001All right, it's uh 7:07. We are going to uh call the regular meeting to order. Um we are a little late tonight. We had a uh close session meeting and went a little bit longer than what we thought, but we are here ready to go. Um starting off with the pledge of allegiance. Uh Ila, would you lead us in the pledge, please? I pledge algiance 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, Lena. All right, next up is approval of the agenda. Dr. Richie, are there any changes? No, there's no changes this. >> All right. So, I need a motion to uh approve the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> We got
002a motion by member Valado, seconded by member Moran to approve the agenda as presented. All those in favor? >> I opposed. And it is carried. Next is the uh annual organizational meeting. This is when we elect officers. Um I'll turn this over to Dr. Richie. Good evening board. So tonight we'll begin our organizational business. We'll open with the organizational business and this time we'll entertain motions for president. >> I'll make a motion for Anthony. >> Okay. Motion by Valado, seconded by Moran. Do we have any discussion? Okay, we'll call for a vote. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay, the eyes have it. Congratulations, Mr. President. >> All right. Thank you. I'll >> turn the time back over to you. >> All righty. Thank you very much. With that, I need a uh motion or
003for or a nomination for vice president. >> Motion to nominate. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. Any other nominations? All right, we have a motion by member uh Smith, seconded by member Moran to nominate L uh vice for vice president Lori Gatuso. All those in favor? >> I opposed and is carried. Clerk, we need a nomination for clerk of the board. I make a motion to recommend Dana >> second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Do we have any other nominations? Seeing none, all those in favor for Dana as clerk of the board. >> I post. And it is carried. All right. secretary board. Um we are kind of obligated to nominate our superintendent because that's what Ed code says. So with that um I'll just make
004a motion that we nominate Sean Richie, Dr. Sean Richie as our secretary of the board. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion second. Any discussion? Other nominations? All those in favor? >> I opposed. It's carry. All right, we have our officers. Thank you very much. Statement of facts. Dr. Richie >> recommend approve the statement of facts for filing with the state of California as per government code section 53051. >> Comments or questions? Need a motion, please? >> Second. We got a motion by member um Moran, seconded by member Valado to approve the statement of facts. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Carried unanimously. Thank Dr. Richie. Under uh item C, resolution 51-25, signature on warrants and registers. It is recommended the board adopt resolution 5125 authorizing the superintendent, assistant superintendent of human resources,
005assistant superintendent of administrative services, chief academic officer, and the director of fiscal services as authorized signitories for orders drawn on district funds. All right, comments or questions? All right, I need a motion, please. >> Second. We got a member motion by member Lee, seconded by member Moran to adopt resolution 51-25, signatures on warrant registers. It is a roll call vote. Nette, please. >> Mr. Castro, Mrs. Gatuso, Mr. Leeb, >> yes. >> Dr. Moran, >> yes. >> Miss Smith, >> yes. >> Miss Valado, >> yes. >> Mr. Pereira, >> yes. Motion passed unanimously. All right. Now, the moment many of you have been waiting for [laughter] and the part that we really like the best cuz we don't like to do all the work stuff. We like to celebrate what our students are doing. And we
006have tonight our adult education graduating class of December 2025. [applause] And I always enjoy when I get to say good evening board. We're back again because it is a wonderful moment for our adults who have worked so hard to get to this point and so proud. I want to start by introducing the new team. As you may look, we have a couple of new faces to the adult school team. And so, uh, as you know, our morning teacher for a long, long time since its inception was Deborah Wear. She is actually watching on TV tonight. She's actually really nervous at home because she is so proud of her students who are here. So, she's watching right now on TV in Reno. And uh she's uh thrilled to see all of you walk through. Uh I
007want to introduce Miss Jessica Ramirez who replaced uh Mrs. Wear. Please stand. [applause] You may know her. She just recently retired from Westside and it's been about a little over a year. So, I called her said, "Hey, you ready to come back to work?" And she said, "Well, what is it?" And I said, "It's adult ed. It's so much fun." And she said, "Tell me more." And here she is. I'm very thankful. Thank you, Mrs. Rose. Thank [applause] you. Our administrative assistant, Cassandra Young, please stand. [applause] As as you may know, uh Cassandra's worked in various uh schools in the district. We're so happy to have her. She replaced Nanette Silva, who ascended to the top of the executive secretary. We're so proud of them. We're very proud of him. [applause] Mr. Patrick Holcraft, our
008counselor. He's been with the district for a long time. Very happy to have him. And if you know Mrs. Pam Smith, who is our evening teacher. Uh she has retired from adult school. This is her last year. And so we're lucky to have Mr. Paul Monomero take over for uh for Pam Smith for this year. So, we're hoping to have uh several graduates in our June 2026 class for the evening program. So, Mr. Monomeura, welcome. [applause] A few moments ago, I was talking with Dr. Richie and I said this was a very uh uh unusual year in adult school because we've had such stability and so when both teachers decided to retire, I had to figure things out and figure things out pretty quickly until we were able to hire Mrs. Ramirez. Uh, I called
009some people and asked around and, uh, we have an honorary member. He was our long-term substitute teacher and did a fantastic job, Mr. Carl Batty. [applause] Thank you, Carl. Great work. Okay, we'll get started. Okay, as you know, I'm Chan. My name is Chan M, and I am the proud principal of St. Louisis High School, Crossroads Alternative Education Center, my first year, loving it, and of course, Laspanis Adult School. Uh, since launching adult school back in Laspanis Unified in 2017, I'm very proud that we've had 75 students proudly earn their high school diploma or GED, and that number continues to rise. Uh tonight we have the honor of celebrating eight more incredible graduates and uh six of whom are here with us in person. I was going to keep going with that but as of
010yesterday, okay, I'm going to say it you guys. So my stepson approved. So uh yesterday we had seven graduates and six were going to participate. And so I'm thinking in my head, oh my god, all the students are talking about 67. And I said, "How crazy is that that we have six out of seven graduating tonight?" So, I was going to use the joke 67 and and either kids were either going to cringe or laugh. And I was like, "Okay." My stepson said, "Go for it. They're either going to laugh at you in a good way or they're going to make fun of you." And I said, "Either way, I don't care. That's fun." And so this morning, we received an email that we had our that we have our eighth graduate. So the joke
011changed from six out of seven graduates to six out of eight graduates. So that's even better. So the more the merrier. So we have six out of eight participating tonight. And so we're so proud. Okay. So next I am going to invite Miss Jessica Ramirez uh to come join me here. She's going to ask each student to stand next to her and she's going to talk a little bit about this student and their individual journey. And uh this was written by Mrs. Deborah Wear, the previous teacher, she's watching, so I know she's nervous, but Mrs. uh Ramirez is going to speak on her behalf. Good evening and thank you for that. Um, hi Miss Wear. So, Miss Wear is very proud of each one of you. I want you to know that. So, these are
012her words. She'd say, "First of all, I wish I could be there to celebrate with all of you who have worked very hard to accomplish your high school diploma. With your determination and hard work, you have finally done it. Tonight, Stephanie is not with us. Um, but I'd like to read her message to Stephanie." For Stephanie Are Reyes, I just want to tell you that with all of your hard work and hurdles you had to jump over with family and work, your determination to achieve your diploma paid off. Good luck in your future endeavors. Eureka Evez, if you can please stand. I just met you before I left Los Spanos. I knew that you would do what you had to do to complete your assignments. You would do whatever you needed to do. You were
013so quiet, but when you would come to class, you stayed focused and worked very hard. Congratulations and best of luck in college. [applause] Myra Amaya Delgado, please stand. Oh my goodness, you finally did it. You had a lot of health issues, but even when you were not feeling well at the hospital or recovering at home, you were still able to log in and did what you needed to do. I miss your delicious potluck dishes and I know if you decided to go into catering or start up your food truck business that we talked about, you will succeed. Congratulations, my friend. [applause] Lisa Marie Gonzalez, you are not only my student but a great friend. When I first met you, I told you that your name, Lisa Marie, reminded me of my mom. You worked very
014hard and realized that science was one of your favorite subjects. Now you're going into medical career and intend attending a medical assisting training. You will do a great job. Congratulations, my friend. [applause] Aurora Ramos, please stand. Congratulations, Aurora. You are bound and determined to get through it. Congratulations and wish you the best of luck in the future. And as you enter college, you can do it. [applause] was our eighth surprise this morning [applause] >> and I can personally attest to her hard determination and long hours. [laughter] Miriam Rodriguez, you were also not only my student but a wonderful friend too. We both had to go through a loss of not only your friend but my cousin Lorie who passed during the time in class. You had a lot of health challenges with yourself and family,
015but no matter what, you still did your work. And now you're finally have your high school diploma. We talked about college after graduation. You will be a great college student. Congratulations, my friend, [applause] Olga Ree. Although when you started the program in the spring of 2025, we found out that you you needed a few courses to graduate. Once you knew that you could be done in less than 6 months, you worked very hard and completed those courses. Now you are working full-time again. Congratulations on your hard work and dedication to your future. Best luck, Olga. [applause] Congratulations to all of you. I know whatever you set out to do, you will accomplish it. Miss Wear and Miss RmIrez. [applause] Okay, I'm going to cue my team to stand next to our graduates. Thank you. Okay,
016I have my principal's graduation speech. It's really short. Okay, that way you can go celebrate with your families tonight. So, as you know, we are all proud to celebrate each of you for your dedic dedication, your determination, your resilience, and the incredible milestone you've achieved tonight. Your success lights the way for others who dream of returning to complete their high school journey. May this accomplishment be just the beginning of many more victories ahead in your lives. On behalf of the entire Laspamus Adult School team, we extend our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes as you move forward into new opportunities. And we hope the season brings joy to you and your families. and we wish you a bright and inspiring new year. CONGRATULATIONS. [applause] I'm going to ask Mr. Hogcraft to each uh to give you
017your uh cover and then we're going to do a 360 and then we're going to shake the hands of our board members and then we're going to we're going to come back and wrap around and we're going to ask Dr. Richie to do his part, his proclamation, and then we're going to take a nice group photo. Okay. Okay. Now, we're going to have you turn around, and we're going to you're going to turn around and walk. And the board members are right behind you. You're going to walk this way. Okay, we're going to line up for a nice center photo. And now I'm going to invite Dr. Richie. >> All right. By virtue of the authority vested in me by the state of California and the governing board of the Losanos Unified School District, I
018certify that students receiving a diploma have met both local and state graduation requirements. I hereby confer upon each of you the diploma for which you have qualified with all rights, privileges, and responsibilities attached there too. It is a pleasure to represent the Losbanos adult educ excuse me, it's a pleasure to present the Los Banos adult education graduating class of December 2025. Congratulations graduates. [applause and cheering] OKAY, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE YOU STAND in the middle. Okay, Mr. Sersby, can I invite you to take the picture for us? Thank you. >> Okay, team. Okay, let's see here. >> Oh, you got the picture. >> Yes, [laughter] there we go. The white circle right there. Okay. >> All right. All right. One, two, and three. Let's get a couple more for good measure. Okay, there we go.
019>> Applause for the class. >> December 2025. [applause] Okay. [applause] And on behalf of the board, we want to congratulate you on all the hard work and also thank the staff for everything they did to make this day happen. So, congratulations. Enjoy your night and happy graduation and uh have a great celebration. [applause] We'll let them uh clear the room, then we'll continue on with our meeting. All right, continuing on. Um, next up, uh, public presentations. If there's anybody in the audience tonight or anybody anywhere that would like to uh request an item be placed on a future agenda, they may do so by uh submitting that request to the superintendent at least two days two weeks, excuse me, two day two weeks, excuse two weeks prior to a regularly scheduled board meeting. If that
020uh agenda request is within our purview, we will take it up at a future uh meeting. If there's anybody here tonight that wishes to make a comment on any item that is on our tonight's on tonight's agenda, you may do so by approaching the podium. And uh once recognized, I ask you to state your name and then uh you'll have three minutes to speak on that agenda item. If there are multiple speakers on uh that agenda item, it'll be a maximum of 20 um minutes of comments for that agenda item. Um, if there are anybody if there's anybody here tonight that wishes to address the board on items that are not on tonight's agenda, you may do so in a second. We'll call you up. You'll uh have three minutes to speak. If there are
021multiple speakers on the same non-aggenda item, it's limited to 20 minutes. Please identify yourself when you come to the podium. So, is is there anybody here that wishes to address the board on any item that is not on tonight's agenda? All right, seeing no one come forward, we'll go on to reports and we'll start with our student report. Welcome, Lyanna. >> Hi, my name is Laya Navaro. I'm Laspa's High School Board report. Today, we're going to be starting with >> I'm sorry, I said your name wrong. >> It's Laya. Sorry. >> Today we're going to be starting with PGO High School Board Report. Our Super Smash Bros. Splatoon and Mario Kart teams have all qualified for the play versus fall playoffs, marking one of our strongest competitive seasons to date. We look forward to carrying
022the momentum into the CIF esports spring season. On Saturday, November 29th, Pacheo High School proudly sent two athletes, Jace Campos and Gio Mahia, to the CIF State Cross Country Championships. The first time in school history, PHS had qualified two runners in the same year. Gio Mahia became only the fourth athlete in PHS history to reach the state meet. Jace Compost making a second appearance set a new school record with a time of 1529 in the 5K. Also the fastest time ever recorded by any Merced County athlete. Out of 200 of the top division 2 runners in the state, Jace placed 33 33rd and Gio placed 77 70th with a time of 1552. Both seniors plan to continue their running careers at the college level. Pacheco High was honored to host Elks Hoops Shoot contest over
023the past weekend. We congratulate LB Unified students Rosa Ross Bchart, Cynthia Heridia, Joel Heridia, and Logan Limos who will advance to represent Lasers at the district contest in January. Athletics facility update. The Pacheo video board project continues to move forward. Sideline Interactive is currently in the rendering phase and is preparing to submit to DSA. Community members interested in becoming a sponsoring partner may contact Mr. Pyus for more information. Pacheco FFA is concluding an exceptional fall semester. Over the past month, students participated in multiple community service events, contributing over 2,500 canned foods and 175 toys to the Los Bonos Police Department, ensuring all donations benefit local families. FFA also held both its local and sectional project competitions where six students also presented their agricultural projects and demonstrated skills related to their work. Results will be announced
024in February. On November November 19th, PHS celebrated the official ribbon cutting for the new classroom, greenhouse, and restroom facilities at the school farm. As the semester closes, our livestock students are preparing the farm for the arrival of more than 100 animals, including sheeps, goats, pigs, cattle, chickens, and turkeys. Sophomore Abigail Melo received the voice of democracy audio essay competition award this month for her essay written on the topic of how to show support and patriotism in our country. She was awarded a 250 Amazon gift card in an award that was handd delivered by two veterans. And lastly, the Pacheo High School choir proudly represented the Los Bonus community in the state of California at the Pearl Harbor Memorial Concert and parade in Hawaii from Thursday, December 4th through Tuesday, December 9th. Pacheo High School wishes
025everyone a safe, peaceful, and restful Christmas break and looks forward to continue excellence in the new year. Laspanos High School's board report. Students in AP environmental science had a successful field trip to UC Merrced exploring campus sustainability through tours of the HVAC systems, renewable energy, composting, and sustainable design. They also heard from an undergrad student and enjoyed lunch at the dining center. On December 6th, the Laspanos community gathered for our annual Christmas parade where Laspano High School students showcased their tiger spirit with the marching band, spirit groups, and festive floats. Family, staff, and community members lined in the route to support celebrating LBHS creativity, teamwork, and pride during a joy joyful community night. Laspano High School is excited to share an update on the collaborative winter formal with PCO High. The event will be held
026Saturday, December 13th at Laspanos Fairgrounds fairgrounds with a winter ball theme in blue, gold, and silver. We look forward to a strong participation in a positive unified community experience. Lasers High School is gearing up for several spirit building activities before winter break. Friday, December 12th, the school will hold a Grinch themed rally with band performances, games, and holiday activities. From December 15th to the 19th, LBHS will hold a winter dress up week featuring daily festive themes like holiday colors, cozy winter wear, and other seasonal spirit days chosen by student led leadership. Laspanas High School ASB is also holding a popcorn fundraiser to support student activities and campuswide events. The fundraiser was wellreceived by students and staff and families, resulting in a strong participation throughout the sales period. We encourage everyone to support our ASB community
027by purchasing our delicious gourmet popcorn. More information, please visit the AS A as LBHS Instagram page. Laspanos High School is ex excited to announce an upcoming friendly competition with Pacheco High School called Mugofavore. This spirit event is designed to build community, boost student engagement, and promote positive collaboration between both schools. The Laspanos cross country team had a strong turnout for their annual turkey trot with approximately 140 participants. The event was a fantastic way to show the team while bringing the community together for a fun Thanksgiving morning activity. We look forward to welcoming even more participants next year. Thank you, >> Lena. Good job. Thank you very much. Enjoy enjoy the rest of your night. Hang out if you want or go do homework. >> You have lots of homework. Okay. [laughter] All righty. Next up
028is the report from the California School Employees Association. Anybody here tonight? All right. Seeing no one. How about Laspanis Teachers Association report? All right. See no one come forward. Miss Monday for our facilities and maintenance report. She's here. Good evening board members. Um Dr. Richie, executive cabinet, community members here to do my update for facilities projects for December 2025. So we'll start with early education center. Um we are we are so close. It's very exciting. Um we are still working on um the landscaping um resolution. Um, but we're currently this week we're finishing up the gates. Um, finishing the last floors in the classrooms. Um, we're going to do the final cleaning on Saturday and then we're going to have our punch list on Monday the 15th. Um, furniture delivery will also start the 15th.
029And then, um, we're going to start moving the old TK center to the new TK center. Um, starting the 19th at the end of the day and then transitioning into that Christmas um, that next week. So, we'll get them all moved over. They've got boxes, so they're getting all packed up, ready to go. So, that's very exciting. Um, next one is Los Banis High School modernization. Um, the bleachers were complete this week. Um, yesterday they got completed. We looked at them. They look great. So, um, next time I'll definitely have a presentation for that. Um, all the temporary fencing is installed. We're ready to go. Um, on 12:15, which is Monday, we have a pre-construction meeting, which means all the contractors will be there. Um once we have that meeting, they'll be able to mobilize,
030which means they'll be on campus and starting um getting ready to go and um we're starting with the new administration building area and the classroom wing H. So you'll see that that getting going right away. Um Mo restroom building. Um that's that's been going since that Thanksgiving week. Um they have already poured the stem wall and rat slab. Um they're working on all the electrical and plumbing in underground infrastructure right now and the delivery of the building will be December 29th. Then they'll still have some work to continue after that. Um but we hope by maybe end of January we'll be done. Um Volter modernization and parking lot. Um we have finally gotten some action on that. Um the flat work is complete. They've completed the installation of flag pole. They're working on exterior stucco
031right now. The interior aluminum frames are being set. That was the one thing that was a very long lead time and was holding us up. So once we got that on board, they've just been really going fast. Um the H HVAC systems will be powered up um by tomorrow at the end of the day and they will be continuing their landscaping work and then fencing will be complete next week. Um, we hope to have that building done um, mid mid January. Um, our contractor gives us updates every week. Sometimes that changes due to what's going on and and the the staff he can get there. So, um, we're really pushing to get that done quickly now that he has everything he needs. Um, the FOT EVPV project there at our FOT yard. Um, that's all
032been up for a long time, but we hadn't. We were waiting for P Gen forever and ever and ever. They are here this week, so that's very exciting. Um, we've been running on generator power for 2 days, powering both of our buildings right now. Um, so what that is, they are tying in both of our buildings to that new electrical service and then also the chargers to that new electrical service. So once that work is complete, we'll we'll be running totally not running off of that. solar, but that solar will be powering all of all of that infrastructure there. All of that power. And that is it for the projects. Um I did want to bring back um PHS turf. I believe you asked about last meeting. Um so I got some information today late
033in the day um that we are going to be submitting that to DSA on January 28th and that is an accessonly project. So that doesn't take the full plan check like a regular project would. Um and so we're hoping within three months we'll have approval of that and then we'll go out to bid. So any questions? >> Mr. D. Um I saw the digital sign at uh standards. Very nice. >> Beautiful. Right. >> Um what I didn't see is a signal light. What's the timeline on the signal that's going in there at >> the signal light is is um will not be delivered until till early January and so when we open we probably will not have a signal there. Um, I need to probably go talk to the city people and see what they
034would like us to do if we need to put some stop signs if we need to just so that's something I need to kind of deal with. But yes, that that was a very long lead time item and we're getting it as soon as possible. All the infrastructure is there. So once we get the poles, they're going to stick them up and they're going to hook them up and they'll be ready. But >> so thank you for that. Um, the other thing is if you're at the signal light at B in place and you're headed west, you see the buildings big huge letters of the wings. They're lettered, right? >> And it's C B A, which >> it needs to be because the first wing is A and the second wing is B. But I
035was just sitting there at the signal looking at that going, that'd be cool, the transitional kindergarten, and if the first wing was A, it would be ABC. But just >> it it >> when you're sitting there it's opposite >> CBA. Yeah. >> Oh yeah. Cuz it >> Yeah. >> ABC. Okay. >> I just wanted to just a fun little >> Yeah. No, they are there. It's all labeled on all the buildings. And then we're going to get our big office and administration um for there on the front. >> Yeah. Really nice. [clears throat] Yeah. >> Yeah. It'll look real great. >> Good. Thank you. >> Anything else? >> I have a question. >> Yeah. Um, we we could schedule a tour anytime. Um, so I can I can work with Nette and Dr. Richie if
036we want to do that and take a tour. >> I'd I'd love to. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Before before Christmas before before we move in like move now. >> When was the furniture going to be in? >> On Mon. They're going to start Monday. It'll take them quite a few days probably to set all those rooms up because there's a lot of rooms. So, do you want to wait till after the furniture? >> Yeah, I do too. So, let me get the end date of when we're going to they're going to be complete with the furniture and then I'll reach out with the date and then we can go take a tour. I think that'll be a good time. >> Do you have a move in date for kids? >> The 12th. Well, we're starting
037when they come back, they will be there from from my understand. Right. Okay. >> Cool. >> Yeah. >> So, it'll be nice to get there before the 12th. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Before the 12th. Okay. Sounds good. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Good information. All right. Uh, next up is community schools. Dr. Wheeler, welcome. >> Good evening everyone. It's good to see you all. Um, so we had a presentation, but I can do it without it. Uh, or for you able to pull it up. Awesome. It's very short. So, this is not the October update. It is obviously the December update. Um, but you can tell we've been it's been a whirlwind. I can't believe we're actually in December, to tell you the truth. Um, but I wanted to give
038you a little bit of update. It's including part of October and into November because um, we had so much going on and I didn't have a chance to include the um, Halloween Fest. I didn't have a video for you last time, so we included some of that in the video that I'll show you in a minute. So, in October and November, uh we had the Halloween fest ended October um which went really well out at the sports um and a complex with the new um they had, you know, the all the new stuff that was out there. It looked lovely. And then I didn't go in it, but I heard tales that the the the the labyrinth that they have out there, the haunted house, like it was like very scary and very they had
039higher walls so people couldn't like look over. So like so there was no way to get it. You were going to get surprised. Um so I didn't go through that, but people did. They said it was a lot of fun. Um we had a lot of fun giving out candy and being in costume. So that was great to connect with the community. Um and then the um at the PHS multicultural night um we hosted the Panther Closet popup. So, um, we had a little, uh, like area where they could admire themselves in the mirror and there was a whole, you know, nice little boutique feel and all the clothes out and then that was something that, um, the students and families really appreciated and we were able to connect with families um, with and we
040hope to do more of these popups um, and have more um, opportunities to connect with the community. And then during November um, we had three food giveaways. Uh we started at the beginning of the month at the um flea market location and um then we moved to PHS. Uh they were kind enough to allow us to use um their uh very large parking lot. So right before the the week before Thanksgiving, we were able to give out um boxes for Thanksgiving and for invitation only. And then the first and the third food giveaway were open to the community. Um the third one was uh that we did in partnership with the nutrition department. They were u amazing. They came out during the week of Thanksgiving and um helped us uh give out some donations including
041our partnership with um Producers Dairy uh donated about 300 gallons of milk um to our community. And so we were able to um provide that. And so that's a wonderful, you know, partnership between departments and with um, you know, they were amazing in their logistics and and of course they know their kitchens and and and everything. So it really helped us u make those connections. So that was really great to be able um to do that. We are hoping um to do more of those uh and continue on with our daily support of of families at the school sites um with the uh food and clothing um giveaways. We are going to have an event um coming up on the 20th, but that is by invitation only with um families that are identified at at
042all of the school sites. Um that we will have a a gift giveaway as well as clothing closet and food giveaway um at the community center. Again, we're partnering with the community center. And one of the things that I don't have up here um that I'll talk about after the video, but we do have uh something going on, even though it's technically it's it's going to be in January, it'll be before we come back. So, I want to share that in a minute. But first, I'd like to go ahead and show the video that gives you a really fast snapshot of of how our October through November was. [music] Down in the [music] Down in the heat. [music] Down. [music] >> [music] >> So that last piece that you saw was the holiday um dinner
043drive that is happening now. Um we are partnering with Birkshshire Hathway um and we uh they have brought donations um and we are facilitating that and delivering the food. Um I believe we're at 60 uh holiday dinners that they are delivering to families who have been identified at selected schools. Um so that is these are some examples uh with producers Darian with Birkshshire Hathway um you know these community partnerships that we're developing and bringing those into the uh schools and and helping connect them to the community. And then the last thing that I'm excited to share is uh the third week of our winter break. This year we are going to have um 7th through 12th grade like a winter camp. Um and we're doing it in two ways. Uh the first way is we're
044partnering with Merced College to offer plant science, welding, and STEM camp. And these three are aligned with the pathways at uh at Merced College and they are being taught by the college professors. And um so we will also be offering transportation for those students. It's completely free of charge for our community um for our Laspanos Unified students. And I do have flyers here if anybody is interested. Um the second camp that we're offering um and registration has gone out and is open and so we are accepting registration um as we speak. And then the second camp we're offering at Pacheco High School through an organization that we are partnering with called Next Explore and we um they we gave them we started with this in mind with the um co Mercer College Pathways and let
045them know the subject areas and they designed curriculum around four different camps. Um these camps include um the code creators um a finance futures agro finance futures biomed explorers and liftoff. So there the liftoff is drones and then the other courses are all about you know those hands-on experiential learning and students will be um able to take two of those. So one would be in the morning, one would be the afternoon. the same with the Merced College course. And students can sign up for one and the other if they want to. So they'll be able to go to both camps if they're interested in one topic or another topic. So we are working with um like I said 7th through 12th graders and if anybody's interested I have flyers if you want to look at
046them. Um and uh these did go out to the community already and we will be sending them out again. So, we're really excited because, you know, his historically break has been a time when students kind of maybe are left to their own devices or maybe get a little bored or whatnot. And we figured by the 5th of January, they might be ready for some um enrichment and um and give them some, you know, that excitement and also for them and their parents to learn about what is going on in our community and and the opportunities that they have. So, that's what we're starting with. >> Right. Are there any questions? >> Cool. Thank you. Good information. >> Dr. Will, I just had one question. Yes, please. >> And that is I know for the hall
047the Halloween fest at at the sports egg complex. >> Yes. >> There was some parking changes. How did you handle that? >> So unfortunately um we were not able to um we were not able to secure uh the because of liability issues. we were not able to secure the um the ability to bring people from the parking lot. So, we had to cancel that. What we did do is offer um we could offer transportation for um district students. So, we were able to go out to the migrant camp and there were some families that were able to use utilize the the bus from the migrant camp. But unfortunately, we learned too late about uh the liability issue. um the insurance company didn't they let us know iffy and then and we were going to move
048forward with it and they canceled really pretty much two or three days in advance. So it made it impossible for me to be able to say get a charter company to replace that. So ne that unfortunately that's one of those live and learn moments where you know next year what we'll end up doing is just going with a charter company that already has the liability covered. Um, and that was really unfortunate because we had really wanted to involve as many people as possible um, in that. >> Good. But I'm sure you still had a big crowd anyway. >> Oh, it was I was blown away honestly because I had never gone to this event before. This was my first time and it was um, I was taken back at [laughter] the sheer number. I think
049I had to run out and get candy a couple times because we weren't prepared. [laughter] >> It'll do. Thank you very much. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All righty. Have a good night. Uh, next up, uh, attendance report. [snorts] Oh, Dr. Richie is going to do that tonight. Okay. >> Yeah, Miss Morazz was not able to be here. So, attendance report for this month, we had, um, eight schools that have that are sitting at over 94% um, attendance. Seven schools are sitting in the 92 to 94% range. And we have one that's sitting in the 88 to 90% range, but that's TK center and they're always low just because it's the TK center. All right, any questions on the report? All right, thank you, Dr. Richie. Uh, well, Dr. Richie's back up with the superintendence
050report. And I don't really have a whole lot else to add. Everyone else has been sharing all the great things are happening around the district. It's it's it's fun at this time of year when you look around. There's so many events happening at every school site. You see community schools is full swing. You see all the work that our our health um health care mental health clinicians and our nurses and everyone that's doing. It's just it's been it's really it's just tremendous. A couple of things that I just want to note that you heard in the board me the student board member report. the Pico High School choir um just went to uh Hawaii and participated in the um in the Pearl Harbor memorial um parade and service there and they actually from what Mr.
051Cyersby told me they they sung multiple times over several days. Got to go and the Polynesian cultural center. Got to go hike Diamond Head. They got to has a really amazing experience. And this once again is due to the fact that we have Prop 28 funds for the visual performing arts and we're able to utilize those funds to be able to support our students to be able to go and perform and have these experiences. And so we're we're grateful the board for approving that and we're also grateful just for the uh the students for have that opportunity. Um some of the other great things that are going on, we're in the middle of uh MAP testing right now. We we do our MAP test three times a year. This is the winter assessment and it's
052a way for us to kind of just take a take a look at how's instruction going, how are students learning, how we how are we measuring up uh year after year. Right now, the preliminary results are coming through. Not everyone's done with the assessments yet, but they're coming back very positive. our students are making um making great growth and we're seeing that once again our students are are finishing this at this time compared to past years. They're finishing um achievement levels at higher percentage which means that we'll see um high results as we go through on the CASP and other things. So we're seeing that our students are learning and that's what we want to do. And so overall um things are going really well and we're excited about the the the work that's happening
053in the district and that's my report. >> Thank you very much. All right, on to board member reports. Uh, let's start with Miss Belo. >> I get to be first this. >> You get to be first. >> Um, you know, the vision of our district is to have graduates that are confident, prepared citizens, positively impacting the world in their ongoing pursuit of knowledge. Our adult school graduates are just an example of how we do that. But I know I'm proud that we have so many graduates from our regular ed program, from our special ed program, for our crossroads program, from St. Louis High School, from um independent study. We have a lot of avenues for students to succeed and that's wonderful that we have different pathways for students to become those prepared citizens who are
054in positively impacting the world. And I just want to wish everyone a nice holiday break because I know everybody's looking forward to that. And um just be safe and have a great time with your family. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Moran. >> Yes. I just wanted to give a a shout out to Coach Sales over at Laspanis High School for the Turkey Trot. As our student member reported, one of the largest. So I participated in the one last year and uh my time was 4248. I was only going to saying h maybe I could do it in 40 or under. It's a 5k, you know. Uh I came in at 3154. So one of our pillars is community, right? And like what that does in our community, it instills a healthier uh environment all
055around. So first, yes, I was super proud. I don't know that I can beat it that much. Uh definitely not next year, but it is on the radar for next year. But definitely like to really put that out to to our community, to participate in these events. brings us closer. I got to see folks that I hadn't seen in a really long time. As somebody that uh has been in the community since I was born, um it was really nice to run into some some old folks and and get to talk to some of the current students and they are really fast. Um and also co uh shout out to Coach Campos over at Pacheco. He's organized a second annual 5K uh here got extended to Friday, so there's still time to sign up if
056you are interested. Um I'll be participating in that as well. Um, and yeah, regarding the camps, uh, Merced College faculty are so excited and they're getting ready. Uh, wanted to thank Dr. Wheeler and her team. They've been so responsive. We're already be getting calls and we brought them over to you. Um, letting them know that it's a Las Vegas Unified School District endeavor. So, registration goes there. So, just uh, putting it out there. But, they are very excited to welcome um, junior high and then high school students to to our campus. So with that said, merry Christmas, happy new year, and we'll see each other in January. >> Dr. Ran, thank you. Mr. Lee, >> so [clears throat] to piggyback on Trustee Moran, I actually attended the um Turkey Trot. Um I did run though,
057[laughter] right? >> I have I have a desire. I I shot photos, so I took her photo. Um so I can attest to um her completing um she did a great job. Uh there were lots of people out there that were uh huffing and puffing and uh but it was it was fun. They had a free pumpkin pie so for for people that finished. So that was nice. Um and I also attended the uh oh one more thing. So the 5k that's coming up at the high. It's a color run um on New Year's morning. So for those of you who want to do something on New Year's morning um at a high I think at 9 o'clock um that 8 o'clock. >> No, no, no. We have now I'm also part of working with
058the backpack and we're starting at 8 to then meet uh the color run at 10 >> at 10 o'clock. Okay. So anyway, so I'll be there taking photos of the color run at PCO High. Um I attended the ribbon cutting um and the of the greenhouse and the classroom at PCO High. Um, I'm excited to see what's going to grow, uh, from that program, no pun intended. Uh, so, uh, I also, um, want to thank all the, um, students that, uh, play a musical instrument, um, our agricultural students, um, athletic students, all the students that participated in the Christmas parade. It was one of the largest Christmas parade downtown in Los Banos that we've had. I think there were 72 entries. And um the enthusiasm from all the students was was excellent. I loved it.
059Um I uh have seen the bleachers at Los High School. Uh they're very impressive u compared to what was there uh originally. Uh looking forward to to um those and having people sit comfortably. And with that, I wish everybody a merry Christmas and a happy new year and enjoy your time off. Thank you. All right, Miss Smith. >> Okay. Uh, good evening. Um, my, um, week, the last week was spent at the CSBA conference in Sacramento. Um, that conference is a good time for board members to attend and attend breakout sessions, uh, learn new laws, new policies for school districts in California. The one that I went to I think was the most effective to me was the one on being a smarter communicator and staying cool when the heat is on. That was a
060course that was for board members because you know negotiations can be tough, being a board member can be tough. So it helps you to communicate and believe it or not I needed that course. I also attended one for um for um was general session uh current and legal issues facing governing boards. Um I attended another one for um collective bargaining. Um and all those courses just just helps me to be a better a better board member. Um new laws, new policies, things change as the California makes their changes. So it was good. And then they also had seven or so candidates was running for governor of California. Out of the 10 that we have, they were there in attendance. It was nice to see that group communicate. Um and then um that was all I
061had done. I had been on vacation prior to that. So I missed some things in the district which I kind of regret because the when I came back home, the parade was going on and I just getting through town was quite a chore. And I have never seen I've been to the parades in town for many years. Never seen it that attended. was well wellreceived uh for the city of Laspanis. Then last thing I want to do is give a shout out to Nikki Nance. Nikki Nance is a basketball player at Pico High School. The girl is awesome. She's a great student, great family, great athlete. So keep your eye on Nikki Nance. Hopefully some good things are coming her way. Oh, one more thing. The Salvation Army is collecting coats. Coats and gently used
062warm clothes. So if you have any coats that you want to give away or gently used warm clothing, you can drop off the Salvation Army on Fourth Street. the fourth street here in Los Spanish and have a nice Christmas, have a nice new year, and we'll see you all. I guess we'll see you in December because we'll be here. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um I don't really have much to add except I I do want to thank Mr. Daily Cruz for the invite um to your classes. Unfortunately, I cannot attend. I know was one was yesterday, one's tomorrow. I'm not going to be able to go, but thank you for the invite. That looks really interesting. Um invite us again, please, because I know you're probably going to repeat it next semester, right?
063So, um yeah, thank you uh for the invite. We really appreciate that. Um unfortunately, I can't go that. Darn it. Um and with that, I just want to also wish everyone a merry Christmas and happy Quanza and happy Hanukkah and happy holidays and a happy new year, however you want to celebrate, enjoy the season. And we are off to the next item which is the um new business the FFA report who's been sitting over there for the last hour and 5 minutes going man these people are talking a lot. So welcome. [cough and clears throat] >> Hello everybody. I am Addison Melden, the Lasus FFA reporter, and I'm going to be giving a presentation kind of just recapping the Las FA's fall semester. Okay, so to start us off, on August 19th, over 300 members
064attended the monthly FFA meeting. The officers introduced a new member of the month program recognizing Andrew Loins for his hard work and accomplishments. Members also received an overview of upcoming events. The attendees enjoyed a meal prepared by the A boosters featuring fries and watermelon and also some burgers was very good. I had some myself. Um with a strong turnout and the support and support from the chapter, we already had a pretty good start to the year. So to move on, we had our vitamins for oop our vitamins for Guatemala community service drive at the September 8th, 2025 meeting. The Lost Spanish FFA continued its n its annual tradition of donating sugar vitamins to children in Guatemala. This year we collected a surp Jen Barcelis will deliver to Hardy Harding Dmore during her yearly visit. Um,
065Barcelas expressed her deep gratitude, emphasizing how the donations will help um address widespread malnutrition among Guatemalan children. This project is pretty long-standing and the Lo Spanish FFA not only supports vital nutrition for children in need, but also teaches its members about the value of service and global impact. Okay, next up we have our farm to fork dinner. Um the this event turned out once again very successful. The Las Vegas FA members proudly served at this event giving back to the community through agricultural education and service. Students assisted with setup, greeted guests, helped serve meals and enga engaged with visitors. Their professionalism and positive attitudes showcase the heart of our chapter and commitment to our members have that our members have to serving others. The Laspanis FFA is very grateful for the opportunity to support this
066community event and represent agricultural leadership in action. Then we had our porkloin drive-thru dinner. The Lasanis FFA hosted its annual pork drive-through dinner fundraiser with outstanding su successes selling all 300 tickets. This event would not have been possible without the amazing dedication of our student members, parents, a teachers, alumni, and community supporters who volunteered their time to prep, cook, package, and serve meals. The dinner was very good. I'm not sure if anybody had it in here, but I enjoyed it myself, and I know my family did as well. Next up, we had our CAS for Kids. The lost banis of FA members proudly volunteered at the cast for kids event held in the O'Neal Forb. This event supported children with disabilities for a fun and memorable day outdoors. Students help with setup, assisted participants with
067fishing activities, served lunches, and spent quality time encouraging and cheering on every child. Their compassion, leadership, and willingness to serve made a meaningful meaningful impact on the families who attended. We are very grateful to have the opportunity to give back and help create unforgettable moments for these amazing kids. Our cotton judging team this year is once again very successful. Um we they proudly represent the chapter at numerous competitions showcasing their knowledge of cotton quality grading standards and the agricultural science behind one of the most key crops in California. Team members demonstrated strong evaluation skills, attention to detail, and a deep understanding of fiber characteristics as they worked through multiple judging classes. We applaud their hard work, dedication, and countless hours spent spent preparing for competitions. The Las FA is very proud of their the team
068and their efforts. Okay. Next up, we had our annual soctober drive held at our October FFA meeting. So, we partnered with the Los Banis High School Interact Club to collect socks for community organizations originating 9 years ago through the Interact Club. The this event helped support local police, churches, and city programs that provide supplies to those in need. This year, the FFA collected a record of 1,330 pairs of socks. The chapter celebrates its members generosity and commitment to helping the community through small but meaningful acts of kindness. Okay. Then we had our greenhand leadership conference. I was able to attend this as a freshman and I remember I had a blast. So, the Laspanis FFA proudly sent 18 very enthusiastic freshmen to the Greenhand Leadership Conference held in Turlock where they spent the day building
069confidence, learning foundational FFA skills, and connecting with other firstear members from across the region. Our green hands participated in workshops focused on teamwork, communication, and discovering their individual leadership strengths. We are excited to see these students grow as leaders throughout the year and continue the strong tradition of excellence in the Las Vegas FFA. Then we had our opening closing cere ceremonies contest. I was able to compete for my second year. I participated my freshman year and now as an officer I was able to compete again. So on October 15th, the Lasanzas FFA competed at the sectional opening and closing ceremonies contesting where the officer team earned gold. Four freshman teams also competed and all received gold rankings. Three of those teams achieved a rare clean sweep with every member earning an outstanding rating. The chapter
070is proud of all the freshmen's strong performance which reflects their hard work and promising future in the FFA. Okay, next up we have our national FFA convention. So the Laspanis FFA celebrated top performing students with the annual high point trip generos generously sponsored by the Losanis A Boosters rewarding their hard work with an unforgettable experience at the National FFA Convention in Washington DC. Students earned their spots through outstanding participation, leadership, and dedication throughout the year. Thanks to the continued support of our a boosters, these members had the opportunity to explore the convention, attend workshops, meet FFA members from across the nation, and deepen their passion for agriculture. We are incredibly grateful for the sponsorship that makes this trip possible and for the students who continue to represent the Losanis FFA with pride. Okay, next up
071we had our canned food drive held at our octo I mean November meeting. So the Losanis FFA held its November meeting and successfully continued the tradition of community service through its annual canned food drive. members collected 1,575 cans to donate to lo to local food banks and organizations helping families in need during the holiday season. The event highlighted the chapter's dedication to service, teamwork, generosity, reinforcing the positive impact that their efforts have on the community. [snorts] Next up, we had our Greenhand and chapter degree banquet. I was able to attend for my third year now because I was a greenhand and a chapter degree recipient and then now as an officer of course. So the lost banis FFA hosted their annual greenhand and chapter degree re awards banquet. The attendees enjoyed a dinner together while
072celebrating the achievements of new and returning members. Highlights include Ethan Pacheo and Mir Miranda Navarete reciting the FFA creed in both English and Spanish. We were able to res to give out 106 greenhand degrees and 50 chapter degrees. This marked an important milestone in the me in the members FFA involvement. Okay, next up we had our local project competition. The Laspanis FFA members showcased their hard work and creativity at this year's local project competition, presenting a wide wide range of supervised a supervised agricultural experiences project. Students impressed judges with their dedication, hands-on learning, and ability to apply real world agricultural skills. From livestock and a mechanics to aggra science projects, each member demonstrated true passion for agriculture. We are very proud of all participants for their commitment and congratulate those moving on to the sectional
073contest. And that concludes the Las Vegas FA's fall recap. We are very excited. We have a lot planned for the upcoming semester as well. And yeah, thank you guys. >> Addison, great job. You guys were busy. Yeah, it was a very There's some um events that weren't even included on this. We had to cut it a little bit short, but yeah, it was pretty fun. >> But great job. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> All right. >> Next up, uh this is the 2526 school bond boundary proposal. Mr. Sersby. Good evening, board members. Let's get everything set up here. Okay. So tonight we're coming with you uh for information only and this is talk about the boundaries that currently we have for the elementaryaries uh here in town. And typically a best practice for
074a school district is to redo the boundaries every 5 years. It's been a little over 5 years. Last time this was done is when Grasslands Elementary was opened up and it's been some time now. Um some of the other uh reasons and the main reasons up here as you can see is to rebalance elementary populations to reduce and streamline busing routes. Uh we have buses right now going criss-crossing the town right now which isn't good. We have sometimes bus routes I have four different schools on it as they drop them off to go from west side down to the high school and all over the place. um with uh you're going to see in a second will help actually reduce some of the bus stops um a bus route and streamline the direction that our
075kids are going rather than going east and then back west. um to relieve overcrowding in Grasslands Elementary. Um the way the town has grown over the last 5 years and the houses are being built, that place has been completely impacted and with the forecast of building new houses out in their boundary area, that population is only going to increase and cause a problem that is already um at a school that's already overcrowded. um to give Westside Elementary a walking boundary with the DA program that is now in its uh K or actually I'm sorry TK through third it will be moving into a fourth grade year and being that it's basically a magnet school to where kids from all the district attend they will not need a boundary and part of this uh when you
076see the numbers in a second the DA program pulls from across the whole district and we'll be able to provide Westside a boundary that kids can walk do. Let me move into the first map. Um, before I show you that, I do want to say that we worked with a consultant on this. There's many different which ways you can draw the lines in this town. Um, really they're north to south and some, you see how they kind of jaunt left or right, but really can't go east to west because of all our um, elementary schools in town kind of, if you look at it straight across. There's no way to draw the lines because one elementary school would have four other elementaryaries in its path. So um some zones of interest uh before you see
077the first map is this is the east part side of town and up in the upper uh northeast corner there. Um what we have up there is these are uh areas that are highly uh densely populated. Uh for example that upper corner up there is almost 200 students. To give you an idea that area there goes to Volta. That actually makes up one grade level span roughly. So kindergarten through sixth grade that makes up basically half a school right there. um if you're a two- wide school. The other areas out um that are highly populated, Upper Snow Goose uh which attends Grasslands Elementary that is uh close to 200 students as well too. And Lower Snow Goose is another area that has a lot of houses in a small little area which is about 167
078um that actually attend Charleston right now. The other little area says proximity to grasslands. There's a lot of undeveloped land right there and why there's not many students there. Uh that area is going to grow in time. Uh we do know that building permits have been per pulled over in that area and we're looking at anywhere between 62 and 72 new houses being built here in the next uh 12 to 18 months if it goes as planned. So these are just zones of interest because all the buildings occurring um on the east side of town right now. I know we've got building out to the southwest part of town, but the majority is over here is where most of the people are landing. And then of course out to the far east we have Henry
079Miller East. referencing that for a reason is those students have to go by every single school to go west to finally hit Henry Miller Elementary. So with the first uh proposed map here um by redistributing Mercy Springs Elementary does not change whatsoever. They retain their same boundary area. Grasslands has actually reduced up on top and Mo will assume more of their boundary as all our kids that are overflow from grasslands currently go to Moano Elementary. that is the first place they go to. Uh the upper area that you see in purple, it volta will still remain purple. And LF in this scenario um does not lose anything but gains back some of its old boundary from I think it's been about 6 years now. And we actually drop the line down from the fruit streets
080to Wilmont. And we eliminate a whole bus route up in that area. And these kids that live right there actually can walk to school. They're only two blocks away from LF. and the triangle that goes out uh there that's orange, there's only three houses out there um because that's all countryland. Other noticeable changes when you look at the center of the map, uh the pink or kind of red section um that is the old LBE boundary area and it actually becomes Westside Elementary and they will assume all that area. Henry Miller is in the the purple and the one thing you'll notice to the far west kind of that blue I guess it's blue compared to Henry Miller's area that is Badger Flat that comes down and goes all the way down all that area
081out to Los Banos Creek currently belongs to west side. We have a way to streamline work with David Taylor transportation. He had a lot of input on these maps in terms of where the bus routes go to help make it fluid make it very fluid and all those kids would actually go out to Volulta on the west side of town. Uh Charleston picks up everything to the east which used to be Henry Miller uh east and those are all country kids. There's only about 62 families out there. We have currently uh two bus routes out there. Originally it was one. Um but this is about as clean as you can make the lines. There's no way to go really east to west on this map. So this is scenario one. As you can see the
082numbers that are up there on the board what our current uh geo boundary is. And one footnote, over the last five years, these numbers for our boundary areas have not changed in the last 5 years. They either gone up or down by 20 students, give or take. Um, but they've stayed pretty much constant for the last 5 years. You can see the current enrollment numbers there where they're at. And I did not put a geo boundary for Los Elementary in this is they're going to become a magnet school with our proposal. And as well as you can see the DA population, they're sitting at 278. And that number is going to continue to grow each year. And by the time that that program gets due, it sizes out completely. We expect that school to be
083around 6650 roughly. Now, these other numbers over here, if you look at them, I'm sure um for example, if you look at the uh 2930 number there for Mo as well as uh Henry Miller, we are pulling students for our DA program from all these schools. We p pull a lot of them from the Henry Miller, Moano, Losb, current Losb Elementary, and Grasslands where it's predominantly where most of our students come from. So, this was um our first map that was recommended by our consultant. We went through several maps um but we're only bringing two to you tonight that makes the most sense for balancing our school district. So, this is map uh 1B by uh west side here. You can see on the bottom they actually have a bigger chunk on the bottom and
084retains part of its old boundary and brings more balance to everything here. It does increase a little bit. Uh let me see where the school is. It's uh Moano Elementary, but again in order to reduce some other areas. Um, it's kind of like you have to rob Peter to pay Paul's situation. Up in that northeast corner is probably uh the area where all know it is where all the growth is going to be and most likely where a new elementary school will be in time because that's where all the growth is going to be at. The other reason that um we like this map and this would be our first choice here um for discussion purposes only is because that way Westside retains its um some of its original boundary area. And you're probably wondering
085how we're going to go about doing this moving forward and what the plan is. Our plan and timeline would be to meet with LBTA, meet with CSA, the representation to have a minimum of three community meetings. One at Pekco High School, one at Creekide on both sides of town have a virtual minimum. If we have a bigger interest, we'll offer more. Uh we want to bring a a final recommendation with the board by February at the latest by March. March is really our cut off point in times for us to communicate with our families. This is only going to affect about onethird of our district. Most the um if I go back to the map real quick for you, I'm going to just go back to this one. The LF families that are currently there,
086it does not affect them. Most of the Henry Miller families, it does not affect them at all. Grasslands lose a little bit. Mo, it doesn't affect them. They expand. Mercy Springs stays the same. Charleston stays the same. So, there's some changes here, but the biggest changes to note is really the westside boundary and the LB boundary is the most by cutting down the top northern U boundary to Grasslands Elementary. Um, as I stated before, um, these were in done in conjunction with consultant. These were the best scenarios that worked out. Um, he told me we could move, you know, you can move it maybe over one street. it's negligible when it we're talking maybe 10 students. It depends. Some of those areas may seem big. Um but if you look at it through Google Earth,
087you can see that there's only farmland out there. And the other uh part that we would do through this uh reboundering process would be to anybody that's at their existing school would be grandfathered in. The one difference between last time and this time is if we have an existing fourth grader say at Henry Miller Elementary and for the next school year the boundaries change. The incoming kindergartener would have to go to their new boundary school. Now, it has always been our practice that we keep families together. That family will have the option if the if they want to bring the fourth grader over to the new boundary school because that will be their new boundary school. But if they wish to keep that fourth grader, sorry, fourth grader at that site, they have that option,
088too. And it will be my job along with others to make sure that we hold that line and that no, you go to new boundary school because that's the only way we're going to be able to rebalance our district. We have multiple kids that don't attend their boundary school. Um those are things in the past. We don't need to get into that. And I'm sure there might be lots of questions. So, uh, questions, please. >> Questions. >> And I brought my pen and paper with me. [laughter] >> All right, Miss Bel. >> So, when are you when is this proposed to start? >> This would be for next school year. >> It would be. >> Yes. For the 26 27th school year. >> Cuz I see 2930. That's why I was going, what? >> Oh,
089those are the projections for um the outy years. Okay. >> And and those are again guesstimates. And if our if it stays the same, that may not even get there. They keep building houses, but again, for the last 5 years, our um overall population has only went up or down by 20 students. Other questions? Other questions? >> Mr. Lee. >> So, I appreciate what you're trying to do here. Um and it has to get done. I mean, and there's never going to you're never going to make everyone happy. Um, I just it's unfortunate that the whole people in that Quail Street area um who are a lot closer to Myano than they are to Volulta um are going to have to be bust Yeah. >> all the way out there. So, just, you know, I
090guess there's just no way around it. Someone's going to be inconvenienced here. >> Yeah. Um some of those uh streets that are up there because of how the houses are packed so tightly. I've actually taken some time to drive around these areas, too, and there's no way to put a line through them. They've got to go somewhere. Um, our country schools are kind of a catch-all for the ones on the outer parts of town. Um, just because of the way, you know, um, our town has grown over time along with where schools been placed. >> Yeah. >> All right. Any other questions? >> All right, Mr. Sersby, we can't wait to see the next step of this. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Maybe we can. I don't know. Thank you much. >> All right.
091Um, school dashboard dashboard is that Dr. Richie. >> So, good evening board. So, today we're going to talk about the uh California school dashboard uh the results. It uh went live last month and so we're going to share today just some of the progress we've made as a district. So, just to reiterate, the the dashboard is the way the state of California measures um school success. There's there's six state measures and five local measures that the dashboard um has to report on. It's updated every December. They're actually updating a little bit earlier now. Uh this year was in November, and they say they're going to get to the point where they update in October. I'm not holding my breath, but we'll see what happens. So the six state measures are under academic performance, high school
092graduation rate, suspension rate, chronic absenteeism, college and career readiness, and English learner progress. And there's complex formulas that go into each one, but I'll I'll give you the basic version. The it's determined by u the performance levels in every um one of these areas is determined by comparing current year data to prior year data. They measure it by how much you increased and or decreased and what your what your actual level is at. So if you look on the chart up there in the upper left that gives you the the uh the y-axis gives you the uh the level is it considered very high, high, medium, low or very low. And across the top the x-axis is by how much it grew. Did it grow a lot? Did it grow a little? Did it decline?
093And then they give you a color code um based on where you're at. So if you see where it shows right there that the the areas that are highlighted the school that increased from the prior year and they're also very high, it would be considered green status. And so they give you the performance statuses are red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. Blue being the highest, red being the lowest. So basically all that's being said, you want to be blue. You don't want to be red. And now for this our performance in academics um it's measured through uh through ELA through mathematics and through science you see that that we have achieved a yellow status as a district where and they measure it by points uh points above or below standard. So there's when based off
094the CASP results the CAS results will have a hypothetical average where where you're at. They'll take the average of students in the district where they performed compared to that average across where they say the average should be and then where you out on the other side. So our students performed at 40 44.2 points below standard that's actually an increase of 5.3 points which it doesn't seem like much but I'll be honest as if you look at these across the state. Anytime you move more than two or three points in a year it's a really good year. You move double digits you had a great year. And so we had a very good year last year for English language arts where it increased five 5.3 points in mathematics maintained. We had a slight increase of 1.6
095points. Um what we saw was we had a couple grade levels that really really moved up. We had a few grade levels that moved down. And so that's why we're kind of sitting there in the middle of that that 1.6 points. For science um also it's we're 44 points. um let's just say below average. I messed that up. Um but we basically maintained and so that's a that's a new area. Uh last year there was no color associated with it. It was just based off that was the first time science was counted. So this year they actually the first time they given a color code and so that's something that we'll be looking at and going forward of how well we're doing teaching the uh the next generation of science standards. English learner progress. Um
096this is determined by students on the LPAC. um how well they how well they're doing and it's by students who scored a basically scored a three or a four or moved up a level and it's it's fairly complicated but we have 44.5% of our students making progress um we've had years we've had higher we maintained um this is something that we've uh if you look at um our reclassification rates we have lots of kids getting reclassified and so uh what we're what we're looking for is trying to help our students continue to make progress we continue reclassify students at such a high level. Our graduation rate is the area where where we really um shine as a district. We have almost 96% of our students graduate each year. Uh that increased by 1.2% this past
097year. And compared to the state, we're well above the state average and we're actually well above um the uh the average for Merced County as well. This is the probably the one I'm the most excited about. Our suspension rate uh has declined by 2%. Um we have been about three times higher than the state average for if you look back over the past 10 to 15 years. Um our suspension rates been really high. This last year it dropped by 2%. So we're now we're only about 2% higher than the state average. And if you look at our initial rates right now, um we're actually well below. We're about 3% actually about 2 and a half% right now for suspension rates this year. And you know, there's always the the the uh thought of like, well,
098that just means that you're not suspending kids because you're still getting in trouble. You're not doing anything for them. Well, I always my push back is always, well, we consistently we've had three times the state average of suspension rates and we still have behavior issues. So, that's obviously not working. So, many of our schools are doing something a little bit different, focused on restorative practices, focus on positive behavior interventions. And what you're seeing is that our referrals, we track that as well. the number of students who were referred for discipline for major um referrals that's dropped dramatically and also for minor referrals that's dropped dramatically as well. And so we're seeing is that we actually have students who being referred less um to for discipline as well as a reduction in suspension rate. So, it
099shows that the work we've been do doing with providing more counselors, with providing more positive behavior interventions, restorative justice practices, and I'm going to give a shout out to um Los Junior High School right now because they've been leading the way with restorative justice practices. They went from I was just looking at this the other day, they went from two years ago, they had 350 major referrals. So, major referral is like fighting, bringing drugs on campus, um just stuff that you just don't want to have happen. um two years or last year it reduced to 250. This year they have 15 so far. And so even if we get into second semester is usually much higher. Even gets up to 50. Even if they get up to 100, that's still well below what's haven't passed.
100And also uh the suspension rate at LM Junior High School, it decreased from um last year it was they decreased from 13 to 7% last year and then this year they actually are at 2%. There's been two students suspended the entire year so far at a junior high school which by comparison the other two high schools are sitting about 35 students and the other junior high school is sitting about 40. And so you see that when a whole staff works together, they're focused on on practices that make sense and they really put a systemic way approach about it, it makes a difference. And so we're be looking at trying to mimic some of those practices across the rest of the district. But overall, I say once again, I'm very excited about the the fact that
101the behavior supports, the counselors, the work that we've been doing, it's it's paying off and we're seeing the difference. An area that we want to improve on more is chronic absenteeism. We're we declined last year, which is a good thing, but we still have 22 and a half% of our students that are considered chronically absent. And those that students who have missed 10% or more, so 18 or more days of absences for the school year. Um if you prior to COVID, we were about 12 or 14%. Um, we are right about a little bit above the state average as far as in comparison to Mercet County. We're below the rest of the county, but you know, this is, you know, I, you know, it's all about kids education, but we also get funded based off
102ADA. And so, when kids aren't here, we don't get funded. And so, we'll be spending a lot of time figuring out how can we how can we reduce that rate even further because that reduction, we actually had an increase in ADA last year. And so you can see that the that is the the more we can decrease the amount of students who are absent the more the higher ADAB which will also result in funding for our programs and students. College career readiness rate we maintained. It's 38%. Um I was kind of hoping it's going to be higher. I thought we would be higher but there's some things that we need to we need to fix at uh with some of our tracking and so we found we we've already addressed some of that. We expect
103this to increase for next year. Something else to be very proud of is that we don't have any stu any schools that are in um CSI which is uh school basically school support. Um I I call it school jail. It's when they did say that the schools need to have a little more guidance and support in order to improve. That's when you have two or more e either you have one category in the red or you have two or you have a subgroup that has two or more areas in the red or two or more subgroups area in the red and we didn't have any schools that well for that. We have two schools that qualify for um for additional targeted school support and improvement uh learning philosophical and side junior high school. But overall
104we're very pleased. We also, as a district, for the first time in a decade, we um did not qualify for district assistance um which was we're very excited about. We're I think the only district in Merced County that actually um left um district assistance versus uh being entered into it. So, we're we are making progress and we're increasing um our um excellence for students and also that and that's due in large part to the hard work of our staff um both our certificate and classified employees and all that they're doing for our students. Things that to be excited about our mathematics and ELA performance continues to increase graduation rates remain high. We decline in chronic absenteeism and our suspension rates decline across the district. areas for growth is um we still have our suspension rate
105is still higher than the state average and we want to continue decreasing that and the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards in ELA mathematics and science is still low even though it's improving we'd like to see it not only improve but improve at a faster rate and so that's the next step is like it's great to see growth but now say how can we increase that growth and uh make it go a little quicker and then um as also our focus is always on helping our English learners continue to make progress and be successful. Questions, Mr. Lee. Um, on the chronic absenteeism, >> yes. >> Uh, chart, explain to me the 7,942 number. I don't I don't understand that. >> That's the number of students who are qualify under under chronic absenteeism. It's they
106only chronic absenteeism is a K8 number. So it doesn't count any of the students from the high school. The high school is counted under college and career readiness rates >> and that's only from the graduating class. So when you're talking chronic absentism, it's only from from actually TK TK through 8th grade. >> So there's 8,000 students that are chronically absent. >> There's 8,000 students in the district. >> 8,000 students in the district through 8th grade. So that that number is the here's the amount of students who are who are enrolled in our district. And of that 7,942, 22.5% of them are considered chronically absent. >> Meaning chronically meaning like once a week, once a month, >> we need 18 plus days of absences during the school year. So be considered chronically absent. You have to
107miss 10%. And so there's 180 days in the school year. So if you miss 18 plus days, then you're considered chronically absent. So that 22, I'll do just rough math real quick. If you're looking at 8,000 students, so you're looking at a little bit over 1,600 kids, about 1,700 students who in grades TK through 8 who missed 18 plus days of school last year. If you drop that down, I'm sure Mel or Dr. Lee can tell me off the top of their heads, you drop that down by 100 kids, well that's that's several hundred,000 in terms of um ADA. And not only and not only that, you get into when you look at students who are underperforming or having difficulty with either learning and we'll just take it down to the first grade. If a
108first grader misses 18 plus days and during the school year, that student has missed a month of of education. They miss a month of education. They're trying to teach a teacher trying to teach that student how to read. Part of part of teaching a student to read is that they got to stack the days. It's not only being there for the concerts when they're taught, but also being there for the practice. And the practice is going to happen in school. So if a kid's missing 18 20 days of school, well, they've missed a month of school. And it's I won't say it's impossible, but it's really difficult for that student to make progress if they're not in school. And so for us, one of the things that you go into our um achievement, it's really
109tough to increase achievement if you have 20% of your students who are missing a month of school every year. It's tough for the It's tough for the teachers to be able to have continuity of the students. It's tough for the students to learn at a a pace. It's tough for the students to get the practice in. So attendance is is attendance is a big deal. If a kid's not there, the kids kid's not going to learn. And so one of our one of our things that we're going to be focusing on, we have focused on, but we're going to we're going to have to continue to step it up is how do we help our students be able to get to school and be able to stay in school. Now, if the child's sick, stay
110home. No one's it doesn't do do anyone any good if the if the child's the child's sick. And that's for staff, too. But they're not all home because of that. There's lots of reasons. And so, it's for us to get a better understand why why that's happening and what we can do to support and help our families with their students and help our students be able to be be there because when kids in school, they're getting fed. They have they have support. They're getting um they're getting quality first instruction and they're just going to do better and perform better over time. So maybe offline we can talk because I I want to know I'm interested in knowing what we do as a district. Whose job [clears throat] is it to track these 8,000 students? >>
111Well 8,000 students. Once again the 8,000 students that's every that's every enrolled TK through >> I say is there one person that takes care of all? >> Oh yeah. We only have one that looks at that. No kidding. We have it's it's the it's all the schools. That's part of what their what their job is for the front office staff, the administrators, the teachers. That's why we collect attendance and Miss Morz is the one who coordinates that for the district. But there's systems there's there's work that happens at the front office, the classroom level, administration level that um goes into how can we get these kids here, >> connect to the parents to say absolutely >> we need your student back. >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Right. All right, Mr. Al, >> I
112quickly went through all the schools and looked at each one and there are some schools who are just shine >> stellar. Absolutely. >> They're stellar. So, I'm just I'm just wondering if we are looking at what practices they have in place. >> We are actually >> so that we can try to encourage those practices in the other schools. >> We are. You see the the the schools are highly competitive with one another as is, you know, it's just human nature. They're also very collaborative and so there's lots of dialogue back and forth. There's practices are happening different school sites where they're they're talking to each other about what's going on with yours or mim mimicking. And that's happening both at an institutional level, a school level, but it's also happening at a grade level. There's
113grade levels that are collabing with one another. Hey, we're trying this thing in a way or teachers calling up their friends saying, "Hey, you guys are having a lot of success. What's going on there? What can we do to to mimic that?" And so, we're seeing some of that happening across the district. And we're and like I said, and I talked about the superintendent report of the you looking at the map scores, we're already seeing some growth happening at some school sites that historically haven't had a whole lot of growth, but they're changing some of the practices that they're doing. We're seeing some some things starting to happen there. So yeah, that's that's definitely something that we look at and we talk about how can we mimic the practice they're having in schools that are
114having excellence and how can we help maintain that in the schools where they're continuing to have excellence. Any other questions? All right, Dr. Richie, thank you for that information. >> On to item D, which is the schedule of the 20 25 board meetings. Um, all I can say is that we're dictated by ED code and our bylaws. So, we're stuck with these dates. Yeah, we we we did a deep dive on the bylaws to see if we can play around with it and we can't. So, it's recommended the board adopt the schedule for the 2026 board meetings as submitted. Got a motion by member Moran, seconded by member Smith to adopt the schedule of 2025 board meetings. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Carried unanimously. On to the next item, item E, the Las
115Unified School District 2026 27 school calendar first reading. That Dr. Richie, >> it's recommend the board review the 202627 school calendars with intent to adopt the calendars at the January 8th, 2026 regularly scheduled board meeting. >> Comments or questions? >> Motion, please. >> Got a motion by member Lee, seconded by member Valado to declare our intent to adopt the 2627 school calendar. All those in favor? I opposed. It is carried on to item F, St. Louis and Crossroads Alternative Education 2026 27 school calendars. First reading. It is recommended the board review the 2026 2027 school calendars for St. Louis High School and Crossroads Alternative Education Center with anticipation anticipated adoption at the January 8th, 2026 regularly scheduled board meeting. >> Questions, comments? motion. >> Second. >> We got a motion by Valadeo, seconded by Leeb
116to declare our intent to adopt the St. Louis High School and Crossroads Alternative Education Center 2026 27 school calendars. First reading. All those in favor? >> I opposed. It is carried. All right. Thank you, Dr. Richie. And on to item G, our first interim budget report. Welcome, Mel. >> Okay, it is recommended that the board approve the 2526 first intram pudger report. First of all, I want to acknowledge Delilah Flores for her cute artwork that she did for us. This is the best part of the book. all the work that goes into it, it's worth it to see what the students submit to try to get on the cover. So, we look forward to that. The formative budget process. This uh report covers where we are standing from July through June, sorry, July through October
11731st. You will see me back again in March. That will give you the update from July to March 31st. We've had a lot of discussions regarding what the unrestricted and restricted funds are, but I added fund balance to this. Um, you also hear fund balance rever referred to as reserves. Um, this represents the unspent funds at the end of the fiscal year. These balances are categorized into restricted, unrestricted, non-spendable, committed, assigned, and unassigned funds. Summary. So, how did we end up on October 31st? We went into we ended the October 31st with a 2.3% cola. Our stirs um remain the same at 19.10. We had a PERS decrease from 27.05 to 2681. We did have a show a decline in enrollment of 128 students. And I know we're all wondering where those students went. And
118I know Dr. Richie is working with Mr. Morrage and Mrs. Ellington to try to figure out where those students went. I believe that we did narrow it down to secondary. Correct. Secondary. However, we did have an increase of ADA of 59 students which helped balance that loss. So to me, any growth there is good growth since we are funded by kids in school. We did have a nice jump in our unduplicated pupil percentage from 81.68 68 to 83.30. That is all to our alternative income forms that we collect at the beginning of the year. We fully expense the educator effectiveness grant and we received new revenue of the student support and professional development block grant of 3.1 million. And you remember about a year or two years ago, we received 199 million in the learning
119recovery block grant, but the state took back 2 million. Well, they gave us 859,000 back. So, I'll take any money they want to give back. Send it our way. We also received the cowshaped grant of 46,373. So, [clears throat] multi-year projections were created with these current colas. They were what we received when the governor signed the budget. Um, we are hearing that next year is already dropped down to about 2.51. We're hoping that it doesn't drop any lower than that, but we would have liked it to say at 3.02, but we're hearing that it's going to be more around 2.51 at this point. However, I did do multi-year projections based on the information that we had at that time. So if that changes, second interrum will look different than what we have with this if
120that cola continues to fall. The components of the LCFF um I always put the numbers in here, but I thought it would be nice to see the chart. This is the money that we get from the LCFF calculator. That way you could see the home to school transportation, the targeted instruction, and the transitional kindergarten grant. We get $1.8 million for that. the supplemental and concentration we get 41.9 that is the LCAP it's for student um improving student support and services then you'll see our average daily attendant attendance which is the grades span adjustment and the base grant the 115.4 4 million. That's what we get for kids attending school. So, anytime we can get those numbers up, I'll take 60, I'll take five, I'll take 10. Any improvement helps us out there. So, our revenue,
121our total revenue for um as of October 31st was 224.9 million. As you'll see, 73% of our revenue is the LCFF funds. We have 2% local revenue, 20% state revenue, and 5% federal reserves. At this time, we have not heard that we're getting any reductions in federal reserves. So, when you guys look at fund one in your budget books, you may look at and say, "We're deficit spending." That's a question everybody has. When I look at I have to look at it as restricted and unrestricted. So, I kind of tried to break it down in a way because the book's a bit much. So unrestricted we had revenue of 169.4 million. We had projected expenses of 155 which leaves us a fund balance of 13.6. That's 13.6 is our 3% required state reserves. Any LCAP
122carryover or lottery carryover and our payroll reserves. So in restricted we had 55.4 million in new revenue. This year we had ex we have projected expenses of 78.2 million. So that shows us spending 22.7 million more revenue than what we have. But keep in mind when we closed the books we carried over 47.9 million. So that 22.7 million is us spending down the one-time grants that we have as carryover. So like the learning recovery block grant, we have five years to spend that. Community schools, five years. Prop 28, three years. So that money that we've carried over, we're spending down. Yes, it looks like we're spending more revenue than we're getting right now, but we're spending down the revenue that we've had for those programs. We have a certain time limit on most of those
123programs that they have to be expensed. when you look at it as a whole, it looks like over deficit spending, but we're technically spinning down the carryover that we we're carrying over at the end of the year. So, hopefully that helps. If you have questions, let me know. We'll go over that as well. So, our expenditures, I kind of wanted you guys to see instead of just throwing the numbers out there to show you where we fall. Um, our certificated salaries, which is teachers and unrepresented admin, is 35%. Our classified salaries are 13. Employee benefits is 27. Books and supplies is 7. 13% for services and 4% for capital outlay. So our unrestricted reserve levels as you could see were any um October 1st interim at 6.55 and multi-year projections. So 4.61 and 4.24. you
124are going to see those reserve levels drop as we're spinning that onetime fund because those are those are revenues that we're expensing and we're having higher expenses because we're expensing those one-time grants. And then I wanted to give you a snapshot of our of our enrollment versus funded ADA. You can see throughout the years we pretty much stay the same. We don't have any large growth or or any um really big variances throughout the years. So how did we end up altogether as a whole? We started with 71.4 million. Our current revenue for this year is 224.9 with expenditures of 237.1. Our ending fund balance is 59.3. What does that consist of? 20 29479 for non-spendables and I'll explain what that is. Then we had restricted of 45.1 payroll reserves of 5.1 LCAP carryover of
125a million.08 lottery funds of 1.7 and the 3% reserves of 7.1 million. That unspendable is what I keep in the office in a checkbook for emergencies. If someone's checks lost in the mail and we need a check or someone didn't get paid, that's what we use. That's for emergency basis only. So the final synopsis, we are able to financially meet our obligations for the current year and the two subsequent years with the support of one-time state funds ADA and COLA increase. Um, our priority has always been to maintain a safe and secure learning environment environment for our students. This includes investments in curriculum, security, facilities, maintenance, upgrades to ensure a safe, supportive environment for our students and staff. Any questions? I know you have questions, Dana. I can tell by the look. >> Male, >>
126you know, it's taken me years to try to understand this budget, but I think I'm getting there. I think I'm understanding. >> You can call me anytime. I'm always there and you have sat there. Um, you know, one of my concerns is, you know, why did we reduce the deferred maintenance? >> I will tell you why. Because you have to remember we gave LCAP contributed 2 million. So the 2 million and the 3 million is the five. So we're still at the five. Last year we didn't have the 2 million commitment from LCAP. So that's why we gave five. If I kept the five and the two, we'd be giving seven. >> Okay. So we didn't have it. Now it's a three-year LCAP. So we should have it for the next three years. >> So
127there's there's two more million in LCAP. That's not representative. Correct. Okay. >> Correct. Good question. The other one is is we we still haven't ratified the raises for classified and >> what's the other one? >> Unrepresented. >> Unreesented. >> So that's not in here either. >> That does not reflect that because I I didn't want to present something I didn't know. >> I understand. But that's another big budget item. >> Yes. >> Well, that will that have effect on the um outy years? Um, I think we'll be okay because the the one-time bonus that's underrestricted and the L the when we look at the raise, not everyone's funded out of general fund. So all those categorical programs that fund those employees, they take that hit. Only the general fund takes the hit for the people
128paid out of general fund. So it's when you look at the whole the general fund's not taking the hit for the entire district only the people that are funded there and fortunately most of our staff are funded from special programs that aren't general fund. >> But when you but when they look at the uh combine unrestricted and restricted together doesn't look too good. You have to remember we're fortunate that we've been very careful with our spending that we have $45 million in carryover in restricted. We've been very careful. And the funny thing is all these programs you hear about all the stuff we're doing for the kids like the band going to the choir going to Hawaii and all the community school. That's all stuff that's taking place with these restricted funds. Those are good
129examples of it. >> Question. >> Sure. >> Right. Mr. believe. >> So, let's talk about grants. These block grants we're getting, right? There's a number of them, right? >> Yes, we have several. >> So, so list them for me if you would please. >> So, we have the learning um learning emergency recover block grant. That's what's paying for the extended years of all our ISIS and our mental health counselors and our extra academic counselors. That's a five-year grant. Okay. >> Then we have the Oh, we have several. We have the new one that we got that um I just said what it was. Student support and professional development block. That's another grant we have. Um Dr. Richie, can you think of the grants off the I have like >> community schools >> learning recovery block
130grant. >> Prop 28's not a grant. I was going to say that but it's not a grant. >> They expand learning >> ELO the after school program that's a grant. We have a lot of employees funded from that. >> So all these grants that we have they have a timeline associated with them right like the community schools grant is a 5-year grant. >> Correct. So when we are spending money from the grants every year at the end of the year, are we obligated to spend all that money? I mean, if it's a let's say community schools, it's a five-year grant with a fixed dollar amount if you divide it by five. Is it set up that we have to spend that much money every single one of those years? Or if we don't spend it
131all in one, we can carry it over into two? >> Yes, we can carry over three or four. Do all of our grants work that way or do we have grants where we have to spend a certain dollar amount? >> Most of them we we we have to spend it within a time frame. It's never like you have to spend this much this year. They'll say you have three years to expense this. >> You have the whole year to expense it. All three years. >> Sometimes we don't get notice of those grants till midyear. So we've already lost several months that we could have used those grants. >> Right. Okay. I wanted clarification because I was wondering if if we're working on a budget whereby um we are equally dividing the grant money over a
132period of time and if we don't spend it we lose it that we have to we have to spend it otherwise we can't carry it over. >> There is a lot of grants that if you don't use it you do have to return it. >> Do we have those in place? do, but we always spin them cuz usually like when we get a new grant, like we just got one for um some literacy screening, I'll let ED services know, look, we've got this grant. Let's try to find ways to use this trainings and stuff before we tap into general fund, right? >> Because we're limited with those funds. Let's use them before we touch general fund. We always try to do that. Eric will meet with me on new Mr. King to say, "Look, what
133do we have this year that that we can use for this and this?" We meet a lot and we talk about that >> and our so our budget is a living document. When those grants come up, you plug that money into that budget. >> Yes. Okay. >> That's the hard thing about is about budget is >> the minute something happens it alters it. If we open a PO for $500 but we expense six, it now changed it. >> If we get a credit in the mail, it it's like a living. It's constantly moving and there's a thousand moving pieces at once. I would love to be able to every day say, "Look, this is what it is, >> right?" >> But it's just impossible with a budget that sucks. >> And you never know what
134emergencies are going to come up that you have to write a check for to pay for something that's broken that has to be repaired. >> Correct. Usually when we have to write for something that happens like that, it's deferred maintenance. And we use fund 14 for something like that, >> right? Which is why we always try to use restricted funds prior to hitting general fund. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. You're welcome. >> Sure. Our final reserve balance is 13.1 I'm sorry 6 >> in unrestricted. Yes. >> Okay. And so is that where the the bonus is going to come from? >> No. The bonus coming out of the >> the different funds >> that's under the bonus is unrestricted. >> Okay. Will anything come from this fund? >> The only thing that will
135come from general fund is anybody that's paid the 1.5. anyone that's paid underneath that. >> Yes. >> Not a lot of our staff is funded from 01 surprisingly because if you look like the like ELOE, that's one of our hugest programs. We pay so many people out of that fund. That doesn't even touch general fund. So ELO takes the 1.5% hit, not general fund. >> It's just any%. Yeah. >> Well, no, like our secretaries are general fund, like our office staff's general fund. Um, our custodians are general fund, but some of our head custodians are maintenance, so it doesn't hit fund. It It's kind of across the board. We just have so many people funded under different things. Like, we have a lot of people funded under the learning recovery block grant right now because
136it's a five-year grant. We have a lot of people funded like all our security is funded out of LCAP. Our bus drivers are funded out of LCAP. >> So yeah, it's there's a lot of moving parts. >> So we will be good in March. >> We'll be in good shape in March. >> Yes, we will be in good shape in March. My projections is we'll be fine for the next three years. We always been very careful. And I think that that's great that we're careful. And I know when you hear declining enrollment, everywhere you go, that's the first thing every district is suffering from declining enrollment. But these are conversations that executive cabinet and cabinet are having. And Dr. Richie and Dr. Lee have had multiple conversations about, you know, being smart, being careful. Don't
137just buy because you need to buy, buy because we need it. And I think everyone's been very good. We've never been a district that I think purchased things excessively. We've always been careful. >> You know, at the conference they were talking about the decline enrollment in Central Valley in our district. Of course, we have none, but other public districts are outsourcing their school sites for the purposes. >> This is the first time I've seen it here and but every conference I go to, that's every district is like we're down 500 kids. And I'm thinking, okay, it helps us that our ADA is up because it kind of balances cuz we don't get funded off enrollment. We get funded off ADA. So, we can keep working to get ADA up. And I I really think that
138Mr. Morz does a great job at that and the sites and working and calling where these kids, you know, like Dr. Rich said, if they're sick, we don't want them there. >> But if there's other reasons, what are those reasons and how can we help to get those numbers up? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? >> Thank you very much. Have a good Christmas, everybody. Thank you. >> All right. So, we need a motion to approve the interim report and certify the district and meet its financial obligations. Motion. >> Second. >> Motion by Moran, seconded by Leeb. All those in favor? >> I opposed. And it's carried. All right. Thanks again, Ms. Marcella. On to item H. Tenative agreement between the Los Spanish Unified School District and uh California School
139Employees Association Local Chapter number 92. Is that Dr. Richie? is recommended the board hold a public hearing and ratify the negotiated agreement between the Losanos Unified School District, LBUSD, and the California School Employees Association, CSEA, and its local chapter 92 for the 2025 2026 bargaining cycle. Excuse me. All right, it is 9:07. We are going to open the public hearing. Is there anybody that wishes to address the board on this item? All right, seeing no one come forward, it is 9:07 and we will close the public hearing with that. Any questions or comments from the board? If not, I need a motion to ratify the agreement. >> Motion to ratify the agreement. >> Second. >> We got a motion by member Valado, seconded by member uh Moran to ratify the agreement between the uh Laspan
140Unified School District and the CSA local chapter number 92. All those in favor? >> I opposed. >> It passes unanimously. All right, Miss Monday. Notice of completion of the Laspanis High School modernization summer abatement. >> Good evening again. Um, it is recommended that the board approve the notice of completion for AFM Environmental Incorporated and Talton and Sun Incorporated for the Laspanis High School modernization school summer abatement project and authorized the filing of notice of completion. So, these are the two contracts that we opened up for that summer work. It's all complete. So, we're closing these with a notice of completion. >> All right. Comments or questions? Oh, okay. Mr. Lee, >> I have to say it. So, I read the whole um agreement and not one once in the agreement, correct? Correct me if I'm
141wrong. >> Which agreement? I'm sorry. >> The agreement that about the summer abatement project closing. >> Yes. >> The not once did I see the word asbestous in that agreement. >> So, that's what the main thing was about, right? Cleaning up the asbestous at Los High School. So the the abatement, yes, it removed all the asbestos exterior panels. We still have lots of abatement to do there during the project, but this was the exterior whole exterior um panels that had the asbestos in. We removed all of those from the exterior. >> So no more exterior panels with asbestous. >> No. Okay. >> No, that that's not true. The the back of the A building We we did not do that. >> Okay. >> That's the only part that still has that original asbestos board up
142there. >> Okay. I just find it interesting that in the terminology the word the word was never used as to what they're actually removing >> because they because it was a finishes they they didn't it was just a finishes package. It wasn't necessarily a asbestos package removal if that makes sense. So the demo and abatement is always abatement is us removing asbestos, >> right? >> So okay, >> wanted to [laughter] say that >> I'll use that word if you want in the future. >> We don't like to say it. [laughter] >> That's I know but you got to call it what it is. Right. >> Right. But abatement is removing any hazardous materials whether it be lead asbestos. >> Okay. Mold. Right. >> Okay. Clear. Okay. >> Any other questions? All right. Need a a
143motion to approve the notice of completion. >> Second. >> We got a motion by member Smith, seconded by member Moran to approve the notice of completion for the Las Vegas High School modernization summer abatement. All those in favor? >> I opposed. And it's carried unanimously. Thank you very much. On to item J, CSBA Gamut meeting and board policy development workshop. Is this uh Dr. Richie? [clears throat] >> Is recommended the board approve the contract with Gamut for the Gamut meetings platform and to assist the district in updating the LBUSD board policy handbook. >> Any questions? >> Motion. We got a motion by member Valadeo, seconded by member Leeb to approve the CSBA gamut meetings and board policy development workshop. All those in favor? I post and it is carried. On item K, bond measure survey
144service. This is Dr. Lee. Is recommend the board approve the proposed agreement between True North Research and Laspanos Unified School District. Any questions, comments? All right, seeing none, need a motion, please. >> Second. >> We got a motion by member Moran, seconded by member uh Valado to approve the bond measure survey service proposal. All those in favor? >> I opposed. All right, it is carried unanimously. On to item 12, consent calendar. Are there any pools in tonight's consent calendar? >> All right, hearing none. I need a motion, please. So move. >> All right, we have a motion by member Leap, seconded by member Smith to approve the consent calendar as listed. It is a roll call vote. Nette, please. Mr. Castro, Mrs. Gatuso, Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Dr. Moran, >> yes. >> Miss Smith,
145>> yes. >> Miss Valado, >> yes. >> And Mr. Pereira, >> yes. Passes unanimously. On to reporting out a close section action. And we'll do that. Expulsion case number 5510836 is expelled for the remainder of the school year. Students are to contact educational services for readmission following the period of expulsion for a review of attendance credits and/or grades behavior and recommended counseling. All students are referred to Valley Community School. Motion by Lee, seconded by Smith. Five yeses, no nos, no abstensions, two absence, which are Gatuso and Castro. Um, no other items in close session had action. Uh, item whatever number that is now, it's late. Discussion information and future agenda items. Anybody have anything? What are you laughing at? [laughter] Okay. Okay. Number 14. All right. >> They wanted the numbers. Number 14. Discussion, information,
146or future agenda items. Anybody have anything? All right. Seeing nobody run forward and say anything like they have anything to do. Um, next item is close session, which we finished. So, uh, we have nothing to report out. And it is 9:14 and we're going home. So, happy holidays everybody. Merry Christmas, happy Quanza, happy Hanukkah, happy new year. We'll see you next January. Good night, everybody.