NCLUSD Monthly Board Meeting, April 20, 2026

001Welcome, call the regular business meeting for New Monterey Peninsula Unified School District to order. Roll call, Mr. Walk. Here. Mrs. Gonzales. Here. Mrs. Rudy. Here. Mr. Rivas. Here. And Mr. Cabral is here. Item two, public communication and closed session items. Members of the public may address the board on items not on the agenda. Speakers will be allowed 3 minutes unless the time limit is waived by majority of the board. The board will allow comments by members of the public on an agenda item during consideration of the item. The board may limit the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. With board consent, the president [clears throat] may increase or decrease the time allowed for public presentation depending on the topic and the number of persons wishing to be heard. The president

002may take a poll speakers for or against a particular issue and may ask that additional persons speak only if they have something new to add. Complaints against specific district employees should be resolved through the district's personnel complaint procedure. The right to address the board does not exempt the speaker from any potential liability for defamation. The proceedings of the board are recorded and are part of the public record. At this time, any member of the public wish to address the board on any closed session items for tonight. All right, seeing none, we'll go to closed session. Frank, what's the time, sir? 5:01. 5:01 p.m. Welcome, call the April 20th regular board meeting to order. Um, can we please stand for the flag salute? Flag salute, let's go ahead and come on up. Lead us in the

003flag salute, please. I pledge allegiance 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. Item B, report on action taken in closed session. There's no items tonight. Item five, public communication, agenda not agenda items. Members of the public may address the board on items not on the agenda. Speakers will be allowed 3 minutes unless the time limit is waived by a majority of the board. The board will allow comments by members of the public on an agenda item during consideration of the item. The board may limit the total number or the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. With board consent, the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public

004presentation depending on the topic and the number of persons wishing to be heard. The president may take a poll speakers for or against a particular issue and may ask that additional persons speak only if they have something new to add. Complaints against specific district employees should be resolved through the district's personal complaint procedure. The right to address the board does not exempt the speaker from any potential liability of defamation. The proceedings of the board are recorded and are part of the public record. We have one speaker tonight, Ms. Claudia Diaz. Good evening, President Cabral, members of the board, and and I'm a bilingual instructional aide. Mother of four OHS graduates. In less than 4 years, I'll also be an excited grandma as my grandson enters TK at La Loma Elementary, of course. Um, it is

005with high expectations and hope that by now you know where I'm coming from when I'm at the podium. Our students' needs and the people who impact their lives while at school. Our classified, our counselors, and our certificated. It's no secret that our nation as a whole is facing some very challenging times in our schools. Some of the students have a deficit in behavioral and emotional skills, academic gaps, chronic absenteeism. Sorry, that's my Spanish in there. Uh, disengagement, mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, and fear, just to name a few. Inadequate foundational skills due in part to schools having had to shut down in-person attendance during the pandemic, screen dependence, social and economic dispositions, the rise in autism spectrum disorder, which approximately 1 in 31 children in the US is currently identified with. The point

006I'm trying to arrive at with this information is that by saving every job, we can make a difference in our community. Some of these students are in our schools and classrooms, and they rely on that custodian that greets them during their day, that clerk that always makes time for a quick chat, that campus supervisor on yard duty that engages with them and makes them feel safe, that instructional aide and program facilitator that works with them diligently and cheers them daily on through every task, that groundskeeper that serves as a guardian of safety and health, that cafeteria worker that serves more than a healthy meal with a smile, or that counselor who is always willing to listen, guide, plan activities, be a friend, and provide a safe place to talk or just sit when needed. I

007can go on about how every position each one of us holds is essential in making a difference in a child's education and life, but 3 minutes is not enough to go through the whole list. Sorry. With May 15th quickly approaching, I'm asking you to find a way to keep all our employees accessible to the students who smile, try one more time, and set dreams because of that one special employee that sees them, hears them, and talks to them like no one else can. As adults, we all have that one special classified employee, teacher, or counselor that helped us get through school, and we remember them fondly. The African proverb, it takes a village to raise a child, is very much what we have on hand with enrollment dropping. We have a great opportunity to be

008a stronger and more effective village for our students by flipping the script. I understand you have a budget to maintain, and that's hard. But a child's education with people they trust and depend on to be there for them is just simply priceless. Thank you. I truly appreciate you coming every month. I We really take your words of wit you know, your advice, and and we we are diligently working to reduce the amount of people that will be potentially being laid off. Um, the staff has worked very, very, very hard over the last 2, 3 months to drastically reduce the number of people that are possibly impacted. So, um, it's good news for for everyone, so. Thank you for coming and fighting for them every single month. Thanks. Well, thank you for listening. Absolutely. Item number

009six, approval agenda. Could I get a motion to approve the agenda as listed for tonight? I make a motion to approve the agenda. Um, with Yeah, with the I and is it J? Okay, remove I and J. Yes, please, from the consent >> Move it to action items. Uh, one on the checkbook letter. Uh, K and L. Action items, correct. So, with those two items removed um, to the action items, could I get a motion to approve the agenda as listed with the removal of those two items to the action items? I make the motion. Thank you, Mrs. Gonzales. Could I get a second? >> I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Rivas. Mr. Walk. Aye. Mrs. Gonzales. Aye. Mrs. Rudy. Aye. Mr. Rivas. Aye. And Mr. Cabral is aye. Item number seven, informational items. A, spotlight

010on Yolo. Good evening, President Cabral, board members, Superintendent Pruitt, and cabinet members. As the proud principal of Yolo Middle School, it is my pleasure to highlight an exciting addition to our school, our new FFA chapter. Over the past 2 years, this program has grown into a valuable opportunity for students to engage in leadership, agriculture, and learning experiences beyond the classroom. What makes this moment especially meaningful is that the students you will hear from tonight will be our first ever cohort, the first to complete the full 2-year program at Yolo with many more to come. >> [clears throat] >> At this time, I'm excited to introduce Mr. Rico and our students who will share their experiences as part of the Yolo FFA program. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. To the board members, thank you for having

011us here tonight. To the superintendent and for Ms. Palacios to ask us to come and present to you guys tonight here. Uh, it is a great honor and I believe that we are doing some great things and we're planning on doing many more at Yolo Middle School with a our agriculture program. So, tonight I have six officers and two FFA members that are here to share some information with you of some of our past experiences this year and a couple things to come here in before the year ends. So, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to our FFA president, Mr. Nathan Pignat. Good evening, board and community members. My name, as Mr. Ricasa said, is Nathan Pignat. I am the Yolo FFA 2025-2026 school year president and this is my officer team.

012Our vice president is Willow Whiteside. Our secretary is Cassandra Cortez. Our Our Our treasurer is Oh, no. Our reporter is Amaya Ortega for an interim. Our sentinel is Bentley Chavez and our treasurer is Angel Cajigal. The first thing that we'll be telling you guys about tonight is our ag class is our ag classes. So, at Yolo we offer a full ag mechanics pathway where you get to learn about woodworking, electrical, and welding skills that are very helpful later in life. We also offer ag exploration classes and for sixth graders and for seventh and eighth graders. And we also next year plan to add an agriscience pathway where that will double our membership. Hi, I'll be talking about Yolo FFA's monthly meetings. On the second week of every month on Wednesday, the Yolo officer team hosts

013a monthly meeting along with a fun activity. In past meetings we done a barbecue, cookie decorating, and pumpkin painting contest. After every contest the officer team selects a prize winner. At the beginning of the year the officer team went to local businesses to kindly ask for donations for prizes. Our officer team did receive donations from places like Subway, Mountain Mike's, etc. Thank you. Good evening, fellow guests and members. Throughout our time as an FFA chapter, we have attended many conferences that build leadership and career development. These conferences include the 97th and 98th California State Conference, the Tulare World Ag Expo, Camp Sylvester, and Greenhand Leadership. Participants reported that they not only learned about more of FFA, but also themselves. Thank you. Last year on September 20th, 2025, I attended Camp Sylvester. At this camp, I

014got to learn more about what the FFA is and the leadership that is involved. I also got to learn more about myself. Here is where I learned how to properly do public speaking and how to communicate with other people from different chapters. I participated in activities that involved working together and stepping out of my comfort zone. Overall, my experience at Camp Sylvester was exciting and a valuable learning lesson. Good afternoon. I will be talking more about our conferences that we have attended this year. This year our chapter was able to attend our Greenhand Leadership Conference, which was at Fresno State. All students were able to attend this conference. Unfortunately, this year I was not able to attend. But, through our my peers, I've heard they had great times, learned new public speaking, and were able

015to gain new friendships, and also learn more about what the FFA has came to offer. Thank you. Hi, my name is Aubrey Gearhart. I had the opportunity to go to the 98th State Conference. Not only was I able to go, but I was able to be a delegate. Before session started, there is a DJ that played music and everyone was dancing. Being a delegate meant that I had floor access. In some sessions we had speakers including Dale Brisby, a professional bull rider, Amelia Earhart, who traveled the world, and Temple Grandin, an inventor. These speakers did a phenomenal job and gave really good messages. When there wasn't sessions, you'd be able to find members at workshops. I had two workshops I had to attend as a delegate. One was about ag place and discussing ways to

016sell more. The other was for central region. We went over what to expect as delegates on to expect as delegates. On the nights, there there was an after party that had a silent disco, which I attended as well as sumo wrestling, photo booths, and so much more. I met so many so many members including the 2025-2026 state officer team. Throughout the trip, there was a store that sold FFA merch including blankets, pins, [snorts] socks, shirts, and more. When interacting with members, several would trade pins that you could find in the store. This was such a fun experience that I hope to attend next year. Thank you. We will be speaking more about our career development events and our leadership development events. I myself was able to attend the credo, which is the creed in Spanish.

017Learning more about this gave me more experience how to speak with public speaking once again, and also able for me to make new friendships and learn more more about the creed. So, today I'm going to be talking more about in detail about the competitions that we have attended. So, first off, I'm going to be starting off with talk about talking about the Tri-Rivers section speaking contest, which was an amazing experience for all of us. We did a really good job overall as a team and we did had a great time. We were served tacos, which were really [clears throat] good, and I enjoyed having the experience there. Second, I will be talking about the Ar Blackwell competition that we attended, which was an also amazing experience. We did go to really overall as a team.

018And we excelled in speaking because we did really good. And lastly, I will be talking about the UC Davis Field Day, which was an amazing opportunity for all of us. We did really good and all of our members did an a amazing job in speaking. Thank you. Throughout my 2025-2026 I got to attend various career development events and leadership events. These events include opening and closing and state FFA conference. At opening and closing, I got to compete as secretary against other chapters and see how they work together to be a cooperative team. And at state conference, I got to partake in workshops where I had to utilize my communication skills. In conclusion, at both of these events, I got to see how other teams work together, which inspired me to get more involved in the

019leadership aspect of the FFA organization. Thank you. Hi, I'll be talking about our 2025-2026 Awards Banquet. This year we'll be hosting the Awards Banquet on May 21st at 5:00 p.m. in the Yolo Middle School Cafeteria. We will be serving a very exquisite dinner and will be awarding the students who excelled significantly throughout the 2025-2026 school year. These students will be receiving awards like the Discovery Degree, Creed, and Opening Closing Awards. Every student enrolled in ag two will also be receiving a sash to wear at promotion. I would also like to take the time to invite every board member to attend our banquet. Thank you. I'm going to be telling you guys about the Discovery Degree. The Discovery Degree is the first degree offered through FFA. It is also the only degree that is offered at

020Yolo being that we are a Discovery chapter. This degree, it has very bare minimum requirements to earn. To earn this degree, all you have to do is attend one of our monthly meetings and help us with one of our at least one of our many fundraisers that we've had throughout the year. Oh, it's this one? It's not my thing, bro. Good afternoon. Once again, I will be speaking on our behalf of our fair this year that we will be attending for our 2026 summer fair. This year all ag mechanics two classes will be able to attend this year. We are able to show a goat, a lamb, and a pig. As well as you are able to raise at your home a goat um a chicken or any turkeys you would like to raise if

021you do have a place to hold them. Unfortunately, this year we will not be able to share our OHS farm, but we will always be able to have next year. But for this year so far, we are only able to have at-home projects for us to attend. Thank you. Interesting. By next year, we're trying to add an agriscience teacher to our program. This will double our numbers in membership numbers. Oh, I just said that twice. And our No, our ag exploration is making a temporary vegetable garden, but by next year, we're trying to make a permanent one. We are also for ag mechanics and ag mechanics two, we're trying to make a ag mechanics shop and trying to purchase an FFA truck. Thank you. Once again, I would like to thank you on behalf of

022the Yolo FFA chapter for donating your time to let us talk to you about our chapter. >> [applause] >> Item B, student board member report. Miss Venecia, microphone is yours. Hello everybody. Um I hope everybody's doing well. So for this month's report, things have been speeding up as it is now officially closing to the end of the year with only 6 weeks of school left, so yes. Starting off with some upcoming senior events, prom is officially next Saturday, May 2nd, which will be held at the theater starting at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are currently on sale till they run out. Senior Awards Night will also be held sometime in between the two last weeks of school, in which students will be invited to receive their certificates along with graduation cords plus more. This will also be

023open to their families. The senior trip will be May 18th through the 20th. Students will depart at 1:45 a.m. I would also like to include that the Seal of Biliteracy ceremony will be May 12th in Modesto at the Fruit Yard Amphitheater, where students from local schools will be honored for earning their seal as they have demonstrated proficiency in two or more languages. So try to go out there and support if you guys can. As for our sports, currently baseball, softball, boys volleyball, track, and swimming are in full swing. Recently, Marian Covedo, a senior in track, is the first athlete in our history to qualify for the Arcadia Invitational, which is the biggest track and field event in the US. Marian finished 15th out of 50 athletes in the 100-meter hurdles 2 weeks ago. As for

024baseball, they will also be having their senior night next Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. Boys volleyball is actually having their senior night today, so congratulations to those as well. Now moving to OHS FFA, starting last week, 15 candidates that had applied for chapter office have started their interviews, in which senior officers along with admin and alumni will be scoring and voting until there are six candidates left, and they'll be announced their earned positions at the end of the year FFA banquet on the 29th of April. That is all I have for today's report. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. Attendance awards, item C. Good evening, President Cabral, Superintendent Pruitt, and members of the board. So tonight, it gives me great pleasure to announce our attendance awards for the month of March. We'll start off with the

025best staff attendance, that is still being held by Bonita at 95.28%. Our next award is the most improved student attendance for the month of March. That goes to Orris Timber High School. Thank you. All right, and this trophy finally got here. I I I I I I I thought the person didn't want to relinquish control of it. So for the month of March for best student attendance, beating out Hunt this month by point or 5/100 of a point, okay, is Hurd Barrington Elementary School. THANK YOU. THANKS, SIR. ITEM E, mission and vision renewal process update. Yes, so we have Mike Rulli here to introduce the mission and vision and the work that the district has done as long with the results and and basically a report on how it went and the final uh I

026guess viewing of what the mission and vision would be. It just got to go to the follow-up here. Thanks, Justin. I appreciate that. Well, welcome. Good evening, everybody. It's such an honor to be here and I really appreciate just the opportunity to go ahead and talk to the group. You can be popping the slides up because I'm an administrator. I don't know how to actually have a conversation. >> [laughter] >> I have to have notes. There we go. Uh first of all, FFA, that is fantastic. You guys keep up the great work there. I love hearing that. And I'll kind of come back to that point here in just a moment. Uh but what we're talking about renewal, the idea of renewing our mission and vision here in Newman-Crows Landing schools. Now, the idea with

027a a mission or a vision statement or what we ended up developing, which was a commitment statement, is not necessarily just to have that sentence and write that sentence down. It's the process that matters. It's the conversations that matter. It's getting everyone together and trying to decide as a group, what do we think is the most important thing for our community? Now, some school districts I've seen go all in with technology. Great. I've seen school districts go in all in with sports programs, things like that, which all of which are great for students. Schools have to tackle so much. You cannot do everything perfectly, and you need to pick a focus. And what was evident from the very first time I talked with Justin to the very last moment when we decided on our commitment

028statement, was that what rises to the top in Newman-Crows Landing is the community. It is the people. And throughout all these conversations, that was the most important thing that came to the top of every single discussion, is how important the people in Newman-Crows Landing are. So we wanted to create an opportunity for everyone to be able to contribute into this. And Justin's first thing he said when he talked about this project was, we do not want this to be driven by administration, driven from, you know, {quote} top-down. This needs to be everybody's mission. Everybody gets a say, and everyone needs to be able to participate. So it was important to gather feedback from everybody, the community, our board, our students, our families, our staff at all schools, all departments within Newman-Crows Landing. And I want

029to congratulate that admin team for really making sure that there was a pinpoint focus on making sure everyone had a voice in this. We wanted to understand our prior our students' priorities, their needs, the assets that we could offer together as a school district, and really work together to create that shared commitment that we can all rally around. So why would we do this? Well, again, it's about developing clarity. You need to have a very clear path in front of you if you're going to accomplish anything great. We want to have alignment and really make sure that we are all on the same page, because we're going to do so much more if we are all working together rather than working in separate directions. We want to strengthen those connections. We want to build relationships

030and really galvanize our teams, because the work ahead is very difficult. So what did we want to have as the outcome of this work? Well, one of which is clear commitment statements, not just at the district level, but also at each individual school site renewed their mission. We want to do documents like an impact report, something that really unpacks and and informs the public and both outside Newman-Crows Landing and within on what is happening in Newman-Crows Landing schools. Want to consider some updated communication, things like our website, our social media, branding, marketing, et cetera. And [snorts] ultimately, what rose to the top, and like I said, from start to finish, it was the relationships and it was the people who came across as the most important thing in Newman-Crows Landing. We wanted a welcoming environment.

031That came out almost on every survey that we we conducted. Uh people talked a lot about wanting it to be safe, and not just physically safe, you know, the bare basics, but also emotionally, intellectually safe, and really broadening our idea of what we wanted as safety. We wanted to focus on having good character with really leading our students to being productive adults, and really treating each other with a lot of kindness. And that's where the idea that character was prioritized over academics, because you can achieve so much with great character. And of course, inclusion of all students and promoting diversity. And there were a couple of survey questions that really came out very heavily on, we want to embrace and celebrate the diversity that we have in Newman-Crows Landing. So for the students a little

032bit more specifically, the students seemed to emphasize around the importance of engaging just having engaging and enjoyable school activities. Yes, sports, but think about how important FFA is and things like that are. Our families really wanted to prior have prioritized that the the assurance that our children are receiving strong academic instruction and the support necessary to go along with it. Especially when challenges arise, along with clear communication, continued progress, and getting our kids into college, careers, and life beyond school. Now, our staff emphasized the importance of having strong family engagement really ensuring students are well prepared for life beyond school through rigorous academics, real-world skills, career readiness, and meaningful support for all learners. And so when we boil all these down, what are three notes that we can take away from all of this work

033that we did over the last year? Well, at Newman Crows Landing, we want our welcoming schools, we want to have pride in learning, and strength in community. Now, ultimately we did boil this all down to at the district level, we have one district statement. And oftentimes doing this kind of work, I hear people having a lot of questions about, "Well, what's a mission statement? What's a vision statement?" And so often we get lost in what's the difference between a mission and a vision because they're so similar together. So, we thought, "Well, why have that discussion? Just move that aside and say, here is our commitment." Something that's really strong, very straightforward, and there are no questions about what it is we're trying to accomplish. I want to read that to you now. Newman Crows Landing

034schools are committed to welcoming inclusive learning environments where students feel supported, cared for, and connected. Students are prepared for future success through strong character, meaningful relationships, continuous academic growth, and real-world learning. So, you think about the example tonight here with FFA. Sorry, you're just to my left and you're so easily referenceable, but I think this is such a perfect example of what it is Newman and Crows Landing are trying to accomplish. Think about the real-world learning that you have gotten out of this program. The fact that you have all stuck together so much that you're now an official cohort, and I can tell you not many schools have that. But think about this example and what this kind of a commitment statement can help us accomplish if we keep focusing on this, working together, and

035making sure that we are going to provide our students with the very best that they will need in order to make it successful out there in that very tough world. So, ultimately the the motto, which is a little bit more of the emotional side of this, what is Newman Crows Landing all about? It's about one district where we all work together, we're all on the same team, we all stick together and help each other out, and endless opportunities. We don't want you just to be able to go out and do this one thing well. We want you to be able to go out and do a lot of things well. We want you to have choices, opportunity, and the skills needed to go out there and accomplish all of it. So, with the communication piece,

036here's an example of a branding document that we might use here. Still in the beta phase, we're going to have to work on this, and I won't read this letter, but I was at a poetry reading one night, and the author there is Linda Sheller, who is really nationally known as a published author. She's done a lot of great work all around in a lot of different ways. Well, she talked very fondly about being from Newman. So, I went up after the show, and I asked her about it. I said, "Hey, you seem to love Newman. You've lived there for so long. Would you write a cover letter for what Newman is all about?" And if you ever get a chance, I think it's beautifully written there. It has a lot of heart. And she

037even resonated with the same things that we had talked about over the last year. Whereas in Newman, what matters most? The community. All the people involved. So, as the board, what do we need from you? Ultimately, your job now is to promote the message wherever you can. That we want real-world learning. We want to build our community. We want to make sure that our students have real-world skills so that they can be successful. Be sure to talk to people both inside and outside Newman Crows Landing School District about what our schools are doing. So much of school success these days does revolve around public opinion and the narrative that we create for our schools. And we have an opportunity here to really create a very strong narrative using these examples that we're seeing here tonight.

038Schools that are winning attendance awards, things like that. We should be celebrating all of these things very loudly with people who are inside our school district and also well outside. We want everyone to know what a great work that's going on here. Our job here in this room is to help clarify any questions that do come up, and to motivate others to care and contribute. Cuz ultimately, that is Newman Crows Landing's best asset is the fact that you care about your community, you love the community, and you want to work together to accomplish great things. And with that, Justin, is there anything else you'd like to add to this? No, it's just been a been a kind of a long process to get this done, but I I really do appreciate the fact that uh

039through all the surveys, and and again, we asked a lot of our staff to do a lot of surveys over the last year and a half. And uh and the fact that it is coming from the ground up to say this is who we are and this is what we want to put forward, incredible. So, thank you. Thank you. FFA members, you guys are excused if you guys would like to to take off. If not, you guys stay here and listen to us for another hour. All right. Item E, EV charger replacement. No, I'll let you guys go. It's fine. Mr. Vargas. Good evening, Superintendent Pruitt, uh Board President Mr. Don Cabral, members of the board, and also members of our community. My name is Matt Vargas. I am our district's maintenance and operations director.

040And for those of you that have decided to stick around, I'm going to talk to you a little bit into our school board about our current EV charging system. To start, I want to go back to the history of the negotiation with Onyx. So, back in 2016, our district negotiated a 20-year PPA agreement with Onyx Solar. The PPA stands stands for power purchase agreement, which simply means with our own carports and solar panels, we were producing our own power, but paying the agreed rate of 14.5 cents per kilowatt-hour to Onyx. Any power that could not be produced by those solar panels, we paid the higher tier to PG&E. So, that 20-year agreement went into effect in September of 2017. So, we are nearly 10 years in, and so we'll be starting our 11th year this

041year in September. And I think it's important to note that at that time, our district was kind of on the forward edge of installing electric vehicle chargers. Some schools had them, Modesto City had them. However, uh TurboDock was the product that was recommended by Onyx, and they didn't have a pay-to-charge option, which meant that people could charge, staff members, the community, at no cost to them, and at a very small impact at the time to our district. Well, fast forward 10 years from then, here we are today. Uh many people in our community are driving electric vehicles, and many are choosing to charge at our four main school sites. Now, back then, once again, it wasn't a huge financial cost to the district, but we've been able to assess over the last few years that

042the kind folks that have been coming to charge, um not just during the daytime, but after hours, on the weekends, it is coming at a cost to our maintenance budget. It is coming at a cost to our taxpayers because I want to be honest, very honest with you, that those funds would be great if we could put those back into our classrooms rather than paying them to PG&E, which is at the higher tier. So, one of the problems with TurboDock in their model 10 years ago was that they didn't have the charge option, so 5 years ago they went out of business. So, as a maintenance director, my job is to maintain our facilities and maintain our current EV charging network, but it's been a challenge cuz I can't get parts. I can't buy new

043TurboDocks. They no longer exist. And other companies are very proprietary. Sure, ChargePoint will let us go with a ChargePoint unit, but not without removing all of the TurboDocks. Currently, I'll share we have about 25% of a failure rate, so out of 10 chargers, at least two of them are currently not working, and we're definitely due for an upgrade. That upgrade, uh I call it a charge for charge. So, it's something that our district can not financially benefit from, but we could at least recoup our costs. Currently, this number might be shocking to many of you. It was shocking to me when we did the numbers. We spend approximately $18,000 per month at our four school sites, which sure gives the ability for people to come and go and charge as they please. However, once again,

044those funds are at the higher PG&E rate and here's why. When Onyx installed the solar, they were very specific and did not want the EV chargers tied into the inverters or any of the production that was made. The reason is they the agreement at the 14 and 1/2 cents per kilowatt hour was that we would pay that for the full 20 years whether someone was charging or not. So the chargers actually are connected to our main campus meters at the those four locations. We were able to assess exactly how much each charger costs our district. Um it was and I can go into detail if you guys have questions, but basically we assessed it about $250 a week per charger and that's $1,000 a month. So with 18 chargers currently in our district at 18,000

045a month, we are spending over $200,000 to maintain this network. Uh what I'd like to at least present to the board and you'll see it in your board backup. There is an upfront cost if our district elects and if the board supports us going out to a formal bid to update to a company like ChargePoint. And to share with you where ChargePoint is already vested, they are actually at our Stanislaus County Office of Education. So if any of you have an electric vehicle and you may have gone to the county, you can charge there using PayPal, Discover card, Visa, MasterCard and you pay for that kilowatt hour by PG&E. So they're also with PG&E. The difference is ChargePoint handles all of the intake of the funding. We still pay PG&E for the power that is

046used for those chargers, but then our costs are recouped at the end of the month from ChargePoint. So as people that charge pay ChargePoint, the end of the month they cut us a check which offsets not only our costs for the power, but it gives us a little bit of a small bank for maintenance costs cuz there is maintenance costs to maintaining the solar system or the EV system and there's also the replacement costs which are estimated between 8 and 10 years. There's also those folks I'm still looking for the kind individual who from Barrington drove away with one of our charging cords. And I I say that because the cost to replace that cord uh thankfully at the time they were still available and I bought as many as I could before TurboDock closed

047their doors. So where we're at now is if the board supports the consideration I have as board backup, we can formalize our electrical engineer plans, go out to a formal bid to an electrical engineer. And what they would do is they would as the engineer's estimate states, give us a cost not only to upgrade our four existing school sites, but I I think now would be the time to consider adding both Hunt Elementary and Bonita cuz they were too small at the time for TurboDock to supply chargers for those schools. Plus they don't have the carports or the infrastructure. So you'll see those additional costs. Um it sounds like sticker shock when you hear $300,000, but I need to share something very important in the vested value of that $306,000. We spend that one time

048and what we get with that is our cost recouped after the first year. If we continue the direction we're going now, we're at a loss of over 200,000 and and we would not have charging ability at Hunt or Bonita schools. So I would support the board in your questions, any comments that you want to share. Um I'm at a place where I'm at idle until I get direction from you and or Mr. Pruitt on the direction the board would like to go. Uh I can tell you that just because the engineer's estimate says $300,000, I have met electrical contractors who have done the work like at the county, the city of Ripon, the city of Stockton and they're very competitive in their bidding cuz they want the work and we have some great local electrical

049contractors that I would not be surprised if they bid it on this work and it came in lower than what you see and at the end of the day um it's not about the district profiting. We're not allowed to do that. We just need to recoup what we're losing right now and as far as my maintenance budget goes and I'm very particular as as Ms. Tappia will tell you, I don't like losing funds that can be used for things that are very important in our schools and this is one that 10 years ago there wasn't an impact. I can share with you there is an impact and I would love your help in addressing it. That's all I have unless you have any questions or comments. Anybody have any questions for Matt? Uh I just

050had a uh a question. Um Let's see. Where's my ChargePoint.com? Uh I would like to see the metering data and like you can show us like where, you know, how the money's coming in and stuff. That's that's a great question and I want to share with you how we accidentally kind of found out about what these chargers cost and and that's exactly what I wanted to be able to share. So it's a great question. Unfortunately, keep in mind the EV meters are not isolated at our schools. So they are tied into our HVAC systems, our lighting, all of our controls. So there's no way to say how much is that costing us, but we had a very unique experience with Stanislaus County who reached out to me, Mike Bateson, who's the the head of their

051maintenance and operations. He reached out saying, "Hey Matt, I can't explain it, but it seems like every month our electricity bill's going up more and more and more." We discovered that unfortunately back in 2017, Collins Electric accidentally thought that the meter for the county Head Start preschool was our meter and that's what they connected the Von Renner chargers to. So we were able to actually turn off power over the summer to the Head Start buildings. There's three of them and really watch and see with non-stop use of charging what it was costing and we determined it was hate to say this, but for four chargers, 4,000 a month. Their bill was about 6,000 a month. 2,000 of that was for their facilities. The other 4,000 was what we attributed to the charging network. So I

052could at least share that data with you in those emails. I'd be happy to share that. And how we managed that was we shut them off immediately. It wasn't fair to the county to be providing PG&E payment to allow our staff and our community to charge. So we shut off the 50 amp breaker immediately. We came up with an engineer plan to and worked with PG&E and as Mr. Pruitt will will acknowledge, it took a few months to go through the approval process with PG&E. What we are doing is saying, "Hey, we need to take the EV power off of the county meter and we need to add it to ours." And that took a lot of time and engineering. So now the county is back to their $800 a month bill, but our costs

053have gone up obviously cuz now we're paying for it. So I hope that at least gives you a little background of how we were able to assess those costs. I do wish we had what's called an isolation amperage monitor which would allow us to know what are we using by the hour. Here's some great news. The ChargePoint technology has that ability. We will be able to know the hours of use on a charger. We won't necessarily know who charged which is fine. That should be private, but we will know how long they charged, how many amps they drew and one other thing that everyone should hear. Technology has really advanced over the last 10 years. 10 years ago level one was like, "Wow, that's fast." Well, level one now is nothing cuz they're up to

054level three. Tesla has some of the greatest chargers in the world, but we don't want to isolate to just Tesla. We want to allow anyone in our community with a Nissan Leaf, with a Chevy Volt Bolt. We wanted them to be able to have the opportunity to charge. So I will say in the upgrade cost that you see, we would be upgrading from a level one which is considered a slow charger to a level two medium charger. For those of you with some electrical knowledge, basically that means we're going from 25 amps to 50 amps. 25 amps is like, ah it's actually more than your toaster in your your kitchen. Your toaster is about 15 amps, sometimes 20. Uh your if you have an electric water heater, that's 50 amps. So we're doubling the amount

055of amperage going into a car. So instead of 8 hours to charge, you can charge in 3 and 1/2 to 4. So it will benefit our users and it'll benefit our district because we'll stop encumbering the costs of those who are charging. I I get complaints on both sides of it. Usually when the chargers are off, I get a few phone calls, but I want to share and be very honest with the board. The number one complaint I get, and I think it's valid to share, I get calls from people saying, "Mr. Vargas, can my husband come down to the uh SSC warehouse and get a uh fill up his truck with gas?" And at first I used to act a little shocked because well, why would we allow you to do that? And then

056immediately the spouse says, "Well, if my husband can't come and get a free tank of gas, why are people charging for free?" And that's where we're at. And unfortunately, 10 years ago, we had the opportunity to be able to do that for our community cuz the technology wasn't there. We're one of the first districts to start EV charging. So, now we have to determine, do we want to move forward or do we want to cut our losses and say, as they fail, begin to disconnect them? And that's something that's really up to the direction of the board and our superintendent. And and one last thing, I don't want you to think we haven't done something to help with this. We just recently invested in uh disconnect timers. And what those are, they're control timers to

057make sure that we can control and limit the amount of use after hours, after school is out, 6:00 p.m. and during the weekends. What we find is some people not only bring one car, they tell their neighbors to bring their car. And and like I said, I think it's great that we're we're not kicking them out, but we've had no ability to control the bleeding. And I just hope you respect that these timers are just a band-aid. They're they're And I'll give you an example. As you guys know, you know the math, there's 30 days in a month. So, if I told you eight of those days we're turning off those timers, that right there saves us 25% of our costs. If I told you right now we charge from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 uh

058a.m. the next day, that's 24 hours. But we can set those timers to only charge from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. That will save another 50% of daily use. So, our long-term goal, of course, is to upgrade for a charge to charge, which is fair for everyone. Our short-term goal is to make sure there's money in our maintenance budget for the items that we need to support our staff, our students, and our and our facilities. So, any other uh questions? Yeah, so the EV charger replacement, like this is the upfront cost. Are there any like ongoing Yes, there are. And those fees we have not negotiated yet with ChargePoint. That's a very good question, and here's why. Part of the reason why we can't announce, because we really don't know, what is it going to

059cost to charge? Keep one thing in mind, PG&E charges, we all experience this if you were from the Newman area, PG&E charges tier one through tier four. And depending on what time of day, they call it time of use rate, that changes what you're paying for power. So, it's important to note we can't just say, "Oh, we're just going to charge 30 cents per kilowatt hour." Because we would then come at a loss in the evenings when they're charging more cuz everyone else is also using power when they get home from work. So, the assessment and negotiation with ChargePoint will go something like this. There'll be an established rate at different times of the day. And remember, ChargePoint systems will know when someone's charging and what to charge them. Remember, they only pay for what

060they use. There's no flat rate involved. They pay for what they charge. So, if their car is mainly charged, they use it for an hour, their rate is going to be much lower than someone who charges for 4 hours and depending on the time of day. But I made a note, it's something very important to mention that the assessed additional fees or costs, we don't know, but we have an idea what they're going to be. We have ongoing maintenance costs. We We want to factor in there what the city of Newman is doing with water meters. Take a look at your water bill. Everyone pays $5 to $7 based on your meter size for a replacement meter. Why? Those meters are $300 each. So, the city has recognized that, "Hey, if we don't charge a

061little each month, then it's going to really hurt our budget when we have to replace all these old meters." So, that's what we'd be doing with the system, not for profit, but for uh future replacement and and costs. And uh the the realistic goal would be whatever we initiate, let's say this summer, we'll probably look at doing this again in 10 years. And the reason I say that is technology is changing, the EV market is adapting and and growing. It is growing. Um so, even though our time of use can be adjusted, when I get a call and someone says, "Hey, I came all the way from LA, I need a place to charge." I I feel their pain. I understand that. And and we try to work with with our neighbors in our community.

062But at the same time, I have to be responsible with our taxpayer dollars. And the end game here is that no one should be benefiting from electricity. No one shows up and plugs into one of our school buildings. So, we're not against you coming to plug in your car, but there's going to be a fee assessed with that that will be fair and at the market rate. So, I hope that kind of explains. Anyone else? No, thank you. That answered my whole question. For this cost, for this, will it come out of Would it be a bond or would it be I I I think that's a great question, uh Mr. Reeves. And and because keep in mind the bond language is important here, and the community should hear this as well. When we when

063we go to our community for a bond and we state that we're we're updating our infrastructure, that means electrical. That means plumbing. That means electrical networks just like our EV chargers. So, yes, not only can it uh financially be paid for out of bonds, but I'll share this. If someone said to me, "Mr. Vargas." And I would meet with Ms. Tappia about this the first thing in the morning, "Hey, we're we're spending 200 to 220,000 a year right now. If I knew I only had to do that for another year and a couple months, we'll make it happen. We can do that. We'll make If we need to, we'll make cuts in other areas. But I I do appreciate the fact of your question because the bond funds align with this. And I know the

064oversight committee, we would involve them and make sure that they see the the estimates that come in. We would then bring to you as a school board the actual lowest bidder. And if you determine that's the direction that we want to go, we can make that happen within a few months of going out to bid. And my goal would be to do it over a summer break, over a time where we have limited amount of disruption to our current usage. And one other note, we wouldn't do all four schools at the same time. We would do one at a time to allow three other schools to have the ability to provide charging for those who need it. So, this is just the beginning stages of exploring costs, and depending on your direction and and Mr.

065Pruitt, uh I'll I'll run in whatever direction you'd like me to go. Thank you. Uh thank you, Matt. And then yeah, I think um this is a great idea, a good opportunity for us to, you know, go forward and and get the project done. So, hopefully by next meeting you can bring us back some good information to go out to bid. Thank you, sir. Uh item number eight, consent calendar. The consent calendar items are routine in nature and usually do not require board discussion. Individual items may be removed by board members and presented for discussion as separate action. The consent calendar will be adopted by a roll call vote. Um items I and J have been removed going to the action items. So, can I get a motion for the consent calendar as listed minus

066items I and J. I make a motion. Thank you, Mrs. Rudy. I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Reeves. Mr. Watt? Aye. Ms. Gonzales? Aye. Ms. Rudy? Aye. Mr. Reeves? Aye. Mr. Watt votes aye. Item nine, action items. Action item A, approve resolution number 2526/11 recognizing and celebrating staff appreciation days and weeks. Uh Mr. Pruitt. So, um this is just a resolution to cel- celebrate and recognize our staff. I know this week is Beyond the Bell or After School Program Professionals Week and and they've been celebrated and for the wonderful work they do. Um we also have the Principal Appreciation Day, May 1st. School Lunch Hero Day, also on May 1st. >> [snorts] >> CSEA Classified School Employees Week, May 17th through the 23rd. National School Nurse Day, May 6th. Teacher Appreciation Week, May 4th through 9th.

067Speech Language Pathologist Day, May 18th. So, we have quite a quite the the list for our staff appreciation. And again, I think when uh like Rudy presented it, he really did show like what a community we have and we we like to honor our employees and staff for the great work they do. Thank you, sir. Any other questions for action item A? All right. Can I get a motion for action item A approving resolutions 2526/11 recognizing and celebrating staff appreciation day and weeks? I'll make a motion. I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr. Revis. Thank you, Mrs. Gonzalez. Uh Mr. Watt? Aye. Mrs. Gonzalez? Aye. Mrs. Surdy? Aye. Mr. Revis? Aye. And Mr. Cabral uh aye 5-0. Uh action item B approve resolution 2526/12 recognizing California student mental health week. Go ahead, Mr. Pruitt. So again,

068we recognize We recognize the importance of mental health and we are celebrating that May 5th through 8th. And I believe uh working with uh Brittany Clark, is she here tonight? I don't think she No. Okay. Working with her, her and I've worked on some things uh to push out to make sure that everybody understands where they can go to get some help and how important it is to to get the help if needed. So, Thank you, sir. Any questions for action item B? All right. Approve resolution 2526/12 recognizing California student mental health week. Can I get a motion for action item B? I'll make the motion. Thank you, Mrs. Gonzalez. Second? >> I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Revis. Mr. Watt? Aye. Mrs. Gonzalez? Aye. Mrs. Surdy? Aye. Mr. Revis? Aye. Mr. Cabral uh aye 5-0.

069Action item C approval of memorandum of understanding for the retirement incentive program for the 25-26 school year. Mr. Pruitt. This is a a program that uh we had funds that were um the the description of the funds were for uh retire basically it said retirement incentives. And we had a an amount in there and uh I believe it was $150,000. So, we said that we would uh offer the the incentive to the first 15 employees $10,000 each that uh decide to retire. We worked with both uh our bargaining units to come up with a a fair plan so that everybody had equal access to it. Um out of the 18, I believe was it seven or eight, Dr. Seha? Seven employees did take the retirement incentive. So, um so again, I think it was a

070success for those that were close to retirement and thinking about possibly retiring. So. Thank you, sir. Uh questions for action item C? So, the remainder of the funds were what are they going They're still in the What is the title Is it the title of the funds? They're part of the arts music uh materials instruction block grant, which is very misleading of a name, but it's the most discretionary one-time funding that we receive. And they're intended to support operating costs and specifically as Dr. Pruitt mentioned Dr. Pruitt. Well, I just promoted you. Uh Mr. Pruitt mentioned um it actually allowed districts to provide an incentive grant in the short term, not so much for the long term, but definitely for the short term. Mhm. Thank you. Any more questions for action item C? What are

071the anticipated long-term cost savings of doing this? I would say we were looking at a when speaking from like a teacher perspective, probably about 40 um assuming obviously that our teachers are retiring from having pretty much reached the end of our salary schedule. Um a new teacher will probably be about 40k or so um at an entry level. Obviously, um doesn't necessarily mean that every single uh individual that will be replacing those uh leaving our district will be at that cost, but that's approximately what we used to to project it. Okay. Any other questions? Can I get a motion for action item C approval of memorandum of understanding for the retirement incentive program? I'll make a motion. Mr. Revis? Can I get a second? I'll second. Mrs. Surdy? Mr. Watt? Aye. Mrs. Gonzalez? Aye. Mrs.

072Surdy? Aye. Mr. Revis? Aye. Mr. Cabral uh aye 5-0. Item D approve Center for Human Services contract. Go ahead, sir. So again, this is the Center for Human Services contract for the next school year, so the 26-27 school year. Um and it is one-time funds through a grant. So, if the grant is renewed, we can continue, but if not, then we'll have a decision on what we do moving forward after that. Uh any questions for action item D? Um did I see correctly, Mr. Pruitt, that the hours are increasing for the Yes, through this we we should be able to increase our hours for mental health services. Okay. And what did you say the current impact is? We don't have an impact statement yet. No, there is no impact statement for this year for what

073what was a couple of this year, but we did have the one for the previous year. Okay. And that was about 200 or so students, right under 200. >> Do you remember the number? 188, is that what you remember? >> 188, correct. And I think 24 groups. That's correct. Okay. Sorry, I'm looking. Any other questions for action item D? And just um to bring a full circle moment, it's being paid from the children and youth behavioral health initiative capacity grant. Um we have that one carried over for the last three fiscal years, so hopefully I'm not confusing my fiscal years at this point. Um but we have not been able to really make use of those grants because we have other similar grants that pretty much are within the same scope. So, it's something that

074um Stanislaus County actually has worked with us very closely to ensure that we're spending um those funds. And this is one of the most allowable um items that we already have in the docket and it will be easy for us to to continue to provide services without loss of services to students. Um so, it's specifically um making use of those grants for those intended or for what's intended. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. Any other questions for action item D? Hearing none, um need a motion for action item D approve Center for Human Services contract. Can I get a motion for that? I'll make a motion. Thank you, Mrs. Surdy. Can I get a second? >> I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Revis. Mr. Watt? Aye. Uh Mrs. Gonzalez? Aye. Mrs. Surdy? Aye. Uh Mr. Revis?

075Aye. Uh Mr. Cabral uh aye 5-0. Uh item E approval of Stanislaus County Office of Education 26-27 uh master agreement. Justin? Yeah, this is a um the master agreement for the services provided to us through Stanislaus County. Whether it's um professional development, whether it's our uh SARB uh sending students for attendance. Um there's uh all basically everything that we use at Stanislaus County for it, it's listed there and it gives us our rates. >> And for their financial services as well. >> mhm. Any questions on item E? Okay. Can I get a motion for approval of Stanislaus County Office of Education 26-27 master agreement. Can I get a motion for action item E? I'll make a motion. Mrs. Surdy, thank you. Can I get a second? I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Revis. Mr. Watt? Aye.

076Mrs. Gonzalez? Aye. Mrs. Surdy? Aye. Mr. Revis? Aye. Uh Mr. Cabral uh aye 5-0. Action item F approve independent educational evaluation contract. Mr. Pruitt. This is a basically independent company to come in and evaluate a student and uh that's uh needed for that family. Any questions for item item F? All right. Need a motion to approve action item F approve independent independent educational evaluation contract. Can I get a motion for that? I'll make a motion. Thank you, Mrs. Gonzalez. Can I get a second? I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Revis. Mr. Watt? Aye. Mrs. Gonzalez? Aye. Mrs. Surdy? Aye. Mr. Revis? Aye. Uh Mr. Cabral uh aye 5-0. Item G accept the 24-25 bond measure P and X annual independent financial and performance audit prepared by Eide Bailly. That's mine. All right. So, Mr. Pruitt, Board

077President Cabral and esteemed board members, I am so happy, like you cannot imagine, to present to you the next three items, particularly uh the 24-25 bond measure as as item G, and then the one that follows, which is the audited financial statements. Um with a lot of a lot of labor and and and close um communication with our auditors, we were able to fulfill our needs to be able to do our bond measure audit. Um in essence, they look at all the transactions that we have done for the past year and ensure that we are spending the money in the way that we're supposed to be spending it. Um we had zero findings. We are in fact meeting exactly what our bonds are intended to be spent on. Um and that's really the highest highlight

078from that bond um audit. Um happy to take any questions. Um any questions for item G? Congratulations on a clean audit. I'm sure that felt good. It felt really good, especially the bonds. Um it's a lot of intricate ins and outs and they're really good about testing. I will say that much. When I mean that they peel back every inch and possible transaction out there, they really did. Which is nice. It's a good learning experience given that I was only about 3 months in. Um, so it was a good way for me to learn concurrently as being audited and being asked for all these things. So, yeah, it's a fun experience. All right, can I get an action uh motion for action item G except 24-25 bond measure P&X annual independent financial and performance audit

079prepared by Eide Bailly. Motion for that one. I'll make a motion. Thank you, Mrs. Surdy. Can I get a second? I'll second. Oh. Sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Ribas. It's fine. Thank you, Mr. Ribas. Uh, Mr. Walk? Aye. Uh, Mrs. Solis? Aye. Mrs. Surdy? Aye. Mr. Ribas? Aye. And Mr. Robles, aye, five zero. Uh, action item H except 24-25 audited financial statements uh, prepared by Eide Bailly. Um, Ms. Tapia, do you have anything to add for that one? Um, I did prepare a presentation. It is a quick 10 slides. Um, I wanted to start with the fact of the high level who Eide Bailly is. They've actually been auditing us for quite some time. So, they good news about that is they have a deep history about Newman. Um, which is nice to be able to

080have a conversation with auditors that truly know us through and through and have seen every phase of our financials um, for the last several years. Uh, they're local. They're in Fresno in the Fresno office um, which they are within driving distance. When I asked them if they typically present to clients, they haven't been doing that too much since the pandemic, but they did prepare this presentation for us. So, I'm going to try to do it um, the honor that they would have done it and give you kind of sort of an overview of the findings of our audit for 24-25. So, the audit itself is split into two. The interim audit phase, we're actually undergoing the one for 25-26 as we speak. Um, they in essence come into every school site and stay um, for

081predominantly testing attendance. They pull out sample sizes and from there they ask for any documentation that may be needed from uh, their own audit guide that the state pretty much uh, sets forward every year. Um, they also start doing a little bit of the federal compliance. They start testing certain transactions and asking for backup documentation, ensuring that we're following through with all of the federal programs. Um, the final audit phase is pretty much the most exciting part of all this, which is in essence now they're looking at not only what they did in interim phase one and two, but also now bringing it to the end and ensuring that they're testing a much larger sample size. Um, the way an audit process works, if they select one sample size and it's not necessarily to the

082guidelines that they're being that they're using, they will select the larger sample size and they kind of just grows from that perspective. So, we always want to ensure that we're in compliance. So, the smaller the sample size that they can test and move forward, the faster the audit, which is ideally what we should be happening year over year. Um, the audit report which is 100 plus pages, I I will not put you through uh, flipping each page and showing you what exactly is in there. But just to give you the layout of it, it is broken out into these various sections and each section kind of provides you a different more in-depth section of the prior one. Um, there is a lot of information there. So, if you do have any questions based on your

083readings in preparation for this board meeting, happy to take them. I will not be going through every single page um, for the purposes of this uh, item. I will say there was one new reporting requirement that all of districts had to comply with in 24-25 and that is ensuring that we are recognizing the liability of our compensated absences. The way this works is we actually work with an actuary to give us a sense of how much of a liability the district will have if every single person who has a balance of compensated absence were to walk in today and say, "I want to be cashed out." So, given that we're a district who retires and or grows educators and just staff in general for a very long time, we have pretty massive um, a pretty

084big liability in essence that we have to recognize and that's just a new accounting way of um, showing our liabilities. It's just adding to what we're already having to recognize as a basis. So, we're having to recognize our pension liability for instance. That's just adding more liability to our books. It doesn't necessarily mean we're cutting a check. It's just a way to demonstrate that we are in understanding of what the liability will mean if anyone were to walk in and say, "I want to get be cashed out." The financial statements are actually broken out into these major sections. The government wide financial statements is probably something you don't see very often. When I come and present to you all during first interim and second interim, we're really talking about fund um, our funds, right? Fund

085one, fund 13, fund 21. And at the end of the year, our auditors in essence work towards a lot of work to convert what we do throughout the year into the language of the outside world as I like to call it. So, our government wide financial statements specifically are going to show your liabilities, but also your assets. This is where all of the assets that we own are finally um, audited. Therefore, our bond audit comes along with that process as well. So, that's really the major difference between what you see throughout the year versus what you now see in this audit report. And the notes of the financial statements are just giving you more in-depth of what the auditor said to convert our yearly reports into now an audited financial statement. And I won't go

086through every single one of this, but this is basically demonstrating you that numerically what that meant. We are comparing it to our assets and liabilities from last year. The increases and the decreases that might have changed from the last time you saw the audit financials. Um, specifically calling out the fact that we did increase our capital assets by 2.6. Again, those are the bond projects that we have been going on for various, various years. Obviously, assets are a positive thing to our books. So, that's a good thing to see. But I also would like to highlight that we do have the compensated absences that are listed there. It did increase our liabilities by 1 million. So, that gives you a good sense of what kind of absence balances we have out there from our employees.

087And this is a summary that you're probably more familiar with. Um, this is the final audit. This is the beginning the audited beginning balance of now 25-26. Um, we officially can say that we have an available reserve of 8%. We have the auditors who pretty much have determined that that is in fact what we have um, presented in good faith in our audited statements. >> [clears throat] >> Um, part of the audit obviously is ensuring that we're following procedures properly. Um, I will want to highlight two areas of which we did have some findings and just some opinions. In the financial statement preparation side of the house, uh, we did have we were in essence given a significant deficiency given with the fact that we did have some transactions that we should have cleared a

088couple years ago. They carry over year over year. Um, certain transactions worked in our favor, other transactions didn't. Um, but the auditors felt it was a good opportunity to take a step back and really take a moment to address smaller things that we might not have been able to address in prior years. They just wanted to test them because I was new, I think. I think that's in essence what I ended up telling the auditor. Um, but it was a really good opportunity like I said, it was a really good opportunity to be able to like really look at our books. Um, we're talking about fiscal year 22-23. So, you can imagine how many how many years of spreadsheets I had working with to kind of figure out the the carryover of an issue that

089they wanted to pinpoint. Um, they did feel that it wasn't a weakness necessarily. It was just a deficiency in not only the in the current year, but obviously in prior years. Um, I did ask them, "You did audit prior years. What happened there? Like, you're going to hold me accountable, I should hold you accountable." But they basically realized that um, they just took a closer look because we were obviously having a new CBO. Um, you have a relatively new superintendent and I had a new fiscal analyst who kind of joined halfway through the process. So, they really did widen their scope when they were looking at things and this is what came of it. We are pretty much done a lot of work. Um, hence why I'm presenting to you this in uh, April and

090not December 15th, which is what typically gets done. Um, we wanted to take the time to clean up our processes and clean up the books um, especially our liabilities. So, when we don't address something in financial statements, they carry forward as you can see for many, many years and it's very difficult to find it. Um, it takes some time and effort. But we're in really good shape. I think we're really good shape to do the 25-26 audit in a way that we have a really good starting point. Um, and like I said, we're already working on 25-26. Federal compliance, no findings. I'll leave it at that. It's a big deal. Um, we have had a lot of federal money come and go from districts and it's a pretty big deal that they haven't uh, we

091haven't had any findings actually on the federal side um, in quite some time. So, that's that's a good thing. In state compliance, um, as I mentioned, they do test sample size. They happened to select sample sizes of students and what they did in this specific process was pull out income eligibility applications and then they compare it to how we classify students. We classify students in three categories. We classify them as free, reduced or paid. It happened to be that the ones that they selected that were misclassified, they widened the sample. It was misclassified once again. So, in essence they um, were able to pretty much form an opinion that we did have a weakness in this state compliance piece of misclassification of unduplicated pupil counts, which ultimately ended up impacting um, that's a fiscal impact

092of our L C F F. Uh, it is specifically targeting a little bit more of the concentration grant and about 9,000 of supplemental. They have formulas in essence that, um, gets down to the numbers. The way this works is now that we're doing our attendance reporting, we will see this adjustment happen in this current year. So, although we're not cutting a check, it just kind of goes against whatever revenue we're expected to receive in the future. And that's the end of it. Any questions? Sorry, I went fast. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Uh, item action item H accept 24 25 financial audit of statements prepared by I Bailey. Can I get a motion for action item H? I'll make that motion. Thank you, Mr. Rivas. Can I get a second? I'll second. Thank

093you, Mrs. Ceruti. Mr. Rock? I. Mrs. Gonzales? I. Mrs. Ceruti? I. Mr. Rivas? >> I. And Mrs. Rawls, [snorts] I 5 0. And the next item is mine. Um, so the next item is actually related to this current fiscal year. So, I'm bringing you to this fiscal year. Um, it is our 25 26 administrator to teacher ratio. Um, education code basically sets limits and depending on our district size, how many administrators to teachers every 100 teachers we can have our it's eight administrators to 100 teachers. They provide a very prescriptive, um, formula, which apparently resets the calculations. So, um, when I first uploaded, it apparently uploaded and reset my spread or my document. So, I apologize for that. Um, in essence, we look at our administrators and those classifications that fall within each administrator and

094compare it to every 100 teachers that we have. Um, we meet the, um, minimum. So, we are actually in compliance here. Um, and this is important because we actually provide this for auditors for 25 26. And it's just one of those checkboxes items to ensure that we are one having a conversation about it and two, um, that we are continuously looking at this ratio. Thank you, ma'am. Yeah. Any questions for action item I? Okay, I need a motion for action item I approve 25 26 administration administrator to teacher ratio. Can I get a motion for that? I'll make a motion. Thank you, Mrs. Ceruti. Can I get a second? I'll make I'll move second. Thank you, Mr. Rivas. Mr. Rock? I. Um, Mrs. Gonzales? I. Mrs. Ceruti? I. Mr. Rivas? I. Mrs. Rawls, I 5

0950. Action item J approve purchase and sale agreement between the city of Newman and the Newman Crows Landing Unified School District re- real property adjacent to Park Avenue and Metairie Field. Mr. Pruitt. Yep. Purchasing this property has been kind of a long journey. I, um, kind of a an interesting story. I was told many, many years ago by a teacher that worked in our district over 45 years, I believe, um, Mr. Canter, who has passed away, and he told me this crazy story about him and, um, Mr. Cantrell, I believe, and there were the property lines where there was a parking lot, like telephone poles with a cable that went through it, and they wanted to build a baseball field. So, in the 1960s, they picked up those property markers and moved them back. Nobody

096really knew it happened, and they built the varsity baseball field. So, most of us thought that property, which is all of right field and center field, was the district property, part of that parking lot. The gravel parking lot was the district property. Um, fast forward to today's time with the apps, and you can pull up a thing called OnX. It's an app that shows you the property lines and who owns what property, and Metairie Park is actually supposed to be expanded almost all the way to second base, all the way past that. That is actually Newman's property. Well, the city of Newman really doesn't want to take that from us, and we kind of need a baseball field. So, that's what started the negotiation process through that. Um, the, uh, we offered a price, they

097counter-offered, and then we negotiated back and forth to create a sidewalk to go along the tennis courts along that road, so that, uh, both the school and the city can use it. They dropped their price so that would kind of cover half that sidewalk. We we can cover the other half. So, that's that's how we came about the price of it, and then, uh, the city also wants to make sure because once they when they have their events there, and if we close our double gates, it becomes a one-way road, and there's no way to come back. So, they really want to ensure long-term that, uh, they're able to hold events and turn around, and we want the same. It's it's our it's one community. You know, I know our our motto is one one

098district, but it's really is one community, and we need to work together, and we can provide that for the city as well as well as improving our facilities. So, I I am recommending that you approve the purchase of this property. Any questions for action item J? Uh, and to confirm, Mr. Pruitt, this is with bond money, correct? >> [snorts] >> Yeah, that was one of the first calls I made is how we would negotiate it. I I made a call to our bond company, and, um, and it does fit within the description for measure all measure X, measure S, and measure T, and, um, they did confirm that you can buy property to up update facilities. So, yes. All right. Any other questions? All right. Can I get a action, uh, motion for action item

099J approving the purchase and sale agreement between the city of Newman and the Newman Unified School District real property adjacent to Park Avenue and Metairie Field? I'll make that motion. Thank you, Mr. Rivas. Can I get a second? [snorts] I'll second. Thank you, Mrs. Ceruti. Uh, Mr. Rock? I. Mrs. Gonzales? I. Um, Mrs. Ceruti? I. Mr. Rivas? I. And Mrs. Rawls, I 5 0. Um, item action is our action item is going to be K, the the previously moved over, um, action item I of the consent calendar is approval of declaration of need for fully qualified educators. Uh, Dr. Sayal, you want to talk on that one? Okay, so, so each year we come to you with this declaration of need for fully qualified educators because at times as we're filling positions, vacancies that come

100up, we may not have fully credentialed teachers. So, in order to be able to hire someone on what's called a short-term staff permit or an internship or, uh, provisional intern permit, we need to come to you with this, uh, declaration of need. It needs to be approved. Uh, what would happen is it doesn't necessarily mean that we need all these positions at this time. It's, uh, here just in case, for example, at this point, we put in here that we need four resource teachers. We don't have any resource vacant resource teaching vacancies at the at the point at this point right now. So, we would not necessarily need these four teachers that we're stating here. If we look at TK, for example, we do have a TK teacher because of the new requirements that doesn't

101have all the requirements met, currently working on them. Um, we filled her position last year. Um, she was the most in fact, she was the only applicant at that time. So, we brought her in with with this understanding. That's why we place these items here uh, in case we need to fill vacancies based on some of these needs. Now, the other thing, like for example, on one of these there's a clad English learner authorization. Currently, all our teachers are authorized, uh, with either a clad or some some sort of authorization to teach EL. If for some reason we end up hiring someone that doesn't meet that requirement, then we have it in place that we're able to do that. Now, we always go out and look for certificated, you know, preliminary or or professional credentials

102in place. Uh, unfortunately, when we start talking like special ed, mathematics, um, those are areas that statewide we have needs in. So, at times we need to hire, uh, teachers with either that was short-term permits or in an intern program or in a provisional permit. Um, what we've been doing here in Newman is we do attend several, uh, job fairs. For example, this year, um, myself along with other staff have attended, uh, job fairs at Stanislaus County Office of Education, Stanislaus State, and Teachers College of San Joaquin, uh, trying to find fully credentialed teachers to bring into our district for positions that are that are vacant. Uh, if we are not able to find one, then we we want to have the opportunity to be able to bring someone into a position because we feel

103that having them, um, with one of these provisional permits allows us not to keep hiring subs throughout the year. So, that's the reason we we go to this. Uh, just so you're aware, a lot of these teachers that we have on like the the short-term permits, uh, are grown within Newman. So, we have, for example, our BTs, instructional aides, uh, classified staff that have kind of gone through the ranks and moved into a teaching role. They got their bachelor's degree, have some requirements still to complete to get either an intern internship program or their full credential. We bring them on board. Now, in order to get some of these authorizations, there are certain requirements that the teacher does need to meet in order to to be in those those classrooms. So, that's why we bring

104this, uh, to you. It doesn't necessarily mean that these positions are open right now. It just means that should should the need arise, we have the opportunity to be able to um hire these these individuals. Thank you, sir. Any questions for Dr. Seha? All right. Can I get a motion to approve action item K, the declaration [clears throat] of need for fully qualified educators? Can I get a motion for that one? I'll make a motion. Thank you, Mr. Reavis. Uh can I get a second? I'll second. Thank you, Mrs. Rudy. Uh Mr. Walk? Uh no. I really just struggle with the resource specialist position and having four, you know, it's just uh so those are some of our most vulnerable students, so I think we really need to put effort in to try and get

105them fully credentialed uh teachers. Mrs. Gonzales? Hi. Mrs. Rudy? Hi. Mr. Reavis? Hi. Mrs. Robles, I vote one. Uh action item L is going to be a district office specialist job uh updating job description. Mr. Pruitt. Yeah, this is just an update to the job description. There were some uh duties on there listed that uh the person currently does not do, and then uh so we removed those from that, and there is some uh possibly some duties added to it for next year. And again, um this is just uh we we routinely look at job descriptions to make sure it accurately describes what that person is doing, and and we update them. That's really all this is, and um and I think it also listed the director of human resources as a supervisor where it

106really is the assistant superintendent of human resource. So, it's just updating the wording in and what the person is doing. It is not a new position. That's a really good question. If it was a new position, but it's not. It's just okay. Just updating the job description. All right. Any other questions for action item L? All right. Can I get a motion um for action item L to approve the district office specialist job description? Can I get a motion for that? I'll make a motion. Thank you, Mrs. Rudy. Can I get a second? I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Reavis. Uh Mr. Walk? I. Um Mrs. Gonzales? Hi. Mrs. Rudy? Hi. Mr. Reavis? Hi. And Mrs. Robles, I vote zero. Uh future agenda items. Anybody have anything for the future agenda items? Do we have anything

107coming up? All right. Uh item uh number 11, superintendent report. Mr. Pruitt. Yeah, I have a couple things. First of all, again, I want to thank the Beyond the Bell for their uh great work with our students, and uh and again, award-winning programs consistently uh outperforming every year and every time. So, it's just always exciting to see what they do. Um the next is uh a lot of our events at the high school, you know, it's going to be a lot of those last time events for our seniors. And uh for our seniors that are here tonight, this is one of the last times that you get to procrastinate as a senior as it is the last night you can attend a school board meeting for your uh government class, correct? So, uh so again,

108we should probably be ready for that at the end of each year cuz uh we always have to put out extra chairs for our seniors that wait until the best meeting, which is the last meeting, right? That you can attend. So, we appreciate you guys being here and being part of it. Um another one is the mission and vision, and I I think uh you got to kind of see the passion that Mike really presented with, and he really does get that from our community. And um and again, we we really did find out that really our community is what we put as a priority here, and we want to keep moving that forward and as far as our commitment statement, not our mission and vision statement. And then, we have uh as of I

109will be working with Matt to kind of move forward to get a better price and uh and possibly start doing the engineered estimates kind of thing to get that started to bring more information back to you. And then, the one of the most important things is our staff appreciation picnic, which is going to be on the 27th of this month, which is next Monday, at what time? 2:00. 2:00 p.m. We are having an ice cream social, and each side is going to be uh kind of presenting their mission and vision statement from their side. So, um it'll be kind of an unveiling of that, and we get to honor some of our employees, and I um heard some of the counts for how many years some people have been in our district, and it's pretty

110incredible on um on truly how how uh committed our staff is to our community. What was [clears throat] the location on that? It will be at Yolo. Mhm. Can you send out a reminder to the board, please? We will. And that is all I have. Thank you. Thanks, sir. 2:00, you said? 2:00, Yolo. Uh board reports. Mr. Walk. Yeah, so I was able to do uh some senior interviews, uh and it was it was a lot of fun. I had someone, you know, who's a high school teacher uh being able uh to go and hear from seniors, uh hear kind of what their plans are for the future, and then what what they've done throughout their high school career was was really great. Um so, I enjoyed that, and then Yolo FFA um not a

111lot of middle schools have FFA chapters, so I think it's really cool um that Newman um allows the middle school to be part of uh the FFA program and part of the state program as well. So, thank you for your presentation today. Mrs. Rudy? Good evening, everybody. Um I just wanted to um just give a quick little uh thank you to those teachers that are retiring or moving forward. I don't know if those are here or not, but um just thank you for the amount of years you dedicated to the district, and hopefully um in this new adventure that awaits you, you guys find some kind of peace and and time with your loved ones. Um so, thank you for the many years of of dedication to the district. Um also, the senior interviews, there's

112one senior in here that I did her interview. Um just good luck out there, and um our students have some really good seniors. So, it's it's very nice to see um some good students. Um Yolo also um your FFA, it's very nice to see them get started this young as a ag business owner. Um it's very nice to see young young students getting an interest in ag. And I know you guys talked about a vegetable garden or whatnot. Please look for me. I think I know someone that can help you. Um so, we would love to contribute some way, somehow, so please um don't be shy. Call us. We'll we'll help. We're willing to help. Um and then also, I was able to look at the math the new math curriculum at the district office.

113Um so, I just wanted to say that um I'm excited to skim through those books. It's um it brought back a lot of memories from when I was learning math, so it's a little exciting for these kids to to get back on the on the track of math. Um and then for the vision um for the district, you know, as a as a student through the district, you know, um it's nice to hear the the community cuz I know when we were when we were in Bonner, um the community was a big part of of school. And I think if we can get that community back into our district, it can make a huge difference. Um I know when we were going through school, it it it really helped, so um that's exciting. And then

114Matt, thank you for all the information. Um there's a lot of clarification that we needed, and I think I think that helped a lot. Um and then Mrs. Rudy, thank you for always being up here and trying to speak volumes for everybody. Um we are working. We are trying. And I think um our team is doing pretty good, so um you know, we're we're moving along. Yes. Yes. Um um I think that's all I got. Just um it's the end of the school year almost, and um I know that um emotions and feelings and anxiety and all that stuff is kind of all over the place, but um just it'll be good. And thank you to everybody in the district for working hard with these kids and getting them to where they need to be,

115um especially these students that are going to go off into the real world. Um so, good luck. Thank you, ma'am. Uh Mr. Reavis. Thank you, Mr. Pruitt. Uh I got to attend the LCAP meeting uh with Mrs. Vargas running it with me, and Mrs. Gonzales. I was going I was in the back corner, but then I was realizing, you know, I'm a parent as well, and coming up and seeing that everyone's goals pretty much all the same. And there's some eye-opening things that, you know, the community members picked, the staff picked. So, we'll work our best to try to get some of those back on track. Uh Mrs. Carson's not here. Uh I did my first blood drive ever with Mrs. Diaz. She was with me. Mrs. Applequist is not here, but she was with

116me as well. That was uh that was pretty cool. Stay sitting in there with some students that do it every year. Somebody said, "Oh, students just come here to get out of class." But there were some in there that were I could tell they needed escort cuz they were getting a little dizzy. But and I do want to apologize to the Orsino staff or the Orsino for my father-in-law just riding his bike on campus. Uh he used to be a probation officer years and years ago, so he thought he can do whatever he wants to do. So um What else was there? It's been a long uh we've been busy. Um I also got to do the senior interviews as well. The senior group This is probably the best senior interviews I did this year.

117I gave a lot of 50s cuz these kids were focused, great speakers. Eye contact is really important with me. And everybody just kept eye contact and it was great to see. And like you guys are doing now. I like to see it. Good job for that. Um Edward, Mr. Palacios, Matt, when I got to FFA, you guys better find some room for a farm cuz looks like we're going to have to find some room over there. Hopefully. Um I want to congratulate Mr. Walk on his newborn child. 14th? Congratulations on that. And also, if we don't see you guys, all you mothers, happy Mother's Day. And seniors enjoy it. You only got I think I saw somebody say 38 days left. Enjoy it. Okay? Enjoy the prom. Don't get in trouble. Just enjoy it. I

118think that's all I got. Thank you, sir. I'm kind of kind of going to piggyback with uh everybody already just said is um special thanks to you know Ms. Tapia and and our financial team because over the last two three months, you know, we we we've been crunching numbers and we've been fighting for every cent we could possibly find out of you know every coffee can. You know and like I said the the the outcome is a lot better cuz of all the hard work that that district office has done to reduce the [clears throat] amount of people that are potentially going to be let let go, right? You know, um we're fighting every single day to try to you know the very least amount of impact we possibly can. Um and to look at

119every avenue of early retirements, you know, um every single different thing we can to save at least one person's job if if if that's what we have to do. You know what I mean? So special thank you to all your team. Um Uh Mr. Vargas, man, I I don't know how you do it, but you know, I've known Mr. Vargas for a very long time and he's probably one of the fewest individuals that works harder than me. I work eight days a week and I guarantee you he probably works 8.5. You know, I I call him at 2:00 in the morning Got you, I'm there, right? Um Again, all the projects, all the construction, all the bond funds that are going to good use for the a lot of students at our campuses or is

120is tremendous. Um always trying to upgrade our facilities. Um just doesn't you know have a you know way of just saying thank you. Um And then the last thing is the next board meeting is on May May 11th and and that's after that it's graduation. So um We did have a special board meeting last week where we approved the the contract for the Orsino High School track project. Um uh that's going to be an amazing project. Amazing project, right? Um I can't wait till the high school complex gets finished to built out because we've got a good plan to get it all built out. It's just going to take a little bit more time, but we're we're almost there, right? Um but it's definitely going to be top-notch. Um that's all I have for tonight.

121Um last but not least, Ms. Zales. Thank you, Mr. Cabral. I thought maybe you forgot about me. [laughter] No, they they they change up the order on these things every single month, so >> I see that. That's why >> I like to go last, but >> [laughter] >> I think has almost touched on everything I was going to say, but that's okay. Um Uh I just wanted to comment, Claudia, I remember the very first time you approached me in the playground and you told me, "I don't think I could ever stand in front of that podium and speak." And so it's so inspiring to see you here month after month and just really share your heart. Um It's It's courageous. It's It's amazing to see grow as a leader and uh to speak for everyone.

122So thank you. Um I also got to attend the senior interviews, which were really fun. Uh it was my first time being able to do that and everyone is dressed to impress. Uh I've sat in interviews like um at my job several times, dozens and dozens of interviews and some people would come in flip-flops and tank tops. Not Not any of the seniors at our school. Now, you were all suited up and very well-spoken. Very confident. Uh it was a pleasure to meet everyone that that came to my table. And it was really fun to have a community volunteer alongside me and share different perspectives, so that was cool. Uh I also got to attend the Ag Day with Von Renner as a parent chaperone, which was really fun. Got to go with my son

123and a group of all of his little friends, so you can imagine a bunch of first graders. So it was a fun experience, but we uh we got through the day >> [laughter] >> and back to Von Renner all in one piece. Um Let's see. What else was I going to say? I think Oh, the EL Cap meeting. Yes, thank you, Mr. Rivas, for sharing that. Feels like that was so long ago, but it's always so nice to see all of the people that come to that meeting. I know Ms. uh Mrs. Vargas has some plans to really expand it and make it even better, which um feels like I don't know how you can, but she has shared some ideas on how we can expand it and make it bigger uh and bring more

124of the community to the event because it is really effective and really neat to see, like Mr. Rivas said, all of the different ideas that get pulled together and all of the parallels that really exist even amongst, you know, a room of 50 people. Uh so always really neat to see that, but it is almost May, so we'll all be busy here pretty soon and a bunch of more events and um as Mrs. Shrody said, it's always kind of an emotional and special time of the year, so um look forward to seeing you all there and please say hi if you see us. Thank you, ma'am. Uh with that, uh meeting will be adjourned till next month, May 11th at 7:00 44. 44 p.m. And uh seniors, go ahead and come on up if you

125need your notes signed.