Regular Board Meeting of the Board of Trustees - 08 Oct 2025

001this meeting to order at 5:00 pm. We'll start with item number two for public comments on our close session agenda. >> I have none in person. Are there any comments online? Please raise your hand now. >> No comments online. >> Okay. So, the board will recess to close session, return to open session at 6 PM. Good evening and welcome to this Wednesday, October 8th meeting of the governing board of the Sequoia Union High School District. Um, my name is Safnori. We will start with item number three, which is our reconvene to public session. Um, just to go over some public protocol. Members of the public are sorry one second. Um members of the public wish to remotely provide comment during the meeting can use the raise hand feature during agenda items. Speakers must raise their

002hand during agenda item 8.1 the public comment portion of the meeting in order to comment on topics not included in the approved agenda. To speak about an item on the agenda in person, please fill out a speaker card. Indicate the agenda item and hand the card to Laura at the dis. When requested, agenda items come before the board. The speaker will be called forward. Um, we'll now move on to item number four, which is roll call. >> Student trustee Kong >> here. >> Student trustee Bha >> here. >> Student trustee Lynn >> here. >> Sorry, I had to catch my breath for a minute. Sorry. >> Trusty Cruz >> here. >> Trusty Thompson >> here. Trusty Gin, >> Vice President Coup >> here, >> President Nory >> here, >> the quorum is present. >> Um,

003next we have item number five, which is approval of the agenda. So, if there are no changes, could I get a motion to approve the agenda? >> Motion to approve? >> Second. >> Um, all in favor? >> I. >> Motion passes unanimously. Um, next we're on item number six, which is report out of close session. There is nothing to report out of close session today, so I'll turn it over to Superintendent Leech. Item number seven, special recognitions. >> Great. Thank you. Uh this evening, we are honored to recognize the Tide Academy English teachers for their exceptional leadership and impact on student learning. I'd like to welcome Principal Simone Rick Kennel to the podium to share in more details what sets this team apart and their extraordinary work. >> Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Leech. Um,

004good evening, uh, board of trustees. I've been looking forward to this all day. So, tonight's superintendent's recognition is for our TIE English teachers. Joanne Yao, 9th grade English and journalism teacher. Daffhne Pacia McCann, 10th grade English teacher and recruitment coordinator. Uh Nick McKinnon, 11th grade English teacher, literacy coach, and student activities teacher. Uh Christine Turk, 12th grade English teacher and Foothill College professor, site council chair and SDTA rep. We wear many hats at a small school and they all advise club. So when reviewing our midterm progress on our WASK action items, it was clear that while all of our departments have made great progress with vertically aligning uh our courses, our English department has anchored and in many ways centered our work. Not just because they're phenomenal teachers, but because they each contribute something unique

005to the team. Our English teachers have not only woven in and highlighted key Common Core standards to the point they've mapped every student's progress towards those standards, but have done so at a rigorous level while also making them accessible to all learners. When collaborating, they work together on the progression of skills. So, as students progress from 9th grade through 12th grade, when they take Foothills English 1A and 1B course, they will be prepared for college level reading and writing. They have developed schoolwide professional development for four-fold inquiry level thinking and perk the point evidence reasoning claim paragraph structure to support analysis literacy across our content areas focusing on key standards for reading uh reading and analysis. However, they're also supporting math standards for communicating reasoning and science standards for extracting information from non-fiction texts and

006creating evidence-based arguments. As a group, the team is unique, super collaborative, equity-minded, and always revising curriculum so it's tighter and better. They support each other and follow through for our students, going above and beyond. So, I'm going to tell you a little bit about each of these amazing educators. And as I do, can you come join me? So, Joanne, yell, come on up, Joanne. And we'll have the whole group. So, Joanne, actually known as the innovator, makes nth grade students feel safe, lets them be themselves. Students love her class, and what's notable is how she teaches them to think critically, debate thoughtfully, and write. It was quite a feat when she got all of her nth grade students connected to and loving poetry. Beyond her awesome instruction, she's also a pioneer for our amazing journalism

007course and Tide Takeoff magazine. She's caring, empathetic, and among students and colleagues is basically everyone's mom. >> Thank you. Deafany Daphne Pacia Macan. She's known as the process master or person. Daphne, our department chair, is the big picture person for projects and initiatives. She takes everyone's input into consideration, talking colleagues through ideas or challenges. When students enter her classes tenth graders, she further develops their writing and analytical skills through discourse, application, projects, and a ton of writing practice. Her students get the strict but affectionate version of her and know her as the teacher who keeps it real. Deafany. Um, Nick McCann. Come on up, Nick. known as the pragmatist. He has the strongest personality in the room and gamifies everything. He somehow makes lessons both fun and real world with a sense of humor. When

008walking into his classroom, you may hear students grappling with the ethics of AI related to the text Iroot. He's the team player who will do what the group needs and a creative brain for all to lean on. This year as our literacy coach, he developed a schoolwide structure for paragraph writing, affectionately known as PERK, point, evidence, claim, reasoning. And yes, Nick was a negot was negotiator extraordinaire in discussions with science and math colleagues to align with claim, evidence, and reasoning structure. Thank you, Nick. And Christine Turk, come on up, Christine. We're going in grade level order here. Known as the balancer, quiet protector, she's basically our college professor. Her colleagues agree she makes them better teachers. Her depth and ideas are next level. She pushes the team to rethink things and take projects further. She

009works with students who need support in an academic literacy course to prepare them to access and master the college standards. For example, when teaching Shakespeare's The Tempest, she supported students to understand symbolic details to develop central ideas about hierarchy, power, and morality. And guess what? They got it. So, thank you, Christine. At the end of the day, what you have here, what you see here is the impact of our English teachers on students. It's monumental. When our alumni come back to share their college experiences, they attribute their success in college um to the senior year course at Tide and also the other courses we offer and not having to take general ed classes uh which is a culmination of the 4-year TIE English experience. 93% of seniors from our classes of 23, 24, and 25

010have earned a C or higher in the college level English class. What we have here is not just phenomenal educators, but a group of teachers who connect with and support all students, engage in impactful collaboration, support each other to be better, and actually have fun while doing the work. Joanne, Daffany, Nick, and Christine, thank you. You're the choking. We have 10 in person. Um, now we'll move on to item number eight, which is public comment. The board does not act upon any matter that has not been agendaized except under limited circumstances as permitted by law. Is a policy of the board to refer matters raised in this forum to staff for investigation where appropriate. Board policy ordinarily limits the time devoted to any single agenda topic to be 10 minutes and individual speakers are ordinarily

011limited to three. If the board decides to expand the amount of time, they may do so, but by reducing the time allocated to individual speakers to 2 minutes or to one minute as appropriate, the board will announce the time to be allocated to each speaker before public comment on each particular item begins. Um, we ask all speakers to keep within the time limit. So, are there any public comment? >> We have 10 in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. >> I see one online. >> So that's 11 total >> or two now. >> Okay. Um we can call it there. Um I'm fine doing two minutes or now I see one. Okay. Oh yeah, we can do two minutes. Okay. Um, >> we're back to 12. >> Yeah, we'll do 12.

012Two minutes and we can start with the ones online and then do the ones in person. >> Okay. First up, we have iPhone 518. >> Hello. >> Yes. Hi. We can hear you. >> Okay. All right. Good evening, B. My name is uh Danny Molier. Uh, unfortunately, I can't make it to the meeting today. busy dealing with some issues regarding your district. Um, quick updates, Mr. Nory. I've hope you've enjoyed the gift I gave you and I hope you have it somewhere in your room and crystal you should duplicate it and put it in your school district. You still haven't apologized and gotten on your hands and knees to Shay Codwell and that administration in place. You board members were warned a long time ago to try to do the right things, but my phone

013being blasted constantly on continuous acts of retaliation, discrimination is not acceptable. Either you did a nice job to try to tell them about investigations and do things right. But the problem you're missing still, you cannot have an environment that believes in discrimination and retaliation and put your teachers, students, and parents and more importantly citizens. You have a corrupt police department, a corrupt administration. So that cannot be fixed and more victims will be sadly hurt and more victims will come to our attention, which is not acceptable in it in today's time. Bonnie Hansen, I've dealt with you in 2022 when you started your Darcy matter against one of our clients, which is Mike Molieri. Fruitlessly, that went to all your DAs and all your little raw team. You lost that and now you're going so far

014as to reach out with emails, textes to people about personal relationships. You're going way outside your means. And Edith, as a union president, you have a duty and obligation to demand that these individuals and especially all you board members all completely step down, have the state of California step in because children and parents do not need to be put in danger on a daily basis as long as you guys are in place. I hope more victims don't have to call me, but you guys need to learn soon. Thank you. Next is iPhone 24. >> Hi, my name is Anita. Um, I'm here on uh behalf of Orion Alternative Mandarin Immersion Program and I wanted to just speak up for some of the demand that we have in our school for a little bit more of

015the uh Mandarin programs uh in the school districts and we wanted to see further development in the program for middle school and high schools as well. Um I believe that there are other people in person that will expand on this. Um, and I just this is my first time actually at the meeting or uh showing up at all. So, I just wanted to say a few words. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. We'll now shift to the inperson comments. Um, and please, if I pronounce your name wrong, please forgive me. You can correct me at the podium. Um, first up we have Alandra Padier. Good evening, Superintendent Leech and board of trustees. My name is Alandra Pirid and I am the co-president of the Dream Club. >> Hi, I'm uh Pedro and I'm part

016of the leadership on Dream Club. >> We appreciate you for your support for the immigrant community by attending the making dreams come true dinner in the past. It means a lot to the students and families throughout the community and we would like to formally invite you to attend and show your support once again. Uh this year's fundraiser dinner is again on Friday uh on the Friday before Thanksgiving. Uh please join us on Friday, November 21st at 6 p.m. It is especially important to our beloved immigrant community. Um as sorry, as our beloved immigrant community needs support more than ever during these difficult times. Uh we look forward to welcoming you and seeing you there. >> Thank you. Next is Ryan Seabber. Respected board members, thank you for taking the time to hear me out. As

017I stand here thinking about my future at Woodside High School next year, I can't help but worry about missing out on the Mandarin immersion program that has shaped so much of who I am. Right now, Woodside has only regular Chinese classes from 1 to 4 in AP, but no immersion program at all. And that just doesn't add up for the kids like me who need more uh growing. I urge you to change that. Start an immersion program there with classes like global global studies and a leadership capstone such as the one offered by L Capitol High School or dual enrollment options similar to Utah's where students can earn up to 28 college credits. Even business Chinese like what they offer at Venus High School could open doors for someone aiming at tech careers across borders.

018This new program could set me up for success in college, giving me more opportunities after graduation and even elevate the status of our whole school district. With over 25 of us ready to join, this could balance enrollment at Woodside and strengthen our school's diversity. Let me explain why this matters so much to me. I'm Ryan, an eighth grader at Kennedy Middle School, born in China and relatively new to the U. United States in 2020 when the COVID pandemic made everything feel extra challenging. Adjusting was tough until the MI program stepped in as my study study guide. At Orion alternative, Chinese covered language, math, and social studies. Now in middle school, we focus on language and history where classes sharpen my skills of rules on phrases and structure. And history and Chinese helps link my old

019world to this one. In short, approving a man and immersion program at Woodside sets my friends up and I for success. I appreciate your time deeply, Tisia. >> Thank you. >> Okay, I need help on this one. The next is >> Bernie. >> Vernon Brayley. Hello, my name is Burnham Horus Grit Haley from Mandarin immersion program and today I'm here to talk about extending the program to high school or possible adding AP classes. For me, this language is more than just speaking. It also provides so much culture. I would also like to extend and this would help um I would like to extend the program. This would help so many kids who don't feel challenged in the standard Chinese course because as of and kid kids who don't feel challenged this would it help them

020advance their skills and possibly be be ready for her college and so many new opportunities that they would not have gotten before. This could also help communication in with foreign with China that was not unable to be done before or because as of not because of this not being open to a regular people or in instead being only open to people with intensive studyies and who are highly dedicated. This could help business opportunities and open up stuff like more advanced AI systems better um communication and this would also help social media platforms like Tik Tok um so we can better communicate why I um it's not going well. Oh, this could open up so much more than and just some um people better at speaking a language. This would give more insight into culture and

021history. Hey, thank you for the I'm B. My name is Burn Horse Gley. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we have Hod Gley. Uh thank you for this opportunity to address you today. Uh my name actually is also Bernham Morris Greley. That's Bernham Morris Gly number five. We often call him five. Um I just wanted to say uh I think you can guess maybe that that my wife and I neither of us actually come from a Mandarin background. We made the conscious choice to start our son. Um, he's actually been learning Mandarin, uh, starting with us putting him into daycare at one year old. Um, we did this not even knowing that that there would be a program in Redwood City. Um, we were actually really pleased when it came time for him to go

022to kindergarten to discover that in right in our backyard, there was a mandarin immersion program that had been started a couple years earlier by some dedicated parents. Um, I want to talk a little bit about why we went down this path. Uh, I really wanted to give my son a kind of advantage. Um, something that I was denied. Both of my parents had a native Germanspeaking grand parent, my grandparents, uh, who did not pass their language on at all and, um, hence nothing was passed on on to me. And I felt that was an incredible loss. um the understanding of world culture that that a language opens up I think really can't be underestimated. Um and we particularly wanted to to have our son have this kind of opportunity not just to pass something like

023an AP exam but to actually have provide real opportunities for the future. and I have kind of a hard time seeing how we're going to fulfill all of that investment uh if he only has to stop at kind of an AP level. Um a lot of the kids may surprise you that are in his class are actually already at the AP level. So, um this won't be that much of a challenge for them and we really miss out an opportunity to advance them further. So, >> thank you. Next is Maya Rose. like right now. Uh, hi, my name is Maya. I am sixth grade. I've been learning Mandarin for seven years and I absolutely love it. Mandarin isn't just a language to me. It's a way to connect with amazing cultural I've learned about the

024history, the people, and of course the food, dumplings, moon cakes, hot pot. It's all incredible. The more I learn, the more I want to keep going, but now there's um no advanced Mandarin path in high school, and it feels like hitting a wall after so many years of hard work. I hope you consider creating an advanced track so students like me can keep exploring everything that makes Mandarin so special. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Next up is Cersia. Um, hello. My name is Ya. I'm in sixth grade and I've been studying Mandrin for 7 years. Mandrin is a language I love. It's beautiful, challenging, and full of rich culture. After all the time I've spent spent learning it, I don't want to stop now. I know that for the students with non-speaking families like

025mine, I will lose will lose that ability the ability to speak it. Currently, there is no advanced man track for students like me. I'm learn I'm asking you to please consider creating one so that we can all keep learning and growing. Thank you for your time supporting language learning at our school and in our district. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next we have Olivia R. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Olivia and I've been studying Mandarin since preschool. Kind of funny. It all started out as an accident, but I'm really glad that it did it it has impacted me for many years to continue learning Mandrin even though that my family does not come from a Mandrin speaking background. But my mom has pushed herself to learn Mandin and she's been helping me and

026I love the way that people can connect so in so many different ways by just speaking a different language. And I would really like for you guys to expand uh ma the our mander program for high school so that we can continue learning and expand everything that we've been learning so far. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Next up is Greg Han. Hi everyone. Uh good evening and uh thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak on behalf of Orion Mandarin Immersion. Uh my name is Greg Han. Uh those kids in the back are mine eating all your snacks. Sorry about that. Uh we recently moved from uh Grand Rapids, Michigan. um where my son Cade was in a Mandarin immersion program there in kindergarten and that tracked from kindergarten all the

027way through 12th grade and offered uh college credit. Um uh as we moved we were very happy uh that my son Kade could join uh Orion as a first grader and uh we were truly impressed by the sense of community that we have there um the program and the interest in Mandarin immersion. We just didn't expect it. Um and it's been truly a blessing being there. Um, my wife is a native Mandarin speaker and allowing our children the opportunity to learn Mandarin uh would mean so much to our family. Um, and just give them a a true uh sense of um, you know, accomplishment and also uh the ability to uh to learn a second language is kind of a superpower to have in life. Um, we uh we believe that a program that would

028track all the way through 12th grade and potentially offer college credit would be of true value to our kids and our community. Um, thanks so much. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, we have Nang Lean. >> Hello board members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm also here to talk on behalf of expanding the Mandarin immersion program. um past middle school where it is at Kennedy. I have two girls over there. One is a third grader in at Orion Mandarin version and one is a sixth grader at Kennedy. And um I just wanted to say that we think that Mandarin is really important. I actually am a Mandarin speaker at at home. Um but I came to the US when I was very very young. And I can tell you that the danger

029of losing a language when you come and immigrate to the United States is actually very very high. People typically don't think of that, but there are many people who I personally know who immigrated here um like kind of younger than the age of 10 who have managed to lose their mother tongue. And that's really a shame. And this is um so for these kids who have spent so much of their time and so much hard work learning it every year that we can continue that education means that they have a greater chance of being able to retain that language into uh into adulthood. So as SA has said, they've already worked very hard. the payoff is coming. We feel like it can, but with every additional year, um, that becomes more and and more likely.

030Um, as we all know, Mandarin is going to be an important language economically and certainly in these kids lifetimes. So, if we can give them some kind of advantage, I think that would be well worth it um, for these kids and also for the school district. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our last speaker is Megan O'Reilly Green. Hello, my name is Megan. Thank you guys all so much for allowing us to address you guys tonight. I really appreciate it. Uh my name is Megan. I have four children in the U Mandarin immersion program in Redwood City. Um I have a little TK girl right there. You want to raise your hand, bro? >> That's my little TK girl. Um I have a first grader who's not here, a fourth grader, and my my daughter Sier.

031She's a sixth grader at Kennedy. Um, so I wanted to come here today and I I thought this up on Monday and I asked some of my friends to come too because I wanted you to hear from the people in the program instead of just getting these letters from us that can be kind of hard to hard to, you know, hard to build a rapport that way. Um, but I'm here to express our continued desire to have uh high level Mandarin immersion continued at this high school district beyond AP classes. Um, we currently have the demand for this and our demand will only grow over time. my daughter who's in TK right now um she will have 75 to 84 students in her cohort by next year and so there's a big sizable population that's

032coming um so we would like to you know we would like to get started and started working with the district now um as you know some of the other PE speakers have said the MI program is you know the the MI program is an really important part of my child's identity um she's lived and breathed this for the past six years and it's hard to imagine her starting high school and have this identity be removed from her. Um, the essence of the program is so much more than just language development. These kids are growing up with bicultural an identity and an ease with existing across two very different cultures. And I think kids with disability are going to be, you know, the leaders of the future. Um, and so we're here tonight with some sense

033of urgency because our curriculum writer, who's basically essentially created our program, will be traveling here in the end of October. And we'd like to invite you guys to meet with her, sit down, have a conversation with us to see more about what we think about what this could look like in the future. Um, and so she'd be available on October 28th and 29th. And so that's what I I came to say. And thank you guys so much for allowing us your time tonight. >> Thank you. That concludes Thank you so much. Um, next we'll move on to item number nine which is board of trustees correspondence. There is none. So we'll move on to item number 10 which is board of trustees and superintendent comments and committee reports. All right. Um, so I had a

034chance to go to the last Sanonteo County School Board Association general meeting. Um, and the topic was on supporting immigrant students and families. Um, you know, in this time it it's it's very very important topic. And so they had four speakers there. Um, the first was Diego Perez who's the director of communications from Sano Foster City School District. Um and he talked about how to support families through communications. Um and they created these discussion forums where it wasn't just um one-way communication, but it gave families an opportunity to also voice their concerns. Um and then part of their goal was uh families coming up with their own family safety plan. So, you know, we often do that for earthquake preparedness, but now it's preparedness for a different situation. Uh, the second speaker was Randall Booker,

035uh, the Sanonteo Union High School District Superintendent, uh, and he shared their updated emergency response protocol that incorporates, um, what happens if an ICE agent arrives at at the school site. Uh, Faith and Action, Bay Area talked about their rapid response hotline if someone is being deported. So they have a 247 uh hotline that people can call. So that was important for people to spread that information and make sure it's part of the uh uh safety plan or emergency response protocol. And then the last speaker was uh Jen Masiel who's a former Ravenswood teacher uh interestingly enough but then she left teaching and became a lawyer. So, she's now a lawyer with US Immigration Law Group. Um, and they can help with drafting district protocols. Uh, she talked about there's an immigration policy tracker website

036so that people can follow all the changes that are happening federally. Um, I know SMCSBA was supposed to send out the slides, but I haven't seen anything yet. So, um, if I get more information, I'll pass that on. Um, and then the second thing was I had a chance to go to the uh API school board members association mid-autumn mixer. Uh, that was on Monday. That's our mid-autumn festival. Uh, it was held at Honey and Tea Cafe in Fremont. Um, so we had a good group of probably about uh I'm thinking 30 uh people. Uh, it was a very good sized group. it is really kicking off the fall membership drive. And so the focus is trying to encourage all districts throughout California to become members because even if you only have a few API

037students, their needs are still important. Uh and we had a guest appearance from assembly member Al Maru Murat Muratsuchi. I can't say his last name, Muratsuchi. He's the chair of the education committee. And I thought, "Wow, so special. He came just for a mixer." No, he didn't. He was actually going to visit a school in Oakland the following day. Um, but someone reached out to him and said, "Hey, this is going on. You know, you're chair of the ed education committee. You could meet with a whole bunch of schoolboard members." And so he was really excited. He wanted it to be more of a two-way conversation. So he was sharing what was going on at the state level and we were able to ask him questions. So he was understanding what was important to us.

038So things like ethnic studies came up um all the immigration things um as well as school funding. Those were probably the three biggest things that came up. That's it. >> Okay. First, I'll just say for our guest speakers who maybe not familiar, you're welcome to stay as long as you want and it's also perfectly acceptable to leave when your item's over. So, if anyone wants to go, it's perfectly okay. Um, you're also welcome to stay as long as you want. So, I just want to make sure that you knew that. Yeah. So, I'll just share that um I participated in the 2x two by two with the um city of Redwood City and then the Redwood City Elementary School District. And the one thing just to share with each of those organizations is having a

039leadership turnover at the top. Um the city manager is ending at the end of the calendar year and then the superintendent of the elementary school district at the end of the academic year. So just something to know that we'll have some new leaders in our local organizations. >> Okay. Anyone else? >> If not, um we can move on to item number tw 11, which is student trustee comments. Good evening, members of the board. Uh we held our monthly student advisory council meeting yesterday, and I'm excited to report that uh students continue to demonstrate creativity, collaboration, and initiative. One of our ongoing goals is to ensure that the council remains focused on meaningful long-term impact. As we continue meeting, students want to contribute in both discussions and projects. Based on member growth, students will take a

040vote decide and decide what initiatives they would like to work towards accomplishing for the 2025 to 2026 school year. In light of that, I believe that it's important to emphasize the option of focusing on one collective district-wide project. That way, building and strengthening one impact initiative rather than managing several smaller ones would ultimately, I believe, would be more beneficial. Um I hope to see members of um SAC become even more engaged within their schools and across the district emphasizing um you know actionable change that builds on upon the productivity of our current monthly meetings. My shared vision is that SAC becomes more than just a platform for student discussion but also a driver for students to connect and collaborate districtwide. As of now, Stack students are uh still joining and when the time comes, we

041can't wait to share our progress with the board. One of our agenda topics was on the use of artificial intelligence in education. As of now, there's no formal district-wide policy regarding the use of artificial intelligence in education. As a result, we've seen a wide range of opinions among teachers. Some educators have embraced AI tools. For example, incorporating platforms like Brisk AI to assist with grading assignments, while others discourage AI altogether. Despite these differing perspectives, one shared belief remains consistent that artificial intelligence should not never be used to complete work for students, but instead be utilized as a tool to help students better break down complex topics with within the material. Students understand that the district leaders are currently exploring and pilot piloting policy decisions related to the topic as reflected in our discussions yesterday. And

042we also recognize that the challenge of developing policies around a technology that evolves so quickly um can be very challenging. Um, and we nonetheless we hope that the district will soon be able to provide a formal guidance or at the very least a clear recommendation outlining appropriate uses of artificial intelligence within schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi trustees. Again, my name is Walkin Borha. Um, another big thing that we met on yesterday in our meeting with the superintendent and among all the members of the student advisory council was mental health well and wellness. Um, in the past few years, the Sequoia Union High School District has been working closely with Starve Vista to provide mental health outlets for all district students across all district sites within the school sites. Um, and the provision

043of teen resources and student school counselors, therapists, mandated reporters, and other people of the like. Since the district partnership ended last year because the company went out of business, as our superintendent put it, um we believe that it may be harder for students within the district and the school sites to know where to go should they have mental health crises or problems with their mental health or needing someone to talk to. Where am I? It is um our recommendation and hope of the student advisory council that aided by principles and other members of staff and admin on each school site that we are able to better publicize and make students aware of where they're able to go to um sorry obtain these requests and needs for their own mental health and betterment. For example, Sequoia

044OB or not obviously, I'm sorry. Um, Sequoia has the TRC, which is the teen resource center on campus. And that's a place where we have people whose specific job is to provide mental health aid and wellness for students should they ever need help. They're able to step out of class when they need to and come by or after school or just talk to someone. And it is our belief that we would like to either implement these across all district sites or make it better known where they're able to go. Additionally, another thing, another big agenda item we talked about was drills that each school site undergoes. Every year, all square union high school district sites undergo several drills throughout the year. These drills primarily consist of fire and earthquake drills due to the fact that

045there are several other types of drills like lockdown um barricade secure campus. It is our hope that we can further publicize what students should do in these events. We do not by any means suggest that we go through simulations of these drills, but ratherformational meanings and sharing of slides like we do before the fire drills and the earthquake drills on what to do should that type of event happen. Since we have fire drills and earthquake drills throughout the year and then the one lockdown drill at the beginning of and it is our hope that you can take this information and use it positively so that more students know what to do in the event of emergencies and also vary the times that this information is presented since it is highly likely that shouldn't um an

046accident or emergency event occur won't be in the room they learned it originally. >> Okay. And then our final item is about email fishing scams. So, as we all know, there has been an increase in fishing emails in the past two or so years. And most students have to figure out for themselves if an email looks sketchy or seems like a scam because we aren't taught a lot about like internet safety or digital safety in school. And I think freshman students are especially vulnerable to these fishing scams because they've never seen them before and they're looking for like job opportunities or extracurricular opportunities. So, when they see these emails, they just like don't really think clearly and then they click on it. And especially because these emails often come from SECQ emails or I think

047for Carmont we had um some from come from teacher emails. So without a lot of examination they initially come across as secure and you're not really going to suspect it at first. We know that warnings about fishing emails are sent out through Superintendent Leech's newsletters but only parents receive those not students. So um getting hacked is pretty annoying for both students and the tech people. And our recommendation is for principles to just copy and paste that warning from Superintendent Leech into their own newsletters so that more students can become aware of these potential scams. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for those comments. Um, next we'll move on to item number 12, comments from the Sequoia District Teachers Association and ask me come to you tonight with a sore back from sitting in

048this room and another room for hours in our third bargaining day of this school year, I think seventh of this cycle. Um, we always love getting together with the district and talking about the issues at hand, but we are very hopeful that we will not have many more of these sessions and we'll be able to come to a resolution as we are nearing the end of the first quarter and as I realized earlier today the 9year and three quarters mark in my countdown to retirement. Not that being in bargaining all day made me think about exactly how long that is away. Um, we are also uh looking forward to uh continuing the work of the counseling committee with the district. Um, and uh, I want to echo what student trustee Bora mentioned about um, really

049wanting to make sure that we are communicating the mental health support offerings that we have for our students. Um the district did a really nice job of um putting up tables of information about mental health support available for staff at our PD day um last week. And I think that's a first step as we really want to make sure as the district does offer services that we that they don't go unused and that we connect people to the help that they need. Thank you. Thank you. Um seeing no one from ASME, um let's move on to item number 13, which is the consent agenda. Board action to approve the following items is taken simultaneously with one motion which is not debatable and requires a unanimous roll call vote for passage. The action indicated on each

050item is deemed to have been considered in full and action taken is ordered therein. Only members of the board and the superintendent may remove items from the consent agenda. Members of the public may provide comments at the start of the consent agenda item which may convince a board member or the superintendent to remove an item for further discussion. So, are there any public comments on the consent agenda? >> I have none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. >> I see none online. >> Okay. Um, any board members wish to pull an item? Okay. If not, the motion is to wave the reading of the consent agenda, accept the reports, adopt the resolutions, and approve other items. Can I get a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll

051call. Student trustee K. >> Yes. >> Student trustee Borha. >> Yes. >> Student trustee L. >> Yes. >> Trusty Cruz. >> Yes. >> Trusty Thompson. >> Yes. >> Trusty Gin. >> Yes. >> Vice President Coup. >> Yes. President Nori. >> Yes. >> Motion carried 5-0. >> Thank you. Um, next we'll move on to item number 14, which is the start of our discussion items. >> Okay. Um, if the presenter for 14.1 isn't here, why don't we skip it and we Oh, >> oh, no, no, no, sorry. Okay, sorry. Item 14.1 >> Yeah, our bad. Um, before we start, are there any public comments on this agenda item? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. >> I see none online. We thought you were going to bring a robot.

052>> I know. I thought >> so I was like where did he go? >> You can begin. >> Okay. Well, um my name is Vesta. I'm a junior at MA and I'm a member on the robotics team. The purpose of this presentation isn't to ask for anything from the board. So, don't worry about that. But, um it's just to inform about one of MA's most prominent clubs and something that's really close to me. Who are we? So, as said, we are a high school robotics club and we're part of a global organization called FRC. And how that works is that our high school robotics team competes against other high school robotics team from this area, but also, you know, from the east coast and even around the world. 68 students, 12 mentors, and our express

053written purpose is to promote STEM education in our local community. There's a quick video for points. There sound I think we can watch it without the videos. The film making is pretty good. out or we'll give it the music's really cool. is I feel like I messed it up. Okay, sorry about that. Um, there was the video. Our team is broken up into two parts. There's the technical part of our team, um, which is what you would think. We do in-house design, in-house manufacturing, in-house programming, and we like to be very very hands-on with that. So, we have 12 adult mentors, but all the work is done by the students. Um, all all the stuff is done by the students. We're a student led team, all of that. There's also the non-technical side of things,

054which I think is more interesting because I do a lot of stuff there. Um, and I'm going to cover that in a moment. But we have outreach stuff in the community and we also have a pretty strong business team. The first of those initiatives is what we call. So we're high schoolers, but what we do is we go out to local middle schools and we run a weekly class there helping the students to build, you know, scaled down robots. Um, and we work with them one-on-one. Uh, we work at Law Entrada and also in EPA. We tried to start one at Helvio, but unfortunately it didn't go through. We work with over 50 students and it's a lot of fun um to see them growing throughout the years and take them out to competitions. We've

055had probably one of our most successful years so far. Um you can read all the accolades there, but we went to the World Championships, which is a really cool way of saying we got to fly out to Houston and um lose, but also have a lot of fun uh facing teams from all over the world. This is probably the biggest award we won. Um there was a lot of talk about this in our team and this is called the engineering inspiration award. So this isn't an award for like having the best robot or the coolest design and all that but this is an award for what we do inside our community. So we have a very very targeted effort to go out to local schools to local organizations to farmers markets board meetings all that

056stuff and sort of share what we do with the local community. So kids are thus more likely to come into our team, more likely to go through our team, more likely to come out of our team as better people. I already talked about this earlier, but we also went to the World Championships. Again, very fun. Um, first time in over a decade, even though we lost, very fun experience. I have a few photos just to end the presentation. Thank you. >> I have a I have a quick question. Yes. Weren't expecting that. Is robotics is it is it a season or is it a is it year long? >> It is year-long but there's an on season and there's an off season. So from January 1st all the way through until you know miday we

057focus on building the robot doing all the technical stuff but then we have the offseason part which is where we're more focused on what we do in the community. We have what we call you know offseason projects and we meet a little bit less frequently but there is a meeting right now and I am missing it for this but thank you. >> Thank you so much for that presentation. Um now we'll move on to item 14.2 two, which is a report on Tide Academyy's opening schools 2025-26 school year. Are there any public comments on this agenda item? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. >> I see none online. >> Good evening, Superintendent Leech and board of trustees. Uh, thank you for letting me present this evening. When

058you heard opening of school presentations at the September 10th board meeting, I was with our vice principal Carla Chavez and head counselor Lara Sindor presenting TID's journey at the dual enrollment conference in Irvine. We had a great reception and continue to do the work to get dual enrollment on the map for Sequoia Union High School District and the families we serve. I'll share some highlights from our busy yet smooth start, which is now almost through quarter 1. Uh over the summer at Tide, we were able to put our Golden State Pathway Grant to use and installed a brand new MA Mac lab for our graphic design and computer science pathways. We also reconfigured space in our innovation lab so it can be available for use throughout the school day and now it's a hub for

059afterchool activities and programs. I've loved walking through our classrooms. Uh teachers are engaging and challenging students while also supporting them to master content in meaningful relatable ways through a range of collaborative projects, labs, activities, written assignments, math problem solving, really making connections to their interests. Our student leadership class is off to a running start. Very robust program. Um they've planned several lunchtime events. They've hosted a senior sunrise, a movie night, and are planning and looking forward to the upcoming FearFest. Uh clubs have launched. Our robotics, speaking of robotics, is really getting on the map now. Uh they have over 20 members, probably closer to 30. Um our alumni, who are our ballet folklorico stars, are coming back to restart the club as adviserss. Um, our small band is performing in the community and our black

060student union is growing with 18 members to date among other clubs. We also have a strong um, AAPI club that does lots of cool events as well. Um, our wellness advisory committee is doing lots of wellness events to support wellness at Tide also. And with support for the 9th grade experience from the district and generous teacher grants from the East PaloAlto Kids Foundation, we've launched a ceramics club. Our journalism teacher, you saw earlier, Joanne Yao, and students will go to their first JA conference in Nashville in November. That paperwork will be coming your way. And we have a full music production studio in the innovation lab. To date, we have the highest number of fall athletes participating in sports at MA. These include cross country, girls water polo, girls volleyball, cheerleading. A few students will

061be trying out for wrestling for the winter season. And in spring, we always see the most participation given the there are more sports to participate in. Uh we had college and career day on Tuesday. In preparation, we hosted college conversation days when staff shared their college career journeys. Our ninth grade students went to San Jose State and Santa Clara University and at both campuses connected with Tide alum who are students there which was a huge highlight for them. Uh we administered PSAT to our 10th and 11th grade students, SAT for seniors and had wellness and college application support for them as well. Um, we have really strong involvement, engagement from our 9th and tth grade parents who are heading committees, fundraising, and volunteering to support school initiatives and events. And we had a great turnout

062at our parent orientation before school started. Enrollment's hovering around 200 students with 9th grade being the largest. We anticipate getting to our goal of 75 students per class at Tide. We are now a more well-known option in the Sequoia Union High School District. How do I know this? And Daphany can vouch for this. She's our recruitment coordinator. We are in the heart of recruitment season and it's busy. We are h trying to keep up with all the requests to present at middle schools or table during their lunchtimes to get the word out about the benefits of dual enrollment and CT pathways. We'll host our eighth grade information night on October 23rd at 6 o'clock. If you're free, come and check us out. I'll send an invite along. And we just finished our Wasque midcycle review

063re and report. I think you'll get it in a Friday update. We have a half-day virtual visit on November 19th. I'm really proud of our student outcomes from the first three graduating classes. Our college career readiness and graduation rates are high. So, we look forward to continuing this work and becoming a well-known entity in the district. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, any questions from >> Yeah. >> questions? >> I'm coming right back. >> No, no, that's okay. Question time. First of all, thank you. Um, beginning of school year is always a challenging and wonderful time and now that quarter 1 is over, we know the honeymoon is over, too. So, thank you for being here on a late night. Um, you you had mentioned that um you have roughly about 200 students and that

064you have about you're hoping for 75 students. I know that we've been hoping for that since initi like since it started. Um, I'm wondering too since you're in the middle of recruitment season, can you tell from last year what really that conversion is to actual enrollment from freshman year when you're going out? Because I know >> I know from personal experience how how many people ask you to be at tables, but that doesn't always convert to actual. >> Yes. >> Yeah, >> it doesn't always convert. Um what we have realized which we take as a compliment we do definitely get shocked because there are so many op options in our area um right there's charter schools there's private schools there's our amazing comprehensive high schools so what we noticed when we like last year we

065got 90 over 90 open enrollment requests but then you know people have options and so when we see that they're going elsewhere to other private schools mostly some decide to stay at their homeschool. However, we have noticed it's hard to capture a momentum shift. So, for example, the reason I say we're busy with recruitment events is the past few years I was chasing schools. We want to come, we want to present, we this year we are being inundated with come present, right? Come tell our families and students about Tide. And so, that piece I think um is an indication to me. There's one more of an awareness we exist. More of an awareness that we are a p small public school because a lot of people think we're charter or we're private. More of an

066awareness of what is dual enrollment? What are CTE pathways? What are the benefits of these programs? And now with three graduating classes with pretty darn good outcomes, we have kind of we have a track record. Um, so I think we're we're trying to, you know, build this amazing school with amazing programs in one a declining enrollment era and also families have lots of choices and we want to be known as an amazing choice in the Sequoia Union High School District that offers another pathway, right, that has shown and proven to be a very good one. Um, so you know, we're not perfect. We're still trying things and exploring things. Um, but I think we are in our academic programs in sync. We have, you know, and it's taken time. Um, because when I started at

067TIDE in 2021, we were we had to develop our junior and senior courses, right? We had to figure out what is the trajectory? What does that look like for students? And then we've had to add electives and we've had to try and figure out how we can make it work um to be an appealing program for families. Um and just another option. And then we're noticing just um I have heard off-the- cuff comments. Um one district employee told me um they have heard from neighbors how happy their kids are at Tide. Um, I heard from somebody else today. I ran into the at Whole Foods over here who um whose kids are in um I think a youth group with TIDE students. Oh my god, they're sophomores. They say they love Tide. So, I think

068it's really just about getting more kids to on board to have the experience. Um, and I think we've seen that shift with the freshman and sophomore classes that that we currently have. and we're hoping that that momentum continues and the word continues to get out. So, I don't know if that was such a long answer, but I know that, you know, enrollment's like the number one thing that keeps me awake at night, right? Because we have something so awesome to offer and we want to do whatever we can to get the school really well known and on the map. So, yeah. >> Any other questions? If >> not, thank you so much for that presentation. Um, next we'll move on to item 14.3, review of Everest Public High School's 2024-25 unodudited actuals. Um, any public

069comment on this item? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. >> Okay, seeing none. Um, continue. >> Good evening, respected board members, President Leech. I now present Everest Public School uh unodudited actual for fiscal year 2425 in accordance with ED code. Everest public school submitted the 2425 unodudited actuals to Sequoia Union High School District by the due date of September 15th. The unudited actual complies with all the fiscal requirement and it has been submitted to the county office of education. Everest public school closed at the end of 2425 school year. Cash in bank as of June 30th, 2025 is 2.5 million. Everest books will remain open to collect all receivables and settle payables. Once all the transactions are completed, the board will vote on the final fund

070balance transfer. For 2425, the total revenue was four 4.4 4 million. Total expenditure was 4.8 million. The LEA was deficit spending 383,000. Total funded ADA for 2425 was 195.3 ADA. They were projecting 199.8. So that was a decline of 4.5 ADA. Any questions? >> Um, if there are none, we can move on to the next agenda item, which is 14.5 or four review of Summit Prep Charter School 2024-25 on actuals. Um, are there any public comments? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. All right, I'm turn it back over to you. >> Summit Prep Charter School submitted the 2425 unudited actual and it complies with all fiscal requirement and it the unodudited actual has been promoted to the county office. Cash in bank as of June 30th, 2025

071is 4.5 million and ending fund balance is 5.1 million which is approximately 81% of the total expenditure. The table shows the comparison between the estimated actual that that was presented at along with the budget in June comparing that to the unodudited actual numbers. There is a slight increase in revenue of $103,000. Total expenditure increased by $214 resulting in deficit spending increasing by $110,000. Funded ADA for 2425 is 259,000 sorry 259 ADA and projected was 262.88 88 ADA which is a decline slight decline of 3.41. Summit prep is projecting enrollment of 262 for 2526. They are expecting about 100 students from Everest moving to summit prep. We will have more accurate numbers when we bring the first interim report. >> Any questions? >> Okay. If not, we can move on to 14.5 review of Kip Esparonza

072High School 2024-25 on edited actuals. Are there any public comments on this item? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. None online. Pasparanza Charter School submitted their 2425 unodudited actual and it meets all the fiscal requirement. The unodudited actual has been submitted to county office. Cash in bank as of June 30th was 989,000 and ending fund balance is $2.1 million which is approximately 34% of the total expenditure. Comparing estimated actuals to unodudited actual, there was very minimal increase in revenue and expenditure. It was less than $2,000. In order to balance the budget and maintain reserve and support the school, KIP Asparanza received 2.1 million as philanthropic donation from its charter management organization. Over the next four year, Kip plans to grow their ninth grade enrollment through targeted recruitment

073from their two uh peninsula middle school. They plan to use digital and field recruitment methods to achieve this enrollment growth. >> They are targeting to reach 222 by the end of next four years like over a period of four years. And they're currently that the ADA is 177, right? >> The current ADA is 172 and they were projecting 177 through the year. >> Did Summit share a similar projection what their target is versus what their actuals are? >> Yes, they did. >> What is it? >> So for 2526 they are projecting 362 ADA. But but they're a target. Is that their target or is that their projection? >> That is their projection. >> Do you know what size they'd like to be? >> You said that Kip wants to be 222 >> over a period

074of next four years. >> And did the other charters share a similar where they want to be over a period of four years? >> Yes. So summit is projecting I just have for the current year I can bring it up in the next reported. Yeah. But they do submit a projection for next three years. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Any other questions from the board? If not, thank you for the reports. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um before we move on to the next section, why don't we take a 5m minute break so we can return at 7:25. >> Okay. Um moving on to item four 15.1 the first discussion item. Um first is the first reading of re revised board policies and administration regulations. Um are there any public comment on this

075agenda item? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. There are none online. >> I'll turn it over to assistant superintendent Shakone. >> Good evening members of the board. Superintendent Leech. Cabinet. Uh this evening I am bringing forth a batch of miscellaneous mostly educational services, board policies and administrative regulation updates for the first quarter of the school year. Um oh I just slide. Ha. Very nice. So the first one actually is in the 5000s which would be a student services. It's under challenging student record and typically student records are grades. And so that's why for the most part um it's it's educational services policy. And you will notice in the administrative regulation the lettering is not in red meaning it's not a CSBA update. It's in green meaning that

076we as a district would like to make these changes. Reason being because it requests that we have a response and decision 30 days um within the complaint happening and or rather the records challenge happening. But what has happened in the past is grades usually end, you know, at the end of the school year and then we go into summer and where a parent may challenge a record, challenge a grade, we have not we don't always have a way of getting hold of the teacher um to investigate what happened and talking to people. We don't may we might not have the board in session to make a decision. So rather than saying 30 days and then having it dangle out there and not being able to access everybody to get all the information we need, we

077would like to make that 30 school days. Um just so that it can be done while we're in session if there is a records challenge. It looks like you have a question. I can see it. >> Yeah. >> It was working. Uh it doesn't sound >> the red light was on. >> Okay. I was just wondering how it might affect uh collegegoing students or students looking to apply to college. Uh either I'm thinking if if you're trying to do applications and you're trying to get grades in for your applications or just I'm thinking of the summer and now with 30 school days students may not get the result until >> until the fall >> the fall time to investigate it. >> Does this potentially cause any issues for students in those situations? I'm going to

078look to our previous associates who had services on this one who who went through a similar situation. >> I encouraged Liz to get this updated after I had a teacher out of the country this summer and was trying to do this investigation. Um, and I Anyways, long story short, uh, applications aren't due until 30 school days after a school year starts. College applications. Yeah. And also for someone who maybe was admitted to college, they need to show their grades to get into the college and if they got too low of a grade, they don't get to go potentially and then they're they're challenging like that is always fine. I'm just want I'm just thinking of where a delay might be a problem for students and wondering if there are any. >> Did you want to

079answer that? >> Go ahead, please. professor. >> Usually there's policy in place where students have a grace period before those grades are actually solidified and put into the system to say yeah if they if they fail and even if they did get a D or something like that, they can still maybe petition to stay and continue. >> So it depends. Yeah. If if you get a D or an F and you say you got a DNF, you can even petition to see if you can still stay even if you fail the class >> that there's policies in place that will they're not going to kick you out. >> More complicated than that because this is 30 days would mean school theoretically if you were a senior in high school, your freshman year of college would

080have already started. So there there is I think that's the only one I see might be an issue, but I still support the change. >> Yeah, but there's usually policy in place for stuff like this. >> Yeah, usually there is a soft fix, right? something could come up, but we find that the former is a much more common issue than the latter. Thank you. Any other questions about this one? So there was recently a Supreme Court decision which um came from elementary curriculum just about including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning the LGBTQ plus materials in the elementary school instruction. And it's to essentially um that parents would need to be provided notice. That's at the elementary school. So that doesn't impact necessarily the high school, but where it does expand to 92 schools.

081um and to our district is essentially the state law that says that parents do need to have the right to opt out of certain pieces of the curriculum um that that are instruction on the basis of their religious beliefs. And so we have the legal obligation to let parents know that they can opt out of the curriculum based on religious beliefs um and offer an alternative to the curriculum. This would happen if you're curious how do we offer this? Um so we get annual we every year we give annual parent notifications. Typically you know Los Angeles will develop theirs as one of the larger districts in the state. They send them along to San Monteo County. Sanonteo County crafts theirs and then they send them to us and every summer we give out annual parent

082notification. So that would be our place to put that parent notification that they can opt out of certain pieces of the curriculum. >> Question. >> I I maybe misunderstood, but I thought this applied K8 and what wasn't for high school. Does it also apply to high schools? >> The opt- out piece also applies to high school. So, and that's that's why I put the the both paragraphs in there. The first part is just elementary. That's just the K8 piece where there's there's um certain story books where you have to give them notice of what's in there. In high school, it doesn't go that far, but it's just that parents do have the right to opt out of certain parts of curriculum. You can't opt out of a whole course, but if there's something in the

083unit, you can ask to opt out. So I guess that lines up with having parents would have to have access to what that curriculum is in order to know, right? >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. >> And typically parents have access to the curriculum on Canvas. Um and there's ways to request from the district office all the textbooks that we that we use for our students as well. >> Okay. So, and second one again I reiterated the difference between that the K8 the elementary school um it doesn't quite go that in direction but again what it does say is for all that should a parent opt out of a piece of the curriculum that we need to provide alternative curriculum and that there will be no um no repercussions for the student if that's the case

084for them. And I must say this isn't actually something new. It's just now written this way. We've had this before. You know, students who couldn't participate in a PE swimming unit, for example, because um you know, the dress and there again certain religious things that may stop a student from participating in a certain piece of the curriculum, parents say something and we've always found alternatives for them. So in our district, I don't think this will be earthshattering, but we do want to make sure in the annual parent notification, we give this notification. Any questions about those? Uh the next is the with comprehensive health education. We just recognize the importance of mental health and social connection especially through digital and media literacy. That language has been added. This is all CSBA language. Um, again, parents

085can request to opt out of anything that is that asks confidential questions, surveys. Think of you can think of something like California Healthy Kids um that we give. That's something a student can opt out of essentially anything um that that's asking these confidential questions and we can't sanction them and we can't discipline students for not being a part of those students. Um, so that if we have anything, um, we we let families know. And again, we do I can think of California Healthy Kids off the top. That is something that people can always opt out of. We put it up here at the front desk. People can come see what's in the survey and choose not to take it as always. Um, so that's something we've always honored. But again, now in CSBA writing because

086of recent recent laws and then also that >> would that cover the the power wheel exercise I've heard about because it sounds like some of those questions are things that were on that wheel that I understood some students in the past may have been asked to complete. So would that mean that that's no longer acceptable? >> I would think because it it asks questions about identity that that would be something a student could opt out of. But this says shall not administer. >> Oh, you're looking at the second part. I hadn't gone there yet. Sorry. So, you're saying where the district shall not administer exam survey questionnaire that contains questions about students, families, personal beliefs, practices. Um, >> like do you live are your parents married? Yes or no is not a question that we

087could ask. Are you for example? >> Right. for example, and I don't know I don't know that the wheel would fall into that, but I would say I don't >> I believe at least that question was on the wheel as I understand it. >> yeah, I'll get back on that one. I I have to really look at the wheel and really look at the law in order to give you a full answer on that. >> Different wheels. Yeah. So, let me get back to you on that one. And that one is again that is an active permission one. So you have to have parents active permission in order to do that and the wheel might be an example. I can look into that and get back to you. Any other questions on that one? Next

088is uh the next update from CSBA is the behavioral interventions for special education students. It's just that the district has to collect data on the number of times a student is restrained mechanically a student is secluded. Um that physical restraint is used and then these need to be disagregated and these need to be posted. Um our special ed education department is aware of this. This is something that we do with the state every year. Um and now it's just that it's posted on the website as well. So that language has been updated in CSBA. And the final update was for our workbased learning just that our responsibility to notify parents and guardians in grades 11 and 12 about local apprentice programs um standards database through the district website essentially that we where they're saying work-based

089learning. This would be a lot of our CTE programs, CTE pathways that students have access to that can lead to career post high school. Um, and that we provide the students with opportunities to explore careers, that we host career events, um, and that we observe the workplace readiness week. So, these are all things that our uh, CTE coordinator Tiffany Burkel does with our CTE programs in our schools. Those are all of the updates for this quarter and I will get back to you on that on that question. >> Uh thank you. Any other board questions? >> If not um we can move on to 15.2. >> Oh yeah. Is it fine for all these to come back on consent? >> Okay. Yeah, that's good. >> Um next is 15.2. Are there any public comments on

09015.2? Yes, I have one in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. Okay, there and then online. I'd like to call up Steve Clark. Right. Thank you. Uh thank you for your time and all that you guys do. My name is Steve Clark. I'm a parent of two MA boys, a freshman football and lacrosse player and a junior lacrosse player. Uh I'm also the on the boosters board. I'm the current co-president of the MA Foundation for the Future. Uh former MA Little League president. Um little league coach, AYSO coach, WCK basketball coach, and Laurel sports coordinator, parent volunteer. So, the convergence of sports in school u has been pretty massive uh in my life the last 10 years. Um, and I know many many of the student athletes at MA currently, but

091I'm here speaking in support of MA's request to continue using the academic probation program as written by CIF. Um, it's a program that has allowed 124 students in the last fiveish years since COVID at MA. uh the one-time opportunity to stay engaged in their sport uh on campus with their peers, with their coaches, you know, competing. Um and you know, that represents um less than two and a half% of the students um since the program started. Um and typically those students are MA's, most underprivileged, disadvantaged kids, the ones that need that, you know, that that engagement on campus. um you know these schools you know offer these these sports and extracurricular activities you know um they're encouraged by administrators for a reason right it's because the social emotional mental physical benefits that those activities give

092to developing young young students um last year 51% of MA students participated in a sport so I just I want to re reiterate that this is a one-time shot for students um to course correct it's not a program you know that's being abused, if that's been implied in the past. Um, every school has different needs, right? Some schools need more ESL teachers because of their student population. Some schools need more AP classes because of their population. Some schools have freshman, high school football teams and others don't. Um, but every school provides, you know, different resources to accommodate their their student needs. Um, and MAS use this pro program to address the needs of its student population. Um, and we just we hope that, you know, I'm here asking your consideration to allow MA or other

093high schools to to continue using the program as written by the CIF, um, the academic probation program, you know, as a policy, they're making it optional for each school so that it's you as a policy making it optional for each school to implement implement the program if they choose as opposed to just eliminating it and making it uniform. So, if you have questions, I'm happy to talk about it, but it's I appreciate your guys' time. >> Thank you. Um, no other public comment. Um, is there a staff? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, is there a staff presentation? I thought there was another comment. >> Good evening. Board policy 6145 extracurricular and co-curricular activities was last reviewed and updated in June 2020. This update, prompted by the CO 19 pandemic, added language allowing the district to

094adjust eligibility requirements if alternative grading practices were implemented due to an emergency or other extenduating circumstances. The probationary clause under this policy was applied only once during the spring semester of the 2021 school year. In February of 2021, principal's council reached a decision to use this one semester emergency allowance. And on February 9th, 2021, the director of student services summarized principal council's decision by communicating via email to athletic directors, administrative vice principles, and principles the following quote. Principles agreed to implement an athletic probationary period for student athletes at their discretion aligned to board policy 6145. This will only apply during this semester due to pandemic distance learning and each student will be allowed one probation probationary period during this time. Is this something I said? >> No, nothing at all. >> I'm I'm totally kidding.

095Um the continued use of academic probation at one school in the district and the resulting concern from families and students at other sites in the district that this was being allowed in some places and not others has highlighted the need to revisit the probationary clause under BP6145. So at the September 2025 principal council, academic probation was discussed and only one site expressed a desire to continue the practice of this probationary clause. As such, to further clarify the policy's intent, BP 6145 is being recommended for updating to more clearly reflect the original intention of utilizing the probationary clause. And so to do that, you will see, I believe it's on the second page, uh, dark green because it is um, from our district prior to the sentence that reads, "Superintendent or designate may grant ineligible students

096a probationary period not to exceed one semester, the recommendation is to add the language as a result of any emergency situation, condition, or extenduating circumstance." is to be clear. Academic probation is for students receiving below a 2.0 in the pre previous grading period quarter. Academic probation allows students to compete in their team's athletic competitions, games, matches. Having no academic probation does not prevent a student below a 2.0 O from being on the team, being a part of team tutoring, traveling for events, participating in team dinners. It just means that they cannot compete during the time of their academic probation. All schools in the district seek to motivate all students, including student athletes, to receive passing grades. There are different schools of thought on how to best do that. One school of thought is that if

097a student is on academic probation and allowed to compete in athletic competitions, it keeps them motivated to improve their grades. The other school of thought is that if a student can remain a part of their team and practice with them and be encouraged by their coach to get their grades up, but must have a 2.0 the prior grading period to compete in athletic events. It motivates them to improve their grades. All but one of the district school leaders believe in the latter. Uh, thank you. Any board questions or discussion? Yeah, >> this may not be a question that you can answer obviously off the cuff, but I'm interested to know we basically have a very interesting experience experiment where there's say the five years before this went into place, how many students at MA had

098whatever sort of grade situation happened and then afterwards because if >> you mean student athletes >> student athletes because it potentially you could say well knowing that there's a probation more students are getting into into academic trouble because they know they can fix it later and before they weren't getting into academic trouble because they knew if they did they couldn't compete or maybe we're not seeing that at all and and I don't know if if >> like what we can see from before and after if behavior changed. So that's a very hard piece of data to get for you because students will often if they're will often partway through the semester, in fact in place of a kid getting an F on their on their transcript or an NA, not an NA, an FA, that's

099gone now though, an F, they will they'll withdraw from the athletic team before the end of the semester. So the data that we would have for prior years would only have the students who ended the semester on the team. So it's going to be skewed as far as and I don't know what way, but we don't have an accurate reading of who was on the team and who wasn't on the team to determine whether or not academic probation worked for them. Okay, Trusty Cruz, >> I guess one of the questions I had was if they are on academic probation, it does not mean that they cannot The only thing you're saying is that they cannot play if they have less than a 2.0. >> Correct. >> They are still part of the team and hopefully

100their coach and their teammates are saying, "Come on, you got to get your grades up. We need you." I mean, I >> I believe in academic probation. I think it's valid. I think it works. I think um it provides students with opportunity to rebound and showcase what they have, right? If and that is true. My son plays football, so he hears that all the time. The coaches are constantly saying, "You have to have a 2.0." And so he knows he's constantly working on his grades and super motivated, right? >> So I I'm not sure. Academic probation means you can have below a 2.0 and participate. >> Not having academic participation academic probation means if you have below a 2.0, Oh, you can be on the team, you can still participate in practices, but you cannot

101participate. I would say that both schools of thought are attempting to motivate students to get their grades up. >> The disagreement is on which is the superior school of thought to let a kid be on academic probation and continue to compete while they have grades that are lower than a 2.0 no GPA or to say you're still a part of this team and you can't be on academic probation because we're not in a crisis a national crisis, but you're going to get if you get your grades up then after the next quarter you can compete on the team. >> Okay. And the second part of that is that can they be on academic probation more than once? >> No, one time. >> So once in four years they can. So that's where I have an

102issue because I think that there's a lot of emergencies and things that happen especially right now in these times that we are living especially in spaces like East Palo Alto where we have multi-generational families and we have all kinds of things happening right now and emergency more than one emergency could come up in four years. Um I've seen this in the college level. At college level, we have they can be an academic relation for two two semesters in a row because they could have a real emergency, right, that extends past that one semester and that's the world we live in right now, right? There's a lot coming at us. >> Well, and then when we tried to do a study of what other school districts and schools in the area were doing, it's a wide

103wide scope. So you've got some school districts where you could be on academic probation the entire way through which I don't really know how that's academic probation. I don't know how that is private. >> I could see one year. I could see but >> but then and then you've got other places where you can only do it in your junior year, second semester and then you have other places where you can do it twice and then you have different definitions of who decides whether or not what is your crisis, right? >> What is the crisis that allows you to be on academic? So it's it's really messy to be to be sure. And then there are other districts like Mountain View Los Altos that say no, you cannot be on academic probation. So just it

104runs the gamut, >> right? Oh, thank you. >> I'm just curious. Can you clarify what you say your position? >> Oh my I'm just thinking about academic probation. Like I think one emergency academic probation in four years is too little is what I'm thinking. Like I >> you want to have probation, you want there to be more than one. >> I it could >> I'm trying to understand what I'm not just trying to to compete but to not get it's different not to compete. Not to compete but to not to get like you know kicked out. >> It's really confusing. >> Yeah, it is. I'm like probation allows students to compete. >> Yeah. So, not necessarily competing but not being kicked, you know, kicked off the team. >> That's not what we're talking about. Okay.

105>> Nobody's kicked off the team. They just can't compete. >> They can't play in the game. Right. >> Right. Okay. >> While they have it below >> while they have a two point. Okay. Got it. until the next quarter. If it's above a 2.0, then they can >> Got it. >> So, what's your position on that? >> I'm thinking about it because I need to Yeah, I'm thinking about it because >> you don't have to vote tonight. >> Yeah. No, I don't. >> There's no vote. I'm just thinking I'm like thinking out loud and thinking and asking question. >> I'm a verbal processor, too. >> Yeah. And just a clarification for myself because even with this this green edit, there could be a situation where the superintendent or the designate could grant an academic probation,

106right? >> Yes. >> Well, they have to say there's emergency. >> Well, yeah. In the case of an So, it would be up to the discretion of the superintendent in that case versus at the school site level. >> It was Well, even the language now The language now is supposed to be at the discretion of the superintendent. >> Oh, >> or the superintendent's designate. It's not supposed to be happening just at the school site. >> So, we're trying to add in language that makes that more clear that it would be in an emergency. And again, of course, you're going to do what you guys are going to do. It's all over the place. But the original intent was in the event of an emergency, the superintendent or this person the superintendent says, for instance, the

107one time it happened, it was the superintendent and cabinet and principal council in 2021 all having the conversation together. It's not supposed to be the individual purview of a site. >> Can I Can I make a comment? >> Sure. >> Um I because I I want to I want to really draw back on draw on that because I read every single email that came in. um from the MA community and then I was like this is what am I missing because this is like seems really one-sided and what like I don't understand. So then you go back and you do the research and you start talking to all the principles and I personally spoke to athletic directors at the at our different sites and I'm actually quite concerned that we have in writing not just

108from the writing that was just shown but I haven't seen Jarrett Julie's ad from the athletic director minutes but I am assured that they are in the minutes that the athletic directors had already agreed to this that this was a one time deal with co and so sorry I don't know why I'm getting emotional I think I'm getting emotional because we are a board that represents the whole district >> and this already went through the athletic directors then it went through the adps then it went through the principal's council and was already like voted 3 to one so I think I'm getting emotional because I'm kind of like we we've had a school kind of going rogue here without the superintendent policy so if we're saying we're coming off of policy. Actually, no, they weren't

109because it was in writing that was only for one year. So, I'm I'm like putting that out there that when this policy that we're talking about, this first reading is just clarifying something that already exists. And I think when we think about our students, we need to think about every single student at every single school site when we make a policy that is not sight specific. It's a board policy. So to be clear, to my understanding, MA has not be being be has not been allowing kids to do it for more than one semester, but they are been allowing it postco. And in writing, the athletic directors had agreed that it wasn't supposed to happen after postcoid without superintendent. And so there's my question. Has the superintendent granted MA any exceptions postcoid? No. Okay, I

110can go next. I don't support this change. I think um giving grace to kids is important and letting kids be able to play sports is generally beneficial for them. And I do believe that having some sort of grace here, especially if other high schools outside of our district do it, it's not the end of the world. And I think especially seeing the list of other high schools that do it, it feels like it would be putting our district at a competitive disadvantage not to. So, I tend to lean and agree with Trusty Cruz to kind of defer to the school site. And I think there are bigger issues that this raises, but I don't think this is a hill worth dying on. And I especially would feel very bad if this resulted in kids not

111being able to play sports. So, I won't be able to support the change. >> Could you put some colors to why it'd be bad to let schools pick what was best for their student population if different >> Sorry, can you say that again? If different site leaders believe that different way of approaching this would be better for their school, is there a reason not to let each site choose what's best for them? >> Well, I want to echo something that just said, I too do not believe this is a hill to die on, but other people do because if your school allows kids to participate below a 2.0 O and the quarterback for your team is below a 2.0 and they get to participate and the quarterback at my team who is below a 2.0

112does not get to participate. I'm ass I'm I mean I I'm from a little town in Northern California. Those are fights. So when you give discretion to individual schools in a district, you are pitting principles and students and employees and parents against each other. It's not it it it's a tough one. Whatever you decide, please just decide. >> Other leagues who might do different things. So it could be that they're against a school that does have this different >> Absolutely. >> So okay. >> So then you get into the school of thought, Rich, like sorry, you get into the school of thought like what do you believe is best for kids? So I think that's got to be first and foremost. And there are two different schools of thought about what most motivates kids to

113get above a 2.0. And I don't think it should be based on what other districts, whether they allow it or not, get to compete in the game. I'm telling you why it's high stakes for some people. >> I get why it's high stakes. Is there any way that we could make use data to inform this decision as to which one of these two does better motivate kids? >> Let let me think about it. Let me think about it. I I would hope. I just haven't thought of it. But I haven't thought about it very hard either. >> I also want to clarify because yes, I speak with passion. This is not my hill I'm dying on, but I do speak with passion because I also believe in the fact that we when something is agreed

114upon by all school sites that should be done that. So, so I think I have two points to that. one is I think I need clarification because from what I understand updating the board policy actually doesn't change the fact that they're still not supposed to be playing on probation. So like that that's what I really want to make sure that we understand that this revision of a board policy still does not give MA permission to what they're currently doing. >> Am I right on that? >> Maybe I'm wrong. So the proposed definition, you're right, but we could also do a different definition. >> And I'm and and that's true. And we and we can do a different definition and we could rewrite the board policy, but that's not what's being discussed right now. So I'm

115saying if we're if if we're going to discuss like a whole new writing thing, that's that's what that's something that I think is worthy of discussion and like let's do that. But in my mind, where would you start with that? the people who know their school sites and students best, the athletic directors and the APs and the principles, and they already did this. They already voted it down three to one. So, if we want to have this board policy and come back to it, I'm fine with going back to it. We can open it back up. We can get more feedback, more data. But I guess where I'm coming from is that I I I feel like it was already done. So then just to clarify this policy, the change in this board policy is

116just explicitly stating that it to only be used during emergencies dedicated by the superintendent. But what was it before saying just >> um let me go. Is it here? No, it's not. >> It said it said before that the superintendent makes the call >> about whether or not academic probation can be used. That's up to the superintendent or the superintendent's designate. The hope with this was to make it a little bit more clear about what the circumstances were under which the superintendent might do that. But you guys are right. It still says the super it already is in board policy that that's the superintendent's call or the designate of the superintendent. >> Yeah, because you can see the uh the red line there. It just says the superintendent or designate may grant ineligible students a

117probationary period. So it already said that. So the addition is just the emergency situation condition or extenduating circumstance. >> To comment back to what what you said. So the proposed revision is exactly what you said, but if the policy is on our agenda, then we're discussing the policy and anything about the policy is legally discussed within the Brown Act at this agenda item. And we have a large number of community members advocating for something in this policy. So it's fair for us to talk about it. >> That's Yes. I sorry. >> Yes. I am not saying that we shouldn't be talking about it. What I'm saying is for this to come back to on a vote on another agenda on this exact language, even if we were to vote this language down unless we replaced

118it with a whole new policy, it's still the same. That's that's the point I was trying >> that would be for a superintendent leachch to decide. Mhm. >> So I just want to clarify if superintendent or designate in other places in board policy the principles are implied to be the designate of the superintendent or if that's never the case when it says superintendent designate because I believe there's many things >> that say superintendent designate but many other people in the organizations actually do it because they've been designated. So >> there's some vagory in design. significant. >> Well, there's some truth to that. However, when we talk about it and it's recorded in the minutes and we actually take a vote in principal's council, then that would be the outcome. That would be the designate. >>

119I'm just saying the policy could say those words and it could mean depending on what principles council did or other things. It doesn't like the words could be as they are, not as they're proposed to be changed. >> I think the thing to point out is even with the design, um, how we discovered that this was actually occurring was because we had a player at another school site that meant that was not able to play and compete and they said if I was playing at MA, I would be allowed to compete. Like that's how we came about this. And then we started talking about it and then that's when we found out that that they were allowing academic probation. And we need the clarity because you know regardless of of where the board sits on

120this like we need to as as Bonnie said we need to do this for all students um so that it doesn't matter necessarily where you where you go to school that you would have um opportunity. I guess I would be curious if the other ads if were saying the board would be fine if you did this would they still say no I wouldn't want to do this have this policy >> today >> yeah but what I I think considering the language they made I wonder if they said like the board does not mind you doing this like more along that line kind of what I'd be curious >> so the principles went back to their school sites um since Tuesday and then I asked them this morning um if they would like to share their

121thoughts which have been shared with you. Um so we haven't heard specifically from any ads outside of the principles except for um at MA. >> Okay. So, >> sorry. Um, we can't unfortunately we can't take more public comment, but um I would be favor in trying to see if we can get some more data on this and come back with the unified policy sometime in the future. But I don't know, at least from my rough take of where the board's at, I don't think there's clear consensus to bring this back on a consent just yet. So, I could be wrong and if I'm the only one opposed, I'm happy to bring this back. But I do sense that this something that needs to be looked into a little further. >> I I agree with you

122100%. >> I'm remain interested that there is a way to look at data that informs which these there's schools of thought, but we actually have data because schools have been doing different things. And so we ought to be able to judge something. We have schools doing each of these two things to be able to judge which is which I >> I can get you data. I just don't think you're going to like the data because it's going to leave out every kid who dropped out of the program. Because what I will have is the grade the the a the kids who say student athletics basketball, student athletics football. So we'll pull that data. We'll see what their GPA were. We'll see if they ever tanked below a 2.0 and whether or not they pulled it

123back up. And I can do that happily. It won't give you a complete picture. It's like saying how many kids graduated from high school and only talking about the kids who were there at the end of senior year. It's incomplete data because other kids dropped out along the way. So, I can get that for you, but it won't be complete. >> I wasn't asking for specific data. I was just asking for data that would inform if there's some way to inform which of these works without >> Let me think about it. It's just difficult when we don't track a bunch of the kids because they've dropped out of the program. >> Yeah. And I think maybe not for the future. Some of the stuff I think it would be good to start tracking more in

124the future cuz I know there was some issues with getting the stay in the school site, but I think it is a metric to know like how many of our athletes become ineligible because of um academic reasons. I think that'd be something to good to start keeping track of in a more unified form across school sites if it's not being done already. >> I mean, one thing we could do, Rich, is we could ask coaches to go back and look at their rosters from the beginning of the year or the beginning of their program. Some of them might have them, some of them won't. Then we have to go in and we have to mark every kid who at one point was an athlete. And we know that not all the coaches will have that.

125So, we'll get it from some and we won't get it from others. It will be a lot of work and it will still not give you the full picture. But I can give you the best that we can. Ideally, we'd make a data-informed decision. There seems to be two schools of thought within our district about what's best. Maybe each site is right about what's best for their students and they're different from each other. Um, and ideally we'd make a decision based on some sort of data that informs which of these two ways we go because otherwise it's just people's opinion or it's just a vote. And we have one school and community saying that what they think they're doing is right for theirs and the other three saying what they think they're doing is right

126for theirs and they're doing different things. And so like we're supposed to just say one of you doesn't get to do what you think is best for your students, which is a tricky spot. >> Yeah. Just to add on because we did receive something from the MA athletic director, Sen Kger, that said something along the lines of like 130 students were on academic probation and not one of them dropped below a 2.0 after their academic probation. So >> I will have that data for you. I'm going to get that list and I'll have that data for you by the next meeting of of those kiddos. So my recommendation is that um obviously we've had this discussion at this time. We will not bring this policy back for a second reading. We will I will work

127with staff and we will try to get some data across all school sites. Um, and then we will look we will bring that back potentially for a discussion item attached to this and then we'll continue to move forward again within a first and second reading if there are any changes to this policy. Um, I think it is worth to note that we need to visit the original policy and make sure that all school sites are following the original policy that is currently approved by the board. >> Yes, I would agree with that because I think when there is a decision made whether it's at the board level or a principal council's meeting um you have to follow what the group decides. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, let's Okay. Next is 161, approval of the 2024-25

128Citizen Bond Oversight Committee report. Um, are there any public comments on this agenda item? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. >> See none online. >> So, good evening. Uh, tonight we will review the 2425 Citizens Bond Oversight Committee annual report for Measure W. The bond was approved by voters in November of 2022 to fund our school facilities. Um, an education code requires that a citizen bond oversight committee be established or formed. Um, the members provide oversight on the taxpayers dollars to ensure the um expenditures are aligned with the BA ballot language and they are required to report its findings annually. So, I am pleased to welcome our committee chair, Alan Sarver, who is joining us via Zoom, to present the report and answer any questions the

129board may have. >> Good evening, superintendent, board, staff, and community. Uh, thank you very much for having me here to uh make this report. Um, I want to apologize for being on Zoom and not in person. I was very much looking forward to being there and seeing everybody in person. Uh but uh my uh wife um tested uh positive for COVID last night and although I've tested negative and I am symptom free um I didn't think you needed a potential carrier invading your board meeting. So uh I'm zooming in instead. uh the uh bond oversight committee uh like the school district and the board aligns to the um uh district's fiscal year. Um we operate um from um July 1st through June 30th and uh this is the first annual report we have generated. Um

130uh as always it's challenging to get u a full committee. Um we began operations for most of our first year with five of the recommended seven members. We are up to six. We can still use another parent representative. Um and I um do request the uh um the district to continue working strongly to uh recruit more. Um I'm privileged to represent the senior community now. Um so that's my uh slot on the board and the and the committee uh asked me to be the chair initially. Um we spent um the annual report as you have it um is actually three different report formats that were used by the previous uh bond oversight committee uh combined together into one report. Um and the first page of that actually should be the last page. It is um

131uh the acknowledgement that um everything um for the uh 2023 2024 um calendar or fiscal year was correct and kosher. That is kind of the payoff to all of it. Um and as you can see we have made that commitment that everything um for that fiscal year um aligned. Um but let me go um through the other two parts. The uh thing marked annual report. The next couple of pages describes the first fiscal year of operation of the board which was the 2425 school year. And so we are looking backwards um as an oversight committee. Uh we spent the 2425 school year both establishing the committee and looking back on the uh already completed 2324 fiscal year of the bond. Um so we had those listed six uh committee members and uh district representatives working

132together. Um all of them are new to Sequoia Union High School District bond committee work um with uh the measure W committee. So we were really kind of establishing the operation of the committee uh quite extensively during our first year. Um so uh during that time we uh took some site tours. Uh we met uh we got uh financial reports. Um we learned about uh the 23 24 uh school year operations of the bond. Um and uh we did the mechanics of setting up the operation of the committee. Um, we worked on our bylaws. Um, we, um, looked at the California Bond Association of Bond Oversight Committees, which is a rough equivalent of the California School Boards Association in supporting committee members to do their work accurately and efficiently. Um and in preparing um this

133annual report, we looked very heavily at all of the reporting done and the work done of the measure A committee before us um and saw that it had been quite heavily disrupted by the pandemic and was actually fairly sparse on its regular annual reporting. So, we've tried to set up a calendar that will allow us to be hitting our annual reports after um this first year where we're uh a bit later than we would like. Um, our intention going forward is to be looking um in detail at the bond operations of the previous fiscal year throughout that current fiscal year that we are working so that when we get to our December meeting, we feel prepared to designate a subcommittee of the bond committee to prepare the annual report for our March meeting that the

134March meeting we receive the audit for the that previous fiscal year. We will have all the information about bond operations for that previous fiscal year so that the audit report becomes the final icing on our cake to know that everything was completely kosher and we can approve that annual report in that meeting. So going forward we will have our annual report produced during our March meeting for the previous fiscal year. um which aligns with the recommendations of California Association of Bond Oversight Committees um with legal requirements uh as we checked with county council um and it sets it up in a way that it doesn't um abuse staff time in providing us uh financial reports and answering questions and being ready for meetings. Um so with that um we'll turn to that third section which

135uh is the uh fourth and final page of um that combined report. And for uh the 2324 um fiscal year we um we reviewed that during our 2425 operational year. Um uh the bond measure was 591500,000. Um and uh during the 2324 uh there were very limited activities. Basically um the audit reported that u it uh sampled a very high percentage u testing the expenditures that they were valid allowable accurate and uh that in all material uh respects um we matched with the compliance requirements um for a proper Proposition 39 um bond program. Um during that year um bond proceeds of $80 million uh which is less than a seventh of the limit uh came in um and only u about 350,000 of that was actually expended. So the first bonds were issued and the

136very first preliminary spending was made basically in setting up the operations of the bond program and getting ready to start design work. Uh we are seeing that in the 2425 um uh fiscal year much more of the initial design work was done. Um basic schedules were laid out and um steps were taken toward applying for DSA approval on the high priority early projects. Um and preparations were made for launching things like roofing projects over this past summer. Um so we are seeing progress as well as proper um fiscal responsibility with the bonds um through the 23 24 school year. And with that the bond oversight committee has um confirmed their approval for the operation of the district um as fiduciary responsibility um for the bond for the 2324 school year. Are there any questions for

137all of that? >> Uh, any questions from the board? >> Alan, it's Rich. Just want to say, um, thanks for serving in this role. You have a deep knowledge of the district, a long history of serving us. Um, I don't think there's anyone who knows more about this district who could serve in this role. So, really appreciate that you're doing it. I think you said that you're looking for a an additional member parent. Yes. Any school. Do you have a specific school you'd like? Because I'll try to target one and get you one if you need it. >> Well, I believe we have um one of our board members is from um one of the largest schools. I would um either um I'd like to see either um Woodside or Sequoia represented uh in particular

138to make sure that um the large the smaller of the larger schools are included or potentially one of um the actual uh smallest schools um those that are outside just to make sure that we have we have a real balance of um that that focus on ensuring that every student in the district and every site in the district is being well served um and in balance with the bond. >> Thanks for that, Alan. >> Any other questions? Uh if not, I'd like to echo what Trusteekin said and thank um our former school board member Sar Malin Sarver and his role. It's very much appreciated. And so thank you again on behalf of the district. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Oh. Oh. Is there a motion to approve the report? >> Motion to approve. >> Second.

139>> Um roll call or do we No. >> Okay. All in favor? I >> I um >> motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Next is item 16.2 adoption of resolution number 004 authorizing the issuance and sale of general obligation bonds of SUSD election of 2022 series 2025 and authorizing the ex execution of necessary documents and related actions. Um any public comment on this item >> there are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. I see none. >> As I mentioned earlier on the pre agenda item, the district received approval from the voters in November of 2022 to issue $590 million in principal amount of u general obligation bonds in order to finance um the school facilities and property. Following the successful issuance of the series 2024 bonds last April, the

140district is now preparing for its second issuance in a maximum principal amount of 132 million to continue funding the measure W projects. So to provide further u detail on the proposed issuance, we have Makiko Satto from Isim who is our financial advisor um via who will be joining via Zoom to present to you on the proposal issuance. >> All right. Thank you Christine. >> Am I all set to go? >> You are all set to go. Are you able to share your screen? So >> yes, I can definitely do that. >> Thank you. >> All right, great. Uh board members, Superintendent Leech, Sequoia Union High School District staff, students, and community. Thank you very much for your time tonight. Um as Christine mentioned, my name is Miko Sto and I am with Advisors and we

141serve as the district municipal adviser on the bond program. Um starting this presentation, we wanted to provide some bond program background. The Sequoia Union High School District voters have been very supportive of the district's bond program. They have passed six bond authorizations since 1996 listed below. And you can see that the support um over these uh six measures have been fairly consistent with most of the bonds uh garnering um support in the mid60%. Um as Christine mentioned, the district voters most recently approved a bond authorization in November of 2022. uh measure W and the total amount of 591 million. The district has issued 80 million so far and so the there is 511 uh million in authorized but unissued bonds still remaining from measure W. Um in terms of outstanding bonds, so most of these

142are um from prior authorizations but also the first series of bonds from measure W. Um the total amount of outstanding bonds uh that the district has is approximately 398.2 million. We also try to keep our eye on statutory bonding capacity, but given the district's large tax base value, there really isn't a concern. Um the net bonding capacity currently is 1.34 billion. Um, I alluded to the district's large tax base in the um in the prior slide, but wanted to also show what the district's tax base uh growth has been over the last 20 years. Um, as you can see here, um, except for that little blip uh during the last market downturn, assessed valuation growth has been very consistent and strong, particularly over the last 10 or so years with the average over the last

14320 years uh, exceeding over 6% uh, per year. I will note that uh this is the assessed valuation um that we get from the assessor's office and I know that sometimes it doesn't correspond um with the growth in revenue that the district gets for the general fund. We also provided um wanted to provide a history of bond program tax rates. The dark blue bars on this uh graph represent the tax rate associated with the prior bond authorizations. Um and the gray bars represent the bond tax rates over the last 3 years uh with the addition of the 22 uh measure W uh bonds. You can see after the addition of the measure W bonds, the tax rates did go up uh a bit, but we are still uh in terms of tax rates still lower

144um than the levels that we saw in or the district saw in 2015 and 2016 uh after the passage of the 2014 measure a bonds. All right. So, moving on to the current bond issuance. Um, we wanted to share that the series 2025 bonds. As Christine mentioned, um, the bond resolution states a not to exceed par amount of 132 million. Um, that par amount was um decided upon or not to exceed par amount was determined uh based on the cash flow of projects through December of 2027. um less the funds that the district has on fi uh on hand. So that the par amount of 132 million would allow the district to have funds to uh move forward with the project's plan through December of 2027. Uh like the series uh 2024 bonds, the bond

145structure will be traditional current interest bonds. The repayment term will be 25 to 30 years. Um and on the left hand side the bar graph shows the uh expected bond program tax rate projections. You can see that they uh we are leaving plenty of a cap capacity for future uh measure W bonds. question before we go off that page. Is that assuming current assessed values or do you put in an assumption about assessed value increase for that for the >> uh that's a great question and I should have noted that it assumes assessed valuation growth of 3.5% moving forward >> which we believe is conservative given the history of taxbased growth uh for the district. All right. So on the next slide um we wanted to share a history of the uh municipal market data

146rates. Uh we are showing the AAA 10-year rates here. Uh the MMD rates are the benchmark yields that we look at in the municipal industry. Um as you can see here the rates are um significantly higher than they were during the s historical lows that we saw post pandemic uh but still relatively close to historical averages. Um, this shows, you know, a 20 plus year history, but I did want to highlight on the right hand side, um, currently the 10-year MMD rates are 2.92%, which is very close to the lowest level that we've seen all year long. Um and so although this shows a you know a longer historical perspective, I did want to note that we are currently at least year to date in a very low interest um rate environment because of the

147some of the jobs reports that have been reported um at the beginning of September. Um we are at an interesting juncture however with the government shutdown. um some of the data that the um industry relies on in terms of determining interest rates such as a such as the monthly jobs report, CPI, PPI, uh won't be available until uh the shutdown ends. So, it'll be interesting to see what the next few weeks will bring in terms of the market. Um currently I also wanted to note that the market is fully um reflecting or incorporating um the anticipated rate cut by the feds um in December and about 40% um are expecting a rate cut in January. >> So tonight um the quick question before we move. So >> what year what month did or year and

148month was the last issuance? Can you go back one slide? >> Oh, that's a great question. I don't have that in front of me, but >> I'm wondering how our yields that we were able to sell at matched compared to the rates that are on the chart if we if we were right on it or slightly above or slightly below with what we actually were able to issue. >> Yeah, we might be a slightly higher than we were um in the beginning of 2024. >> I'm I'm asking when last time we issued how we did compared Can you go back one slide? >> Oh, I'm sorry. what month did the last issuance go out? >> You know, I don't have exactly the >> the date, but it would be in early 2024. >> So, the

149yields on this chart are somewhere around 28 then maybe. And about how close was that to the average yield that we issued at last time? Do you know? >> Um yeah, it looks like it would be um slightly under 3% there in terms of the 10-year MMD rates. But I can look that up and get back to you. >> Was able to issue at >> um I'll need to look that up. I don't have that in front of me. >> Okay. Yeah. I'm just curious how because it's a very interesting chart. I'm just curious how the actual issuances that we're able to get in the market compared to the the rates that are shown on the chart if we because of the size of issuance or otherwise if we ended up higher or lower or

150right on. >> Yeah. Um, since then, you know, just generally, I I will say that the, you know, rates trended upward, um, and as you can see, it peaked, um, with the tariff announcements in April of this year. Um, and the rates have come down significantly since se September. But I will look up exactly what the, um, the MMD rates were at the time of the district's last issuance. Um, and, uh, send that over to uh, Christine >> and also the rates that that we issued at. Yes. So, in terms of the resolution uh that is in front of the board tonight, uh the resolution will authorize the issuance of the series 2025 bonds uh with a par amount of not to exceed 132 million. Um it also sets a maximum true interest cost of

1516.0%. Uh however, based on current good faith estimates, the estimated true interest cost um will be lower at 4.8%. 8% that does build in some cushion B from current rates. The estimated total financing cost um is 522 um,000. Estimated amount of proceeds would be 131.478 million and the estimated total payment amount would be 268.9 million. Um there are a number of attachments to the resolution that which will be approved in form. uh the bond purchase agreement, that's the agreement between the district and the underwriter at pricing which will lock in the borrowing rates. The preliminary official statement which will serve as the primary disclosure document for investors and the continuing disclosure argument uh which is um a requirement uh to provide investors with updated financial information on an annual basis as well as in the

152um occurrence of a material event. Sorry, can you um >> Sure. Sorry. I >> think you were showing that the tenure is right around 2.99, but you're estimating 4.8 as our true interest cost. Can you talk about why our true interest cost is 1.8% higher than the the 10-year rate? >> Sure. So, the total um life of the district's bonds as we're currently estimating is 20 years. And so with a longer uh repayment term, there is usually a higher borrowing rate. Uh the 10-year um rate is um was meant to show kind of general market trends rather than the actual borrowing rate for all of your bonds. Uh since your bonds will have a maturity ranging from, let me flip the page, from 2027 all the way to 204. And the reason why the bonds

153are structured that way is order to leave capacity for future series of bonds. Uh the district still will have a significant amount of um bonds to issue under measure W. And um the capacity is needed in order to stay within the $14 per $100,000 in assessed value tax rate target that was provided to voters at the time of the election. I think you can continue Miko. >> Okay. Um so sorry about that. Um in terms of the issuance schedule currently um we are scheduled to meet with the rating agency on October 14th um with the expectation that we'll receive the rating uh shortly thereafter. Uh once uh the district receives an updated bond rating um the district can proceed with posting the preliminary official statement with pricing the bonds in late October with closing in

154mid November. And that is the end of the presentation. Any questions from board members? If not, um, could I get a motion to approve the resolution? >> So moved. >> A second. >> Um, roll call. >> Trusty Cruz, >> yes. >> Trusty Thompson, >> yes. >> Trusty Gen, >> yes. >> Vice President Coup, >> yes. >> President Nory, >> yes. >> Motion carried, five to zero. Uh, now we're on 16.3. >> Um, is there any public comment on this item? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. >> See none online. >> Okay. Is there no? Um, is there staff presentation on this? This is the approval of the additional 10% district health contingency. >> Can you introduce him please? >> Nan Nu, the chief facilities officer will be

155presenting on this item. >> Good evening, uh, board of trustees, Super Leech. Uh this this uh issue is related to the 10% increase we require for the public address system which has been installed due to the existing ones being very AIC that was installed during the construction of these buildings which exists now and most of these speakers are very AIC. They are not compatible to the digital system we installed and now and then we have problems and also there are a lot of dead zones which has been identified by the school uh sites administrators which we have to provide speakers on that for the safety and security of the students and to be aware of any announcements which are being made. So we asking for a 10% increase of the base contract so that all

156these unforeseen can be taken care of and we provide a total complete package of PA system to all the sites. >> Any board questions? >> Um if not could I get a motion to approve? Uh, I move that we approve an additional 10% district health contingency for the district-wide public address system upgrade project. >> Seconded. >> Um, roll call. >> Yes. >> Okay. All in favor? I >> motion carries unanimously. Now 16.4 approval of first amendment to the agreement with Kitell CM for additional services for bond program management. Uh is there or any public comment on this item? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. >> I see none online. >> Go ahead. >> Thanks. So Kel has been uh we have been having a contract with Kitchell

157for one year. Initial proposal was for nine years but we went down to one year and then uh with a ability to renew as we as we see the need of that. Currently what we are doing at the moment with uh implementing all these projects we need a support team in the form of a program management team which teacher performs and basically is to do track down budgets expenditures across multiple projects. It's not project management. It's basically program management. And then clear financial reportings, cost overruns, runs and misuse. All these are vetted by Kitchell and also project coordination and delivery delivery efficiency which is important because the way the momentum of execution of projects going on at the district is uh very high and we do need support of a consultant team like Kitcheller to

158be on board to see that all these projects are done to the best uh and for the benefit and for benefit of the users and and the cost we uh we incur. So we don't have enough staff on our team from the district side. They are project managers, they're not program management. Uh they're not program managers. So Kitchel is the one which is uh complementing that program management side and we have project management team in in house. There are two project managers. So that's the reason we I would like to have this extended for 3 years and within 3 years we we are aiming to kick off all the projects hopefully up to 90% of the projects as uh uh stipulated in the master plan and as uh programmed uh in in the within the

159budget of the bond. >> Um any questions? Um, so just just to clarify, this group is helping with the project management. Um, not doing any building, but helping the project management. And it's um $6 million that we're approving tonight. >> It's uh for a period of three years >> for three years. So this is a one of the I don't we're doing the prep for this. So it'll be important to talk about this one just because the the size of the dollars. We'll have a few coming through bond related that are significant in size and we kind of I don't know if it came a firm number of exactly a threshold but when we have significant numbers to make sure that we rather than have them on consent have at least some amount of explanation

160and so this is the project management where the district doesn't have sufficient personnel to to bring on extra people to help with the project management. So, they're already on board, but we're extending by three years. Correct. >> Yes. Just a point of clarification, you approved their original contract amount um in the amount of like 1.7. Um this adds an additional 4.8 to cover the additional years for a total contract amount of 6.5. >> Just want to make sure everyone had a chance to see this and and act on it individually. And I move for approval. Uh any second? >> I second. >> All in favor? >> I Okay, that carries unanimously. And then last one is 16.5 second reading and adoption of revised board policies in AR's student services department. Any public comment on these

161items? >> There are none in person. If there are any online, please raise your hand. >> Can I make one comment? >> Yeah. >> I just wanted to point out that this is not the policy that we brought to you earlier. This has a point to be on on it. >> Okay, that makes sense. >> There are no public comments. >> Okay. Um, can I get a motion to approve unless the board has any more questions on these? >> Move approval. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> the motion carries unanimously. >> Okay, that wraps up the action items. Now we'll move on to item 17, future agenda items. Um, do we have any future agenda items? >> I have just a interested to get perspective. We heard from a number of speakers today

162interested in Mandarin immersion. I've also heard from some of those same people about the students currently in sixth grade who are taking enhanced English and wondering not to be answered necessarily at the moment but I'm interested to know when we have uh like what would be a sufficient amount of demand from a community if they had 90 or 120 or five like at what point of students coming that have demand for a certain program would we entertain creating like in this case it's man immersion but I'm not saying we do or don't like what would be the amount of demand from the community that we would start to consider whether that's something we would do or not. And I'm interested to know at some point like how we would think about when we have groups

163coming asking for various programs. What would be a scale at which it makes sense to consider it? And I don't know if that's necessarily a future agenda item or something that could be shared in some other way. Well, I'd also be curious about this one specifically, like if there's anything we can do regarding Mandarin immersion. I think they were saying at Woodside, but because it does seem like there's a big cohort of students coming up. So, I >> think they said 70, but that was in kindergarten. So, we have a while. So, I'm not sure how many are in. >> Well, I think they're also pointing when I talk to them is there people in middle school right now who they want to >> and I'm wondering what's the like how many is >> I

164think they mentioned there's 25 right in the the eighth grade class or something like that. >> Yeah. So, it's getting bigger, you know, the the younger grades, but then you do get a little bit of attrition along the way, too. So, >> but I wonder if there's any ways to like be more creative here to like help them. I mean there's not offering a class but like some online class or dual enrollment the school can help them you know work in to allow them to continue. >> So so this just a future agenda they're saying I think there's some amount of interest and they're saying >> well I think I guess there's a little difference between in general and maybe this one in specific you know so that's where >> you could say in specific

165like how many students that want to take a man immersion would it take for it to be worth exploring? >> Yeah. Would it be like how or is there some other consideration besides number of people who are interested that would be deciding the deciding factor for the district and whether it would make sense to pursue something like that? >> Does anyone else have interest in this besides SOP? I mean >> we need one more because there's staff work. I mean, it was something I was curious to know because that was one of the constraints was whether or not there's enough demand to sustain a program. >> So, is that a yes or >> Yes. >> Okay. So, that's three. >> So, I think for me the question is like how many people are needed to

166sustain a program not lasting for a whole bunch of work which is like what's a little work but hopefully not a lot of work. end of the day. >> But would that also include like this program in specific because I would be curious about that. Yeah. >> Specific like how many mand take for this to be something that we could support? >> I mean I assume you need some number of full-time teachers that and how many students would that be and how would that work? I don't know. >> Yes. And there's I mean so there's uh so there's the costwise and then there's logistics about recruiting qualified teachers that can be able to teach the content in that area. I actually did write down a couple questions um myself so I I have no problem

167exploring. Um we'll see what we get back as far as data goes. It may not produce like a agenda item. It may be something in a Friday update but we'll need a couple weeks. >> Okay. Okay. Anything else? Oh, no. Okay. If not, um, could I get a motion to adjourn this meeting? >> Motion to adjourn. Seconded. All >> in favor? I. as meetings adjourned at 8:51 p.m.