001Um, first on our agenda is item number two, close session. Is there any public comment on any close session agenda items? >> There are none. >> Okay. The board will recess to close session and return at 6:00. [Music] Good evening and welcome to this September 10th meeting of the governing board of the Sequoia Union High School District. My name is Sik Nori. I'm the president of the board. Um, we'll start with item number one, which is our call to order. Um, next is item number two, which is close session. The board has one item to report out. In close session, the board voted unanimously in favor of suspending employee number 1245 from their employment with the district based on the causes set forth in the statement of charges and notice of recommendation for five workday
002suspension without pay. Um after that we'll move on to item 3.1 which is the public protocol. Members of the public who wish to provide comment during this meeting can use the raise hand feature during their agenda item. Speakers must raise their hand during agenda item 8.1, the public comment portion of the meeting in order to comment on items not included on the approved agenda. to speak about an item on the agenda in person, please fill out a speaker card and indicate the agenda item and hand the card to Laura at the dis. Um, now next is item number four, which is a roll call. >> Trusty Cruz is absent. Trusty Thompson >> here. >> Trusty Gen >> here. >> Vice President Coup >> here. >> President Nory >> here. >> McQuir is present. >> Okay.
003Um, next is item number five, which is the approval of agenda. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I Okay. Um, I think I went out of order and I skipped item six, which is report out of close session. Um, >> oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah. Sorry, I did it already. Um, before we start item number seven, um, I have a brief pause. So before we start the main part of our agenda, I want to start with a moment of silence to acknowledge the terrible act of political violence that happened today at a college in Utah. Political violence of any kind, especially one that occurs at places of learnings like schools, colleges, or universities, is one of the most lowest forms of cowardice and has no place in our country of ours.
004We offer our deepest condolences to Mr. Charlie Kirk's wife and children and everyone affected by the senseless violence. Our disagreements should never be settled by violence, but with words and respectful dialogue. So, I hope everyone will join me in a moment of silence. >> Thank you. And once again, we extend our deepest sympathies to all of those affected. Um, next we'll move on to item number seven, which is special recognitions. And I'll turn it over to Superintendent Leech. Yes. Good evening. Tonight we recognize Memo Athetherton's journalism program for the outstanding opportun opportunities it provides students. The program welcomes all grade levels and skill levels. They are often here. They have I'm going to add lib just a little bit because let me tell you I have something to say about you guys. So, in case
005you don't know, we get it's daily from California School Boards Association, which is a statewide where, you know, all of the trustees on all the districts belong and the superintendents go and we go to this big conference and they always tell us about these school laws and policies and they're just like our the school board's go-to people. So they once a day release news stories throughout California. There has been at least two times that they have posted a link to an MA Chronicle article. I don't think that they understand that it's a student journalism paper. Um so that's pretty special and to all my friends but okay. So, skill levels, helping students grow from beginning journalists into chief editors who lead the school's online newspaper and frankly drive um local media around us. Last year,
006journalism program earned national recognition when the MA Chronicle received the prestigious National Scholistic Press Association. Is it pacemaker? Pacemaker Award. At this at this time, I would like to welcome Principal Carl Luscoot to the podium to share more about this remarkable program. >> Good evening everybody. While I'm up here, um, since we can't give swag during our school report, >> I'm gonna present you >> present you a a copy of the mark. This was one particular edition, their Vogue edition back there at a key roll in in which they highlighted a different MA student on the cover in a Vogue style, but it was the same addition. Just really fun. You can see both Um and quality of [Music] >> Um but it's but you I mean am I right? It's beautiful. >> Yeah, it's
007beautiful. You get >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh so good evening um trustee superintendent. Thank you for creating, again, I love this space because thank you for creating this space for us to recognize important parts of our school. Um, today I'm excited to recognize our thriving journalism program led by our incredible staff sponsor, John Mclair, who's sitting there in the back. Um, and I I say thriving because it was not too long ago. I don't know, it might have been the programs fluctuated, but I think maybe four or five years ago, there was one section of journalism and then we opened it up to two sections and then last year we were a we were able to add three sections and we continued that this year and just expanding the amount of opportunity that we um are
008able to make available to students. Um, Mr. Mr. McLair has created a space where beginning journalists can work alongside staff editors where students can say, "I want to work on stories having to do with sports. They could do profile pieces. They might want to be a photographer. They might want to do investigative journalism." It is really a space where students get to explore what it is they are interested in and then develop the skills necessary to get good at that. Um, in this program, students also become incredibly civic-minded as they get to engage in politics, cultural criticism, investigative journalism. Uh, Mr. Wlair also facilitates the ability of students to take on leadership roles, growing students ability to run a professional newsroom where students make decisions about what stories are explored and run, what direction to
009take a story, and how a story should be displayed. My favorite story is when I see students who have been in part of the journalism program for over three years and now it's possible to be a part of the journalism program for four years and students leave MA to become journalists in college or life. I know there's many of them because they keep reaching out to me asking me for quote quotes or story leads from a variety of national magazines which is really impressive. Uh the students in fact are the most incredible part of the story. In fact, the program deserves an award for the simple fact that the MA Chronicle sends two students to every board meeting. That's an award in itself. So, congratulations. Um, and students come up with their own projects like
010shadowing students at Sonteo High for two days in order to experience the life of the Yonder Pouch. They did that last year, my understanding. Um, several years ago, MA journalist did a story on bathrooms at MA and how often they were open or locked. I didn't love that story, but I did appreciate the diligent effort that was taken into counting the number of times someone visited a restroom and whether it was open or locked. Um, and their passion to try to address something that was really important to the student community. And I think changes were made and that's really the impact of of what you can do. So, while I may not love every story or every angle, that's true. I've come to appreciate that students are learning what students are learning and producing in
011this program. They work incredibly hard, take great ownership and pride in their work, ask fantastic questions, learn to be persistent. They learn that you can't always make everyone happy, and they learn about the impact of meaningful journalism. Lastly, I want to acknowledge that the journalism program won the prestigious National Pacemaker Award. Thank you. Uh for its online content in MA Chronicle. Um they were finalists the year before and lost out to Carl. Um, but they learned that they had to improve the quality of their layouts and photographs, something they worked on my from my understanding all of last year as evidenced by the magazine in front of you. Um, where they featured several MA different MA students in the front cover of the Mark edition. Um, and I can't stop without pointing out that yesterday
012they reached a new milestone where they had one story reach 50,000 views in one day. That's impressive. talk about it's not just the MA Chronicle, right? It goes way beyond MA. Um, so please join me in congratulating the following students from the MA's Chronicle editorial board. Um, Rose Chain, would you come on up? And if you guys come on up, then we'll take a little photo. We'll give you a certificate. Jenna Lee, Becca Koig, Gabby Foster, Leah, Leah Collins, Alisandra Hartwig, Ben Warner, Caitlyn Smith, Isabelle Habibi and of course John Mclair. [Applause] >> Then we're all going to stand around in a circle and take a picture. >> Oh, a line. Sorry. A line. Yeah. Yeah. A horseshoe. right now. [Music] Let me just come in the front. Got it. Congratulations. >> Which article? >>
013What was the Um, which color are different subjects? So, uh, we got linked to >> Nice. >> That's pretty impressive. Thank you. Thank you to the Chronicle. We will um uh continue to enjoy your presence every meeting. Uh just for for people who know as the principles will be presenting the opening um of the school, we have some unspoken rules. Um and so there seems to be I also noticed that uh principal luscoot has found a way around that. Um and potentially it appears that potentially another principal has also found a way around that. So we are in um we are it's penalty penalty. Yeah. >> Okay. Um moving on in the agenda. Item number eight is public comment. The board does not act upon any matter that's not been agendaized except under limited circumstances
014as pro permitted by law. It's a policy of the board to refer matters raised in this forum of staff for investigation or action when appropriate. Board policy ordinarily limits the time to be devoted to any single agenda item to 10 minutes and ordinary speakers are limited to three minutes. The board may expand this at their discretion. Um, but we ask that all speakers keep within their time limits. Are there any public comments? >> I do have one in person. Are there any public comments online? Please raise your hand now. Okay, seeing none, we can start with the one in person >> at three minutes just to confirm. Okay, >> all right, our public speaker is um I'd like to call up Marilyn Travis. Good evening, superintendent and trustees. Um, I want to talk about an
015issue that has gone overlooked for a very, very long time, over 10 years, and that is the fact that EPA certificated staff are forced to work um, an hour longer than the rest of our colleagues. Um, since joining the district in 2014, our weekly staff meetings have run until 4:35, even though our workday should end at 3:40. We are required to work an extra hour each week with no additional pay, essentially forcing us to volunteer at our place of employment. Over the course of the year, this means each staff member works 35 additional and unpaid hours, roughly equating to an entire week of full-time work, simply because we choose to serve the students and families of East Paloto. If we do the math, that adds up to a lot. 25 staff times one week of
016unpaid work for every year each staff member has worked at EPA since 2014 easily adds up to years that this district or students families have benefited from our unpaid labor. This matters a lot for a lot of reasons that I don't have time to go into today, but I think any reasonable person can clearly see the inequity in this arrangement. Fortunately, we have an opportunity to change this as our union and district management bargain a new contract. Um, I hope that everyone on the district bargaining team will vote to eliminate language that allows admin to extend EPA's workday. We are committed to working with our new admin this year to design PD that is efficient, allows us to continue supporting student success, and respects our 7.5 hour workday. Thank you so much for your time.
017>> Thank you. That concludes public comment. >> Thank you. Um, next we'll move on to item number nine, which is board of trustees correspondence. There is no board of trustees correspondence. So, we'll move on to item number 10, which is board of trustees superintendent comments and committee reports. Um, is there anything from my fellow board members? Yeah, I just want to um share my gratitude for um a good back to school night. Uh it came and went so fast and this is the last for my high school seniors and it was kind of like u but it is definitely a very stressful time for the seniors right now. Uh having won myself, it's like the work came fast and furious in his classes and even some summer work and then all the college application stuff.
018Um, so it is a a very stressful time for the seniors and I appreciate all the support the school community is providing to our seniors. So anyone else have anything to share? If not, um, let's move on to item number 11, which is comments from SDTA and ASME. Good evening. Um, I want to start off my comments by um sharing that it has now been 401 days since our member was notified that he would be placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation that has yet to bear any fruit. as far as we know, has yet to investigate the vast majority of the witnesses that he has provided and that we have not gotten an update on in a number of weeks. He is still sitting at home, still in limbo, and our students are
019still without his services. You're going to hear later on in this meeting about exciting and hopefully smooth openings at our schools, but we're now in week five and the honeymoon period is coming to an end as our first progress report period is at the end of this week. I'm not exaggerating when I say I am already physically and mentally exhausted standing in front of you today. I almost cried walking into the building at 5:45 today. Um, I'm being kept busy this year and not just by Bonnie calling and emailing me with questions all the time. I've had five meetings so far this week. I have five more tomorrow. Not to mention the phone calls, the emails. And while I really appreciate the open communication, there is a part of me that wishes we didn't have
020so much to talk about regularly. And I think if we firmed up our policies and procedures and trained our administrators a little better in what those policies and procedures were, I would not have to have as many conversations as I have had. So, I'm hoping that will be the one of the tasks we tackle together as a district this year. On a much more exciting note, I want to congratulate the three dozen certificated employees who are about to become permanent members of the Sequoia Dist High School District community when you approve the consent agenda in a moment. It's a very exciting moment for them and we are very excited to welcome them permanently into the district. Thank you. >> Um is there anyone from ask me? Okay, seeing none, let's move on to item number
02112, which is approval of the kitet 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 item is deemed to have been considered in full and action taken is worded therein. Only members of the board and superintendent may remove items from the consent agenda. Members of the public may provide comment at the start of the consent agenda item which may convince a board member or the superintendent to remove an item for further discussion. You have any items? >> Okay. If not, the motion is to wave the reading of the consent agenda, accept the reports, adopt the resolutions, and approve other items. So, is there any public comment on the consent agenda? >> I
022have none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. >> There are none online. >> Okay. Um, with that, can I get a motion? >> Motion to approve consent agenda. >> Second. >> Um, roll call. >> Trustee Thompson, >> yes. >> Trusty Gin, >> yes. >> Vice President Coup, >> yes. >> President Nory, >> yes. >> Motion carries. 401 absent. >> Thank you. Um, next is information items. We'll start with 13.1 report on the opening of the school 2025-26 school year. >> Hello. You've already heard a lot about this. We are going to invite each of our principles up in alphabetical order to share their opening this school year. The only principal not here this evening will be presenting to us at the next board meeting is Simone Kennel from Tide because she
023is presenting this week at a dual enrollment conference. So we're excited she's out sharing good information about that. But we're going to start with adult school, then Carlmont, then East Palo Alto, then Menlotheertton, after that Redwood, Sequoia, and finally Woodside. Good evening, board of trustees. District cabinet members and members of the public, I'm Tatiana Roganova, director of an adult school. Seuia adult school students have once again demonstrated their courage, resilience, and sheer determination. They are practically ice proof. After a brief dig in attendance, deep in attendance last semester, applications for our ESL program surged so strongly that we had to run a lottery simply to keep registration from turning into a multi-our wait in line. Each ESL class now is capped at 50 students. And even so, our weight list ballooned to 135 hopeful learners
024before we had to close it. Today, our classrooms are filled with energy, resolve, and plenty of smiles as students settle into the warm and welcoming atmosphere of Sequoia Adult School. This year is shaping up to be both exciting and eventful. Our e-commerce class received a prominent award for promising best practices. In this course, students learned how to sell products online and master marketing marketing strategies. The class also included a hands-on trip to Goodwill Warehouse in South San Francisco where students were trained in packaging and shipping. We are honored to pres to be presenting this promising practice at California State WEOA networking meeting later this month. Midcycle WASK review is scheduled in October. Fortunately, we have Amy Coup with us. She has an extraordinary ability to read reports with the precision of a detective. and generosity
025of a teacher providing feedback that is actually helpful. Federal program monitoring review is coming in February. an unexpected gift, reminding us to stay uh nimble and cautiously optimistic about whether uh whatever twists federal funding might throw our way. A possible move into a new beautiful building might happen this school year. This would allow us to leave behind our current bank setting and its basement ghosts who frankly have overstayed their welcome. A ribbon cutting ceremony will follow once we move once the move is complete. Come for the celebration. Stay for the ghostfree environment. Thank you. Uh, good evening. My name is Gay Buckland Murray. I'm the very proud principal of Carmont High School and it is great to be here tonight to talk about the school year start at Carlmont. Um, I want to clarify that
026the 2526 school year really starts back in July. Uh, in July, our admin team is on site planning. Uh the only other people with us are our custodians and our tech team. And then we're joined in early August by our admin support staff, then our counselors, then our new teachers and staff, and then on August 11th, our teachers and full staff join us. Finally, on August 13th, the stars of the show step up on the stage, and that's our students. All that summer work and early August work comes into play. It was a great start at Carlmont. The energy was up and the year kicked off and today was actually day 20 with our 2,394 students. It was an eventful day as some of you may have heard. Uh Carlmont practices safety drills early in
027the year and I'm grateful we had our staff practice emergency procedures and preparedness in early August. It helps our ability to respond effectively. But I want to recognize some other things of note that have happened this year. Uh we have been working with the deliberative democracy lab at Stanford on engaging in dialogue with students. They did an activity with our ninth graders at 9th grade orientation to start the school year. Uh we started the school year off with discussion and we're looking forward to continuing our work with DDL throughout the year. Today I want to celebrate the 21 national merit semi-finalist finalist scholars that I met with today during flex. Congratulations to them on their recognition and good luck at the scholarship process continues. I also want to shout out the 165 student clubs that
028have been started on campus. I am always so impressed by and proud of the tremendous range of interests and initiatives of our students. Carlmont is hosting our clubs fair on September 25th to showcase these clubs. Few other things to showcase about on the start of the year. Sports season is underway. Tennis, golf, water polo, girls flag football we're playing tonight. Volleyball, dance, cheer, and football are all happening. We have a Saturday night game this week. It's a great opportunity to come see the Carlmont community in action. Another showcase of talent and community will be on Friday, October 3rd in our performing arts center. Drama, choir, dance, and instrumental music will be sharing the stage for our performing arts gala. Again, a great opportunity to come see what Carlmont is all about. Whether it is our
029academics or athletics or activities, I'm looking forward to Carlmont's 2526 school year. Thank you. >> Good evening, Superintendent Leech and board members. My name is Dr. Dr. Sabrina Silverman Fernandez and I am the proud principal of EPAA. I'm excited to join SUHSD as a staff member after graduating from Carmmont as a student. This year EPA has continued to focus on supporting students, staff, and the community to embrace the bulldog way. This has included spirit week, which ended in our first rally of the school year. Everyone had a lot of fun. staff and students had days where we uh were in different spirit outfits and we all feel like we're moving forward in a very positive direction with a great school culture. Uh we also had grade level town halls to remind students of expectations and
030hear directly from them about the things that they are enjoying at EPA as well as the things that they would like to see improve. We are also planning for road to legendary which are events that we hold throughout the year for our students to join in the community and go out to the community and experience our local resources. We also have excellent teaching with high standards to ensure that students are engaged in their classes. Students are working on collaboration and continuing to learn new skills with a focus on literacy for this school year. Every student has access to one-on-one computers and continuing to engage in technology to better their 21st century skills. And our collaboration with the foundation to ensure all of our students are aware of the 10-year promise to support students in high
031school and beyond has also been a great passage to our community. I would also like to thank the EPA staff for the dedication to students in the community as well as two staff members who are here tonight. Um, and with the support of the board and superintendent leech and cabinet, I look forward to a great school year. Thank you. >> Okay. Thanks for for having us again, having me again. Um, the start of the school is going very well. Um, I love our students just as a whole. I love our community. Um, everybody, nothing like today describe proves this to me, but everybody does a great job of caring for each other and just want to acknowledge that first. Um, I took a slightly different approach uh this year and I just wanted to focus
032on our freshmen and give you an update on how our freshmen are doing. I feel like we're often concerned about um what how much they're getting, how little they're getting, how much opportunity activity. And we've spent several years trying to kind of um add to the opportunity that they have. And so I want to describe that a little bit right now. Um, so right now, uh, I'm going to give you some numbers. We have 36 freshmen enrolled in a new speech and debate class that they take as a seventh class. 16 freshmen enrolled in a journalism program that they take as a seventh grade class. 10 freshmen enrolled in our leadership program. 24 freshmen taking a freshman only digital photo class. 22 students taking either digital animation or digital film making as a seventh class.
03332 freshmen taking jazz band or orchestra. 12 fresh freshmen enrolled in drama. and 58 freshmen enrolled in AVID as a seventh period. That totals to be about 210 kids t taking an extra class in order to pursue some interest, passion or grow some leadership, which is pretty impressive. Um, additionally, however, we have another 45 and there might be some overlap, but another 45 freshmen participating in football right now. 15 women participating in flag 15 freshman young women participating in flag football. 30 freshman participating in cross country, 18 freshmen participating in volleyball, and 22 freshmen on our water water polo team. That's another 130 freshmen participating in sports. So again, there might be some overlap, but that's roughly 340 students out of our freshman class already connected to some activity. Um, still today before our secure
034campus alert, uh, we were having club rush. So, we don't yet know the numbers of our freshmen who will engage in cultural clubs like LUMA, our Jewish student union, our Black Student Union, the Mandarin Club, the Poly Club, or take on leadership roles in gender and sexuality club, or any or one of our many service learning clubs, or in robotics. Um, nor does it account for the number of freshmen we will connect with our community-based organizations, Livein Peace, Fresh Lifelines for Youth, One East, Palo Alto, Foundations for a College Education, Future Grads, or the Boys and Girls Club. Last year in the spring, we had roughly 150 kids total in those programs, many of which were freshmen. So, I look I look forward to adding to the 340 we already have connected, and our goal
035is to connect every student to something where they can develop an interest, grow a passion, and become a leader. I think we're well on our way. So, I'm really proud of that. Um, our start of the school is going great. We're excited for the opportunities, and we're able to that we're able to provide not just for our freshmen, but for all of our students over the course of four years. Thank you. Just one quick question. How many freshmen are there? Because you gave how many are involved in stuff. How many freshmen are? >> You know, it takes a long time for that superintendent port report to to load up. Um, and I had to get here on time. Uh, I'm going to say >> 520. >> 550. Wow. 550 thriving freshmen. They're doing a great
036job. >> Good evening, Board of Trustees, Superintendent Leech Cabinet, and the Sequoia Union High School District community. My name is Steven Redmond, and I'm the proud new principal of Redwood High School. As we begin the 2025 2026 school year, Redwood High is proud to welcome 156 students. We just passed the halfway point of our first grading period. We're also excited to announce the addition of two veteran teachers um from Sequoia Union High School District, Taja Henderson and Greg Stein. Their experience, dedication, and passion have been perfect fit for our already all-star staff. This year we are f focusing on four key areas. college and career readiness, liter literacy across all subjects, coordination of services and attendance. Our overarching goal remains clear to support every student on their path to graduation and beyond. We are committed
037to helping students explore and pursue career paths that lead to meaningful and livable wage employment, not just temporary jobs. To further this mission, we've launched a higher ready program. During orientation, it became clear that many students were struggling to find employment. In response, our college and career team is working hard to ensure students are more marketable, confident, and ready to be hired. They created a program that will focus on soft skills, resume building, and mock interviews to help students fine-tune their attributes. If you know any businesses that are currently hiring and would like to partner with us to support our students employment opportunities, please let us know. Together at Redwood, we can help prepare our students for a brighter future. Good evening. Uh my name is Sean Priest. I'm the principal at Sequoia High School.
038Um I really struggled with this prompt um and the time limit um because I was focused on gratitude. Opening a school is a community effort and I felt like my um job here was to try and demonstrate as much gratitude as I could and appreciation for the people who made it happen. Unfortunately, when I made a list, it it was um really long. There was 36 um pieces of gratitude that I wanted to express and I tried really hard to get it under three minutes. I mean, I was like fast, fast, fast, fast talking and I just couldn't do it. So, I sat there with my head in my hands in a classroom and I looked up and I saw one of these phone >> nice >> and it's got 36. So, I thought we
039could play a little game together tonight. I'm going to give us three minutes and I'm going to ask for your engagement and you get to choose uh numbers until we run out of time and I will share all the the things that I can in in terms of the the things I'm grateful for. There's a lot more than we'll get to, but Okay. So, I'm going to start with you, uh, Superintendent Leech. You get to pick a number. And when you pick a number, 14. Okay. 14. Uh, I'm grateful for Brenda Sodto, our, uh, special department chair. She ran a stellar summer school program. She directly facilitated the successful transition of our ninth graders with individualized education plans into their first year at Sequoia. Trusty Nory 23. Cecilia Cornelio who runs our homework center after
040school. She's already drawing between 30 and 50 students daily for academic support. Very grateful for her work and dedication. Trusty Coup 27. Jonathan Hoffman and Alisa Tlesnik who for the second year are working together with Sequoa's intervention and intensive English classes to build literacy schools for the 40 literacy skills for the 47 students currently reading between the second and fifth grade level. Their innovative approaches and asset orientation has been transformative for the students in the class. Thank you trustee again. Number one, do you ever wonder why Sequoia's grounds are so stunning? It's because of Matt Davidson. Sequoa has in Matt an extraordinary knowledge of horiculture and our unique terrain. He also has a tremendous pride in our campus looking its best not only on opening day but every day after. We're very lucky to have
041Matt on our team. Trusty Thompson. >> Thanks. >> Three Sequoia's PTSA hosted our August welcome back lunchon for staff, a Sequoia 101 welcome event for incoming parents and the principal's formal formal welcome last week. They're already very busy and I'm grateful for them. Five. Sequoa's wellness coordinator, Judy Romero, was here all summer in the teen resource center providing support for students and getting to know our compass program 9th graders. Trusty Nory >> 33. The dedication, leadership of our incredible community partners who provide direct mentorship for over 275 SEO students through our Americanore Academy mentor programs and our Boys and Girls Club High School Success Advisory Program. Very grateful for our community mentors. Just coup 11. Matt Kelly and Mary Gil, who after a full day of monitoring our campus and their roles as campus aids
042are coaching our newest and fastest growing support sport at Sequoia, you guessed it, flag football. >> Trusty again. >> 36. Melissa Diaz, who founded Sequoa's Mexican folk dance program last year, already has a record turnout this year. I'm grateful for her dedication. Trusty Thompson 17. Josh Yazerki and Suba Ramanathan who had Sequoa's afterchool math tutorial program up and running within the first two weeks of school full house three days a week after school math support for students. Grateful for them. 19 Booster President Alex Shernig whose organization set fundraising records last year and will kick off the home football calendar with food trucks and a community event this Friday at Tiramir Field. I'm grateful for his leadership. 13. Michael Jones and the team at the Boys and Girls Club in Redwood City served 40 to 50
043square students daily with academic support already this year. Rich enrichment and of course a hot delicious dinner. Trusty Coup four secondyear football coach Frank Wells beat Cappuccino on the road in a last second field goal in the opening game. Then it took his team next week to Nevada. The trip included a practice at the University of Nevada Stadium, a college tour, a game at Reno High School, and a University of Nevada Reno Wolfpack game on Saturday afternoon. And I am out of time. Thank you for your participation. There's a lot more in here. I'll leave a copy with Laura. Thank you. Technical >> props, not swag. >> Good evening, board of trustees, superintendent Leech. I'm Karen Van Putton, proud principal of Woodside High School. Go Wildcats. Ben Franklin wrote, "Tell me and I forget. Teach
044me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn." The 2025 20226 school year at Woodside High School has embraced the student leadership word of the year involve. With two new members of the admin team, the transition could not have been smoother. With Amy Hansen returning and Adrienne Phipe joining us from Lrada, we added four new fun teachers, Miss Lee, Mr. Salazar, a lovely fellow named Mr. love and a Wildcat alum, Sam Borthwick, who is returning to take on the drama department with amazing energy. We kicked it off with a record number of seniors who showed up and woke up early for senior sunrise. 250 seniors um and that is more than half of our seniors rose early and they kind of set the tone for the school year. It's really been a joyful, creative,
045and a fun energy all across campus. Um, even though it's been 20 days, we're actually in week five, and the first progress report is ending this week. We've already kicked off the back to school night with our parents. We've had our back to school rally. We've had a friendly world rock paper scissor competition. And we have all of our Woodside TV live broadcasts. the only school in the district that has the live broadcasts every day. We've had our freshman transition orientations. We've had free SAT test preps after school and on the weekends. And we even had a ramen popup day um thanks to Sandra from our cafeteria, which was quite popular. Um not only that, on day two, we had a fire drill and an evacuation. And like clockwork, everyone did what they were supposed
046to do. I even got to go kayaking on Friday with our Green Academy students in Moss Landing. So, we really believe in our classroom and our learning to be all around and different classroom settings. Our Wildcat football team is 2 and 0 with uh not allowing a single point in the last two Friday night showings. Tomorrow is our first home game. Um but it's not just about football. a Friday night, but in this case a Thursday night football game for Woodside is the marching band, the cheer and dance performances. It's the five pound cheeseburger. It's a community event. Um and we hope that some of you will stop by along the way. Uh this is truly the most diverse event. Um these games bring kids from all across Redwood City, Portolo Valley, Cto Madera, um
047Woodside, and beyond. Our fall sports teams have been busy scrimmaging and now we are completely and fully in swing, full swing. Our our girls in the flag football team were defeated the other day, but they had a huge comeback today against Affin Bay, blanking them 300. Tomorrow we too will be hosting club rush and um hosting dozens of new and returning clubs. And again, we will be emphasizing the theme get involved. And finally, our drama department is kicking off um the fall production with auditions with Georgia Kaufman's You Can't Take It With You. And with that, the four years of high school go pretty fast. I warn our freshman parents. It's crazy. It's anxietyridden. It's challenging. Sometimes it is dull. But after we graduate, you can't take it with you. So, you may as well
048enjoy it while you're here. Thank you. >> Any board members have? If not, um on behalf of the board, we'd like to thank all the principles for all their hard work every single um school year, especially in the beginning, and we look forward to hear more from you as this school year progresses. So, thank you once again for taking the time to present to us. Okay. >> And also creativity. >> Moving on. Item 13.2 presentation of the Sequoia Union High School District initial sunshine proposal for the 2025-26 negotiations with American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 829 Supervisors Bargaining Unit. Good evening, Superintendent Leachch, board of school district, audience, co-workers. I am here this evening to sunshine two proposals. I love the term sunshine. It means we are getting ready to go. Let's
049start this. It's the same language that I'd like to read for both of the sunshines today. And what I want to read to you is just one paragraph. This initial proposal is based upon maximizing the achievement of all students by providing a quality education so that all students are engaged and prepared to excel in a global society, compliance with legal mandates, maintaining a fiscally responsible multi-year budget, the continued retention and recruitment of quality staff, and offering comparable total compensation. So, those sound like really good causes to me. Let's do this. Chris Sha Poister uh asked me president asked if I wanted him to be present this evening which I thought was very very kind of him but I told him that I would give him a full debrief. The first sunshine that I am bringing
050before you is for our ASME supervisors and if you wonder who they are they are warehouse transportation accounting and food services supervisors as well as our plant managers. And the second group well I guess I'll do it one at a time. So, I bring that before you for your consideration of our sunshine proposal this evening. >> Thank you. Um, before we get to that, I think I might have skipped public comment on the last agenda item. So, can we see if there are any for that? >> Um, there are none in person. Were there is there public comment for item 13.1 online? Okay, seeing none, um, we can go back to item 13.2. Is there any public comment on that item? >> There are there are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise
051your hand now. >> There are none online. >> Okay. And then let's do I am public comment on 13.3. >> I have none in person. Are there any comments online for 13.3? Please raise your hand. >> There are none online. Turn it back over to assistant superintendent Hansen. >> You need to approve the last item. Okay. Thank you. Um the second one is the sunshine proposal for ASME OTP and M. OTP stands for operations technical and professional. M stands for maintenance and operations. So I am bringing that before you this evening to sunshine as well. >> Any questions from board members for any of the proposals? >> Okay. Um seeing none I think yeah we can move on to for item number 14 which is discussion items. Um 14.1 is first reading a revised board
052policies administrative regulations student services department. >> Good evening. It's been too long. It's my slideshow at the bottom here. There it is. Thank you so much. All right. Without further ado, first I want to say that we pulled the BP ARN attachment for board policy 5125.1. We will not be presenting those to you this evening. Stay tuned. It will give you something to look forward to at a future date. Moving right along, the next policy in our queue for this evening is administrative regulation 5131.41. Like all of the other policies and ARs and um exhibits that I will show you this evening, this is all recommended slashmandated language coming before you from CSBA updates based on EDC code updates. So all of these are uh cleanup to keep us compliant. None of them are um
053outside of the scope of those organizations. They're not coming from within, although we certainly want to be legal. So the first one that I am bringing to you is about use of seclusion and restraint. It's a new law prohibiting the use of uh prone restraint and prone containment and adds requirements that the district report um when it happens and I'm really happy to say that we are adopting this but it does not apply to our district. So there is a section in this regulation that is not new and that section says physical restraint does not include a physical escort in which a staff member temporarily touches or holds a student's hand, wrist, arm, shoulder, or back for the purpose of inducing a student who is acting out to walk to a safe location. Physical restraint
054also does not include the use of force by peace officers or security personnel for detention or for public safety purposes. Those are the only two times in our district when um that sort of action is condoned. Ilia wanted me to be very clear because a lot of this language is about practices in some special ed departments in other districts. We neither train on the practices of prone restraint and containment nor do we practice them. Do you want me to just go through all of them? The next one is the latest update in parent notifications. So we provide these notifications when students enroll in our district and then annually thereafter during online information updates. And the new uh notifications are about pre and apprenticeship programs available in a district, a district's dual enrollment and IB offerings,
055social media warnings about marketing and selling to students of synthetic drugs, coursework transfer requirements for newcomer students. This one doesn't really apply to us, but here's to kindergarten oral health assessment. California college platform sharing information with the California College Guidance Initiative, CCGI. They're working very closely together. Revisal and additional truency notifications. All that that is talking about and I think it's great is the language is moving to supportive rather than um punitive in the language and the letters that we send to students who are um truent. uh the locations of EDFs or automated external defibrillators on campuses and then sexual harassment posters about some policies therein as well as notices that there's a bathroom open to all genders during school activities and functions. Questions about those new parent notifications? If you wonder, they keep adding
056them on. They hardly ever take one off. All right. And then I want to give a big big old shout out to Dr. Shicone for this one because this is language that she already did most of the work on when she came before you last spring. It says 2024, April of 2024. It was actually April of 2025 in the notes to walk you through all of the changes that had happened effective August 1st, 2024 and then got rolled back for office of civil rights work. Uh Dr. Shone because she's an overachiever who's already finished all of her mandated trainings and has the certificates to show it took took it upon herself to work with legal so that we updated all of these documents prior. So the changes that you see here are just the changes
057in language from the state. You've already approved the letter of the changes or the law of the changes. These are the letter of the changes. Any questions about this one? The next one um is one that uh is is historic in my mind. It's it's it's a really interesting example to me on history. Um this one is about uh the prohibition of the use of derogatory negative American terms. And of course I remember 28 years ago being a young teacher actually no it was it was more recent than that but not by much. I remember 22 years ago sitting in a board meeting when I was a teacher on special assignment who had to be there that evening and the boardroom, the old boardroom in the old building was full of people who were upset
058about the mascot argument at Sequoia High School. And I just I just think history is interesting because now here we are this evening in a relatively empty boardroom. So it's about new language around that. Um I would call it the if you ski the palisades legislation. And then it is about us having a standardized form for reporting discrimination, harassment or hazing at sporting events. And finally about making sure that our medical emergency training for coaches includes information about our external defibrillators, cardiac arrest. Any questions for me about that? All righty. And then the last one, the AR is very very basic um letter changes, not law changes to support what has happened with the board policy. That's all of them. Okay. Any questions from if not we can bring it back on consent. Um next
059item is public hearings. Um item 15.1. Um I'll call this public hearing to order at 60 or 70:05 p.m. Um any public comment on this agenda item? I see one online. >> I have none in person. Please raise your hand online if you have a comment. Only the one. Okay. >> Three minutes. >> All right. You have three minutes. And our first speaker or our speaker is Linda McGiver. Hi, good evening. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Go ahead. >> Great. Um, by October 7th, this board must certify sufficiency of instructional materials for the entire year. At present, ethnic studies is neither fully developed nor formally adopted by this board. That gap needs to be resolved before any sufficiency certification can be made in good faith. Ed code 60119 quoted in tonight's agenda
060item detail is clear. Quote, "To be sufficient, each pupil must have textbooks or instructional materials consistent with the content and cycles of the curriculum framework adopted by the state board of ed." End quote. Yet, your own website shows the ethnic studies course does not meet this standard. Unit one has been reviewed but has not yet been formally adopted by this board which is the point at which alignment to st state standards is determined. The other three units of the curriculum are still in development and do not yet exist. And because instructional materials extend beyond textbooks, ethnic studies is clearly in scope. Drafts and reviews are not adopted instructional materials and therefore cannot be certified to be sufficient. I understand that staff and by extension this board believe protocol is being followed, but certification without full
061adoption and complete materials does not align with the Williams Act and risks unintentionally misrepresenting compliance. I should also note that board adoption itself requires compliance with ED code provisions for public involvement, including meaningful public review, typically a 30-day period, something this community is eagerly awaiting. That timeline alone makes it impossible to certify sufficiency by October 7th, even if the curriculum were complete, which it is not. Given these constraints, I respectfully urge you to consult legal counsel before certifying sufficiency for the year, because certifying sufficiency under these circumstances would not withstand legal or public scrutiny. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other public comment there? Um, seeing none, I'll close this public hearing at 7:08 p.m. >> Okay. Um, before we get to item 16, do you want to take a 3minut break? Okay. Um,
062the board will recess for three minutes. Um, sorry about the delay. Um, let's continue on with our agenda. Item number 16.1 is consideration of adoption of resolution number 002205-26 sufficiency of textbook instructional materials. Is there any discussion by board members? >> Just based on the last public comment here here public hearing comment um I was wondering superintendent Leech if you had any additional comments before we take this to action. So um the William Zach mandates that all students have equal access to high quality education by ensuring access to sufficient instructional materials. That is what the resolution before you is guaranteeing that our students have access to the materials. >> Does that mean that it's fine that we don't yet know what the materials will be for the second semester? >> Yes. Um, is there any
063other discussion? Do you have an estimate for when these materials might be available or for the second semester? ethnic studies. [Music] >> We should have the second semester, third, would be third quarter to as a reminder, ethnic studies does not start until second quarter. So, yeah, if it's if it's about access, students will have access when the class actually starts. So I'm I am fine bringing this to motion to approve. >> So was that a move to >> a move to move to? Nah. Move to approve item number 16.1. >> Second. >> Call. Trusty Thompson. >> Yes. Trusty Gen, >> yes. >> Vice President Coup, >> yes. >> President Nory, >> no. >> Motion carries with a vote of three, one, one absent. >> I mean, it's fine. I was a little uncomfortable with that
064cuz at least my interpretation I'm I'm not I'm not 100% sure but we can discuss this later. I'm I'm fully supportive of the board's decision or yeah but I'm I'm supportive of the board's decision. There's I don't I don't have any issue with what the board um with the consensus of the board. Okay. Um let's move on to item number 15 or 16.2 consideration of approval of unodudited actuals financial report for 2024-25. Good evening. I'm here to present the 2425 un audited actuals, a report that provides a comprehensive look at the financial per performance over the last fiscal year. Um before I start my presentation, I want to thank all the staff who are part of our year end close. Their hard work and attention to deta due to detail are what allows us to
065compile this report. So what's the unodudited actuals? The unodudited actuals are annual financial report. This is state required document that outlines our revenues, expenditures and the change in our fund balance for the uh fiscal year ending June 30th. The report is the basis for our annual audit which will be provide a finalized report in December. So this is a reminder of our accounting and budgeting cycle. Uh September is the month when we when the an audited actual report must be submitted to the county office of education. In October and November, our auditors come out and review our unodit actuals and um they will have a final report for us in December. So this um slide is an illustration of our year-end performance compared to estimated actuals. Um at estimated actuals, we had budgeted to end
066the year with a $10 million deficit. This was our plan to draw down our reserves at um unodit actuals. As you can see, instead of the planned $19 million deficit, we ended the year with a deficit of just over 7.8 million, showing that our actual results came in lower than expected. The significant change of about 11 million is a result of our total revenues coming in higher than projected and our expenditures um coming in lower due to unspent funds from restricted resources that will be part of next year's obligations. Um this slide talks about the major changes in revenue and expenditures. So, on the revenue side, um the final aortionment from the county resulted in a $280,000 increase in our property tax. Uh, it's a result of a decl. Okay, so we're focusing on the
067revenue changes. Um, I talked about the $280,000 decrease in our property tax. Federal funds increase about half a million. That's increased from our special ed IDA funds. State revenue decreased about $151,000. And that's um the lottery funds offset by some of our deferrals. For other local revenues, it increased about $1.7 million and that's due to increase in our interest rates and the fair market value of the investments and um also increases in lease and local donations. For the expenditure side, salary and benefits decreased $577,000. Um, however, the largest changes were in the restricted funds. We had about $4.4 million in books and supplies uh that were budgeted but not spent, and that's majorly due to um carryover from site funds that will be spent in the current year. and about $2.9 million in services and
068other operation other expenses um that were unrealized expenditures in um in our restricted funds. There was also a decrease in other outgo and that's due to uh county operated services and a decrease in contribution to uh additional support to EPA and our food service program. Uh so this slides represents our final property taxes. So at budget adoption our um p projection was that our property uh overall growth in property tax would be about 5%. So at first interim the P1 report from the county assessor office that we received in November um the overall overall growth would be about 3.96%. Second interum there was a little minor change but not a lot of change because we didn't have any additional information from their assessor office at estimated actuals which was reported in June. We received our
069P2 report that was in April and at that time overall property growth was growth was about 4.31%. So when we closed the books, uh the final report that we received from the county was in August. Um our overall property growth was 4.16%. So close to second interim projection. This slide is our uh general fund ending fund balance. So the ending fund balance increased to about uh to increased to $55 million. The unrestricted portion is about $35.2 million. Uh on the restricted side, our fund balance is $20.1 million which will be carried over into the next year. Our overall reserve is about $27.7 million. that's in uh another slide that you will see which is equivalent to about 10.66% of our total general fund expenditures. So this is um above our even with the deficit spending
070the reserves that we had at year end is um exceeds the board requirement of 8%. So this slide is uh showing our excess and deficit spending for three years and the reserves for three years for 2223 and 2324. You can see that our we had excess um in our uh general fund and that's due to we were spending a lot of our one-time funds. So our unrestricted general fund the reserves were increasing. So our ending fund balance was increasing and in 2324 with the raises and as the one-time funds were dwindling down you can see that we're spending down our reserves. Um and in 2425 you can see that we're deficit spending and that's due to lower uh property tax growth and um increase in expenditures. So you can see that our reserves are declining.
071This is our um components of ending fund balance. Uh on the unrestricted side, we have $455,000 and that's in our revolving cash, our inventory, and any prepaid expenditures that we have. On the restricted side, that's $21.1 million that we will be carrying over into the new year. And we have some assignments, 1.7 forification liability. We have a Janentech settlement that's we don't know when that's going to be settled. We have set aside for a million dollars. Um, one of the carryovers in uh books and supplies was technology refresh in infrastructure dollars and that's about a million dollars that we will be carrying over or spending in 2526. Federal funds there. We're not sure what's going to be happening in 2526. So, we're setting aside about $3 million to cover some of our federal programs in
072the outgoing years. and we have some site um funds and program carryover and that's about $34,000. So you as you can see 20 million 20.7 million is um our 8% reserves. Um this slide is a summary of our other funds. Um, as you can see at the end of the uh close, all of our funds have ended with a positive ending fund balance. I wanted to note that for EPA um the general fund transfer $1.2 million to support the program and also um about $154,000 to the child nutrition program or our food service program to also support um their program. 3.2 $2 million transferred to fund 14 is from our RDA money and that's we have those come into the um restricted general fund. We transfer it into the capital funds and we can only
073use those funds for um capital projects and those dollars also were transferred to fund 40. So our next set of steps is to submit the report to the county office of ed. Um this will be followed by our independent audit and which we they will finalize in December and we will be bringing that report in January. Um and then in we're going to be up at this moment we're updating our 2526 budget and we'll be preparing for our first interim report that we will bring back to the board for review in March. questions. >> Um, is there any public comment? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. >> There are none online. >> Um, okay. Let's move on. Or sorry, this action item. Um, is there a
074motion to approve this? >> I just want to share that Amy and I as a budget team met with Christine and reviewed things in advance. thanks for going through everything with us in advance. Um, so I don't know, just thought I'd share that that happened. I figured I'd talk about it now rather than during the committee report section, but we did um talk through it and appreciate the time going forward in advance and the few things that you changed along the way. So, thank you. Yeah. >> Um I would like to to note that um you know this was we kind of been anticipating potentially our um growth over prior year in the property tax uh would be closer to 5% and it did not end up that way. Um, the last time where there
075was a decrease in the property tax estimates from P2 to annual, so P2 is April to annual is when we closed the books was 2021. It's only happened as far as when Christine and I were able to go back and check some records. It's it's only happened a couple of times and there's just really no identical patterns um to to try to try to figure that out. But that's obviously our main source of revenue and something to be mindful um of as we as we move forward. >> I'll make a motion to approve uh 16.2 consideration of um an audited actual financial report. >> Second. All in favor? I >> I >> um motion carries unanimously. Um next is item 16.3 consideration of adoption of resolution number 003 GAN limits. Are there any public comments
076on this item? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. >> I see none online. Um, I'll turn it over. >> Um, so the GAN limit is an annual resolution um that the board has to approve and it's a declaration that the district's budget and spending are in compliance with the constitutional spending cap. Um so it's uh it it's a calculation for the upcoming year and the uh for the budget year. >> Okay. Any questions from board members? If not, could I get a motion to approve? >> Approve 16.3 resolution adoption number 0003. >> Second. >> Roll call. Trusty Thompson, >> yes. >> Trusty Gin, >> yes. >> Vice President Coup, >> yes. >> President Nory, >> yes. >> Motion carries. 401 absent. >> Okay. Next is item
07716.4, approval of response to Santo County civil grand jury report. Is there any public comment on this item? >> I have none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. I see no hands online. Okay, seeing none, is there any board discussion on this item? >> Well, again, I didn't say this during the earlier phase, but that um Sonteo County School Boards Association is looking into um CTE stuff and I've offered to be part of the committee working on it. So, I may be um bringing stuff related to that as it as it comes forward to side chair that I'm getting involved in the local look at the CTE thing. So, I guess it's this was the grand jury, but the school board associates also has that as an area of interest.
078>> Thank you. >> But I support the proposed response to the grand jury. >> Okay. Seeing none, can I get a motion to approve? >> Move to approve. >> I second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> motion carries unanimously. Next is item 16.5, approval of temporary superintendence committee. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? >> There are none in person. Are there any comments online? Please raise your hand now. >> I see none online. >> Okay. Um any board discussion on this committee? I'll just say I have interest in participating. >> I need two of you. >> I I also have interest in participating in this committee. And that perhaps would be two people. >> Are you guys okay? Yeah, that's fine with me. >> So, um, could I get a
079motion to approve this or >> motion to approve 16.5, the temporary superintendence committee? >> I second. >> Just a quick question. Do you approve who's on it or not? >> All right. I would like to reframe my uh amend my motion to approval of the superintendent's temporary committee with Rich and myself as serving on that committee. >> Second. All in favor? I motion carries unanimously. Um that's the end of our action items. Um item number 17 is future agenda items. Any items from the board? >> I do have one. Um, in a a very wise colleague of mine has has phrased this to me most of the summer and she said, you know, Thompson, the tech emergency is not our emergency. And she is talking about AI. Um, and she's like, and we still need
080to be talking about AI in schools. um just perhaps not at the speed of our our Silicon Valley might be wanting schools to be talking about it slashselling to um but I do think it's valid that we start to talk about that and I would love to sort of see from the district where are we on AI particularly now that I saw in the report um we're sort of piloting um two different programs I kind of want to know more about what why why those programs what are we doing um where where are we moving forward? And I'd be curious to see if anybody else would like to discuss AI in terms of our district. >> I'm interested. I don't know if anyone else is. >> Yeah, I mean, I'd be interested. >> Okay. Um,
081seeing there three votes is probably require staff time. Um, I can work with that there's a fourth interested party. I mean, I think that um when Chad TPT first came out, I think I brought it to the brought it up as something that would probably be affecting schools soon. And it's amazing how fast it's come and >> is affecting schools. And I think that >> preparing our students to thrive in the world they're going to be graduating into requires that we be very very thoughtful and inclusive of AI, which is a probably the most powerful tool they'll be using upon graduation. So, I definitely interested in the topic as well. >> Thank you. Um, so seeing that there are four in favor, I'll work with Superintendent Leech to schedule this sometime in the future on
082an agenda. Anything else for future agenda items? >> Oh, and I just wanted to bring up that there probably should be a communication plan implementation update somewhere during the the school year. Um, so I didn't see that in the upcoming agenda items. So, >> okay. I think yeah that'll be added to the governance calendar. Um any anything else? If not um can we move to item number 18 adjournment. Can I get a motion to adjourn this meeting? >> Motion to adjurnn. Second. >> All in favor? I I >> Motion carries. This meeting is adjourned at 7:50