying with Anthony, is what your master schedule does and how that works and all that. Got >> okay. Thank you, >> Miss Valde. So two years of this this money is for two years to determine if you're going to do it or not. Get trained, go through all the steps and go we're going we're going to do this or not. >> Correct. And make relationships with the people out in the communities. Uh and then the other part of that is Anthony was asking is you know how are these teacher leaders chosen? Well if we take a cadre of four, five, six teachers to this summer training and

143they're like well I don't really want to do that. then we really need to maybe come back and say, "Okay, let's put it out there again and see if there's anybody else that might be interested so that we can train them next summer." Uh, just to see and we don't want to, you know, put all the eggs in one basket at the same time because people may change their mind and want to do something different. So, so yeah, it is over two years. >> That's what why I wanted to know. And so it wouldn't start until >> 2029 or 2028. >> 2829. >> Okay. So, did did I hear you say you have to have the money spent by the end of this year? the grant that we have right now, the 189 has to

144be spent by June 30th. Part of that was the state's fault because even though we were awarded the grant, they didn't figure out the funding mechanism until last February. So that only gave us that original four and a half months to figure out what we wanted to do. Part of that then again, my the reason it wasn't brought earlier is because of my physical issue that came up and I wasn't able to do what I needed to do to get things running. So not the whole $180ome,000 has to be spent >> by June. >> Yep. >> So that's why to be frontloading basically. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> That's why we're, you know, we're paying and compensating teachers for their time. So they're being not only time sheetated for what they're doing, but when they're

145at the conference, they're being time sheetated. All the meetings we're having, they're being time sheetated. There's curriculum that we have to buy, licensing, all those kind of things. And then there may be these uh soft costs that we don't know about when we start meeting with these other organizations that that we need that. >> So if we pay this for year two, you're paying that upfront. So that's why that's part of it. You're paying for year two up front. >> Yes. >> That basically so we can have it spent. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Because the part of that would be anything we don't spend, we have to send back as a grant. >> I understand how those programs work. I'm just wondering how you're going to spend it all. Yeah, they don't

146because it's by June. When are they gonna go to this conference? >> This conference is in June. >> Before June, right? >> Yeah. >> The conference is in June. >> Conference is in June. So, you have to pick and part of it with these with these items is that when you uh when you encumber, as long as you show that it's encumbered, as long as you can show in the budget encumbered, it's what I was wondering. You're good to go. It's like we we don't have to actually have it the cash flow out. We just have to show that it's encumbered on on it and they'll have a timeline. Apologize. I I meant to say encumbered, but I said expended. But yeah, we just have to have it. This is where we're going to spend

147it on it. Here's our plan. That's why we have >> the time sheets. You can say, "Oh, we're putting that much towards teachers time to do whatever." And you can come that money and budget. >> A budget for that. Okay. >> Well, the time sheets will actually be expensed out of it this year because they'll be doing it this year. They're doing the work this year. >> But but not 180 something thousand. >> No, because well 80,000 of it is for this. So that's 100,000 and then the district gets its indirect costs that they take out and all that kind of stuff. So there's other things too. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> I get it. >> Miss a great program. I'm pretty excited to see it happen. This program, does it offer any kind of

148financial support for the students once they get into a a credit program for teachers? >> The they're they're they have the ability to get that teachers grant of up to $10,000. And those those students that go through the program and get certified that they call it pre- ready pre- ready to actually get into the teaching profession so they can step into the college, they're they're uh eligible for those grants of up to $10,000. >> And that doesn't come out of our our grant. It comes out of other things. >> My concern is, you know, the uh federal government just slated um the teachers are not professionals, so there will be any government grants to support the students that are now going into teaching. So 10,000 is what they'll get. Yeah. And and again, you know,

149we want to take advantage of whatever money is available right now in case they decide to take it back. >> And so if we can say we got this and as Dr. Rich said, we can show that we've allocated already or encumbered it, >> we're in good shape. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> So I guess my final question is you when I brought up the January 6th date on this contract and you said we can change that. Mhm. >> So, can we um I don't know the board's what the board wants to do. I would feel more comfortable if you brought it back to us with the date change on that before we approve it. Um we have another meeting in two weeks. We can add that to the agenda. Um >> and I would

150feel more comfortable doing that. Now, if anybody wants to make a motion to approve it as it is, you can do that. I just feel I'm I've talked to Dr. Dr. Richie, Dr. Marshall, everybody about doing retroactive contracts and I really don't want to do that anymore. Um, so I don't want to I don't want to continue doing something that I personally am against doing. That's my own personal opinion. I have no idea what anybody else thinks, but and and I totally understand, Anthony, and just for clarity again, they aren't actually under contract with they're providing us the support to figure out how to get to the contract, and it doesn't start until after June. But whatever you want, they're willing to do it. I've already talked to them. In fact, I'll tell her that

151tomorrow when I'm talking to her. You give me a date and I'll put it in there. >> There's no cost >> as of right now through June. There's no cost to us. They're they're kind of pro bono so that we know what we're doing. And again, they've worked with what is it 150 different districts in in the state of California. >> That's not in the contract. >> Yeah. So, that's my own personal opinion. I have no else. If anybody wants to make a motion to approve it, go right ahead. Um, but that's where I'm at. >> I would feel more comfortable putting a date that's not already passed. >> Nope. You tell me what date you like and they'll put that on there. >> Well, if we if if we add it to the meeting

152on the 26th, you can make it the 27th. I mean, >> I mean, does that work? Uh Dr. Rich. >> So what we'll do is we'll go ahead and we'll go ahead and pull this pull this item from the agenda and then we'll bring it back at the uh next um at the special board meeting is going to be happening later this month and then we will ask um Educators Rising to uh reddo the date on the contract for March 1st which will then it'll start after we're done. That way everyone can feel comfortable about where we're at with that and so it shouldn't be an issue. >> All right, that work? >> Yep. Absolutely. Is everybody happy with that or? >> Okay, cool. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.

153>> And I by the I think this is absolute great program. I just >> just that one little thing, but otherwise, wow, >> thanks for bringing it in because that's >> Yes, it's Yeah. So, thank you for bringing it to us and we'll get it going. You guys move seats. It's throwing me off. >> I know. I keep looking over here for Marlene. She's over here. Um, it is recommended that the board approve the detailed 2627 budget guidelines and assumptions in preparation for budget development. Does anyone have questions? >> No. >> Okay. the first time you present this kind of budget. I hadn't seen this before the guideline. >> No, we do it every year. >> We do it every year. >> I look I looked back last night and I didn't see it. >>

154And you'll see the budget calendar and consent. We have to do that every year as well. >> Okay. I didn't recognize it. >> Um are you going to go over the the material? >> No. And normally I don't, but if there's a certain specific question, I can definitely answer it for you. >> Okay. Well, as you know, I've had a problem with the budget. >> Yes. >> Right. And so it goes back to May which is nine months ago. Um we we were had discussion here about how we couldn't provide some funding for a specific department >> and then we had I think the 2.8 block grant came in and then we gave bonuses and raises during negotiations and we pulled money from three sources to make that happen. >> Yes. And now we're in

155a deficit. And you also had a large payback of some some sort. But now we're cutting now we're cutting departments to fix the general fund. >> This is for next year, >> right? But we got to >> and we're not cutting school sites. I'm only reducing general fund budgets, which is our office. And it that comes into play because of three different things. First, the cola went way down, right? So with that cola drop, we lost $1.2 million. >> Right. >> Then we have declining enrollment that I have to take into account. Now we have the self thing with with the county office that I have to take into account as well. >> And there and the bonuses. >> No, the bonuses are done. They're paid for. They don't affect next year's budget. >> But

156it cost us money from the fund that we had a problem paying back self suffer, right? >> No. Two totally different things. We had the money for the bonus and the raises that that we can meet the 3% this year, right? >> It's the year out that I have to find a half million dollars to make up for the sulfa. I have to find $1.2 million to make up for the drop in cola. >> So I have to make sure it's confusing because if you look like the 3% that we have to meet's based on expenditures. So if we have 60 million in restricted and a million in general fund, general fund has to make up for the 3% of all of it. >> I've just never seen this in this district in my history

157uh where we had to make cuts in in departments across the board >> and um I know the SE grant was like half million dollars, but um I'm just I'm pretty >> This is worst case scenario. And I I don't want to I bring this to you now because if we don't have a good fund balance, yes, I'm going to have to reduce general fund budgets next year, but I'd rather bring that to you now than come to you at development and say, "Look, I cut and I didn't tell you. I don't want to surprise you guys." Like I feel like we're constantly getting hit with surprises like the thing with the SULPA. We didn't plan for that. >> So, >> which was an overpayment to the district, right? That was over abundance of money.

158>> It was the county. >> Can you explain it better, Sean? you kind of attended those and I didn't. >> So, what happened was that the uh county for years has been they've been basically the SULPA has been um living off of unfilled positions. So, they've been essentially balancing their budget by positions they haven't filled. They planned for them, but then they weren't able to hire um individuals to uh fill those positions. And therefore with the deficit that took place, they were able to balance it out because they had these positions that weren't filled. They were able to sh shovel the money around. Well, this year um they filled the positions and then voila, it was reported to us um just last month. They reported the districts, oh, you know, we have this we have

159this massive def deficit and as all the districts are part of part of the county sulfa and we all participate in we have students who are who serve in it. um they had a uh a budget full hole that um that needed to be filled and tuna for us. It was originally they said that they anticipated to be about $730,000. Then they after revising it, looking at said, "Well, it looks like for our district it's going to be about $430,000." Um the latest meeting I just went to this week um there's a discussion they're bringing back proposal to where um the county will basically will backfill um it will basically cover that cost for this year but then it will be they're coming back with a couple different proposals of how districts will pay back

160that that money over the next couple years for self services. And then we're also talking about how we can look at overall funding um how we how districts are are access services, how districts um pay for the services, and how how it's equally distributed over the next several years. And so that's there was a I'll just say it was a rather vocal conversation um between the superintendents and the SULPA um this week. And so the we'll we'll be looking some changes and how that goes forward. Um I'll be bringing back that information once we go through it. But as it stands right now for this year it we have and it wasn't able to um the information like I said just happened this week. So um Mel was not able to add that into her

161uh information here but um it looks like the county will be covering that for this year but then we will have to make plans for that over the next several years and how whatever the SUPA agrees upon in terms of how we'll do the repayment plan. So, does that mean that our our budget we couldn't afford to make that payment? >> No. I think the county overexpensed, >> right, >> $6 million. So, now they're collecting it from all the districts. We didn't overexpense, >> right? I understand that. >> But now we're having to to fill that gap. The county is short. So, then I have to find it in the budget. So, what they do is they reduce our special ed allocation. So now I have to make a larger contribution to cover because how

162special ed works is if you spend a certain amount you can never spend lower than that. >> You have to spend that exact amount every year or more. >> Right. So u my question is did we were we able to meet that obligation to that reimbursement or did you get a deadline to pay the reimbursement back or were we not able to reach it that caused you to make the cuts in the departments >> the reimbursement back? Yeah, the stuff the the self money, the special ed money. >> We haven't paid anything back yet because that's still in talks. No, my budget reductions next year are strictly general fund, right? Which really is only our office. It doesn't affect the school sites. >> Okay. >> It's only our office. It'll be and it won't be

163staff. It'll be reducing our supplies, our conference and travel, things like that. >> So, as of right now today, you feel very confident with our with our general fund. >> Yes, I do. My hope is that at the end of the year when I do unity actuals that I have a nice fun balance that I don't have to make any cuts at all. But I don't want to plan for everything to be roses and then it not be I want to hope for the good and this is the worst case scenario. I mean we could get to the May revise and cola could be back up but all the the budgets that I presented to you are based off what cola was. Well, now I have to shift because I was pointing planning on 3.2.

164Well, now we're at 2.41. If that drops, then I'm going to have to figure out where I'm going to shuffle again. >> Okay. So, this 20% deduction in in the departments. Where do you see those those cuts going to be made? >> It'll be made in supplies and conference and travel >> and it won't it won't affect students. It will not affect students because the site's budgets are based on their lottery allocation, their title one, and their site discretionary. Those are amounts that we get that we can't reduce those. And we're going to do whatever we can to make sure that no reductions affect student or staff. >> If we can reduce conference and travel, if we can reduce office supplies and what we buy, let's start there. But I'm hoping my hope is that

165we end up with a really nice fund balance that we don't have to do reductions at all >> and we'll know that at May at the May revise >> that won't we'll know May revise will tell us what cola we're going to sit right the new cola. >> So when I present to you guys second interim next month you're going to get that based on the 2.41 cola that we have now when I do budget development if that changes then you're that's going to look different than second interim. I can only give you the information that I have at this time. Isn't there a projected cola decrease right now? >> Yeah. >> Yep. I'm hoping it doesn't drop past 24.41, but that those are things I can't don't have control over. Like the SUPA thing,

166it was like, okay, well, where am I going to find a half a million dollars? >> I have to find out where am I going to reduce to cover that increased contribution. And I I think one of the things that um one of the ways that I understand what's happening is um when Miss Smith said, you know, we had the grant money from last year or this year, we had the grant money that we used. >> That was the one time funds. >> Onetime funds. Yes. >> But that was one time. It's not ongoing. What's happening with next year's budget is using ongoing funds. >> Correct. >> Because basically that grant money was one time. We can't go ahead and spend it >> next year. We we can make we can spend it next year,

167but the following year after that we still have a deficit. So, you know, it's ongoing funds. I think that's that's what's not being understood is that >> it's not one time funds. The onetime funds we got it, we expensed it. That doesn't affect general fund, >> right? But what I'm saying is that that one-time funds really doesn't help next year because it was onetime funds. It's not ongoing and we're talking about ongoing funds >> and the cola hits general funds. So if they reduce the cola that doesn't h hit all our restricted, it hits our general fund, >> right? >> So then you have to say, okay, well I'm going to be getting $1.2 million less. Where where am I going to find that? The following year, if it stays the way, we're going to

168lose $2.2 million. I have to find that somewhere to make the 3%. So, I have to look at where I can reduce things. >> But in a perfect world, let's hope that we have a really good fund balance. We've always been really good at budgeting. So, I'm hoping that we have a great fund balance and we don't have to do any reductions, but I don't want to not prepare you guys for that and then blindside you at the last minute saying, "Here's the budget. Look at everything I reduced." And you'd be like, "Well, you didn't tell us about this." I want to make sure that you're aware of it ahead of time. Okay. Um, Miss Baldo, >> so is the SULPA is that going to be every year? >> I sure hope not. Okay. >>

169Okay. But that that was there is a whole lot of things that went into it and um as it was explained to me was was that one we have a new chief business officer at the county office of ed who is looking at things through a different lens and a little more a little finer tooth comb so to speak. And so things have come to light that weren't apparent earlier. And um this and as a result we're now this position. But as I said, as the member of the self-executive board, um, and we had a pretty frank conversation this week and about the expectations we have going forward and what we want to see. And so there's a number of plans that we ask the county to come back and share with us in terms

170of ways that this that this will be addressed. One now and and they said there's a conversation I shared with earlier. And then the other two is how will we look at the funding formula going forward and how we fund SLPA and how we fund the services our students provide because something that was shared um uh with us was that we actually if you look at the terms of students who are served by the self and for those who don't know that districts are required to provide special education services for any student that qualifies but there's a range from mild to moderate to severe districts typically don't provide the services for moderate severe because of just how extensive they are. And so generally you you collaborate with other districts within a SULPA um special education

171agency to be able to provide those services for students and they have they house those programs at different campuses but it's run through the county sulfa. What we found was that if you look in terms of usage throughout the county and all we are one of only 11 counties um in the state of California that have a countywide SULPA majority have split off and have different Selas like in Stansel County, Modesto City is its own Selba and whereas the all the other outlined districts are part of the county SULPA. Our in our county it's it's not that way is every district's part of it. If you look at the usage and the students who are being served, majority of those students come from um along that Merced 99 corridor. So the so atwater, Mercedes, Mercer

172Union High School District, majority of the students come from there. our students. They said if you look at what we actually pay right now as far our contribution to the SULPA versus how many of our students are actually participating or receiving services through those counties services, we would be able to add an additional 80 students if it was actually equal. So my argument this week was that we are subsidizing >> districts across the county and why I understand as part of being a part of the SELA there's a bit of that because >> at a small district you have a family that moves in with a student with high needs that can bankrupt that district and so as part of the SEA there is a minimum amount but as it stands right now um the

173way that and this was agreed upon like 20 years ago and they haven't bothered to look at it since until now this is the conversation we're having is that um we're not we're not provide our students are not being served in the same way that the rest of the county is. And so we are looking to address that. And that's one of the things that I know I was pushing this week of that we can't maintain the status quo. That has to change in terms either how our students are served or in terms of how how we uh how we fund this um because uh this is this is something that needs to needs to be rectified. And so that's where we're at right now. Now in second interim I did project out an increased

174contribution of that 430 but if something changes when Dr. Me Richie meets with them that will be adjusted and keep in mind I think that was based on ADA too and since we have one of the highest ADAs that was why our amount was so high. >> All right M >> I'm hoping no cuts. I'm hoping So, the dollar amount that we're having to pay was is a surprise to the district. >> Yes. >> So, and I know you don't have a crystal ball, nor do you nor do you, Dr. Richie, but can we look at our district as a whole and make sure that if we're if we're contracted and with other agencies and other companies um for services that we ask questions ahead of time and not be surprised uh with these type

175of situations because if this has been going on for 10 years or seven years and then all of a sudden they're like they're trying to say, "Well, now we need your we need money out of you." How many other companies or agencies do we contract with that we've been paying year after year after year and we're not asking you know is do you foresee a major spike in what you're asking for us in the next year or two so that we don't get surprised by this. >> I'll let Mel answer that part, but I can just say that in terms of like SULPA's it's a unique animal. It really is. And so be able to compare that from from like say a a company that we contract with versus another agency it's those are it's

176a unicorn like the way the self operates and the way the the way the funding operates is very different and as I said that that's something that this has been going on for decades. Um and yeah it's it's causing us to to rethink and I know that Dr. Lee and Mel and myself have had um several conversations since this has come to light of okay how what are we going to do differently? How we ask? I say one of the first things that's happened now already that's different is that um all the superintendents who are part of the uh the executive committee for the SULPA is that we've all required that our CBOS um now are going to be part of when we sit down and we meet and prior to having any conversation that

177that deals with funding our CBOS have they have to present to the CBOS first about what the uh what the ramifications are going to be fiscally for all the districts involved and also what the plans are going forward and we ask for asked for a different layer of report. So, we're we are definitely um going uh I won't say attacking the cell, but we are definitely having strong conversations with them about the expectations going forward and what's going to change. >> Right. No, I understand that about what about that organization. I just want to make sure there aren't any other organizations out there that are like that. But if that's a unique >> situation, then maybe there aren't any other organizations or entities that we use as a district that where we're going to find

178ourselves in the same situation. >> Not to my knowledge. >> So, and we are not the only district. the entire county is like, "What are we going to do?" >> Right. Right. >> Everyone's We just happen to have a larger amount because of our ADA where some districts it may not be that much, but >> I think we were the second highest and we were totally blindsided. We had no no idea it was coming. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Any other question? >> All right. Anybody else? >> All right. With that, you need a motion. >> I'll make a motion to approve the budget guidelines and budget assumptions. >> All right, we got a motion by member valido, seconded by member Katuso to approve the budget guidelines and budget assumptions. All those in

179favor? >> I post. >> It is carried. >> Thank you. Um item D, declaration of need. Uh Dr. Richie is going to do this. Okay. This is recommended the board adopt a declaration of need through June 30th, 2027 certifying that there's insufficient number of certified personnel who meet district employment criteria questions. We unfortunately we do this every year. Um with that we need a motion please second. We got a motion by member Lee, seconded by member uh Moran to approve the uh or adopt the declaration of need. All those in favor? I opposed. It's carried. On to item E, boundary recommendations. >> Mr. Sersby, welcome. >> Ah, good evening again. Uh, it's a little later now. All right. Um, let me find out where I'm at on here real quick. Okay, so I'm going to

180u before I get to what's here on the agenda, I just want to recap a little bit of information. I know there might be a few questions and so I'd like to just kind of go over the proposal real quick. Um, before we get to the formalities here, uh, just real quick, uh, recapping from last month, reasons for updating the boundaries. Uh, we want to rebalance the elementary boundary populations has been about seven years. We want to reduce and streamline, uh, the bus routes we have out there. worked very hard with uh Mr. Taylor over at FOT. We want to relieve overcrowding at grasslands uh which is a concern of everybody's uh give Westside a walking boundary and the reason for that is um we bust all the kids in there and Los Elementary uh

181for the dual language immersion school being that they draw from all over the district no longer requires a boundary. So it makes the most sense that Westside actually gets that old boundary and I will go straight to the map here so you can see it. And uh this was the recommendation of what came out of all our meetings during the course of January. Uh this map um when you look particularly at the we're going to call it the kind of the red color there or pink. Uh that one was the one that was most in favor as it retains a portion of Westside's boundary. So that way they don't lose everybody um from the get-go. Um, here's all my meeting dates we did over the course of January. You can see we met with the

182administrator, CSEA, LBTA, uh, many public meetings on each of those public meeting dates or two different sessions, both in English and Spanish, and we alternated the times during uh, the course of uh, the month. Now, I um, I went through pretty quickly. Um, I know you saw all this kind of last time other than um, we had two uh, choices kind of. I brought you forth the one that was the uh recommendation of what I shared with everybody through our meetings and that are there any questions on any of this >> questions? Mr. Lee. >> So, um question and a statement. So, I'm not happy with having to bus kids from Regency Quail area all the way to Volulta. Mhm. >> But I understand all the issues involved. I get it. Um second thing is

183I want the public to know that as soon as a new elementary school is built, all this gets redone. >> Absolutely, Mr. Lee. Um so the next uh when the next elementary school is built, we will go through the same process again and redraw the lines. Um just like to remind everybody, it is the best practice that we redraw boundary lines uh every 5 years and it's been about seven. So, it's it's we're due, but when the new school's built, when that time comes, we will definitely redraw the lines cuz we'll have to >> Can't come soon enough. Thank you. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> No, I just have a comment and that is watching watching the news or reading the newspapers or or all of the blogs that we get as trustees. This

184is a unique situation because we have other districts that are redoing their boundaries because they're closing schools because they have such a large number of declining enrollment. And you know, this is I'd rather be doing this than closing a school because that really uh um changes changes a lot for parents. So, not that this is good, but it's better than what I've seen happening all over the state. That's the scary part for sure. Any other questions or comments? All right, I need a motion to uh approve the boundary recommendation. All those in favor? >> I post. It's carried unanimously. Thank you. >> All right. On to item F, alternative transportation. >> Good evening, board members. >> Good evening. Welcome. >> It is recommended that the board approve the no obligation service agreement between Laspanis Unified

185School District and First Student, uh, also operating as First ALT. questions. I I have one. Um, so has this been brought to CSEA for their approval or blessing or for this? No. >> No, >> this is this is to this is to facilitate transportation primarily for our McKenna Vento students who live outside of our area. So that that's a service that we could not provide in-house. Uh, and the only other thing that I want to uh comment on before somebody calls me on it is that um the term of this agreement shall commence on January 28th, which was a couple weeks ago. Um, and you know, I'm not going to do retroactive contracts anymore, but I I did talk um to uh Superintendent Richie and I understand the need for this in the fact that

186we had or we have a couple bus drivers that are out and we can't offer this service, but we have special needs students who need this service. And so, you know, I'm going to back off on my stance on retroactive contracts only because we have students that needed to be served and we had to do it. >> Just these services haven't started yet. >> Well, they haven't started. >> They have not. >> Oh, they were they were slated to start on the 5th, which is why we moved so quickly. And then it moved from the 5th to tomorrow, and I was like, "Oh, perfect." And then now it's not even starting tomorrow. >> Okay. >> So, maybe it might start next week. Um, but we were obligated to provide that transportation by law. We have

187to provide it. We don't have a choice. >> Right. And and that's why Okay. So, I'm >> I'm eating this one. Um, Miss Katuso. >> So, when you stated it, it's the students are outside our service area. Is that what you had? >> Yes. So, there there are students, >> right? But like give can you give me example? I'm >> our students that move to Merced if their parents choose >> for them to stay here. >> Got it. >> We're required to provide that transportation. >> Okay, that makes more sense. >> And under >> even if I was fully staffed and I had all of my drivers, there's no way we'd be able to provide that. >> And when we talk about the McKini Vento Vento and um Foster, are we talking what maybe three

188or four or five? I mean >> so currently >> that outside our service >> that are out I don't know how many are outside of our >> service area. I don't mean I don't mean because I know you're serving what is >> yeah internally we ser we serve a number of them. Um externally these are >> two of three that I know of. >> Okay. It's not going to be a ton. No it doesn't happen. Okay. But it's still >> out of our area. If you're going from Mercured to Las Vegas. Yeah. That's >> Yes. >> If you have to pick up one or two students, that's a bus that's not full. >> Yeah. >> Could be a van. >> It It could be a van as long as they qualified under SB88. >> Okay.

189>> Any other questions, comments? Motion. approve the all >> service agreement alternative second. >> So we have a motion by member Katuso and seconded by member valido to approve the alternative transportation agreement with first student. All those in favor >> I post. It's carried. >> Thank you for >> Thank you. >> Y you're welcome. >> All right. on item G bid award for the Laspanis High School modernization. I hear them every morning. >> We'll be We'll be done one day. >> One day. >> I hear them every morning. They start early, too. >> Not too early. I hope they shouldn't be. Um, so it is recommended that the board accept the bid award for Lasanis High School modernization category 7 roofing and repair sheet metal flashing to DD construction incorporated. All right, comments, questions, motion.

190We got a motion by member Lee, seconded by member Gatuso to accept the bid for the Laspanis High School modernization um with the sheet uh DD construction. All those in favor? >> I post and it's carried. Item H, contingency budget for the Losanis High School modernization. >> It is recommended that the board of trustees approve a contingency budget for the Losanis High School modernization project. Um we met about this with the facility subcommittee and um the process that will be in place to be able to um process these change orders is like previously 0 to 50,000 um I'm able to approve that as the project manager. Um 50,000 to 100,000 Dr. Lee and Dr. Richie would need to also sign that off. And then anything over 100,000 um that would be brought through the facility

191subcommittee or straight to the board for approval for those change orders. And I have created a document for tracking. So you guys should have a copy of this. So this would be how we would process those $50,000 to $100,000 change orders and they would be source documentation behind that of the actual change order. And then this would be forwarded on to the board. So, you know that we signed that. Um, so this would help us um, uh, minimize our project delays, make sure we're able to add that the extra work in that we're a need to do for like the locker room and those kind of things. So, that's what this contingency is going to be used for. >> Yeah, definitely will help prevent delays from having to make, you know, the decision. So, comments

192or questions? The facilities committee did meet on Tuesday. >> Tuesday um with uh Miss Monday and and Dr. Richie and Dr. Lee. And we had a real concern about going up to $100,000 and putting it all on Sherry just because one person approving $100,000 we felt uncomfortable with. And so we hashed it out and we came up with this process and I think >> makes us all feel a lot more comfortable in the process >> and it covers >> covers everybody and everything and it helps with the decision making um because those are big decisions, right? And it's a district decision. So I'm glad I have support on that now. >> Yeah. >> Any other comments or questions? >> Motion, please. I'll make a motion to approve the budget for school. >> We got a

193motion by member valido, seconded by a member Moran to approve the contingency budget for the Laspanis High School modernization. All those in favor? I opposed. It's carried. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Item I has been pulled. Will be coming back to us at a future agenda. And so we're on to item J, which is the CSBA delegate assembly election. And Dr. Richie, you're going to do this. >> So it's recommended the board cast this vote for a representative to the California School Boards Association delegate assembly. >> I don't know anybody. >> We We get There's one There's one out of the There's two. Um I I mean if I had to pick one I would based on their um application I would lean one way but that's me everybody who What's your

194thought Muso? Well, I mean, I've worked with Kirk for years at MCE and so I mean I and he's that would be my you know my choice but >> then that was mine based on my >> reading of the uh of the background information from both of candidates. So but >> so >> if you want to make a motion or we can make a motion not to prove it or anybody or whatever you want to do. >> So I move that we Um, vote for Kurt Coleman as our representative say to CSBA. >> Second. >> Is there a second? We have a second. We have a motion by member Katuso, seconded by member Moran to cast our vote for Kurt Coleman. All those in favor? >> I posted. >> And it is carried. >> All

195right. On to the consent calendar. Is there any polls tonight? Yes. >> Yes. What is it, Miss Katuso? >> G4. So, we're going to pull G4. >> And And a comment. Can I make a comment without having to technically pull? >> not really. >> Okay. >> Unless it's >> it's just your your wording on contracts being signed. >> Yes. And Well, was that a mistake? Just pull it. >> Pull it. All right. We'll pull it. >> H1 or G4. What' you say? >> G4. H1. >> G4 and H1. Okay. G4 and H1 have been both pulled. Any other pools? All right. With that, I need a motion to um approve the consent calendar with the exception of item G4 and item H1. So move. >> We got a motion by member Lee, seconded by member

196Smith to approve the consent calendar with the pools. That is a roll call vote. Miss Silva. >> Mr. Castro. Mrs. Gatuso. >> Yes. >> Mr. Leeb. >> Yes. >> Dr. Moran. >> Yes. >> Miss Smith. >> Yes. >> Miss Valado. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pereira. >> Yes. >> All right. Miss Katuso. Item G4. >> Um, it's really more for clarification. Can will you be able to answer a couple of things? >> Sorry. I guess I'm just not understanding the the whole the way the BRM is written. I'm not understanding exactly when we're saying it's transportation only. That's that's what this is. We're paying Boys and Girls Club for transportation and then they're contracting out somebody else to do the transportation. >> Yes. So we're >> currently have anou with the Boys and Girls Club. They're

197re running an afterchool program out in the community at College Green. >> Um, and that is basically for students that are on the wait list and can't get into their homeschool leap. >> One of the barriers is getting from their home school to the Boys and Girls Club out there. And so they're going to be contracting with First Student or whatever it's called now. And uh they'll be providing transportation. >> So this is uh an addendum to the contract >> to the currentou we have. Exactly. >> So when we're looking at the totals where it says year 1 444,000. Okay. But it's that's from February starting in February to June, right? For the 2526 school year. And then year two is 467 for a whole year, >> right? It's not to exceed that amount. >>

198Okay. But what I'm getting at is this is this just the transportation part or is this an addition to the contract? So if if it's not if it's just this transportation then why is six months almost the same >> right as a whole year. >> It's not to exceed that amount. So it's going to be far less than that because we're only going to be and we're probably you know all things being equal, we're pro we may not even be able to get that going this year. we want to give it a shot, but the we we she budgeted it when we were working with the Boys and Girls Club to budget this out. They've provided us with a full what it's going to cost per year and uh that's why I put it into

199the addendum. >> Okay. I guess for me, the way the BRM sometimes are written, it it doesn't help us to figure it out sometimes very easily. So, I'm, you know, I sorry I had to pull it, but I, you know, when I'm looking at the cost and and we're talking a six month versus a whole year, and the cost is almost the same, even though it says up to >> Yeah. >> Not to exceed, right? >> Or not to exceed. Well, it actually it says no more then, >> right? >> Um, you know, it just >> how do we know that in the next six months they're not going to take the whole 400 >> charge us for the 400? Okay. I could get you the estimate of what it would be if we started

200tomorrow. >> Okay. >> Of course, it's going to be, >> but see that I think that information down here when you were talking about the cost would have been helpful for us that don't, you know, really know exactly. >> Not a problem. >> Am I uh making sense here? >> Yes, you are. >> Okay. >> Sometimes it can get a little wordy in the BRM, but I I'll give it a shot next time to try to explain things like that. if I'd rather wordy than not in enough words and especially if we're putting it and you don't know at the time if we're putting it in a consent calendar or not. Right? So, but since this one went in the consent calendar without being wordy, then sometimes we just don't know and then that's what

201ends up getting it pulled. So, it's not and this really isn't I don't want to just direct that to you. I'm kind of directing it to everybody that writes BRM for us because there was a few this time that were that was just like, okay, what the heck does this mean? Not this one necessarily, but I So, >> I'd like a little more sometimes information on the BRM. >> Good feedback. Not a problem. >> It is. If you looked at 1.5, it does say uh in the amount of no more than. Right. I get that. But still, that doesn't mean in 6 months we couldn't spend the whole 444,000 because we we're committing to it. So, >> no, I understand. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> So, with that, any other comments or questions? >>

202All right. We need a motion to approve the um addendum for the LEAP transportation. So the agreement for the Boys and Girls Club LEAP transportation addendum. Okay. >> So moved. >> Get it built or second. >> Get off there. All right. Well, we have a motion by It's getting It's getting late. >> I know. That's why >> mumbling here. Um, so we have a motion by member Gatuso, seconded by member Valado to approve the agreement with the Boys and Girls Club Leap Transportation Addendum. All those in favor? >> Post. It's carried unanimously. All right, Miss Katuso, item H1, MSSE, Camp Green Meadows. >> Okay, now I'm trying to see. I might be off. Did wasn't this one signed on June 3rd of 25 or am I looking at the wrong one? It says May 1126.

203>> No, but the contract actually signed and I might >> We don't have a contract. >> I know. I'm looking at that now. Then there there's another I might have pulled the wrong one. So I know there is a contract that got signed the and it was for um Is there more than one Camp Green Meadows? No. Oh, okay. Sorry folks. I think I pulled the wrong one. >> Okay. There was one that was in June, but I can't I >> All right. So, >> got the wrong one, I think. >> Well, with that, >> sorry. >> Anybody else want to talk about that one? >> All right. We need a motion to approve item H item H1. >> So, it's a motion by Miss Member Lee, seconded by member Moran to approve the MSE

204Camp Green Meadows over student overnight travel. All those in favor? I >> opposed >> and it is carried. >> Yep. >> Next item. Oops. >> Sorry. >> I'm just going to show you because we're we are approving something that got signed in >> in June. >> June 25. >> Yeah, that's the that's the one I I think I might have pulled the wrong >> Oh, >> it's Oh, I'm It might be up here. What page number is that? >> Um 104. Yeah, I pulled the wrong one. Oh, >> but that's okay. But I mean it's goes with what your >> Yeah, I got got did the wrong one. >> Okay. >> But it's for May 15th. >> Yeah, but they signed >> signed 25. I wonder if they just put the wrong date. Oh, they

205couldn't have because it was June. Okay, >> so >> I missed that one. All right, with that um reporting out of close session. We had nothing to report out from close session cuz we had no action in close session tonight. >> Wait a minute. >> Oh, >> pulled up. Since I pulled that, don't we still then have to vote on it? >> You let Oh, did I miss it? >> Yep. >> Oh jeez. >> You vote. >> Is it 10:00? >> You voted. It is 10 o'clock. Well, I'm almost >> What did he say? What' he say? >> No, he was sniffing your your drink there. your water. Water. >> I The problem is there isn't anything else. >> All right. >> Hey, we're getting a little punchy here. It's It's almost 10 and so

206we have um nothing for close session. So, discussion, information, and future agenda items. Anybody have anything? All right. Seeing that uh nobody has anything, we are going to adjourn at 9:51. Thank you all. Safe travels home. Good night.