001Welcome. We call the March 9th New Mexico Unified School District School Board meeting in session. We have Mr. Walk. Here. Mrs. Gonzales. >> Here. >> Mrs. Zurdy. >> Here. >> Mr. Rivas. >> I'm here. >> And Mr. Morales here. Item number 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 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 time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. With board consent, the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public presentation depending on the topic and the number of
002persons wishing to be heard. The president may take a poll of 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, is there any members of the public wishing to address the board before we go to closed session? Seeing none, we'll go to closed session at 5:01 p.m. >> 03, I'm sorry, Frank. >> Thank you. >> Welcome to the Zoom the March 9th board meeting for tonight. Tonight's salute tonight is going to be led by our
003Bonita students. Come on up, kids. There's a microphone. >> Ready? Begin. >> 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, for liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, guys. Item B, report of action taken in closed session. In the closed session, the governing board took action to issue notice of non-re-elect of four probationary teachers pursuant to Ed Code section 44929 .21, section B, effective at the end of the 2025-2026 school year, and directed the superintendent or designee to send out appropriate legal notices. The roll call vote was as follows, uh three yeses, zero noes, two abstentions. Uh item five, public communication. One agenda agenda and non-agenda items. Members of the public may address the board on items
004not on the agenda. Speakers will be allowed 3 minutes unless time limit is waived by a majority of the board. The board will allow comments by members of the public on 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 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 may take a poll of speakers for or against a particular issue and may ask that additional persons speak only if they have something 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
005for defamation. The proceedings of the board are recorded and are part of the public record. Uh I I that's uh >> Jeremy. Yeah. What? You said it, not me. Hello, can we all hear me? Okay. I have a lot to say, so I apologize in in advance. Good morning, or excuse me, good evening. Off to a great start. Good evening, members of the board. Tonight, I'm up here to talk about matters pertaining to the layoff of one of the campus supervisor positions in our district. Uh campus supervisors on paper may seem in unimportant, but I believe that cutting them would be cutting at the safety and security of our students. In my time as a campus supervisor, I responded to many serious emergencies. I have personally disarmed a student with a knife as they brandished
006it at another student, resulting in a minor injury to myself. I have had to drive out to one of our students after they were hit by a car and assist in identifying the student so the school could contact their parents and make them aware of what happened to their child. Um that might have been one of the worst days in my career in my 6-year-long career. Um maybe only tied with the day when one of our students um have been caught with or excuse me, maybe tied with the day uh when one of our students who had been caught with a machete and a karambit on campus weeks prior decided to pull a knife in a dispute with students and stab several individuals. The student was then hunted by a posse of other NCLUSD students
007and injured gravely and hospitalized. Uh luckily, the SRO and I found this student and administered some first aid, um but the students all students involved in the incident um excuse me. There's but the amount of students that incident sent to hospital was staggering. Apologies. I've been involved in numerous searches of contraband drugs, weapons, and more on campus on a daily, and I'm constantly called on campus to solve concerns, disputes, and more. All the events have happened within or with these students were still These events happened while our students were still considered in our care and responsibility in CUSD. I'm not here saying that more campus supervisors could stop these events from happening, but I'm not It's no secret that having less safety staff will not help, either. Uh there are people up on the dais
008that have historically wanted to have a fifth campus supervisor at my site. Moving to eliminate this position is the exact opposite of that. I hope that saying uh that I'm saying I hope what I'm saying isn't coming across as fearmongering, but that's not my intention. I want to make sure that those of you at the top can see the whole picture on this position, not just what they are told by the people under them, and I just want you to know the full story. Thinking that it's a good idea to cut down on safety team members means you need to understand the weight that might carry. When you're talking about student safety, multiple voices and positions come into play. Um but just looking at the angle of what can we get away with, you are
009not getting the whole picture and missing the big piece of what campus actually needs. It is my sincere hope that this position will not be cut and will continue to build programs and protections for our students in our care. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Claudia Diaz. >> I'm not hearing you. >> I'm sorry. I don't think anyone is that tall. Um anyhow, President Cabaldon, Superintendent Pruitt, members of the board, and co-workers, friends, and community members. Good evening. My name is Glenda Diaz, and I'm the president of CSEA, that represents over 200 classified employees in our district, and also a proud bilingual aide and health position as a yard duty and in ASP, now BTP. I want to start off by thanking Dr. Seher for allowing Britney Clark, our VP in CSEA, and myself to
010accompany him on Friday as he was handing out layoff notices at the different sites. We weren't able to stop their worrying, nor their tears, but we were able to hold their hands and let them see that they were being heard, cared about, and more importantly to repeat your words, "Nothing is set in stone. Things can change, and you're willing to work with us in exploring alternatives and options for these hard times, but we will get there together." It was about sharing the hope and faith that not everything is lost, and to please be patient. I can honestly tell I apologize. I can honestly tell you that we're putting on brave faces as we work hard and continue to support our wonderful students, our fellow classified co-workers, and our families. I myself have two more family
011members working for the district, and it takes all our three incomes to keep our home and pay the bills. The morale is low, and you can feel it on every campus. With the projected reserves going down every year, we're all wondering if we're next. The news shows a gruesome picture. Everywhere you look, the districts are laying off classified and certificated. Can you imagine what an impact it would create if Newman Crows Landing Unified School District was a part of that? That instead of being talked about as yet another district added to the long list. It was instead added to the few that were innovated and thought outside the box. The ones who left no rock, stone, or pebble unturned, nor left a single comma, decimal, or period unchecked, and managed to save their valuable staff.
012As May 15th deadline fastly approaches, I can't help but think of the slogan, "In it together." We're all in it together for the ones whose lives will be most greatly impacted after our families, our students, who are our future. The ones who rely on that familiar face day after day to inspire and support them. It is with my sense of faith, trust, and hope that with the second interim by the May 15th deadline deadline, together we will have managed to save jobs amidst the mess you've saved you've inherited with dignity, respect, and transparency. Lastly, I may be naive, I am, but I still trust in people in people's words, especially if you're in it together for the right and fair reasons. Thank you. >> Thank you. Melanie Gomes. >> It's gracious. Okay. Hello. Um good
013evening. My name is Melanie Gomes. I'm a 19-year classified school employee. I've been with NCLUSD since 2019, and I currently hold a position of program facilitator. I'm speaking to you today in support of my fellow classified employees who have received layoff notices. I would like to help you will some of the ramifications of layoffs. In my position, there are only two of us. We assist our behavior analysts and support students on IEPs with behavior and social skills minutes. We also support all mild our mild moderate and moderate severe special education classrooms when they are short-staffed, as well as provide general support to staff and students in those classrooms. We currently both have case loads of over 30 students. I support our secondary and they support our elementary. With my counterpart's layoff, my case load will
014increase to over 60 students. With that number, I will be unable to provide support to our special education classes as I have been. My time will be dedicated solely to the IEP minutes, which will be covering all six of our school sites. Instructional aides, clerks, campus supervisors, custodians, all these positions were created and filled because there was a need for support. Laying off these positions does not change that need. It only makes it more difficult on students and the staff left behind to fill that void while still doing their own job. As board members, you look at dollar amounts and what your staff presents to you. I ask that you instead look at student needs, the strain on staff, and the financial burden placed on members of your community when they receive an unemployment check
015that is lower than their current income and struggle to make ends meet in today's expensive times. Savings can be achieved in a variety of ways beyond layoffs. They can be made through hiring freezes, pay cuts to administrators whose salaries are double or triple of those of our classified employees, no conference trips, only necessary purchases throughout the district, or furlough days for every employee in the district. I have lived through difficult times as an employee in a previous district, where we took five furlough days each, which meant everyone kept their jobs and the district made the savings they needed. I have also lived through what you are going through as I was once a school board member in my home district and layoffs were presented to us as the only option. Upon review, our initial assessment
016was incorrect and other options would have safeguarded our staff. These decisions are difficult and I hope you are considering other cost-saving alternatives so you do not have to lay off any employees. Our students, staff, and community deserve that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Ms. Felber. >> Good evening, everyone. While I feel badly about all of the proposed layoffs, I am here to speak on the layoff of the account technician position because that is the position I have direct knowledge of. I believe that there are probably only three people that know exactly what the account technician at Oreste does. That is the current technician, Monica Anaya, the former technician who is now the secretary at Oreste, which would be Mavi Bracamontes, and me. I was a secretary at Oreste High School for 18 years. When I
017was hired, the account technician position did not exist. The secretary was also the student body bookkeeper. I know during that time, during some of that time, Mr. Sayha was the principal and I'm not even sure he was aware of this and it's been so many years, but um I would be working many nights till 7:00 counting money and um the Dean of Students at the time used to work late a lot, too. So, he would walk me to my car. I would take the money and then I'd call my husband to meet me at the bank deposit at the bank because I didn't want to get out of the car with thousands of dollars in cash and put it in the night drop. At that point, the teachers, coaches, class advisers collected the money. They
018prepared the receipts, and then they brought me the money to compile to verify, compile into combined deposits. At that time, when at the end of that time, when I was doing it, about $250,000 would pass through the school each year from about 50 accounts, and the school population was somewhere around 700 students. In 2014, the account tech position at OHS was added. For a year and a half, that position held by Mavi Brocomontes was split between the high school and the district office. At that time, Mr. Philpott could see the need for a full-time account tech at the high school and then created a similar position for Yolo. At the direction of the auditors, Mavi created new procedures to follow. All monies were to come to her, not through anyone else. She would receipt the
019students in separate receipt books for each organization after counting their monies. She would take several days at the beginning of the year to visit PE classes to accept money for PE clothes, and this is the same procedure for any art, ceramic, and ag fees, and anything else that's come up since. There are currently over 70 separate accounts that the account tech is in charge of. This entails receipting and depositing monies, accounts payable, quarterly reports for all accounts, audit preparation, monthly bank reconciliations, beginning and year-end reports, etc. This includes each sport, club, class, etc. In addition to that, at roundup before school begins, the account technician spends at least a week collecting and receiving money for Chromebook insurance. Although money is still collected year-round. This past year, the receipts were reaching almost half a million dollars
020and the student population is around 900 students now. This does not take into consideration any front office help, budget meetings with staff, and hundreds of invoices to be paid while working hand-in-hand with the school secretary on a regular basis. From my own experience, I know that this must be a full-time position at Oro Loma Linda in order to provide for the needs of the students and staff. If the same position at Yolo does not require as much time, perhaps that person could fill a part-time need at the district office as the original position did. In 2007 and 8, the district was facing a similar budget crisis. At that time, we were told that we could avoid layoffs by cutting the hours or days of every classified employee. I remember everyone working together and agreeing to
021do just that, and no one was laid off. As soon as was possible, most of those days were reinstated. I would hope that the board will look into doing something like that now. I'm confident that everyone would be willing to give a little in order to save everyone's job. I would suggest that this apply to everyone, administrative and district office positions alike. I think that would go a long way to making the staff feel like everyone is in this together. Thank you. >> Thank you. Mr. Mendoza? >> Good evening. I would like to address the board this evening, particularly the comments made by Trustee Rivas in the last meeting. You referenced inheriting a mess and I take exception to this and I would like to clarify. Mr. Rivas, you and Mr. Cabral joined the board
0224 years ago. At that time, the district had a reserve well over 20%. In addition to being conservative, the reserve had grown during being able to shift funding to COVID resources to pay for the additional costs that the district incurred while in the remote learning environment and the expenses of reopening. I advised the board that the COVID funding would be expiring over time and we needed a plan to address the expenditures that had been added due to the short-term funding. Former superintendents hired a tremendous amount of staff due to the needs of the students, which I also warned against using one-time funds for ongoing expenses. It is not best practice to use one-time funds for ongoing salaries. I cautioned the board at every budget update that reductions would need to be made beginning in 2024-2025,
023which meant planning starting in 2023-2024. Little by little, salaries were shifted from one source to another as was allowable with a plan to integrate the salaries into the general fund through attrition. Over time, the district enrollment has declined leading to less LCFF funding year over year. However, staffing levels did not reflect the decline and in fact, FTEs continued to be added. A year ago, I was asked to plan a budget workshop. I was tasked to develop a reduction plan for nearly $2 million. I presented a balanced reduction balanced between administration, certificated, and classified classified staff. It was proportionate to each unit. Staffing vacancies that occurred that my analyst and I were assured by the superintendent would be left vacant, were filled. This was not communicated to include in the budget development. The reductions I had
024identified were not enacted, therefore more significant cuts needed to be made this year. However, the cuts that were proposed are not proportionate. It is highly disproportionate on the backs of the classified staff. The essential support staff. And you're hearing their stories. There has not been a dollar amount specified on how much these reductions will save overall. During the recession which began in 2008, thank you Vicki for bringing that up. Because of our conservative leadership, the superintendent and I worked with the unions to not reduce jobs in 2011, and we worked to find solutions through transparency and accurate projections. It took time to restore the reductions that were made, but it did happen. The missing piece is the lack of public board discussion. Not only on budget issues, but on any action requiring a vote. There
025is no context given to the public or the students in the audience. A board meeting shouldn't be a race to see how early it can end. It should be a resource of clear information presented with room for public input. I would like to remind the board that the CBO does not sign the purchase orders, the warrant submission to the county, or the payroll authorization. The board and the superintendent cannot claim that they had no knowledge of the spending when every item went for their approval. If you feel you inherited a mess, you did not inherit it, you created it. Please choose your words wisely. I will not have my reputation stained by the limitations of the current administration to navigate the current financial climate, which I continually warned about. The community needs you to do
026better. Thank you. >> Thank you. Item number six, approval of agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda as listed? >> I make the motion to approve the agenda. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Ms. Trudy. Thank you, Ms. Rivas. Mr. Raw? >> I. >> Ms. Gonzales? >> I. >> Ms. Trudy? >> I. >> Ms. Rivas? >> I. >> And Mr. Raw votes I. Item number seven, information discussion items. A, Bonita Spotlight Board Presentation. >> You'll do that. Okay. All right. Good evening, Board President Donka Brown, Superintendent Mr. Pruitt, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Seha, Board members and community members. I am Liliana Esquivez and I am the proud principal of Bonita Elementary. Tonight, I am very excited to share a little bit about one of the great things that are happening at our school,
027our kindness club. This group of students have been working really hard this year to share and spread a lot of kindness. All right. And now I'm going to introduce our awesome counselor, Ms. Britney Salazar, who has guided and supported this student initiative. Hello, everyone. My name is Salas. I'm the school counselor at Bonita. I am also the advisor to our kindness club. Um I'm going to introduce them really fast before our representatives come up. We have a few here that could attend today. So, we have Miss Olivia. Miss Reese. Miss Maya. We'll do an honorary mention, Miss Rylan. She is Miss Leah. And Miss Emma. We are going to have Miss Reese and Miss Maya come up to tell you all about kindness club. This is new to us this year, and actually this is
028our founder right here who wanted to start it. So, she's going to tell you all about it. >> Thank you, Olivia. >> Kindness club is about helping people. And we just like to make the world a better place where we can be nicer, happier, and have more fun being nice. >> Why are we doing kindness club? What we do. Kindness club includes peer support, communication, empathy, compassion, community engagement, and more than just breathing for coping skills. We will also have activities at lunch recess. >> Our supervisor will be Miss Britney. There will be no president or vice president, so no one will feel left out or will want a certain spot. Our kindness box. As you can see on the images showed on the screen, the kindness box is right next to the >> conference
029>> Thank you. Conference room. And students are allowed to write a kind slip and put it into the box. And then Okay. Bullying prevention and Red Red Ribbon Week. >> Red Ribbon Week, we focused on healthy and kind choices for our bodies and others. We did um three things. Wait. Yeah, we did three things that week. And Oh, yeah. We also um did this coloring thing where it was like puzzle pieces and we'd connect them and it was like a huge puzzle. We also um >> [clears throat] >> We also did chalk and there was this line for prizes and we did Red Ribbon um Wait. Tattoos. Tattoos. Just Oh. Last month we had a random acts of kindness week. Um, one of the things was beat On Tuesday we had be kind everywhere. Dress
030up like a tourist and the activity was kindness passports. On Wednesday we had be kind to all, big and small, dress up. Dress in PJs activity buddy reading. We also had stuffies. >> Was very important to them. >> Third day Thursday we had kindness heroes. The dress up day was dress like a superhero. Activity was note to your hero and superhero photo booth. On Friday kindness rocks dress up. Um, dress in tie dye activity rock painting. These are our fellow members of the kindness club. >> Our kindness club has definitely made a great impact on our campus. Just when we think that things are good, our students find ways to make our campuses even better. Right? I'm very proud of all of you. This group has been working very hard and you guys are setting
031a really good example for our school, our students, and for the community. Parents, thank you very much for bringing your children tonight. and Bobcats, keep up the good work and thank you for making our school a kinder place to be at. Thank you. >> Thank you guys. No student report tonight cuz I just found out when Alicia had a family emergency. So we'll go to item C, OHS leadership class presentation. >> Good evening everybody. First off, I'd like to thank Lizette Gonzales for inviting us down here tonight. My name is Charlie Cothin Beetle and I am the leadership teacher along with being in charge of our student council over at Orson High School. Along with teaching math and avid and today we are presenting some information on a survey. That's kind of the main portion
032of what we're doing today is talking about a survey that we did with our students earlier in the school year, which we will then do later in the year. It's to help out with some of the different things that we plan throughout the course of the year. But before we do that, I do have a couple of students that I'd like to introduce to everybody. So we have Martine. Martine is our sophomore class president and we also have Carlos here. Carlos is our freshman class president as well and they're going to talk to you about some of the different things that we've been doing this year, but also some of the differences between both leadership and student council. >> Hello everybody. As Mr. K already introduced me, I'm Martin Benitez. I have right now the
033position of sophomore body president. As in in freshman year, I started off as treasurer for the freshman class. Mr. K has really put me up to the test of joining leadership. But one of the questions that I asked him was what is the difference? And even though they might seem alike, they are very different. As in student council, I have experienced a lot of teamwork and a lot of things that I would not have experienced if I did not join the club. And that is why I'm really proud that I got the opportunity to join. Some of the stuff that we have been doing is fundraisers, prom setup, homecoming, and as well as group discussions, which really has helped my teamwork. And my group has been really happy. So that's good. And we've been working
034incredibly. And right now I have been looking into leadership, which leadership is a class as in like student council, which is early meetings on Wednesdays. Leadership is more of school activities, which would be spirit days, pajama days, the repeated stuff. >> [laughter] >> But leadership has had the opportunity to improve and has had more students trying to join. But what from what I have learned, they are both very awesome opportunities that students have got the chance to join and I would recommend it to anybody who ask if it was worth joining. >> Yeah, man. Thank you very Thank you very much, Martin. So, one of the main things there is that they are two separate entities. We have a leadership class and then we also have student council. Um so, student council itself is like
035Martin was saying, it's our school government where leadership is an A through G class that students get to take and then being two different things has had some benefits, some things that kind of could be improved upon. But, up next is Carlos to talk to you about some of the different things we do within these two separate programs. >> All right, good evening, uh members of the board. Like Mr. Gay mentioned, my name is Carlos Carranza. I am a student at Or Stem Academy High School, currently serving as the freshman class class president. I'll be sharing some of the things we do here at Or Stem Academy. We do our Dig Pink, our dances, our rallies, our student sections, spirit weeks, homecoming, parades, proms, senior nights, tailgate, and where where Events like Dig Pink, our
036homecoming activities, and the parade help build school spirit and give students something positive to be part of. Spirit Week is another great tradition because it encourages students to participate and feel connected to school community. Some other ones would include where showcase, career expo, fundraisers, yellow recruitment, clubs, field trips, link crew, and senior recognition. Field trips and clubs also play an important role because they give students opportunities to learn outside the classroom and explore their interest, whether it's academic clubs, sports, or other activities, they help students grow and stay involved. Fundraisers are also important because they help support our programs, teams, and events. They also allow students to work together towards a goal and support causes that matter to our school. Overall, these activities make school more than just classes. They create memories, build friendships, and
037help students feel proud to be part of this great school or Academy. So, thank you. >> Uh so, again, to kind of build upon that, a lot of the different things that um Carlos and Martin got a chance to show you, um not just things that we do within student council or within our leadership class, but um they are things that happen throughout our entire community at Or Stem Academy. And again, it's been a little bit of a challenge, uh excuse me, at some points to um find some consistency, mainly because of them being two different entities. So, at the start of this school year, we decided to also come out with a school survey. And in that part, we um got some different data points. So, as a class, we gave out a school-wide
038survey to get feedback on some of the cultures, sports, anything that was happening at Or Stem Academy. We put it out to every single student, gave them the opportunity within their social studies classes. We got 550 responses. Um as you can see, most of them were freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, with not as many seniors just because it is an optional, and you know, seniors aren't always going to take it. But, um in what we were looking for, that's probably the demographic that we wanted to reach out to the most. So, we were happy, actually very happy with that number of responses. Um couple of things that we found. First was participation and interest in some of the clubs and sports. At the start of the year, 40% of the students um were in or were
039anticipating being in a club. 60% were not or not planning on. Some of the larger clubs organizations at our school are FFA, API, which is Asian and Pacific Islander club, Warriors for Christ, student council itself, NAMI, STEM, WOWIE, Warriors and Wizardry. Um we also wanted to get some information on sports. So, 59.3% of the students at the start of the year were planning on doing a sport this upcoming year. We'll see the second half of the year exactly. We're going to compare those numbers with who actually participated. What the students also give us their feedback. 40% did not. The highest sports that people planned on taking were soccer, basketball, track and field, along with cheer, football, and tennis. Uh one big thing that we really cared about was how students got their information because it
040has become so increasingly difficult to actually get the students to just know what is happening on campus because they all hear it from different places. 68% of our students reported that Instagram or some form of social media is their favorite way to get information or how they get any information. Uh 48% only 48 get from morning announcements, which you would think more people are paying attention during those, but it's a little less than half. Uh 64% from friends, which I think is a big thing. It is word of mouth. Students talking to other students and figuring out what's going on. Uh 48% from staff, which is a big number. Uh only 31% from flyers or other things. Most people as they're walking between classes are on their phones. They're not seeing what's posted up anymore.
041Uh sporting events. How many students had been going to sporting events? This is a few months into the school year at the time. Uh 17% had been to seven or more, 19, uh percent, four to six, 36% one to three, and 28% none at all. This was again late fall when we gave this the first time. Um and also, um how students feel about certain events on a campus. 65% of the students, this was our number one uh as far as response goes, that the students kind of wanted were these two, and it was dress-up days and spirit weeks. It's something that we have found is a lot simpler, a lot more students can be involved in with it. It doesn't cost as much money for them to participate in, but they love it. They
042love spirit weeks, they love dress-up days. They like simple things on campus that can get them motivated. Um one thing that is definitely going away are things like dances. 59.6% of the students reported that they don't want any dances. They are not going to attend them. So, it is just something that like besides like, you know, the common ones like prom or homecoming, it's just not something that students really want to attend anymore. So, kind of unique um in seeing all these different things. Uh so, our future plans with it is to obviously create, promote more events that will occur each month, uh rallies, staff or student events, talent shows, dress-up days, lunchtime activities. We will continue to uh give out these surveys, get feedback from our student body, that way we can make the
043necessary changes or uh develop uh some of the things we are currently doing. Combine student council and leadership. This is something that I definitely want to do. We're pushing forward hard. It uh will hopefully be done by next year is to combine those two, so it is one entity and help out our consistency running meetings. And finally, to utilize the time in the summer. Develop a summer camp, send students to other leadership camps, uh apply for grants, that way we've got more money coming in in order to help build skills and bring in new ideas. That's what I have for you guys. That's what we have for you. Thank you, Jordan. >> Thank you. >> Item D, Or Simba and AB 3074. >> Hello. Good evening. To all. Good to see everybody. Uh my name
044is Renee Chance and I teach mostly juniors United States history at Or Simba High School. Go Warriors. And I am here to update about an assembly bill that has a direct impact on us and the community. And it is Assembly Bill 3074. All right. So, um one of the many hats that I wear Or Simba um is helping with curriculum. And so, I was at a couple curriculum meetings last year and I heard about AB uh 3074 that is that would impact us. So, in an effort to be on top of this, we had mascot focus group. Actually, let me back up a little bit. Uh AB 3074 is an extension of the Assembly Bill that affected Gustine High School with their name change a few years ago. And in this bill, there are specific
045terms that can no longer be used unless you have the explicit consent with a written letter from a federally recognized tribe. So, while we have had our um our high school presented to multiple tribes in our area, uh we do not have any formal letters at this juncture. So, we wanted to move forward with best intentions with this law. And so, in order to do that, we had three meetings this school year. And part of that what we had classified staff, certificated staff, and an administrator there while we were meeting. And our last meeting actually had some board members there. Um we had our superintendent there as well. Thank you for coming. Um and then all three administrators as well. So while I have no intention of anybody reading all this text on the screen,
046what I highlighted here was when it is actually going to take place. This is going to be um official law starting July in 2026. And the way that we are affected is because our student learning outcomes use one school one tribe. And tribe is explicitly listed on this um AB 3074 as not an option. So we wanted to make sure that we were ahead of that as well. The other thing that would be affected in the um intent of the law would also be the use of any human imagery that specifically targeting the use of headdresses as well. Um and in in wanting to be thinking forward, we wanted to make sure that we had a plan. So this uh team here here's our impact at Orinda. So moving forward, we are going to continue
047the use of our O logo that you guys saw on the screen. And we are able to keep the warrior name. So that is not changing at all. Um we cannot use the term tribe anymore. So that is going to be omitted from our student learning outcomes and replaced with a new term. That has not been decided yet, but that is what we're working on next. Um also moving forward on PE uniforms, um on any printed shirts, yearbooks, publications, social media, we will omit the use of headdress or any human characteristics um in imagery as well. And those of you who might be wondering, well what about the gym floor or what about the chief that's exchanged between Gustine and Orinda, the law recognizes that there are a lot of long-standing traditions, and so any
048imagery um that is currently on a floor or the chief, they would stay. It's grandfathered in, and so they would have to be replaced or covered. So, again, those, unless there's a cosmetic change that we need to happen, they would stay. So, that is an update from us to make sure that we are compliant and we have a plan. And the next thing that we're working on are the student learning outcomes to make sure that we're not using tribe, but we are the Orinda Warriors. That is not changing. Thank you. >> Thank you. And just just a quick update on that. We actually had a discussion on Thursday at the deal and we're going to reach out to the County Board of Supervisors one last time to try to reach out to the tribe to
049hopefully put a little pressure on them to either say yes or no. So, we're still working. We're still working. Thank you. >> Item number E, attendance awards, Dr. Seha. >> Good evening, Board President Cabral, Superintendent Pruitt, and members of the board. It's with great pleasure to announce our attendance awards for the month of February. We will start with the staff attendance award, and that goes to Bonita Elementary School. >> Congratulations. >> And Miss Skivas, please stay up here. So, our most improved student award, most improved student attendance award goes to Bonita Elementary School. And I don't know, the 10th month in a row, I don't know what the I think we're going to just keep it over there for we have a best student attendance for the month of February goes to Hunt Elementary School.
050Thank you. >> Thank you sir. I don't ate consent calendar 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 and separate action. The consent calendar will be adopted by a roll call vote. Can I get a motion to approve the consent calendar as listed? >> I'll make a motion. >> Thank you Mr. Reaves. Can I get a second? >> I second. >> Thank you Mrs. Surratt. Mr. Walk? >> I. >> Mr. Gonzalez? >> I. >> Mrs. Surratt? >> I. >> Mr. Reaves? >> I. >> And Mr. Robles? I. >> Item number nine action items action item A approve resolution 25 26 number 10 recognizing staff appreciation days for April. Any comment Mr. Pruitt on that? >> You have
051the resolution right? >> Yeah. Did you have anything else to add? >> Yes, we'll read the resolution. >> Did you have it? >> No, I don't have it. I don't have the actual resolution. >> Okay, let me pull it up. >> Hit the highlights if you want. >> All All you want me to read it off? >> No, you don't have to the whole thing, just hit the highlights if you want. >> [clears throat] >> So, whereas instructional aides celebrated on April 1st provide invaluable support to teachers and students by assisting with instruction, offering encouragement, and helping create a positive inclusive and learning environment for all students. And whereas school library clerks recognized on April 2nd play a vital role in fostering a love of reading and learning by maintaining welcoming library spaces, supporting student
052research, and ensuring access to books and educational resources. Whereas vice principals honored on April 15th serve as essential leaders on our campuses by supporting students, staff, and families, promoting a positive school culture, and helping ensure safe and successful learning environments. And whereas administrative professionals celebrated on April 22nd are are the organizational backbone of our schools and district offices, providing essential support, managing daily operations, and ensuring that our campuses and departments run smoothly and efficiently. >> Was that it? >> I think >> That was That's all the groups. >> Okay, all right. Thank you, sir. Uh, can I get a motion to approve action item A, approving 25-26 number 10, recognizing staff appreciation day for the month of April? >> I'll make the motion. >> Thank you, Mrs. Gonzales. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr.
053Reavis. Uh, Mr. Rock? >> Aye. >> Uh, Mrs. Gonzales? >> Aye. >> Uh, Mrs. Surety? >> Aye. >> Mr. Reavis? >> Aye. >> Uh, Mr. Cumbalos, aye. Item B, approve the 26-27 school year calendar with the addition of July 3rd, 2026 as a holiday. Can I get a motion to approve the calendar for next year's school with the addition of July 3rd? Uh, can I get a motion for that? >> I make a motion. >> Thank you, Mrs. Surety. Can I get a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr. Rivas. Uh Mr. Wong? >> I. >> Ms. Cazales? >> I. >> Ms. Surdy? >> I. >> Mr. Rivas? >> I. >> Mr. Corrales votes aye. Uh item number C, approval of speech therapist contract for Bibiana Arredondo for the 2026-2027 school year. Uh this
054contract provides for certificated management employment of Bibiana Arredondo as New Mexico Unified School District speech therapist. With the approval of this contract for speech therapist commencing July 1st, 2026, uh Bibiana Arredondo will be placed on step one of the certificated management salary schedule at $102,804. All other terms and conditions of the employee contract will remain in full force and effect. Can I get a action or a motion for action item C? Motion action item C. >> Um make motion. >> Thank you, Ms. Surdy. Um can I get a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr. Rivas. Mr. Wong? >> I. >> Ms. Cazales? >> I. >> [clears throat] >> Uh Ms. Surdy? >> I. >> Mr. Rivas? >> I. >> And Mr. Corrales votes aye. Uh item number It should be D. Change that
055to D. Uh review and approve second interim budget report for the fiscal year 2025-2026. >> Sorry, let me just test this really quick. Okay, that one works. Good evening, Board President Cabral, Superintendent Pruitt, and esteemed board members. So, today I have one item to present to you, and that is the 2025-2026 second interim, and that is as of January 31st, 2026. I will continue to bring back this um infographic to you. This is the life cycle of the budget of the district. Uh last time you heard from me, it was December for first interim. That was as of October 31st. Since then, the January governor's budget proposal has been released, giving us a bit more guidance as to how we are projecting for 26-27. Um and now we have landed in March for our second
056interim. As I mentioned previously, it is looking at actuals through January 31st, 2026, and making our best guestimate of how we're going to land at the end of the year based on whatever trends we are seeing currently through practically more than halfway through the year. In essence, as I mentioned point number one, the second point is that um we are presenting the general fund revenues and expenditures and year-end balances. And the ultimate goal of the second interim is to determine whether the district can meet its financial obligations for the current and two subsequent fiscal years. Sure I have a one that I can view myself. Give me one sec. Poor eyesight. Okay. These are the budget assumptions that were incorporated into the updates done at second interim. Um we start at the top, projected enrollment.
057As you all know, our primary source of funding is driven by average daily attendance, which is based on the how many students are enrolled at any given month of attendance. The beauty about second interim is that we have sufficient data points within months of attendance to kind of get a sense of how we are trending. Um in fact, we just certified our um P1 um February 20th. So, it does really give us a really good sense of how attendance may be progressing for the remaining of the year. Um all that to say that with Superintendent um Thrupp and I sitting down and kind of looking over the trends that have existed in the past couple of months, we felt comfortable increasing that number just a slightly bit to 2999. Um, it also looked like we
058can increase a tiny bit the 2627, 2728. And furthermore, also looking at ADA as a percentage of attendance. Um, we did do a slight decrease. We did have 95.03 at first interim. Um, maybe I'm being a little bit too conservative, but I dropped it down to 95% just to round out those numbers. But the beauty of increasing the 18 is that we can ultimately start looking at how we are funded for ADA at P2 or our LCFF. Um, it is currently a little bit lower um for the projected funded industrial solely based on the adjustments as an average of the three years as we have mentioned in the past. We get funded in either current ADA or prior year or an average of the last three. So, being able to adjust that um slightly higher
059is giving us a little bit of an advantage as you can see um in the funded ADA for the out years. Um, they are slightly higher than we originally brought at first interim. Um, as far as the other data points, STRS employer rate as of the January governor's January budget proposal, those remain unchanged, which is good news. Um, and more importantly even for our first employer rate, which has been increasing for the past couple of years. Um, there is a slight slight decrease being proposed as of January. Um, hopefully that sustains. Additionally, the COLA did get adjusted downward based on the January governor's proposal. Um, it went down to 2.30. Let me move my mic further out. Um, and projected CPA um CPI, sorry about that, um has decreased a tiny bit. So, 3.37 is
060where we landed for this year. With all that said and done, this is our picture of adjustments from first interim to second interim for Newman. Taking it from the top for LCFF. Now, we do have an advantage to being able to claim more ADA for TK. We actually get an add-on for funding when we have more students enrolled in TK and they show up. And we have been doing a phenomenal job ever TK are showing up pretty consistently, pretty remarkably actually. This increase has actually offset a better the reduction of supplemental concentration funding that we talked about during first interim. I'll have a slide kind of showing you how that looks like, which is nice. We actually were able to add 162 789 to our overall LCFF revenue between first interim and second interim. In
061the federal revenue category, we did receive some prior year comprehensive support and improvement funds. We just happen to receive them in the out years as federal funding. The timing of them is extremely delayed, but we are still obligated to provide the services regardless of whether we have the cash or not. So, we've been providing those services. Now, we have received the cash from I believe 22-23. Don't quote me on that. 22-24 actually. In the state revenue, that increase is completely driven by expanded learning opportunities program. That is something that has been continuously been highlighted as a priority in the governor's budget even in prior years and it continues to be a priority in the January in the most recent release. And based on those calculations, we were able to adjust that revenue projection quite quite
062a bit outwardly. So, that 9-924 is solely ELOP. And lastly in the local revenue, that is just a slight increase to our local revenues based on adjustments of our employer contributions. Cal State take a bit of time to kind of reconcile the records against what we are reporting in our um payroll and they true up in either direction when they do that and that just happened to land in our favor. That's just an employer contribution that we did in the past that um ultimately um ended up getting reversed. And just to clarify, if we ever receive an employee portion of contribution, that also gets paid out to the employees. So, just like we received the employer portion back, employees also receive their portion. All in all, we were able to adjust 1.3 in the revenue
063side at second interim. To kind of spend some time in LCFF entitlements, um as you know that is the predominant funding source of unrestricted side of our budget. I wanted to lay out ultimately what rolls up into our total entitlement. Um I pulled out what we presented to you all for approval in adopted budget, what we updated at first interim, and what we have now updated to second interim. Um I want to specifically highlight that the primary primary driver of that shift has been the UPP, the unduplicated pupil percentage. Um in essence, if you notice when we adopted the budget, we at that time what we knew thought we were going to land with 2,267 as unduplicated pupil counts. Um when we came to first interim, we had not yet certified CalPads, which is the
064process in which we certify how many unduplicated pupil counts we actually have as of our census day. Um but we didn't have a really good idea. At that point, we had a really good sense of how many students landed in those categories, so we um used 1,997 as a projection. Now completely certified and signed off to the state, we ended up certifying at 2,010. Ultimately, what matters here the most is that percentage. That is a rolling percentage. When your UPP decreases what when your UPC decreases one year, it's going to average out to the two prior years. Meaning that you may not feel that impact drastically immediately, but it will continue to flow into that calculation because lower numbers average obviously lower in future years. So the idea here is that we pretty much will
065concentrate all of our efforts possible to try to ensure that we bring that number back up to historically high numbers. We've always had historically lined around 70 percent. Um and I think with a little bit of effort from really all the school sites and administrators, we can probably start collecting a little bit more of um income eligibility applications. There's various ways to qualify for students to qualify and that happens to be one of them. Um one of the ones that has probably decreased the most in the categories of which to qualify. Others is just using student data um state data. Some state data points actually roll into UPC as well. So if we're looking at this from the adopted budget perspective to the second interim perspective, I want to highlight the 696493. That is the
066change between what we thought we were going to be at at adopted budget versus where we are now adjusting our second interim. However, as I mentioned in the previous slide, because of our TK add-on, we are actually adjusting and it's sort of offsetting itself. And this is an image that we get from the state. They have a very intricate calculator of which we plug in numbers and it spits out beautiful things. And this is one of them. This is actually a visual representation of what makes up the LCFF entitlement. As you can see, our as we want to highlight is the primary driver of that TK portion in the top. Um I know the the colors are a little bit off in the actual screen, but it is that reddish riot after concentration grant. Um
067that's supplemental and concentration right below it in greenish bluish. I say I I'm know my colors. Um, it is ultimately what we're going to take as our basis and start our LCAP process. That is what's next. That's part of the budget development for 2026-27. Um, that is what we need to ensure that we are providing services to the students that are generating those funds, um, that 7.7. And just to have a different representation of the revenue breakdown, I brought this at the first interim. Just showing you the percentage of what makes up the the pie. As I mentioned, 74% um, is LCFF, which is the breakdown that we just went through. Now, on the other side of the budget, expenditures. Um, we spend a lot of time between first interim and second interim here. We
068wanted to make sure that we go through every single account string that we have in our budget and ensure that we understand how those projections are looking and how we can guess how they're going to land by the end of this fiscal year. In doing so, we wanted to adjust certificate of salaries for those positions and were vacant. Um, predominantly to release whatever we had originally assumed and prorate for the end of the year in the odd chance that we were to, um, fill those positions. We did that for both categories and this is based on the multi-year projections that fed into the June, um, budget that you all adopted. More importantly, employee benefits. We also went through and updated our benefits projections to ensure that they're reflecting the health and welfare enrollment costs. Meaning
069that when we budget, um, we are taking the maximum amount that we are contributing as an employer by each classification and assuming we're going to have to pay that amount for each employee. Obviously, open enrollment comes, people sign up for different benefit packets and we now true up and that is a reflection of the 1.2 that you see there. The books and supplies very minimal. It was really more of a true up based on title funding more than anything else as you know that's restricted. So we had to spend those dollars and zero them out. And lastly in the services and other operating expenses, another area that we spend looking at is just looking at your utilities. Utilities is obviously um those costs that can increase depending on how we are operating and obviously the
070CPI that we've mentioned in the past, that can be costlier depending on how things are trailing and obviously we know which direction they're going for next year, but we wanted to look to see how it's going to look for this year. And then looking at some of the trends that we were having utility costs versus what we had originally budgeted, we felt that we can adjust that downward um and create ourselves some a little bit of savings there as well. All in all, we were able to adjust 2 million. And once again, this is just a visual representation of the breakdown of the overall budget um the expenditure side of the budget. And more importantly is just to highlight that the three top categories will be certificated salaries, classified salaries, and employee benefits. Now for
071the multi-year projections, I have two things to share. This is the official second interim multi-year projection. The multi-year projection that was submitted that will be submitted to our um agency, which is San Lorenzo County, does not include any of the reductions. Best practice is that we continue to assess and evaluate what those final notifications will be as of May 15th. Obviously, there needs to be some information available to you all um as you all have voted in the last meeting um given us direction as to what that will look like. So we also wanted to present to you a very very preliminary scenario. And when I say very preliminary, I wholeheartedly mean that in every possible way. This is a visual representation of what we are using as our basis to now start diving into
072every single notification that currently exists. With the reductions that we're estimating, this will put us back on track for the 8% and slightly higher in 2026-2027. The direction we received from the board at the last board meeting was to do it in 1 year. Um obviously, we were to spread this out in multiple years. The ideal will always be to get that percentage um of reserves back to 8%. Now, if we do it swiftly into 2026-2027, then that means that that 8.95 is the basis of Sorry, I keep talking to it too closely. of a more balanced way of starting 2027-2028. Um one thing that I mentioned when we're looking at budget, we are always technically looking at that 30-year out. Decisions that we make today impact the most in the 30-year out. Budget is
073an accumulation of decisions. Um it is also important to note that when reserves are depleted, it is very difficult very difficult to build them back up. Just picture your own savings. You spend all of your savings, just imagine how long it's going to take you to build up the savings that you just spent. Now, what we have to address in order to do this, 2025-2026 is an excellent example of this. We're looking at the unrestricted side, and the reality is when you have more revenues, which is 57 in line B, there are less than your total expenditures in line C, that is structural deficit. There's things within that unrestricted side, and those things happen to be salaries and benefits, that will forever continue to increase in natural progression. I mean, that that is the stepping
074column percentages that we always assume. We assume 3% in our multi-year. If we do not bring in more revenue, which naturally is tied to our enrollment, then that just means that we will forever continue to have expenses outpacing our revenue. And that's what structural means. Now, like I mentioned, bringing it back to our original intention of tonight. I am recommending, as you have been evidenced by both multi-year projections, especially the one that is tied to the stat reporting that you all have as your backup documentation, that we certify positively. We are in fact at this moment, with both projections, meeting our financial obligations. We are meeting, let me go back, we are meeting the 3% that we are mandated to meet, and not only this year, but 2 years out. And what happens next? I
075kind of alluded to this a little bit earlier. We're in budget development. We're consistently looking at the budget. We're now looking at a forward lens, 26-27, with our next step being our community meetings that I know Heather's already leading, um getting input from the community and how will we use our existing resources to start serving those unduplicated people, um populations, as well as updating the multi-year projection. As I mentioned, this is a representation of something very preliminary. There's a lot of work that needs to be done here between now and May 15th for us to really give you that very very definite picture of what it will look like to have made those um recommended reductions. And lastly, and just certainly not the least, the May revise. So, they continue to negotiate up in um
076up in Sacramento, and we continue to be at the mercy. So, we are hoping that whatever cola they have originally projected remains, if not, hopefully increase. Hopefully, CPI decreases. Um and that's what we're hoping for. There is rumors of one-time fundings, especially support our special education, which is very much needed. Um it's just a cost that we will forever have to support from our unrestricted sources. That is what your um what your contributions look like. You you you'll notice I believe we could receive a question about that. We will forever have to support our our special education services. So, it'll be nice to see what the state comes up with as far as additional guarantee um funding in order to alleviate some of that. That will obviously help us in the long run. Questions? Discussions?
077>> Any questions for Cynthia? >> Yeah, for the unduplicated pupil percentage. So, we were at 71.66, went down to 69.26. What is that in like dollar amount? >> That's 696493. Sorry, it's a >> Oh, so that was a decrease in >> That that was the change between what we originally adopted. So, we based our entire budget development around that June adopted budget, right? So, we started with having 696 more than what we ultimately landed, now knowing what we ended up certifying during the census day. >> And then like there's a threshold I think like for 80% and that like kind of bumps you up. >> That is correct. So, this is a threshold, but because we are now decreasing, we're now heading the other direction. We're kind of slowly moving away from that threshold, which
078is why >> So, now we need to >> Why our goal is to get close to the 70. Correct. >> It's like we went down instead of going up. >> Correct. And and I will say um that we're not feeling the impact because of those TK ADA. It really It really has helped us a lot. It helped us balance those things out. Um we really did come in with a very very low TK ADA originally. I think we were being um as conservative as possible, but we even added an entire classroom at TK. I mean, I even had the county calling me before they click certified asking me, "Did you add a classroom?" Like, uh yeah, I can give you the name of the teacher and you can look at my PowerSchool if you're questioning
079me. But um that is very helpful because like I said, it's a way to support um those addition of students and obviously um more little ones means more um bigger classes throughout district. >> But if unduplicated enrollment >> Yes. >> And then TK >> will sustain >> [clears throat] >> Mhm. Yeah. And we we And just so you know, that the numbers that we track pretty much every Monday at our cabinet meetings are those early years. Um we have been consistently having a conversation about what registration look like and how additional um you know, how what additional um registrants we might have since our registration day. That is the number we're tracking the most because you're right, that that is the one that's going to balance out um some of the other areas that might
080be a little bit more costlier to run. I mean, there's no it's no surprise that it's just cost more to run a high school. It cost more to run a middle school, right? So if we do have to balance ourselves out in those areas that are the state has already embedded a way for us to get a bit more funding to be able to serve the students. >> How is registration going kinder? Are they still going up or are they >> Right. >> The latest he has them. >> I think this was the first week it stayed flat um and uh but it is higher at this point this year than it was last year at this point. So. >> Uh one thing I didn't see noted and uh >> [clears throat] >> sorry, I'm
081still recovering from a cold so my voice is really hoarse. Um >> [laughter] >> Uh Uh, one thing I didn't see noted, Cynthia, and I think you did touch on it briefly, was I noticed a difference of 1.3 million in special education. Can you just uh, give us an overview, help us understand what's driving that increase? >> We ended up adjusting that So, but part of what happened so, unrestricted and restricted is quite literally a balancing act. The more you cost you have on one side, the more you have to then contribute. Um, so in the process of us doing all that all that adjustments to our salary for that ultimately ended up increasing the percentage of um, contribution to special education. Um, it quite literally means that we have to zero out a specific
082funding source for special education. And the way we do that is by adding in um, that contribution from the unrestricted side. Now, one thing to look at is obviously in the opposite direction. If we were to have savings in special education, our contribution would decrease, which means that it frees up the unrestricted. Um, it just happens to land in the other in the other direction at this point. >> Any other questions for Cynthia? >> Uh, I don't know if it's with Cynthia, but Mr. Brooke can jump in, too. But, uh, so, you know, we didn't meet the 55% rule, which is like 55% of our school budget going to teacher salary. I think we're like 1.5 million short. I like 52.6 or 52.9. So, how much closer are we to that 55% number? >> So,
083although I I don't have the mathematical calculation for you. In fact, I think there's only one person in the entire state who knows what that formula is. Um, I will say that just by naturally thinking about what that percentage looks like and what it takes into account, the more of the one time that had increased the non-labor side, especially the non-certificated side, um, it's leaving our budgets, which clearly it is, um, the higher the percentage of proportionality will be to meet that, um, calculation. Because we're in essence now, um, attributing those certificated portions to be larger in comparison to the overall budget. So, I know we we are getting closer to it. Unfortunately, I don't have like a good sense for you like right now how much closer. Um, but we can certainly look at
084finding ways to coming up with, um, a number that's a little bit more of a guiding point for us. Um, the county has been really resourceful in that sense. Uh, like I said, it's a it's a pretty archaic calculation that, um, I'm yet to meet somebody who can truly explain to me what I can add in and and subtract, which is a nightmare for an accountant like me. Um, but the county has said that they can definitely support us in trying to ensure that we understand what our own calculation is. Part of what they alluded to you when when I closed out, um, last fiscal year was that I might have left some things that it could have easily, um, moved over to meet that calculation. Um, at that point, I wanted to ensure we
085didn't have an audit finding. So, I I moved to request a waiver, um, but they did say that they they will work with us, both third and I, because we're both new to the calculation, um, in ensuring that we are truly reflecting every single, um, support in in in the instructional site that requires us based on that calculation. So, it's in the docket to work with them before we close out the year because that that will be the more important part to to kind of get a better sense, um, before 6:30, not not after the fact, which is kind of kind of where I landed. Yeah. >> Any other questions for Cynthia? All right. Um, item D, uh, review and approve second interim budget report for the fiscal year 25-26 year. Can I get a
086motion for item D? >> I make a motion. >> Thank you, Ms. Rudy. Uh second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Ms. Reeves. Ms. Raw? >> No. Um other opportunities to save money, uh the unduplicated count, and uh cuts that affect students the most. >> All right, Ms. Gonzales? >> I. >> Ms. Rudy? >> I. >> Ms. Reeves? >> I. >> And Ms. Corrales will say. Um section item 10, future agenda items. Does anybody have anything for tonight? For the future? Hearing none, uh item number 11, superintendent report. >> Yes, thank you. Um I do want to talk a little bit about the uh the property negotiation with the city. Um we've been able to come to terms with that property, the the baseball field section, um and uh the I believe it is the
087documents are getting written up now, so we should be able to bring that back to the board in April for that for that uh property. Um and then we are also working at the Citizens Oversight Committee for uh the end of March. So, we should be able to have that meeting as well. We just have to wait for a report from the auditors, and we should be able to have that as by that meeting. Um Read Across America, I was able to go to Hunt Elementary and read in the fifth grade, which all those students voted that they were the best fifth grade class in our district. So, um it was unanimous, but I had a great time with some some great students, and um and they were got real really got into the story.
088It was fun. I also want to give a shout-out to Britney and her group on on uh on the career expo. And I'm going to kind of pull some stuff that she sent out in an email, I believe. Um there were 40 uh tables set up. There was a also a vehicle display, and one in the vehicle display, which I actually, when you look at it, a lot of the booths had Orville Wright grads. And um and then just watching uh was it Deputy Maldonado out there with the bomb squad and how proud he was coming back and uh providing for our students. It's really great to see. But they were able to see 2,001 students at the expo. Um 62 students from Yolo. Six students from Westside, and I do believe some of the
089kids from Gustine snuck in as well that are attend our morning class. So we actually highlighted uh Gustine, and I hear they may steal our idea moving forward, which um which we appreciate as well. Um so again, it was just a great event, had the most vendors, most students, and it was just a great success. So thank you, Whitney and your team. Also, we all have our our board workshop for the uh with um uh Mike Krasner, and Nancy has given you this sheet of March and April, and she needs to find out what date that all five of you are available cuz it is important that we have all five of you there. So please get this back to Nancy quickly so that we can figure out what dates we can bring our uh
090our our person to do the workshop. And then um Renee Chance, thank you for the presentation, but we still are waiting on two tribes that may approve the use of um of the imagery, and that would be the the Chuck Chancy and the Miwok. And again, we're just kind of waiting for them to have the tribal council, and they may be approving that. So we're waiting to hear word on that. So. Thank you. >> All right. Out of 12 board reports, Mr. Watson. >> Yeah, I just want to say thank you for the presentations today. Um for leadership, definitely support combining your student council and leadership class into one cohesive unit. Uh working at a high school that has that, it just makes things run a a lot more smoothly. So, definitely support that. And
091then, just look forward to walking uh more classrooms in the future. >> Thank you, sir. Uh Ms. Surdy. >> Um we've been pretty busy just keeping up with everything that um comes in towards the end of the school year. Uh we did do a governance board workshop in Modesto, learned quite a bit about legalities and everything that's supposed to be done and not done. Um the student succeed breakfast, um that's always a nice thing and it just goes to show how exemplary everybody in the district is to get these kids to be successful in and be where they're at despite their tough lives that they that they have. Um so, it's always a very special um event. Um also, just the nice reclassification ceremonies throughout the district. Um it's always nice to see again the
092hard work that the district puts through for these kids to um to meet the standards and and to move forward and um just the appreciation of the parents to be so thankful to everybody that um is a big part of of each and every one of the students. So, it's very nice to see. Uh teacher of the year, again, goes to show that the district is moving forward in the right direction and I mean, it's hard to just pick one teacher because every teacher is is good and special in their own in their own ways. So, principals, you guys are amazing at choosing that one person to to bring forward. Um and for Bonita, I don't know where Mrs. Keepness is at or if she left. Uh but um it it's just nice to see
093through the children. Um you know, sometimes we're so busy in life that we forget who we are and and how we are as adults. And um to see to see it through the children um to show that character of kindness. I think we can learn a lot from them and and just value each other a little bit more. Um I think I think we tend to forget a lot of the times why we're here and the real reason why we're here. Um and again, for the district, everybody is here for the students and I think the students should be our priority to to move forward. Um again, these decisions are not easy to to make. Um I know you guys probably look at me and think, "Oh, she has no idea what she's talking about.
094She has no worries in her life." But I will tell you um we do have worries. I do have a family. I am a human being. And I small town, everybody knows everybody. Um There are a lot of things my family is currently going through and I feel every single one of your guys's pain with waking up every morning and knowing whether you're going to make it or not. So, we are really really trying and again, these decisions are very very hard to make. Um we do it every day in life and I think we tend to forget um we're all humans. We all make mistakes, but at the same time, these mistakes we learn from them and we move forward. Um whether we like the outcome of it or not, um it's life. It's
095life and you have to just move forward and hope that things get better because it's happening everywhere and it's not just happening here. Um so, with that um I just want to say to the district just thank you for the hard work, the hard dedication, the amount of work you put into these students and into your daily lives just to show up every day and make a difference in whether it's your whole entire class or whether it's in one student, you are making a difference and it is showing. So, thank you so much for all that and you are very appreciated. And Claudia, I don't know if you're still in here. You are not naive, my dear. You're just a very loving person who wants everything to be there, perfect for the kids. So, keep
096up what you're doing and you're great at what you do. And Miss Carolyn, you come in here and I feel like you're a little upset at us. And I just want you to know that I don't need you rolling your eyes, my dear. I'm going to give you a compliment. I got on this board. This will be my second year. I never have once said I've inherited issues or I've inherited this mess or whatever. Everywhere is a mess, my dear. But I am going to tell you, I appreciate your hard work that you did. I appreciate your many years that you dedicated to the district. You're amazing at what you did. You were amazing at your job and you are truly appreciated for that. So, I just ask a little bit of your compassion so
097that we could understand each other instead of you coming up here and hollering at us and we're just trying to we're trying to work together. And you can get mad, my dear, but you know what? Thank you for your hard work and your hard dedication. You're very appreciated. Thank you. >> Uh Miss Gonzales? >> Keep it brief because like I said, my voice is um still coming back to me. Um I had the opportunity to attend the governance workshop. Um we were presented a a lot of information on a lot of the hot topics right now in schools. One of them being immigration, gender identity, um and all of the laws that surround that right now, and how to navigate all of it. So, it was a good learning experience. Um attended that with Mr.
098Pruitt and Mrs. Trudy. Also attended the Yolo reclassification, the OHS reclassification, both very beautiful ceremonies put on by our staff. Um really heartwarming to see all of the families there. I also had the opportunity to attend the Teacher of the Year ceremony, which is also uh really beautiful event getting to honor all of our teachers here. Um and thank you to Mr. Charlie Cothran Beadle for accepting my invitation to come here tonight. Um hearing student voice in general is one of my passions, and especially, you know, just getting to understand what the culture is at the schools gives better perspective for us too as we're making decisions. So, appreciate you being here tonight, and hope that you will come back again. And it'll be interesting to see how the the survey turns out at the
099end of the year. One of the things I remembered when we had that conversation about your survey was just um seeing that kids don't like dances anymore. That's a little sad, you know? I I don't know. I looked forward to the dances a long time ago. Um so, yeah, but times change, and we need to honor what those preferences are. So, anyhow, thanks thanks again for coming tonight. Um really appreciate it. And uh also loved the the kindness, which they're all gone now, but that was such a cute presentation and one we really needed, I think. So, thank you. >> Mr. Rivas, I got to attend uh the every student succeeds breakfast at Warner inner. It was great to see one of our own go to the county. What have he just went to Modesto,
100right? Nothing else happened or did he get one to just He wasn't He didn't move on. He didn't move on. But that kid been through a lot. I coached that kid. I would pick him up practices, taking them home. And that kid's been through a lot, but I'm glad he was recognized for what he been through. And not just him, but everyone that was there at that breakfast was great to see. I also got to do a site visit with Mrs. Palacios. I went at lunchtime. I was expecting chaos, but there was no chaos there at all. It was mellow. Nobody was crazy. Got to walk in a couple classrooms. Uh it was great to see you're doing a great job. Uh not just you, your counselors, campus supervisor, everyone that's there. You guys did
101a You guys are doing a great job. Um I will be attending I'll be doing senior interviews. I believe I picked March 25th. So, you seniors that are in here, if you see me, just don't be nervous, Aslin. Okay. And then also, you guys enjoy spring break cuz we'll be back here on the 20th. Okay? So, enjoy it. And also, Mrs. Sherdy, Mrs. Mendoza was actually talking towards me, which is okay. She's entitled to what she wants to say and to piggyback what you said, you did in your time here, you did do a good job. Your work wasn't going unnoticed. So. Oh, but like I said, but like I said, the job you did was not going unnoticed. So, there's no need no need to get upset. So, I just I just make sure
102I'm not at the camera This is a case of video goes on social media later on. All right. Thank you, Mr. Rivas. Uh myself, I went to the We hosted the Every Student Succeeds breakfast here at the McConnell Center, and it was amazing. Um I think that was Mr. Manzo. Did he advance or not? No. Um well, congratulations to him and his uh accomplishments. Um and then the only other thing I had tonight is just kind of like, you know, what we've been saying all along since we've been up here, you know, we're we're really trying to do our best. You know, um nobody's coming up here saying that we're going to come up here to fail. We're just going to make every employees and every student, you know, his life miserable. Like we're we're
103we're trying our best to do what what what we're working with. Um and and we're not the only one in this position. You know, there's other school districts that are that are laying off 300 to 500 employees. So, when we're talking about what we're, you know, we're trying to reduce that number that we're trying to get to, you know, that that's huge. That's huge. I know almost everybody in this room at some point in time I've I've been a part of your families' lives or your family members, siblings, brothers, sisters, somebody, right? And that's hard. You know, but the reality is is we have been deficit spending for a very long time. And we are overstaffed. Right? And that's that And that happened years ago, right? What after the COVID stuff, right? We've been trying
104to figure out where we can do the most good for the bang for our buck, right? And unfortunately, you can't shave two 2.5 million dollars off your budget by not buying construction paper for kindergarten one day. We're just not going to get there. It's not reality. It's not practical. Right? So, we are physically working every single day, myself included, not much as as our DO staff, but, you know, they're doing a lot of work in the office, you know what I mean? Um so, Cynthia, thank you for the presentation tonight. I mean, I think that was great. Uh reviewed it all weekend. Um I don't remember which one of the speakers um had brought it up. Who brought up the furlough days? Ms. Velber, thank you. Huh? Is somebody else? Oh yeah, I I don't
105know who brought that up, but I I wrote it down. Who? >> Ms. Gomez? Is she still here? Um I I wrote that down in my notes. 100% we'll look into that, right? But you know, when we do these things, it it's both sides, right? We can't lay off 30 people and then somebody ask for a 10% raise. It's just not going to work, right? Like I I'm willing to fight for every single person in in our organization for every student impacted that I can, but it's going to have to be both sides, right? We Everybody's seen the slide shows. Everybody's seen the numbers. The reserve account is down to 3.5%. So I will work on this. We'll work on it. We'll come up with, you know, whatever we possibly can. I don't even know
106if it can be done, right? Like I said, $2.5 million is a very, very large number, right? Um but I I will look into that. And um Jeremy, your uh OHS campus supervisor position, um well, I don't know I don't know if that was I I don't um I can't remember off the top of my head that that was identified. Um but I'll I'll look into that, sir. I'll look into that, sir. Yes, ma'am. >> I just wanted to say this all came up on that. >> Would you like to come up to the podium? Yeah. Or Edward might have one of those remote mics you can have. >> I'll bring it. I'll drop it. Thank you. Can we please not post new positions as we're laying off people? I was out on Friday with
107Dr. Seha when one popped up for an RBT position in about 2 weeks, maybe a little bit more than that, another position came up for classified. So, we're telling classified they're being laid off, and yet positions are coming up. We know that things are up in the air and there's going to be movement around. I know for certain some of those positions could be filled by the people that are getting those layoff potential layoff notices. So, if we could just please freeze that because I'm going to tell you it hurts, and I'm doing my very best not to cry because it really really hurts when you're holding somebody's hand and then you see something pop up. And their job is not needed, but they qualify for this new position that they just posted. It's really
108hard. And that's where we're doing our best to hold it together. So, please until everything is settled and you guys do have a lot of work, and I would hate to be in your shoes, just please take that into consideration. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um and again, well I'll I'll have the staff look at that, and there's so many laws that we have to follow, and it it's I'm I'm honestly dumbfounded of what what we have to follow. But, um I'll look into that. I'll I'll see if we can get that corrected. Um especially if we do have somebody in house that is qualified for that position to work and, you know, move positions, right? But, like I said, there's a lot of moving parts to all that, but thank you. I'll I'll keep
109in mind. Um and then too is is, you know, ever since I've been up here, you know, I always say it every meeting, you know, um we want people to come to the meetings, right? Sometimes it's only, you know, five, six people, you know, and then sometimes, you know, people just want to be upset and anger, right? But, what about all the positive things that we're doing, right? Like, I mean, you know, we had a conversation the other day about you know, um It's all the negative things that everybody comes here for, right? You know, and then we live in a small town. I get it, right? You call your friend, you call your family, you call your brother, you call your sister, you call your aunt, right? Rally up the troops, we're going to
110go to the board meeting, right? Okay, cool. You guys can come here. You know, I got thick skin, you know, I I I I've I've I've seen it all, you know, but again, we are up here working as a team, you know, uh to to in everything that we do, everything we do. Nobody comes up here and just says, "Hey, just you know, this is what we're doing." Right? We have a lengthy discussion of all the different items on the agenda from all the different topics, right? And like I said, Oakland School District, 500 layoffs. Um San Francisco, 300. Sacramento, 400, right? That is a lot of people. That is a lot of people, right? So, um we are trying to reduce the very, very, very minimal as we can. You know, we might have
111to move some people into some other positions or you know, things like that, but as the projection numbers get better and we need other, you know, uh positions available, like that's an option that we could have, right? Um but again, we're diligently working at every facet of this organization to try to facilitate everybody. And the students come first. You know, that's why we're all here for because with no students, would none of us would be here, right? So, that's all I have for you tonight. Um uh thank you for all of our staff for the evening uh meeting tonight and the dinner and then um our next meeting is April 20, right? April 20th. And the meeting's adjourned at >> Seniors come up >> Uh seniors come up with your uh agendas, we'll get them
112signed. Uh 1955. Thank you guys. See you next month.