001This meeting order at six three. We will start the meeting, sadly, with another moment of silence. Mr. Will be for Jeff Doherty, ESN student at Valley, excuse me. YMES who passed away last night. He lost his battle with cancer and he's been an exemplary teacher for all of his time at MUSD. Asked for everybody for move silence. Thank you. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance and we are proud to recognize Mrs. Angela Gay, our dedicated adaptive physical education teacher and unified program coordinator who will be leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance this evening. Last month while attending a professional conference, Mrs. Gay was introductive to the Special Olympics School Liaison Hall of Fame, an exceptional and well-deserved honor, recognizing her commitment to inclusion and excellence and physical education. The unified program brings together
002students with disabilities and their general education peers to learn, compete, and grow side by side. This program fosters acceptance, teamwork, mutual respect, while providing all students the opportunity to develop confidence, build lifelong skills, and experience the joy of achievement and belonging. As an adapted physical education teacher, Mrs. Gay ensures that every student, regardless of ability, has access to meaningful and inclusive physical education experiences. Her dedication, enthusiasm, compassion, make a lasting impression in the lives of her students, and with the broader school community. Congratulations, Mrs. Gay. We are proud to celebrate this remarkable achievement and the positive impact of your work. And if you ever get a chance, I highly recommend you attend one of the events. It's remarkable what they do. Thank you. I'd like Everyone to stand for the pleasant allegiance. Place your right
003hand over your heart, and ready. Begin. I pledge Allegiance to the five of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God and indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Next up, I'll be asking for a recommendation, uh, adoption for the tonight's agenda for February 10th, 2026. I Move. Moved by Pete, second by Roberta. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Five zero. Also looking for a motion to adopt the minutes from the January 13th, 2026 regular board meeting. So moved. I second Moved by Bianca second. A Missy. All in favor? Aye. Any nays? Five zero. Last motion will be the January 27th, 2026 Board study approval. Minutes. Minutes by Roberta second, but all in favor, A. Aye. Aye. Any nays? Five zero actions resulting from the
004closed session. We have two items, B resolved at the Board of Education. Accept settlement between Mongo Unified School District employee 7 9 0 5 passing and adopted this fifth, or excuse me, this 10th aid of February, 2026 and the county of San Bernardino, California that passed with the five zero vote. Next would be the expulsion of admission of pupil 4 9 8 18. Be it resolved that the better Board of Education. Accept the stipulation agreement for the immediate expulsion of student 25 dash zero two as and adopted this 10th day of February, 2026 in the county of San Bernard, California, also a five zero. Next up we have one report from the F Valley High School. Good evening. Hello. Hello. Good evening everyone. My name is Taylor Sores. I am the A SB Executive Board
005Secretary and I'm now going to hand it over to my partner. Hi, my name is Aiden Shannon. I'm the, uh, YVHS treasurer. And first I wanted to start off by talking about our school's, uh, school spirit and pep. We just, um, held a pep assembly and there was like the most amount of hype like I've ever seen at a pep assembly at our school. All the students were really engaged and I really enjoyed it. We even had a teacher, our teacher, Mr. Hanian and a few or his students, they performed this like martial arts like type dance. And everybody, all the students around are really interactive with it and I really enjoyed it. It was really cool. I just wanted to share that. But moving on to our A SB um, right now, our freshman
006class, they're continuing to do our monthly calendars and they're planning a interesting fundraiser that they're keeping hush away from the seniors. It's called Kisses Senior Goodbye. No idea what they're doing with that, but they're doing something. And then our sophomore class, they're held the Sadie Hawkins and they went remarkably well, not bad since we haven't had a dance in the winter in spring for a few years now. And they're also planning, it's a, um, spring fling. So we'll see how that goes. But I'm feeling that all the seniors and all of us we're gonna enjoy it. Going onto our, our junior class, the holding Valentine's Day grams, they're selling grams to at lunch where you could like buy them and you could write a little note to deliver whoever. And they pass 'em off to
007their seventh period. And then they're also having a, uh, Oaks Lodge breakfast fundraiser, the 21st. So if you guys could go there, that'd be really cool. And then they're also working on a Pie Day fundraiser. So on like pie day three 14, you know, we're gonna pie some teachers, maybe some seniors or something like that. They're also working on the Lip Sync Battle alongside the executive board, me and her Ella Berg and, uh, Eden Davis. And we're also, um, helping them with a powder puff football game with the girls Play Football and the Boys Cheer lead, if you haven't heard of that, our senior class is continuing to raise funds for fireworks at graduation. They're going around asking businesses for donations and all that jazz, you know, and they just finished over our senior timeline.
008It's very, it's very pristine of if I can't like, say anything else, but they're, they have our grad and I, our senior Exter and all that type of jazz locked in. But off to Taylor to finish it all for y'all. So as we know, our sports teams have been doing very well this year. We just finished our winter season, so that's done with soccer. Girls soccer is going strong into CIF and so is girls wrestling. So we are very excited about that. Um, oh my bad girls basketball team is going to CIF, but now we are starting swim baseball, softball, track boys tennis and golf at the high school, which we are very excited for. Our teams have been growing in numbers over the years. I've seen it for myself on the track team. We
009went from seven kids my freshman year to like 35 this year. So we were very excited about the more participation in our school. And then we also have our unified, um, champions events going on that if you don't know what unified is, it's basically where we pair our special education students with our general education students and we come together and we play sports and we call it the Unified Olympics, which we will be hosting WIT 29. And then we are also going to be having the first elementary unified field day, uh, at the high school on May 1st, which we are very excited about. And Ms. Angela Gay is so gratefully putting that together for us. And we also have a very exciting event coming up Flying Doctors. And for those of you who are
010not aware of what Flying Doctors is, it's basically where we provide services through the high school for people who cannot necessarily afford healthcare. We are going to be doing various health services for your ears, teeth, eyes, and hair. So we are also looking for people to volunteer at those events. And it would be really great if we could get out to the community or anyone that, you know, that may need a little extra help. And that's, that's basically all that we've been doing. Thank you. Is March 7th. Oh, Flying Doctors is March 7th and eighth. Thank you. Questions, question? No, thank you. I just wanna say thank you for what you're doing at your school community and the community at large. You are doing great. You're leaders and future leaders, current leaders, appreciate you. Thank
011you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. You Too. Do you know the drill? It looks like Have a good night. Y You too. Next up is our legislative report. No report this evening. No Report. Okay. We will have a report now from our classified representative. Good evening. Present board members, staff and Tracy Lane a little. Yeah. How wonder if your licensed bring it To you. Closer. There you go. There you go. Alright. Good evening all again. I'm representing CSCA. Um, with the agenda items that have been posted, we've received a lot of concerns and Mike Johnson and Terry Markley have done a great job of gathering that all for me to present to you today. So Our concerns laying off the non-licensed health techs, which are arranged 22 and replacing them with the
012same number of licensed health techs or Range 29, is not saving any money. So lack of funds for this layoff as a apply. There are currently three certificated district nurses. Are they gonna be tasked with covering the health offices? When you lay off these five health techs, these health techs are the ones whose boots are on the ground dealing with the students that pay our salaries. Why aren't individuals from district office who have no contact with the students daily being laid off? Why are their jobs more important than those that work directly with our paycheck signers? Why does MUSD have five superintendents with a student body of less than 8,000? Yet school districts with 26,000 plus seem to run efficient with a score. That additional money could go a long way at keeping our health
013techs in schools. It also go a long way in abolishing multi combo. The combination classes that we have, keeping our teachers in their current schools in a single grade class and making class sizes more manageable. There appears to be no thought process of how this layoff measure affects the functionality at each school site. Office staff is already being burdened with more work coming down from district office and they're task now possibly covering health offices on top of this additional work. Something has to give and hopefully it's not at the sake of students being licensed does not automatically make you a great health tech. Experience matters. A lot of our new licensed health techs are being trained by our non-licensed health techs that have been here for years. They know our students, they know our families,
014and they have been serving our district. They have the knowledge and the skillset. And the ca California Education code section 4 9 4 2 3 0.5 authorizes school personnel to de deliver specialized care such as catheterization, tooth feeding, and that includes non-licensed personnel. In addition, we are laying off ias, especially bis while we're using outside contractors. These outside contractors beg to differ the statement that there's a lack of work. Again, laying off employees using outside services doesn't bode well board members. We are the ones along with the teachers that work with your children, your grandchildren. We're the ones that show up every day for your children. Our teachers are showing up daily and educating your children. The health techs are showing up daily and caring for your children when they're sick, when they're hurt. The
015aids are showing up daily and providing additional supports to your students under the direction of their teachers. The office staff is showing up daily, making sure your children have everything they need and that their parents are heard and they comfortable when they're leaving their babies with us. The custodians are showing up, making sure your children have clean classrooms, lunchrooms restrooms, and our grounds are safe. Your nutritional services workers are showing up, feeding your children, maintenance employees, keeping our sites functioning so your children can have a safe place to learn. Keep laying off these people and keep hiring more district who are not responsible for the daily support of the students at the sites. Please show the classified and certificated teachers the transparency you all say you are working towards and explaining detail why these layoffs
016are truly necessary. In conclusion, licensed health Techs, we are valuable, but not at the expense of the fine individuals who have dedicated themselves to serving our schools or children. And to show the utmost confidence, empathy, and professionalism fill the current upcoming vacant spots with licensed people, we keep the status quo with our current health tax. Thank you Certificate representative. Hello? Um, I'll try not to yell on under the mic like my family tells me I do and on Zoom and everything else, but I fully do it anyways. Thank you President Claire, Dr. Vargas, members of the school board and, uh, representative staff, representative m TA for the opportunity to address the board tonight. Everybody knows me up there. Most of the people out here know me. I'm Amber Hanson. I'm the Morongo Teachers Association, um,
017president. And I'll start off by saying that we encourage you to hear the concerns of CSCA and work to address them and, um, um, come to a resolution that can be best for everyone. Um, with that I have a lot to talk about tonight, so I wanted to give an update. Um, we've been doing a lot of work in our union, uh, working on developing a special ed communication committee to start addressing special education concerns, um, and, um, determining what our members feel the most widely and deeply and addressing those, bringing them forward to the district to work together to solve problems. So that's been a lot of work. In December, during the last week before we went on break, our members, 30 of our members came together, uh, uh, on their own time to
018have a committee meeting and hear about how we organize and start going to sites to hear their concerns. So that was a gift of their time. Um, in January, we sent, Amy Woods came with us, and we sent five people January 31st to a deescalation training with a very powerful presenter, uh, to start, uh, getting that important training for our members. Um, we are looking to work with the district to bring this trainer out in March or April. Um, and MTA will pay for the presenter and the food and the district will pay for the members to attend training on their own time. So that's one of the many ways that we have been addressing the needs of our members and the needs of our students. Um, on February 25th, we have arranged for CTA
019to come and give a technology training during collaboration training to all of our MTA uh, members at the secondary sites. All secondary sites will participate. The training is called scaring You Away from Technology in 90 Minutes. And it is intended to help our members, uh, know how to set personal and professional boundaries, um, with technology. And so it's valuable. And if you would like to hear it, let me know and we'll send you the link and you can hear it too, um, because everybody should hear it's valuable training. Um, with that though, I want to bring up a few concerns we have. Um, so for second review tonight is the maintaining appropriate adult Student interactions policy, which is AB 41 19 0.24. Um, we agree that we need to have professional and personal boundaries, and
020we agree that the district should have a policy addressing that. Um, and as you can see, we are doing things like bringing in deescalation training and technology training to help our members with that ourselves. But we do have some concerns about some of the parts of this policy and how they would get implemented or interpreted. So also remember that we're regularly told that one of the interventions to manage behavior is to develop a relationship with students. And when you have this policy, which you need, if you are not careful with how it is implemented or interpreted, there can be overzealous implementation because context matters. So while I, we acknowledge there's some language here that says, you know, um, don't intrude the student's physical or emotional boundaries unless necessary in an emergency or to serve a
021legitimate purpose related to instruction, counseling student health or student or staff safety. So that's some language that's like, okay, obviously context matters, but context matters in a lot of situations. So for example, so what's going to matter, where everyone is gonna focus is on the enumerated points at the end. And if you pull those out of context, sometimes you can have a problem. So, for example, I had a student, he came to me in fourth grade. He, he came from Utah. He read at a first grade level. He had a IEP that had the same goals from first grade all the way to fourth grade. I don't know what they were doing over there, but it wasn't servicing the student and he was not motivated to do a lot of stuff. But that child loved
022Amazon and he loved looking at Amazon. He loved shopping on Amazon. So every day he would come in, tell me what he found on Amazon every day. If I got a new water bottle, Ms. Hansen, did you get that on Amazon? If I said, oh, geez, we need pencils, Ms. Hanson, you want me to buy that on Amazon for you? No baby, I don't want you to buy it on Amazon for me. What do you know? So when you say, don't give the student a gift, do you know what he got when he grew two years in my classroom and Amazon gift card? Nobody else got it. His grandma knew. But if you pull that out of context, according to your policy, I am at risk of discipline. So while you may need this policy,
023that is true, we have to protect our students. They deserve the best. We need to be clear on clear and careful on the implementation, and we sometimes need to pause when we see something and investigate with that. I wanna move into some other things. So we do talk about relationships, um, and how MTA believes our students deserve the best. So one of the ways that you show that your students deserve the best is with your budget. Your budget shows your values. So our NTA budget, what we have done, um, two years ago when we bargained, we bargained to pay for class size reduction that came out of our pocket. We did, instead of it going to our bank accounts, it went to our students' classrooms to have smaller classes. Um, this year we have given
02415,000, well, 13, $15,000 to our community. 12,000 in diaper donations and dations to our school sites for food drives. We are issuing a $1,000 donation to the flying doctors and we're excited to join, um, the Literacy for Life event that the district puts on on the 28th and do a $2,000 book giveaway for the students when they come. Um, in addition to that, we believe that the student, the schools need funds. So we worked very hard in collaboration with some of you and our community to pass Measure C, which took significant pressure off of the budget and deeply impacted some of our lives. For example, Lucia has a core memory to the point that two weeks ago at dinner, she goes at dinner, mommy, do you remember when we tried to pass Measure C? And
025I said, I do baby. And she said, that was so much work. And so what I'm telling you, I thought we were gonna die. But we did that, we did that, that, and we did not just barely do that, that thing passed with 60% and that was the work of our members. You helped. But the main thing was our members. And that was powerful. It changed the circumstances for our students, it improved their facilities, and that was work. And so yes, it gave her a core memory. But I also hope what it did, what our union members did for her and our other students, is it taught her some core values. That the power of a few people who believe they can improve something working together can make a huge impact. That a union, that
026a community is not you, it's not me, it's we, you can't spell union without you. And I, I hope she learned that. I hope our students learn that it's powerful. In addition to that, while we've been working on improving students' conditions with facilities, we also did a lot of work to eliminate the headwinds that was announced at the start of the year. A lot of work we're currently working on protecting school funding. Mr. Claire, Dr. Vargas, Mr. Daniels, I know you went to the Governor's budget workshop where they talked to you about Prop 55 and the danger of losing that money when that didn't, when that tax expires. So currently we are working to get the extension on the ballot. We're collecting signatures from our members. We have a goal of 85% of our members
027signing to get that on the ballot to protect school funding in 2020 $3. If that doesn't get on the ballot and pass, we risk losing $11.3 million. So make me, let me make clear that this is not a thing that I'm saying is going to happen, but to make it real for people. 'cause millions of dollars is hard to think about. It is the cost of about 113 teachers. So that's just to give you an idea of what the number looks like. So we're doing work now to protect that funding to make sure that doesn't happen. That we don't lose $11.3 million in 2020 $3, which by 2030 when expires could be worse. So we are at 64% right now in our first round. That's major organizing. That's major work to protect school funding because
028we do believe our students deserve the best. We're also probably going to work together to add a day to this school year after we asked our members, 55% responded and 75 of those said yes to train for the math curriculum coming. Um, and that was a major collaboration success. 'cause our members agree that we need the training and the district is agreeing that our time is valuable enough to pay us per diem to show up for that. That's a huge improvement. We appreciate that. Um, we also collaborated to do the minimum day that's been successful. We've been collaborating with, um, the math curriculum adoption process. That's been a new thing that we've done and that's been working out its kinks, but also moving ahead. Members feel like they have some voice, they're going to vote.
029They know that MTA is seeing the results as well. Those are major collaboration wins. So with all of that, we need to remember in bargaining, it's been good so far, but we're reaching the hard part now. We're gonna be talking about money. We're gonna be talking about shared decision making. So MTA has consistently shown that our budgets show our values that our students deserve the best. So when you go to bargaining and you come and present us offers, please be sure that your offers reflect your values and what you think we are valued at. So we are asking for fair compensation to recruit and retain our members and have highly qualified teachers because our students deserve the best and we're asking for shared decision making. Thank you Amber. Next up Marine Corps representative. I have
030nothing to report tonight. Thank you, Lori. This takes us to our reports by the superintendent and staff members. We will start with Amy Woods, who will do a presentation or a, an update on the CHOP program at 29 Office. Thank you President Claire. Um, exciting news. So we we're participating in the San Bernardino Chopped Competition, which is a culinary arts competition. And I just am so pleased to announce to you that 29 Palms High School, uh, did go and compete and the students were required to demonstrate technical skills, teamwork, time management, creativity, and professional kitchen practices while preparing and plating their dish. For industry judges. They worked collaboratively to assign roles, manage workflow, problem, solve under pressure, and they won first place for best main dish and third place for overall but even more meaningful.
031Yes, we'll clap, but even more meaningful is the students that grew in confidence and professionalism throughout the whole process. Opportunities like this allow our CTE students to apply classroom learning and authentic real world settings while building leadership and communication and career ready skills. And these same students will be catering the Flying Doctor's event March 7th and eighth. So congratulations. 29 high. Very impressive. Thank you Amy. And congratulations to students and the staff. Next LE Dave Daniels. This will be a follow up for the secondary lunch update and it'll also give us an update on 20th Palms Junior High Kitchen. Thank you President. We'd like to Thank the Board of Education and all stakeholders for the thoughtful input shared. At our previous meeting, we approached the proposed shift from two lunch periods to one at both
032comprehensive high schools with confidence in our assessment. However, we also recognize and value the concerns and perspectives that were recently expressed in the spirit of collaboration and shared purpose. We'll focus our time and efforts on implementing a one lunch model for the 26th 27 school year. Our planning will emphasize efficiency, assuring continuous meal availability for all students while providing appropriate levels of safety supervision. So that's our update on that. Regarding the Palms Junior High School construction, it's on schedule within budget. It's moving right along the kitchen hood, air curtains, wood doors, walk-in cooler, have all been installed. Uh, work is currently underway on the ceramic tile and low voltage cabling. The building mural is expected to begin soon, along with the interior and exterior doors. Uh, the frames will be painted soon as well. Uh,
033progress photos are available on the UC RUG website under the Measure C um, projects. Uh, tab, the anticipated project completion remains on track for April, 2026. Any questions from the board? Thank you for the update on both items. Or wait No. Next up we'll have, uh, the Citizens Oversight Committee give an update. Good evening, president Clare, members of the school board, Dr. Vargas and representatives of the Bargo Unified School District. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to address the board tonight. My name is Danny. I'm a member of the Measure C Oversight Committee. Tonight I'll be updating on our most recent committee meeting. All committee members were in attendance at the last meeting. Um, we did receive project updates just mentioned the 29 Palms Kitchen is, uh, junior high. Kitchen is on schedule within budget,
034the restroom relocation project designs have been sent to the architect and locations are being reviewed. Administrative administration buildings redesign has been approved and the architect is designing plans. Shade structure plans are pending approval from the architect. Steady improvements at both Yucca and 29 Palms High School. Have testing reports being reviewed by the architect. HVAC systems for the 29 Palms Junior High, uh, gyms, the Yucca Valley High School Gym, 29 Palms High School, and the classroom and cooling tower at on elementary and the planning stages and are waiting proposals from the contractors. The S-E-L-P-A portable units at Yucca Valley Elementary, condor Oasis, Onaga, and 29 Junior High are in the design and planning stages with the S-E-L-P-A director to discuss plans. The combination clock speaker and strobes were added to the scope of the PA and
035valve systems project and will be out to bid soon. A contractor is working on roofing maintenance. Uh, scope of project for the six school sites for the district to review. Uh, we did have a question, uh, that came up. It was if recommendations made by the MUSD enrollment committee with impact measure seek projects district. Uh, we were told district to be mindful of the potential recommendations, but is keeping the status quo for now. Uh, new tracking system for project management is being implemented to allow for more customizations and options. When financial reports are made to the committee. Uh, it should be easier to see what money is going to what projects. Um, in regards to the, uh, bond audit, uh, an independent auditor found that the district financial statements accurately and fairly represent the district
036spending on Measure C projects. Uh, we do have another committee member ask if there is a possibility that the district may apply for and receive grants to help fund measure C projects. And if this, and if the committee would have oversight on that funding. We found out that it is possible for the district to receive matching funds from the state, but only after the project is completed in a form of a reimbursement. And that's kind of gonna be beyond this committee's, uh, reach. Our next scheduled meeting is Tuesday, May 26th at 6:00 PM at the Joshua Tree Professional Development Center meeting room. Any questions? No. Thank you. That was very for your time. I appreciate that. Yep, thank you. Next up, we'll get an update from Janae Estrada for the enrollment committee. Good evening Board
037President Claire, board members Dr. Vargas and Cabinet. Um, I'm just gonna provide a really brief update on the enrollment committee's first meeting. So they held their first meeting on January 26th, bringing together committee members, district representatives and consultants. They elected their chair people, which Jennifer Ack was elected as the chairperson. And Carla Buchanan was elected as the vice chair. You'll be hearing from them moving forward. So this is just an initial one from me, but, uh, one of the main things the district presented on was the, a general overview of the district's financial condition and art enrollment trends. As you all are well aware, at its peak, our district had about 10,000 students strong and now we are down to 7,300. That is not unique to our district that's following state and country trends all
038across America. But it is an important note for us and it's, um, Impacting our operations. I think our audio's good. Okay, I'm just gonna talk for a minute. Um, the next meeting for the committee is on February 18th at 6:00 PM I do want to make a note for everyone here that our agendas are be scheduled for the board as well as any regular updates. And the information that they'll be going through is currently live on our website and will be updated throughout all of those meetings. That's available on the main page, separate tab that says enrollment committee. It has all of that major information on there. Um, I also want to take a minute to thank all of our committee members. We were very fortunate to have many community people apply for this committee
039and it is a big ask. It's a lot of time that we putting into it, so we just wanna take a minute to recognize the efforts. Thank you. Thank you. We'll now open the public hearing for AB 200 CSBA employees. Um, this is a reporting requirement for the tenant agreement reached with the CSEA. We have no public comment around that. May I get a motion to close the public hearing? Second Move by Roberta second by. Is that Bianca? Yes. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Five zero. Next up is our public comment. Individuals may address the board on issues within the jurisdiction of the the MUSD Board of Education that is not on the agenda. There's a time limitation of three minutes per person and 20 minutes per topic during the public comment. Please
040refrain from a clause or side commentary that to ensure that the board members can properly hear all public speakers, members of the public are expected to maintain professional courteous decorum during their comments. Inappropriate behavior which disrupts, disturbs or otherwise appe the orderly conduct of the meeting or result in forfeiture of your public comment privileges. The board is prohibited by state law from taking action or discussing items not included on the credit agenda. Public comments on specific agenda items will be deferred until consideration of the item on the agenda. And that last part applies this evening. We will, we have several for item 10 E that we will address at that point in the agenda, but we will start with Jennifer Mendon. Is it Rendon rather? Excuse me. Rendon. I'm sorry. Hello. Thank you for having
041me up here. Dr. Vargas and members, I would just wanted to mention something about ed tech. We currently have one-on-one computers with our students, and that's been increasing over the years. And I just wanted to give you a heads up. Um, I've been doing a lot of research on how ed tech, um, affects our kids' learning. As many teachers and parents can note, it has been harder for our students to learn the way we have in the past. Um, students are struggling to learn and to retain and to transfer the information that they get from the computer to a paper and pen. Um, there have been meta-analysis of computers and education published in 1977. It reviewed over 150 50 studies on the effect size of computers on education was 0.29. So put that number in
042your head. Point two nine. On the effectiveness of computers on learning in the research, researchers have discovered that teachers have the lowest benchmark face-to-face of 0.40, which is way higher than the 0.299 computers. Explicit instruction gets a 0.64, which is even higher guided discussions. Point eight two, jigsaw teaching 1.16. So to be satisfied with a 0.29 of computers, one-on-one technology and educating our kids. And we need to realize it's not working. It was 0.29 in the sixties. It is still 0.29 today in its effectiveness. There is just too much screen time in our kids. And the studies that I am looking at is not just our country, it's the world and other, um, countries and other states are slowly beginning to realize the ineffectiveness of EdTech one-on-one computers and are slowly, um, removing themselves from
043utilizing it as much as we have been. Not to say to get rid of laptops, but not to have the one-on-one screen time on the number of hours they have currently. Um, if you want to look at this doctor, he was an educator that turned into a neuroscientist and he, uh, specializes and the technology and education of children, the effects, the harm, what works, what doesn't, and why. Um, there's obviously a lot of parts of the brain that he can go into in much more detail than I can. I'm not a neuroscientist, but here's his name. Dr. Jared Cooney. Horvath Cooney, C-O-O-N-E-Y, Hova, H-O-R-V-A-T-H. This latest book has been published this year, that Digital Delusion. He has Other books on this as well. I encourage you all to look him up and see for yourself.
044Thank you. Thank you. Next up, Cora Heiser. Good evening Dr. Vargas and, uh, board members and captain must be a higher power at work to bring me here tonight. Uh, I'm here to speak about this board's responsibility. When systemic decisions prevent students with disabilities from accessing their education, sorry, within this district, there are clear differences in how special education processes are supported. At some schools, there are dedicated spaces for IEP meetings, flexibility to extend the meetings when we need to, and all the conditions for meaningful participation By contrast, and this is at 29 Palms Junior High. Um, I've held several meetings there this week, uh, because the sixth graders were moved despite known shortages in staffing and knowing that there wasn't enough space, our meetings are rushed, they're held for an hour. It's constrained by
045room availability and staff schedules and collaboration suffers. And I believe you could have foreseen this. The next incident is more to what another person has talked about. And, uh, the 24 25 school year, a family moved here with a extensive needs student. 29 high said, we don't have a nurse, so you don't get to come here. You're gonna go to ace, an independent study program for an extensive needs student. She came back this year. She really wanted to go to school at 29 high. And because the mom insisted a nurse was hired and she comes, but her mom has called occasionally and says, your kid can't come to school today. There's not a nurse available. Now imagine if you took your child to the doctor and you were told, sorry, we don't even see your
046kid today. There's not a nurse or a doctor available. I don't think you would find that acceptable yet. It is acceptable in this district. However, it's illegal and it's immoral. Um, and another, uh, but I do want to acknowledge yourself as staff. They are stepping up and attempting to support schools under very difficult conditions. I recognize they're doing their work with significant constraints and often without the benefit of knowing the individual students. That reality reinforces my point. When systems are underfunded, even well-intentioned professionals cannot deliver appropriate services. I also want to note that many special education teachers and staff are being asked to carry out complex legal processes, drafting IEPs, prior written notices without adequate training or support. When staff are not properly trained and required procedures, uh, the result is, again, illegal practices. One
047more thing, please. I hope the district, well, I shouldn't even say this, but I'll say it. I hope the district is taking steps to strengthen staffing and support going forward. That effort matters. Hire instructional assistant six hours, but moving forward does not resolve the responsibility for your decisions that you made already before. Adequate staffing, training, infrastructure in life. And when these failures affect access, participation and integrity, responsibility does not rest with the families, our staff. It's your responsibility. Thank you. Thank you. Next step. Margo gi. Good evening. My name is Margo Vert. I'm from Onaga Elementary School. I've come to you many times over the years and hope to make change in hopes to make change. Tonight I'm coming to ask for change with elementary combination classes. The rumor we're hearing is there will be
048a lot more combos throughout the district next year because this saves money. I hope the district and the board will reconsider this. Just using onga as an example. For the last two years, we've had a TKK and a K one. Next year it sounds like we'll have A-T-K-K-A-K one, and a one two. This doesn't make sense for our little learners. The district has spent a lot of money on implementing magnetic reading because there's a need for teaching these phonic skills to make strong readers. But when you're doing a combo class, it's nearly impossible to teach two structured magnetic reading lessons every day. The district has invested money in the phonics program to help students read, but then you're putting these students in a combination class where they only get half of their teacher's time on
049their grade level standards. Meanwhile, their peers are in a straight grade level getting a hundred percent. This isn't helping to close the gap on reading in other academic areas. It's creating a bigger one. But as I have always with every time I come to talk to the board, this is my eighth time I bring solutions. One solution would be to dissolve many of the ineffective TOSA positions and put those teachers back in the classroom to eliminate the combos. Another solution is hiring ias to push in at a fraction of the cost of a teacher to help for a few hours a day. To give these combo students that extra citizens still need to succeed in the next grade level. Where you see dollar signs, I see students that are not going to get the education
050they're entitled to and they're going to have gaps moving to the next year. No matter how amazing of a teacher, they do not get the time to teach all the standards the students should be learning versus if students were in a straight grade level. So please support children and their education and rethink all those combo classes. Thank you. The remaining public comments address item 10 E, so they'll be addressed at that point. Next up is the adoption and consent agenda. Were there any items for review, further discussion of the board? I I have one item, which was the, it was more of a clarification, which was item nine, D nine, which is authorization for disposal of surplus and obsolete district property. I guess I was just trying to get a better idea of what property
051we're trying to dispose of at this point. I don't know if that's a date question. Yeah, It can be anything that, uh, we are no longer in need of it. Uh, we do this annually, uh, as a sort of a blanket approval so that we're not coming back to the board for every single item that's deemed obsolete. So that it allows the purchasing department to, um, identify and, uh, gather, collect and then, um, appropriately, um, either reused or dispose of properties. Um, there would be examples like obsolete vehicles, for example. Um, that are either going to be placed on auction or be, um, taken to dismantling. It can be old classroom furniture, et cetera. Those kinds of things. I would like to see the district push this as um, it's a little embarrassing. Obviously drive
052around and see obsolete furniture and stuff in our campuses. Uh, we're not junk cards. We court, you know, we're in education centers, so, um, hopefully this gives you guys more leeway around that. It will. Thank you President. So may I get a motion to adopt the consent agenda? Subtracting item, uh, nine B nine. I Moved by P Second. Second by Bianca. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Five zero. Now we will vote on that individual. Nine D nine. Make a motion. So move. Move by Bianca second by Pete. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Five zero. Next up is our action item for the 2025 school accountability report card. The board of Education has requested to approve the 24 25 school accountable board accountability report cards, which are published during the 2025 school
053year for all schools within MUSD. The SARS have been prepared in accordance with state requirements and are posted to on the district website. Any discussion? I just wanted to say that I, um, I enjoyed reading a lot of these report cards. It was very insightful. Um, so I'm glad that we have these available for people to look at. Um, provided a lot of information about our schools and what our schools are doing, so yeah, I love that that's available to the public. It's great. I concur. Thank you Pete. May I get a motion to accept the 2025 school accountability report? First moved by Bianca, second by Roberta. All in favor? Aye. Oh, is it Missy? Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. Missy. Move by Missy. Second by Roberta. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Five zero.
054Next up is the M-U-S-D-C-S-E-A tentative agreement. Be asking for a motion to approve the tentative agreement between the MUSD and the California School Employees Association in it's chapter 29. May I get a motion? I have. So second. Moved by Pete, second by Roberta. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Five zero. Next up will be AB 1,225 slash 25, excuse me. 27 56 California School Employees Association. Chapter 29. The Board of Education is requested to approve the recording required for the tenant agreement, which completes the negotiations for the 25 26 contract year and then get a motion. So moved. Second. Move AB Bianca. Second by Pete. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Five zero. Next up is resolution 26 dash eight transfers of appro appropriation adoption of this resolution. Um, the transfer for the
05526 and the 2026 and 2027 school year. Any motion move? Aye Missy. A second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Five zero. Next up is 10 E and this is where we have some public comments. We will start with, uh, Steven. Ian. Thank you. Thank you. Little blind with all my glasses. Gimme second. My name is Steven Elli. I'm a resident here. I'm, uh, of, uh, Joshua Tree. And uh, I'm here to address the health tech commissions that are gonna be possibly affected in this island. I'm here address the health technicians that are gonna be, uh, uh, the proposal under 10 EI want it to be heard. Um, I want to be clear for the record. Um, in my day job, I'm my attorney. So I'm used to reading a lot of technical things,
056um, that this item proposes that abolition of positions only is not a determination of individual, uh, employees. Any resulting layoff would be, have to be implemented strictly in accordance with the educational codes. 45,000 1 1 4 and 45 1 1 5, as well as the CSEA collective bargaining agreement that includes a seniority that's calculated by total hours worked and the applicable bumping, um, rights. So, uh, president Clara, I guess I'm asking the board, uh, if you could clarify whether the district intends to continue providing the same health services currently performed by the health technicians through a different classification, including the licensed nursing staff. That was the question. It's public comment. We can't respond. I understand. And, and the silence is noted. So for the record, um, I'd like to say the district according to the
057policies, is at this point declining. To clarify whether the work currently performed by the health technicians will continue to be performed by other classifications including licensed nurse nursing staff. I note that this clarification is directly relevant to whether this action constitution constitutes a lawful reduction in force or re reclassification requiring bargain. Um, I wanted to make it for the record. I appreciate it. Thank you. Next up, Julia Kaiser, Good evening. Thank you for having me up here. Um, as far as cutting the health positions, I know a couple of years ago they offered us if we wanted to go get our LVN and, you know, become licensed in that area, they would support us in that. So I started doing my prerequisites, uh, to do that at Copper Mountain 'cause they were pushing that one.
058And then when it came time to maybe apply for the program, there was no support behind that. They said you can have a year off. Um, we'll save your spot, but no funding. Oh, and you'll have to pay for your benefits. So how do we pay for our benefits when we're not working for a year? So I just didn't feel supported when I was trying to do this up to a better help my kids and to be licensed. Excuse me, I'm a little nervous. So, um, I'm hoping that we can revisit that idea with a little more research to make this maybe doable instead of cutting those positions. Thank you. Theresa Greener. Good evening. Dr. Vargas and board and staff. I am writing to express a strong concerns regarding the possibility of reducing and eliminating
059health technician positions within our district. Given the size geographic spread and the diversity needs of our schools, maintaining at least one health technician at each site is essential to ensuring that health and safety and success of our students. Our district is one of the largest and most widespread in the region. Each campus serves students with varying medical, physical, and emotional needs. Health technicians play a critical role in supporting students with chronical chronic illnesses, medication management, medical emergencies, and daily healthcare needs without consistent on concise on site support, students safely and learning, leaning, learning, sorry, nervous are put at risk. An additional strain is placed on administrators, teachers, and office staff who are not medically trained. Health technicians are also helped reduce absentee support attendance and provide families with peace of mind. Knowing their children are
060cared for during the day school day, their present directly contributes to a stable, supportive learning environment. Rather than eliminating these vital positions, I respectfully urge the board to consider evaluating other areas of spending, particularly the use of contracted ProCare employees. These positions cost the district significantly more than in-house staff, and have in many cases created challenges within our schools. Concerns have been raised regarding professionalism, lack of experience, and strained working relationships within district employees. Additionally, many ProAct ProCare employees working with our ESN students do not have significant training or experience, which help, which has led to an increase in workplace injuries. This deck directly impacts workers' compensation costs and unlimitedly places a greater financial burden on the district. In the long run. Investing in trained dedicated district employees health technicians is both fiscally responsible and
061by beneficially to the students' wellbeings, our health techs both licensed and unlicensed. Now our students are un now our students understand our school cultures and are committed to supporting our communities. There are, and as they are an asset that should be protected, not reduced. I strongly believe that retaining all health techs positions will save money, reduce risks, and most importantly, ensure that our schools receive the care and support they deserve. Thank you for your time consideration in continuing education to the student staff in our district. I appreciate your thought and views of this matter and hope that you prioritize keeping our health technicians in place. Thank you. Next up Tracy Lane. Okay, let's try this again. All right. I'm, I'm Tracy Lane. I'm one of your licensed health techs. I am the health, I have
062the most seniority in your health services department. Uh, in my 12 years here, I've worked under, uh, three different directors, been supervised by four different program managers and worked with 14 different district nurses. So if you have questions, if you want to go over how many procedures do we do, what kind of things we see, or we're able to, I'm your resource and I will sit down and go over anything and answer anything you want. Um, and during my time here, I've advocated consistently for a health tech at every site. And recently the board and Dr. Vargas got on board and we increased our staffing. And we currently have health techs at every site, with the exception of Ace Plus and BlackRock. Um, Our every site deserves to have a health tech. Our non-licensed health
063techs are currently doing this job every day, and some of them have been doing it for years. And it is within their job description. If you pull their job description and pull our job description, look at it. Their job description includes specialized physical care services, which is allowed by federal law and by ed code. They have to be trained and supervised by the district nurse. Um, Last thing I have to say is a school district may abolish a classified position and replace it with a different, may not abolish a classified position And replace it with a different classification to perform substantially the same work. If the work continues, the layoff is not legitimate. Thank you. Tiffany Millward Award. Hi. I'm also super nervous. A little bored. Dr. Vargas. Um, it's been nice to see you
064throughout. No, really? There. Okay. Well it's Dr. Vargas. It's been nice to see you pop into our health offices, so thank you for that. Um, we seen more of your face. Um, I'm an unlicensed health technician. I just lost what I was gonna say. Imagine saying to us, we want to see your potential. We wanna help you grow, we wanna help you become licensed and we wanna invest in right now, we're not hearing that. We're hearing you're not licensed. We want to cut your position because you can't meet the needs of our students. I'm currently at a site covering where there's five, diabetics, five. I see four continuously throughout the day when they're low, when they're high, when they're having a bad day, and they just need to come sit in the office. I'm there
065for that commitment like that. It builds retention. It builds stronger, more skilled workforce without losing your foundation that already is here. It's not about resisting change, it's about choosing what's smarter to change. A decision to replace people is easy. A decision to invest in people is leadership. The goal is to improve care, strengthen the workforce, and to be physically responsible. The answer is not layoffs. The answer is development. It's training. The answer is creating LVN pathways for health technicians who are already here, already capable and already have proven, proven their worth to the district. I just lost my spot. Sorry. Um, uh, so the question isn't how do we replace them? The question should be how do we grow them and how do we invest in them? That's what makes sense. Replacing us, but growing
066us and finding an answer a solution instead of just getting rid of us. Thank you. Uh, next up is Suzie five. Hi There. It's been a minute since I've come to talk to you and I've missed being able to talk to you. Um, it's nice to, it's nice to be here tonight. Um, we haven't gotten to see you, Dr. Vargas, as much as we have in the past, but I understand you're busy, but we've got to see a lot of other, your, uh, Nice faces. I'm here to talk about the layoffs as well. I can only really speak for condor. Our health techs are invaluable to the entire district. Laying off people that we need. Um, at the ground level does not make sense. I wanna help you and support MUSD had it may, um,
067but I don't understand. I need you to help me understand how this is a value, uh, a valid issue when over the years we've had, see we've had declining enrollment since COVID, but we've also increased multiple management positions because of that. It doesn't, I don't understand how we're getting, how we're taking the, how we're culling the bottom, but we're still increasing the top. Uh, we are putting in more contracted employers through ProCare. I can, here's where I'm talking for Condor, our health tech Shelby, she's fantastic. She's a team player. She's come on our staff this year. She's really immersed herself into the culture of our school. However, she gets pulled on a regular basis because there's a shortage. If there's a shortage, how are you, uh, wanting to lay off somebody else? We have a
068ProCare person that comes to the high school, but she still has to cover the high school in the morning. She can't even be with Conor all day. We haven't had a regular health tech since pre COVID. And, you know, condor, we love our students. We want to support 'em. And like the others have said, when the students are supported, when they have the care that they need, when they have a place to be, when they have a place to rest, they can stay in school. We don't have to send 'em home. I'm telling you right now, these last two weeks we've been up to our knees and vomit. And if that was me having to deal with that, I'm a sympathy person. I'm right there with 'em. But our health type has been there, our
069custodian has been there regularly religiously helping out to where myself and our other office staff can do their jobs. Um, our a IAS are just as important. I see that some of those are going too. I just don't understand, um, how that, is that how that makes sense? Like I said, I want to, when you consider your vote, I want you to consider that these are classified employees who make the lowest amount of income throughout the district. Because classified makes way less than certificated, way less than management. And they do a, they do just as much valuable work as you do. Um, like I said, I want to help you. I want to support you because I support my school. I support my union and I support MUSD. But I need you to help me
070understand how this makes sense. And I'd like for you to consider whether it's table in it to have a further discussion or just to say, Hey, you know, I, if you approve it, I want to know why. Thank you for your time. I appreciate being able to talk to you. I'd like to open this item up for Discussion. Would anybody on the board like to share their thoughts. Um, so I have a few, uh, questions. Um, lemme make sure I pull this up so I ask the right questions, um, about ias. First, it's my understanding that due to the needs of certain sites, we would be adjusting hours and or moving ias to different sites and hopefully not have any layoffs. Is that correct? Yoka? That is correct. In regards to not laying off or
071terminated employees, remember this is a preliminary layoff resolution that identifies positions that the board can approve to lay off. Uh, the PO the employees, um, are not, 'cause it is about seniority. Um, they're not factored in at this point in the process of layoffs. However, for the IAS in particular, the district is committed. Um, and I know the board is as well to making sure that all of our employees retain their full-time instructional assistant positions. They just might have physicians elsewhere. We heard a lot about ProCare. We can replace contracted services, um, employees with them, or we can be supporting special ed students where there might be vacancies or needs. So it's more of a reallocation of those position And for our health technicians. Um, can you explain to us and the public the difference
072between a licensed health technician and a non-licensed health technician? So we did work a couple of years ago with CSCA, um, to do a job description, study and study. And unlicensed do perform many of the same procedures and do have some, the unlicensed health techs do have the training as well to perform a lot of the medical procedures, but not all of them. And that's the difference. Some of the procedures require the licensure, um, and our health services and special education department is working with, uh, students with medical needs, their doctors and some students on IEPs and their parents, and looking at the medical needs that are increasing at our site. Not. That being said, we are interested in supporting relooking at helping our staff who are interested in, um, move forward to getting their
073licensure for those schools. And we have committed with CSCA to meet with them individually to discuss if they're interested doing that, looking at a way to allow that to happen so that we can grow our current employees in those positions. Do you know how many health techs we currently have in the district? Un unlicensed health technicians is eight. And then how many licensed The other Seven. Thank you Heidi. Eight. 8 0 8. Thank you. Eight. Eight, yes. Okay, thank you. I'll let someone else go. Yes, I know having been a teacher, been at the sites, um, and how important these people play a role. I happened to finish a cipher. We did deal with a lot of the diabetic needs and, and when we didn't have somebody, it was pulling our, it was pulling our,
074our, um, admin assistant in to have to cover this. Um, I am, I'm truly concerned. I I just, I, I know that we, I don't like to see any layoffs, especially with the health desk. That is, that is very, very concern to me. Um, just having been in the situation with the students themselves and not having someone right there. I, I get, we pull and we, we, we shuffle, but I still struggle with us not having a licensed health tech at each site. I think that's extremely, extremely needed. Pete. Well, there's no doubt that we need health techs at all these schools. I've been at schools all throughout the district, and when you don't have a health tech there, then the secretaries have to chip in and do what they can. It's, it's just bad
075and the child is not taken care of. Nothing really gets accomplished at all. I'm glad to see that we actually brought more online last year or two years ago. I, I think that's great. I think that we need to have the license, uh, help test. And so I would like to see if we have folks here that want to do that, that we give them as much opportunity as we can to get them trained and help them out however we could. And, and again, we are committed to do that. Remember, this is a preliminary layoff resolution and there's no final action for layoffs to happen until May. So that gives us plenty of time to work with CSCA, the union and our staff members. Roberta, I'm just a little bit confused with the terminology license
076versus unlicensed versus LVN. So what's the difference between a licensed technician and an LVN? 'cause that's what we're looking at. Hiring more L vn. Yes. A licensed technician would have an LVN. Okay. So we have eight of those already in our district. It's, we're looking at the eight that are not licensed with these. Correct. And just to clarify, they'll have an LVN or maybe even a, Okay, I just, um, I had a question around the IA in the classroom positions. Were those three or six hour positions? Those are, those are currently, that's on your layoff resolution. Those are currently six hour positions. Um, and they will, will ensure that the employees continue, uh, keep their hours. And then the IA behavior, The IA behavior Hours Might be, I believe it's a seven hour. Seven hour.
077Okay. Um, I don't know. I talk to teachers like all day long, including when that comes to my house every evening. And, um, I'm not sure why sometimes. Um, but anyways, I'm really concerned with the number of IEPs and the amount of pressure we put on our teachers. Um, it used to be where you have 24 students and you have two IEPs, now it's 24 students and you're pushing eight to 10 IEPs. It's not realistic. So I get nervous when we look to take away these IE positions when the board fought to get these positions to begin with. So, um, I'm very hesitant on this vote to be honest. I just feel like, I don't know, I just think we're sending a bad message to our, to our teachers. So Clarify, these particular IA positions
078are, uh, positions that were funded through the, originally through the Esser COVID fund mitigated funding. Um, and then when that funding went away, we stepped down to the learning recovery emergency block grant funding, which had about half of the amount of funding as COVID funding. This funding will also expire in 2028. So there is a step down approach. Um, these are for the, the mitigation, um, of that, the IA behavior specifically. And a, the school site is still interested in potentially keeping that. They may be interested, um, in funding that, um, through their title funding and maybe changing some things up. They're still contemplating that budget meeting. Um, but these are, these are positions that, um, are, We wouldn't have to be pulling technicians another technician spot because we solve that problem. Were all licensed.
079And I guess that's the crunch of all of this is that we need to have licensed technicians to solve some of the problem that are, so just make sure that the district is supported in helping be able to get their licenses. That's not consideration. And, and again, as I said, leader, yes. Maybe more question fi. Um, how do we determine the needs for a position? Is that determined by the site, by the number of students? How, how do we determine the need for a health technician position? So the health technician position specifically is oversee health health services department, which is special education. They make recommendations to, um, cabinet to the student's medical needs based on the students who were enrolled in the school setting, um, at the time. And that's, that is the department's job
080to oversee that need and okay. And then we hired additional. So originally maybe before COVID we only had, I know half as many. And then how many did we hire with the funds that are now set to expire? I'm sorry. I can, I would Have That's okay. I Can go back and get you information on. It's been a gradual change for over the last nine years. At one point in time, we only had three hour health checks and that was a nightmare, honestly. Sorry. It was, you guys would agree about getting the services in the, the cabinet and the board at that time expanded and it was wonderful to get us full time, but then we needed more Because it still, the coverage, we had 'em at sites that had the needs where the students
081are located and then each year it changes, but it also changes. Like tomorrow, if we could get another student come in that I might go to Kevin and say, I need another, this is the needs of the student. They have this medical condition, this is what's going on. They need a, a licensed person to sit with them as a one-on-one. This year alone, we have two and we haven't had that in a while, but then we're struggling to find people with COVID. I mean, it is been, it's a long, it's a growing front, a growing situation. Thank you. Did I say that? Get what I said. I'm sorry. No, Thank you. Thank you. Roberta. I don't know, at this point I'm feeling like maybe we should table this for more discussion. Um, I'm, I'm Not
082clear with the I i situation right now. This, this is our first discussion about it. I know that there's, there are timelines. What would tabling do to the timelines that we have to meet? We would most likely be be talking, looking at this next year, um, we may be able to something March 10th or meet legal requirements. That's short term turnaround to notice anyone. Is that because of March 15th? Um, I just don't feel competent enough to make this decision right now. I know that it's not a final decision. I know that it's Not a decision, But, um, please, I just don't feel competent enough to make this decision Without, Without further discussion and back and forth with, um, cabinet. Yeah, Roberta, Well, I'm, I'm, I think I'm expressing that same thing. My same concerns
083with one more information. One more discussion Have than what we can do right now. We you're off mic. We can't hear a lot of the conversation. I'm on mic. Is that better? It was because his was on and mine was on, and I was just saying that I'm with her on that and, and the suggestion to table it, because I don't feel comfortable either at this point without more discussion. I agree. Yes, I concur with that. Um, we'll go ahead and we're going to go ahead and vote to table item 10 E. May I get a motion Table That? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Pete. Second. Second by Roberta. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Five zero. Next up is resolution 26 dash six filing of applications for the SAB administrative programs. And I
084get a motion. Second move by Roberta, second by Bianca. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Five zero. Next up items for review. There was one item on for review that I would like to pull for discussion, and that is item 11 A seven, maintaining appropriate student adult student interactions. So when we read through this, uh, 41, 19, 24, I was good with a lot of it. A lot of it makes sense as far as contact with the students, this sort of thing. Where I was a little concerned was item seven and eight, because it's so broad and it seems a little punitive. Um, number seven reads, singling out a particular student for personal attention and friendship, including giving gifts or nicknames to student, individual students. So what's that gonna look like? We're gonna have
085admins because a secondary teacher said sweet to a student, and now that's an issue. I mean, is that the extreme? We're looking for this. When I look at that, it's very concerning. Um, and then number eight was addressing a student in an overly familiar manner, such as using a term of endearment. Uh, I'm sorry, yeah. Term of endearment and nicknames, which are seven, eight. Um, I just think that's kind of what teachers are. You guys care about kids and you talk to kids that way. And it's not any sort of like grooming thing or it's nothing like that at all. It's just the way you talk to the children and it's the way you make a connection or make a connection with a kid. You just don't know their name maybe, and you're like, Hey
086buddy, you know, can you come over here? Or whatever it might be. Um, so with that being said, I would really like to have further discussion on this too, to table this and to maybe book the wording on that where it's a little more, um, maybe we can get some feedback from some educators or maybe one of our systems supers have some maybe, uh, one of you has some insight on that. Uh, but I just think that it's just so broad. I just, I don't know. I just think we need something that broad, something that, right. What we can do is work with our JPA and our legal advisors to help us craft these for maybe a little bit better language or more, less, less generalized, um, language. A lot of these are coming, um,
087at the recommendation of, um, our legal and liabilities teams. Um, this is really important. This is also SB 48, which is a new law that passed, um, that has a lot of different impacts and has to do with, um, sexual molestation and grooming and those types of things. So it's important on a policy that we follow, but we also don't want it to be over generalized. So I think that looking at, um, looking at pulling those two particular that you're noting seven and eight, and looking at making them a little bit more clear as to what those, the intentions of those are would be appropriate and then we could bring it back with some revisions. How's the rest of the board feel about that? Yeah, I feel good about that. And I, I think I
088we're kind, the pendulum is kind of swinging, you know, there's, there's been a lot of incident instances out there that, that cause people to get overly and, and I, I don't know if there's the right word, overly protect them, uh, most. 99% of our, our workers, our teachers, our administrators are just fine, but sometimes we go overboard, I think. And I, I like maybe number one that we do, as you suggested. Number two, I think a lot of it is training. We probably gotta get that training in there also. That's fair. Any other comments? Um, I'm really glad that we're we're, um, getting a policy on this. Um, but yeah, I agree that, um, we just need to tweak a couple things because on one end someone might say, oh, don't worry about it, you're
089a fourth grade teacher calling your students, sweetie, and nobody's gonna, it's not a big deal, but we need to, if we're gonna have a policy, it needs to be enforceable. So if it's not gonna be fully enforceable, then what's the point? So let's get it right and just make a few tweaks. Um, but I'm glad that we're, that we're getting this handled now, so that's good. So thank you. The only thing I was thinking was what our, um, what the MTA president said about keeping it in context. It needs to have some context in it. Yeah. So I appreciate that. I agree Totally. Okay, so that'd be a Stacy takeaway away. Yeah, I'll work with them. Bring that forth. Great. Thank you very much. Next up is informational items, accounts receivable, cash receipts and budget
090transfer transactional report. That Brings us to future agenda items. Anybody on the board have an agenda Items like to add the, Um, I'd like to, Ooh. Yeah, that is louder when you guys turn yours off. Um, uh, the one thing that I want to bring for future agenda item is considering the new projects for the continuation of Measure C Bond, um, we know that future projects are going to take, um, years to develop and implement. So I want to get the ball rolling now and see what we can start planning and effectively moving on to now that we've already pretty much allocated everything for our first poll, right? For series A. Series A, yes. Uhhuh and all of that funding has been allocated, correct? Yes. So I've been asked, uh, the board workshop on 24th
091to, uh, present updated information to you, and we'll introduce some of that topic as well for, um, at least initially for series B, what, what ideas I'll put together some potential ideas, and of course we'll entertain, collaborate on ideas there. Great. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. I think that'll be part of the board study on the 24th. Um, can you also include updated timelines? Um, 29 Junior is very obvious that, you know, it's, it's looking great. I can't wait for that to be done. But some of these other questions we're talking about a long time, so I'd like to see what we can do to kind of kick those into gear bit. Um, so any other agenda items? I, um, since the a EC conference, the annual educational conference, where I ran into, um, quite a
092few student board members that I just was so impressed with and I'm so impressed with our student bodies and the information. I just wanted to open the discussion of some kind about what it would entail to have a student board member on our board. I have no idea, but just to open that discussion and get some details about it and see if it could be a big asset for me to give students more of a voice. So, Great suggestion. Anyone else? No thank you. Board. Next up is district calendar. We have Lincoln's, uh, Lincoln's birthday holiday, which will be February 3rd, 2026. All schools and offices are closed. That'll be followed by President's Day Holiday on February 16th, 2026. All schools and offices will also be closed. We now have an agenda item for our
093board study on February 24th, 2026, and the TAT PD center at 8:30 AM which will be covering Measure C, both series A progress and series B um, ideas. Our next regular board meeting will be March 10th, 2026. That leaves us with board comments. We will start with Roberta this evening. Um, first of all, thank you all for your comments and for being here and expressing, um, your concerns and views. I, um, want to give kudos to the deescalation training that the MTA is doing. I think it's wonderful. It's much needed. Um, congratulations to the TPHS competition. That's, um, to get first place was a really a great honor. Um, I'm happy about the one lunch that's coming up and I want see what's gonna happen with that. I appreciated the, um, the Citizens Oversight Committees
094update, the enrollment committee update, um, the tea, the kitchen update too. All of it was very informative and, and well appreciated. Um, I guess that's it for mind. Thank you, Roberta. Missy, I just want to say thank you to all of you that attended this evening and shared all the information that was very insightful for us, and we will definitely Have a good discussion When we get back on that. And everybody have a happy Valentine's Day. Enjoy your time off. Let's go with bte. Um, thank you everyone for being here. Um, my parents are in the audience tonight, so if you, uh, say hello to them. Make sure you, uh, you, uh, they're very proud of me. What can I say? Um, say hello to them, Tom and Miriam, right there. You can raise your
095hands. Yes, you're proud parents. Come on. I grew up, I went to this school district. I graduated from this high school. Raise your hands. Proud parents. Very good. Um, thank you to everyone tonight for coming out. Um, it's not exactly everyone's, um, you know, uh, favorite thing to do, come out to a board meeting. So whenever you guys do show up, it it, it helps us, it makes us feel, um, important and it helps us to know what is going on. So just thank you everybody. Next up, Pete. Well, everybody's taken it all, but I, I would like to, to really extend my appreciation to our MTA reps and CSEA reps. Nice, nice job tonight. Uh, appreciate all the audience out there listening to us trying to discuss this thing that's not easy, sitting up
096here in front of you guys and trying to figure it out. Uh, appreciate you bearing with us on that and we'll try and get everything straightened out. Have a great, uh, weekend for day. Be careful. Be safe. Thank you, Pete. Um, I just want to thank MTA once again, um, for the generosity of the 15,000 donation. Um, you guys amaze me, what you do in the classroom and then outside of the classroom, I know you've done many things and, um, do I do want to express my appreciation for what you did with Measure CI was with you that whole way, and I know what you guys did. And measure 50, prop 55 is really critical and I know you guys are really pushing on that as well. So all of that is really, really appreciated.
097But thank you. Um, I love seeing this much support for our district. Um, your opinions are appreciated and it's kind of how we shape some of our opinions. We're not up here just willy-nilly. We want to listen to the community and make the best decision for as many students as possible. Now, we might not always do everything you want to get done, but we're gonna do our best to maximize what we did, the experience for our students and for our staff, and for our teachers. So with that, thank you very much. Have a good evening.